Collins Complete DIY Manual: An essential tool for novices, DIY enthusiasts and professionals, covering decorating, electricity, plumbing and more

This is the most comprehensive best book on the market. Bought for young relation buying his first home, easy to follow for a beginner.

Brilliantly written; in describing a method or technique, it tells you exactly what will go wrong if you don't do it as described, which deters against corner-cutting and helps you understand exactly how much work there is to be done (to the extent that I've hired professionals for a couple of things I'd previously planned to DIY, having realised that, at my level of proficiency I'm more likely to incur long-term expense by ballsing the job up/electrocuting myself).The illustrations are also excellent, and sometimes hilarious (eg the nude man demonstrating how to use the bathroom).Most methods are presented as part of specific projects, eg how to sand a wooden floor, whereas I was hoping to go in right at entry level ("how to use a sander"), but so far I've largely found the techniques I've needed within the specific topics.Its cross-referencing system is really useful, and it avoids the problem I have with a lot of YouTube & web tutorials in that they usually seem to be selling the features of a particular brand of powertool, rather than showing generic techniques for its use.Physically well put together too - good strong binding & spine, & quality hardback cover - all important for a heavy reference book that will be in use for the decade or two it takes us to put our rickety old fixer-upper in order.

Useful book. Still got it laying around.

Good for newbies.

Good condition, arrived on time

My backgrond is technical (I'm an engineer) but I have a limited amount of DIY experience. Faced with the prospect of maintaining a house, I wanted to learn more about DIY.I was a little hesitant about buying a DIY book as I thought I'd just find everything I need online. True, there are many good discussion boards on DIY topics. However, I find that a comprehensive manual is an excellent starting point. Unless you know exactly what you're looking for, searching the web is difficult. And if you don't know very much about the subject, it's hard to assess the quality of online advice.So I went ahead and bought the Collins guide. When it arrived, I was surprised at the heft of the book. It's larger and heavier than I expected. Printing quality is very good and it's printed in colour throughout. It's filled with a mixture of drawn illustrations and photographs, and both are of excellent quality.The book is clearly laid out and structured, with plenty of subheadings helpfully printed on page margins. It's very easy to find what you are looking for. The instructions are generally very easy to follow. Compared to, say, a Haynes car service manual, the high quality printing makes it easy to tell exactly what you are looking at.That said, I would probably not use this as my only source of information. An all-in-one guide is great as a good starting point. However, I tend to cross-check any advise against other sources. This is how I like to use the book: find out the basics about a topic; then, as you know the basics and the vocabulary, go online to confirm the advise and find other opinions. Used like this, it's a fantastic starting point for any DIY project, both as a complete guide for novices and as a reference work for experienced DIYers.

should have brought one. Long time ago. lots of information. Great DIY book

Bought this as I have a similar publication from another publisher which I found somewhat dated and lacking in practical advice.This one does provide some good advice including about wiring, but is dated on several waysLike all these publications the pictures are of very old fixtures and fittings eg in the bathroom which just aren't what is fitted todayThe advice on tiling a shower is now against building regs, it suggests using marine ply as a substrate for tiles. This is no longer recommended. Instead one should use as a minimum tanked plasterboard or better yet a proprietary tile backer board.Newer types of pipe fitting or pipe such as Hep2O or tectite which are more suited for the diyer are not covered.New types of connector eg wago for electrical circuits are not covered, again perfect for the DIYer.Pretty drawings of the wiring required for eg a light fitting are provided but no actual diagrams which would be much clearer.The advice on light bulbs is about 30 years out of date and doesn't cover LEDsAdvances in heating technology such as heat pumps aren't coveredUnder tools every DIYers best friend, the oscillating multitool, doesn't get a mention.Smart home innovations could be covered but are notAdvice to replace radiator valves suggests draining the system. Whilst I would always recommend this there are ways of doing it without going through this which it would be helpful to point outThe advice on draining a system relates to gravity fed systems only and not the pressurised systems most people will haveThe advice on planning and building regs is probably accurate but I don't trust it, it's so out of date.The stuff on toilets doesn't cover concealed cisterns which are very common these days, eg maintaining or repairing via access hatch in flush panelDigital showers are not coveredTheres loads of tried and tested advice in here but it would be so much better if a little bit of cash was spent bringing it up to date.I will keep it as it is a handy reference for lots of stuff despite the above. But I suspect I will still be using YouTube videos for most of my DIY.