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Posts Tagged ‘law<’
Posted in General Building on May 30
If you run your own business and are contemplating some general maintenance at your premises, then you need to determine the risks to your staff and customers carefully. This is because accidents do happen, even under controlled circumstances – and you could well find that you are on the wrong side of the law after the event.
Risk Management
Start by compiling a list of all the activities that are going to occur by way of general building maintenance.  Then, you must identify all significant hazards, and plan appropriate measures to reduce, and even avoid these risks. Your “risk list” will go a long way in supporting the fact that you took due cognisance, and even proposed control measures aimed at reducing risks to an acceptable level.
If you are inexperienced in these matters, rather find a general building company who are well versed in the law, and ask them to include risk management in their costing when they draw up their quote. However, the list of identified problems and proposed solutions should be quite specific, and not too general. This will indicate that you appointed a responsible general building company.
Issue Clear Instructions
Before you accept a general building quote, be sure to record your instructions properly. You can do this by entering a contractual agreement with your preferred builder. General builders will not shy away from fairly-worded contracts – indeed it is in their own interests to have them in place. 
Prime Your Staff and Warn Customers Too
Involve your staff from the outset so that they can buy into your vision. Explain in detail precisely what’s going to happen on a specific day and time, and get them to understand and agree to everything willingly. You must have their cooperation.
Similarly, you need to take reasonable measures to warn clients about events unfolding. Everybody likes to see a business prospering. Your regulars will be delighted to know that you are going to a lot of trouble to make their shopping experience safer and more pleasant.
As one of our regular London general builders says “Ensure that your risk assessment is sufficient in the eyes of the law – it needs to accurately reflect any significant hazards that lie ahead and then show that reasonable measures have been taken to avoid them.” Don’t forget the warning signage.
Tags: accident, assessment, business, clients, customers, danger, find a general builder, general building quote, general maintenance, hazard, law, London general builder, notices, revamp, risk, risk assessment, shop fitting, staff
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Posted in Carpentry & Joinery on Jun 20
The easiest way to put up a wooden fence these days is to set a few poles in concrete and attach pre-fabricated panels to them. In practice, there is a bit more to it than that though. In fact, unless you really do enjoy hard work, perhaps you  should Find a Carpenter instead? These are the basic steps involved.
o Contact your local council first to check out whether there are any rules involved, or whether you could be crossing over underground services. Obtain agreement from your local neighbours too – who knows, they might even decide to make a contribution.
o Select your fence panels first. Taking account of the spacing of the poles between, determine how many of each, and how many cross braces you will need. As a general rule, you will need one more upright than the total number of pre-fabricated sections, and three times as many cross braces as you have panels. Order this material in, plus enough bags of ready-mix concrete and enough screws, nuts, bolts and nails.
o Hammer in temporary corner pegs (use anything that comes to hand) and connect these with twine. After the inevitable discussion with the neighbours, lay the poles out on the ground at the correct spacings.  Begin at the more prominent corners, so that odd-sized panels are less obvious. Dig out holes for corner poles. If your ground is heavy, perhaps you should reconsider the decision not to get Carpenter Quotes?
o Set the corner posts into the holes, making sure that they are vertical and braced by scrap timber as need be. Fill the holes with concrete around them, and leave strictly alone for the next twenty four hours. The next day, stretch twine between the corner posts to ensure straight lines, dig the balance of the holes, and set the other posts in concrete too.
o Two days later, bolt the cross braces to the posts, making sure that they are perfectly horizontal. Attach the pre-fabricated panels as you go along so that you can see some actual progress.
That’s it really, although my mate who works for Carpenters in London refuses to believe that amateurs could the job themselves. I say they probably could, presuming that they are not perfectionists, and are determined, fit, energetic and strong.
