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Archive for the ‘DIY and Building Guides’ Category

A disaster, especially natural disaster, is something that we can not avoid. It can happen anytime and anywhere. Natural occurrences are ranging from the harmless ones and up to the most destructive ones. As the harmless natural occurrences can be entertaining, destructive natural occurrences could destroy anything in front of them because of their massive strength. Disaster like flood, storm, and non natural disasters like fire can cause a lot of damage and loss to human being. It is often that hundreds of houses and other buildings are destroyed after flood attacked. More severe damage happen when fire attacks, or an earthquake. To repair these buildings is not easy because each disaster cause unique kind of damage to the buildings. You will need to call the expert of Disaster Restoration Company. One of the best disaster restoration companies is Jarvisconstruction.com. This is a professional restoration company that will guarantee your satisfaction with their professional service. Any type of disaster related house damages is not a problem for this company. Even when your house is totally destroyed because of fire, just let them handle the restoration and your house will be as good as new. In general they provide four different types of services which are water damage, fire damage, storm damage, and content repair. For more information just visit their website.

Fireplaces are becoming increasingly popular as a way to improve the look and feel of homes. There are so many styles and types available that there is a fireplace design that can suit almost any decor.

There’s nothing more relaxing than to sit in the front room with the fire burning and embers popping. Furthermore, there probably isn’t a single item that can be as influential to the room as a fireplace, so it’s well worth looking at the variety of fireplace designs in order to find the ideal fire place to suit your home and your own style.

Stone, brick, tile, or metal? See how many ways there are to envision and create this enduringly popular interior feature.

Heating and cooling your home uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. Typically, 44 percent of your utility bill goes for heating and cooling. What’s more, heating and cooling systems in the United States together emit over a half billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, adding to global warming. They also generate about 24 percent of the nation’s sulfur dioxide and 12 percent of the nitrogen oxides, the chief ingredients in acid rain.

No matter what kind of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system you have in your house, you can save money and increase comfort by properly maintaining and upgrading your equipment. But remember, an energy-efficient furnace alone will not have as great an impact on your energy bills as using the whole-house approach. By combining proper equipment maintenance and upgrades with appropriate insulation, weather proofing, and thermostat settings, you can cut your energy bills and your pollution output in half.

Household Heating Systems
Although there are several different types of fuels available to heat our homes, about half of us use natural gas.

Heating Tips

*  Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable.
*  Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
*  Clean warm air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they’re not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.

*  Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.
*  Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors between exterior walls and the radiators.
*  Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans wisely; in just 1 hour, these fans can pull out a houseful of warmed or cooled air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done the job.

*  Keep draperies and shades open on south-facing windows during the heating season to allow sunlight to enter your home; close them at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.

*  Close an unoccupied room that is isolated from the rest of the house, such as in a corner, and turn down the thermostat or turn off the heating for that room or zone. However, do not turn the heating off if it adversely affects the rest of your system. For example, if you heat your house with a heat pump, do not close the vents – closing the vents could harm the heat pump.

*  Select energy-efficient equipment when you buy new heating equipment. Your contractor should be able to give you energy fact sheets for different types, models, and designs to help you compare energy usage. Look for the ENERGY STAR label, that’s  the program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designed to help consumers identify energy-efficient appliances and products.

One Btu, British thermal unit, is roughly equivalent to burning one kitchen match. That may not sound like much, but a typical home consumes about 100 million BTUs per year. Approximately one-half of the total is used for space heating.

Gas and Oil Heating Systems

If you plan to buy a new heating system, ask your local utility or state energy office for information about the latest technologies available to consumers. They can advise you about more efficient systems on the market today. For example, many newer models incorporate designs for burners and heat exchangers that result in higher efficiencies during operation and reduce heat loss when the equipment is off.Consider a sealed combustion furnace; they are both safer and more efficient.

There are many other things that can go wrong with a house’s plumbing. Here’s a selection.

1. Washing machine smells
Gel washing machine capsules can block the pipework within the machine and cause the drum to smell. The answer is to run the machine empty on its hottest temperature for a long programme and then repeat. This should dissolve any remaining gel and clear the problem. Check the filter and clean at the same time.

