“If you want something done properly, do it yourself,” says the old adage, and it’s applying more than ever to women and home maintenance tasks. DIY – traditionally the domain of the man of the house – is losing its masculine image and an increasing number of women are ‘tooling up’ to take on the blocked drain, the dripping tap and those shelves that should have been put up months ago.

One reason behind this evolution is the increasing number of women living alone, including those owning their own homes. For these women, there may not be a man about the house to do the DIY, and calling in a professional has its drawbacks. “Good tradesmen are hard to find and often they are expensive, £200 per day being the normal labour costs,” says Tracey Bennett, Instructor and Training Co-ordinator at Trade Skills 4U, a training company in Crawley whose curriculum includes a home DIY course for women.

There’s also the inconvenience of waiting around for professionals to turn up – especially if they know it’s a small job – not to mention the mess: as Tracey points out, tradesmen are not always the most tidy around your home. Then there’s the satisfaction in executing the task to your specifications and timetable: “Doing it yourself allows you greater control on how the job is done,” she adds.

Even when there is a man in the house, he may be no more clued up on home maintenance than his female partner. Caroline Barnett-Philips is the UK Managing Director of Tomboy Tools, a company specialising in hands-on education in DIY tools for women via Tupperware-style tool parties. She says, “There’s an assumption that guys can do it, but men are not born with the skills.”

She began learning her own handy skills while helping her father around the family home, but not every child – boy or girl – gets to have this experience. And these days in many single-parent families, the time children spend with their fathers is ‘fun’ or quality time, rather than watching and learning as he does the DIY. The gap in male DIY know-how is prompting a change of attitude in women, says Caroline. “Women are thinking, ‘if he can’t do it, there’s no reason why I can’t do it.’”

Feel the fear...

The first barrier to ‘doing it yourself’ that many women have to overcome is lack of confidence. Tracey Bennett constantly meets women who come to Trade Skills 4U’s courses “as frightened as mice” of tools – power tools in particular, including ones they already have at home. “They’re all embarrassed to confess their fear,” she says, “but they all tell the same story.”

It’s no surprise they feel this way if they’ve been actively discouraged all their lives to do hands-on DIY tasks. Janet Shelley, Managing Director of Women Builders Ltd, a building and training company in Milton Keynes, was literally not allowed to enrol in the woodwork classes she wanted to do in secondary school – the classes were strictly for male students. This despite the fact that, like Caroline Barnett-Philips, Janet was always helping her father with maintenance work at home and was a far more effective assistant than her brothers.

Janet, now 40, believes that women of her generation or older would have had similar experiences. Caroline concurs: a lot of women attending tool parties, especially those in their 50s or 60s, have never had to use tools before.

At home with your tools

So how to overcome this fear of the unknown? An obvious starting point may be the local DIY store, but Caroline Barnett-Philips advises against this. “You can be overwhelmed by the selection,” she says. “There are so many kinds of hammers and screwdrivers that suddenly you don’t know what you want. It can put you off before you even start.”

Caroline’s first suggestion is to experience some DIY tools in a relaxed environment, preferably under the guidance of a friend. She stresses the necessity of trying them out and getting to grips with them as objects: “It’s important to get a feel of the tools and have a go.” Hands-on education and ‘having a go’ are the primary concepts behind Tomboy Tools’ tool parties, where a company representative comes along to discuss and demonstrate DIY tools and tasks to you and your party guests in the comfort of your own home.

As a result of trying the tools, women are realising that DIY is not as hard as they thought. “Especially drills,” says Caroline. “Women are really surprised to find that you do have control of a drill.” It’s revelations like this that, she says, give women “the flash of inspiration to go off and do things”.

Something you may be inspired to do is further your DIY education by taking a course. Women-friendly and women-only courses are now being run across the UK. Trade Skills 4U started their ladies’ home maintenance courses simply because of demand: there are plenty of women wanting to tackle DIY who lack experience, knowledge and confidence around their own homes.

