The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

the times Saturday April 30 2022

We e ke n d 3

How to repaint

the front door

If your exterior door is

looking weathered,

refresh it with a new coat

of paint. First, remove any

door furniture; it’s more

effort to paint around a

letterbox badly than to

remove it in the first

place. Lightly sand down

the door, making sure

there are no paint flakes.

Clean the door with sugar

soap then start painting.

Decide if you want a

gloss or matt finish. If

you’re using a good

quality and long-lasting

exterior paint, you don’t

need to prime.

Start painting any

panels and details first,

being careful to avoid the

windows (cover the edges

with masking tape if

necessary). Apply the

brushstrokes in the

direction of the grain.

Once dry, usually after

about four hours, you can

apply a second coat. Let

the door dry fully and

then refit the furniture.

where you sweep the paint very lightly

with the tip of your brush just after

applying it, which helps to minimise any

brush marks. For pieces such as cabinets

you’ll want at least two coats of paint if

not three — just remember to make sure

it’s completely dry between coats.

Once you’ve finished painting, apply

a protective finishing sealant. Whether

you use a wax or lacquer sealant, do a

minimum of two, even three coats just

to be sure you haven’t missed any areas.

Leave enough time between each coat

for the sealant to harden and dry — a

day is good, a week is great if possible.

Annie Sloan, colour and paint expert

(anniesloan.com)

from there. Try to keep a feeling of

cohesion throughout: it could be

symmetrical spacing between the

artworks or uniting an eclectic collection

with the same style or colour of frames.

Try filling any awkward gaps with non-

art pieces, such as a pretty plate or strip

of vintage passport pictures, which will

give the space a less formal feel. If in

doubt, practise your layout on the floor

first before committing nail to wall.

Joanna Thornhill, interiors stylist,

writer and author of The New Mindful

Home, published by Laurence King

(@joannathornhillstylist)

I’

ve just moved home and found

it an emasculating process in all

sorts of ways. The gym weights

that I’ve never used and was too

feeble to drag off the removals

van without the help of a nearby

teenager. The Sonos sound

system that I failed to reconfigure and

had to delegate to a bloke off Taskrabbit.

The spotlights I unscrewed so badly

from their sockets that an electrician had

to be called out to repair them.

The worst moment, however, involved

a coffee machine. It was making an

almighty racket whenever I attempted to

brew an americano, and I decided, after

much reflection, that the £130 callout fee

for a specialist engineer would work out

cheaper than a replacement. He arrived

on a Monday morning and discovered

after ten whole seconds of labour that

I had not pushed the water container

in properly.

The only consolations were that:

a) he didn’t laugh in my face,

although it must have been

tempting; b) he revealed that a

good portion of his income, and

most domestic engineers’ income,

comes from such calls; and

c) people proffered even more

humiliating stories, when I

confessed on Twitter. Jane

Lush, the TV executive,

told me she had called

out Sky repeatedly,

and when two

teams of engineers

failed to fix the

problem, even after

fitting a new satellite dish, she

paid for a private TV engineer.

Two minutes and £130 later he reported

that a lead had come out of the back of

her Sky box.

My friend Charlotte Sacher called

out the washing-machine people for a

malfunction that turned out to be caused

by her not closing the door properly.

On and on it went. The faulty

lawnmower, which an expensive

engineer revealed hadn’t actually been

charged. The IT expert who took a

keyboard apart to fix it, without

considering the possibility that the

batteries might have run out. It seems we

are a nation of technological and DIY

incompetents. But I have a favourite

story whenever I need to make myself

feel better after being humiliated yet

again in the domestic field. Deeba Syed,

a lawyer, called out an emergency gas

engineer because her home was filled

with the strong smell of gas. It

turned out her building didn’t

even have a gas supply —

her laptop had been resting

against a lighter.

Unbelievable. Imagine how

silly you’d feel! Although, if I’m

brutally honest with myself, my

coffee-machine blunder

might have actually

been worse. You see,

I missed out a crucial

and damning detail in

the telling: I originally

received the coffee

machine to review

when I was working

as... the technology

columnist for The

Times’s Luxx

supplement.

— take our bank holiday skills test

At least the repair man didn’t

laugh in my face Sathnam Sanghera

How to bleed your

radiators

If your radiators are only warm on the

bottom and cool on top it’s a sign that

there is air in their system and they

will need to be bled to let the trapped

air out.

Start with the radiators at the top

of your house and work your way

down. The radiators will have a

bleed valve on one of their upper

corners. Make sure you have a radiator

bleed key — don’t just grip the valve’s

screw with a pair of pliers as you might

damage it. While holding some kitchen

paper or a rag underneath the valve,

gently loosen the screw by a quarter-

turn anticlockwise. You should hear the

air hissing as it starts to escape. Wait

until water begins to spurt out of the

valve — always do this when the

heating’s off — then close the screw

again by turning it clockwise. It’s worth

checking your boiler’s pressure gauge

after the radiators have been bled.

