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Home > Search for DIY Projects by Trade Type > The Completes DIY How to Guide to Home Maintenance, Repair and Cleaning

The Completes DIY How to Guide to Home Maintenance, Repair and Cleaning

This page includes links to all of our general repairs, cleaning and maintenance tutorials. Topics and DIY how-to's covered in this section include cleaning mortar, tiles and grout, removing graffiti and cleaning and maintaining your decking. Browse through the below list and click on your chosen link to view the project information.

  • Brass and wire brushes used for cleaning metal and brickwork

    Cleaning - Cleaning Tips DIY how to projects help, tips and information covering cleaning carpets, cleaning brick fire places, paint brush cleaning and other related topics


  • Fence blown down by wind

    General Repairs and Maintenance - DIY projects and guides covering various annual and seasonal repair and maintenance tasks that should be carried out before each season


Settlement cracks, shrinkage cracks, subsidence, ground shrinkage, foundation cracks, render cracks, plaster cracks, wall cracks, ceiling crack and floor cracks; some or all play a part in home ownership and the general maintenace of your home.

Some of these can be pretty expensive. Subsidence of course usually means underpinning or mini-piling through the floor slab but plaster cracks can simply be part of the process of a wall drying out.

The important thing is that you can tell the difference between what needs addressing immediately and what can wait.

Cracks in brickwork are usually the sign of something else moving

Cracks in brickwork are usually the sign of something else moving

Cracks in brickwork and blockwork can often be stitched back together but the cracks are always the effect of something else so it is important to get to the cause of the problem first.

In our pages we will show you how to measure cracks to see if they are getting bigger and how big they need to be before you call in the experts.

There are several ways to mend or repair what are called settlement cracks. In some cases, to effect a good repair it is necessary to make the crack larger before filling it. This allows you to get a suitable amount of filler in to ensure it will not just fall out and reopen the crack. Similarly it’s important to check that the material you are filling is stuck to the substrate firmly before you fill the crack. If the wall, or its surface covering is still moving, the crack will just reappear.

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