If a Bank Holiday leaves you with an unexpectedly large amount of free time, you could take this as an opportunity to sort out odd DIY jobs that have remained on your to-do list for weeks on end.
With the following tasks, it could be a surprising case of ‘easy (and quick) once you know how’, enabling you to rectify little annoyances before they potentially become more of a hassle to sort out.
Re-grout tiles in the bathroom
This process can quickly and cost-effectively revitalise a bathroom. DIY expert Nick King tells Express readers: “If you’ve scrubbed your bathroom grout and it still doesn’t look as good as you want, it’s time to re-grout.”
He advocates removing existing grout, replacing it with a waterproof, anti-mould grout, cleaning away excess grout and then applying a grout finisher.
Refurbish floors
If your house was bought as a fixer-upper, you could find that it still has its original floorboards. King says that, if this is indeed the case, you “first need to decide whether it requires a full sand. If it does, you’re looking at hiring a sander.”
If a full sand wouldn’t be necessary, though, you could use steel wool to remove stains before applying lacquer and wax to refresh the surface.
Trace draughts and plug them
If your house seems strangely draughty, the culprit could be gaps around window and door frames. So, you should study the areas around your windows for any gaps — and, if you do come across any, fix them with filler and a caulking gun.
Meanwhile, a draught coming through a door can be rectified with the application of a draught excluder, which can be held into place with screws or nails.
Fix sticking doors
Checking doors for signs of draughts would also give you an opportunity to assess how well these doors close.
If you notice that any of them tend to stick, you should first make sure the hinges have been screwed in tightly. If the hinges turn out not to be the issue, you could identify the door’s sticking point, detach the door from its hinges and then sand the problematic area.
Fashion a storage unit out of used furniture
Do you already have a storage unit — like a closet or dresser — that has long been left underutilised, perhaps because it is aesthetically outdated in its style or has incurred functional damage, such as to its legs?
With one photo of a small-scale table, Better Homes & Gardens shows one example of how furniture can be repurposed. You could even buy furniture legs to replace damaged ones!
Turn a chest of drawers into a planter
You might have a chest of drawers which has fallen out of use, perhaps because it has been supplanted by other furniture.
Ideal Homes has posted a detailed guide to converting a chest of drawers into a planter. For this project, you will need — along with the chest of drawers, obviously — garden paint, a paintbrush, black plastic, gravel, plants… and tub and basket compost.
