Wedotrades Blog

£2.6 million Property Level Flood protection grants announced by the Environment Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies is  the second round of the £5.5 million Property Level Flood grant scheme to help households better protect their homes against flooding.  An amount of £2.6 million will be allocated to 34 schemes in areas at high risk of flooding will be granted. 532 households will benefit from this second round with practical flood protection solutions such as air bricks covers, storm porches, door guards and flood boards, said Defra.

Sir Michael Pitt’s review into the floods of summer 2007 published June 2008, a major landmark for flood risk, has prompted the government in providing more funding to the Environment Agency and local authorities to help them tackle their responsibilities. The government has responded with the first round of funding of £3 million, which was made available to 25 local authorities to protect up to 593 properties across England.

“In the future we must be prepared for more extreme weather on all levels. There are 490,000 properties at significant risk of (river/coastal) flooding in England. Since the floods of 2007 we have been taking action on a range of fronts to protect against the heart breaking damage and destruction that can be caused by floods. Property level measures like flood boards aren’t appropriate for every situation, but as was shown in Appleby at the end of last year, they can be a very effective way for householders to protect their homes.” – Mr Irranca-Davies, Environment Minister.

More flood risks

The fight is much needed as in February 2010, the rainfall levels reached 20% higher than average with 99mm in England and Wales and 72mm in Scotland. The highest level of rainfall was at Okehampton in Devon, which reached 157mm. Defra estimated total direct damage caused by the flooding in June and July of 2007 to around £3.1 billion and climate change is expected to increase the probability of flood events in the future with rising average annual damages from them. The grant is meant to help local authorities and householder afford measures to reduce flood damage to properties.

Damage to property by flooding can be costly, in terms of money, time and also inconvenience and heartache. Flooding risks are common to many areas of the country. River and coastal areas are most likely to be affected by unusually high tides, dam and levee failures. Also other areas can be affected by surface water flooding when heavy rain fall overwhelms the drainage capacity of the area or sewer flooding which occurs when heavy rainfall overwhelms sewage systems or when they become blocked

Protect your property against flood

There are no measure householder can take to make their homes complete flood-proof but other measures can help to either delay flood water from getting into the house quickly leaving more time to prepare and move valuable item to safety and evacuate or limit flood damage and make it easier to clean up once flood water dries out.

Basements, due to their underground position, are more likely to be flooded very quickly. Basement flooding can damage a property foundation beyond repair. It is very important that householders, with basements, plan ahead against potential flood with sump pump installation with adequate battery backup systems.  A basement specialist is required to inspect structural and floor waterproofing. Wedotrades rated basement specialist are able to carry out complete basement renovation and remodelling and can install exterior and interior French drains.

As a precautionary measure, especially if you are living in a flood risk area, protect your home from flood damage by signing up for flood warnings, check to confirm if you are covered for flooding by your building and contents insurance policy.

Ever taken a day off or spent all day waiting for a tradesman who shows up late or does not show up at all?  This is what typically happens to most of us: You make an arrangement for a tradesman to come and carry out some work at home whether it is to repair a boiler, fit a power shower, repair a leaking roof or replace a pipe. Over the phone, the date is fixed. But asking for the time the tradesman is coming often yields the answer:  “between 8am and 5pm” or “in the morning”. No choice, a day off from work has to be arranged and there will be no school run.

The day come, you may be woken up by a knock on the door at 8 am by the tradesman, who carries out the job in less than 10 minutes, leaving wondering whether you should turn up for work or spend the rest of the day shopping or watching TV. For the less lucky ones, wait until 3pm and through the window, you notice a van is neatly packed by your drive way and eventually, the tradesman is here to do the job. In some cases, the wait goes on until 6:30 pm, time to give up and realise it is too late to ring and complain.

The YouGov research revealed that 190 million hours off work every year are spent waiting for unreliable workmen despite that 60% of the public hate waiting for tradesmen to arrive and 85% would wish tradesmen could turn up  at right time they gave. More than half the 2,100 people who took part in the survey are used to taking half day off to wait for tradesmen.

