Megablab Home Improvement

Water damage can be a huge risk to your home. It can be caused by leaks, floods, overflowing water supplies, ice dams on the roof, an increase of water in the basement, or leaking home devices which use water. A number of these damages are simply visible, but others are not simply noticeable.

Keeping a regular check on your home is essential; as this means that you can establish the cause of a leak instantly and lessen the water damages that may occur to your property. They can lead to huge damages to different parts of your house if unnoticed.

Below are suggestions to assist you in checking your home for water damage: Read the rest of this entry »

Fire retardant systems have been examined over many years but it is probably true to say that more effort has been placed in fire prevention or fire fighting systems. In fact the best systems obviously contain all three systems, ideally any fire should be prevented if possible but that will never be achievable although there can be severe reductions. However in many cases fires get out of hand before the fire fighting systems can be properly deployed.

The resultant damage can be catastrophic and extremely expensive. In many cases the slowing down of a fire can be carried out to such an extent that the fire fighting services can be fully deployed before the fire takes serious hold of the situation and a major problem is reduced to a minimum. Fischer has found a niche market in putting fire retardant systems into buildings that can save a serious problem.

A fire on its own starts in one room or area and the problem becomes extreme when the fire expands and spreads to other rooms. The vulnerable point for spreading a fire is through the doors or through service channels and it is in this area that Fischer has put their energies. Fires often start low but the heat rises and the service trunking and piping is the first point where the fire first tries to spread. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiling is one of those DIY subjects that can be intimidating to the aspiring home improver. However, with a little thought and patience, it can be a simple and rewarding task, requiring only a few basic tools and your spare time. Below are some tips to help you in the process.

* Please don’t consider tiling over existing tiles. Not only will you loose wall space, but the fix will not be as good as when adhering to a more porous surface.

* Make sure to remove all remnants of the old tiles before you begin. Protect yourself at all times during this phase with goggles and gloves, as tile chips easily and the fragments can fly everywhere! A powered chisel will aid in this process (these can be rented if you don’t own one). Read the rest of this entry »

The Fischer Intumescent Putty Pads are now supplying a completely different approach to the fire protection by closing areas where fire can get through and spread to cause a major conflagration instead of a small blaze. It is probably more accurate to call it a fire reduction or restriction product but whatever it is called it has the potential to reduce the problems significantly.

A fire which has developed in a modern building will generally be small unless it has the ability to track through holes or channels across a building. Unfortunately in most buildings there are many channels and holes, which promote draughts and allow a fire to spread quickly.

One of the major areas is the electrical system and the typical electrical socket on the wall is one of the most vulnerable. Electrical fires whilst uncommon are not unknown and the damage can be enormous, it can happen in the wiring up to the socket or it can occur in the socket box itself particularly if a wire was to come loose or there was a wire with cut insulation that could cause a spark. Read the rest of this entry »

There are plenty of home projects to take care of if you have an understanding of how to complete them. This article contains tips to help you with any project you may be considering tackling. Take the time to absorb this knowledge and use it to get the best effect.

Gutters are often the culprit in drainage problems, especially if you have had a particularly rainy season. Slow or stopped up rain gutters resulting in rain water leaking straight down the side of your property is in fact one of the primary factors behind leaks inside the basement. Make a habit of cleaning your gutters to avoid this problem.

An excellent method for improving the safety of your home is to pad sharp furniture. Either a corner protector or foam tape from your local hardware store will help curb the effects of any sharp edges. As well, tape down any loose wiring, which could strangle your child. Read the rest of this entry »

As a builder I see many rooms that have succumbed to the effects of damp. Cracked walls, leaky roofs, poor insulation all lead to this most annoying issue. While it seems a daunting task to erase such a problem, it’s actually a pretty painless task.

One such case I recently had to deal with was an old 1960′s bungalow kitchen. This is the kind of building that pre-dated cavity wall insulation (or indeed, insulation of any kind including the roof), and had internal walls that were primarily formed using an inch thick drywall. While this was a much better system than the earlier plaster and lath way of doing things (hundreds of wooden slats with plaster laid on top), it still presented its own issues. Read the rest of this entry »

The kitchen just might be the most popular room in any home. Even though its main purpose is for cooking and preparing meals, it often becomes the social hub during family gatherings, meals and parties. Most modern kitchens these days have kitchen extractor fans or, if a kitchen is undergoing renovation or an upgrade, a kitchen extractor fan is surely in the budget and on the list to be installed. And while tile choices, sinks and stovetops might be more obvious and glamorous things to be thinking about in a new kitchen, it’s worth putting thought into the smaller – but no less important – details like fans. With that in mind, let’s look at the things to consider when purchasing and installing a extractor fan. Read the rest of this entry »

If you don’t have much time to spend redecorating, you don’t want the upheaval or you can’t afford the expense of a whole new bathroom, here are some quick and easy ideas you can implement to give your bathroom a bit of a lift in a jiffy!

You can buy some fabulous cheap bathroom wall tiles. It can be a big job re-tiling the whole bathroom but how about just replacing a few tiles with some really special ones? This works really well if your bathroom is currently tiled plain white. Removing tiles isn’t too tricky, it just takes a bit of patience as you have to be very careful not to damage the surrounding tiles. You could replace them with contrasting plain coloured tiles and you could then continue that colour theme with some new towels and a matching shower curtain. Or you could go for a pattern, blue and white Victorian designs, or something ultra modern, there are loads of choices available and as you’ll only be wanting a few you should be able to afford to buy any you like best. Read the rest of this entry »

Why Build a Chicken Roost?

I love scrambled eggs for breakfast. Especially if the eggs come fresh from the hens and haven’t spent weeks in the supermarket. So I keep a few hens in the back yard to enjoy this pleasure. Going out into the garden on a bright sunny morning I equally enjoy and would not miss it for anything in the world. Breathing the fresh air and smelling the flowers gives me an appetite and starts off my day on a beautiful note.

Alas my chickens have one problem – they taste too good. The fox being more of a night creature cannot get at them as they are locked up in the chicken shed. He does try some of the nights but he has not been successful and during the day he does not dare go near them. Read the rest of this entry »

To fix a crack in a basement wall there a few tools that needs to be gathered. The materials are quite simple; all that is needed is some masonry cement, water, six inch sheetrock knife, wheelbarrow, hoe, paintbrush, paint scraper, outdoor caulk, caulking gun, wire brush, primer, and paint. Be sure to take a piece of paint from the wall, to the paint store, in order to have it matched to the correct color.

Take a paint scraper and peel back any loose paint around the crack. Next take the wire brush and clean the area around the crack removing any dirt. Take the outdoor caulk and squirt it deep inside the crack; be sure it is smoothed out. Give the caulk twenty-four hours to dry. Read the rest of this entry »