Getting Your Outside In Order

The Spring has arrived, and with it our thoughts turn to the outside of the house, in the hope that it can be made to glisten and sparkle after the dreary long winter.

To that end, now is the perfect time to check your roof and guttering for signs of wear and tear and take remedial action before problems like blocked or leaky guttering cause damp and water ingress into your home.

Guttering and any channels where one roof section joins another should be cleared of any leaf or moss debris etc to ensure that rain has a clear channel to the guttering. If debris is allowed to build up, then water trying to drain-away will find another course – possibly one that takes it under felt and into the interior of your home.

Similarly, the exit point of downpipes should also be checked (where possible) for blocked grates etc.

Bargeboards and soffits – the traditionally wooden architrave around your home where the roof meets the walls of your home should also be inspected closely for signs of holes or rotting. Water can find its way into your home via the smallest of holes causing damage to your interior decorating and worse.

A simple hole can cause hundreds, if not thousands of pounds worth of damage to your home both on the inside as well as the outside if it goes unnoticed. My own parents recently had to have both of their back bedrooms re-plastered and decorated around the eaves windows after the leaded guttering channel flashing came away allowing roof rainwater to divert under the tiles.

Before you try inspecting yourself, make sure that any ladder / access equipment you use to inspect or carry our remedial work is securely located and tied down. Before using it, check for any faults etc – it may not have been used since last year. Don’t over-reach and don’t attempt in windy weather.

A 2002 survey by ROSPA showed that there were over 47,000 injuries caused by falling whilst carrying out home maintenance and improvements. 103 of these involved Loft Ladders on the interior of a property!

If you do find a problem, it’s probably best to seek professional advice on solutions. Professionals have seen all the problems before and will know just what to do, and if a DIY solution goes wrong it could cost you far more to sort it out than the original job would have cost.

Roofs can be visually inspected from the ground for signs of ridge tiles that have come loose (or even missing) and slipped or missing tiles and slates. Sometimes, it could just be a matter of loose mortar having slipped from a ridge tile.

Chimneys should also be checked – especially on older properties for signs of loose bricks or cappings and the need for re-pointing.

As we’ve read ladders are dangerous places to be atop of so if you’re in any doubt then why not call in the professionals? We can give you instant online quotes for replacement fascia – soffits and guttering, even cladding. It’s easy, fast and free when you use FasciaQuoter.co.uk

And for your roof, we can get you competitive quotes from approved local companies for your re-roofing requirements. Just head over to RoofQuoter.co.uk for your free estimate.

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Powerful Home Improvements

It’s not something most of us ever think about until it’s too late and the lights go out. But people who live in remote areas, and often in not-so-remote areas, are installing standby generators in their home as protection against the dreaded blackout. How green with envy would your neighbours be when there’s a power cut and yours is the only house in the street still lit up?

“It’s actually a home improvement whose time has come,” says Lisa Gillett, Sales Director at Luton’s AJC Power Solutions. “more and more of us rely on modern technology and the internet at home, and with more energy-efficient appliances and low wattage lighting being commonplace, the size and cost of a standby generator has steadily been falling for quite some time.” At a certain point, the cost of providing your own power-cut insurance in the shape of a smart generator to protect freezer contents and allow uninterrupted recording of Coronation Street becomes quite attractive.

Generators are also smaller, quieter, cleaner and more reliable than they’ve ever been with units available now that could almost be mistaken for a being a domestic boiler – a long way from the smoking noisy thud-thud oily diesel generators we often think of.

So how do you go about getting a standby?

There are quite a few companies out there, and most electricians should be able to source and install a standby generator but it’s worthwhile considering beforehand what you might need and how it all works.

Power requirement.

How much power you need for a standby is the biggest single consideration – it determines how much space is going to be required for the generator, the type and amount of fuel it’s going to need, and how much noise, and how many fumes it’s going to make when it’s running.

When the lights go out, it’s not essential to be able to power everything in the house as if you were connected to the mains. We only need to provide enough power to run the things that are essential. What’s essential when it comes to working out your Watts will vary from house to house and only a proper survey by an electrician will provide an accurate figure, but as a rule to thumb if you take your monthly electricity bill and divide it by 10 you’ll end up with a figure which, in kilowatts won’t be a mile off from being a useful guide to allow you to specify what sort of size generator you’re going to need.

A quick survey of the Home Improvement Quotes office gives us an average monthly electricity bill of £45 – which by our rule of thumb would point to a 4.5kW standby generator. This is going to be something with a 10 or 12 horsepower engine. We’ve put together a little chart with some useful guideline statistics that might be useful. These represent typical silenced generators with long-running fuel tanks.

