DIY & Projects: Satisfaction Without Frustration

Completing home improvement projects is immensely gratifying, especially because you don’t have to pay others to do it for you. You acquire new skills, save money, and have built something that you can admire. However, controlling the spending and mistakes as you complete each projects can be tricky. Determining which projects can be completed themselves, and which ones requires hiring a professional can save a ton of grief and money.

Projects That Seem To Be Complicated, but Are Not

Building railway sleeper raised beds is surprisingly easy. You do not need any advanced carpentry skills, as it is almost just stacking and screwing a few heavy pieces of timber. Getting the bottom base level is the hardest part of it. If it is not straight, then the rest of the beds will be wonky. Just take your time, and the rest will be simple.

When building a fundamental raised bed, expect to stack two or three sleepers on top of each other. To avoid splitting the timber while screwing them together, drill pilot holes first. Use coach bolts instead of regular screws; they’re better and they’ll make the project look more professional. If you’re going more than two sleeper boards high, make sure to drive some rebar or metal stakes through the corners to keep everything stable.

Laying a gravel path or patio area is another project that looks harder than it is. Dig out the area to about 100mm deep, place landscape fabric to stop weeds, edge it with timber or metal, then fill with gravel. Compact it as you go and you’re done. The mistakes people make are not digging deep enough (so the gravel spreads everywhere), and skimping on edging (leading to the same problem of gravel going everywhere).

Installing outdoor lighting can be DIY-friendly, especially with the low-voltage systems. You can run a cable from a transformer that is plugged in indoors, and you can place the lights anywhere. There’s no electrician needed and no Part P compliance to worry about. The lights are not as bright as the mains powered ones, but they are adequate for most garden uses.

When to Admit Defeat and Call Someone

Few really need to tell you that if your project requires gas lines or complicated electrical work, it is best to stop and call someone else. Is it really worth getting your house burned down or getting killed just to save some money?

If the job requires the alteration of the structure, including removing walls, cutting roofs, or digging foundations, you need to call someone, especially if you are doing some of it yourself. You need to know which walls are and are not load bearing or you are going to run into some massive money issues really quickly.

Putting in automatic gates and access control is one of those things that one might think is DIY-able, but it really isn’t. You need to set up the mechanisms, calibrate the safety sensors, and most importantly make sure the gate won’t crush your kids and pets.

Essential Tools Worth Buying

If you are doing multiple DIY projects, some tools tend to pay for themselves really quickly. You definitely need to invest in a good cordless drill and impact driver, because the cheap ones just aren’t worth the issues and complication. Impact drivers make the driving of long screws into difficult materials really simple. Circular saws open up projects that involve the cutting of timber or sheets, which are really useful.

When it comes to outdoor projects, consider investing in a good quality spade and rake. While cheaper tools might bend or break, quality ones last for decades. The same goes for spirit levels — a long, good quality level is critical for any project that needs to be straight or level, and that’s basically all of them.

You also do not need to get the most expensive type of each tool. For most DIY work, the mid-range stuff is perfectly fine. Professional-grade tools are only really necessary for constant, all-day, everyday work.

Learning Along the Way

While there are lots of great YouTube videos and online tutorials, they do not replace the need for you to understand the tasks at hand. For any project, watch multiple videos to see the different approaches and identify common steps. When you see the same practice repeated, it’s likely there for a good reason.

Smaller projects are a great place to start in order to build confidence and a diverse skill set. Successfully constructing a simple raised bed is a good way to gain experience with lots of different tools and materials, and prepare for more complex projects in the future. With each project, you’ll gain new skills that will be useful in future ones.

Also, don’t be too proud to ask for help! Tool hire shops and builders merchants have employees who know their stuff. They have seen every mistake, and can often tell you where you are going wrong, and offer suggestions on how to make it right.

Where To Save And Where To Spend

Railway sleepers, oak beams, and quality timber are worth spending on. They are the backbone and foundation of your build, and if you cut corners on these parts it will show and your work will fail to last. Reclaimed materials can be fantastic, but make sure you check to see if they are sound. Rotten timber will always be rotten, and will stay that way no matter how much character it has.

Fixings and fastenings need to be of decent quality too. Cheap screws will snap, cheap bolts will rust, and cheap hinges will sag. They will cost pennies more to get proper fasteners, and these make the difference between a build that is going to last, and one that will fall apart on you in 6 months.

You can save money by borrowing or buying second hand for tools, but materials are always worth buying new, especially if you do not know the quality of what you are getting with reclaimed stuff.

Planning Before Starting

Having a plan is an important first step before starting a D.I.Y. project. Make sure to do your measurements properly. Have enough materials planned and then increase that by 10% to account for mistakes. Try to plan the order of operations as to not accidentally do something that blocks you from completing a crucial task and paint yourself into a corner.

Get planned and organised to avoid the situations where you have to run to the merchant mid project and also be sure to check the weather so that you do not end up starting a project that can’t finish.

Knowing when good enough is good enough

Be wary of expecting your D.I.Y. work to look as good as a pro. That is not the aim of the project. What is important is that the project is structurally sound and does the job that you to is designed to do.

When it comes to building things, we do not expect it to be perfect since things get distorted during the building process. It is not about the perfection of the outcome. It is about how functional the building is. Save time and worry about perfection in other projects because with most DIY projects, you have to be okay with the learning curve. In the end, you will have the satisfaction of knowing you crafted the whole structure, perfect or not.