New free DIY guide - very useful!

[jsneyd]

Wickes have produced a new guide called 'How to Cope with Building Works'.

The easy to read guide offers simple and sensible hints and tips to help the people cope with the 13 most common home improvements. Basically, everything from decorating, rewiring, tiling to extensions is covered.

For example, a customer might not know those little things (that are obvious to tradesmen) like ensuring a clear access route to the roof space if you are fitting a new boiler or even improving those classic customer annoyances like paint fumes by simply placing half a raw onion in the corner of the room (who would have thought it?!)

The free, 28-page, full colour guide is downloadable online at

you have any feedback, or any suggestions for more tips to include in a future version then please don't hesitate to make comments.

[Roger Mills]

a hell of a lot of stuff aimed at drumming up work for the trades who helped to compile it - including such gems as:

"It is the law that whoever installs your new boiler must be Corgi-registered", and

"You will need an architect to help with the plans and handle all the Building Regulation requirements."

I wonder whether Mantra-PR had anything to do with compiling it. If so the spam antennae of certain readers will be positively glowing if their response to my perfectly innocent question the other day about skirting radiators is anything to go by!

[Andrew]

Explain please of all-knowledgeable one from Mantra PR. Why would I need to ensure a clear access route to the roof space if I was fitting a new boiler? My boiler is in the kitchen, the gas supply is in the kitchen, the rising main is in the kitchen and the flue goes out through the kitchen wall.

[Lobster]

And spare a thought for those who are unfortunate enough not to have a roofspace, as they will never again be able to have a new boiler fitted.

I blame Prescott.

David

[jsneyd]

Apologies to all for the spamming. As you have rightly pointed out not all tips are applicable to every case, I too don't have a roofspace :( However, if you are a keen DIYer and don't want to splash out on guides, there are a few simple tips that are not affiliated with second parties that might be of use to you.

[ARWadworth]

The part about laying laminate or wood flooring adding value to your house will make a certain regular poster choke when he reads it! Only one of them adds value.

Adam

[ARWadworth]

The Medway Handyman must have written the section "Top up on tea, coffee, sugar, milk and biscits etc" on page 19:-) He shops at Wickes so must have been asked.

The section next to this about security is a joke. The keys are always under a plantpot by the front door or under the wheeliebin. Failing that, just unscrew the sheet of ply that has been screwed to the new opening into the house with two screws.

Adam

[Cerberus .]

Apparently Brother Prescott thinks joe public doesn't understand him

[Bob Eager]

Apologies to all for the spamming. As you have rightly pointed out not

But you should fix the actual errors, even if that upsets the trades. For example, the blatantly wrong statement about CORGI and the law.

[Owain]

Mine aren't.

Mine are inside the pottery frog.

Owain

[dennis]

What's the address and what time are you going out? I want a pottery frog.

[Ian White]

Fair enough; you presumably knew that posting here was going to raise lots of dust :-)

Speaking of which: regardless of who does the work, almost all the jobs mentioned are going to create large amounts of dust and mess, so it soon becomes worthwhile to buy a low-cost 'workshop' vacuum cleaner to save wear and tear on the ordinary domestic one. (No doubt you can recommend a suitable supplier.)

[John Stumbles]

And the header tank is where ... ?

[John Stumbles]

Hmmm... if you do so, put it in a footnote.

"It is the law that whoever installs your new boiler must be Corgi-registered" is a good first approximation: if you're clued-up enough to know what GSIUR 3(1)* means then you're more likely to satisfy that condition than someone who thinks it's OK as long as you're DIYing it.

• Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 2451 The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998

1. - (1) No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so.

[Andrew May]

There isn't one. It's a sealed system.

[Owain]

Did I mention it's inside the Dobermann's kennel, next to the geese enclosure?

Owain

[John Stumbles]

And the author of the Wickes guide knew that your personal system was sealed and should have written the document to suit your circumstances? Given that (a) if someone's having a boiler change the overwhelming probability is that the existing system is vented, and (b) many householders don't know the difference between a boiler and a hot water cylinder, I think it's a useful approximation for a guide intended to be a pamphlet rather than a treatise.

[Andrew]

The author of the guide knows nothing about my system. In fact the author of the Wicks guide knows nothing about any of their customer's systems. Therefore trying to give generic advice on what to do is pretty pointless. Far better advice would be "if you are using a tradesman to replace your boiler discuss with them beforehand what they need you to do so as to make the job as easy as possible and to minimise disruption".

[dennis]

A tin of wd40 will see the dog off, I don't know about the geese, maybe smoked?

[geoff]

You have a pub called the "Dog and Duck" ?