Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Halifax launch home improvement advice website

The UK's biggest mortgage lender has launched a new website offering householders free advice on home improvement.

The site from Halifax has been developed in response to figures showing rogue tradespeople wasted £1.5 billion of the nation's cash and generated 111,000 complaints in 2005.

"When you are looking for tradesmen to help with maintenance, repair and building work around the home it is essential that you invest time and effort into choosing the right tradesman for your home improvements. This will be fundamental to the success of your DIY project," said Mark Heaton, head of mortgages at Halifax.

Sounds like Mark took a leaf out of www.deepslist.com

=)

The site! Tell me what you think.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

£1,400 cost of poor colour schemes

Making a poor choice over what colour you paint the interior of your home will devalue your property by an average of £1,392, new research reveals.

The survey from Privilege Insurance finds a third of estate agents say an "unfavourable" interior colour scheme would knock a minimum of £1,000 off the sale price of a home.

One in ten agents goes even further, saying a bad colour scheme would see a property lose £3,000.

At least you can paint over it...

More here

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Choosing a good plumber

According to DirectGov, the first thing to do when looking for a plumber is ;

Ask friends/relatives/neighbours who they use.

Easier said than done if you don't have any friends. OK well everyone knows at least someone but not all of us have the luxury of friends that use trades people regularly enough to be able to recommend the trusted professionals over the fly by night cowboys.

This was one of the main reasons we started the list. If you don't know anyone that knows someone go see if there is anyone else that does at www.deepslist.com.

Simple really...

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Footballer stealing from B&Q

£30,000 a week Portsmouth player Glen Johnson, was caught on CCTV allegedly trying to smuggle the objects out of B&Q.

Johnson, and fellow footballer Ben May, 22, were seen apparently putting the toilet seat in a box marked with a cheaper price, and hiding the taps under other objects before going to the checkout.

There are a lot of things you end up walking out with when you go to your local B&Q for a strip of sand paper but you dont not pay for them!

More here.

Stelios officially launches easyVan.com

Easyjet founder Stelios, is continuing to in his quest to bring better value to consumers with the latest easyGroup launch of easyVan.com.

The new easyVan.com business offers consumers low cost van hire with a range of five different sizes of vehicles to suit the requirements of most private customers.

UHaul is Americas main DIY van hire service and they're absolutely everywhere. I think its high time homeowners and the like turn to one cheap and trusted brand like 'Easy'. I like it.
More on this here

Saturday, February 10, 2007

How to a replace a radiator

There are a number of occasions when removing the radiator would make life very easy indeed. Decorating, replacing the floor or skirting boards, flushing the central heating out.

DIY Fix it has great article with helpful pictures. Reading this helped me when removing old wall paper some months ago.

Full article here

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Time to get even with British Gas

Consumers are turning the tables on the utility firm and are forcing it to court to get redress for its appalling levels of service.

About 1,000 people a week are complaining about the firm to Energywatch, the watchdog.

Some have spent months, even years, trying to resolve incorrect bills and reclaim overpayments.

Basil Herbert, 53, an airline duty manager from Sudbury, Suffolk, has decided to take matters into his own hands and is taking the firm to court after it failed to provide the boiler inspection service it promised.

Consumers are becoming increasingly confident about challenging the big banks and utility firms in the courts. It is certainly a reversal of roles for British Gas, which is more used to threatening consumers with court action for their refusal to pay incorrect bills.

The full story here.

Its great to hear of normal people like you and me standing up for our rights. Its a shame that we have to in such unfortunate circumstances. The more often we do this the more notice those bigwigs will take and do everything they can to give us a better level of service.

At the end of the day they need us more than we do don't they.

Make your own Febreeze

I never thought of doing something like this already. OK sure, I've tried my hand at making Kentucky Fried Chicken with that secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, who hasn't, but Febreeze!?

4 Homemade Febreeze recipes

Basically the ingredients to make homemade Febreeze is a mix of water and fabric softener.

Directions: Unless otherwise noted, place ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well to mix. Test a small unnoticeable area first before using to make sure no discoloration or damage occurs. Use as needed, shaking well each time before use.

Recipe #1
1 cup fabric softener1 cup white vinegar2 cups water
Recipe #2
2 cups water1 cup fabric softener
Recipe #3
3 cups water3 TBS fabric softener3 TBS rubbing alcohol
Recipe #4
2 cups water (warm)1/4 cup fabric softener1 TBS baking soda

Do you feel like you're watching Blue Peter?

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Out with the old and in with the new




From The New Statesman;

"In the UK we throw away more consumer products, and faster, than anywhere else in Europe. The result is a shocking - and unsustainable - mountain of discarded hardware.
Just as Britain tops the European league for marriage breakdowns, so it also now tops the league for falling in love with consumer products and then throwing them away when newer models come out."

My dad came to mind as I read this. He's been through so many tools in my lifetime.

As a new home owner I've found myself back at my parents trawling through their garage (mass storage bin) looking for bits and bobs for painting and decorating, plumbing and so on that I'd remember seeing him with when I was younger.

Where on earth are they now?

I bet you all have examples of this type of waste. I don't think the main reason we splash out on something new is just because its new. Its either because we run out of room or we just cant bear to see the tools we so badly ruined parts of our homes with in such amateur style!

Your comments please.

Monday, February 05, 2007

DIY now stands for Don't Involve Yourself.

From the Daily Mail online;

An interesting episode about a man who decides to nail down his bathroom floorboards;

Trouble was, he lost his balance and fell over. He told me: "I heard the gun go off. I felt a pain in my chest, so I went to take off my jumper, but I couldn't because it was nailed to my chest."

For those of you attempting to lay laminate flooring don't bother with optional extras;

"What are the hairy bits around the edge?" It turned out he'd laid the flooring on top of his old carpet, to save money on underlay.

For those of you that just cant be asked, go to http://www.deepslist.com/ and find a decorator you can trust. We do list reviews. Every little helps!












Full story here
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=433215&in_page_id=1879

More rubbish Plumbers







Flowline Services Limited, which now trades as Rapid-Flow Maintenance Services Ltd in Wiltshire, was convicted by Croydon magistrates last week after denying breaking the
Trades Description Act.

They were fined £2,000 which for me is a damn fine result. I think the turning point for them came when they failed to disclose that they were crap. Remember the name and remember the message;

RAPID-FLOW MAINTENANCE SERVICES LTD in Wiltshire are RUBBISH!

Anyone needing to review them just go to http://www.deepslist.com/ and post a review.

Full article at
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/search/display.var.145002.0.plumbers_fined_2_000.php