Getting Started With Your DIY Waterfall

First of all, you need to take a good look around your garden to decide on the best location for your waterfall. You also need to know whether your land is flat or not. If your garden is totally flat, then you will need to build a slope or series of steps. A gentle slope will mean a gentle fall of water, while a steeper slope will ensure faster – and louder – movement of water. If your soil is hard to dig, or too sandy to form a solid base, you can build height using decorative stones and rocks of varying sizes. These are available through garden centres and DIY outlets.

Then, decide whether you want your waterfall to cascade into a pond or a simple gravel bed. A pond will require maintenance and cleaning but will be beneficial for wildlife.

Before Starting

You will need:

• A preformed liner

• Sand

• Electric or solar pump

• Shovel

• Rocks, natural or preformed

• Tubing

• Flowerpot

• Spirit level

You will need a pump in the lower part of the waterfall to ensure water circulates back to the top and down again. It’s a good idea to have a certified electrician check for any buried utility cables underneath where your waterfall is to go. They caninstall a circuit breaker nearby.

Start by digging out an area where your pond or gravel bed will be. Make sure you dig to the same size as the preformed liner you have bought. Use a spirit level to ensure it is even; use a layer of sand under the liner as a base and add or subtract sand until the liner is even. This structure should be deep enough to be able to submerge your pump.

Now the Waterfall

This is the more complicated of the two structures which make up a waterfall so take your time in deciding how to place the rocks and stones in order to achieve the best effect of cascading water, which should gently meander downwards rather than fall in one big splosh! For a quieter sound, you will only need a waterfall that is a few inches high. Bear in mind that you will need to feed tubing (from the pump) upwards which should be hidden in a shallow trench within the rock structure. Thread the tubing inside a flowerpot behind the rocks so it can’t be seen. You may also need a flexible liner to place under the rock formation for a large-scale waterfall.

Using rocks of varying sizes start to build up the waterfall, being careful to conceal the tubing all the way up and ensuring that rocks in the centre are flatter to better direct the flow of water.

Once you’re happy with the design fill the pond or gravel bed with water and switch on the pump to test the flow. Make any adjustments necessary then relax and enjoy your garden waterfall.

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Getting on the housing ladder is no easy feat today. Expensive and hard to get mortgages, combined with high house prices, mean that choices can be limited for first time buyers. Sometimes, you may have to accept that you simply can’t afford to buy your dream home. But what if you could buy a property and then convert it in to the place of your dreams? If that appeals to you then a fixer-upper might be the answer.

What is a fixer-upper?

It’s effectively a property that needs work. The ideal fixer-upper is one that is structurally sound but requires some attention when it comes to interior design. Structural issues could be very expensive to fix and you may also struggle to get a mortgage for a property that is in a really dire state of disrepair. So, if this is the choice you’re planning to make then look for a property that has enough challenge to push the price down but is still within your DIY skills and experience to fix up.

The benefits of a fixer-upper

• You could live in a great neighbourhood. If you’re all about the location then a house that’s seen better days but is located in a perfect part of town provides the opportunity to, one day, be a great home in a great part of town.
• The fixing up process will add value. Any work that you do to the property should add to its value. So, from the moment you begin renovating the bathroom or redoing the floors, the fixer-upper starts to increase in value as an investment.
• You can design the property exactly as you want it to be. With a fixer-upper you’re effectively starting from scratch so you can design and renovate it to suit your own personal tastes. If you have plans to sell it on later it’s worth remembering others may not have the same taste when you’re considering black walls or bright green carpeting.
• You should get more space for your cash. Generally, you’ll pay more for your space if that space has already been beautifully renovated. If the space is a bit of a wreck then the price per square metre is going to be considerably less and so you’ll be getting more space for your money. This could be an important factor if you can’t borrow as much as you would like. If this applies to you then a cheaper fixer-upper home may be your best idea to create extra space.

The potential cons of a fixer-upper

• You may spend more than you planned to. If you blow your budget then you may have to sell almost straight away, which could defeat the object of owning a fixer-upper to get onto the housing ladder.
• You may never finish the project. Living in a building site is not much fun, even if it means you’re on the housing ladder.
• The housing market could take a dive. House prices have proven pretty resilient but if they do take a sharp dip then you may find yourself with a fixer-upper already worth considerably less than what you paid for it.

