Welcome to the Blogs

I know that we’ve been harping on about this for months now, but it really does seem that people are looking to improve rather than move from their homes.

With house prices predicted to fall by up to 35 per cent in the next two years, home improvement is once again high on the list of priorities for the homeowner, as they attempt to sit tight and wait it out.

So what advice is out there for those looking to invest in a spot of renovation on their property?

As we head into summer, homeowners will be putting pocketing their wallets and pulling out their toolboxes - as a new survey from ProblemSolved.co.uk reveals 3 in 4 people would rather attempt DIY for home improvement projects than hire a professional.

And whilst the statistic may be a reflection on a general slowdown in spending, new research also suggests that many homeowners attempting maintenance work themselves aren’t covered against subsequent problems arising from bungled attempts..

Just a reminder, as reported earlier this week, the Homebuilding and Renovating show will kick off today at the NEC in Birmingham.

If home improvement is high on the agenda this summer, you could come away with new inspiration thanks to the diverse range of exhibitors and contributors at the show.

Click here to register for your free ticket t

Installation issues

Are your existing electrical and plumbing services adequate for your new kitchen?

As the kitchen houses a number of appliances, it is imperative that your electrical supply is sufficient to withstand the demands placed on it. The same is true of water, waste and gas supplies and it is strongly advised to undertake a pre-installation check of all services.

The Six Nations results make for heavy reading for the English so it's conversions off the rugby field that are getting tongues wagging as more and more "movers" start to sing to the "improvers'" tune.

Industry coalition calls for a cut in VAT A broad coalition of organisations including the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Empty Homes Agency, the Bathroom Manufacturers Association and the National Home Improvement Council (NHIC), has been formed calling on the Government to cut VAT from 17.5 per cent to five per cent for all building repair and maintenance work.

The ‘Cut the VAT’ Coalition is calling for a reduction in  VAT to help the Government achieve its target of cutting carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050;

In terms of quality and elegance, you just can’t beat hardwood shutters. The UK’s premier shutter company, Shutterly Fabulous offers an excellent selection of shutters, along with an unrivalled design and installation service.

At Shutterly Fabulous, each part of the shutter panel and frame is coated in a UV protective paint to resist fading, whilst the wood used for manufacture is kiln dried to ensure no warping occurs. And, you can take heart that all shutters are made from premium grade solid hardwoods such as Yellow Poplar or Elm.

What you need...
Fine-tooth hacksaw, craft knife or file, pencil, ruler, power drill with masonry drill bits, screwdriver, curtain track and fixings, wall plugs.

What you do…

With its chunky angles and pure white finish, the new Metropolitan range from RAK Ceramics exudes designer appeal. But the prices remain reasonable with a basin and full pedestal priced at just £98.64. As well as two basin styles, an acrylic bath and a WC, the Metropolitan range includes taps, mirrors, bath shower screens and a spacious stainless steel bathroom cabinet. And RAK Ceramics is offering the chance to win £1,000 to spend across this range.

Quality wood shutters not only enhance the overall appearance and design-look of your home, but can also add to value to your property. A specialist in this area, Shaftesbury Blinds & Shutters  have options to suit most looks and budgets – and is currently holding a January sale offering up to 50 per cent off selected shutter ranges.

Vancouver Shutters are reduced from £440 to £220 per square metre, Phoenix Shutters are reduced to just £188 per square metre, and the Phoenix Blinds down from £105 to £89.25 per square metre (excludes fitting).

A house that I am due to inherit has a loft extension without planning permission. It was completed in about 1976. Should we put it back to just an attic or will it be alright to sell and get the future owners to extend it properly?

A can of WD40 is always handy to have around the house, and can be used for a lot more than just a squeaky door hinge or a rusty bike chain.

It’s useful for keeping garden furniture mechanisms free from rust and stiffness over the rainy winter. Spray on your mower blades to stop wet grass sticking and clogging up your mower.
 

What you'll need...

Craft knife, sandpaper, plasterboard, a drill, string, a nail, dry wall adhesive, interior filler.

What you do...

1. Firstly neatly trim the hole in the plasterboard into a square and tidy up the edges and surrounding rough patches with some sandpaper.
2. Using an off cut piece of plasterboard, cut a patch which is the same width as the widest part of the hole though 2 inches longer than the height of the hole.

