Local builder’s top tips for Autumn Winter house projects

Local builder’s top tips for Autumn Winter house projects

The nights are drawing in and the weather is getting cold and wet. Not the time to be starting an extension or commissioning a builder to work on your roof (you might not mind, but he probably would!)

Wet, cold weather affects the ground, laying bricks in bad weather is not advisable and then we have the issue of ever-decreasing daylight hours.

However, there is plenty you can get done at this time of year, with a range of building projects, renovations and internal works being ideal for October, November and December. Here’s my best advice as a local builder who’s been advising domestic customers in the Wokingham area for a long time.

Think about internal work that needs doing at your home, including redesigns and internal modifications. Focus on the inside of the house:

– is it time for a new kitchen?
– have you been thinking about a new bathroom?
– could you get some work done to floor coverings?
– how about changing your internal doors?

Work to the inside of your house can range from small touch-ups and minor jobs which make the world of difference, to major building projects which totally transform your home (new bathrooms, knocking through walls to open up space, even moving stairs and walls to alter the internal dimensions of the house). You can update a room or even create an entirely new one!

As you can see, bad weather and short daylight hours don’t have to put the brakes on building work at home. One last thing to add is that now is actually a great time to get the ball rolling on those larger external jobs such as extensions and conversions. Get in touch with us here at K Design and Build, we can talk you through the process and get you through the planning to building point, so you can progress a lot more quickly when the weather does pick up. We can put you in touch with the architect, the planners and even help you get a budget and timeframe together.

Local builder’s top tips for Autumn Winter house projects is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builders are K Design and Build, a building and carpentry company based in Wokingham, Berkshire. Their main website is here.

Building projects for a rainy summer

Building projects for a rainy summer

Here we are in June and we’ve had more rainy days than sunny ones. With the forecast for Summer 2012 looking unpredictable at best, we thought it would be helpful to give you some practical ideas of how to approach domestic building projects during a prolonged wet season. After all, you don’t want to be building loft conversions or taking the roof off your house when it’s pouring down! Here are some tips from an experienced local builder about how to plan building projects in a rainy summer.

Start planning now
If a loft conversion is what you need to do, there’s no need to abandon the project. Just use the time wisely: start planning the project in now and set everything in place so your timeline leads you to the work being done in better weather. We find the best domestic projects are always ones where clients have left enough time for all the planning, design and building processes to tick along without being rushed. Talk to us if you want to understand more about what needs to be done (and in what order). We’re in touch with architects, planning officers and building specialists.

Internal redesign
Internal works are always a great thing to do in poor weather. Moving walls, changing doors and other such aspects of internal modification or redesign can absolutely transform your home, in some cases making into a new property in terms of how many rooms you have, how large they are and how you can use them. Internal redesign is a favourite for making better use of your space. And, of course, it doesn’t matter if it’s raining outside! (We always wipe our feet and clean up after ourselves!)

Extension to side of your property
Whilst you might think an extension is a no-no in rainy weather, a side or rear extension is actually very doable. The trick here is to knock through to the existing property only in the very latter stages of the build. This means your home and living conditions aren’t disrupted at all.

Renovating a new home
Maybe you’ve bought a home to renovate but haven’t yet moved in. Perfect! This means we can really get our teeth into the project and get everything done for you – regardless of the weather – before you start living there. This is a fantastic way to approach a project and gives us as builders so much scope to create you the perfect new home.

These are all great ideas for domestic building projects you can consider commissioning even during unpredictable weather. Our aim (in rain or shine) is always to keep clients’ living conditions as comfortable as possible. After all, it’s your home and we never lose sight of that.

If you spot any of the above tell-tale signs, give us a call here at K Design and Build. We’ll get it sorted for you.

Building projects for a rainy summer is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builder is Karl Nicholson, owner of K Design and Build, a building, kitchen and bathroom company based in Wokingham, Berkshire. Our main website is here.

Maintain your home in rainy weather

Maintain your home in rainy weather


As the rain keeps pouring throughout May here in Berkshire, we thought you might like some top tips about how to keep on top of home maintenance. As an established firm of local builders, we’ve seen it all, from ancient guttering coming away from the wall (and nearly falling on someone!) to mysterious pools of water appearing where they’re really not wanted…

Look out for leaks, drips, water pouring from gutters, drainage problems and pooling water.