2. Toilet won’t flush properly

If the water is slow to drain out of the WC when you flush, there may be ablockage in the trap or in the pipe from the loo to the soil stack.  A toilet plunger may be enough to fix the problem. Remember to cover the floor around and wear rubber gloves. Hire Shops can also supply wire ’snakes’ or augers

3. Scaled up shower head

If you’re in a hard water area, choose a shower head with a rubber faceplate so that you can rub the scale particles away regularly. A quick DIY solution for a badly clogged showerhead is to remove the faceplate and leave it to soak overnight in white vinegar.  A stiff nailbrush or toothpick should clear the loose limescale.

4. Banging pipes

If your home sounds like the boiler room of the Titanic, chances are you have what’s called water hammer, the sound caused when water slams against a valve that has been closed abruptly. The force can also make the pipe vibrate and knock against the joists, creating even more noise. Water hammer often happens when a washing machine is running, because the machine starts and stops the water  flow suddenly.

If you can pinpoint where a pipe is hitting a joist, a good DIY quick fix is to slip a piece of foam insulation around the pipe to cushion it and damp the sound.  Otherwise, a plumber can check the system and may fit a water hammer shock absorber to solve the problem.

5. Boiler not working

Make sure that the power supply to the boiler is on and that a switch hasn’t tripped on your consumer unit. If the switch or fuse keeps tripping, call in an electrician. Assuming your gas or oil supply is OK, the next step is check the programmer is in the ‘on’ position and that the thermostats are turned up high enough to turn on the radiators. One of the most frequent causes of a boiler switching off is the pilot light going out. Follow the maker’s instructions to re-light if so. If there’s still a problem, get a heating engineer to check the system.

6. Blocked sink

The most probable cause is a blockage in the plastic trap under the plughole. Check to see if the bath, washing machine or any other outlets are draining OK.  If they are, the problem is in the trap or pipe leading from your sink to the  soil pipe or drain. If nothing’s draining, you have a blocked soil pipe or drain.

First, try forcing the blockage through the pipe with a plunger or pump. Hold a wet cloth over the overflow hole and fill the sink with enough water to cover the rubber plunger. For a better seal, rub some Vaseline around the plunger rim. Pump the handle up and down at least a dozen times to try to clear the blockage. When clear, run both taps to clear any loose material.  If this doesn’t fix the problem, bail out as much water as possible, put a washing-up bowl under sink and unscrew the trap to remove the blockage. Rarely, the problem is further down the 40mm waste pipe and you may need to unscrew this pipe from the trap and use a piece of stiff wire (an old coat hanger is ideal) to wiggle the blockage free. If all else fails, try forcing a hose down the pipe and using a blast of water.

Rules and regs

It goes without saying that you should only tackle plumbing repairs that you feel are within your DIY abilities. Basic updating and repairs to taps, pipes and radiators can be tackled without complying with building regulations but you must never attempt to repair your boiler.

Nothing’s more annoying in a kitchen or bathroom than a dripping tap. Fixing the problem is a simple DIY job that will save you a hefty plumber’s call out charge and only takes 15 minutes to fix.

First, turn off the water supply, either at the mains or at the service valve on the pipe to the faulty tap.
Put the plug in so that small bits can’t be lost down the waste pipe. Take off the top of the tap either by pulling it or removing the centre cover on the handle and undoing the small retaining screw.
Wrap a tea towel around the body of the tap and hold it firmly with an adjustable wrench. Use a second wrench to unscrew the large brass headgear nut. If it’s stuck, spray with penetrating oil, such as WD40, and wait a few minutes.

On the underside of the headgear nut is the washer that you can prise off with a screwdriver. Push the new washer into place and screw the headgear back on to the tap but don’t over-tighten it. Replace the tap top and turn on the water supply to check for drips.

If the tap still drips, the area underneath the washer may be worn, coated with limescale or scratched. This can be fixed with a special re-seating tool available from plumber’s merchants or DIY stores. Push the end of the tool into the tap and twist it round to clean the metal. Even easier is to buy a combined washer and seating pack from a plumber’s merchant.

Ceramic disc taps
If your taps are reasonably new and only need a quarter twist to turn off or on, they will have ceramic discs instead of washers. Undo the top of the tap and unscrew the brass valve to reach the ceramic cartridge. Take the whole piece along to a plumbing centre for a replacement as the discs come in various sizes and are right-handed (cold) or left-handed (hot). You may also need to replace the thin rubber seal around the cartridge.