Category: House & Garden

Windows Carpet Friendly?

Are Your Windows Carpet Friendly?

These days it is the trend for windows to be large enough to let in that warming sun throughout the winter. Larger windows also increase the natural light in a room and allow you to enjoy the view from the privacy of your home, but are they carpet friendly? Most people don’t realise that large windows without the right window coverings can actually ruin your carpet. But Brilliance Carpet Cleaning Perth know that sunlight can fade the carpet just the same as it can fade the curtains.

These days we have rubber backed curtains or blinds that don’t fade to protect the curtains, but we often don’t think about the floor, except that there is a nice warm patch of sunlight on it for the toddler to play in. Unfortunately, that nice warm patch is gradually getting lighter in colour. Even carpet that is already a light colour can fade due to sunlight.

How can you stop that from happening? There are several options, depending on the location of the window and style of your home: –

  • Draw the blinds or curtains during the time the sun pours in the window. This will mostly be winter mornings or afternoons, depending on the orientation of the house, so it doesn’t mean you never get to look out the window.
  • Grow a shrubby bush outside the window for shade.
  • Put up a window awning – might be your next home improvement DIY project?

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7 Different Roof Styles for Patios

7 Different Roof Styles for Patios

When you decide to add a patio to your home you will need to make certain decisions such as where to put it and what to use it for. You will also need to decide on the style. While styles for may be limited due to the simplicity of the structure, the roof will be what sets it off and adds to the look of your home. There are at least 6 different roof styles for patios.

  • The flat roof. As the name suggests, this roof is entirely flat. This makes it ideal for a carport when added to the side of the home. However, it may not suit the front of the home so well, unless your house also has a flat roof.
  • The gable roof. This is a pitched section in the middle with a flat part at each side. A pitched roof gives a bit more air space to keep things cooler and adds interest to the look.
  • A curved roof patio is similar to the gable, only instead of two sides rising to form a peak in the middle, that section has a graceful curve that can really suit the contemporary home.
  • A gazebo style hip patio roof is somewhat more sophisticated and much more interesting, with the hip part in the centre extending out past the edges of the structure. It is supported by an extra leg, so if an uninterrupted view is important, you might want to choose another option.
  • The heritage gable patio roof is not flat anywhere. Instead, it sloped from the centre down to each side and a sloping extension at the front extend to the whole length of the patio, making it more of a square than a rectangle. Ideal for those who want a larger patio.

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What’s in Your Garage?

Many homeowners are restricted in what they can put in their garage due to the small area  available. Even many luxury homes are designed for just two cars and that leaves nowhere for the boat, a caravan, a jet ski or golf buggy to go, not to mention the golf clubs, the children’s bicycles, or as they get older, perhaps motorbikes.

In fact, it’s time home designers took a leaf out of Sam Sorgiovanni’s book. Sam Sorgiovanni designed the yacht Anastasia in 2008 and he included plenty of space in the ‘garage’. Much more than you’d find in most luxury homes. So what is in Anastasia’s garage?

  • 4 tenders (smaller launches) ranging from over 9 metres to almost 7 metres.
  • 4 Wave Runners
  • Several Jet skis
  • A storage rack for 8-10 full body wetsuits
  • Other water toys such as windsurfers and snorkelling gear
  • Storage cupboards for the above.

The Anastasia also has a full gym, Jacuzzi and aquarium for the enjoyment of guests. She sleeps 12 guests and has room for 20 crew. Of course, she is 75.5 metres long, so there is plenty of room.

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security-fencing

Is Your Fencing Really Secure?

If you need security fencing, you must make sure it is truly secure. Not all fencing is as secure as it could be, leaving the property open to vandals or thieves. Loss of this kind can cause a business to founder, especially if it happens more than once. Not only do you have the loss of stock and damage to premises to pay for, but also your insurance premiums are likely to skyrocket.

So when inspecting the fence, look at these possible access points to ensure your property can remain safe.

  • The top of the fence. While the fence may be high, unless the top is lined with razor wire or bends over towards the outside, it can still be breached fairly easily. It only takes a ladder or an agile burglar to climb over by putting his toes into the diamond shaped space between the links. This cannot happen with a palisade type fence where steel posts are close together along the whole length of the fence.
  • The bottom of the fence. Don’t forget that someone could dig a hole under the fence, even if it reached down to ground level. Ground is not always level either, leaving a gap where the wire runs across the dip. The kind of commercial fencing with a cement base to prevent this, is the best.
  • Through the fence. Unless the fence is quite solid and strong, burglars may be able to get through it by cutting the wire or ramming a vehicle into it.

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keep-safe-during-renovation

6 Ways to Keep Safe During Renovations

Many people enjoy doing home renovations themselves, getting a lot of satisfaction in working with their hands – and tools – to create an improvement to their home and their lifestyle. Many renovations require you to move furniture out of the home and it is best to get a budget furniture removal company like Brilliance Removalists Perth in to do this, because they are much fitter for lifting than you are likely to be. They also have the aids that will help them. It will save back strain to have others do that heavy job. Here are some more tips to keep you safe during renovations.

  • Always wear eye protection. Even if you need to wear glasses, they don’t protect your eyes from flying debris or dust. You need to have goggles that will fit over the top and seal around the edges. They are made from stronger material than glasses and won’t shatter if a nail should fly into them. People have lost all or part of their vision because they didn’t follow this simple rule.
  • Wear a hard hat. Sure, we know that builders on construction sites wear hard hats, but many home renovators don’t even think about it. Things can fall on you, or you can get up and bump your head on something easily enough when crawling around the small spaces such as under the floor or the ceiling cavity. You only have one head; protect it.
  • Wear steel capped boots. It is easy to drop something heavy when doing renovations. Timber can bounce right onto your toes when you drop it. If you are working in joggers it can break your toe or a bone in your foot.

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equipment-hire

How to Avoid Costly Delays with Plant Hire

When it comes to property renovation or building a new home, it is highly likely that excavation will be needed. Even the simple addition of a room may mean shifting loads of earth before you can start. Plant hire from professionals is best, especially if you are a home handyman renovator, because you can get advice on what kind of equipment you need and how big it should be.

The importance of size

There are many different sizes of excavating equipment and what you need for adding a room to a home on a gently sloping block would be quite different from levelling a whole housing site on a block that slopes a little more steeply. If you hire equipment that is not large enough for the job it will cost you in time – even in time taken to send the wrong sized excavator back and hire another one.

But if you hire an excavator that is far too big you may not even to able to get it onto the construction site. Many homes only have a narrow space between the wall of the house and the boundary fence. You can get a tiny excavator through, but not a large one. So size is important when choosing your equipment. You can’t always take down the boundary fence and invade the neighbour’s property.

In addition, a larger than necessary excavator – or any other equipment that is too large for the job – will cost you in terms of fuel and hourly hire, since the larger the equipment the more expensive the rate of hire would be. So it is highly essential to choose the right one.

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right-scaffolding

Avoid Litigation with the Right Scaffolding

Every building works needs some kind of scaffolding in order for the builders and other tradesmen to work on parts that can’t be reached from the ground. Scaffolding can be a simple structure for single storey buildings or a highly complex structure for the many high-rise buildings that go up in cities across the world.

One thing is for sure, the building cannot be completed without this structure and if it is not safe nasty accidents will happen. And often, lives can be lost. When the scaffold collapses it is usually because it was not designed or built properly. The fault for this lies directly with the building company who ordered the scaffold. They should know to only use a scaffold company that has a good reputation in the trade for doing excellent work.

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