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It’s a typically British thing that most of us have at least one unfinished DIY project in our homes at any one time. Perhaps the weekend didn’t offer enough time to finish adding wall tiles to the kitchen, or you ran out of materials for painting the spare room and never got round to restocking materials to finish it. We all do it – go at DIY with gusto until we need to stop for an hour or so which turns into a day, into a month, into a year and so on.

If you’re one of those people, who has incomplete DIY projects throughout the home, or you’re looking at starting a brand new DIY project, these useful tips could be just what you need to finish something you started, or to begin an exciting new change in the home.

Conversions

Have you always considered adding to your home? Perhaps you’ve always wanted to convert the loft, add a conservatory or even convert the basement into living space? Converting your home this way creates masses of practical, design and usability potential. And when the job is done right, it can add a lot of value on to your home.

Creating additional space could mean a new art studio, additional bedroom, a new en-suite bathroom, extra playing space for kids, a relaxation room – the possibilities are endless. These kinds of home improvement might not be cheap, but they are worth it if you have the cash to splash. Consider using cheap self storage in London, or whatever major city you live near, if you need to store household items whilst you’re converting your home.

Hidden Storage

If you’re looking to create extra space around the home, it can be difficult to know how to do so because you will more than likely have existed with certain spaces as they are for as long time. It takes a certain level of objectivity so that you can look at your home with fresh eyes and see new potential in areas you thought had reached their practical potential. If you have space under your stairs that has previously been used to store the hoover, clearing it out and redesigning it could provide you with various new storage options. If it’s big enough it could work as a mini work space, or a few shelves could transform it into the perfect space to store CD’s, vinyls and books that don’t seem to have any use after you invested in new technology. Another option could be to open the space up. So if the cupboard is closed away, you could take the door off, put the contents into your self storage unit and make the area into a little additional display space.

Bringing The Outdoors In

Bringing the outdoors in is extremely popular right now, as many of us are forced to live in smaller spaces for more money, and all of us are looking to make our homes lighter and fresher. You needn’t grow an entire forest in order to invest in this fantastic trend, you just need to invite a few plants into your living space. Kitchens are ideal spaces for splashes of green, and if you want to make the plants practical as well as beautiful, try growing some herbs and simple veg plants along your windowsill. If you’re really not green fingered at all and worry you’ll kill any plants you buy, opt for succulents which are incredibly easy to care for.

Upcycling

Upcycling is all the rage right now, and it’s a cheap and easy way for you to update your home. If you have any antiques in cheap self storage, now could be the time to pay them a visit and give them a bit of a spruce up. There are Youtube tutorials on all sorts of DIY upcycling projects like recovering your chairs, sanding and staining your tables to turning old TV’s into display units.

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Not to worry, there are plenty of other ways you can create more space in your homes with a few ‘thinking outside the box’ tactics. In many cases it isn’t a case of adding space with extensions, but utilising the space you do have more effectively, so it in turn works better for you.

Storage, Storage and more Storage

First things first, let’s take a look at storage solutions. It seems that storage is high on the agenda for most homes and something we can never have enough of. Over a lifetime, we accumulate possessions and sometimes it’s a struggle to throw things away with the justification that “this gadget will definitely come in handy one day” or “these jeans will be back in fashion in ten years’ time”. It’s this sentimental thought process and not wanting to waste anything that can cause cupboards, drawers and even rooms to be full to the brim with unused items.

Of course, this isn’t the case with every household, as many people aren’t prone to keeping everything, but they still genuinely suffer from a lack of storage space. However, there are numerous ways you can keep all your items stored away neatly and in an organised fashion to utilise the space more.

Built-in Storage Solutions

Whilst built-in wardrobes and cupboards aren’t a new phenomenon, the modern designs we see now are far better equipped to coping with multi-functional storage. They are not only a great way to deal with a storage issue, but also can add value to your home and use space more effectively too.

The great thing about built-in storage solutions, is they can be closed units fitted with swing or sliding doors, open style shelving or a combination of the two, so you can fully incorporate your storage into the room. The versatility of built-in storage units allow you to create an area to meet your exact requirements and to make use of even the smallest or oddest shaped spaces. For example, if you have a recess in your home under the stairs, in your lounge or bedroom that doesn’t get used properly, why not create a bespoke shelving unit or cupboard so you can actually use the entire space for stashing away shoes, toys, books or anything you like.

