Some door knockers incorporate a letter box, known as postal knockers. There are horizontal and vertical postal knockers available. Decide whether to use a postal knocker or a letter plate, which uses an inner flap to stop draughts and give a more attractive finish to the inside of the door.
Fitting a spy hole allows the home occupier to look out without the person outside looking in. The fitting is incorporates a simple lens system, which offers a wide angled view of the surrounding outside area. It is particularly useful in conjunction with a porch light, to enable clearer vision when it is dark.
By installing a door chain, you are allowing your door to be partially opened to see who is calling. This allows protection against unwanted callers who may try to enter your home. A chain attached to the door hooks into a slot on the doorframe when the door is closed. The only way to release the chain is by closing the door and unhooking it.
If spotted early enough, most weeds can be removed easily without the use of chemicals.
Thieves are often on the look-out for homes that look empty, particularly during holiday-times, as they know a lot of people go away. Follow Crimestoppers advice below to help prevent your home from being a victim of robbery.
Reports reveal that burglaries have risen 4% since the economic recession took hold, so follow these home security tips and don't be a statistic.
Brighten up your dull windersill by designing a window box full of flowering and foliage plants.
It is very important to keep your greenhouse clean and tidy to prevent pests and diseases spreading rapidly in the warm humid conditions.
Growing bags are an ideal way to grow tomatoes, aubergines, chillies and cucumber on a sunny patio or balcony, as well as greenhouses.
If you do not have room for a vegetable patch or time for an allotment, but would like to grow your own salad, vegetables or fruit, growing in pots is ideal.
It is very important that the wires, or cores, in the flex are connected to the correct terminals in the plug.
All exposed water pipes can be readily protected by sleeving with pipe insulation. This is sold in lengths of various material. The lengths are slit so that they can be fed onto the pipes. Check the size of pipes before buying the insulation material as it comes in varying diameters.
When insulating the loft, take the opportunity to protect the water tanks and pipes as well. The water bylaws now actually require tanks to be insulated.
The advantage of this type of insulation is that no cutting is required, making it easy to lay in a loft where joists are irregular spaced.
Types of blanket loft insulation: This may be glass, mineral or rock fibre and comes in rolls for easy handling. You will need to look at the information on the packs to decide how many rolls you need. The details will tell you how many square meters can be covered for a given thickness. If your loft is uninsulated, choose 250mm thickness. If you are topping up the thickness of existing insulation, choose one which provides the additional thickness required. Check carefully, as some rolls come pre-split offering two thicknesses. Also check the width between your joists. The standard rolls are about 400mm wide to suit most joists, but wider gaps can be accommodated by trimming.
An uninsulated loft allows a huge amount of heat to be lost from your home, unnecessarily increasing your fuel bills. Even if you already have loft insulation - check that it is adequate. The current recommended thickness is 150mm
Paint pads come in different sizes. They are flat and rectangular with closely packed, short fibres bonded to a foam backing strip, which makes the pad flexible.
Applying emulsion with a roller is the quickest way of covering a large surface area, although you may need more coats than when painting with a brush because the paint goes on thinly.
Oil based paint is slightly more difficult to apply and must be painted over an undercoat. Use a 75mm brush and work in 300mm square areas. Clean brushes and any spillages with white spirit. It is not advisable to use oil-based paint on large areas like walls or ceilings.
Rollers and large paint pads are very good for covering whole walls, but they cannot reach all the way to the edges; you will need to finish off these areas with a brush or small paint pad - a process often referred to as cutting in.
You can use masking tape to get a neat edge where different colours meet, such as at the junction of walls and ceilings, or where adjacent walls are different colours. But professionals use a technique called beading, which is not difficult, provided you have a steady hand. The adjacent colour must be dry before you start.
Stir the paint and poor into a paint kettle so that it is about a third full. Dip a 100mm - 125mm brush into the paint to cover about one-third of the bristle depth. Press the brush against the rim to get rid of the excess; don't scrape it on the edge - you'll take off too much paint and create a build-up on the inside of the kettle.
Generally when painting a room it is advisable to start at the top of the room and work down. This is so that paint is not dripped on to freshly painted areas. Therefore the following sequence should be used.
Emulsion is the most popular type of paint for internal walls and ceilings due to being water based with benefits of low odour, dries quickly, plus ease of application and clean up.
These are traditionally solvent based but water based options are now available.
Applied on top of a primer or a previously prepared painted surface.
A primer helps to ensure good adhesion to the bare surface before application of undercoats/finishers.
A lot of preparation is needed if a wall is to be painted. Every hairline crack will require filling carefully and sanding. If the wall has lots of cracks, it may be wise to cover the wall with lining paper or a heavy wallpaper before painting. Woodchip is ideal wallpaper for this purpose as it will cover a mass of lumps and cracks. If your wall is newly plastered, the wall should be left for a few weeks to dry thoroughly before painting.
Although you can paint over existing wallpaper, in most cases you will want to strip off old wallpaper before painting. Electric steamers are ideal as they work wonders on difficult wallpaper. Wash off any remaining adhesive. Be aware that removing wallpaper may reveal a ceiling in bad condition. If it is in a bad state, you may decide on erecting plasterboard or a heavy wallpaper – these can then be plastered or painted over. To make preparing and painting easier, try using a scaffold board and two stepladders. If it is a big room you can hire decorator trestles or scaffolding.
This is not always necessary for a smooth finish. If the gloss on the surface is solid and smooth you can quite simply sand down and paint over. If the existing colour is dark and the colour you have chosen to paint is white, you will need several coats to hide the original paintwork. Old whitewash if flaky can quite often be washed off with soap and water. If the paint is heavy duty, you may need to try scraping, a chemical solvent or even a heat gun.
All bare wood must be treated with primer even if it is old wood which has been stripped. For a smooth finish rub down with glass paper, fine sandpaper and brush down or clean with a slightly damp cloth. Always brush/clean along the grain. A pink or white wood primer is usually OK. Resinous woods may need aluminium primer. Aluminium primer is also useful for stained surfaces, from nicotine.
Easy Gas Guide – Responsible & Safe Usage of LPG Alfresco Appliances
Step One - Preparation
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