Apr 30
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has announced that there is to be a new National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) set up to help stop rogue traders.
The Board’s aim will be to ‘prioritise, fund and coordinate’ national and regional enforcement, along with a new advice line 08454 040506, run by Citizens Advice.
From April next year, £10.5 million funding will be redirected from the current OFT budget to the Trading Standards departments in England, Wales and Scotland to help strengthen cross boundary working.
However, Which? the consumer body is concerned that it will ‘over-stretch’ resources. They said “Under [these] changes, local trading standards, more used to tackling street markets and rogue plumbers, will be required to do the majority of consumer law enforcement work and will be expected take on powerful national and international companies, putting considerable extra strain on local authority Trading Standards services at a time when councils are slashing their budgets and trading standards officers are being made redundant across the country.”
What are your views on the new National Trading Standards Board? Do you think it could help rid us of the cowboy builders in the industry?
Apr 27
We have a new project to help you if you are looking at re-decorating a room and are looking for advice. If you are wanting a new look, a simple way of doing this is by creating what is known as a ‘feature wall’.
A feature wall gives you the opportunity of doing something a bit different, whether it be bold, bright or patterned, but without decorating the whole room in the same colour/pattern. It might be that you choose paint or wallpaper to create your feature wall, but the most important thing is to decide which wall you are going to pick!
The most sucessfull tend to be the wall or recess behind the bed in a bedroom or the fireplace wall or recesses either side in a living room. But you will decide on what will work in your home – it may be you want a feature wall in the bathroom or kitchen, and it still gives you the opportunity to try something different.
You may choose a tone lighter or darker than the rest of the walls in the room, or you may choose a contrasting colour or a bold wallpaper. Take a look at our project on colour theory and the colour wheel to understand more about choosing colours for your home. If you are doing any wallpapering – take a look at our project on how to hang wallpaper.
Keep an eye out for more projects on interior design coming to diydoctor soon!
Apr 26
We stumbled upon a great blog post on curbly.com which gives some good ideas for making DIY plant labels if you are feeling a little creative.
Plant labels made from tin can lids and wire coat hangers
Plastic knife plant label
Plant label painted with black board paint
Plant label using clothes peg
Some of them are recyled but all are simple to do, but maybe you have ideas of your own? Let us know and send us pictures of what you use for DIY plant labels…..
Plant label made from polymer clay
Apr 25
If you have a brick fireplace that is a bit of an eyesore, or maybe you just fancy sprucing it up a bit, we have two new projects on diydoctor which might be just what you need.
The first project is all about how to clean your brick fireplace, and covers several different methods you can use. It can be a messy job and can involve using quite strong chemicals, but as long as you protect the surrounding area in the room and are prepared to use a bit of elbow grease, the transformation is worth it.
Now a good clean might be all the fireplace needs, but if you are wanting to paint it you should take a look at our new project on how to paint a brick fireplace. This gives step by step instructions on how to prepare, what types of paint are best to use and how to go about painting the brickwork. The results can be really worthwhile and change the whole feel of a room.
So now you don’t have to put up with an embarassing fireplace anymore!
Apr 24
Demand for increased digital TV installations ahead of the Olympics and Euro 2012 inspire new products and promotional pricing from Newey & Eyre
As the UK eagerly anticipates a summer of major sporting events and the Queen’s Jubilee weekend, installers of digital TV equipment are experiencing an increase demand for upgrades to comply with the digital switchover and additional multi-room capabilities.
To help installers meet this demand and keep their quotes competitive leading electrical wholesaler Newey & Eyre has launched its new range of RG6 Shotgun cables.
Kevin Norman, product marketing manager for Newey & Eyre, comments: “With the summer games fast approaching, as well as the digital switchover which is due to complete this year, there is a burgeoning demand for installers to provide an additional digital service. In anticipation of this increasing demand, we have launched the new RG6 Shotgun cable and ensured that our branches are fully stocked in order to meet our customers’ needs.”
The Newlec RG6 cable offers great value for money comes complete with a 1mm copper clad steel conductor and is available in 100m drums. Further to this is the higher specification Newlec PF100 satellite cable which is CAI approved, ensuring that the cable performs with the minimum of signal loss and offering the end user a higher picture quality.
The ideal choice when fitting Sky+™ and Sky HD ™, the twin coaxial cable can reduce both installation time and cost, where a twin feed is required – when there is a ‘watch while you record’ feature. The cable comes with a one year guarantee and is available in 125m drums, making it easy to handle and transport.
However, if a twin feed is not needed, there is also a range of Newlec satellite cables to suit every application.
Promotional prices are live on the Neweysonline website and in the Newey & Eyre branch network across the UK.
