Home Insulation

- Slash Your Energy Bills, Stay Snug In Winter (And Cool In Summer)

You can add insulation to almost any home. Depending on the structure of your building, the best areas to add insulation are normally the loft, and also the cavity between your home's inner and outer walls. Insulating these saves a lot of energy and based on calculations for a British home, usually covers its cost within 2 years. What’s more, if you properly insulate your home you will prevent several tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere each year.

Insulating your cavity walls and loft will have the biggest impact on your bills. More heat is lost through walls than any other route – approximately 33% in an un-insulated home. 270 mm (10 inches) of loft insulation can save up to 25% of a home’s heating costs.

In most houses in the United Kingdom built after the 1920s, the external walls are made of two layers with a small air gap or 'cavity' between them. If your home has unfilled cavity walls, a considerable slice of your energy bills will be spent heating the air outside. Filling the gap between the two walls of a house with an insulating material massively decreases the amount of heat which escapes through the walls. It will help create a more even temperature in your home, help prevent condensation on the walls and ceilings.

Cavity wall insulation is quick, clean and relatively inexpensive to install. It's injected into the cavity from the outside, taking between two and three hours for a three bedroom semi-detached house. In the United Kingdom it typically costs around £250, and with the savings homeowners then make on their heating bills, it can pay for itself in under 2 years.

Another really important area to consider is that you could be losing up to a third of the heat in your house through your roof and loft insulation can cut this right down. The recommended depth for insulation is at least 270mm. If you currently have insulation that is less thick than this you may consider adding another layer, although the payback time is longer.

There are various materials that you can use to insulate your loft. Most frequently used is mineral wool, although you can now use real wool if you want a natural alternative.

In the United Kingdom most people prefer to use a professional insulation contractor, who should also help you get government grants to reduce the cost. Because of the grants, using a contractor is normally cheaper than doing it themselves and with a professional you know that the job will be properly done.

Other cheap and easy steps which are well worth home owners considering include insulating their hot water tank, insulating the home’s pipe-work and installing draught-pRoofing. Many homes are leaking heat through gaps in the joins on the panels that make up their windows and doors. In a typical home 20 per cent of all heat loss is through ventilation and draughts. Draught pRoofing is one of the least expensive and most effective energy efficiency measures for the home - yet it is too often overlooked.

Draught pRoofing offers a quick return, frequently paying for itself within a year and then saving year after year. There are many types of product - for around windows (sash, metal, timber); external doors (including weatherbars for door bottoms); internal doors - particularly kitchens, bathrooms and main living areas; the loft hatch, and even letter boxes, key holes and cat flaps!

Insulation, although not as headline grabbing as solar panel and wind turbines, is definitely the first place to start to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient.

Alex Perry is a founder of DownwithCO2.co.uk, which helps people save energy, save money and reduce CO2 by using insulation

Outdoor Decks

- Understanding Seven Elements of Good Deck Design

You’re all comfortable in your favorite lounge chair, reading your latest novel with a cool beverage nearby...the aroma of your favorite BBQ drifting from the grill teases everyone...catching a few rays of sunshine never felt better. Warm weather calls us outdoors, and what better place to enjoy life than your deck!

As an extension of your home, a deck can provide an attractive outdoor area that you can enjoy every time the weather allows. Whether just hanging out and lounging, entertaining or playing with your kids or pet, a well-designed deck can be a favorite part of your home. Understanding important deck design and planning considerations will help your deck become a successful project.

Here are some considerations for having the deck that’s right for your home:

1. Where should your deck be placed? A characteristic of good deck design is when the deck can merge into the environment of your backyard without being obtrusive and highly visible. If you’re fortunate and have a great view, take advantage of the view and locate the deck to enjoy it. If you don't have a spectacular view, perhaps your deck could be located near a beautiful garden tree. Maybe you want your deck in a shady area or with a sunny southern exposure. Is privacy from neighbors an issue? Are you near a busy street and is noise a problem? If so and if your space is limited, consider the use of shrubbery, walls or fences to resolve the problem.

2. Will the deck be connected to your home? If you are considering placing your deck near the living room, doing so could be a problem if foot traffic will soil your carpets and disrupt anyone that is watching TV or talking. Placing the deck next to the kitchen will make it easier to move food and dishes back and forth when eating outside on the deck. Use sliding glass doors to make the outdoors look even more inviting from the kitchen. Would having two doors connecting different rooms to the deck be a possibility? Having two doors accessing the deck will be the most efficient and best solution for easy foot traffic flow.

3. Do you want a destination deck? The deck doesn’t have to be built connected to your house; it can be a place to go all by itself. If your backyard extends to woods, maybe locating the deck near some beautiful trees makes sense. If your property fronts a pond or lake, what about locating your deck so that it reaches out into the water? If you have a flat roof, say, over a garage -- what about a roof deck? The possibilities are endless!