Now that the weather has taken a rather chilly turn, central heating has got to be on the minds of most property owners. If at the moment you are thinking of adding some underfloor heating to your existing system, look to Hot-Floors.com and their new thermal primer, I-Primer, for an added little boost.

Helping to speed up the heat up time of underfloor heating whilst also reducing its running costs, I-Primer creates a thermal barrier between the cold floor below and the heating system above. This barrier directs the heat upwards instead of down, reducing heat loss by up to 25%.

With Christmas just around the corner and the New Year knocking at our door, we just can’t afford to have disruptions around the house. But what about that decorating job that you desperately need to complete?

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week

• Flow London, unique bathroom design and installation, including online product shop. Based in SW London, covering London. Call 020 7733 7373 or visit Flowlondon.co.uk. Click here to visit Flow London’s profile on ProblemSolved.

Well I’m delighted to have been invited to participate in the Problem Solved Blogs and I hope that you find the contents of the pieces I write over the coming months both useful and informative.

To introduce myself, I am Tim Foley, owner of the website www.kitchensfitted.co.uk and aside from our very popular forum that assists those buying and fitting kitchens and our website articles detailing how to fit a kitchen, we provide and install bespoke quality surfaces nationwide.

Putting good use to any of those remnant bits of carpet lying around the house, Easybind from Stairrods is a handy new way to bind rugs and runners at home with the use of only a simple hot glue gun.

Available in 23 varying colours of rope–style edging, Easybind can be attached to the edge of any length of carpet to create complementary stair runners or rugs for the home. Far cheaper than sending off carpet for professional bounding and over-locking, and far less time to wait for the end product,  Easybind can be attached and completed at home in a matter of minutes.

The countdown to Christmas has begun and the party season is underway. But with all those guests, muddy feet and pets – not to mention accidental food and drink spills, your carpets and upholstery will be lucky to escape unscathed. Which is why Stainbusters – the UK’s premier carpet and upholstery cleaning company – is offering to giveaway a professional clean (worth £250) to each of two lucky readers.

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week:

• Kingsford PMB, high quality, professional building company with comprehensive services. Based in SW London, covering that area. Call 020 8404 9762 or visit Kingsfordpmb.com. Click here to view Kingsford PMB’s profile on ProblemSolved.

Competitively priced carpets are available all year round from Gilt Edge Carpets, so it rarely needs sales. A family company with a wealth of knowledge, it provides free advice and an expert planning, estimating and fitting service. Choose from wool, velvets, Seagrass, Jute – even Bamboo or Paper. It can also offer Vinyl, Lino, Rubber or Laminate flooring at prices starting from as little as £10 per square metre.

With the property market growing ever more unsettled, the more information you can have before taking the leap as a buyer or seller, can never be a bad thing. Fresh out of the box and here to help is Betternest.co.uk, a website which demonstrates a property's potential to be expanded and altered for maximum profit and spatial benefits.

Answering the three main questions on buyers and sellers lips, for a flat rate fee the Betternest Property Potential Report details what space can be added to a property, how much it will cost and the estimated profit made from the alterations.

This week from Northern Tool & Equipment’s Christmas discounts, up for grabs is a Makita 18V Combi Drill for only £119.99, a saving of £50 from its usual retail price. A great gift for DIYers of all levels and experience, the drill also comes with an extra 2 x 2.0 Ah Ni-CAD batteries, a 27 piece quad driver bit set and free delivery direct from the manufacturer in approx. 2 working days. An easily sorted and much appreciated Christmas present, its perfect for any one of your handy men or lady relatives.

A dreaded procedure amongst all budding and experienced property developers, acquiring planning permission can sometimes be the hardest part of a project. Following the government’s newly published Planning Reform Bill, out last Tuesday 27th November, hopefully now some of these pains will be things of the past.

In this recent Planning Reform Bill, it states that there will be new relaxed restrictions of the Planning White Paper. This would subsequently allow more households to build loft conversions and extensions without the need for planning permission.

Tools and Material
Screwdriver, matchsticks, wood adhesive, mallet, wood chisel.