Tiling, plastering, plumbing, home maintenance, bricklaying and electrics can all be found on the curriculum. Men have started coming to the courses (courses are also run for both women and men) because their female partners’ newly-acquired DIY skills have eclipsed their own.

Tool advice

When you’re ready to get to work, make sure you choose tools that are fit for purpose and comfortable to use. Some tools may look good but they start to hurt after a while. Look for practical safety features, for example, a rubber grip on hammer – a hammer flying out of your hands when first attempting DIY could put you off for good.

A simple piece of DIY advice is to wear gloves wherever possible (men should do this too, even though they have harder skin on their hands than women). It’s just as important as wearing gloves in the garden, to protect from splinters and blisters, though DIY gloves will need to allow more dexterity than gardening gloves.

Assessing their work

A further advantage of attending a DIY course is that, while it may not immediately equip you to do everything yourself, it will put you in a better position to deal with the experts you all in and to question their decisions if you’re not happy with their work. The more householders learn about DIY, in theory and practice, the harder it’s going to be for those ‘cowboy’ professionals to get away with shoddy workmanship and throwaway answers, thus raising standards in the whole industry.

There’s also no telling where an introductory DIY course can take your own professional life. Tracey Bennett tells of a young woman who attended a tiling course for tiling jobs around her own home. “During the course she was given a table to open up her mind creatively, to design and tile the table using mosaics,” she says. “She enjoyed the experience so much she now tiles tables in mosaic designs for a living.”

Women Builders offer courses at both basic and advanced levels – the latter for those wanting to work in trades. They, too, have had instances of students coming to the basic course with no knowledge of DIY who were inspired to work in the trade and have since qualified as professionals.

Online assistance

Once you’re feeling confident enough to start using DIY tools, there’s a wealth of information and guidance on the Internet. DIY retailers such as B&Q, Focus DIY and Homebase all offer detailed advice on their websites, with step-by-step illustrated leaflets you can download on a range of projects. Similarly, the BBC Homes website offers “step-by-step guides from your favourite experts”, such as the teams from Changing Rooms or DIY SOS.

The DIY Doctor website, which attracts 50,000 users per week, takes DIY guidance a step further by offering free assistance “from qualified tradesmen through an interactive question and answer service”. If their project guides don’t give you the answers you’re looking for, you can submit your question through the ‘Appointments and Suggestions’ page and a tradesman emails you back a response.

While many of these online projects are for the more experienced DIY hand, they’re a valuable source of education, providing a clear idea of what skills, tools and materials different tasks involve. It’s worth bearing in mind that they assume a certain level of know-how: they’ll tell you when to use a certain tool for a certain step, but you’ll need to be familiar with how to use that tool in the first place.

Ready for anything

Janet Shelley, the former schoolgirl discouraged from woodwork classes who now runs her own building company, believes that all women lack when it comes to DIY is confidence. Indeed women have attributes that make for a better DIY practitioner: they are more willing to follow diagrams and instructions, and less likely to take a saw to something if they believe it doesn’t fit. “Women are a little more focused [than men],” she adds. “They know when to stop – when to have a cup of tea and get back to it.” The way forward, as Janet sees it? “Get women to make other women more confident. Once they’ve got that, they can do anything.”  

A DIY essential task to get you started – repairing a dripping tap

From B&Q You Can Do It – the complete B&Q step-by-step book of home improvement, £16.95.

Tools:
Adjustable spanner or pliers;
Screwdriver;
Pipe wrench;
Cloth.

Materials:
Tap washer;
Silicone grease;
Cardboard.

Don’t ignore a dripping tap! The sooner you tackle it, the easier it will be to fix and the less damage will be done. Even if you don’t have a spare washer, take a look inside the tap – if the washer is only slightly damaged on one face, you can reinsert it the other way up. But even if that stops the drip, do remember to replace it with a new washer as soon as possible.

Standard mixer taps can be repaired as shown here, but monobloc taps – often controlled by levers, and needing only a quarter turn between fully off and fully on – have ceramic disks rather than traditional washers. The disks are very hardwearing, but if one does develop a problem you will need a replacement cartridge from the tap manufacturer.

