Do-It-Yourself - Tips & Tricks

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

Being a big fan of DIY myself, I thought I'd make a thread hwere we could share our tips and tricks and ask any related questions :D



Here's a good tip if you have to drill holes in ceramic tiles to hang bathroom cabinets, toilet roll holders etc..

If anyone's ever tried this, you'd have noticed it's quite a job to stop your drill from slipping on the slippery tile surface. To make the job easy, put two strips of masking tape in an X shape on the target.

Now using a carbide-tipped masonry bit drill through the tape and into the tile. You'll hear the tile grind as it goes through the glazing. Just keep drilling until you've made an appropriate sized hole for your fixtures.

Note: Keep drill horizontal or you'll end up with a sloping hole which will make it hard for the fixtures to go in.


wa alaikum asalam wr wb.

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

Nooo... No DIYers? :ooh::'(

[wildkat]

lol nope, in my house we leave everything for my brother or pay some guy who sent his DIY leaflet through the post!

[cute123]

i would love to do all this . but never got a chance to poke my head into it. my brother or dad do it

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[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

^ lol I get so many of them leaflets, but I can't trust most of them. My friend had her garden paved by 'one of them guys' and they did such a bad job, she's gets a pool of water outside her back door when it rains.

I didn't expect a lot of DIY enthusiasts on LI, considering there's a lot of young members, but it's like no one else like it lol.

wa alaikum asalam wr wb.

[Tania]

I have to make a wooden fence. :-[ - in the end i wish to look professional. In 2 weeks i have to begin the work

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

Asma sis: i would love to do all this . but never got a chance to poke my head into it. my brother or dad do it

Hey sis, it's always good to learn. You might need it in the future, if your hubby can't do it! lol

Hi Tania,

Wow that's amazing sis! What kind of fence will you be making? And how? I mean will require digging in posts? I want to hear every detail lol. Cuz I wanted to make one too but wasn't sure how to.

[Amat Allah]

Asalamo Alikom

I fix everything in the house and thanks to Allah then my father for that....:statisfie

I work with electricity,Iron,wood ,food ^^,paint and whatever you want...Alhamdo lellah:statisfie

say MASHAA ALLAH NOW:raging:

hehehehe:D

[SouLda_Gal]

wow MashaAllah.... dats kwl... but same here... most of the things.. lyk wallpaper, painting i do it wid ma famly... and its beta than geting it dene from others... i mean some workers jus mess the whoile thing up... and in ur own house ur lyk.. where the hell am i... lool... but lately iv been helpin ma sis with her garden.. and its pwetty kwl hehhe im borrd lol

[itsme]

I have to make a wooden fence. :-[ - in the end i wish to look professional. In 2 weeks i have to begin the work

Some tips for you. Hope they help.

Protect your fingers from hammer blows by holding mails with a clothes peg for the first few blows, until the nail is well into the wood. You can also push the nail through a thin piece of card and use the card to hold the nail in place as you hammer. When the nail has taken hold, simply rip the card clear.

If you have to hold a nail to start it off, do so by taking it between the index and middle finger and hold it against the wood with the back of the hand resting on the wood. That way, if you do miss, the hammer head will land on the fleshy part of your finger, which is much less painful than hitting your thumb or fingernail as you would if you hold the nail in the more conventional manner.

When drilling wood, rest the piece you are drilling on a piece of scrap wood. it stops the wood splitting when it breaks through the other side.

If you want to hide your nailheads, chisel a small shaving parallel to the grain of the wood, at the point where the nail is to be hammered in, leaving the end of the shaving attached to the surface. Once the nail is in, fix the shaving back in place with a suitable adhesive.

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

Asalamo Alikom

I fix everything in the house and thanks to Allah then my father for that....:statisfie

I work with electricity,Iron,wood ,food ^^,paint and whatever you want...Alhamdo lellah:statisfie

say MASHAA ALLAH NOW:raging:

hehehehe:D

lol MASHA'ALLAH!!!!!!! you rock sis :D

I'm too scared to work with electrics - having once drilled through the main electric cable was petrifying lol. I just wanna be able to hook up ceiling lights, but don't know how :hmm:

Some tips for you. Hope they help.
If you want to hide your nailheads, chisel a small shaving parallel to the grain of the wood, at the point where the nail is to be hammered in, leaving the end of the shaving attached to the surface. Once the nail is in, fix the shaving back in place with a suitable adhesive.

wow amazing tips sis, thank you! I knew the others but not this last one. So cool! :thumbs_up

Tip 3 - The same principle can be applied to sawing wood to stop it splintering when the blade goes through the end of it.



wa alaikum asalam wr wb.