WATER
If you spot a big puddle of water in a particular area inside the house, there’s a problem. Get on to it straight away – give us a call and we’ll come round. Don’t wait, thinking it will drain away and dry up once the rain stops. Leaks and pooling water inside the home are an indication that something is up, and it will cause longterm damage. Please don’t ignore it.

GUTTERS
A constant drip or stream of water from gutter joints (either straight joints or downpipe areas) are a sign that all is not well with your gutters. Again, don’t leave them. Call us in. Damage to gutters is an important thing to sort out. We can either repair your guttering or replace old guttering (like the cast iron stuff) as this can be downright dangerous.

FENCING
In bad weather, fencing can take a real battering. Constant rain and wind leave it damp, bowed and unable to cope. Is it time to get your fencing replaced? Again, we can help, so just give us a call and we’ll pop round and tell you what we can do.

Of course, when the weather’s like this, the ideal things to be doing around the house are internal jobs like internal redesign, internal modification, carpentry and all those little odd jobs you’ve been meaning to get around to. Can we help? Give us a call, we’ll be happy to pop round and take a look for you. We’re based in Finchampstead Wokingham and travel around the local area, including Reading, Warfield, Bracknell, Crowthorne and Camberley.

Maintain your home in rainy weather is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builders are K Design and Build, a building and carpentry company based in Wokingham, Berkshire. Their main website is here.

Finish up these outdoor jobs before Winter sets in

Finish up these outdoor jobs before Winter sets in

Before we know it, we’ll be shivering under sub-zero temperatures and – if the weather reports are to be believed – a thick covering of snow. So, it’s more important than ever that you get all those outdoor maintenance jobs done. Extra water and ice cause damage which can be hard to rectify. Far better to prevent rather than cure. Here are our top two tips for external home maintenance in November:

insulate copper pipes. Dropping temperatures mean pipework can freeze fast. If you have any external copper pipework, get it insulated now. This isn’t such a problem if the pipework is for gas but if it’s for water, act sharp and get it insulated now before it’s too late.

clear overflowing gutters. Wet weather and fallen leaves can mean lots of extra moss in your gutters, which spells bad news for roofs and external walls. Gutter moss prevents gutters from draining properly, and all that extra water has to go somewhere. It could end up on your flat roof (or – worse – your neighbour’s flat roof), deteriorating felt and causing costly leaks. Clear and maintain all your gutters properly and this shouldn’t be a problem at all.

“Finish up these outdoor jobs before Winter sets in” is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builders are K Design and Build, a building and carpentry company based in Wokingham, Berkshire. Their main website is here.

Tis the season to… building tips for Winter

Tis the season to… building tips for Winter

Winter isn’t the best time to embark on external work on your home. If it’s urgent, of course you need to get someone in to attend to it. But if you’ve been planning an external project for a while, sit on it for a few months more.

It’s simply not a good time of year to start major external works. Wet weather means you’ll get water in your mortar (it might rhyme but it’s no fun), and that water will freeze, losing the bond between bricks or blocks and cement. This will weaken the structural integrity of the build, making the whole thing less safe. Far better to wait until Spring or early Summer when longer days, warmer air temperature and less chance of rain are all much better suited to the job in hand.

If you’re itching to make some home improvement over Winter, here are our suggestions: ask yourself what your home would benefit from most, and focus on internal jobs. There’s still plenty that can be done without the outside of the house needing to be affected. How about some internal redesign? Perfect for transforming the look, feel and functionality of your space without letting the cold and damp in.

Tis the season to… building tips for Winter is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builders are K Design and Build, a building and carpentry company based in Wokingham, Berkshire. Their main website is here.

After the rain… check for damp

After the rain… check for damp

After all this rain we’ve been having (summer? what summer?) it’s a good idea to check your property for signs of damp, movement, mould and subsidence. If your house has a flat roof, or lead valleys, or any other older areas of roofing or externals windows and doors, there’s a chance the structure isn’t holding up as well as it might.

Here at K Design and Build we regularly see signs of damp and movement, particularly in older houses, and it’s often not spotted by the residents. When it comes to damp, it’s best to act quickly before the rot spreads (pun intended). The sooner you act, the sooner builders like us can help you remedy things (and the cheaper it’s likely to be). Here’s our advice when checking for damp around your home:

Check your loft: are there any wet patches in valley rafters? Signs of mould, or strong odours of damp?