4. How will your deck be used? If your property is small and you're not expecting to entertain large groups, you likely don't need a huge deck. Your deck should maintain a reasonable scale between your home and property size, size of your family and the deck size. You should not have a small house, small property and a very large deck. The elements should be proportional. You should not build a small deck if you have a large house on large property.

5. Are you considering dividing your deck into different areas? For example, you could have an area for lounging, sunning or reading and another area for dining, entertaining and cooking. Involve your family and make a list of the activities you would like to have. You may want to include a section for children's games and playtime. Have a good idea of how traffic will flow on the deck and in your backyard. Understand how family, friends and pets will be walking from the front of the house to the backyard, from the garage to the kitchen, from the greenhouse or tool shed to the garden and so on. If you are going to have a deck area for relaxation, you don't want all the traffic coming out of the house to merge into this area.

6. What shape deck is best for your home? When designing your deck, consider using a variety of shapes. Keep it simple, but don't be afraid to add an angle or two to the deck design. For example, add curves or diagonal lines to connect two rectangular or square spaces for the deck plan. Connect the different sections with paths, paving surfaces, stairways, arbors, gazebos or perhaps a water pond. Consider using planters or flower pots with attractive plants, overhead structures or trellises, benches and steps to create a transition between areas in the backyard. If you're not a good gardener, you can still create a low maintenance landscape by using shrubs and other easy-to-care-for plants. Formal landscapes are more symmetrical and use geometric patterns and straight lines. Informal styles use more asymmetry and more curves -- wooden decks are often associated with an informal setting.

7. Do you hire a deck designer, do you use deck plans or do you design the deck yourself? Consider using deck plans if you can find plans that you like. One of the best ways to simplify deck building is to use deck plans that have been successfully built before. If you need to make some modifications to suit your needs and home, doing so will likely be cheaper than creating deck plans from the beginning. Unless you live in a very rural area, you will need to check with your local building department to find out what requirements and restrictions exist in your area, especially if you are designing and building the deck yourself. If you’re not comfortable with the process, consider hiring a professional deck designer and a deck contractor.

Done correctly, building a deck will provide countless hours of enjoyment for you, your family and friends as well as increase the value of your home. After all, isn’t enjoying our time off why we work so hard? Visit Building Wooden Decks and learn more about creating the perfect deck for you and your home.

Copyright 2005 InfoSearch Publishing

David Buster is Vice-President of InfoSearch Publishing and webmaster of http://www.yourdreamloghome.com - visit the website to learn more about home decorating and remodeling, backyard living, Home Plans, kitchen and bathroom design and décor tips, home Storage, fireplaces, log cabin rentals and more. Receive the free online newsletter by going to Better Home Ideas Newsletter to subscribe.

Create Your Ultimate Dream Home With Custom Built Home Plans

How to know what you want before you get custom built Home Plans drawn.

Building a house is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create the home of your dreams. Although having the exact home you want can be great, deciding exactly where to begin your planning can be extremely difficult. Gathering ideas about style, specific room designs and even landscaping is a great way to start.
As you begin to browse catalogues and home improvement magazines you’ll begin to see all the different styles and options that are available to you. It’s a good idea to take a folder and gather all the ideas that you like before you even begin your custom built Home Plans design.
That’s the benefit of having custom built Home Plans, you can incorporate exactly what you want and have it designed to meet your exact specifications. Choosing the architect to design your plans is an important step to getting the plans you need and want.

Custom Built Home Plans

You want to make sure that the team designing your plans understands completely and specifically what you want accomplished with the overall look of your home. The same is true for each individual area within your home. Make sure no stone is left unturned as you discuss your custom built Home Plans.
As the design process begins you should be able to openly discuss and review each step of the process. Once you’ve approved the plans you will not be able to request changes to them, but up until that point you can add, change or delete as you please. One way to prevent the hassle of additions, deletions and changes is to make sure that before you visit the design firm you have a clear picture of what you want.
Your vision of what you want and need should already be on paper as much as possible. Take your file of collections of the items you like. You may even want to do a rough sketch of the layout of your future home. The more visual you can be with the architect, the better your chances are of getting exactly what you desire.

This article was written by Gregg Hicks of http://www.reliableremodeler.com which provides Internet-based home improvement information and services. Offering homeowners a simple, quick, and free way to access, qualified home improvement remodeling contractors.

Removing Clutter From Your Child's Room

It may seem almost impossible to remove clutter from your child’s room without removing the child. After all, kids aren’t exactly born with an innate sense of cleanliness and an unyielding desire to organize. From candy wrappers tossed on the floor to dirty clothes strung across the bed, a child’s room – at any given time – can look like a trash can exploded. However, with a little creative thinking, it’s possible to remove your child’s mess, and even keep the child.