Tags: bolt, brace, carpenter london, carpentry quote, concrete, corner, council, cross brace, dig, earth, fence, fence panel, find a carpenter, ground, heavy, horizontal, law, nail, neighbour, panel, peg, prefabricate, rule, screw, service, set, spacing, twine, upright, vertical
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Posted in Handyman Services on Jun 13
A handyman is a great ally in an emergency. This is because they are often available at immediate notice and should charge less that a qualified person.  By all means Find a Handyman and use them for replacing taps and changing fuses. Never use them for highly skilled work where a licensed person is required though, because this might lead to trouble in several ways.
o You are breaking the law if you allow a non-registered technician to alter the electrical layout in your home or lay a new drain. There are practical reasons for this, including compatibility with council services. Stick to the rules and stay out of trouble.
o You could be compromising your health and safety and that is a foolish thing to do to save a few pounds. A badly sloping drain can cause germs to accumulate that cause sickness. What’s worse reversed polarity on a switch could kill. Play it safe. Remain legal.
o  An illegal piece of work that triggers an insurable event can lead to a refusal by the insurer to compensate, and this is happening daily. Imagine how you would feel if your house burned down because of an illegal connection and they refused to pay. Penny wise, pound foolish is the motto of many Handymen in London. Better you believe this.
It is far wiser to determine whether you need a skilled and registered tradesperson to do a job of work first, before considering a Handyman Quote. Besides, at Mr-Skill our tradespeople often come in at a third below prevailing prices, which may well make up the difference.
Tags: burn, council, drain, electric, emergency, find a handyman, fuse, germ, handyman, handyman london, handyman quote, health, illegal, insurance, insure, kill, law, license, polarity, qualified, reason, refuse, register, rule, safety, service, sickness, skilled, tap, technician, trouble, wire
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Posted in Electrical Work on Jun 06
 Now that the United Kingdom is in the full flight of glorious Summer and May Flies are here, it is time to be out in the garden after supper to enjoy the stars. Be careful though in case it is dark and you could trip. If this possibility exists, why not ask several providers on Mr-Skill to put in Electrician Quotes with suggestions on how to improve your outdoor illumination for you.
o The first decision to make is how you are going to power up your system. Solar-powered lighting has many advantages, including a tiny-eco-footprint and simplicity of installation. On the down-side batteries radically restrict output, and there are those that argue that these are major pollutants in their own right.
 Mains-wired illumination has fewer of these disadvantages and is virtually unlimited in its flexibility. It is however also more expensive to install. You also ought to Find an Electrician to do this for you, both for safety reasons and to remain within the law.
o The second decision that every gardener needs to make is far more subtle and may bring out the artist in every one of us. An Electrician London-Based whom I know well reckons that what is really needed is gentle brush-strokes and not flood lights, and I think that he is right there.
After all, if there are straight lines in Nature then I have yet to find them. Everything is a combination of curves and blending tones. After you have achieved this magic in your own garden, why not send a picture of it to Mr-Skill so that we could enjoy your creativity too.
Tags: battery, cheap, curves, electric, electrician london, electrician quote, expensive, find an electrician, flows, Garden, hues, illuminate, inexpensive, install, law, light, limit, magic, mains, nature, pollutant, power, restrict, safety, solar, stars, summer, system
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Posted in General Building on Apr 29
A good builder can be a blessing, a bad builder a curse not even in disguise. This is because despite all the laws passed in London, and the efforts of all the king’s horses and men  too, the UK sometimes still seems awash with cowboy builders. The safest bet is still to Find a Builder on Mr-Skill. If you choose to exercise your right to find one yourself though, then you could be well advised to consider the following first.
o Do you know enough about the job to supervise it? If you do not, then how will you know whether the right techniques and materials are being used? It is one thing to rely on a builder who comes with recommendations from our huge customer base, but another thing completely to trust a stranger off the street.
o Does the builder know what they are doing either? Have they done a similar job before? The last thing that you need is to have someone do their learner’s licence on your precious home. Insist on seeing similar work done for other local people, and pop by there without the builder present too.
o  Trying to decide whether a Building Quote is reasonable is difficult too. You have the benefit of a closed bidding system on Mr-Skill. Out there, builders often collude when quoting. Some even divide the turf so that there is no genuine competition at all. Can you afford to pay an excessive price for substandard work? Especially when we have so many competent tradespeople waiting to do Quality Building Jobs in London and across the breadth and length of the United Kingdom too?
Why don’t you come home to Mr-Skill, where you always get good service from friendly competent artisans, and often pay up to a third below regular prices as well? That way, you can get on with your life in peace, and with the knowledge that you chose your builder wisely.
Tags: artisan, bad, bid, builder, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, choice, choose, competent, competition, cowboy, find a builder, find a tradesman, home, job, law, licence, material, price, recommend, stranger, supervise, technique, tradesman london, tradesman quote, tradesperson
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