1. Turn off the water supply and open the tap to drain water from the system. Put the plug into the plug-hole, just in case you drop any small nuts or screws. Unscrew the top plate (this has the hot/cold emblem on it). You might be able to do this with your fingers, but if not, use pliers or an adjustable spanner.

2. Not all taps are made the same way so you will have to work out how the handle comes off. In the type shown, you need to unscrew the retaining screw, and pull off the handle. This will expose the headgear nut.

3. Unscrew the tap body cover. If you can’t do this by hand use an adjustable spanner or pipe grips, but protect the chrome with a cloth.

4. Undo the headgear nut using an adjustable spanner. If the nut is difficult to turn, don’t force it or you risk twisting the base of the tap and putting a strain on the inlet pipe. Instead pad around the base of the tap with cardboard and use a pipe wrench to grip it firmly as you apply the necessary force to the nut.

5. Remove the headgear assembly by unscrewing the headgear nut. The washer sits in the jumper and is either pressed in place, often over a small button, or retained by a nut. If necessary, unscrew the nut holding the washer in place with an adjustable spanner. Prise out the old washer; you can use a screwdriver to dig it out if necessary.

6. Insert a new washer and push it down into the jumper. Reassemble the tap in the same sequence. Apply a little silicone grease to the threads on the base of the headgear assembly before reinserting it in the tap body.

Valve seat damage
If a tap carries on dripping even with a new washer, then the valve seating is probably eroded. This can be repaired with a special grinding tool or – much more easily – with a washer and seating set. The plastic seat fits into the existing metal seat, and a washer-and-jumper unit fits on the headgear. The sooner you replace a washer, the less likely the valve seating is to get damaged.

Painting

How many years since you tackled the decorating? If it’s been a while, you will be staggered (not to mention confused) by the variety of paint types and colours now on the market. Not only are paints from the quality manufacturers odourless, but they are easy to apply, fast-drying and the finishes are specific to the purpose. Colour ranges are huge and for some jobs, with some paints, you only need one coat.

Washable paint surfaces are the obvious choice for homes where young children live. On the other hand, some paints mimic textures such as suede (Crown’s Suede emulsion range in 12 shades); others have an extra matt finish which, combined with ‘microspheres’, actually make the walls warm to the touch (Crown Indulgence Luxury Flat Matt range) – probably not the best choice where sticky fingers might be tempted.

What finish?
Before you consider your colour scheme, choose your finish. Matt looks terrific but marks easily – would vinyl silk be a better choice, especially for a busy hallway or your staircase area? Manufacturers such as Dulux have vastly increased their colour range for paints that are suitable for steamy kitchens and bathrooms (1,200 through their colour mixing service). Or maybe you want to revamp your bathroom tiles without retiling? Choose a tile paint – they are much improved over those of five or ten years ago.

Painting your radiators the same colour as the walls helps to disguise them, but don’t make the mistake of using the same matt emulsion, which will chip easily. Get the identical shade in something like Dulux Satinwood or Crown Non-Drip Satin, which are easy to use, more subtle than gloss, need no undercoat and can be applied directly over old gloss paint after preparation.

Colours
Writing in the Fired Earth catalogue, Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs says: “The best colours for rooms, the ones that respond well to light in this country, have surprisingly remained fairly constant throughout history. The same tints occur in 17th century interiors and on the walls of iconic contemporary art galleries, simply because they are complex mixes of pigments that are easy on the eye and have real personality.”

Colour notes in the company’s catalogue read like the superlatives in wine-tasting:

• “Rose Bay. From the Mediterranean shrub also known as oleander, a colour much loved through the 18th and 19th centuries, this is a lovely rose-pink, ideal for our gentler climes...
• “Carragheen. A rich, deep shade named after the highly-prized edible purple seaweed found off the Irish coast. A startling colour designed for dramatic highlights...
• “Cinnabar red. From small red crystals formed in volcanic deposits and much loved by the Romans for its fiery energy and vitality, this colour makes for a bold, vivacious statement animating any room.”
• All 120 shades come as matt emulsion (water-based), eggshell (water-based), gloss (traditional oil-based), exterior masonry (water-based) and as floor paint (oil-based).