Last March 2009, the Which? Magazine telephone survey of 2,007 people revealed that gas and electricity engineers who are in high demand especially in winter time, were the most unreliable, keeping customers waiting for an average of 4.5 hours.

“It’s high time retailers and workmen raised their game to meet the needs of consumers in the 21st century,” said Neil Fowler, editor of Which?.

Also, a research by TrustMark, a not-for-profit organisation found that 60 per cent of clients spent an entire day waiting in for a tradesman who failed to show up.

“Many businesses aren’t able to give specific times of arrival for tradesman, so instead you are normally only given a vague window. But this can be a nightmare for homeowners who have work and other responsibilities as they have to spend ages waiting for tradesmen to arrive, sometimes to do a job that’s only a few minutes long” Roman Russocki, Chief Executive of TrustMark

The right tradesman

Choosing the right tradesman can cut waiting times.  Professional tradesmen are considerate as to how long they keep their clients waiting. They return calls and keep you informed ahead of any change in schedule. Most professional workmen are willing to commit to a specific appointment, instead of a window of several hours.

It is important to get in touch with the right company or contractors who are already rated by their previous clients.  Instead of asking around friends and family if they know any contractor and calling that local tradesman you heard of by word of mouth, people can search online to check which company is going to be best for them and post a quote with specific requirement including time schedule. Online, you can afford a big pool of contractors’ free quotes to choose from.

With the use of online directory services specialising solely on tradesmen, your time constraint can be taken into account in your choice of a contractor. Among other tradesmen directory services, We Do Trades Directory services are specialised and give you the opportunity to see comments and ratings of a particular tradesman before you commit with them. We Do Trades also encourage you to come back online and rate your tradesman when the job is done, for future customers to know about their time keeping.

The new VAT rate increase has not been easy for the already-recession-struggling small businesses and tradesmen in UK. Small businesses and individual tradesmen were still adjusting to the lower 15% VAT rate that was introduced December 2008 when the announcement of a new 17.5% VAT rate was made. The increase came into force January 2010.

Value Added Tax (VAT), in HMRC words,  is a tax that’s charged on most goods and services that VAT-registered businesses provide in the UK.  There are several UK VAT rates, the standard rate being 17.5% from 1st January 2010.

Your business must be VAT registered if the value of your income as a business exceeds threshold of £68,000 per year. VAT is charged when a VAT-registered business sells to either another business or to a non-business customer. When VAT-registered businesses buy goods or services they can generally reclaim the VAT they have paid.

Gradual share of the cost

Back in December 2008, although it was not compulsory for businesses to reduce prices as a result of VAT cut, consumers considered it a rip off when companies did not to pass the savings on to recession-hit end-users.  Small business and individual self-employed were forced to reduce their prices.

In time of cut in December 2008, a number of businesses initially reduced their prices when VAT was cut but that did not last long. For the first couple of months, the price of goods and services were reduced but later on those businesses decided to stop passing on the discount and continue charging full price.

Hold on to your customers

“We do hope to see more long term measures to support small businesses in the upcoming months, however the present climate doesn’t allow small business Britain to adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach. In order to succeed in the recession, it is crucial that businesses take a proactive approach and start planning ahead. For them, being prepared for the January deadline [was] absolutely key and could turn into an opportunity to increase sales before the end of the year.” Diana Flier, compliance analyst at Intuit UK

Businesses were advised to get well prepared and make their customers aware of the VAT change in advance to avoid loss of clientele. As consumers are cutting spending throughout this year, when the VAT increased back to 17.5%, market conditions forced many businesses, from large retailers to individual tradesmen to absorb the 2.5% increase and leave prices unchanged in order to retain customers and stay competitive. Other businesses were able to pass the cost down to shoppers and consumers.

The accountancy software company Accountz, in its study published that 41 per cent of consumers wants businesses to absorb the increase of the VAT due to financial hardship that many consumers in UK are experiencing.

