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With the prices of buying a house skyrocketing, many of us are tempted to building our own house. This is sometimes an excellent choice, but you will first need to understand the costs of building a house from scratch. As per a general estimate, the cost of self-build ranges between £300 per m2 to £3,000 per m2.

As you can see, this is quite a variation in price from lowest to highest. Location is a prime factor in determining the costs. Building a house in London and the South is more expensive compared to other regions. Aside from location, several other factors make up the price.

Self-manage with subcontractors

You hire professionals directly like builders and carpenters. You also buy all the materials yourself allowing you to get the best prices.

Hiring a main contractor with other subcontractors

You will first need a main contractor who will help to create the watertight structure for your house. For the rest of the work, try hiring out subcontractors. Make sure that you buy all the materials yourself to get the best price.

External cladding materials

If you are looking to install other external material other than brick, you will also need to factor in the cost for the same.

Here are some example prices:

• Render on blockwork costs around £25 per m²

• Timber cladding is around £25 per m²

• Hand¬made all-weather tiling costs around £54 per m²

• Rubble walling or flint is around £90 per m²

• Reconstituted stone costs about £48 per m²

• Natural stone is about £75 per m²

Make sure to include these costs when coming up with the estimate.

Roofing materials

Non-standard roofing materials tend to add more to the cost and therefore you will also need to account in for this factor.

Here are some examples:

Welsh slate – £60 per m²

Second-hand slates – £35 per m²

Handmade clay tiles – £65 per m²

Reed thatch – £80/m²

If you choose to add any unique material to your roofing, be sure that you remember to factor in its cost.

Tesla’s top-of-the-range battery storage system is still one of the most expensive on the market. It has a huge 13.5kWh usable capacity and can even keep you up and running during a power cut. But how long does a Tesla Powerwall battery last? And does this mean it’s worth investing in one?

The Tesla Powerwall 2.0 comes with a 10-year warranty. But Tesla says that it should last way beyond this – at least 5 years longer. The standard warranty says that it should work at 70% capacity for the full 10 years – so if it loses more than 30% of its storage capacity within that time, it should still be covered.

While the Tesla Powerwall does last a long time, it has a large capacity that most average households won’t require, and it’s a costly option. After installation, the Powerwall 2.0 will set you back between £6,500 and £9,000, so ideally you want it to last past its 10-year warranty.

Before you splash out, consider the size of the solar panel system you want to install or you already have. Will it generate enough electricity to make it worth storing in the Powerwall? If not, are you expecting to upgrade your solar panels to a larger system in the future? If you are, then it might be worth investing in a Powerwall. It might also be better to wait until you come to upgrade your solar panels – the solar battery price trend is going the same way as solar panels, so they will probably continue to decrease in price as more people adopt the technology.

Do you notice your sink is taking ages to drain or perhaps you’re perceiving a funny smell oozing from it? You don’t have to panic as this is most definitely a blockage. Unblocking your drain requires just a little effort and chances are, you might not need to reach out to a professional. This blockage may be in your home’s internal or external drains but so far the the drain is within your property, it’s entirely your responsibility to make sure that they are well maintained and repaired (if the need arises).

Generally, outside drain problems are more likely to be harder to fix when compared to your average blocked sink. But it isn’t impossible should you have the relevant tools as well as knowledge. In this post, we’re going to consider a safe and effective approach to unblock a drain outside. Let’s take a look!

1. Pull the cover off the drain. This may require the use of a flat head screwdriver to remove the drain’s cover. If that isn’t working, you can try tying a rope around the cover to give you a good coverage
2. Identify the blockage. This is usually messy, but you simply have to do it if you wish to save some money. Simply reach down to remove as many of the blockage that you can reach as possible. This will make it easier for you to remove the rest with a drain rod
3. Use the drain rod. Simply put the drain rod inside and apply pressure. You’ll have to twist the rod in a clockwise direction to get into the blockage. Depending on how big or stubborn the drain is, it may take a while to get through it.

Are you interested in opening up the back of your home during the summer months? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a cool way to beautify your home and add more value to it. Patio doors offer you a great means to achieve your goals and even more so, with a plethora of styles you can choose from. So if you’ve decided to to install patio doors in your home, you’d probably also want to know exactly how much they cost so you can set a budget and start planning.

Generally, depending on the type of patio doors you wish to have installed, be it bifold, French or sliding doors, the price can vary within the range of £400 to £5,000.

There are a number of influencing factors that can play a huge role in the determination of the total cost of patio doors when looking to have them installed. These factors include: the type of patio door, choice of material, size of the door as well as double or triple gazing.

Based on the type of patio door, the cost of various patio door styles are given below:

• Bifold Patio Doors

The cost of bifold doors is usually affected by the material as well as number of panels to be used. The potential cost is usually within the range of £1,200 to £3,000 upwards.

• French Patio Doors

French patio doors when installed with aluminium frames are often very expensive. They’re mostly used with uPVC at the new build homes’ rear in the UK. The potential cost is usually within the range of £800 to £3,000.

• Sliding Patio Doors

These are usually made from aluminium, wood or uPVC. With wood being mostly used for internal doors. The potential cost is usually within the range of £700 to £3,000.

