English video tutorials - do it yourself (D.I.Y.)

English video tutorials - do it yourself (D.I.Y.)

Text
Tara's been very busy, and there are some jobs around the house that she hasn't done. Look at this cupboard door. It's broken. And these floorboards need to be changed as well. Now Tara could ask a workman to come and do these jobs, but they are quite simple. so Tara is going to do some D.I.Y. What's that? D.I.Y. is when you do not ask a workman to do things around the house, but instead you Do It Yourself.You need to be careful when you do DIY because tools are not toys and you can hurt yourself.

If you are going to do DIY, you need the right tools. So let's look at the cupboard door. The hinges are broken. A hinge is the part that a door turns on when it opens. So Tara needs to put in a new hinge. First she drills some holes. The machine that makes the holes is also called a drill.

Then she takes some screws - these are screws - and something to drive the screws into the wood. What you you call something that drives in screws? That's right. A screwdriver. It's an easy job, and look, Tara has almost finished. She unscrewed the old hinge and has screwed a new one in. Yes it looks really good now.

Now the floorboards. Tara needs to take away the old floorboards, and put in these new ones.There are shops where you can buy tools and things like floorboards. They are, of course, called DIY shops. Tara measured the size of the floorboards using a tape measure and then went to the DIY shop to get boards of the right size. For this job Tara also purchased a claw hammer. It's called a claw hammer because of this claw at the back. Do you see it?

Now she is using the claw hammer to pry loose the old boards to lift them up from the floor. She is doing this carefully because she does not want to damage the other floorboards. Okay she's done it.

To make the wood smooth on the new boards, Tara sands it down. You use a special kind of paper for this called sandpaper. Here's a sheet of the sandpaper Tara is using.

Now she has put in the new floorboards. And now she is hammering down the nails. These are nails - don't confuse them with these, even though fingernails are sometimes called nails!

All done? Let's make really sure by checking that the floorboards are straight and level. So get the spirit level Tara and let's check. mmm Yes, that looks good.

Well done Tara. Now have a good cup of coffee and watch some TV. Oh, dear, you can't can you? The leg of the sofa is broken. Another DIY job! Good luck.

» English video tutorials - American and British English. Part I: Motor vehicles
» English video tutorials - American and British English. Part II: The home
» English video tutorials - gestures
» English video tutorials - gestures
» English video tutorials - gestures