“The VAT increase is a major bone of contention for both retailers and consumers. Whilst it was inevitable, it is quite likely that it will impact heavily on consumer spending at a time when the high street is already in disarray and customers are staying away. It looks like 2010 could be quite a challenging year all round.” – Quentin Pain, founder of Accountz.

Three months since the 17.5% VAT rate changed, we want to hear from you how the change affected your business in general and how did your customer react in particular? Did you increase the price and pass the increase to your customers? Did you decide to absorb the cost of increase straight out of your own pocket? What was the deciding factor on your price?  Businesses were advised to get well prepared and make their customers aware of the VAT change in advance to avoid loss of clientele. Would you say that absorbing the cost made you more competitive?

Going green at our workplace, does it really work? Who benefits from having a green workplace?  Can the company, the staff and the environment profit from going green? The answer is Yes. With energy efficient habits in the company, massive saving are possible with printing paper, electricity bills, cost cuts, etc.

Green Action Team

First of all, the green work cannot be done by one person.  I suggest first you create a green action team from your staff.  5 to 7 staff members must be convinced to join your team and help launch initiative, preferably one in each department and one of your managers or directors. You will notice that your company is made up of smart and brilliant people, so despite their very busy schedules and tight deadlines, this should not be very difficult to get 5 of them.   Call these volunteers “green ambassadors” for their departments whose first role will be to formulate a sound green policy and submit to your management. Once the green light is given, the team can start bringing up suggestions gradually for green opportunities and encourage their departments to follow the green action. You can seek green advice from many eco specialists who may also point you to the right goverment energy grants for green projects .

Targets

Printing and paper waste

The amount of printing no matter how big or small can be reduced to the minimum. The use of electronic form of paper by email letter should be encouraged and attachments that can be read from a computer screen should not be printed. The good thing about this habit is that, nowadays companies have large shared networked storage disk capacity, it saves space and retrieving electronic files saves time and money.

Printing has to be done some times. For non official printing, draft paper with second page still empty can be used. If you have more than one printer in the communal hall or office, one printer loaded with recycled paper can be dedicated to draft and non official printing.  On the other printer with high quality paper, double-sided printing can be set to default if possible.

Green action team role will be to track the change in paper consumption in your company to measure and document the green effect.

Computers

Laptops vs. Desktops: Here the good thing is that more often than not, there are as many laptops as desktops around. Laptops use about 70 – 80 % less power than their cousins, the desktops. When possible, staff can be encouraged to use laptops as first choice.  With laptops, staff can move and bring their desktop screen view to a colleague’s desk and share without printing, making it easier to meet one of the targets of printing less.

Computers, laptops and desktops alike, can be set to go into standby or hibernation after 10 or 15 min of inaction and automatically shut down after 40 minutes. It’s easy to set this to every computer but the green action team can take care of helping others to do that

Heating control

In every shared office, heating controls seem to be on everybody’s mind and every one of your colleagues has a different preferred temperature at which he or she wants the room to be heated. As a matter of fact, everyone’s preferred temperatures change in the course of the day. A little bit of convincing by the action team about the room temperature and the green cost impact should do.

According to our heating specialists, up to 10% of energy can be saved by just turning the air conditioning one degree up or heaters one degree down.

Lighting

Thank God it’s spring time now, so it’s time to invite some sunshine into our offices. All it takes is just pulling the blinds off, turning the lights off and start saving on electricity bills and save the environment. The green action team to ensure that sunshine lighting is adequate in order not inconvenience the staff.

So what’s next?

If these targets are met with tangible results, the management will be easier convinced to look into environmental friendly commuting pattern that the team will suggest next.  At the moment, your mission is to get the green light and start recruiting your green action team members, and inviting them to start spreading green thinking to other staff members. Building the team is your first step on a successful green path for your company.

Does the White Van Man really need tagging?

There is no debate; the “white van man” is not the best driver you will come across on Britain roads.  Always expect the white van in front of you to pull out without notice, jump the red traffic lights at the junction or tailgates to force the other driver to move out of the way.  If you are a cyclist too, he is not your best friend either. But does the white van really need to be tagged or is it the only vehicle on the road that needs the so-called Driver DNA?

