After owning your first home for sometime now, and with a growing family, you’re starting to think about upgrading to get a little more room…
Before you go ahead and buy a new house, a little thought needs to be given to your existing house. What needs to be done to ensure you get top dollar when you put it on the market? It’s time to start thinking about home DIY, but where should you start and what can you do? In this third article of our Life Stages of Home Ownership series, we’ll walk you through the tasks you can do and those you should call on a tradie to do for you.
Easy home DIY you can do yourself
After you’ve been living in your new home for a while, it’s natural to notice things you want to change. The colour paint on the wall, a leaky tap or a dirty deck are all easy jobs you can sort out yourself. If you are not too sure how to do the task, Google can be your best friend. Let’s look at some of the home DIY jobs you can get your hands dirty with …
- Unblocking a blocked sink – before you call the plumber, grab yourself a plunger and get plunging. Or you could try grabbing some drain cleaner from your local hardware store to try instead.
- Replacing a tap washer – the main cause of leaky taps is a worn washer. After you have turned your water supply off at the mains, unscrew the tap handle, remove the old washer and replace with a new one. Put the tap back together and turn the water on. It’s a good idea to have someone standing at the tap as the water is turned on to let you know if it is still leaking.
- Painting a wall – preparation is key to preparing a great canvas to paint upon. This means removing flaking paint, repairing any holes and removing any mould from the wall. A coat of undercoat is needed first, then two layers of top coat should have it looking like new!
- Cleaning your guttering – gutters are always being blocked up with leaves, moss and other gunk. Cleaning your guttering is an easy home DIY job you can do with two people. One person climbs the ladder and scoops out debris, while the other holds the ladder steady.
- Wallpaper stripping – if your room’s wallpaper is not to your taste, you can either paint over it or replace the wallpaper. For either option, it’s best to strip the wallpaper completely off first. This gives you a smooth surface to paint or wallpaper upon. A wallpaper steamer works well at getting it off with little effort. But if it is coming off easily, you could use your hand and a scraper instead.
Home DIY jobs where you need a professional tradesperson
Sometimes it’s just not safe, legal or you don’t have the knowledge to repair something around your home. Other times, it would be more time and cost efficient to hire a tradesperson to do it for you. Jobs which you would need to hire a tradie for include:
- All electrical work, including power points or light switch installation, rewiring
- Replacing door locks or handles
- Roof repairs
- Replacing rotten floorboards
- Repairing large holes in GIB or plasterboard
- Replacing the glass in a broken window
- Installing underfloor insulation
- Tiling a bathroom or kitchen
- Renovating a kitchen or bathroom
- Replacing a tap or shower mixer
- Fixing a leaky or burst pipe
- Building a new deck
With thousands of tradies from all industries, Builderscrack are your one stop home DIY shop! Post your job today to find the best tradie in your area, or head over to our Job Estimation Calculator to get an idea of how much your job will cost.
This is Stage 3