[Tania]

I will take a pic before to start the work and you will can see it. Basically at this hour i have the posts fixed in some concrete thing, so i have to attach only the wood stick. Before that i have to cut the wood at right dimension and polish it.

[snakelegs]

not a single brother has replied! :giggling::giggling::giggling:
we got us some bad a$$ sisters here!!!!!




i don't know how to do much of anything useful. :-[:-[:-[:-[:-[ :cry:
and i'm not very decorative either! ;D

[Snowflake]

I will take a pic before to start the work and you will can see it. Basically at this hour i have the posts fixed in some concrete thing, so i have to attach only the wood stick. Before that i have to cut the wood at right dimension and polish it.

Cool, tnx! :D

Have you already bought the wood? If you haven't, you can save yourself a lot of time by asking the timber yard to cut it to size for you.

not a single brother has replied! :giggling::giggling::giggling:
we got us some bad a$$ sisters here!!!!!

i don't know how to do much of anything useful. :-[:-[:-[:-[:-[ :cry:
and i'm not very decorative either! ;D

lol sis, most men think DIY means getting their own glass of water :p :X

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ lol


unfortunately i dont really have any tips.


if i do any work i normally have a brother supervising me


one tip will be, ALWAYS watch out for kids when using a ladder, they WILL push you off it

[------]

:salamext:

^ That has gotta hurt :muddlehea

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

wow sis that's cool. Share some pics pweaseeeee :D



wa alaikum asalam wr wb

[Abdul Fattah]

If anyone's ever tried this, you'd have noticed it's quite a job to stop your drill from slipping on the slippery tile surface. To make the job easy, put two strips of masking tape in an X shape on the target.

Now using a carbide-tipped masonry bit drill through the tape and into the tile. You'll hear the tile grind as it goes through the glazing. Just keep drilling until you've made an appropriate sized hole for your fixtures.

Another tip, if your drill can also hammer, put that function OFF untill you have a small hole to anker your drill into. Otherwise it will be to hard to hold it steady in mid air. Oh if you still have to place the tiles, place them first, and then drill later. They tend to break very fast if you drill a hole in them before placing.

I have to make a wooden fence. :-[ - in the end i wish to look professional. In 2 weeks i have to begin the work

A good piece of advice for wooden constructions, either use screws or a nail gun to fasten pieces together, if you'll try hammering nails, the vibrations will constantly shift your pieces making it almost impossible to have everything at a straight angle. Of course that depends on how "complex" you want your fence to be. If it's just some poles with wire, or the "picked fence" type..

If you want to hide your nailheads, chisel a small shaving parallel to the grain of the wood, at the point where the nail is to be hammered in, leaving the end of the shaving attached to the surface. Once the nail is in, fix the shaving back in place with a suitable adhesive.

Alternatively, just clip of the head of the nail with cutting pliers (takes a bit of strength though) and drive in a headless nail. Although this technique is only good for light work, if the nail is supposed to hold weight, it's better to keep the head.

Anyway, nice to see so many interested sisters. My brother in law has two left hands, so my sister is the one who does all the handy work at their place, and every now and then I help her out and give her advice on how to do things. Get rid of those stereotypes! :thumbs_up

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

Wow some amazing tips bro. Thanks!

Anyway, nice to see so many interested sisters. My brother in law has two left hands, so my sister is the one who does all the handy work at their place, and every now and then I help her out and give her advice on how to do things. Get rid of those stereotypes!

mashaAllah! :thumbs_up


wa alaikum asalam wr wb

[chacha_jalebi]

aaa diy is fun, but if it goes wrong then :muddlehea

righty o, tips of the century!!

1 - wear dungarees (with the straps down, straps up are just weird) with pockets in the flap, and put screwdrivers in them, even if your not goin to use them, it just makes you feel professional!!!

