Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Shims are quite simply little pieces of plastic that you can use for any number of ‘packing out’ jobs in your DIY activities. Why am I giving over an entire blog post to shims you may be wondering, well, call me sad, call me obsessive, but give me a pack of shims, a pile of wood, and a job to do, and I really am the proverbial pig in muck. Why? Because they make jobs easier, quicker, more accurate, and save enormous amounts of time. My primary use for them are as aids for fitting a door lining, but there are any number of predominantly carpentry based jobs where I find shims to be invaluable. read more »

Window locks are an essential part of your home security ‘system’. UPVC windows normally have locking points integral to the window design, as do many designs of modern wooden window. However, older wooden windows were generally made without any real security considerations, other than the use of window stays, and window fasteners, to hold the window in a closed position. It is therefore these types of windows that I’m concerned with here, and below are a selection of window locks that can be used to improve the security of your wooden windows. read more »

Decorating the exterior of your home is a DIY task that can range considerably in size, depending on your circumstances. You may literally have  a few small details that require painting if you live in a uPVC double-glazed unpainted brick home, or alternatively, re-decoration will be on a much larger scale if your house is rendered with wooden windows, for example. My list below can be applied to all outside decorating, but it is probably of most interest to those people with lots of wood, and lots of walls to paint! read more »

Fitting curtain tracks is simple enough as long as you know what type of wall you are trying to fix into. My guides – ‘Fixing into masonry walls‘ and ‘Fixing into hollow walls‘ will provide you with all the information you need on these different surface types. The other important factor is whether to fix the track directly to the wall or on a batten as shown in the example below. The advantage of fitting curtain tracks on batten is that it is much easier to drill and fix accurately onto a batten, rather than onto a wall which may contain concrete lintels above the window, or, the wall surface may be uneven and therefore again cause problems of accuracy. read more »

Fitting a curtain pole is a straightforward job but you do need to know what the wall structure is so that you use the correct type of wall plug and fixing. For more information on this, check out my guides ‘Fixing into masonry walls’ and ‘Fixing into hollow walls’. In terms of positioning the pole, there is no hard and fast rule, as you simply need to position it so that it looks right in the space available above the window. However, as a general rule, it should be positioned halfway between the horizontal edge above the window recess, and the coving or ceiling. Use a cable, pipe and stud detector to help find safe fixing positions when fitting a curtain pole. read more »