Daniel Khanlarpour, central heating

company Gas Guru (checkatrade.com)

How to sand

floorboards

For a large area such as a floor

you’ll need to hire an industrial

sanding machine. Raised nails

in the floorboards will rip the

paper on the sander’s drum, so before

you sand use a hammer to make sure

any nails are below the wood’s surface.

Start by sanding the surface with

coarse sandpaper to remove any

dirt or imperfections, then sand

the whole surface with medium-

grit paper to smooth and remove

any grooves that have been

created by the coarse sandpaper.

If there are small gaps between the

boards, mix some of the clean sawdust

with wood glue to create a paste, and

press it into the gaps with a filling knife

so that it’s level with the floor’s surface.

Finally, sand again with fine-grit paper

for a smooth finish. For the best results

sand along the grain of the wood to

minimise the visibility of sanding

grooves.

Christine Wessling

(littlehouseonthecorner.com)

How to refresh shower

sealant

Does your shower tray or bath have

unsightly black mould growing where

the edges meet the wall tiles? The

sealant probably needs changing.

Luckily it’s an easy job, where all you

need is a knife, silicone and a

sealant gun. You can either apply a

special sealant remover, available

from DIY shops, or just get rid of the

old stuff by cutting it away. It

should pull up easily. Give the area

a good clean and make sure it’s

thoroughly dry. Apply a

waterproof silicone sealant

using the gun — run a bead of

it evenly around the top edge

of the bath or shower tray,

trying to keep a steady

pressure throughout.

Smooth it down using a

plastic tool; you could even use a finger,

but make sure it’s wet so the silicone

doesn’t stick to your skin. Try to avoid

going over it more than once — it will

turn into a sticky mess.

How to drill a hole

in a wall

Drilling

a hole

in a wall is a

gateway to many home

improvement jobs, from

putting up shelves or a simple

key hook to hanging a flat-screen

TV. But it’s not always easy to

know how to do this.

First, you need to

understand the type of

wall you’re drilling into.

They will either be solid

walls made of masonry

(brick, blockwork) or hollow (made of a

timber stud frame and plasterboard). To

check which you have, knock the wall; a

solid wall will sound solid and a hollow

wall will sound — you guessed it —

hollow! A hollow wall is just a partition

between rooms. Due to the way it’s built

there is little structural integrity in these

walls so you don’t want to hang your

heavy (and expensive) TV off the

plasterboard.

When drilling into a solid wall you

need more force and stronger tools. I

recommend a drill with a hammer

action, which means it’s hammering

back and forth as well as turning, and a

masonry drill bit. A hollow wall is easier

to drill into, you can use a wood bit to

get through it, but to ensure you don’t

drill into cables and pipes use a voltage

and metal detector (about £30). To

drill into hollow walls you need a

plasterboard or hollow-wall fixing that is

specially designed to grip

to the back of the

wall. When

making

your hole,

drill as straight

as possible,

keeping the drill

at 90 degrees.

Jo Behari, author

of The Girl’s Guide

to DIY (New

Holland)

How to revive rusting

garden furniture

Is your garden furniture sad and rusty

after being left out all winter? It’s easy

to fix. First, remove the rust and any

flaking bits of old paint with a wire brush

and wipe down the surfaces to remove

any dust or dirt. Next, choose

a metal spray — I’ve had

good results with Rust-

Oleum’s Painter’s Touch spray

paint in sage green. You’ll probably need

at least two cans’ worth to cover a bench.

Wearing gloves and protective goggles,

hold the can 15cm away from the

furniture and spray in steady sweeping

motions, from left to right, and repeat to

avoid any drips. Once dry, spray it again

— you need a couple of layers of paint.

Alex Stedman, the Frugality

(the-frugality.com)

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How to upcycle an

unloved piece of

furniture

A dash of colour can transform the look

of any piece of furniture. When it comes

to upcycling, the first step is to remove

any hardware, such as the handles from

a chest of drawers, and give it a quick

clean with a damp cloth.

For big pieces, the best brush to use

is a flat one — just dip your brush in

and apply the paint straight on to the

furniture. For a super-smooth finish,

keep the brush at a 90-degree angle and

feather the paint as you go — this is

Tom Whipple

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How to put up a gallery

wall

Gallery walls can look striking and offer

a great way to showcase a selection of

your favourite paintings and prints. They

also allow you to build a collection over

time. However, even if you’re going for a

quirky look, they still warrant a little

planning to stop the overall effect from

feeling chaotic. A good rule of thumb is

to hang your key pieces at a height that’s

roughly level with your eyeline (galleries

tend to go for around 150cm from floor

height), then work your way outwards

Sathnam Sanghera