Last call for DIY
If you plan to spend some time off improving your home and garden here are some ideas
If your garden needs an injection of colour, flowers won’t last but a DIY makeover will. Glazed garden pots are often costly, but you can save a lot of money by painting inexpensive terracotta pots and troughs – restrict the paint to below the rim or paint the rim a different colour for a two-tone look.
Ronseal Garden Paint (£15 for 2.5 litres until September 21, B&Q) is ideal for this because it can be used on terracotta, but also on wood, brick, metal and stone, so you can coordinate your garden without having to buy different paints for different surfaces. Ronseal Garden Paint is rainproof in just an hour, perfect for use on showery days, and comes in lots of lovely colours.
Spending the long weekend painting your garden shed an eye-catching colour is a fun thing to do, but first check if it has glass or Perspex window panes.
If it’s the latter, be careful not to get paint on the Perspex, or if you do, wipe it off straight away because you can’t scrape and clean dry paint off Perspex, like you can glass, without ruining it.
If you use the shed for storage, insulating the walls internally will help to protect anything you store in it when the weather turns cold.
Also make sure it’s watertight – take a look inside when it’s raining to see if water’s coming in, and do any necessary repairs.
The obvious time to do exterior repairs and painting, is on a warm, sunny, day although painting in strong, direct sunlight and high temperatures isn’t necessarily a good idea, as it can affect the finish.
If your home’s exterior walls are painted, a fresh coat or two will protect them ready for winter, as well as smarten them up. As always, do any prep thoroughly first, such as scraping off loose and flaking paint.
Almost ineviatably the kids’ rough and tumble during the school holidays will have taken a toll on your home’s walls, so you can start repairing holes and cracks safe in the knowledge that the new school term starts soon.
Deep holes can sometimes be packed with kitchen roll, or something similar, to save on filler and time, or use a filler that’s ideal for big repairs, such as Toupret TX110 Expert Rapid Drying
Interior Filler (£11.99 for 2kg, Screwfix).
This powdered filler is exceptionally good – it dries quickly, is easy to shape, and can be nailed and screwed into when set but, unlike some tough fillers, is easy to sand.