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Some power tools, including those commonly used at home do not have an earth wire. They are still safe to use though, if you let the tool do the work and follow the advice that follows. Here are the leading “do’s” and “don’ts” of power tools
Do not ever …
• force a tool to do the work
• use an under-rated power source or extension cable
• continue working when a cable overheats
• adjust a power tool without first unplugging it
• ignore strange noises from a power tool
• allow pets or children to distract you while you work
• work in an unbalanced or awkward position
• remove or disable a safety guard
Never ever (and I mean ever) …
• ignore a damaged cable
• work in the damp or rain
• work in bare feet
• stand in water with a power tool plugged in
• work without safety gear where this is required
 Always …
• keep your power tools clean
• inspect a power tool before you use it, every time
• make sure your work is securely held
• keep both hands on the power tool at all times
• make sure that you have a firm footing
• have in mind what happens if a power tool should slip
• think before you turn on a power tool
Do not ever attempt to do a job that is beyond your capabilities or the capacity of your personal power tools. Hiring power tools can be dangerous, and handymen in London seldom do. Rather ask for handyman quotes on Mr-Skill, and find a handyman to do advanced work safely for you.
Tags: adjust, cable, earth, find a handyman, force a tool, handyman quotes, handymen london, noises, power tool, powertool, safe, safe practice, safety, safety gear, safety guard, under-rated
Posted in Handyman Services, Project Advice | Comments Off
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Cleaning Services, Disposals & Waste Removal, Electrical Work, Gardening & Landscaping, General Building, Handyman Services, Kitchen Fitting, Locksmith, Moving Homes & Hauliers, Other Craftsman Services, Painting & Decorating, Planning & Consulting, Plastering & Drywall, Plumbing, Heating & Gas, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage, Tiling & Flooring, Window & Door Fitting on Oct 16
 The insurance company Aviva recently conducted a survey amongst their clients which dispelled the myth that “White Van Man” was no more than an urban thug.
Tradesmen in London are the smartest, sexiest and most successful drivers on the road their research showed, with over 70% having an interest in politics and current affairs.
Smart Tradesmen in London
Over half of the white van drivers surveyed said that they regularly read books, compared to one-in-ten sports car owners.
Sexy Tradesmen in London
Most of the white van drivers questioned responded that they like to keep themselves in shape and pursued some form of outdoor leisure activity.
Successful Tradesmen in London
Half of all van drivers were the boss of their own business, as compared to 83% of sports car drivers who work for someone else.
Nigel Bartram, motoring expert at Aviva, who carried out the survey, said: “It’s great to prove what we already knew – van drivers are switched on and enterprising! Gone are the days of the traditional white van man stereotype. What our research shows is that van drivers are entrepreneurial and responsible. This is why we have tailored direct motor insurance to cater for the 21st century van driver.”
With half of van drivers opting to fix household appliances when they break rather than ask for help, they are also the handiest to have at home. After a hard day’s work, a tradesman in London is more likely to catch a news bulletin or documentary than anything else on the box and, out of all drivers questioned, is the least likely to watch reality TV.
Sofeminine.co.uk added a female perspective to the results of the survey with the comment that “A white van driver may not be so likely to have a degree, but he has a big package” – So much for stereotypes!
For a deeper look into the psyche of a white van driver tradesman in London, visit the Social Issue Research Centre web site, who produced a quite eye-opening and humorous insight into this social phenomenon, and concluded that in order to change their image, tradesmen in London should paint their vans a different colour!
Tags: Find a Tradesman in London, insurance, Research, Social Issues, Survey, Tradesmen´s Directory, transit van, Van Driver
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Cleaning Services, Disposals & Waste Removal, Electrical Work, Gardening & Landscaping, General Building, Handyman Services, Kitchen Fitting, Locksmith, Moving Homes & Hauliers, Other Craftsman Services, Painting & Decorating, Planning & Consulting, Plastering & Drywall, Plumbing, Heating & Gas, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage, Tiling & Flooring, Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
 Nearly half a million pounds of lottery funding has been allocated to support Age Concern´s “Men in Sheds” scheme, a program aimed at supporting men over the age of 55 who have been affected by life-changing events – such as bereavement and redundancy – and providing an opportunity to socialise and learn practical skills from each other in a supportive environment.
A pilot scheme, launched earlier this year in Cheshire, was based on the Australian model “Mensheds”, which has received worldwide acclaim for its innovation and the value to over-55´s of integrating back into the community after a major trauma in their lives.