Generator Size	kW	Running Time (hrs)	Tank Size (l)	Dims. (cm L × H × W)	Weight (kg)
2.2kVA	2	11	11	58 × 42 × 50	45
3kVA	2.5	8.5	11	58 × 42 × 50	50
4kVA	3	12	25	83 × 51 × 56	77
6kVA	5.5	10	25	83 × 51 × 56	105
7kVA	6.5	10	25	83 × 51 × 56	110

Silencing.

All generators have to comply with sound limiting legislation and if you live in a rural setting where power cuts are more prevalent, then a standard ‘open’ generator may be suitable for the job. For use in a built-up area though, particularly if you want to run the generator overnight, then you’re going to be wanting to specify a silenced generator. How quiet really does depend on your circumstances and environment.

Installation.

For your generator to provide power to your house ring-main and be properly earthed and, crucially, isolated from the national grid it needs a special installation by an electrician to give you a switch-over system to take your house off the national grid and make it self-sufficient. In many cases this can be as simple as a manual switch affair somewhere after your electricity meter. It’s possible to automate the process of course, and automatic mains failure start-on-demand systems, of the type used by businesses are available but do start adding to the cost and complexity of a backup system.

You’re going to need a suitable place to install a generator of course – and if there’s somewhere suitable near your electricity distribution ‘consumer unit’ then it’d make your electrician a very happy person. This also needs to be a suitable place to store some flammable liquids such as petrol or diesel of course, or even gas as generators will run very happily with a gas conversion. Some sort of enclosure to keep out the rain and elements and preferably the odd rodent would be helpful if you don’t choose a generator in its own enclosure.

It may seem like a lot of work, but then again what home improvement isn’t? A bit of forward planning when doing building work or construction can easily create the perfect space. After all if you have a suitable space for a barbecue then you most probably have space for a generator. Food for thought maybe?

Easy 'Tweet this' function added to posts

Home improvement fans and regular readers will know we're always looking for more ways to make it easier to share your favourite articles with your own friends, colleagues and followers.

So we're very pleased to announce a new feature that's just gone live today.

When you click on any individual blog post, at the bottom of that post, in addition to our normal social media sharing tools like Digg and facebook, you'll now also find a 'Tweet this' Twitter icon and link. (see example below).



Clicking on the 'Tweet this' link will open twitter.com where you can sign in with your user details. You'll then see the url (automatically shortened using the Bit-ly service) followed by I'm reading and the post title.

Another great easy way to share the content you find enjoyable, informative or interesting.

Twitter is the easy way to share information, tips and 'what you're doing' with your friends or colleagues. Getting a Twitter account is free and easy - go to Twitter.com and sign up for a user account now, then start adding friends.

You can 'follow' the Home Improver - our own Twitter persona and get updates whenever we update this blog or publish any news items.

Looking back to March 2008...mortgage guide

What we were blogging this time last year...mortgage guide following the Bank of Englands interest rate drop to 5,25%....

"The FSA’s (Financial Services Authority) report estimates that 1.4 million homeowners will see their mortgage repayments rise by an average of £210 during 2008, as their low fixed-rate mortgages are due to come to an end. This, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, means that as many as 123 homes could be repossessed every day this year.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for home owners. The Bank of England dropped its interest rates again in February – now down to 5.25 per cent – and there is wide speculation that this trend is set to continue..."

Click here to read this mortgage guide article in full.

Replacing double glazing window and door handles, locks and hinges

Image Credit: clariemarie

Everything has a lifespan – and double glazing is no exception. Last year, several larger window installers reported that they had begun replacing more first generation uPVC units than timber or aluminum windows, and that trend looks set to continue into 2009 and beyond.

One of the more common reasons for replacing double glazing units is that the old units have begun to fail – this could be anything from chipped sills to misting up glass, but also something as simple as broken handles, locks and mechanisms can often bring about the end of otherwise perfectly sound window units.

This is partly because there is a truly staggering variety of different locking mechanisms currently in circulation. Aside from individual lock and handle choices at the time of fitting, different extrusion and frame manufacturers use different preferred hardware suppliers, leading to a overwhelming array of options and variations.

So how can you go about finding the one you need for your faulty mechanism?

First of all, you could get expert help by finding free quotes and local double glazing suppliers from WindowQuoter.co.uk. Otherwise, read on for some expert tips and advice.

Identifying the manufacturer.