2 - try and get that drill, which screws for you! cause many a times in our house, we have like 2 screwdrivers we can find, and we sometimes resort to usin knifes :embarrass which obviously make the job rather difficult:p

3 - use the instructions!!

[Re.TiReD]

AssalamuAlaykum

Do NOT attempt disassembling a wardrobe by yourself, moving it into another room and then assembling it.....you'll just die or get squished :skeleton:

WassalamuAlaykum

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ no thats actually very easy to do.

You just need to take pictures of how it looked before you disassemble it and then keep EVERY NAIL IN A BAG <--- veery important !

[Re.TiReD]

AssalamuAlaykum

^^ Assembling it is difficult....you need more than just one pair of hands :skeleton: AND its heavy....AND I couldnt get the doors back on. My solution: Rent-an-older-brother....if you havnt already got one *grin*

WassalamuAlaykum

[Lonely Gal]

assembling a wardrobe can be difficult as well!!
figuring out the screws that look soo similar to one another is a task itself!
took me and ma sis a good 3 hrs to join a big old wardrobe!

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ yeah it is heavy. But then again most of DIY involves heavy stuff.


btw does anyone know how to fix those wall fans? the one in our bathroom has stopped spinning, it doesnt turn on! my brother opened it up and couldnt find anything wrong. its one of those fans built into the wall and connected to the light switch ie whenever you turn on the light the fan turns on.



this is probably the wrong place to look for advice tho lol :|

[Lonely Gal]

we got them in our house!!.. uhh soz cnt help on how to fix em tho...

[Re.TiReD]

^ yeah it is heavy. But then again most of DIY involves heavy stuff.


btw does anyone know how to fix those wall fans? the one in our bathroom has stopped spinning, it doesnt turn on! my brother opened it up and couldnt find anything wrong. its one of those fans built into the wall and connected to the light switch ie whenever you turn on the light the fan turns on.



this is probably the wrong place to look for advice tho lol :|

But yeah...get somebody in to take a look insha'Allah

And at the sis....its not that....pretty simple to fix it up again....its just having somebody to hold it and support it whilst you're fixing it etc etc

WassalamuAlaykum

[innocent]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

Being a big fan of DIY myself, I thought I'd make a thread hwere we could share our tips and tricks and ask any related questions :D



Here's a good tip if you have to drill holes in ceramic tiles to hang bathroom cabinets, toilet roll holders etc..

If anyone's ever tried this, you'd have noticed it's quite a job to stop your drill from slipping on the slippery tile surface. To make the job easy, put two strips of masking tape in an X shape on the target.

Now using a carbide-tipped masonry bit drill through the tape and into the tile. You'll hear the tile grind as it goes through the glazing. Just keep drilling until you've made an appropriate sized hole for your fixtures.

Note: Keep drill horizontal or you'll end up with a sloping hole which will make it hard for the fixtures to go in.


wa alaikum asalam wr wb.

Thanks that very useful.

[-S-]

Fixing Taps
Main Tip always remember to turn off the mains power supply unlike what i did the other day unscrewed the tap and got totally soaked and had no chance of just leaving it so i had to finish screwing BOTH the Taps on which water was flying thru the pipes :|

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ be honest you only did that coz you felt hot and wanted a splash :p


yeah good advice akhee, except it can be veeery irritating when the mains happens to be below the floorboards which means you have to take off tiles/wooden flooring just to reach it which could mean you have ruined your floor to fix your tap !!

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

:haha: some funny comments! using knives as screw drivers lol.. I think we all done that at some 'point' :p

Btw, if you havent got anyone to give you a hand with fixing a wardrobe, you can do it on the floor. Then stand it upright, stand the door where it's gonna be fixed and wedge something under it to carry the weight while you screw in the fixtures.


wa alaikum aslam wr wb

[Lonely Gal]

u'll need a hand to get it upright tho..
and u still need a hand if its twice as big as u...

[Snowflake]

asalam alaikum wr wb,

^I don't recall a wardrobe door being that heavy lol. Then again it probably would be if you weigh under 7 stones :p

wa alaikum asalam wr wb.

[Re.TiReD]

AssalamuAlaykum

lol, ^^ My wardrobe door was heavy since it had a full-length mirror on it :exhausted the other one wasnt too bad though...

WassalamuAlaykum