Driver DNA

Last October 2009, Trimple MRM, a logistic company launched a new device called Driver DNA that is fitted on the vehicle and records the driver’s behaviour such as speeding and road faults, his GPS position and relay the information to the fleet manager. Companies with a large fleet such as British Gas and British Telecom have signed up for the device on their engineers’ vans. The device is expected to change Van driver’s behaviour and reduce road accident.

“Improving road safety is paramount to us and our fleet customers” said Andrew Yeoman, managing director of Trimble MRM. “If we can help drivers realise what they need to change and help prevent accidents then we are pleased to do so. Driver DNA uses diagnostics to ensure workforces are driving carefully and helps save companies money by running teams more effectively.”

Like a “black box”, the Driver DNA will record every harsh increase in speed, fuel usage, turn and swerve and even carbon emissions of individual driver and sends reports continuously to the manager.

The man behind the wheel

The Driver DNA tag is not the answer of the myth behind the “White Van Man” driving. The truth is these men are professionals or business men driving an estimated 2.6 million commercial vehicles every day in the most congested roads in Europe with road works taking longer than anywhere else.  We all depend on them as their families do. We expect them to provide us with 24 hour emergency heating or delivery services instantly. He is a locksmith responding to a call for a lock-out nearby but it takes him an hour on the road. His focus is on the speed of progress required to meet his schedule but not the speed of his driving.  Unlike his worst enemy the taxi driver, these men, hit by the recession the most, are the least understood business men and yet the more disliked road users of all times.

The Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford found he is more likely to be a family man with children and probably he owns and cares for a pet.  “He enjoys holidays in Greece or Spain. Most of his business is local and in urban environment. He treasures his van because it is his ‘tool of the trade’, and sincerely believes he is a careful driver” –All men think they are the best on the wheel, anyway.

His best friend is the emergency service vehicle drivers who consider him to be the most road-aware driver; he always pulls off the road faster than anyone else to let the ambulance or fire fighter pass, call it a sense of civic duty!

But white vans are most visible on the road due to their uniformed white colour, no wonder the red royal mail van driver is part of the frown-upon motorist.  Notice the recent tendency to paint the van in another such as black or silver that has created the “New Van Man” specie. Those new van men or silver van ladies are trades people whose work is most often in private houses or business premises where the need to present the right image is important.

So, although there is a typical rude and reckless white van man out there, he is just a tiny fraction of the motorists behind the wheel of white vans. Bad driving of one driver should not be generalised to all.  Instead of tagging with that Driver DNA device, or calling the “How Is My Driving” phone number, blame the congested roads and road works he (and you) spends most of his time on.

KITCHEN TABLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

I am sure you have already heard over and over again of the advice to turn your hobby into business. “Do what you love and get paid for it” The advice is so simple that you just wonder why not everyone is working this way? The idea is to keep enjoy your hobby activity but sell your work out of it. Millions of people have done this and have succeeded starting up money making business. But for others, financial obstacles, busy lifestyle, fear of failure prevent them taking such commitment.

In this time of economic crisis, financing a business is the hardest aspect of being an entrepreneur. For many of us, family savings pocket is empty. Nowadays, you don’t always get your relatives and friends to lend you some hundred pounds.  Credit cards or professional investors are not an option.

What is Kitchen Table Entrepreneurship?

By Kitchen Table entrepreneurship we don’t mean becoming  a kitchen table installer or one of those kitchen specialists or contractors.  It’s all about starting your business from where you are standing right now without any huge financial risk or investment on your part. Instead of moaning about the lack of enough money or the right premises, Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs (KTE) will start business with whatever they have at the time and find a way to really enjoy doing their hobby and still turn it into successful, profitable business.

The term Kitchen Table Entrepreneurship is Paul Power’s idea. Paul Power started his own gardening business when he left the Civil Service to turn the hobby he loved into his profession. His book Kitchen Table Entrepreneur covers the initial stages of starting a business, including conducting market research, writing a business plan and self-motivation. Nothing is better to do for money than something you already enjoy doing for free.

