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

Seems detailed enough to manage projects. Bought as a gift. Everything in it to complete tasks.

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.

Amazing DIY book, the most comprehensive I've found. However it's somewhat lacking as it sorely needs updating, especially for the latest electrical regulations (it doesn't even mention WAGOs or WAGO boxes for example anywhere). Hope they come up with a new edition soon.

It's hard to overstate how useful this book is! This is a hefty book that covers just about everything you'd want to know about how your house works, with a lot of illustrations. In the past I had always used YouTube to guide my DIY repairs. The problem is YouTube (and the internet) is great at providing detailed and lengthy step-by-step instructions but is often bad at explaining the big picture: how everything fits together and the many variations of the systems and designs found in different houses. This book bridges that gap. I'm a beginner and have found this book illuminating and easy to understand, but I think it would also be a useful resource for just about anyone who isn't a complete expert in every single aspect of house maintenance. I realise that this book is over a decade old and slightly dated. I still give it 5-stars because I haven't been able to find another book or resource that competes with it (including the internet).

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.

Not bedtime reading, but an excellent book to have handy. In the age of technology were in its actually quite a nice to open it and look at the layout, pictures etc. Got it for a few quid so it was a no brainer.

I bought my first copy of this book/manual over 15 years ago and decided to update it to the newest version and was not disappointed. This manual covers everything that the p/t or serious DIY person needs to know. I have found it especially useful in areas such as wallpapering, electrics, damp/condensation and plumbing. It has saved me thousands of pounds over the years. The book itself has not changed much - in fact it uses some of the original pictures still but the layout is updated as are some of the building regulations and it includes more energy efficient sections and information about energy-efficiency labelling as well as a section on solar heating! It has many useful tips and even a section on tools and what they are for and how to use them correctly. The section on electricity, for example, explains how to measure electricity (Amps x Volts = Watts) which is useful when doing re-wiring or adding to a circuit so that you do not overload it! It even tells you about the "zones" in a bathroom where only certain electrical appliances and cables can be installed - a great way to be prepared for any builders doing any work and making sure that they are being compliant. I cannot over-emphasise how good this book is and would highly recommend it.

The text is written in very tiny little letters. It's utterly unpractical. If not the book is dick and big. I'm finally disappointed. I'll need to buy a reading magnifying glass in order to read it with comfort.

Shows thr basics good for handyman.

Awesome book. This is the one I have been wanting to buy for a long time. Fast delivery. :)

Es ist so ziemlich alles erklärt in diesem Buch was es rund um das Haus zu wissen gibt was Reparaturen, Umbauten oder Neuanschaffung belangt.

Does a fairly thorough job of explaining different projects around the house. Seems to be written I UK style English, and houses seem to have a little different setup in that part of the world.