This week is the ACC homesafety week – a time when all home owners and property dwellers are encouraged to check their homes are safe to be in. To read more about it, go to: http://homesafety.co.nz and then click onto the Fame or Shame Challenge: http://www.fameorshame.co.nz/ for a neat interactive video to test your knowledge.

I always intended to buy a hacksaw but never got around to it. I could count on half of one hand the number of times over the last 20 years I needed one and it wasn't until last weekend that my need became urgent. I literally chained myself out of my house. Easily done, I had omitted to take the chain off the front door and when I tried to get back into the house via the front door, not the locked garage, the keys opened the door but the chain stopped me entering. I got a knife from a neighbour in the hope I could get my hand inside the door (no problem) and use the knife to slip the chain knob along to release it (not a happening thing). I went to another neighbour, asked if they had a hacksaw (yes) and after dismantling half their garage to find it left with the tool in hand and sawed off the chain. My learning from the experience is that every neighbour should have a hacksaw in their tool kit…and being the good neighbour that I am, I'm going to buy one this weekend…it's sure to come in handy.

By all accounts, the proposed changes to the Building Act will enable minor work, such as car ports and verandas, no longer requiring a building consent (The Press, Christchurch, 14/08/2010). Moreover, the Act will state builders and designers are accountable for meeting the Building Code requirements and mandatory written contracts will be required for building work above $20K, that set out the expectations, warranties and remedies of the parties. A process for resolving disputes will be included, one that requires people doing the work to explain what, if any, financial backup or insurance they have to remedy any faults. The Home Owners and Buyers Association are reported as saying the changes are a move in the right direction but more is needed to ensure homeowners get the protection they need. So what else do homeowners need? Will the changes be of value for DIYers but at the cost of the homeowners who buy their property in the future?

At a recent DIY Devotees meeting in Christchurch, one member asked where to go to get independent advice regarding home heating systems. She'd been in contact with various businesses selling heat pumps, wood/pellet burners and the like and found that each business they pushed their own product range. Although none of us could answer her question at the time, the answer arrived two weeks later, via a small advertisement in a local newspaper: in Christchurch, the Home Energy Advice Centre is the place to go – www.energyadvice.org.nz or 0800 388588. There is a charge for their services, they go out to the person's house and do a thorough assessment and determine the best solution for the area. Whether or not a similar organisation exists in other centres, I'm not sure – please do let me know if you know.

The Christchurch-based DIY Devotees are having their monthly meeting at the Metro, corner of Kilmore St and Colombo St, on Wednesday 11th August, between 5.00-6.00pm.

I got a phone call the other day from a DIY Devotee asking who do you go to if you find the recently installed heat pump isn’t delivering what was promised? The only organisation I could think of was New Zealand’s Consumer’s Institute – but is there somewhere else? A quick search of the Institute – www.consumer.org.nz was interesting reading and there’s a number of links to explore under 'Buying goods and services' – but is it the right or only place to go? If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear from you…

I met some key people from EnviroWaste in Christchurch last week (www.envirowaste.co.nz) and learned a great deal about their products and services and about the huge amounts of building-related materials that still end up in the landfill e.g. treated wood and plastics, such as paint/plaster buckets. Building companies aren't the only ones adding these things to the landfill, DIYers are doing the same, in droves. If you want to do your bit to protect the environment for future generations, recycle and dispose of your household building/maintenance rubbish with care.

Just when I thought I would have to remove all the sealant around the bottom of the shower cabinet sides because it had some mould on it, I was told No Need. One of my handy men, a walking encyclopaedia on all DIY matters, looked at the shower cabinet and explained it was ooze from behind the shower wall, where sealant had been placed in installation and it had simply travelled south. The ooze should have been cut away, he said, it shouldn’t have been left there. Ten minutes later, with craft knife in hand, the unsightly sealant was gone - a very simple solution to an issue that had concerned me for ages.

A plumber once told me that at the heart of 99% of most plumbing problems, lies a fifty cent washer. He isn't wrong, by all accounts, as most people with toilet cistern problems have discovered this fact after spending several hundred dollars to fix the fifty cent problem. I don't begrudge the plumber's fees at all, it merely serves as a catalyst to learn how to deal with leaky taps and undo cisterns and come to grips with ball cocks and water levels. For some very quick learning, you can't go past a quick google in the first instance – type in "How to….whatever it is" and you will eventually find your type of tap or toilet cistern and you'll be off……

Cold as it is to go to the garage in winter, it is the ideal time to clean your garden equipment – spade, shovel, fork, hoe, pruners and loppers. All that is required, are layers of clothing (for you, not the equipment), twenty minutes, a wire brush, a dry clean cloth to remove dirt and dust and some light machine oil to coat the cleaned equipment. You'll glow with virtue, once you're done.