The key to getting the right replacement lock or mechanism is identifying the manufacturer. You can often find the manufacturer’s name on the ‘lock strip’ (the small strip of metal) covering the lock itself, visible when the door is open.

Widely used manufacturers include: ABT, Avocet, Cego, Coldseal, ERA, Ferco, Fuhr, Fullex, GU, KFV, Lockmaster, Milamaster, Maco, Mila, Millenco, Roto, Saracen, St Helens, Surelock, Union and Winkhaus.

If you can’t find the manufacturer, then you’ll need the measurements between the door handle spindle and the lock barrel (center points) as well as the distance from the outer lock strip to the center of the spindle hole.

It will also be helpful to know whether the handle is a ‘Wind Up’, where the key has to be turned several times to engage the locks, or Lever, where the door handle has to be lifted to engage the locks before turning the key.

Then you need to identify the types of locking point used (some doors may have more than one). From a upturned hook to the following types: Deadbolt (like a 5 lever lock), Roller Cam (small round studs that slide up/down on a moving cam), Mushroom Cam (similar to roller cam but the head fits into a specific grove), Finger Bolt (a finger like protrusion into the surrounding frame), Centre Latch (like a yale lock), Anti Lift Pin & Hook (upturned hook with a solid pin below the hook that stops the hook being lifted off).

There are online services where you can scan or take digital photographs of your lock mechanisms and they’ll help identify the correct replacement (if it’s still manufactured).

Get A Handle on the Situation.

So, we’ve got the lock sorted, but the stock and barrel are causing trouble. Or if not that, then at least the handle. You need to identify which type of handle you’re replacing – The usual choices are:

Lever uPVC Door Handles – a typical door handle found on many doors including french doors.
Lever/Pad uPVC Door Handles – these may include a more bulbous handle.
Espag uPVC Window Handles – typical window handle usually featuring a bush button / key lock set into the handle.
Cockspur uPVC Window Handles – these may also feature locks, the catch is a visible part of handle that locates in adjoining slot/bracket on the frame.
Tilt n Turn uPVC Window Handles – these may have a slightly different cam arrangement.
Patio Door handles – a common double sided handle joined by a single cam. The locking mechanism is usually separate.

Coming Unhinged.

When replacing hinges, care needs to be taken that you not only identify the right mechanism, but also the right one for the right window or door. Once again, there’s a range of different hinges and you’ll have to figure out which of the following is what you’ve got:

Flag Hinge – as used on doors. It’s advised to replace all the hinges as those that still work may have suffered extra stress taking the weight of the broken hinge and may fail themselves sooner rather than later),
Butt Fit door hinges – these look more like a traditional ‘pinned’ hinge – much narrower and slimmer in appearance
Friction stays – these are the most common form of hinges, fitted to most double glazed windows. Variants include fire escape, restricted child safety and combination child safety/fire escape friction mechanisms.
Where a window may already have child or fire escape hinges fitted, it’s critical to replace with like for like. Replacement hinges are usually supplied in pairs and providing they are the same length, track width and stack height as the old one, then they should be fine. Online retailers usually sell replacement screws as well.

Stack height (the total height or thickness of the folded hinge assembly when viewed from the side) is usually either 13/14mm or the 17mm (high stack) variant. Again, most suppliers will sell spacing kits so that a standard stack height can be ‘packed out’ to the higher stack height.

What to do Now

So you’ve identified the manufacturer, the make and model. You’ve got the right locking mechanism for the window or door in question and now all you’ve got to do is climb up a ladder and perform mid air acrobatics. Sounds easy doesn’t it?

With the average life span of double glazing at around 15-20 years, It’s no wonder that many people are now replacing first generation uPVC double glazing. If you can identify the locks, if you can find a supplier and if you can fit them, new locks and hinges may give your old double glazing a few more years life. Often, however, failing locks and mechanisms are an early sign that they should be getting a few quotes for replacing rather than repairing and if you’ve managed to read this far then you can’t really blame them can you?

In any case, if it all sounds too much we're here to help - you can get a free instant quote for any window replacement work you need from WindowQuoter.co.uk.

*Re-printed from an article in our April 14th 2009 (monthly) email newsletter to over 300,000 homeowners in the UK.

For more information on any home improvement, visit home improvement quotes .co.uk

The Patio, The French and The Bi-Fold

We often talk to people who are uncertain which doors they should plump for when they’re getting quotes to sort out the back of their house. Ever keen to provide you with useful information, here’s the Home Improvement Quotes Back Door Shootout.