Give Away What They Don’t Use: Kids constantly outgrow toys. What they played with one year they might not even glance at the next. Instead of keeping these items in your child’s room, where they are potential mess makers, give the items to charity or younger friends and relatives. If your child has trouble parting with their toys, as children often do, try compromising by offering fifty cents or a dollar for every item they get rid of. When all else fails, simply give away the toys they won’t miss when they aren’t looking. Remember, what they don’t know, won’t hurt them (don’t feel too bad, they will use this same mantra on you when they get to college).

Raise the Bed: Under a bed is a great place to store things: tennis shoes, sports equipment, the boogey man living in your child’s imagination. But unfortunately many beds are so low that the only thing you can store is an occasional dust bunny. This is where the idea of raising a bed awakens. Using bed risers, landscape bricks, or wood, you can give yourself a few extra feet, feet you’ll be able to use for Storage of just about anything. Raise your child’s bed, and raise the roof on organization.

Hang Shelves from the Ceiling: A wooden shelf: 50 dollars; a plant hook: eight dollars; a chain for hanging: fifteen dollars; a place to put your child’s stuffed animal collection: priceless. If your child has an assortment of stuffed toys that seemingly reproduce every time you turn your head, hanging shelves from the ceiling can help free up space. You might want to keep some of the more important stuffed animals within your child’s grasp, but the rest should be fine in their newly made penthouse.

Get an Old Fashioned Toy Box: The idea of an old fashioned toy box seems to have been thrown out the window, replaced by the likes of Rubbermaid and plastic Storage bins. Though these serve a purpose, an old fashioned toy box serves one as well. Not only will a wooden toy box generally hold more and last longer, but it is also heavy, which means your child can’t compound the mess by tipping it over or moving it from room to room.

Have a Junk Drawer: A junk drawer is often limited to kitchens, a place for you to store scissors and rolls of tape. But, a junk drawer in your child’s room is a great way to help them keep little things organized. Try turning the top drawer of your child’s dresser into a junk drawer. Put in muffin tins, old coffee cans, or old ice cub trays. These will allow the drawer to remain organized by allowing your child to sort and separate things like jewelry, game pieces, coins, rocks, and jacks……ya know, if your child happens to be from the 1950’s.

Jennifer Jordan is the senior editor for http://www.etodoors.com. Someone who changes her mind every five minutes, her house is in a perpetual state of home improvement.

DIY Electrical Works - is it Worth it, and how does Part P Affect Me?

So what’s changed?

Consider the dramatic increase over the last 10 to 15 years of electrical equipment in the home such as:

Bathrooms - low voltage lighting, electric showers, under-floor heating (popular in bathrooms with tiled floors).
Entertainment systems - computer systems, videos, televisions’, (every child’s bedroom seems to have a system nowadays).
Bedrooms – electric blankets, hair dryers, hair tongs.
Kitchens – dishwashers, tumble dryers, freezers, microwaves, blenders, sandwich makers.
Gardens – lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, pond pumps and lighting.

Is it any wonder, then, that each year on average there are 10 deaths, 750 serious injuries and 12,500 fires caused either by faulty electrical work carried out by ambitious DIY enthusiasts, “cowboy” electricians or deteriorating electrical installations?

As such, electrical work with a few minor exceptions carried out in the home is being regulated as part of the Building Regulations under Part P and is effective from the 1st of January 2005.

Failure to comply with Part P of the Building Regulations is a criminal offence and could result in the order by the local authority to remove or put right faulty workmanship and fine you up to £5000.00. It could also make it difficult to sell your property in the future.

Will anybody find out if I carry out some electrical work? I can say it was done before January 2005.

If the work involves the installation of cable you can be easily found out because since January 2005 the colours of the cores of the cable has changed. Live is now brown (previously red), neutral is now blue (previously black) and earth remains the same (green/yellow)

What is the scope of Part P?

·Dwellings
·Outbuildings, sheds, garages and greenhouses
·Garden lighting and power supplies (pond pumps etc.)
·Common areas in blocks of flats – stairways, laundries etc but not lifts
·Combined business premises and dwellings having a common supply (pubs, shops etc.)

How can I comply with Part P?

You will not need to notify the Building Control Officer to comply with Part P if you employ a contractor or an electrician who is accredited with a self certifying scheme (belongs to either the N.I.C.E.I.C, E.C.A or other accredited service scheme).

The accredited contractor or electrician will notify their accreditation service of the notifiable electrical work completed by the application of a form (normally done on the “Web”). The accreditation service will then notify the relevant Building Control Officer of all notifiable works carried out in his area (normally on a monthly basis) who will then inform you that he has the required notification.