If you’re looking for larger storage solutions, it can be a great idea to opt for a built-in unit that spans across a whole wall or certainly a large part of it in bigger rooms. This maximises the amount of storage space you’ll get with the unit, but at the same time creates continuity, with the unit becoming a focal feature rather than a randomly placed freestanding block of storage. Fitting mirrored doors will also make the room feel bigger and lighter, which is particularly important in smaller spaces.

Modern built-in storage also provides numerous ideas for storing items in your unit too, from compartmentalised drawers for smaller items to hanging hooks and with some designs, you can even create a built-in working desk or dressing table, which makes them perfect for home offices, vanity units or kid’s bedrooms.

Tidy your drawers

Whilst we’re on the subject of keeping things organised, even if you don’t have built-in storage solutions, you can still make a difference to those overflowing drawers in your kitchen, bedroom, lounge or bathroom.

Drawers are a great place for tidying away small items, such as stationary, jewellery, paperwork, takeaway menus and pretty much anything that you want to keep, but don’t want on show. However, in many cases things get chucked in a draw and soon get lost, but you can create simple, organised drawer storage solutions by creating your own draw tidy using small boxes or trays and clipping them together. With a myriad of different sized compartments, everything will be neatly in its place and you’ll find more space for storing additional items as the space is used more effectively.

Brilliant Boxes and Baskets

Other great ways to add additional storage solutions into your home is investing in some good quality boxes or baskets. Storage boxes, along with baskets, are versatile and practical. They come in all sorts of designs – clear plastic, painted wicker, printed cardboard, vintage wood – and a whole host of different shapes and sizes too. This means that you can get really creative with using boxes and baskets as storage solutions in your home. Add baskets to shelving or cupboards, so you can easily store more things on the shelves in the baskets, but they’ll be nice and neatly stowed away in a stylish way, with all items out of view. Or invest in a dual purpose footstool or coffee table that has hidden storage inside.

Also, don’t forget about the amount of dead space underneath large furniture, such as beds and sofas. Make use of that wasted space and choose some shallow boxes on wheels that can easily be pulled out and put away for those items that you don’t necessarily need access to every day. This could be rotating your summer/winter wardrobe, DVD’s, books…the possibilities are endless and so are the sizes of storage solutions available – so you’ll certainly find something to suit.

Easy kitchens

Another area in many homes that suffer from storage shortages is the kitchen. It’s a place where you need easy access to ingredients, dishes and pans; and whilst a complete kitchen extension or remodel may not be an option, you can make a few tweaks to maximise the space usage to make getting to everything nice and easy. And don’t forget there are decorating and design elements that can make a space feel larger even if it is not, such as light colours on the walls or large white porcelain tiles on the floor that reflect the light back into the room.

Innovative kitchen storage solutions, include pull out cupboards and shelves, rotating corner cupboard shelving and cupboard and drawer organisers that make life so much easier. These clever storage solutions can be added to most existing kitchen units, so you can adapt keep your spices organised with pull out wire drawers, or get to those hard to reach bowls at the back of the corner cupboard.

Another great way to utilise space in cupboards and drawers is with Tupperware and plastic boxes with lids. They not only help to keep ingredients fresher for longer, but stacking tubs and boxes will use more space in your cupboards so you can fit more in, plus they make finding items easier too.

Hang It or Shelve It

A key to getting more space in your home is to create additional floor and counter space. Of course, furniture takes up the large majority of floor space, but you’d be surprised at how much of your space is taken up unnecessarily with clutter. This is where getting items up off the floor and onto the walls can make all the difference.

Incorporating hooks and hanging areas can have a dramatic effect. It doesn’t matter whether it’s hanging your jewellery on hooks on the wall next to your dressing table, rather than taking up valuable space in a drawer, having extra hanging space for coats, scarves and hats or incorporating a hanging area for kitchen utensils or pots and pans that currently take up space on the worktop or in cupboards.

Shelving units can also allow items currently taking up valuable floor space to be stored effectively. It works incredibly well in well used areas such as kitchens and bathrooms, where you have a number of items that sit on the floor or worktops. With some stylish shelving or even a closed wall unit, you can get items such as cleaning products, spare loo rolls, cooking utensils and spices up off the floors and counters and in their own allocated space.

Decluttering = Space

Whilst creating additional space with clever storage solutions is great, it doesn’t always solve the problem of clutter, as you can simply be transporting stuff from one area to another and simply putting it out of sight and out of mind.

This is why if you are looking to create more space in your home, it’s also a good idea to have a good old-fashioned clear out. No one is saying you should get rid of everything, but taking a more objective and realistic approach to your belongings can help to create additional space.

