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A front porch is a glorious addition that would be a blessing to have in any home. It gives you a good floor space to enjoy your neighbourhood as well as your surroundings in the cool atmosphere of the outside living space. The question however is, how do you build a porch? Constructing the structure can be a very challenging task but with proper guidance and lots of practice, you can also be a skilled porch builder. To protect your investment, it’s advisable to hire the services of a professional for help with your porch especially if you lack proper training and experience. This way, you’ll get to save time and money. This guide is prepared to give you some insight into the porch building process.

lAssess Your Location

• Consider the location before proceeding with the project. It’s essential to select a location that’ll reduce the sunlight coming in.

lPlan The Materials Required For Your Porch

• You’ll have to decide the type of porch you’ll be going for. For example, your porch can be built out of wood, composite decking or if it’s going to utilize some stone flooring, brick or even tile.

lBuild Your Porch Foundation

• Dig the foundations deep to ensure stability while also putting in mind any pipework or cabling

• Fit a damp proof course

• Add the subfloor - this can be concrete or timber

lStart To Lay The Brick And Floor

• Lay the bricks evenly up to the DPC level

• Lay the floor

• Add the flooring protection

• Once done, you can lay the bricks to the window level

• You can fit in a window sill if required before proceeding the brick and block work until it reaches the roof timber’s height

• Fit the linter when you get to the top of where the window will reach.

lConstruct The Roof

• Build a timber framework

• Fit a breathable roof membrane

• Install the roof battens and lay the roof tiles.

• Add gutters

Many types of loft are suitable for a loft conversion. In general, you will need at least 2.3 metres of headroom in your existing loft. This is to make sure there is enough headroom after the conversion. Speak to a conversion specialist about the probability and possibility of doing this in your house.

For 2 metre solid fences it’s recommended to use concrete posts to support each panel. For smaller 1 metre fences or for picket fences with gaps between each timber piece you can use timber posts. A fencing contractor will be able to advise you on the best materials from the length and requirements of a new fence.

If you’re currently experiencing some structural issues with your building or property and you’ve heard a thing or two about the several benefits associated with getting underpinning done, you may be wondering if underpinning might just be the answer to your worries. Well, one thing you should when it comes to underpinning is the fact that, while there are some structural issues that may actually warrant an underpinning job, there are also some situations that can not be fixed by underpinning. In this post, we’re going to consider the events whereby underpinning of your house will be required. Let’s take a look!

First and foremost, you should know that underpinning isn’t required for issues related to slab heave. Footing movements which are likely to reverse normally occur when the content of the soil moisture changes unevenly which gives rise to slab heave. This movement results for a reversible effect.

Generally, underpinning is done to remedy problems related with the movement of the footings of a building or property, but as stated above – not all movements require underpinning. So, when is underpinning required? More often than not, a situation that’s resolved by underpinning is the event whereby the footings of a building or structure drops or subside as a result of some reasons that are irreversible. For example, footing movements caused by a footing set on a soft or loose soil which may be irreversible.

In the event whereby the footings of your house haven’t been installed as deep as required during the initial construction, then you will need to have your building underpinned to make it more stable. If you’re also looking to increase the load on your foundation like adding another storey, you may also need to have your house underpinned to support the extra weight added.

The simple answer to this question is... they can be! Although there are many types of porch designs that are available in the market, the uPVC porch happens to be one of the most loved and cost effective. Most home and property owners prefer the installation of a uPVC porch for a number of reasons. These includes:

• Value for money

It’s no coincidence the uPVC is widely accepted across the building industry with a plethora of uses. Not only is it relatively inexpensive to manufacture, but even the recycled uPVC is now becoming more and more useful. UPVC’s main rivals are wood and aluminium, and both are way more expensive to incorporate for frame profiles. Therefore, making use of uPVC is going to make your initial costs relatively low.

• Life Span

Although the main rivals in both hardwood and aluminium can also boast a lengthy lifespan just as uPVC. However, considering the price that you can get a uPVC, the lifespan is just incredible as it can be measured in decades.

