Orlando Khota's DIY advice for summer

Summer is one of the best times to crack on with DIY jobs outside. Orlando Khota - QVC's resident DIY expert - talks about decorating doors and windows, environmentally friendly DIY, and his ideal home.

Transform and protect your sills and windows

Before decorating your windows and working on rotten sills, wait until we've had a few weeks of sunny weather and then the moisture will have dried out of the woodwork. It's then easier to fill in with wood filler and sand the sills down.

Finish the job off by priming the sills and shutters with an outdoor oil-based coat, ensuring you reach around all the corners and louvers. This will prevent your windows from going rotten.

Tips for painting your front door

A quality, well-decorated front door can make a great impression on new visitors to your home. Painting your door is another job that's best for summer.

'A quality, well-decorated front door can make a great impression on new visitors to your home'

Ideally, take the door off its hinges and lay it flat on the floor. I'd recommend using an oil-based outdoor paint, which takes from between 16 to 24 hours to dry. Due to the drying time, you might want to do this job in several stages.

Firstly, apply two coats of paint to your door. After they've dried, give the door a really light sand-down of only two or three rubs. By gently sanding the door you'll prevent a process called de-nibbing from occurring, which is when tiny air bubbles form in the paint and then pop and leave tiny marks.

Finally, for the third coat, mix your paint with white spirit in a 50/50 blend. This waters down the paint and ensures you get a smooth professional-looking finish.

The next important step is to varnish the door. For the first coat, mix the varnish with white spirit in a 50/50 blend. This makes the varnish thinner and it will soak into the wood grain more effectively. For the second coat, mix 3/4 varnish to 1/4 white spirit. Apply a full coat of varnish for the third layer.

Now your front door will be ready for anything the elements can throw at it!

Other summer projects

With the warm weather, it's also a great time to put down decking or patios in your garden. I'd recommend checking the five day weather forecast and start working as soon as we get a nice spell. You won't worry about your cement getting moist and hard, the ground won't be boggy, and you'll have a chance to enjoy the weather!

'With less rain, now is also the time to do any work on the roof'

Now is also the time to do any work on the roof, such as replacing cracked tiles, broken slates or blocked gutters. Nobody wants to be up on a roof in winter when it's wet, windy and slippery!

Environmentally friendly DIY

Most DIY stores now sell solar energy panels and wind turbines. These are great ways to help the environment and save you money. For example, a wind turbine on top of a typical Victorian semi-detached home would cut the electricity bill by up to a quarter.

I enjoy gardening in my spare time, and I've recently put bought a water butt for my garden. Water butts and troughs are a great way of collecting more than enough 'grey water' to keep your garden green, wash your car and clean your garden and DIY tools!

'With grey water you can keep your garden green, wash your car and clean your garden and DIY tools!'

My ideal home

I'd love to build my own environmentally-friendly home one day! There would be two wind turbines and solar panels all over the roof. Inside, I'd like to have geothermic heating under the floors, which is far more efficient than standard radiators as it keeps the whole room at constant temperature.

There would be lots of other eco-friendly features, and of course, I'd have to make sure the house looked great!