Garden slabs are a joy to behold but only when done the right way. Well, the installation of paving slabs shouldn’t be exceed digging a little here and there, buying a small amount of mortar and pressing down the garden slab, right? Absolutely not! But we must admit how great it would have been if only it were that easy in real life. Let’s be honest, in reality, laying garden slabs does not only require you to prepare your sub-base painstakingly and mix your mortar using the appropriate materials, but you’d also have to work with accurate and precise paver placements to guarantee the patio’s longevity. Consequently, this happens to be a stressful and quite tricky challenge. If you lack the required confidence to pull this off, we’d recommend you hire the services of a seasoned professional who can guarantee the best results and also save you time and extra cash that may result from possible costly errors. In this guide, you’d gain more insight into the garden slabs laying process.

To get started, you’ll need sharp sand, cement, shovel, wheelbarrow, pointing trowel, rubber mallet, spirit level, jointing compound, hard-bristled brush and tarpaulin.

1. Mix a layer of mortar for each paver.
2. Apply the mixed mortar onto the sub base by using the trowel.
3. Slot the first flag in place and ensure not to stain the paver’s surface with the mixed mortar.
4. Using a rubber mallet, carefully tap the paver to the mortar bed. Once done, ensure the surface is even with a spirit level.
5. Take a measurement of the gap between the pavers
6. Repeat the above steps until all pavers have been perfectly laid
7. Leave the pavers to dry for about 1 to 2 days. You can protect it using a tarpaulin if concerned about rain.
8. Use the jointing compound to fill up the paver gaps to bind together the pavers. Ensure to wipe off any excess compound using the hard-bristled brush.

Cockroaches, bedbugs, fleas, mice, rats, mosquitoes, spiders, squirrels and moths are just a few of the long list of pests that home and property owners have to battle with on a regular basis. Failure to hire the services of a professional pest control will not only heighten your worries about your property potentially getting damaged, but you may also be faced with serious health issues if care is not taken.

We all know these pests are everywhere, they’re scavengers digging through ash cans, dirt and even sewage lines to find food. And as a result, they are able to carry and transfer different disease-causing allergens as well as bacteria. If you live or work in a building that’s infested with pests then you’re automatically predisposed to facing various health issues. These could come in form of skin rashes, allergies, respiratory problems and more. With all these aforementioned terrific impact of pest infestation, the importance of getting a professional pest control simply cannot be overemphasized.

If you wish to hire a pest control professional, then you may also be worried about the price. Well, generally, pest control prices offered will largely vary based on a plethora of factors. These factors include where you reside, the kind of pest you want to remove, the scale of one’s infestation, the number of visits you require, the pest control company you hire as well as how large your home is. Generally, if you’re dealing with spider infestation in a four bedroom house, you can expect to pay within the range of £200 to £230 to have the spiders controlled. Meanwhile the price for the control of cockroach in the same house will cost within the range of £230 to £260. Overall, you can expect to pay within the range of £80 to £350 depending on the factors earlier stated.

In recent times, more and more home and property owners are starting to come to terms with the large returns and little investment in cavity wall insulation provides. For a relatively little amount you can achieve a lot, from an increase in your home’s energy efficiency and reduction in heating bills to a huge boost in your property’s resale value and lots more. This makes you wonder how an ordinary insulation can help you achieve so much, right? Well, you’re definitely not alone! Several other potential investors are also eager to know exactly how the cavity wall insulation works to deliver all these juicy benefits. In this post, we’re going to go provide you with a detailed insight on how cavity wall insulation works. Let’s take a look!

Typically, cavity wall insulation works as acting as a shield which prevents the escape of heat from your home. It features a reflective surface which serves as a barrier to reflect heat from one side of the panel, effectively minimizing the amount of heat conduction that escapes through. This protection of your home from heat penetration comes with a couple of benefits with the obvious one being an incredible thermal efficiency. An insulated home or property is able to maintain a much more balanced temperature throughout the year – staying a lot cooler during the summer months and retain the heat generated during the winter months. However, a less talked about benefit is the fact that when an insulation is done during the construction of a house, the whole development phase can be completed a lot quicker. This is mainly because insulation offers total protection against weather conditions which enables internal trades to continue without the need to wait for brickwork or cladding to be completed.

For most homeowners, rewiring a house is always a sore subject they’d prefer to avoid especially when they think of the expenses they’d have to incur or the mess and complexity that the project involves. However, this is a subject we’d all have to face sooner or later as an old wiring poses a lot of drawbacks, while an improper wiring can also prove to be more expensive and even cause more damage as it can lead to not only electrical shorts but also electrical fires. When a wire triggers a spark or a current overload, this can cause fire and the entire house may be down in ashes within a couple of minutes. Hence, one of the several reasons why house rewiring is just too important to ignore.

In this FAQ, we’re going to take you through the house rewiring process so as to ensure that your project is done to perfection. However, if you do not feel confident enough to pull this off, we’d strongly recommend you get in touch with a reliable electrical professional who can guarantee that a safe and effective work is done.

• Firstly, you’d have to upgrade the main service panel to a minimum of 100 amps
• Fit dedicated circuits in the service panel for all the home’s major appliances.
• Allow for a space of about 6 to 8 feet between electrical outlets throughout the house in order to cut out the need to run extension cords which could be a fire hazard.
• Install only three-prong type to avoid electrical shocks when fitting new outlets.
• Using ground fault circuit interrupters, fit outlets in the bathrooms, kitchen as well as outdoors. These outlets will shut themselves out so as to prevent electrical shock when wet.