Getting stuck in and doing it yourself is good for the budget, but it’s not necessarily so good on the clean up. Meet our new do-it-yourself guru Prue Miller who has solutions to help.

Meet our new do-it-yourself Fixer guru Prue Miller. This week she looks at how to

avoid a messy clean-up. Doing work on your place yourself is a money and timesaver. However pure our initial plans are to be neat and clean, there are times when nothing beats getting your hand in there to smooth a join, wipe a paint drip or squish something into a hole.

Satisfying it may be – but there is a price to be paid. Our hands and clothes, and sometimes floors end up bearing the burden of our enthusiasm. When I’m working on a project I do not heed my own advice to stop mid job, get down off the ladder and clean up my mess, which inevitably doubles the clean-up time, and effort, afterwards.

While it has been really easy to fix the leak in the down pipe with a silicone sealer, it has not been so easy to get the grey goop off my hands. Help! You can use silicone sealants, in varying forms to stop water seeping through all sorts of cracks and gaps. Applied with a gun, they are easy and effective to use – but be warned even though they take up to 24 hours to fully cure, (unless you’re using Selleys Wet Area Speed seal which takes about an hour, yay) they are immediately super sticky. While I would always say ‘wear gloves’ (disposable ones) in this instance they could drive you nuts, see super sticky comment. As an aside, I like to put a generous pre-work coating of Vaseline on my hands before I start something super sticky. Is it recommended by the pros? I don’t know, but it seems to help me. Sealant sludge will stick to anything (clothes, paper towel roll, door knob, dog’s fur – sorry Red). So, here’s a trick that works as a first line of repair; get an old Woolies plastic bag and use that to try and remove the excess. It won’t stick as much as other materials and you can use as many bags as you like. Then acetone, or turpentine can work wonders if you are quick. If it’s settled on your skin it gets harder, try a the pumice stone.

We have finally got to the filling in the gaps between the cornice and the plasterboard wall – as it turns out No More Gaps sticks to the floor boards as well as the ceiling. Who’d have guessed, right? Well, first of all prevention is the cure. There are now great floor protection products from adhesive companies that unroll and stick to the floor – even the carpet – and so quick and easy compared to laying down old sheets. Or, save the money and use, you guessed it, sheets or newspapers. Then there’s the whole ‘time is of the essence’ thing because an interior gap filler will set (as a rule) in about 10 minutes. So, you need to get down the ladder. Have a few pre-dampened rags in your work space, so you don’t have to go rummaging for one. If it’s stubborn, go for a broad blade paint scraper (you’re less likely to scratch the boards with a broad blade), and then follow up with some acetone (you should buy an industrial sized bottle from the hardware store – nail polish remover is too expensive, but good if you’re in a pinch) wiping action. If it’s still there, soak the rag in acetone and lay it over the spot to make it the filler malleable. Yes, you should test patch your floorboards with the acetone first.

I got the smallest cut on my hand while trimming the wallpaper, but it’s looking funky. Now I’m worried something’s in it. Whether it’s a box cutter slip up, or a blister from sawing or a splash of something that hits you in the eye, everything should be cleaned straight away. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline of building or what, but most injuries seem trifling at the time, but show their true colours hours later. Make a first aid kit of your own if you don’t have a pre-packaged one. Have antiseptic spray, some clean gauze swabs, a range of Band-Aid sizes, and maybe a non-adherent bandage too, and finally a crepe pressure bandage… at least. Add in an eye bath if sticking your head under the kitchen tap is a no-go and some ugly tweezers. (If they were nice ones they can go wandering if you know what I mean), and some Micropore tape. But in any event, rinse any wound straight away, use your kit of goodies and then watch your injuries. If it looks red or feels a tad warm it’s worth a trip to a medical professional.

Plus, take the time to care for your hands – after all the stripping away of gunk, feed your poor dried out hands with a warm soak and quality hand cream. Oddly enough the one in the ugliest tube, is my ‘go to’ for a big fix – Du’it Tough Hands Intensive Hand Cream, which now comes in some girlie fragrances too.

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