Run your business from kitchen.

KTE don’t even need to have a home office, a luxury of having a spare room in your house. That’s where the kitchen table comes in. You can start managing an online business from your kitchen table. Not only you are not paying any insurance, shop or office rent, but also your customer base is could be anywhere in the world. Later on when the business is up and running, you may need to hire cheap storage for your products. That is the kitchen table part of the concept!

Commitment

To be a successful entrepreneur requires commitment. Are you into many hobbies but not really committed to one of them? You will need stick to one business idea and not to be distracted even if the going gets tough.

Running your own business means relying on own personal skills and self motivation is one of them. You will have to learn to motivate yourself and believe in your ability to make it work no matter what. You no longer need others to approve what you are doing or motivate you but need looking inwardly for your strength and encouragement.

Business opportunities

See business opportunities in every challenging situation. Before starting to venture into business, people who are skilled enough in their hobbies have to reach a level they can say without any doubt that someone will pay them for their services or knowledge. Provide a solution to a challenge faced by your potential customers and they will come to you saying:  “We couldn’t find anything else like this on the market”.  In other words, determine if there is a market for your business product or services and how much profit can this generate.

Get customers, now!

For online business, it will be impossible to bring and hold on to large customer base without web visitors. At this level you should consider getting your website or business listed on tradesmen directory such wedotrades.co.uk to help get your business up and running and keep the flow of customers.

Once you are listed with wedotrades.co.uk, for no extra charge, you will have a free 0845 number for your business. You also get the opportunity to give quotes and compete with any other tradesmen. You will be rated by your own customers for your good quality services you render them and comments are available to potential customers.

The rest is in your hands and your business will survive, so go out and start selling to many people many times a day.

Construction sector is a diverse and multi-dimensional sector with companies and individuals trading within three main categories:

• Consultants and Designers who are involved in planning and designing construction projects
• Suppliers providing building materials and other construction components
• Contractors carrying out construction work

In addition to these three categories there are government bodies that provide business support to the construction sector, such as the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) etc.

A key factor to the UK economy, the construction sector has large number of regulations that actors in the building, construction and property service trade have to comply with. Construction is a high-risk industry thus, if health and safety measures are ignored, dangerous or fatal accidents are very likely to occur when construction work is being carried out.

Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007

Everyone involved in construction business activities in UK must follow CDM Regulations 2007 which enforce legal duties in terms of Health and Safety compliance.  Failing to comply with these regulations can lead to a criminal prosecution. The CDM regulations 2007 came into force on 6 April 2007 to bring improvements into health and safety aspect of construction activities. (CDM 2007) addressed mainly complexity and bureaucratic issues that characterised previous regulations i.e. CDM Regulations 1994 and Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 which had become nothing but a paper-pusher’s paradise still leaving construction a dangerous industry.

According to the HSE, the 3 benefits of the new legislation are to:

• Improve health and safety in your industry
• Have the right people for the right job at the right time to manage the risks on site
• Focus on effective planning and managing risk – manage the risk not the paperwork

In practical terms, these regulations aim to help you ensure that your construction project is safe to build, safe to use, and safe to maintain and delivers good value. While they simplify bureaucracy, CDM regulations 2007 emphasize health and safety considerations to be included in the project design.  As a duty, the management of the project and everyone involved in planning and execution must participate in improving health and safety of their environment.

The project designer or anyone involved in preparing design drawings, specifications has the duty under the regulations to avoid foreseeable risks to the health and safety of any person carrying out construction work or using it post-completion.

A distinction is made between “notifiable” projects that are likely to exceed 30 days or involving more than 500 person days of construction work in which case HSE should be notified and “non-notifiable” projects, mainly non-commercial residential projects which are not likely to exceed the 30 days. In case of a notifiable project, project information, such as brief description of the project and the construction work, dates, contact details, names of coordinators, designers and contractors, must be provided to the HSE.