Look along the shelves of your local large DIY store and you will see that neutrals, once boringly confined to magnolia, have been joined by a host of creams, off-whites and taupes. At the other end of the spectrum are the wild colours, some even glittering, that will make a child’s room the envy of their mates. With names like Shocking Pink, Orange Explosion and Acid Lime in Crown’s Feature Wall range, you can even indulge your own colour fantasies with one eye-catching wall, chimney breast or recess, with matching accents in your soft furnishings.

Fancy a Zen-like interior? Then go for a ‘slow’ colour, or combination of slow colours. Slow shades have just a smudge, a trace, of colour – just enough to make things interesting but not enough to be definite. Pale lavender, watery blue and palest green can be used inside or out on walls and ceilings to complement beautiful wood or cork floors.

Modern paints cover superbly but they aren’t cheap. You may be tempted to use the remains of the paint you used on the kids’ bedrooms five years ago, but why expend all that effort shifting the furniture and preparing the surfaces for a less-than-perfect result? The same goes for buying cheap paintbrushes or the wrong type of roller. If it’s ages since you last opened a new tin of paint, much less wielded a roller, brush up on the new paints and techniques first. It will pay dividends.

More colour information:

• Fired Earth’s Elements of Colour paint card features samples of actual paint for perfect matching and is available through local showrooms or tel: 01295 814300.
• You can order colour swatches, calculate how much paint you need and get decorating advice on the Dulux website (www.dulux.co.uk) as well as decorate a virtual room to find a style and colour scheme you like.
• On the Crown website (www.crownpaints.co.uk) you can upload a photo of your room and try out different colour combinations. Find advice on planning, preparation and application on this website, but if you are really stuck you can also get answers to your paint decorating questions on their helpline tel: 0870 2401127.

Further information

Practical advice
BBC – www.bbc.co.uk/homes/diy
B&Q – www.diy.com
Focus – www.focusdiy.co.uk
DIY Doctor – www.diydoctor.org.uk
Homebase – www.homebase.co.uk

Courses
Trade Skills 4U, Crawley – tel: 01293 529777, www.tradeskills4u.co.uk
Women Builders, Milton Keynes – tel: 01908 374455, www.womenbuilders.co.uk

The Web page www.ivillage.co.uk/ homegarden/diy offers a range of DIY information, including courses available across the UK.

Tool parties and women-friendly tools from Tomboy Tools – tel: 029 2081 4196, www.tomboytools.co.uk

Do it at Denman
Denman College is offering a new DIY course, Learn to Fix It. Run by Peter Foss, a former teacher of engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, the course teaches how to fix simple problems
in the home, giving students the confidence to tackle home maintenance tasks, enabling them to save money in basic repairs and gain an understanding of when to call in tradesmen.

Examples of projects covered in the course: mending dripping taps; unblocking sinks and basins; changing electrical fittings, plugs, fluorescent tubes and starters; understanding fuses and contact breakers; and drilling and plugging walls to put up shelves.

Sessions will include: how the item works; how to take it to pieces; choosing and using tools; health and safety issues; possible problems encountered; risk assessment; availability of replacement parts; practical work on typical items.

The Pink Toolbox     

• hammer that packs a punch without weighing so much you can barely lift it;
• four screwdrivers, with magnetic tips, in one easy to swap handle;
• pliers;
• a set of Allen keys plus adjustable wrench;
• scissors;
• disposable craft knife;
• spirit level with magnetic base;
• 5m coiled tape measure; general purpose oil for the likes of sticky locks and squeaky door hinges;
• plus a ‘bits and bobs’ collection including extra fuses.

And there’s plenty of room in the box for you to add your own favourite tools. Price £29.99 – 10 per cent of all online and telephone sales goes to Breast Cancer care.
The Pink Toolbox Company, tel: 01983 248678 or visit www.pinktoolbox.co.uk