• Aesthetic Appeal

UPVC gives you a wide range of foil colours that’ll fit your home perfectly well while also enhancing it’s visual appeal. You can actually get a porch that looks exactly like it’s manufactured from timber frames. To achieve this, all you need to do would be to make use of a wood grain surface finish. This is also long lasting, strong and resistant to fade.

• Little Maintenance

This is a very common feature of uPVC that makes it even more advantageous when used in making a porch. Unlike timber or wood which swells due to absorption of water or shrinks, you’ll never need to worry about all these distortions and more with uPVC. No painting, no sanding and ultimately, low maintenance required.

If your basement has a cavity drain membrane, it’ll need a pump to move water away from the exterior of your basement and prevent flooding.

Sump pumps can be noisy, but they don’t have to be. Generally, if you have a well-designed pump that’s installed correctly, you shouldn’t find it a problem. For best results, hire a skilled, experienced professional to supply and install your drainage system.

How To Lay Loft Boards

Do you need more storage space in your home or property? If you live in a tiny space especially where extensions can’t be made sideways, why not look to the topmost area of your home and consider boarding out your loft to make it usable?

Boarding your loft can make for a fairly easy DIY project but like every other home improvement tasks, it requires some specific skill sets as well as knowledge for a successful construction. Therefore, we’d recommend you hire the services of a reliable professional in order to guarantee the best possible outcome, especially if you lack proper training or experience that’ll help you avoid some costly mistakes. Here, we’ll give you a good insight into the loft board laying procedures.

• Get The Right Tools & Equipment

The materials and supplies you’ll need to lay loft boards include loft boards, screws, tape measure and pencil, drill, hammer, saw, protective gear such as gloves and dust mask.

• Work Out The Area

Measure up the area you need the boards to cover. The standard loft features two different sizes (both are 18mm thick) which include 2400mm x 600mm and 1220mm x 320mm. You should ensure that the board you opt for fits through the loft hatch perfectly.

• Start Laying

Once you’re done working out the area, the next step is to put on your protective gear and start putting the boards in place. You should lay the boards in a staggered pattern so as to give a better strength. While doing this, watch out for any wire running through your loft so they don’t get trapped, you should also cut the boards for easy access to the light fittings’ top.

• Make It Permanent

Upon the successful placement of the boards in a way that offer a safe area to store things and stand on, you’ll have to screw them in place. Start by drilling 2 or 5 holes along the edge of individual boards in such a way that lines up with the centre of the joist below. Once done, then you can fix them in place with screws.

Storage space is a major consideration for most home buyers and even more so, when there’s the presence of fitted wardrobes. Fitted wardrobes can be installed in just about any room in the house and even in rather obscure places such as under the stairs, inside a loft, around chimneys as well as into alcoves. As a result, they’re important assets to have as they can go a long way to increase the value of your home or property.

Fitted wardrobes are usually made from various types of woods as well as wood finishes. Typically, they’re installed with either sliding or hinged doors depending on the space as well as the styling you opt for. Fitted wardrobes can be personalized through the addition of elegant features such as custom lighting, mirrors as well as internal extras like pull out shoe racks and pull down hanging rails.

For high end customized fitted wardrobe like Sharps, the best quality, most practical and also robust materials are being incorporated. They make use of the following materials given below:

✓ Fibreboard. This is a modern material that’s used for its ability to produce a smooth routed and detailed design. It’s also very solid and robust which makes it perfect for large furniture pieces as they don’t warp or dent. What’s more? Fibreboards meets the European forestry sustainability standards and it also allows for the board to be profiled with a top notch finish.

✓ Particleboard. This material is used for the parts of the furniture which will normally be cut in your home like facings and side panels. Due to it’s lightweight, they’re very easy to cut and doesn’t produce as much dust as other materials. The material is also a highly controllable contemporary material which can be precisely cut arounf skirting boards, covings as well as period features to ensure a perfect fit.