Common handy man tasks

If you are living in Australia and you need to get something repaired at home or garden, you will most likely need to get service from the handy man. Handy man will charge approx $50 per hour. But what if you can do such tasks yourself saving you some $$. yes that's the topic for this article.

I am going to explain you how to do simple handyman kind of tasks yourself and save some bucks.

Indoor D.I.Y. tasks

Some of the tasks we are going to discuss are - 

1. Garage - Tiles, Signboard, Benchtop, CCTV, Aircon, Sliding door, Gate, Gas Stove, Freezer and Racks - If you are planning to set up a business in garage, you can get some cheap benchtops and racks from Facebook Marketplace.
2. Digitalboard and or projector
3. Vinyl tiles for flooring - Garage generally do not come with cement tiles. You can use vinyl tiles instead of cement tiles to save some $$. It's easy to install as well. You can get it from bunnings.
4. Gym
5. Signboard / Posters - You can print the stuff at officeworks and then use poster stands. Double Sided Corflute A Frames are very popular.
6. Photos - You can print photos at officeworks for a very cheap price.
7. Painting - Bunnings provide D.I.Y. videos related to painting.  
8. Wall repairing kit box - gyproc plaster - You can get wall repairing kit at bunnings.
9. Wall Hooks - You can use 3M hooks for this.
10. Garage remote replacement - If you have lost garage remote, you can get one from the ebay for very cheap price and then program it to use it with your garage.
11. Stickers and decals - Decals can be used to decorate house walls and car doors as well.
12. Tapes - There are different types of tapes - single sided, double sided, thick, thin - Gorilla and 3M brands are very popular. They are used in fixing leakage, wrapping, sticking stuff etc.
13. Kids safety hooks - To prevent kids from opening the cabinets, you can use these hooks.
14. Child gate - To prevent kid from going out of the room, you can use child gate. You can use extension if width of door or opening is more than the gate width.

Outdoor and Garden D.I.Y. Tasks

1. Carport Shade Sails - Posts and Shade cloth - You can get shade cloths from bunnings. 
2. Polyhouse Shade - Posts, Cloth, Wire Mesh for fencing. You can get shade cloth for vegetable garden from ebay. 
3. Garden beds - You can watch hoop video and garden bed video on how to make garden beds and hoops easily. You can use flexi tubes to make the hoops. I tried to use polypipe to make hoop but it did not work as expected so I used 1/2 inch pvc pipe and to anchor it I used galvanised metal conduit/pipe. This metal hoop video is also very useful.
4. Wire mesh net - You can protect plants from the animals and birds by netting 
5. Compost - Do not throw kitchen garbage in dust bin! Make compost from it.
6. Organic pesticides (dipel and neem oil) to control Grasshoppers, Aphids(greenfly/blackfly), Gnats, Slugs and Snails, Caterpillars, Flea beetle, Codling moth, Cutworms. When using pesticides, ensure that it is not killing good bugs!
7. Weather - find out what plants can be grown in specific weather.
8. Sprinkler and Drip irrigation
9. Decking tiles
10. Drilling
11. Fencing
12. Turf
13. Retaining walls
14. Clothes airer or Clothes drying rack
15. BBQ - BBQ installation is very easy. Just place it in the backyard and use electricity or gas.
16. Landscaping design - You can do landscaping yourself.

CAR D.I.Y. Tasks

1. Phone holder
2. Air refreshner
3. Door print
4. Child seat installation
5. Dashcam
6. Toll tag installation
7. Car sun shade - Foldable
8. Tyre replacement
9. Trailer hitch
10. Car battery charging
11. Removal of car scratches

Licensed Tradie Tasks

For some tasks, you will need to hire licensed tradie to do the job. For example - 

1. Installing gas cooktop and gas bottles - This task will need licensed plumber. Do not try to do this yourself
2. Garage sliding windows and door
3. Garage Aircon installation
4. Security camera - CCTV
5. Security Gate

What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com

Vegetable garden care in Australia

This article is written based on vegetable garden in Brisbane, Australia.

Garden Enemies

Here is the list of Garden enemies

1. Pests and Insects
2. Bad Weather
3. Animals
4. Diseases

Solutions

Pests and Insects

Common pests found in Australia are - Caterpillar - Spodoptera or yellow-striped armyworm, Caterpillar - Tobacco cutworm or Spodoptera litura, Grasshoppers. Butterflies and Moths lay eggs and when eggs are hatched, caterpillars are formed. Caterpillars eat the leaves and fruits of the plants. So to prevent this damage, block butterflies from laying eggs on plants by netting the plant. If netting is not possible, you can use polyhouse. If netting and polyhouse is not possible, then you will need to use pesticides to kill these pests. I would recommend using organic pesticides e.g. Dipel or Eco-Oil.

Bad weather

Bad weather can be very destructive. Especially in Australia, summer is very hot. Plants like brinjal, Tomatoes would not tolerate such heat. So polyhouse or shade is recommended. Main purpose of polyhouse or shade is that UV sunrays are blocked and plants are protected from direct sunlight.

Animals

You will need to protect your plants from animals. In Australia Possum can eat the leaves of plants. Apart from possum, there can be lots of other animals and reptiles like Lizards, Mice which can cause damage to crops. You can use netting or polyhouse to protect your plants from animals or reptiles.

Diseases

Most of diseases occur due to insufficient fertilizers or sunlight. So make sure that plants are getting enough nutrients.

What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com