Real Home ImprovementThe Home Improvement Blog with real advice

Get Underfloor Heating

Underfloor Heating is one of the most saught after perks to modern housing. It comes readily installed in new builds, but for those of you who have a home over 10 years old then chances are given the latest craze of underfloor heating imports that you do not have it. Perfect in all the bathrooms in your house, and most effective on tiled floooring, electric underfloor heating is an excellent way to improve the value of your home.

Get double glazing

Double glazing is a triple whammy because it makes your home completely secure, helps you save energy and money from your bills and also improves the overall (dependant on how much you pay) value on your home. Pretty much all flats you can rent including student accomodation use double glazing as a selling point of their homes. This is because it is modern, in most cases environmentally friendly and also cheaper in the long run than single glazed windows.

Apply a lick of paint

Those white and cream walls that you painted a year ago ain’t so white anymore – in fact as an example take a new white shirt and hold it against the wall and guarenteed your walls will not be that bright white colour. Of course, this home improvement blog isn’t recommending that you completely paint your whole house white! Ohhhh no, in fact paint it how you like – because personality to your home is key. Neutral colours are the best though.

So there we go – three simple (and 2 in cases pricey) ways of increasing the value of your home. All comments are welcome.

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With the iPhone marketplace growing and growing daily it should come as no surprise that there are quite a few iPhone and iPod touch apps which can help during home improvement projects. Having tested a lot of home improvement apps, and in the process drawing out the very best ones, here is Real Home Improvement’s recommended home improvement apps for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

1) My Measures Lite (iPhone only)

My Measures Lite is a fantastic tool for anybody within an industry trade and also a fantastic app for anybody carrying out a home improvement project. Quite simply put, My Measures Lite allows you to take a photo of any object building or wall and then add dimensions afterwards – a little bit like a photo editor. With this app, you will never mis-measure anything again!

2) Ben Color Capture (iPhone only)

Ben Color Capture allows you to take a picture of any colour or any surface colour and match to to over 3300 hues which can be re-created in store. Very simple to use, highly intuitive and also completely free, Ben Color Capture is a fantastic app which could save you a lot of time when trying to find that perfect shade of paint!

3) Tapemeasure!

Tapemeasure! does exactly what is says on the tin. The app itself starts up straight away with no load time, and displays a vertical and horizontal ruler in either inches or centimentres. The only draw back to this app is that the maximum length the ruler / tapemeasure displays is 7 cm, or rather 3 inches, which can be toggled through a simple shake. A nice app for a quick measure.

4) Advanced Bubble Level Free

Advanced Bubble Level Free is a pretty handy app for the home improvement fiend in you as it does exactly what is says on the tin. It provides a rather accurate level guide when your iPhone / iPod Touch is placed in a flat surface and lets you see if anything needs tweeking or changing. It also loads up fast and has a quick download time.

5 ) Drywall Calculator ($0.99)

Okay admittedly this app is not free, but this application assists you in easily figuring out square footage of a room. Whether you want to calculate just the walls, ceiling or a slope (triangle), or any combination of the previous you would like to figure. This is a good app which does its simple purpose well.

So there we have it! Five (almost) free home improvement apps for those of you who have an iPhone and are going through a home improvement project .

Painting can be a gruelling and time consuming task. With many people skipping it and paying for a professional because they find it too boring, painting your interior walls can also be an expensive way of improving the value of your home.

But what if you are not actually looking for a professional and want to get stuck in your self? What if it is your first time painting interior walls and you want to get it just right? Well alas my friends, as Real Home Improvement has you covered!

Below is a list of the equipment you are going to need in order to fully create beautifully painted walls:

- Suitable interior paint of a colour you like

- Small brush (for cutting in)

- Large Brush (or a roller and tray)

- Fine sand paper (for if you paint something by mistake and need to take it off when dried)

- Damp cloth

- Masking Tape

And thats it! The equipment listed above is on an as needed basis, with sand paper not really being ‘required’ but recommended as an extra tool for removing dried paint.

First step

The first step to painting your interior walls properly is to prepare the wall first using a damp cloth or sugar soap which you can mix at home or buy from any megastore. This is to remove and dirt, grime, debris or cobwebs from the surface before any paint is applied. It is also hugely important that you move any furniture away from the wall being painted, although if you can not do this then cover all your furniture which might become damaged with dust sheets to protect them from your fingers or the odd splatter of paint flying from your brush. On sensitive or particular areas such as door frames use masking tape to cover the edges to create a clean straight look to your finish.

Second Step

The base coat you apply to your wall is the most important as it sets the overall tone of the higher layers. Using a big brush, or as many people pot for a roller, swiper up and down in the same direction until the wall is completely covered and leave to dry. Note: It is very important that your first layer is not too thick and you make sure that there are no ‘loose’ fibres from your paintbrush stuck to the wall. Leave the wall to dry for approximately 90 minutes (unless otherwise specified) and go make yourself a cup of tea, or better, grab a beer (just joking, RHI can not be held responsible for you painting drunk ).

