Property: Big designs on DIY

THE PATIENT was old, the symptoms looked ominous, and the specialist told it like it was: this toilet is a goner.

The plumber said that the entire inner mechanism needed replacing, but Simon Davis wanted a second opinion.

Dr Davis, a zooarchaeologist in the Ancient Monuments Laboratory of English Heritage, was ignorant of plumbing but as a specialist in animal bones he had considerable experience poking around the insides of things. He disassembled his loo's internal organs one by one until he reached a diaphragm with blubbery rubber. The seal had disintegrated.

That precise seal was no longer manufactured, so Dr Davis bought a slightly larger gasket, trimmed it with ordinary scissors, replaced it, and flushed. The operation was a success.

For parts and labour, the plumber's bill would have topped pounds 100. Dr Davis's total outlay was 90 pence. He spent a fair amount of time doing the repair, but felt a great sense of achievement. He also did the job properly. He had paid a professional to tile his bathroom wall, but the many loose and missing tiles were the sign of a costly job badly done.

Several years ago, and mindful of these experiences, Dr Davis browsed through the adult education catalogue Floodlight seeking a DIY course. Attracted both to pottery and woodwork, he chose the latter. "Wood is attractive and more useful for general construction."

He then negotiated a tricky and usually invisible DIY junction. Interested in doing DIY that would provide aesthetic rewards as well as practical benefits, he chose joinery over woodwork. Instead of quick immersion in power tools and materials, he learnt wood the slow, old-fashioned way: "Dovetails and mortise and tenon joins are the ABCs of joinery. The challenge is never to use nails, and use as few screws as possible. A DIYer would use nails and sometimes I have to use glue or screws, but I try not to."

When using power tools, it helps to have the electricity supply turned on. The worst DIYers, awkward with tools and estranged from common sense, leave a costly and dangerous trail of devastation in their wake.

But a mastery of tools is only the beginning of high-quality DIY. A new lighting fixture that works today has not been successfully installed if it fuses the wiring tomorrow or poses a fire hazard. A new loft or room extension, a major rewiring or a flooring or roofing job may end up diminishing rather than increasing the property's value when a buyer (or a chartered surveyor) recognises the shabby reality for what it is.

The architect and erstwhile DIYer Niall McLaughlin says: "DIY is very easy to start, difficult to finish. After many years doing it myself, I got the builders in because I finally wanted it all done. People do DIY to do something creative and get involved, and to take control. But the DIY magazines concentrate on techniques and materials, not results. DIY is usually reduced to standard, banal options. Few creative possibilities are really available."

Mr McLaughlin's observations point to another, insidious kind of DIY failure: tasks that are superficially successful but which, with a modicum of professional advice, easily and inexpensively accessed, could and should have been better.

Architects and builders have a vested interest in encouraging professional consultations, but McLaughlin emphasises that "architects can look at a house, abstract it, and put it back in a different way. I can usually see at least one opportunity in a property that the client didn't see or realise." Architect fees for a brief consultation and a few drawings are affordable, and for the DIYer, the architect's sharper eye can mean the same DIY budget will be better spent.

One client hired McLaughlin for a garden paving job, but after viewing her property and learning her intentions, he made a counterproposal. "I saw that simple garden paving wasn't enough. She needed the entire relationship between her patio and the house improved. We built a simple instead of an elaborate patio, but added a window seat in the bay window. The window's appearance improved, and it also became part of the garden." The change in plans involved no extra money, and the project's success was due largely to the work done to the house's interior, something that the client had not considered at all.

Dr Davis has his own design consultant in the form of his artist girlfriend, Cathy: "My kitchen was a mess. One of the first things I built was a proper plate-rack based on designs we saw in Cyprus on archaeological digs." It is sturdy, and designed to his specific requirements, more useful than anything commercially available. "I also made a work top for Cathy that would have cost well over pounds 100 in a shop. I used good quality wood, which cost about pounds 10," he says.

From the outset, Dr Davis wanted to blend artistry with DIY, and he now makes furnishings in quantities that exceed his personal needs. He makes flower-holders which, betraying his scientific background, feature an ordinary test tube mounted on a wooden frame.

His wood is invariably attractive and beautifully finished: "Offcuts are fine for these small items. I find a lot of good wood such as cherry, elm, oak, mahogany and rosewood in skips." Dr Davis also designs and builds letter racks, book stands, mirror frames and tables, some of which have been exhibited in galleries such as Jon Old's in Kensington. He is keeping his day job, but his DIY activities make him feel flush with personal achievement.

Niall McLaughlin Architects, 0171-792 0973