John Standing from the scheme has said that men over the age of 55 are welcome to work on projects at the charities warehouse. “They make things and share resources and skills to help each other. It is also a great way for them to access other services which may be useful to them”.
Alex Major of Age Concern Cheshire highlighted the need for more projects involving older men: ‘There are a lot of projects for older people, but they mainly appeal to women and men can feel left out.’ The pilot project had 20 members who helped the charity in the area with jobs such as repairing furniture and minor DIY tasks. Ken Clemens, also of Age Concern Cheshire, said: ‘The atmosphere in the shed is very informal with men coming together to do activities such as wood working, producing items that are sold to help support the work of the shed – or just to socialise and share time with other men.’
Initially, the scheme in Greenwich is the only one planned for the immediate future in the London area, but Age Concern are monitoring the success of “Men in Sheds” and hoping it can be spread nationwide in the near future.
If you are a retired handyman in South London and would like to learn more about the scheme, details are expected to be posted soon on the News pages of the Age Concern web site, or you can call Age Concern Greenwich on 08452 707 507
Tags: Age Concern, AgeUK, DIY, find a handyman in London, Handyman Services, Lottery funding, Sheds, Tradesmen´s Directory
Posted in Gardening & Landscaping, General Building, Handyman Services, Painting & Decorating | Comments Off
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Cleaning Services, Disposals & Waste Removal, Electrical Work, Gardening & Landscaping, General Building, Handyman Services, Kitchen Fitting, Locksmith, Moving Homes & Hauliers, News, Other Craftsman Services, Painting & Decorating, Planning & Consulting, Plastering & Drywall, Plumbing, Heating & Gas, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage, Tiling & Flooring, Window & Door Fitting on Oct 16
 The cost of DIY bodge-ups according to the Clydesdale Bank Research from the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks has revealed that bodged DIY jobs in the home cost homeowners £235 million to put right last year.
The recent survey was conducted amongst two thousand of the banks´ customers and showed that over a quarter had experienced a DIY disaster within the past twelve months.
With one in ten respondents having to pay up to £500 to get their mistakes fixed, a spokesman for the Clydesdale Bank commented that while DIY may be a great way to save money, it is important to have the correct tools and right set of skills to avoid a job around the home becoming a very expensive exercise.
The bank estimates that nearly 5 million people across the country ended up paying for DIY mistakes after they attempted to do DIY jobs such as decorating, plumbing or gardening. Instead of wishing you had never started a job that is ultimately going to cost you a lot of money, why not consult Mr Skill´s Tradesmen’s Directory and benefit from the financial advantages of using a London tradesman.
Tags: decorating, DIY, Find a Tradesman in London, fix, Home Improvements, Home Maintenance, Mr Skill, Plumbing, tools, Tradesmen´s Directory
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Cleaning Services, Disposals & Waste Removal, Electrical Work, Gardening & Landscaping, General Building, Handyman Services, Kitchen Fitting, Locksmith, Moving Homes & Hauliers, News, Other Craftsman Services, Painting & Decorating, Planning & Consulting, Plastering & Drywall, Plumbing, Heating & Gas, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage, Tiling & Flooring, Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
Quite frequently, an older house may have a basement lying dormant. If the owner knows that it exists at all, then they often just fill it up with junk. Other basements are completely forgotten places, even though it would cost £100’s to build equivalent new space.
 o The single most important point is access. If you cannot get to the basement from the house itself, the chances are that you will not use it properly, and may waste your money. A spiral staircase is a popular space-saving solution. If mobility is an issue, consider a conventional staircase with wheelchair-assist, or a mini-lift.
o Damp is another very important consideration. If you are in doubt, find a tradesman at Mr-Skill and ask for their estimation.
o Get rid off all the junk, and clean the basement out completely. Then paint everything white, including the floors and ceiling. Suddenly everything looks brighter and larger too, and you can begin to plan. At this stage, I recommend you consult a designer to get ideas.
 o What shall you use the extra space for? A family room, a study or a pub? The possibilities are endless. Now draw up your plans, and have them approved by the local council before proceeding. Tradesmen in London will refuse to do a thing without this, because otherwise they know that they will be chasing moving targets. When you are ready to begin, do not take chances. Find a tradesman recommended by Mr Skill.