Firstly, the basics: In a nutshell, French doors open on hinges, Patio doors slide on rails and Bi-Fold doors concertina open. You can have doors made in uPVC, Hardwood or Aluminium. Most double glazing companies will also fit doors, and uPVC are the most common and the cheapest variety.

The Patio

The biggest plus side to patio doors is that they require less space. Because they slide instead of opening outwards, you don’t need to worry about leaving a space free on the patio for them to swing through. There’s also an important safety advantage to patio-style doors, because they won’t be blown shut suddenly by gusty winds which may exist.

Another advantage to patio doors is, of course, the possibility of running into Gwyneth Paltrow as she wonders through parallel dimensions.

The French

Whilst not gust-proof like their sliding counterparts (typically, you would overcome this using a hook to keep the door against the wall), French doors have the significant advantage of opening on both sides, which means you get the . This naturally comes in quite handy when hosting parties or BBQs,

The Bi-Fold

<p>Bi-Fold doors, as the name suggests, open concertina style, with each individual panel being able to fold up against the next as you slide them open. In some ways they provide the best of both worlds – they can’t blow closed, but they still open across the entire doorway. They also look fantastic – and can almost turn your patio into just another room of your house.</p>

So which is best?

Naturally, the best is a matter of preference, and it will depend on your needs, priorities and budget. If space is an issue then patio doors must be the ones to go for; for the thrifty or those on a small budget, French doors are probably the cheaper option. If we had to recommend the most practical, the most stylish and the one with the highest wow-factor, it would have to be the Bi-Fold, every time.

You can get free and instant online quotes for patio or french doors from WindowQuoter.co.uk. For Bi-Fold Doors, head to BifoldDoorQuoter.co.uk.

The Versatile Garage Conversion

If you’ve been reading the Home Improvement Quotes newsletter for a while, you’ll know that we really like Garage Conversions. Converting the garage is probably the most effective investment you can make in your home, since the extra space adds a huge mount of value to your property. What’s more, there are so many different uses for a garage conversion that it’s hard to know where to begin. So we’re beginning at the beginning and giving you our favourite five ideas of what a garage conversion can do for you.

Do you agree with us? This week we’re letting you vote on what you would do with a converted garage – read below for more details.

Gym and Fitness Room

A new room in your house can be an excellent gym or fitness room, helping you avoid the inconvenience and the lack of privacy of a public gym and keep in shape in the comfort of your own home.

An average-sized garage will fit three or four pieces of gym equipment easily, so you can strike a good balance between aerobic training such as a treadmill, exercise bike or cross-trainer, and muscular training such as a weights machine. A rowing machine strikes a good balance between aerobic and muscular, so this may be the ideal equipment if you’re short on space.

Home Cinema

In a previous newsletter we wrote about creating your perfect home cinema. This is a great use for a garage conversion, because the size of the room and its seclusion from the rest of the house make it an excellent room for curling up on a sofa and watching a movie.

A New Office / Study

Tired of your computer sitting on a cramped desk in the living room, open to distractions and noise? Your garage could make an excellent office or study, allowing you to rid yourself of distractions and get on with watching YouTube videos of other peoples cats. Or something.

If you’re working from home, a dedicated room to work in will provide crucial separation from the rest of your life, allowing you to be more productive, more relaxed and get more done. It could be invaluable in physically removing you from your home life and allowing you to concentrate on your work.

Children’s Play Room

Converted garages make great dens. The best dens. The kind of dens that we all wished we had when we were younglings. Turning your garage into a playroom means your kids can always have a space that you don't have to worry about – and who knows, it might stop them being constantly under your feet all day!

Spare Bedroom

Having a spare bedroom for when family or friends visit can be a huge help. If you’re feeling like you’re running out of space in your house whenever you have visitors, or their having to sleep on the sofa or on an air bed on the living room floor, one more bedroom can be a great help. Garages make brilliantly proportioned spare rooms, so you can give your guests the comfort and luxury they deserve.

Even Better: All of the Above

The absolute best thing about converting your garage is that you’re not restricted to just one use – with judicious placement of sofa bed, television, toys, desk and computer your garage could become everything you see here, and more! As a space, there's quite simply nothing so versatile in the world.

You can get a quote for any of these garage conversions from Garage Conversion Quoter. It's easy, fast and free - it couldn't be simpler

What Do YOU Think?

We want to hear what you would do with a converted garage – or even what you have done with your converted garage – so we’re running a poll to find out what you think the best new use.

To vote on the poll is simple – just head over to the Home Improvement Quotes blog, pick your favourite from the options on the right and click Vote! Don’t forget to check back on the Home Improvement Quotes Blog next week to find out the results of the poll.