Importantly, these regulations specify a role of CDM co-ordinator who must be appointed to advise clients on health and safety issues during the design and planning phases of construction work. A principal contractor whose role is to plan, manage and co-ordinate health and safety while construction work is being undertaken, must also be appointed but only for notifiable projects. The principal contractor is usually the main or managing contractor for the work.

HSE has been working with the construction industry to develop practical examples and real life experiences for showing the benefits that CDM 2007 has for everyone involved in construction.

The new CDM 2007 Regulations are divided into 5 parts:

• Part 1 deals with the application of the Regulations and definitions.
• Part 2 covers general duties that apply to all construction projects.
• Part 3 contains additional duties that only apply to notifiable construction projects, i.e. those lasting more that 30 days or involving more than 500 person days of construction work.
• Part 4 contains practical requirements that apply to all construction sites.
• Part 5 contains the transitional arrangements and revocations.

Whatever the size of your business, WeDoTrades can help you find a Safety and Security Specialist to help you manage your health and safety. Remember failure to comply with these regulations can lead to a criminal prosecution.

Your contractor can make or break your dream.

Soon we will start welcome the spring breeze into our homes.  This is also the best time to start planning your renovation project to enjoy to the maximum a new deck or fresh interior design in summertime. The right time to plan, start or finish your project is as important as the task of choosing the right contractor.

The right picture

The right picture of projected home improvement or repair solution needed is already in your mind. But it is always a good thing to review magazines and online materials for photos and drawings to get affordable and clear ideas that you can easily explain to a contractor. 

Now that you have clear image of the kind of bedroom or home office that small garage can be turned into, or you are now convinced of a cosy dwelling your house can become by just knocking down that blocking wall, you need to find a “partner”. Your contractor can make or break your dream.

The right contractor

There are ways to locate a contractor. You can go out and search for contractor in your area asking friends and neighbours or go on internet.  The most preferred way is consult specialised tradesmen directory such as WeDoTrades.co.uk. At We Do Trades, all contractors are vetted and qualifications, licences, registrations, references even complaints are received for compliance with high business standard. We take all the hassle out of finding a tradesman for your project and our tradesmen are qualified in their specialist field and ready to take on your job so that you can have peace of mind that the work will be completed to the highest standard. We check track record and already completed work and speak to clients for comments on timely and within budget finished projects and cleanliness.

Compare several quotes

We do Trades advice: Get several quotes. It is good practice that you obtain quotes from more than one of our contractors to be able to compare, remembering that the right quote is not necessary the lowest. A high estimates may include better material, quality workmanship or a longer warranty.  Bits and jobs covered in contractor’s estimates must be reflected on his written contract

For works that involve extension to the house or major changes to your house that may fall outside what the law call ‘permitted development rights’, always check if planning permission is required.  “If you build something which needs planning permission without getting permission first, you may be forced to put things right later, which could prove troublesome and costly. If you are in any doubt, contact the planning department of your council.” – direct.gov.uk

The right contract

A verbal agreement is a valid contract for as long as there will be not disagreement on details in the future.  Even so, we do recommend that written contract be drawn as it creates a record of details of work and prevents misunderstandings and arguments. Keeping in mind that should dispute arise, the contract will serve as the main evidence for the court or arbitrator, the contract should be thorough and tailored to the job that needs to be done. The nature of the project, the scope of the works, start and completion times will influence substantially the choice of the type of contracts.

You may request the contractor to draw an industry approved Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT) contract. JCT can provide different contract samples for work ranging from tasks involving normal recognised basic trades and skills of industry, works of simple character or extensions and alterations, for small-scale repairs and maintenance on domestic buildings to building service installation of complex nature.

The contract should cover stage payments. No matter how small or big work is involved, it is important to discuss and agree on stages at which interim and full payments are to be made and at what percentages. This enables you to compare work completed against schedule and pay for your project as it progresses.

Another important clause to be covered in the contract is termination of contract. This clause is often overlooked by many contracts but it often takes places under unsatisfactory conditions that can generate into disputes and therefore it should be set out clearly at the early stage of agreement.