Check your roof: is it leaking or damaged? Has the felt come away? Are there any missing tiles?

Check your internal walls: can you see any mould or discolouration to the walls? Any rippling to wallpaper or flaking paint? Is there any blackness or furriness on the walls or skirtings?

Check the entire building, including conservatories, utility rooms, outhouses: is there any sign of subsidence or movement, uneven walls or brickwork?

If you spot any of these tell-tale signs, get in touch with us so we can suggest the quickest, safest and most cost-effective ways to remedy the situation, making your home safer and improving it in the long term. Don’t delay! After all, who knows when this rain will stop…

If you spot any of the above tell-tale signs, give us a call here at K Design and Build. We’ll get it sorted for you.

After the rain… check for damp is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builder is Karl Nicholson, owner of K Design and Build, a building, kitchen and bathroom company based in Wokingham, Berkshire. Our main website is here.

Recent domestic building jobs in pictures

We’ve finished off a number of lovely jobs in and around the Wokingham area recently and I’ve been out and about with my camera, so I thought it was about time I brought you a few photos of our workmanship.

First up is a loft conversion in Wokingham town centre. The challenge with this job was the staircase you can see in these pictures. Believe it or not, the stair manufacturer said it was impossible to supply and fit stairs for this job. We don’t believe in impossible! My background is in carpentry so I saw this as a nice challenge and opportunity to flex my carpentry muscles.

So, I custom made these stairs, building and fitting them onsite. It’s always difficult to get materials for custom-building stairs, because you don’t often have a reason to use 1” MDF (which is what you need for a solid string). Obviously, it’s imperative that you build in the fundamental strength of the structure. It wasn’t an easy job – we had to carry the materials up a ladder on outside of building! – but it was a really interesting challenge. I’m delighted with the finish (so is the client!) So much for “not possible”!

We were referred to this client initially by the architect who was commissioned to plan the loft conversion.

As well as custom-building the stairs to the loft, we knocked through from the client’s master bedroom to the back of the new staircase, creating a clever storage space and access area. We also did all the joist work, insulation and necessary support work. That was a mammoth task: we had to bolt the joists together then lift them all (a 200mm by 225mm solid block of timber, about 4.8m long), jack it up and rebuild the gable underneath. A very indepth job but extremely rewarding and the client is very happy.

We’re due back onsite this week to lay the floor, fit the bannister rail and spindles and finish everything off.

This next set of photos is from a job we worked on in Littlewick Green near Maidenhead. We were actually working on the property opposite when we noticed that this property here had a big crack running right through the lintel. The client commissioned us to fix it, so we set to work: we removed the brickwork above the limestone lintel, raised the lintel up as much as possible so it ran in line again and used a heli coil stitching kit (a stainless steel bar which gives more strength) and resin-bonded it into the grooves in the lintel as well as the mortar joints.

To get the lintel flat, we had to score the old lintel and render it all back to square so it looked as good as new. We made sure the finish was authentic and in keeping with the property by making sure the original plasterwork was matched. This is a beautiful old property in a gorgeous setting and we like to think we did a sensitive job which left the property repaired and strengthened but looking as if it hasn’t been altered.

We’d already been working at this domestic property in Sandhurst but these pictures show work we did to the stairs in the main entrance hallway. Three of the steps were at a strange angle and presented a trip hazard, and the client asked us to work on them to make them safer and more aesthetically pleasing.

We took three of the steps and risers out, removed the old knewl posts and string and replaced them with oak. We then rebuilt the bottom three treads and risers to make sure they were of equal height and matched what was already there. This was an awkward old job but – as with anything tricky – was really satisfying to do. As you can see, the finish is solid, clean and tidy. The steps now look great and are safe for this client and his young family, and the job has opened up the hallway really nicely.

After this stage of the job, we’ve moved onto plastering, redecoration and fitting of a beautiful oak handrail. As you can see, we had to retrofit the handrail into the ceiling by cutting a section and fixing it to the ceiling for a flat, clean finish which is in keeping with the rest of the hallway.

Recent domestic building jobs in pictures is a post from the Expert Builders blog.

The Expert Builders are K Design and Build, a small building firm based in Wokingham, Berkshire. See their main website here.