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If you are planning a renovation, new build, extension or conversion project this year or even if you are simply planning on remodeling what you already have then these are our tips for great trades shows to visit.

The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show
Birmingham NEC 21 March – 24 March 2013

More than 450 specialist companies will exhibit in the UK’s biggest dedicated self-build & renovation event.
Show features include:

• Tricks of the Trade Theatre – Presented by DIY Doctor
• NEW Big Ideas Theatre
• Do It Yourself Zone
• Traditional Skills Demonstrations area
• Home Improvement & Interiors Pavilion
• Eco Home Theatre
• Construction Systems Showcase
• Seminar and masterclass theatres
• FREE one to one consultations with experts in The Advice Centre

Go to the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show website for more information.

The Ideal Home Show
Earls Court, London, 15 March – 1 April 2013

This is the 105th Year for the show, and it is a marathon exhibition with its eight dedicated show sections:

• Interiors – Ideal Home Magazine Room Sets
• Home Improvements
• Gardens
• Food & Housewares
• Technology
• Woman
• Shopping
• Show Homes

and not forgetting:

• Gregg Wallace Seasonal Restaurant

Website for the Ideal Home Show.

Grand Designs Live
ExCeL, London,  4 May – 12 May 2013

Based on the Channel 4 TV series, and presented by design guru Kevin McCloud
Over 500 exhibitors
Stands, seminars and shows covering interiors, gardens, home improvement, self-build, renovations, technology and shopping.

More information is available at the Grand Designs Website.

The National Home Improvement Show 2013
27-29 September at London Olympia
Website
Show includes: Talks and demonstrations by industry professionals including DIY Doctor
Hundreds of trade stands, all directly relevant to the Home Improver and self-builder
The National Home Improvement Awards – allows the public to vote for their choice
The organisers make a donation to Centrepoint - a Charity committed to helping young homeless people regain control of their lives

More information on what is happening at the show from the National Home Improvement Show website.

DIY Doctor at the National Homebuilding Show

Free tickets to see us at the NEC
If you want to come and see DIY Doctor on the Tricks of the Trade Stage at, at Birmingham NEC between 21 March – 24 March 2013, click here for free tickets to The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show

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DIY Doctor will be on the Tricks of The Trade Stage at the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show at the NEC in Birmingham next month.

The show starts on the 21st March and runs until the 24th March 2013. Mike Edwards from DIY Doctor will be running a series of talks and demonstrations including how to plaster, how to lay tiles and how to avoid cowboy builders.

Are you planning a build?
The National Homebuilding and Renovating Show organisers have asked us, to ask you, how you intend to use finance to fund your build, renovation or extension, for the coming year. So if you have a moment to fill in their survey, they are offering a chance to win 1 of 5 prizes of £100 worth of high-street shopping vouchers.

The National Homebuilding and Renovating Show have partnered up with Experian for this survey. The idea is to examine the use of credit and financing on the homebuilding and renovating industry.

For your convenience the survey has been designed to make it easy to fill in on what ever device you prefer to use. You can complete it using a PC, Mac, iPad and most smartphones.

It will be very interesting to see what the research reveals – so if you have the time Please follow this link to complete their survey.

We would also like to see you at the show – so if you want free tickets as DIY Doctor guests then please click on the image below.

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Would you be prepared to send us your DIY disasters?

So many people own smartphones these days that videos are becoming the easiest way of telling a story.

DIY Doctor is reacting to this trend by supplying more and more video versions of our How To guides and Product Review videos, to help you with your Home Improvement tasks and when making choices on which equipment to use for your building projects.

We used to get emails from you telling us what was going wrong, and we still get posts on our forum that highlight common problems, but we are looking for something a bit more graphic.

Now we would like your videos showing the challenges you meet when carrying out building, renovating or repairing jobs at home.

Send us your videos and we will advise you

If you have a project that is going horribly wrong, or you have started a project and found a job that you simply can’t tackle, please make a short video and send us a link. We will then use it to answer your questions.

You can tell us whether we can use it on the site, to share your problem with other users, which could help them if they find themselves in similar scrapes. If you say you want it kept private then we will, of course, respect your wishes.

How do I send videos?

Take your video on your phone or video camera and then upload it to your choice of video service.

Three good video sites that offer a free uploading and sharing system are

Drop Shots

You Tube

Vimeo

There are probably others available – use whichever you prefer.