At last, avoid signing an incomplete or blank contract or sign under pressure and request your own copy of the contract.

At the end of last week, more than 50,000 vouchers, each worth £400 have been issued to ease on the cost of replacing the old G-rated boilers for the new A-rated ones in England. The scheme is said to help cut the cost of heating for householders for up to £200 a year on gas bill and reduce thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. According to Energy Saving Trust (EST), boilers account for around 60% of the carbon dioxide emissions in a gas heated home.

For many families and households the cost of a new energy efficient boiler and the installation cost are out of reach. This financial incentive package targets up to 125,000 of those households to help tackle climate change and save on new boilers. It also creates more jobs which add extra income to British plumbers, builders, small businesses that are mostly hit by the current recession.

To get your hands on the voucher and start saving, check if you have a working G-rated boiler or older which should be the main boiler you use to heat the home. If you are aged 60 and above, you boiler does not have to be in working order.  If you are wondering on how to check if you boiler is X or G-Rated, remember that most 15-years old G-rated boilers have a permanent pilot light on them. Take a quick test from British Gas website by entering details of your old boiler. If G-rated or older, your boiler is eligible for the scheme. What if you own more than one property? You still can claim for every property a voucher as long as there is a G-rated boiler used in each of them.

If your boiler is eligible, take these steps and hurry as the scheme works on first-come first-served basis and there are more than 3 million old boilers that are eligible.

1. Contact one of the qualified installer to visit your home and arrange a written quote for a new the new boiler. You can easily get a qualified installer by visiting our website www. WeDoTrades.co.uk and request for a quote.
2. Once you have a quote, provide the Energy Saving Trust (EST) with enough details of your old boiler and the contact details of the installer. Call EST Trust on 0800 512 012.
3. Wait for the voucher worth £400 to be sent to you
4. Once the Voucher is received, you can go ahead and pay your installation bill in full to the installer and then claims the £400 back from the EST.

Important:

You may be able to claim an additional £400 voucher as a discount towards the total cost of the boiler replacement if you are a British Gas or NPower custormer. Visit British Gas or NPower websites to find out more.

If you had already booked a plumber from We Do Trades to replace your boiler, all you have to do is to apply as soon as possible in order to receive the voucher before the work begins. If you received your voucher and got your new boiler installed by one of our listed gas engineer, please let us have your comments.

Approved Document E – Resistance to the passage of sound (2003 Edition)

The New Approved Document E, (2003 Edition) was implemented on 1st July 2003. It’s primary objective is to raise the standard of sound insulation in all dwellings to counter the rising level of complaints received about noise transmission. Noise nuisance has a detrimental effect on a homeowner or resident’s quality of life so the aim is to improve the sound insulation both between and within dwellings, as well as between rooms in hostels, hotels and residential homes. The scope has been extended to cover reverberation in common parts of blocks of flats and acoustic conditions in schools.

Who are affected by these changes?

• Buildings where there has been a change of use relating to conversions and refurbishments – Effective from 1st July 2003.
• New build houses and flats – Effective from 1st January 2004.
• Domestic Extensions.

Approved Document E is split into four sections:

E1 – Protection against sound from other parts of the building and adjoining buildings.
E2 – Protection against sound within a dwelling/house etc
E3 – Reverberation in the common internal parts of buildings containing flats or rooms for residential purposes
E4 – Acoustic Conditions in Schools

In respect of E1 and E2 the document gives examples of constructions which if built correctly should achieve the sound insulation values.

To satisfy Requirement E3, sound absorption measures described in Section 7 of the Approved Document will need to be followed.

To satisfy the Requirement E4, reference is made to, Building Bulletin 93 ‘The Acoustic Design of Schools’ published by the DfES during 2003.

Pre-Completion Testing

• For the first time, buildings are to be tested prior to completion in order to confirm they meet or exceed Part E standards.
• The Regulations require that one in ten of each construction type requires testing.
• All tests are at the Building Inspectors discretion.
• Failure in the test, will result in the sound insulation needing to be improved and the construction type re-tested.

Click Here for more information.