Knowing exactly what you have and where it’s stored will mean you can house your belongings in a more structured and organised way. Sorting through items and categorising them in terms of the frequency of their use, will make sure that the items you need most frequently are easily accessible, whereas things that are used once, maybe twice a year aren’t taking up valuable front row space.

If you’re worried about things going to waste, why not donate to charity shops or friends, as well as sell good conditioned items on classified websites. That bit of extra money could go towards a built in storage unit!

Consider Your Home Layout

It’s amazing that when you live somewhere, you soon become accustomed to the layout of the furniture; and what in many cases was a temporary layout, remains that way for years, despite the fact it may not actually use the space particularly well.

Where you position your furniture, as well as the size and style can play a significant role in how big or small your home feels and the amount of space that is utilised. Choosing the right position, size and style of furniture appropriate for your home can make all the difference to the amount of space you have to live in.

For example, a huge, chunky dining room table that seats 8 people, will swamp a dining room that’s really only designed to fit a table of 4-6 people. In this instance, you may want to consider downsizing to a smaller table that also has the option to expand for more seating as and when you need it. Also, think about the positioning of furniture, do you have your sofa in front of the bay window in your living room? Have you considered how much space behind the sofa is wasted? Moving the sofa against a wall, can open up the room and allow you to use the recessed area more effectively, whether it’s incorporating additional chairs, a coffee table or storage.

When you’re planning the layout of any room, be it your living room, bedroom, bathroom or kitchen, it’s important to think about the purpose of the room and how you spend your time in there, as well as factoring in walkways. These fundamental elements of planning will make sure you create an area that fits your requirements and isn’t a pain to manoeuvre around.

Where you can, position large furniture such as chairs, beds and sofas flush against the wall, as putting them at an angle will waste space. The same goes for freestanding shelving units, dressers, wardrobes and drawers. Also pay close attention that none of these furniture items are impeding access or walkways as this can make a room feel smaller and less accessible. You want to be able to easily come in and out of a room, as well as walk through it without having to negotiate a lot of furniture on the way.

Avoid Overcrowding

Also be sure that when you’re positioning your furniture that you aren’t overcrowding the room. Sometimes, less is more for creating a well-laid out room that looks spacious and comfortable, so if space is premium in your home, be as minimalistic as you can. Focus on the essential furniture you need in a room first, such as seating, entertainment and storage, then move onto less essential items.

The same rules apply for the size of your furniture. It’s all about choosing furniture that matches the size of your rooms. Unless you have lots of space, avoid large and chunky furniture designs, as these will simply take over small spaces and eat into valuable living space.

As you can see, there are plenty of options for making better use of existing space in your home without the cost of extending. Whether you incorporate clever storage solutions, declutter or reinvest in new furniture pieces, by making some small changes in your home, you can have a really big impact on the space you’re left to work with.

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We’re all feeling the pinch these days, and with a relatively volatile housing market in the UK, many homeowners are choosing to improve their existing properties rather than go through the hassle of selling their current home and the expense of buying a new home. Updating a bathroom when you’re short on cash can be done – just follow these excellent tips for getting that fresh look and feel without breaking the bank.

Updating a bathroom at minimal cost:

• Refresh before you invest – Sometimes your bathroom just looks dull and grimy because, well actually, it is simply dirty. Get your rubber gloves and strong cleaning fluids out and give the place a really thorough scrub down, concentrating particularly on the grout between your porcelain tiles and the areas around your sink and bath. Thick bleach can work wonders on discoloured grout, but caulk and grout are very inexpensive to buy, so consider re-grouting your wall and floor tiles if they cannot be cleaned to rid your room of those unsightly black lines and you might just be surprised by how fresh and new the place can look without the expense of replacing the ceramic tiles.
• Paint it fresh – Adding a lick of paint to a tired, grubby bathroom that has seen better days can work wonders for the atmosphere and look. For a great contemporary look, choose a bright colour for a feature wall and buy new towels and accessories to match the bold colour, or go for a funky wall covering on one wall with a neutral paint colour in the rest of the space.
• Accessorise to bring it alive – Investing in new accessories is one of the most cost effective of all ways to bring back to life an otherwise boring, dated bathroom. Going for bold colours for the towels, soap dish, mats and tumblers will add a splash of modern brilliance and make it feel like a brand new space. Try adding bright silk flowers to further enhance the look or a new blind if your budget will stretch that far.
• See the light – Consider a new way of lighting your bathroom. If you currently have an outdated ceiling light, consider replacing this with a halogen spotlight bar for an instant, modern look. The brighter light will make the bathroom feel cleaner and is one of the best wasy of updating a bathroom, and if you angle the spots artistically you could use them to pick out particular features you are proud of, such as window decorations or pictures.
• Go with what you have – If you are stuck with an outdated bathroom suite in a horrible shade of avocado or peach, then rather than fighting it, why not go with it? Coloured bathroom suites are right out of fashion at the moment, but if you work with the pallet you have when you are painting or papering the walls you could really bring it all together in a more modern way. Most bath panels can be customised with vinyl or acrylics, so consider making a feature of what you have to, perhaps not bring it bang up to date, but at least make it quirky on a budget.

