Find a Shop Fitter you can trust in Christchurch.

You can install most cookers flush to the sides of your kitchen cabinets. However, it’s a good idea to leave a gap between them anyway so that your cooker can be serviced, cleaned and moved if necessary. The commonly recommended space is about 2.5mm on each side of your cooker.Some cookers need even more than this, otherwise they can damage your kitchen cabinets. If you’re not sure about what your electric range cooker needs, it’s best to ask your installer or get in touch with the manufacturer.

By replacing the single glazed windows in your home you stand to make savings of around £170 each year. It’s not just the financial gain that makes double glazing attractive though and you can also save up to 680kg of carbon emissions annually. Over 20 years this is a saving of around £3,400 and 13,600kg of CO2.

How To Tile A Kitchen Floor

Tiling your kitchen floor can seem a daunting task at first glance, but is a skill that can be mastered after a couple of practices. With this simple guide, you will find it easier to satisfy your kitchen floor tiling needs.

lPrepare The Subfloor

• Ensure the subfloor is very secure to support both the tile and the people working across it.

• If necessary, you can strengthen the kitchen floor with the help of a vinyl, heavy felt or any other good backer board.

• After successfully securing the floor, proceed to clear out all dust and dirt.

lMix The Mortar

• Mix a thinset mortar be referring to the instructions on the package. ( Mix only the quantity you can apply within 30 minutes).

• Once the mixture looks similar to the thickness of mayonnaise, allow it to rest for about 10 minutes before application.

lApply The Mortar

• Apply a thin layer of mortar

• Do not cover extensive areas as the mortar can become very dry.

• Spread the mortar with a trowel in curved patterns to make it flat on the floor.

lSet The Tile

• Set down the tile slowly, apply a little pressure until its holds firmly to the surface. ( Apply a consistent amount of pressure throughout to ensure equal heights for all the tiles)

• Continue with the process until all full tiles are well positioned

lCut The Tiles

• Once all the full tile pieces are in place, start cutting to cover the edges requiring smaller tile pieces.

• Take accurate measurements of the outer edges needing smaller tile pieces.

• Cut the tile pieces to fit the measurement taken with the help of a wet saw or hand tile cutter.

lGrouting

• Remove all spacers and mortar residues and lay the grout

• Apply the grout along the tiles’ seams with a grout float

• Clean out excess grout with a damp sponge after leaving it to dry for about 30 minutes

• Once the grout is fully dried, apply the sealer (the drying process normally takes within 3 to 4 days).

For the best results, it’s advisable to contact a tiling professional for help when it comes to kitchen floor tiling especially if you have no training or prior experience. This way, you can get the best quality and also avoid the regrettable mistakes and extra costs that’s very common with newbies.

Are you currently considering installing a ground source heat pump in your home? Well, a heat pump can be a great alternative when compared to gas or oil boiler, however, you may also be worried about the operating efficiency of this heating system if you live in a cold climate or during the winter months. However, in reality, there’s nothing to be worried about!

A ground source heat pump works by incorporating the natural heat that’s typically found in the ground or groundwater. In other words, this type of heat pump doesn’t make use of fossil fuels to heat your home while it can also minimize carbon emissions that may pose a huge risk to the environment. This makes a popular option especially amongst home and property owners who are very environment conscious and prefers to utilize more renewable sources of energy.

However in a place such as the UK where the temperature can drop to around -10℃ during the winter months, it may get you thinking whether there’ll be enough heat in the ground to warm up your home. Let’s have a look.

In the UK, the temperature of the ground doesn’t normally fall less than 10℃. This is still enough heat for the ground source heat pump to warm up your home. In other words, as long as you purchase the right one, your ground source heat pump will continue to work just fine during the cold months. Due to the fact that every heat pump varies, you will need the right equipments so as to ensure the heat pump works well throughout the winter. This is usually not an issue in the UK, but same can not be said of colder places like Canada and North America.

Moving house sounds exciting, but on the real sense, we don't actually know how to begin. There is no choice than to begin anyway because you are moving to a new house. Most times we hire a removals firm in advance, not to mention pack all your belongings. So, how to pack up your house for relocation and make sure you don’t forget something in the process.

The major excercise is Packing Supplies You Need (PSYN).

No matter the number of boxes you have lying around, they all contain all necessary properties. One should not over the fact that purchasing boxes is a very important part of the whole excercise. If you have any spare plastic boxes, you can pack your fragile and valuable items in them. Alternatively, provided you have the time to search for free moving boxes, there are plenty of ways to obtain them. These little guidelines will give successful ways you can get your boxes all packed up;

1) Begin Packing Well in Advance

Take note of the number of boxes available for the operation. However, it's advisable to start tart the process earlier than most people think. For example a large house should take abt two months for packing while for small house a month can enough. Not the real time for packing though, but at least you got the idea.

2) Start with Rooms and Items You Use Less Often

Firstly, starting packing processes from least used from is advised. Seasonal items you’re currently not using such as garden tools, coats, and Christmas lights are perfect examples of items you can pack before you handle everything else. When packing stuffs, it makes you select and set aside the useful ones and get rid or donate the other. Therefore sorting is part of the major excercise in other to avoid some unnecessary loads for relocation.

3) Declutter and Donate

Like said earlier, sorting is the major excercise here, give away some unwanted properties as charity or get rid of them by burning them or selling them off. There is also eBay, so your options are plenty. If you have friends helping you with your move, ask them whether they need anything you’re planning to sell.

4) Do Not Exceed the Limit of 30 Pounds per Box

This is important when you moving abroad. You might get a back injury or one of the boxes might not be able to withstand the weight when moving it. Pack light items in large boxes and heavy items in small boxes. This packing tip alone will save you a great deal of pain… literally.

5) Use Plastic Bags for Spillable Items

It's best to pack little of the amount of liquid substance in a plastic bag so as to be easier for mobility, pack bottles of unscrewed cap. Afterwards, place a plastic bag over the neck of each bottle and screw the caps back on, It's a simple as that (winks).Zip the bag and secure it with packing tape. That way, if your bottle opens by accident, its contents would remain in the plastic bag.

You don’t always need scaffolding to replace guttering. If your home is a bungalow, the tradespeople might only need a ladder to replace your guttering. It’s when your home is two storeys or more that scaffolding is more necessary.

You might not need full scaffolding for a simple two-storey home. Guttering specialists use scaffold towers, which are the platforms you see underneath the scaffolding, where the installation is relatively straightforward. You might need scaffolding to replace guttering when there are obstructions to towers being used – for example, if you have a conservatory or the ground is very uneven. It's more likely that specialist roofline companies will use scaffold towers when necessary. Sole traders that replace guttering as part of their services may be comfortable using sturdy ladders.

There’s no legal requirement to say that you must have scaffolding when fitting guttering, but it is a good idea when working on homes rather than bungalows. If you’re unsure whether you need full scaffolding for your gutter replacement project, get a few quotes from reputable businesses of different sizes. If you’ve been quoted by one company that you need full scaffolding whereas everyone else says that only towers are needed, it’s likely that the job is perfectly safe to carry out with just towers.

It’s vital to purchase a solar panel system that suits your property. If you’re investing in a solar panel system, it makes the most financial sense to get the biggest one possible. However, whether you can do this or not depends on budget and space.

Here’s an idea of how much roof or ground space you’ll need to install a few different sizes of commercial solar panel system.

Solar panel system size, No. of solar panels, Approximate area required

11kW, 44, 64m²

20kW, 80, 116m²

30kW, 120, 173m²

40kW, 160, 231m²

50kW, 200, 288m²