The Five Best DIY Home Improvement Projects for Beginners

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If you want to get started on doing your own home improvements, repairs, and maintenance, but you’re not sure where to begin, there are a few projects that can help you sharpen your DIY skills. Learning how to use your tools and getting the hang of techniques that you can apply when tackling larger jobs is a good way to cut your teeth on DIY home improvement.

Hang some shelves

If you haven’t ever tried it before, hanging shelves is a good way to get used to using a tape measure, a level, a stud finder, and a drill.

For this project, you’ll use your tape measure to set the height of your shelves and make sure your shelf will fit in the area you want to hang it, your level to make sure it’s parallel to the ground, and your stud finder to find where the appropriate attachment points are. The drill can be used to drill holes for your shelf brackets and drive your screws into the wall. You can probably complete this project in about an hour and it should cost between $150 and $200 for all of the tools and materials you need.

Patch a hole in your drywall

If hanging shelves didn’t go as planned, or you just need to patch a hole from an accident or an old set of brackets, a drywall patch is a good project for a DIY beginner. You'll use a drywall patch kit that comes with sandpaper, a small putty knife, some spackle, a small patch, and some gloves. To perform your repair, you’ll use your patch to cover the affected area, the putty knife to apply the spackle, and the sanding block or sandpaper to even out the surface to prepare it for paint. This repair takes between 30 minutes and an hour of work time and takes a full 24 hours to cure. The materials for this can cost as little as $20, including all the materials you need.

Clean out your dryer duct

Cleaning out your dryer vent is a chore you should do at least once per year, and it’s simple enough for even the most novice DIYer to tackle. You’ll need either a dryer vent cleaning kit or a shop vac with a long nozzle attachment as well as some gloves and a screwdriver to detach the duct from the dryer.

You’ll use your screwdriver to remove the hose clamp that holds your dryer duct onto the back of your dryer and the cleaning kit with your home vacuum or shop vac with a long nozzle to clear any lint buildup from inside the duct. This project takes about 30 minutes and only costs between $35 and $55.

Replace a broken fence board

Fixing a fence board will give you a chance to practice using your drill, a tape measure, your chop saw or hand saw, and some screws along with your fence board. You will use your tape measure to measure the height of your fence board, your chop saw or hand saw to cut it to length, and your drill to drive your new screws into your board to attach it to the fence. This project will cost between $150 and $300 for everything you need, depending mostly on whether you decide to go with a hand saw or a chop saw. If you only have one board to replace, a hand saw is likely sufficient, while cutting several boards will be much simpler with a chop saw. You can likely complete this project in about an hour including measuring and cutting as well as attaching your board.

Regrade the gravel on a walkway

If you have a gravel path, chances are at some point the gravel will be scattered from footfalls or from weather. To regrade your path and keep it from eroding, you’ll need some fresh gravel, a piece of string, a pair of stakes, tape measure and a rake. You’ll use your gravel to patch any bare spots on your path and your rake to spread it evenly along the path, using your stakes, string, and tape measure to ensure that the center of your path is one to two inches above the edges to allow for drainage. This project can take between one hour to an afternoon depending on how long of a path you have. The materials for this can cost between $30 and $100, depending on how much gravel you need.