1. Firstly check to see if any of the hinge screws are loose. If so tighten them up.
2. If the screws will not tighten, you will need to plug the existing screw holes for reinsertion of the old screws.
3. With a screwdriver, remove the old screws from the hinge which will not tighten and put to one side.
4. Fold the metal hinge part back on to itself to expose the screw holes on the bare wood behind (either the door or doorframe).

If you've had your finger off the pulse, bamboo is in.  So it's a case of right place, right time for Simply Bamboo. Working closely with its manufacturers, Simply Bamboo ensures a colour consistency, standard of product and some of the lowest prices around. Floorboards start from £15.95 per square metre (excluding VAT), and readers can claim a 10 per cent discount across the entire range.

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week:

• Sorenson Carpentry, family run, well experienced building company offering a wide spectrum of services. Based in Essex, covering Essex and London. Call 07831 525227 or 07794 231045. Click here to visit Sorenson Carpentry's entry on ProblemSolved.

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week:

• Interior Scope, top quality all round trader, offering decorating, carpentry and flooring services. Based in SE London, covering London. Call 07859 308 600 or visit Interiorscope.co.uk.

Planning a bathroom re-vamp for the New Year?

Good quality doors and windows are paramount to the overall look of your home – especially over winter months. But if you don’t want to pay a fortune, it is worth looking up Frames Direct Ltd. From bi-folding doors and sash windows to garage doors and conservatories, Frames Direct Ltd delivers the highest standards. And with security an every growing concern amongst city dwellers, it is reassuring to know that all windows feature insurance approved multi-locking systems for safer security.

It’s not fun to walk around your house, and be able to hear every moment due to a few central positioned squeaky floorboards. Easy to repair as long as you don’t have carpet (sorry), creaking floorboards generally occur when some of the fixing nails worked them selves loose from the joist below causing the board itself to become loose. To ease the squeak and be able to stealthily move around your home when needed, just follow the simple guide below.

Tools and Materials:

• Pincers
• Pencil

Thinking of selling your home this year?

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week

• Peter Montgomery, offering skilled decorating and painting services including specialist paint effects and exterior work, covering W, SW and WC London, call 27958 350 850 or 020 8877 9157. Click here to see Peter Montgomery's webpage on Problemsolved.

Not really a girl for DIY, but give me a couple of these “Nifty” leather-covered Mini Measures from Mr and Mrs House, and I could be persuaded. Available in a choice of six elegant colours, they measure lengths of up to 1.5 metres and are sure to add a little glamour to your tool box. There are currently discounts of up to 20 per cent on selected items at Mr and Mrs House, with the Mini Measures reduced from £14.50 (inc. VAT) to £11.60 until 30 April.

It’s always a treat to find something that is aesthetically pleasing as well as being good for the environment. A material long loved by the Italians, polished plaster is a naturally breathable and eco-friendly material, containing no cements, resins or acrylics; and, because it is lime-based, has a natural resistance to mould and bacteria – making it ideal for bathroom and kitchen walls.  Specialists in this field, The Polished Plaster Company can not only supply and put up polished plaster - it also offers four day intensive polished plaster application courses.

Sick to death of being preached at about green living?

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week:

• David Miller, professional property maintenance company offering comprehensive services. Based in Essex, covers S, E London. Call 07976 643 666 or 01992 610 099. Click here for David Miller's entry on ProblemSolved.

• NR Installations Ltd, specialising in kitchen design and installations and refurbishments. Based in Surrey, covering London.

Here are just some of the tradespeople you have recommended this week:

• Brick Image Ltd, expert tradesmen in a variety of brickwork services. Based in East London, covering all London. Call 0845 257 2270 or visit brickimage.co.uk
• Egis Decorators, top quality, reliable painting and decorating company. Based in N London, covering N, W and NW London. Call 020 8374 8086 or visit egisdecorators.co.uk

I know this is old news to electricians, but to anyone else planning to do odd DIY electrical jobs in the home, you should be aware of the electrical regulations put in place by the Building Regulations for England & Wales Jan 2005.

In the simplest format, the regulations states there are certain basic electrics you can do in your home, and more often than not, ones you can’t. The latter requires a qualified electrician.