Archive for September, 2009
Conservatories are an excellent way to add space to your home. They can serve many functions, from being a beautiful place to dine, a room to relax in, or even the perfect place to grow plants.
Turning your conservatory into an indoor garden doesn’t only benefit the way your home looks, it also helps to clear the air inside the house. Air inside our homes is typically more polluted than the air outside our homes, which is why a sunny conservatory could help keep plants thriving through the year, purifying the air.
Some plants are not suited to the very high temperatures of a conservatory in the summer, though there are a wide number of plants available that absolutely thrive in this environment. Plants will even flourish through the winter as long as you install your conservatory using high quality double glazing – which we offer to each and every one of our customers.
You can also control further aspects of the environment by installing blinds and heaters to ensure your plants thrive. Just make sure that the plants you choose won’t become too big, taking up the whole of your conservatory space!
Plants growing in your conservatory will take care and regular maintenance, just like any other plant. However, they can be the perfect addition to your home – especially if you want to do your part for the environment, and improve the health of both you and your family with cleaner air.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, homes that are not energy efficient should not be sold or rented.
A spokeswoman from the Trust has stated that green homes are extremely important for the future of the UK and the environment.
Last October, new measures were put in place by the government as a way of determining the energy efficiency of homes. Houses are now rated on several factors that determine their carbon emissions – with A being the highest and G being the lowest rating.
The spokeswoman stated that the government should not rent out the lowest rated homes, those that are rated G or F, from 2015 onwards.
The government appears to be listening to this advice, with new measures being put into place regarding newly-built homes.
New homes bought in the future will now need to be energy-efficient, and many of which will produce their own energy, also known as ‘zero carbon’ homes. Some homeowners will even be able to sell surplus energy back to the national grid.
However, more still needs to be done to meet the demands of the Energy Saving Trust. The Trust states that its advice is based on the fact that regulation will force people to act to improve the energy-efficiency of their homes.
Measures to reduce carbon emmissions are strongly focued on insulation, double glazing and renewable energy sources.
Noisy neighbours are a huge problem for people across the UK, with latest research from an insulation firm suggesting that almost 17.5 million Brits have had cause for complaint within the last two years.
Wool insulation manufacturer Rockwool has conducted a study into noise disturbances that British homeowners regularly experience. Results show that as many as one in 10 regularly have loud disturbances.
Living with constant noise can increase stress, making it hard to sleep as well as causing frustration when it continues regularly. It can leave us feeling as though we have no control, even within our own home.
Unfortunately, most of us are not in the position to move away from troublesome neighbours. However, the managing director of Rockwool, Hans Schrueder, states that insulation combined with double glazing is the best way to combat the noise problem.
The research performed by Rockwool shows that the main causes of this noise (in 42% of cases) are television sets and hi-fis. Another popular complaint is the sound of footsteps on wooden floors. Insulation and double glazing can help prevent a large level of the sound travelling through doors, windows and walls.
Double glazing has the potential to reduce noise travelling through the air by around 50% when compared to standard single pane windows. The gap between the glass panels is what helps to block out noise, and is especially useful in the case of those living on noisy streets, or by a busy main road.
Recently, a small minority of our customers have been asking if Central Scotland Joinery are a sister company of CR Smith, a rival double glazing firm. Bemused, our management asked if our marketing department could look into the matter and it wasn’t long until we found the root cause of the problem.
The minority of our customers who were getting confused were typing in our business name or similar terms into Google and a paid advertisement by CR Smith was directing them to their website, www.CRSmith.co.uk. The image below shows the paid advert highlighted…
This was upsetting customers who were not interested in using CR Smith due to their bad reviews, including:
“Don’t let this company anywhere near your house – the patio door they installed in mine was such rubbish that I had to have it taken out and replaced with a better one from another company. Their salesman told a pack of lies about the product, what got installed was nothing like the sample, and it was so weak you could put your fingers through the gap between the fixed and sliding doors. I keep getting calls from them even though I’ve told them I wouldn’t buy anything from them if they were the last company on earth.” Source
“Yes this sounds like CR Smith, however you should be grateful that you did not buy windows from this bunch of cowboys as the windows they installed in my home are scratched and streaked and they have refused to do anything about it. Be warned this lot are the not interested in customer complaints.” Source
“Difficult to say how bad CR Smith are! We spent £19000 on a conservatory with the following (still unfixed) defects:
1) Pointing to internal brickwork is awful.
2) Nail gun holes is MAHOGANY!!!!
3) Unlevel steps
4) Three holes in my driveway!
5) Floor boards too short and fixed with foam filler!
We have given up trying to get them to return and receive monthly calls asking us to buy more.
There project management is shocking, customer service is atrocious and I would stick pins in my eyes rather than have them back in my house. ” Source
“I am ‘guest’ from 31 august 2009, to update the situation….. we had our windows fitted, on day one a vent was left off a window on the side of the house, big draft coming through and to make it worse, the vent was left on the said window’s sill! the front door didn’t shut properly, then when it was adjusted we get big draught from it, we’ve had people out 4 times now, once worke has been done, the others have been to see what needs done. we had a unit replaced and the joinery was ap[paling, i was told that this was because it was finished in the dark, although I could see how bad it was in the dark! I have to admit, the guys I’ve been dealing with have been excellent, and this makes me feel better, just annoyed that I have to use another of my few days off to get more remedial work done. but it is getting done so that’s not so bad!! I will update when I have more to tell!!” Source
Although Central Scotland Joinery can view this as an indirect compliment, the truth is CR Smith and Central Scotland Joinery are not sister companies and we can only apologise for their behaviour.
Recession means that selling your home is now becoming harder and harder. When it comes to getting the price you need, it’s important to make sure your home is in the very best condition possible.
Curb appeal is an important aspect of selling any home. When people are viewing a property, they will often take a look at the outside as well as booking an appointment to view the home. Having an attractive exterior makes a huge difference in the mind of the buyer.
Small measures such as tidying the garden or painting the fence can make a difference, but it’s important to look to areas such as the guttering and windows.
Replacement windows and doors and double glazing are important factors for many potential buyers. This is because they influence a huge number of factors, from how energy efficient the home is to how noisy it will be (especially if situated on a busy road).
Double glazing ensures that your home looks attractive and functions well on the inside. Spending money on improving areas like these may cost initially, but could secure the sale of your house as well as adding on those vital thousands to the ultimate price.
Improving the look of your home on the inside is also important, which means keeping the home tidy, putting bulky and unnecessary possessions into storage and helping the home to look as spacious as possible.
Selling your home is never easy, which is why making improvements like this is absolutely vital – especially in times of recession.