You must receive from the contractor or electrician a Minor Works Certificate if the work entails a replacement part or an alteration of a circuit.
OR
An Electrical Installation Certificate if the works entail a complete installation in the case of a new build, a re-wire of a existing electrical installation, the addition of a new circuit, or a major alteration as in the case of replacing a fuse board.

The certificate must be sent to you within a reasonable time of the completed works – one month. The certification and any data must be kept safe, as this maybe required before any future works are carried out or will be required when you sell the property.

If you decide that you are competent or employ a person who is competent by either experience or formal qualifications and not engage an accredited contractor or electrician then you must inform the Building Control Officer before commencement of the work. The Building Control Officer will inspect the completed work.

Depending on the authority, the Building Control Officer will need a completed certificate as part of British Standard 7671 (I.E.E Regulations) and may insist upon an inspection by an accredited contractor or electrician who will supply a Periodic Inspection Report.

This will of course entail a charge for the inspection by the Building Control Officer, which, depending on the local authority can range from £50.00 for a minor notifiable job to several hundreds of pounds for a major notifiable job. If the Building Control Officer also insists upon an inspection by an accredited contractor or electrician with the supplying of a Periodic Inspection Report, this will also of course entail a charge.

In reality, most Building Control Officers are not qualified to inspect the work and as such, will try to dissuade you from carrying out the work; hence the disproportionate charges and the probable requirement of a Periodic Inspection Report. If you do carry out the work yourself and it is acceptable to your local authority, it remains to be seen whether will be acceptable when you come to sell your property.

Therefore, if you are trying to save money on the labour content of the work, it will probably be false economy.

If I do decide to carry out the work myself, can an accredited contractor or electrician certify the work for me, hence saving me the hassle and cost for the Building Control Officer?

No – An accredited contractor or electrician cannot certify work carried out by anybody else, as he cannot inspect the full extent of the wiring especially where it is hidden in the fabric of the building. The only thing he can provide is a Periodic Inspection Report – which is a formal inspection of the wiring system but does not include an inspection of wiring within the fabric of the building i.e. under floors etc. The Periodic Inspection Report is not a certificate. As such it will not comply with Part P although as above, some authorities may insist on one if you carry out the work yourself.

I want to replace a broken socket – are you saying I need to notify or employ somebody that is accredited (Government approved)?

No – for example you can replace existing accessories or replace a damaged cable with like (type and size).

The requirement of whether work is notifiable or not depends on the nature of the work and very importantly, its location. Location is important because some locations e.g. bathrooms, gardens and kitchens could have an increased shock risk!

The information below shows examples of what is notifiable and which is not. The list is not exhaustive and should the work required not fall into any of the categories below or you have any doubt I would strongly urge that you seek advice from a Building Control Officer or an accredited contractor or electrician.

You must be aware that the requirements of the Building Regulations apply to all work carried out irrespective of whether they are notifiable or not.

Areas within a kitchen, bathroom, garden or special location
NOTIFIABLE: A complete new installation or rewiring Installing a new circuit (eg, for socket outlets, lighting or shower) Fitting and connecting a shower to an existing point Replacing a fuse board Adding a socket outlet to an existing circuit Adding a lighting point to an existing circuit Fitting a Storage heater to an existing adjacent point Installing a supply to a garden shed, garage or other outbuilding Installing a lighting point or socket outlet in a garden shed, garage or other outbuilding Installing a garden pond pump including the supply Installing electric under floor or ceiling heating Installing an electricity generator

NOT NOTIFIABLE: Connecting a cooker to an existing connection unit Replacing a damaged cable for a single circuit (cable to be the same size and type and installed as original) Replacing a damaged accessory such as a light switch or socket outlet Replacing a light fitting Connecting an item of equipment to an existing adjacent connection point Fitting a Storage heater to an existing adjacent point Replacing an immersion heater

Areas not in a kitchen, bathroom, garden or special location
NOTIFIABLE: A complete new installation or rewiring Installing a new circuit e.g. for socket outlets, lighting or shower Replacing a fuse board Installing a lighting point or socket outlet outdoors Installing and fitting a Storage heater including the circuit Installing electric under floor or ceiling heating Installing an electricity generator

NOT NOTIFIABLE: Adding a socket outlet to an existing circuit Adding a lighting point to an existing circuit Connecting a cooker to an existing connection unit Replacing a damaged cable for a single circuit (cable to be the same size and type and installed as original) Replacing a damaged accessory such as a light switch or socket outlet Replacing a light fitting Connecting an item of equipment to an existing adjacent connection point Fitting a Storage heater to an existing adjacent point Replacing an immersion heater

About the Author: Martin Lancaster and Electrical Testing Surveyors Ltd are a well established and fully qualified electrical installation and portable appliance testing company, able to provide testing to companies and organisations all over the UK. You can reach them at info@electrical-testing.co.uk and find more information on the website at http://www.electrical-testing.co.uk.