Third Step

Once your wall has dried and its first coat is there for all its glory, it is important to step back and decide whether or whether not you will need to apply one or two more coats to get the finish you need (this will save you money or time). If you are happy to proceed, then again take your roller to your wall and paint away, paying particular attention not to get paint on the ceiling. After the second coat is on, you can now set to work with a smaller brush cutting in on the ceiling (squaring the finish off).

There are many designs that you can put your home through – but one question always comes up within home improvement and home redesigns > Paint vs Wallpaper: Which suits your home best?

Of course there are many rooms in one house, with bathrooms obviously opting for paint over wallpaper for water damage reasons, but exactly what are the advantages and disadvantages of both materials and what can you do with them both?

Wallpaper Advantages

Wallpaper offers a huge variety of patterns to choose from as well as a huge selection of textures and colors which can be picked up at any home improvement shop or megastore. Plus, textured wallpaper can add more oomph to your walls which paints cannot offer (unless you get a professional painter which can be costly). Some new wallpapers even have beading, sequins, lace and ribbons that add more drama and style to a bare wall.

One of the main advantages to wallpaper is that it can easily hide holes in a wall or deep scratches which could have been caused from a variety of reasons. Also, if you are selling your home and have cracks in your plaster walls from general heating and cooling, a wallpaper session  can add new value to your sell.

Wallpaper is also your only option for fire damaged walls, unless the fire damage is light or you have arms of steel to get the soot off.

Wallpaper Disadvantages

The main disadvantage to all wallpapers is that they are horrible to clean and maintain as they (unless special wallpaper) soak up grease and stains quite easily. So if you have kids armed with crayons and chocolate covered hands your once beatiful wallpaper will quite simply become a mess.

Wallpaper can also be expensive, and the actual ‘putting it on’ time consuming if never done before. Wallpapaer generally also has a lower shelf life as they can fade under sun light.

Paint Advantages

Paint is a low maintenance, cheap and easy-to-apply interior treatment – Having painted walls means that you need not be so worried about maintaining and cleaning your walls. Most kinds of dirt and stains can easily be cleaned of a painted wall or when the stain does not come off completely, you can easily paint that area in the wall the same color to cover up the stain. While cover up stains and fixing unsightly marks on wallpaper can be quite difficult and expensive since you might have to remove one entire panel of wallpaper and replace it just because of a small stain.

Paint has a huge shelf life once applied, and if well maintained will last for years (ceiling paint excluded if you smoke as it will discolour due to nicotine stains).

Paint Disadvantages

Paint doesn’t really offer much texture or design and unlike wallpaper which can instantly create illusions, designs and texture where there are none, using paint to achieve the same effect can be a difficult task. If you want walls with flower designs without using wallpaper, you have to paint the flowers yourself which would take a lot of time and effort and usually only look crap anyway. You can also use stencils to paint designs although these designs would not be as detailed and flawless as those in printed wallpapers.

So which suits your home best? You now know the advantages and disadvantages to paint and wallpaper so take your pick . To be honest a mix of the two is always nice, and if you have a bedroom perhaps paint all round apart from the wall your beds headrest is on would be a good option.

All comments welcome.

Save energy to save yourself money

Saving energy has never been more apparnt than now – not just with the intention of saving a few pounds on your bills, saving energy is also helping the planet recover from all the notoriously bad gasses that have been pumped in to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.

To save money and energy on your bills, try turning your thermostat down a couple of degrees and install compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) when your older incandescent bulbs burn out. Other ways of saving energy include using a cold wash cycle when washing clothes as up to 85 percent of energy consumption occurs heating up the water.

Save water to save yourself money

Water consumption is a major problem all over the world, with many people taking advantage of it while many people  don’t even have the opportunity to do so.

Saving water can be achieved in a few ways, with one of the most effective ways being to take shorter showers and run shallower baths. Low flow shower heads are a good way of keeping shower costs down, and do not cost too much either – in fact, if you buy one for £20 then chances are over a period of 3 months you’ll have make your money back.

Drink Tap Water

Drink tap water, not bottled and save money as well as helping the planet. If you don’t like the taste use a filter. UK tap water is more tested and regulated than most bottled waters. The industry uses around 2.7 million tonnes of plastic in packaging not to mention the transport cost in fossil fuel. Even the plastic that is recycled has a transport overhead. So next time you want water – turn on the tap.

If you live in a hard water area then the best way to make tap water drinkable is to boil it and then filter it, as boiling eats up all metallic properties within the water.

Metal Sheds