If you like you can set your video as ‘private’ on any of these three sites, this means they are not available online, but they can be shared by invitation. Otherwise you might want them to be freely available – they might go ‘viral’ and make you famous!

We will view it and comment and, if you allow us to, we will publish it on the DIY Doctor website.

You have been framed?

Now those of you who have a more evil sense of humour may want to send in videos of your friend/spouse/workmate doing something stupid and funny, while carrying out building work and Home Improvement tasks. We would be lying if we said we don’t want these.

Who doesn’t want a laugh?

So if you spot some idiot tiptoeing on a bucket to reach the last bit of painting on a soffit and you just know they are going to fall off covering themselves in paint, or they are about to drive a digger into a foundation trench, or they are carrying too many bricks and are about to trip over the dog or step in a bucket of plaster, then by all means set the camera rolling.

Send in the results – name and shame the victim!

Email us your Video

Send your video link, your name and contact details to office@diydoctor.org.uk. Don’t forget to tell us whether you want to remain anonymous or not.

In the mean time you might want to watch DIY Doctor’s Mike Edwards on stage at the ideal home show, talking about DIY Disasters.

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A housing estate in Uppingham, Rutland is to trial a “no cold calling” zone. A scheme to make it harder for rogue traders.

The residents of The Beeches, have decided to protect themselves from traders who use cold calling methods. Such workmen are more likely to be rogue traders, with no qualifications, insurance, or (worse) no intention of finishing the job.

From next week, there will be signs up at the entrance to the estate. The zone will be enforced by trading standards officers, Rutland County Council, and the local police.

We welcome this idea as an excellent move towards eliminating rogue traders and cowboy builders. We would really like to see this idea expanded to other areas. By integrating it with Neighborhood Watch it should help protect vulnerable people who are often targeted by unscrupulous cowboys.

As you know DIY Doctor is aiming to eliminate Cowboy Builders, by giving consumers the tools they need to avoid poor tradesmen and only employ those who want to do a good job for you. This type of initiative is really inspiring. Homeowners are taking control and showing that they are not prepared to be passed off with shoddy workmanship.

“I welcome this scheme as a method of helping homeowners to avoid cowboy builders and other rogue traders. It is vital to give consumers the tools they need to protect themselves against these unscrupulous tradespeople”  Mike Edwards, Managing Director DIY Doctor.

We have a whole section on our main site about avoiding Cowboy Builders by finding reputable tradesmen. In it we stress the importance of homeowners taking responsibility for their homes. We help you to make informed decisions by providing tools and information so you can avoid common pitfalls and get the right work done at the right price.

Visit our Home Improver’s Protection Solution for our five-part programme to avoid the cowboy builders.

Some points to bear in mind

Professional builders and gardeners are not likely to just turn up at your house. Most good tradesmen are busy anyway, but even if someone is looking for work if they are genuine they are much more likely to advertise locally or put leaflets through the door which allows you to make contact with them.

We would never recommend employing anyone who cold calls.

If you ever have someone cold calling who wont take ‘no’ for answer, don’t hesitate to call the police.

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Xenophobia rules in Northampton as the local paper advises consumers not to employ builders who ‘don’t have a local accent’. This is under the heading ‘Dodgy and Dangerous’. Oh dear!

The Northampton Herald and Post is advising it’s readers on how to avoid cowboy builders in response to a report from Sainsbury’s Home Insurance which highlights how big the problem of rogue traders actually is in Britain. Sainsbury’s report shows that more than 6 million homeowners have suffered from botched building jobs in the last 5 years at a cost of some £3.7 billion.

You know we are always improving our information about avoiding cowboy builders here at DIY Doctor. Much of what the paper has to say makes sense, but this is one piece of advice that we have never seen before. We won’t be adopting this advice as part of our Home Improver’s Protection Solution, because we believe that people should be free to move around the country, and even around Europe, providing the service they are offering is a good one.

Go to our Home Improver’s Protection Solution pages to find out how you can really find a good tradesman and avoid Cowboy Builders. This includes free tools such as find a tradesman, Price Doctor quote checking tool, and the Desired Outcome Contract to use with your builder.

There is also lots of advice on our You Tube Channel – including a seminar from our Managing Director Mike Edwards which deals with avoiding the cowboy. Click play on the video below to see what he has to say.

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