A family living in Flintshire have managed to raise over £20,500 to renovate their house into a wheel chair friendly home. The family has struggled for years whilst looking after their four year old son Harvey Noble, who suffers from a very rare form of cerebral palsy called schizencephaly which has kept him wheelchair bound and unable to walk and talk. They have been trying to get funding to have an extension built onto their home so Harvey can have his own room and also enough room to store the equipment he uses on a daily basis, along with the installation of a wet room to save his parents having to carry him in and out of the bath. Funds will also be used to purchase a more accessible car.
Family Raise Money To Renovate Wheel Chair Friendly Home
FMB on the Hunt for Britain's Best Builder
The Federation of Master Builders has joined forces with the popular housing expert and TV presenter Phil Spencer, known for his appearances with Kirsty Allsopp on property programmes such as ‘Location, Location, Location’ and ‘Relocation, Relocation’. Phil will be working with the FMB to find Britain’s best master builder and will present the award to the winner.
The competition is in its tenth year this year and includes categories that tradespeople can be nominated for including new builds; small, medium and large renovation projects which include refurbishment and restoration of domestic and commercial premises and extensions to properties up to certain revenue limits; apprentice of the year and an energy efficiency category which recognises building projects featuring the introduction of energy saving and carbon cutting measures to reduce the environmental impact of homes and businesses.
New Series of Cowboy Builders Hits Five Tonight
The new series of Cowboy Builders hosted by Dominic Littlewood and Melinda Messenger begins tonight on Channel Five at 8pm with the first show featuring a resident in Sheffield. The programme comes to the rescue of homeowners plagued by problems with rogue traders who have begun work on their homes, taken hard earned money and not delivered products or services promised or disappeared leaving distressed customers having paid for a building project, extension or loft conversion to be left with a pile of rubble and little sign of change in the near future.
Melinda Messenger has been in the property development business for over 10 years and armed with her building team, sets about righting the wrongs caused by the rogue traders to give the homeowners everything they could wish for from their renovation project and more.
In the mean time, Dominic Littlewood, known for his appearance on a number of consumer programmes, using his experience and expertise to help stop people being ripped off, tracks down the cowboy builders to confront them about their poor workmanship, customer relations and working ethics in a bid to prevent more customers falling victim to the tradesmen.
The programme also provides advice and tips for viewers at home about what to do if you suspect your tradesmen are ripping you off or the standard of work they’re delivering isn’t up to scratch.
Olympics Could Pave the Way for Better Profits in 2010 For Marshalls
2009 was a poor year with the UK construction industry as a whole having been hit very hard by the recession. As well as commercial cuts in spending on development and building projects, homeowners also tightened their belts and purse strings so companies catering for both commercial and domestic customers could not even rely on the other half of their market to provide a positive.
After seeing a decline in profits in 2009, although 2010 isn’t likely to provide a miracle cure to make up for last year’s reduction in revenue, paving firm Marshalls are beginning to see a turn in the market for 2010 compared to this time last year. Marshalls, who have just been recognised as a 2010 Business Superbrand for their strength as a B2B brand, receive 60% of their revenue from commercial, public sector and corporate customers and 40% of sales as generated by sales to residential homeowners.
Marshalls supply a range of paving and driveway products and both functional and decorative items to enhance gardens, including walling materials, paving, greenhouses, summerhouses, garages and products to assist with water management in your garden. Their range of hard landscaping materials is produced with commitment to quality products, with the Marshalls group including a number of prominent brands including Classical Flagstones, supplying stone flooring and flagging in both contemporary and traditional ranges, Compton concrete garages, Alton cedar greenhouses and Robinsons aluminium greenhouses. In addition to the companies that are part of the Marshalls group, the paving and hard landscaping firm also supplies garden furniture and planters, outdoor lighting and stone benches and a range of garden gates.
Report Reveals 55,000 New Construction and Building Jobs Could Be Created
A report launched today by Experian for the ‘Cut the VAT’ coalition, an alliance of 21 organisations including the Federation of Master Builders, the Modern Masonry Alliance, the Clay Roof Tile Council and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, has unveiled that as many as 55,000 new jobs in the building sector and construction industry could be created if VAT on labour for building work and home improvements was cut to 5%.
Creating Building Jobs
The Cut the VAT coalition believes that by cutting the percentage of VAT paid on labour for renovation and property maintenance work from the current 12.5% to 5% would help the current economic situation of high numbers of unemployed people, and would also have a number of social and economic benefits for the UK as a whole, including helping the Government reach its carbon emission reduction targets.
The report anticipates an additional 24,000 construction jobs could be created in 2010 alone, with this rising to nearly 35,000 building sector jobs by 2019. In addition, the report explains that the additional demand for tradespeople to carry out work in domestic properties will have a knock on effect for companies who supply materials to the trades as people decide to upgrade central heating systems, repair roofs, build extensions and rewire homes. As a result of making building work and renovation of properties more affordable for homeowners, this will in turn help people make their homes more energy efficient, reducing energy consumption and saving them money.
Read more…
The Pros and Cons of Renovating a Property
Choosing whether to purchase a property for renovation can be a difficult decision to make and there are a number of advantages and disadvantages you should bear in mind when making your choice. Added to this is whether buying an already renovated property will make you more money in the long run than gutting a house and doing it up from scratch.
Single Pane or Double Glazed Windows
Whether to opt for single glazing or double glazed windows may seem like an obvious choice but there are reasons for single panes being a better option and situations where double glazed windows are not viable or acceptable. Read more…