90 DIY GUIDES · CHECKED OCTOBER 2026 · UK
Do it yourself — properly
Step-by-step guides for the jobs you can do, and an honest word about the ones you shouldn't.
- Every step, start to finish
- Sources listed and dated on every guide
- Honest about when to call a pro
What every guide gives you
Every step, start to finish
The preparation, the technique and the order of work — written out, with the time each step takes and the mistake it hides.
What to buy, and how much
The materials and the decisions behind them, with a calculator for the quantity your own job needs.
Honest about when to stop
Where a job stops being yours — the law, the height or the risk — named, with the guide to hiring somebody for it.
ALL DIY GUIDES
Every service, by category
Open a category to see its guides.
- Cleaning a whole house in a day
- Keeping a home clean week to week
- Rescuing a neglected home in one big clean
- Deep-cleaning a kitchen and bathroom
- Spring-cleaning a home
- Cleaning a rented home at the end of a tenancy
- Cleaning an empty home before you move in
- Cleaning up after building work
- Deep-cleaning a fitted carpet
- Cleaning a rug at home
- Cleaning a fabric sofa
- Cleaning a mattress
- Washing curtains
- Cleaning an oven
- Cleaning your windows
- Clearing single-storey gutters
- Pressure washing a driveway, decking and outdoor surfaces
- Cleaning a patio
- Cleaning solar panels from the ground
- Removing small patches of surface mould
- Doing the small plumbing jobs
- Handling a plumbing emergency until help arrives
- Bleeding radiators and re-pressurising
- Unblocking a sink, bath, toilet or outside drain
- Finding a hidden water leak
- Fixing a dripping tap or a weeping joint
- Stopping a burst pipe and repairing an exposed section
- Replacing a basin waste and bottle trap
- Plumbing in a washing machine or dishwasher
- Replacing a kitchen mixer tap like for like
- Fixing a running or slow-filling toilet
- Replacing a shower head, hose and riser rail
- Regrouting tiles
- Painting a room
- Hanging wallpaper
- Spray painting small items outdoors
- Assembling a bed, table, desk or sofa
- Assembling flat-pack furniture
- Mounting a TV on the wall
- Hanging pictures and mirrors
- Putting up shelves
- Hanging an internal door or fixing one that sticks
- Fixing a window that sticks, drops or will not lock
- Adjusting and fixing a uPVC door
- Fixing a stiff lock or changing a Euro cylinder
- Resealing a bath, shower or sink
- Restoring a piece of wooden furniture
- Fault-finding an oven, hob or cooker hood
- Fixing a washing machine that will not drain, spin or fill
- Fixing a dishwasher that will not clean or drain
- Fixing a fridge freezer that is too warm, iced up or leaking
- Fixing a tumble dryer that takes too long or will not start
- Repairing a garden shed
- Switching to LED and replacing a light fitting like for like
- Fitting solar and low-voltage plug-in garden lighting
- Replacing a socket or light switch like for like
- Fitting a battery carbon monoxide alarm
- Replacing an extractor fan like for like
- Running an Ethernet cable and fitting a data socket
- Fitting a battery or plug-in security camera
- Keeping a garden maintained
- Mowing a lawn
- Feeding and treating a lawn
- Laying turf
- Trimming a hedge
- Removing a garden hedge
- Pruning a small garden tree
- Clearing an overgrown garden
- Planting a border
- Weeding beds, borders and paths
- Looking after a garden pond
- Setting up timed garden watering
- Laying a small patio
- Building a low garden wall
- Building and filling a raised bed
- Putting up a garden shed
- Clearing autumn leaves
How these guides are made
Checked at the source
Every legal, safety or qualification point is taken from the regulator or the statute itself, linked in the guide's sources with the month it was reviewed.
Independent
No provider is named or recommended. The guides describe what to look for; the search shows who is near you, nearest first.
Kept current
Each guide shows the month it was last reviewed. When a rule changes, the guides it affects are updated and the date moves with them.
TIPS, STORIES AND OFFERS — BY CATEGORY
Pick the categories you care about. One email each, never more.
Guides from people who do the work, seasonal checklists, what things cost near you, and Locufy-only discounts — written about the service, not about us. Each category you tick is one email, at most once a week. Unsubscribe from any of them with one tap.
Questions people ask
Restricted electrical work, anything on gas, structural work, roofing and work at height beyond a step-ladder, and anything involving asbestos are for registered or licensed people in the UK. Those services have no DIY guide here; their hiring guides say what to check instead.
Each guide is written from manufacturers' instructions, the safety authority's guidance and the relevant standard, with the sources and the month they were checked listed at the end of the guide.
Easy: hand tools, nothing higher than a step-ladder, and mistakes you can undo. Moderate: power tools or precision work, a day or more, and mistakes that cost money. Hard: wet or structural trades over several days — most of those are part-DIY at most, with a hard stop where a pro takes over.