Remember to advise your insurer of the change and have your policy updated. After that, you can move your furniture in, and enjoy your bigger home.
Tags: access, approve, basement, clean, council, damp, design, designer, dormant, empty, family room, find a tradesman, insurer, junk, lift, paint, plans, policy, pub, spiral staircase, study, tradesman quotes, tradesmen london, wasted, wheelchair-assist
Posted in General Building, General Building, Handyman Services, Handyman Services, Inspirations, Painting & Decorating, Plastering & Drywall | Comments Off
 The Chief Executive of Travis Perkins – the parent company for Wickes – has commented that the spending cuts announced by the government could actually be a good thing for the DIY retail section. Speaking after announcing a group growth of 7%, Geoff Cooper said that at a time home owners are feeling uncertain about the impact the spending cuts will have on them, home owners will be looking to improve the appeal and value of their home through DIY projects and by using local tradesmen for more home improvements.
Wickes currently has 190 stores throughout the UK – with 34 located in the London area – and Mr Cooper put the company´s growth to their range of products being competitively priced to attract business from London tradesmen amongst others.
His optimistic comments were backed up by the latest “Money Mood Survey” from Legal & General which found that 60% of those questioned were actively saving for the future during the last month. One of the biggest categories that people were saving for was home improvements, with the survey showing that the fear of job losses and difficult economic times are forcing people to reconsider how they spend their money.
If you are one of the many people re-assessing how to make the most of your home, we suggest that you use our “Post-a-Job” facility to get tradesman quotes on the jobs you would like to give priority to, or contact a local tradesman in London through our Tradesmen´s Directory.
Tags: DIY, Find a Tradesman in London, Handyman Services, Home Maintenance, save money, spending cuts, tradesmen quotes, Tradesmen´s Directory, travis perkins, wickes
Posted in Electrical Work, General Building, Handyman Services, Kitchen Fitting | Comments Off
 As reported in many trade journals, the Health and Safety Executive and the Building Control Alliance have signed an agreement to work more closely to improve health and safety standards on construction sites. The arrangement means that the HSE and building control professionals will co-operate to help and support each other by providing health and safety advice to on-site builders in London.
Philip White, HSE’s chief inspector of construction, was quoted as saying “Today’s agreement does not change a duty holder’s responsibility to protect workers health and safety, but has created another opportunity to get potentially life-saving advice to those responsible for health and safety standards on construction sites.” Meanwhile Diane Marshall, group head of building control at NHBC, was equally as gushing -“Building Control professionals are ideally placed to raise awareness of health and safety issues on construction sites during the course of their inspections. This agreement creates a mechanism for Building Control professionals to discharge their professional duty of care in a simple and straightforward manner by working closely with our HSE colleagues.”
However, builders in London, although keen to make any health and safety improvements in their industry were not so enthusiastic about the proposals. Commenting in the online builder.co.uk magazine, Colin McNeil wrote –
“Great, another feather in the cap for the great and good who govern Building Control, when was the last time that any of these people went on site? So as a Building Control Surveyor you are supposed to have good technical knowledge of Structures and structural stability, have a intimate knowledge of fire safety and means of escape, thermal performance and CO2 emissions and access into and around buildings for people with disabilities, a comprehensive knowledge of damp protection and prevention of water ingress, methods of preventing sound transfer, drainage systems and knowledge of staircases and guardings. Together with a good knowledge of boiler systems and building services generally, Then there are the requirements to check planning conditions etc all this for the generous salary of about £30000 to £35000 a year. (sic)”
It does seem to be that building control surveyors already have enough on their plates, and with three new sets of building regulations coming into force this week will find it difficult to integrate health and safety regulations into their already overloaded schedules. Maybe Mr White and Ms Marshall should get their patent leather shoes out of their ivory towers and have a look at what actually goes on at ground level.
Tags: builder, Building Control, building regulations, CO2 emissions, Construction, Construction Safety, damp proofing, drainage system, Find a Builder in London, General Builders, health, Health & Safety Executive, safety standards, thermal performance
Posted in General Building, Handyman Services | Comments Off
 Depending on which source of history you choose to quote from, the phrase “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics” is either attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, Mark Twain or Leonard H Courtney (later president of the Royal Statistical Society), but as far as builders in London are concerned, there seems to be no accurate guide to what contractors get paid these days.
