Welcome to DIY Doctor's blog

A new phenomenon is going on that is surely an indicator of how masculine and feminine roles are blurring.

The humble garden shed is being ‘feminised’.

We saw this fantastic picture on the Garden Resources Blog, and we were very interested to read that they are finding that what was once the male domain is now being claimed by women.

At DIY Doctor we have noticed that a large proportion of our users are women, which surprises some men when we tell them, but we are delighted to be a resource for both sexes. In fact back in 2000 when we started the site, one of our very first questions was from a women who couldn’t afford a plumber, but her immersion heater had stopped working. We explained how to change the immersion and she wrote back so pleased to have been able to get hot water. This allowed her to save money, but also it made her feel more independent and in control to be able to make her own repairs.

It has been one of the main objectives of DIY Doctor to give people the confidence they need to carry out Home Improvement tasks safely and effectively. We know what a sense of satisfaction it can bring to complete a job really well, stand back and say ‘I did that’.

When we started the site we could answer all your questions individually ourselves, but as the site grew we were able to write projects for many of the subjects because we noticed the same questions cropping up time and time again. Now we have hundreds of Project Pages from ‘acrylic cutting’ to ‘wrecking bar’, plus a forum in case you can’t find what you are looking for.

We just wanted to say thank you for using the site, whatever age or gender you are.

Tweet

Share via email

Kevin McCloud is the proud owner of this shed – You have to admit it is pretty impressive. He built it all himself, and just from the naturally available materials in woodland where it stands.

It got us to thinking that you can now enter your fantastic creation for the Shed of the Year awards 2013 at readersheds.co.uk.

Source

Hopefully Mr McCloud wont see this otherwise he has a strong chance of winning, but if you want to nominate your own shed follow this link.

You have until May 2013 to enter, so if your project is under construction or even in the blueprint stage then now is the time to get it finished so you can have it looking perfect for next spring.

More info on shed building and base construction under ‘S’ for shed in our Projects section.

Tweet

Share via email

Cuprinol have come up with a power sprayer to make spraying their fence spray paint very easy – if anyone has large expanses of timber to protect this is a great tool to make the job easier.

Equally if you live in a house with a rose garden this would make an industrial grade insect buster – if you like to blast greenfly with soapy water. Obviously don’t use it for both or your roses won’t thank you!

There are a couple of warnings for use from Mike so do watch the video to see what he suggests.

There is more on this product in the full review, and you can click through to purchase the sprayer and the paint from Cuprinol.

 To have your home improvement product reviewed click here

Tweet

Share via email

If you are working with garden equipment that is plugged into the mains you should always use an external RCD to protect you against electric shock.

We also recommend an external socket of this type if you have an electrical supply to the shed or other outbuildings.

In this video review DIY Doctor Mike Edwards gives his opinion on the Nexus Performance RCD External Socket

 
Nexus Performance RCD External Socket, click here to see the full review

 For more information on fitting an external socket with RCD protection – see our project and video on installing an outside socket.

To find out more about having your product reviewed by DIY Doctor click here

Tweet

Share via email

In Part One we looked at the screws you might use for particular jobs, now we look at the drivers and bits that you can use to put them into the materials you are fixing together.

DIY Doctor recommends that you have two drills in your toolkit, especially if you are a regular DIYer or if you have a big job to complete – one to use as a drill and the other to use as a driver. This avoids the need to constantly swap between drill bit and screwdriver head as you work your way through a project. Although this might appear expensive, or even lazy, in fact it makes it much quicker to complete tasks. Also with the vast array of drills on the market, it is not that expensive to add an extra drill to your kit.

Mike Edwards from DIY Doctor has been reviewing tools to give you advice on what each product does and whether it is worth adding to your toolkit, check out our other Video Reviews.

Here are the ones that are related to ‘what drives them’:

Makita 8391 18 volt Combi Drill, click to see review page

DeWalt DCD785 Combi Drill, click to see full review

Hitachi 18V Cordless Combi Drill, click to see full review

Angled Bit Holder, click to see full review

It is worth mentioning that you should be sure that there are no pipes or cables in the area you are about to start drilling. You can get detectors that will flash and sound an alarm if they are passed over an area where there is cabling – below Mike reviews the Bosch Digital Detector. In our blog on electrical safety we also went into the importance of having and RCD on your electrical supply, just in case!

Mike comments “while it is usually safe to assume that cables will run straight up the wall from switches and sockets, and that pipes will run along logical lines from radiators I used to live in a house where the radiator pipes ran in ducting down the center of the walls before splitting out to the left and right to feed the radiator. Fitting a shelf or picture on this wall without going through the pipework would be hit and miss without the use of a detector, so it is always best to be sure”.

Bosch Digital Detector, click to see full review

 for more information on having your product reviewed by DIY Doctor click here

Tweet

Share via email