Building DIY Gardening

A shocking case of sacking whistleblowers, John Bromilow and Harry Wildman, repair staff working in Liverpool Prison. Amey, a building contractor, had just got the contract for prison repairs, and decided to reduce staff by having one man teams (ie, an individual) doing repairs, instead of two men, as had always been the case prior. […]

Turn London into an urban park? What a great idea. This is not really some crowd concept, it has to come from legislation on: green aspects of new developments (mostly, green features in the initial artist’s impression stage, all removed when built) front gardens and conversion to drives and mini car parks (use grass-crete, or […]

Estate agents use branded boards to advertise their sales or lets at the actual property. This is quite useful if you are moving to a new area, as you can walk around and collect up the various agents’ details. Nowadays it is all done on the internet so this physical process is less important. Boards […]

There is a summary article about the Green Deal flagship Conservative policy here: Green deal will fail (new window) > The Green Deal is supposed to help regenerate old building stock, by giving loans for work such as insulation, etc. Unfortunately there are financial strictures based around a return of 6.9% which means works have to […]

Ecobuild the future at ExCeL, London Tue 5 to Thur 7 March 2013. This a great show and worth the effort of getting to Excel in London Docklands. It is an interesting venue. This is the best exhibition for sustainable design, construction and the built environment. There are many attractions including: Practical Installer Future Materials […]

This show is on Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September, at Westpoint, Exeter, UK. Various seminars are lined up with eco green build experts: Saturday 8th 11.30am Ross Stokes SelfBuild & Design Magazine A beginner’s guide to self build Simple introduction from someone who has built and renovated properties, and is also a journalist. 12.30pm […]

The Conservative government’s decision to more than halve the FIT (feed-in tariffs) for electricity put back into the grid (from sources such as solar power) from 43 to 21p per kilowatt hour, as reported here on Building DIY previously, has been attacked by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) as disastrous for the solar and […]

This is to update the blog about the companies that fit solar PV panels for free. The Conservative Government is reducing the FIT rate by half from December 12th 2011. Any solar PV panels installed and also registered with an energy company will qualify. So it is no good booking it in as the waiting […]

If you are in an older property you will not be allowed by regulations to install the dreaded uPVC double glazing frames, which ire very ugly and low quality. Window frames should be wooden to match the old style property. See these photo images below to get an idea of what needs to be done. […]

The annual Grand Designs show, fronted by Kevin McCloud, is on again, in Birmingham NEC, very easy to get to for most people in the UK unlike London. Kevin is doing book signings so check that out on the website. I am interested in what happened to the Swindon eco estate, I think it has […]