Haysom Lighting's new-look website

The company offers both interior and exterior lights, with separate sections on the site for ceiling, wall, bathroom, and outdoor lighting, table and floor lamps, and even lampshades. The new site tops this off with some clever imagery on the front page showcasing some of its products.

It combines with a new voucher code that will run for the whole of September, offering 12 per cent off prices across the store. Just use the code HAYSEP12.

Visit the site here.

Aldi 950w Belt Sander

First up is a 950w belt sander at £19.99, featuring a dust collection system, ergonomic handles for comfortable use, flat-sided design for ‘up the wall’ sanding and five sanding belts.

Next is a wide variety of assorted wood drills, at £2.99 each, including ones designed for making precision bore angles, pocket and half holes, irregular and countersink holes and wood plugs in wood and veneers.

Finally, if you’re looking to add a personal touch to your wood, Aldi is offering a 1200w router for £19.99 and a specially-designed table for it at £24.99.

The router is ideal for easily making elaborate cuts, shaped grooves and hollows, while the sturdy table is topped with die cast aluminium and holds it steady during the most intricate work.

These offers will run from September 12th until stock runs out.

A rainy August Bank Holiday is the perfect time to tackle those jobs you've been meaning to get around to...

So many retailers have been in touch over the last few days that we’ve decided to do a round-up of all the ways you can save money this weekend. Listed below are all the special bank holiday deals, discount codes and free delivery offers that we’ve come across.

You’ll need to check the dates for each offer, of course. But most of them are valid on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, leaving you plenty of time to plan your project and source everything you need to turn your home improvement dreams into reality.

Here’s the list:

Wickes

In its “Smart Value” sale, Wickes is offering savings of up to a third on a wide variety of items. These include wall and floor tiles, and wood and laminate flooring. Folding patio doors have 15 per cent off and some interior doors 40 per cent off if you buy at least five. There are also deals on some types of paint and some power tools. Find out more on the Wickes site here.

B&Q

We already covered the August savings that B&Q launched to run from August 20-30 (see here), but now it’s added an extra ‘four-day DIY event’ with deals that run from Friday to Monday. Reductions include buy one, get one free offers on all Crown 2.5l coloured emulsion and Unibond No More Nails, a half price TRY1350 pressure washer and a Ryobi drilling twin pack reduced from its original price of £139.98 to just £49.98.

Screwfix

There’s a general sale on at Screwfix at the moment, running until September 5th and covering a wide variety of products (see our separate story here) and it’s also running a price watch on Makita power tools. For the weekend, it’s promising Bank Holiday delivery on orders before 6pm on Friday. Its ‘indoor deals’ include underfloor heating kits, switches and sockets, hobs and showers. Outdoor deals include lighting, wood treatments and landscape fabric. Everything is linked off the site front page here, though you have to scroll down a way to find some of it.

Focus DIY

Along with a fair number of discounts and offers on its site (including some web exclusives), Focus is offering free delivery until September 5th on orders of over £50 – just quote the code FREEDEL at the checkout. Visit its website here.

Builder Superstore

You’ll have to go outside to work with this one, but a combination of a summer sale and clearance offers mean some hefty reductions on paving. For example, limestone sunny 200x406mm exterior paving slabs were £274.88 a pallet before VAT and are now £121.20. Find out more on the site here.

Northern Tool + Equipment

The actual sale seems to end tomorrow (Friday) but this retailer is offering free Bank Holiday delivery. See more on the site here.

Ace Lamps

You can use a discount code at the checkout of this specialist lighting retailer to get 10 per cent off between Saturday and Monday – just enter bank10 to get the saving. Visit its website here.

Haysom Lighting

This retailer’s August voucher code still has a few days left to run – to get 12 per cent discounts enter HAYAUG12 at the website, which you can find here.

The uPVC Door Company

A voucher code will get you £12.50 off the price of this company’s already-discounted doors if you spend £250 before the end of September – use the code KCDZEHED. Visit the website here.

Check out its website here >>

The retailer is offering its customers a discount of £12.50 off their purchase when they use the voucher code KCDZEHED at the checkout.

To take advantage of this offer, spend £250 before September 30.

Check out its website here >>

So, if you’re looking to source lighting for your latest DIY project, Ace Lamps is definitely worth checking out as you can enjoy discounts of 10 per cent – for three days only.

The offer is available from Saturday August 28 to Monday August 30 inclusive and you can take advantage of it by entering the code bank10 at the checkout.

From choosing the right drill bit and placing the screws to assembling the bits with minimal effort and fixing them together in a way that should – we hope – stick, it’s all here.

And not much more effort than assembling a kit from AN Other Furniture Warehouse and, of course, far more satisfying.

Watch Julia’s carpentry project here >>

This should be the first in an ongoing series – hopefully to be collected here.

Instead many under-35s said, when surveyed by Halifax Home Insurance, that they relied on their parents to help them with basic DIY tasks.

The company found that around half the people in that age group admitted they could not rewire a plug, put up shelves or bleed a radiator. Only a third would attempt to put up wallpaper while 36 per said they would not even attempt to do gardening themselves.

Potentially bad news for DIY retailers was, however, good news for tradespeople with 42 per cent prepared to pay a professional to do the work. Which is possibly also good news for the insurance company behind the survey…

Also, we’re all in favour of celebrating the 50 per cent of people in this age group who do tackle jobs themselves, often with a can-do ethos that’s partially inspired by a desire to live more sustainably.

So, if you’re among them, you should definitely allow yourself a quiet smile of satisfaction today.

The retailer is discounting all its DIY categories and offering extra discounts on existing offers for the next 10 days.

Visit the B&Q website and check out the offers here >>

So, if you have a home improvement project planned – and, let’s face it, with the weather the way it’s been recently, that might be the most entertaining way to spend the rest of the summer – you might find some very worthwhile discounts on offer from this retailer.

Here’s what’s on offer from today until Sunday August 30:

Kitchens and bathrooms

• 15 per cent off all tiles
• 15 per cent off all shower controls
• 15 per cent off all take-away shower enclosures
• An extra 15 per cent off all IT Kitchen Doors & Cabinets

Interiors

• 20 per cent off all towel and designer radiators
• 15 per cent off all flooring and accessories
• 20 per cent off all Colours and Colours Collection wallpaper
• An extra 15 per cent off all furniture
• 20 per cent off all doors and windows
• 20 per cent off all fires

Outdoor

• 20 per cent off all ladders
• 20 per cent off all fence panels
• £5 off all Cuprinol and Ronseal sprayable shed and fence treatment
• 30 per cent off all Ronseal shed and fence treatments

Check it out for yourself here >>

Monday 6pm update: problems with this offer that B&Q reported over the weekend now appear to have been fixed.

Running until September 1st, it means you can spend the August Bank Holiday hard at work, safe in the knowledge that your bank manager won’t have palpitations on their return to their desk.

Savings of up to 33 per cent on wall and floor tiles, and on wood and laminate flooring, will increase your options for the overall look of a room, and you can also get a similar deal on some spotlights.

Doors are covered by 15 per cent reductions on folding patio doors and up to 40 per cent on some interior doors if you buy at least five.

You can also make savings on white or colour emulsion, and there are ‘buy one, get one free’ deals on selected power tools such as sanders.

Find out more about what’s on offer on the sale page here – it also summarises several other deals running at the moment, including reductions on power and hand tools and their accessories.

Check out the Focus DIY website here >>

To take advantage of this offer, enter the code FREEDEL at the checkout. This code expires at midnight on 5th September 2010 and only one voucher code is valid per order.