Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Grip It is a type of fixing designed for use in hollow walls around your home. By hollow walls, we’re talking about stud walls where plasterboard is attached to timber uprights, or drylined walls where plasterboard is secured to the blockwork below using dabs of adhesive. In both instances, there are large voids below the plasterboard and so you need a special design of fixing to ensure that whatever fitting you’re going to hang on the wall, it’s safely held in place. Now there are plenty of designs of fixing on the market that do cater for this need – some are shown in my guide – ‘Fixing into hollow walls’. read more »

Buying screws for your next DIY project is not a job that should be taken lightly, as making the right choice will have you purring with satisfaction when every screw is driven home with ease. However, make the wrong choice and you’ll be screaming in frustration when screw heads snap off, or you just don’t seem to be able to get any purchase on the screws as you desperately try to force them into place. You’ll find more information about different screw types in my ‘Household fixing kit’ read more »

Electric screwdrivers, or cordless screwdrivers as they are also called, are basically the smaller versions of cordless drills. Although they are much more lightweight in both size and power in comparison to cordless drills, they can still perform a multitude of tasks around your home. Below is some further information on the types of electric screwdrivers available, and where I feel they provide an invaluable option for many DIY enthusiasts. read more »

Buying an angle grinder is not the first power tool purchase that comes to mind for most DIY enthusiasts but once you’ve owned one, and although it tends to get pretty infrequent use, you do tend to be incredibly happy to have one when the need arises. Before I let you know what I believe to be the perfect model for DIY, and arguably most pro use, below are a few more details about angle grinders, what they’re capable of, and what to look out for when buying one. read more »

Buying an SDS drill for DIY has the potential to be an expensive activity, and one which is not altogether necessary, if you have a good quality cordless combi drill, or standard power drill. Therefore before taking the plunge, I’ve put together a few points to explain exactly what extra an SDS drill has to offer, and tell you what I feel is the best DIY SDS drill on the market, which also happens to be one of the cheapest. read more »