Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Drill dust can be a niggling DIY problem when making holes for wall fixings. It’s not a huge issue if the holes are made pre-decorating, but if you’re hanging pictures or curtain poles as finishing touches to your newly decorated room, then spouting a load of surface staining brick and mortar dust over the walls and skirting boards is not ideal. My simple masking tape technique below is one method I commonly use to catch drill dust and dispose of it, before it has a chance to sprinkle itself over surrounding surfaces. read more »

Drill bits for wood are essential components of any DIY toolkit, and although there are many different drill bit designs on the market, you only really need three types to deal with the majority of your wood drilling requirements. The guide below details these different types of wood bit, and the situations in which you are most likely to need them. read more »

Handsaws will always be important tools in any DIY toolkit, in spite of the fact that you can now buy a power saw for almost every cutting need. Handsaws are clearly much cheaper than their powered counterparts, so unless you are at the very serious end of the DIY spectrum, then buying all the circular and reciprocating saws that are available is simply not necessary. Also, there are many jobs when a handsaw is the only option to use read more »

Cordless drills are without doubt amongst the most useful tools that any DIY enthusiast will own, and therefore it is essential to know how to use a cordless drill correctly. Before I begin, forget all the hundreds of different terms you’ve read or seen describing this type of tool as there really are only three main categories of cordless drill. Firstly there’s a cordless drill driver, secondly there’s a cordless combi drill, and thirdly there’s a cordless SDS drill. Forget the SDS drill for this guide, as it’s a more heavy duty option. read more »

Asbestos safety is a topic that needs to concern all homeowners, as the wrong type of asbestos exposure is a serious health risk. However, with any material that is potentially dangerous to health, as long as we all know what dangers are actually presented by that material, then it becomes more straightforward to deal with it in a safe way. Many of us have asbestos present in or around our homes, and the key thing to remember is that in most cases, it only starts to present a health risk once it is cut and/or disturbed. read more »