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There are a number of steps involved in the wall tiling process, each with particular requirements in terms of skill, tools and materials but no matter how professionally each stage is performed the end result could be a disaster if you do not prepare the area fully before starting. Time spent preparing the surface will ensure that the tiles adhere properly and that they lie completely flat so they won’t start to come away or crack at a later stage. The preparation might be as simple as cleaning the walls of any dirt and flaking paint but could also involve filling uneven surfaces or repairing areas that have previously been water-damaged or even fixing existing leaks.

So where do you start?

First check the whole surface area to be tiled and do the following:

• Remove any old screws or nails left in the wall after the old wall covering was removed.
• Remove any loose plaster.
• Remove any old wallpaper.
• Fill any holes or cracks with any suitable filler – for larger holes make sure you complete the repair in layers and allow the filler to dry completely between each layer.
• If necessary sand down any repairs to make the surface as level as possible.
• Use a wire brush to remove any loose particles on the walls then vacuum the room thoroughly.
• Apply an acrylic primer to plasterwork.

Next make sure the surface is as level as possible – the easiest way to do this is to use a straight wooden batten roughly 2m in length. Place it across the wall in various directions and check that it touches the wall at each end and that there are no large gaps between the batten and the wall along its length. Any gaps 5mm or less will not unduly affect the end result but anything much large than this could cause problems because the adhesive will be too thick in places and may fail to bond with the substrate or tile. If the wall is not level then use some tile adhesive to form a more level surface.

Finally, make sure you understand the surface to which your will be applying the tiles and any particular final preparations that may be required. For example, new plaster needs at least month to dry out and shrink. If the wall surface comprises wooden boards they need to be securely fixed to the substrate and bare timber should be painted with a polyurethane paint.

A blockwork or brick substrate is generally unsuitable for tiling directly onto as the surface is too uneven. In this case it is necessary to fix tile backer boards to the wall to give a level surface – the added advantage of tile backer boards is that they are waterproof so particularly suitable for shower areas or wet rooms.

It is possible to tile over existing porcelain wall tiles or ceramic wall tiles if they are still firmly bonded to the walls and if it is not feasible or cost-effective to remove them, but the disadvantage is that you are adding extra weight which the original substrate and adhesive may not be able to support. Wherever possible it is better to remove existing tiles. If you do go ahead with tiling over existing porcelain tiles or ceramic tiles then make doubly sure all traces of cleaning products are removed from the old tiles before applying the tile adhesive.

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Having the surface prepared is essential, as tiles installed on a poorly prepared surface can quickly crack and lift off and where there is water it can seep inside. So you want to ensure that you have the surface as fully prepared, as it would be horrible to see your hard work ruined. Even if you have the best quality products from tools to porcelain tiles you still should ensure that the surface is fully prepared.

Preparing the surface:

1) Scrape of any old tile grout or adhesive.
2) Remove any nails
3) Take off an loose sections of plaster
4) Remove any flaking wall paper or paint
5) Ensure that there are no particles of dust or grit left
6) Fill in any holes with filler
7) When the filler is dry, sand it down so that the surface is straight.

You should check the straightness of the surface with a spirit level or even a long plank of wood. If the wall is still not straight you can fix it with filler. If the gap is less than 5mm then you can just alter it with additional tile adhesive.

If it is all prepared then you can vacuum the area, clean the surface with a damp cloth, apply acrylic primer and start tilling!

Top tiling tips:

• If the surface is newly plastered you should leave it at least a month to dry out before you start tiling – which can be quite annoying but if not it could result in a poor finish and damp behind the tiles
• If you have a bare brick wall you should install tile backer boards as the wall will be too uneven to tile straight on to.

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