DIY
The Irish DIY market has expanded rapidly in recent years as have television programmes such as 'Beyond the Hall Door' which are directed at increasing numbers of home improvement enthusiasts. More and more people want to individualise their homes, taking the basic structure and working on it to ensure that it suits their needs and reflects their character.
One of the most basic DIY tasks must surely be putting up curtain rails, cupboards and shelves. Its as easy as pie - drill some holes in the wall - apply shelves and hey presto! Or so you would think - but it isn't necessarily so!
Of course there's no problem if the wall is solidly built of plastered masonry, but the situation is less satisfactory where timber studwork and plasterboard are concerned. Firstly, you will have to locate the timbers behind the plasterboard if the item being fixed to the wall is going to carry any weight.
Locating supports may not be critical if just basic shelving is being installed. However, when you come to install a new kitchen, or to put up brackets to support a TV or curtain rail, a couple of centimetres in one direction or the other may well be critical to your plans and the nearest supporting timber can be as much as half a metre away from where you want to fix the screw.
Installing electrical equipment (most often lighting) can become a headache if you have plasterboard partitioning.
In particular, it can be difficult (and sometimes impossible) to fish cable past timber bracing between studs. If the walls are made of concrete blocks however, it is relatively straightforward to chase wires into the block work - a little filler and the problem is solved.