A report by Hays Construction which is quoted on the builder.co.uk web site, states that average pay in London has decreased by 8% with almost one in five companies reducing the pay of their staff, whereas Construction News Insight produced their own report showing a 0.4% pay increase amongst London builders.
Writing in Construction News, former Bank of England monetary policy committee member David Blanchflower said: “The official UK construction employment data remain a puzzle. It may well be that many of the construction jobs were held by workers from Eastern Europe who have now returned home. Many of these workers were not covered in the official counts and if so then the decline in employment may well be understated.”
In contrast to Mr Blanchflower´s words, the Office of National Statistics reported that for the year ended 31st March 2010, 234.000 jobs were lost in the construction industry. Maybe the Eastern Europeans could not make head or tail of the figures either!
Tags: builder, conditions, Construction, contractor, Find a Builder in London, London, pay, statistics
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Electrical Work, General Building, Handyman Services, Painting & Decorating, Plastering & Drywall, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage | Comments Off
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Electrical Work, General Building, Handyman Services, Plastering & Drywall, Plumbing, Heating & Gas, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage, Tiling & Flooring, Window & Door Fitting on Sep 15
 According to research conducted by Saga Personal Finance, more than a third of UK homeowners over 50 say that their homes are in need of repair, and an alarming one in seven state that they cannot afford to fix their problems.
London appears to be the worst hit area, with 42% of respondents from the capital saying that their houses needing some sort of repair, with the most common complaints being inadequate roofing, blocked gutters, and failed central heating systems – jobs that the elderly are unable to do themselves and need a handyman in London to perform.
The findings disclose that as many as one in five women over 50 living on their own are forced to let their homes deteriorate as they cannot afford to make the necessary repairs, whilst over half have to reluctantly dig into savings, as their pensions are inadequate to cover the cost of home maintenance.
Although Saga Personal Finance suggest that the way forward for these London homeowners is to take out equity release on their homes, we would suggest that anybody requiring a home roofing repair or central heating service done before the winter sets in should use the “Post-a-Job” facility at the top of the page to attract quotes from tradesmen in London and get the best deal to prevent your London home from falling apart.
Tags: Central Heating, find a Heating Engineer in London, Find a Roofer in London, find a tradesmen, Guttering, Guttering & Drainage, Heating Engineers, Home Maintenance, home repairs, Roofing, tradesmen london, tradesmen quotes
Posted in Bricklaying, Carpentry & Joinery, Electrical Work, General Building, Handyman Services, Plastering & Drywall, Plumbing, Heating & Gas, Roofing, Gutters & Drainage, Tiling & Flooring, Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
There is a little confusion amongst homeowners and DIY enthusiasts about what can and can´t be done in terms of electrical work in the home. Although it is always best to refer to a qualified electrician in London, there are a number of jobs you can still do by yourself without having to seek approval from your Local Authority Building Control.
 Change white electrical switches, sockets etc. and replace with decorative finishes- Replace or repair a socket, light or cable in any room Add extra spurs, sockets or lights to an existing circuit (except in a kitchen, bathroom, or outdoors)
- Fit or replace an electric shower, cooker, garage doors or gates (unless a new circuit is needed)
- Install CE marked prefabricated modular kitchen lighting systems to an existing connection unit or socket outlet
- Install security lighting or air-conditioning to the outside wall of the house provided that there are no exposed outdoor connections (unless a new circuit is needed)
Instances where you do need to get Building Control approval include:-
- Adding new circuits to your existing installation
- Any work (other than repairs or replacements) in a room where there is water (e.g. kitchen, bathroom, etc.)
- Any work (other than repairs or replacements) outdoors (e.g. installing garden lighting or sockets, etc.)
- Replacing a consumer unit
- Installing new central heating control wiring
- Installing a socket outlet on an external wall
It is strongly recommended that any electrical work you carry out yourself is checked by a registered electrician in London to ensure your safety and also that it complies with Part P of the Building Regulations.
It is also advisable that you familiarise yourself with the cable colour changes that were introduced in 2006 – particularly if working on an older property which may still have the original wiring. You can > Click Here < to download the IET guide to the new cable colours or consult with one of the local electricians in London featured in our Tradesmen´s Directory.
Tags: bathroom, Building Control, building regulations, Building Regulations Part P, cable, cable colours, Central Heating, Electrical Work, Electricians in London, Find an Electrician in London, lighting, plug, Plumbing, socket
Posted in Electrical Work, Handyman Services | Comments Off
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