Member Blog

We’ve all been there, your home needs some TLC and the job is a little bit too big for you to handle. So you decide to call in the builders. The trouble is there are a lot of them out there and some are not all they’re cracked up to be. The wrong choice can be costly and could mean your house topping the billing on Channel 5’s Cowboy Builders. And then there’s the problem of finding a new, reputable builder to sort out the mess the first one left behind. It can soon turn into one long nightmare.

So how do you go about sorting the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad, the cowboys from the craftsmen? Recommendations are useful but not always forthcoming, especially if you’re new to an area. So we’ve put together a list of tips to help you navigate the minefield, many from our own customer base who know a thing or two about quality building work.

• Ask people you know. Ask friends, family members, neighbours, work colleagues, in your local pub, anywhere you think someone might be able to give you a recommendation. If someone near where you live has had building work done recently, knock on their door and see if the builder they used was good.

• Always seek more than one quote. By contacting three of four builders you will get a feel for who is and isn’t trustworthy. It allows you to compare the work required and prices, and decide who is offering the best value.

• Ask for references. If a builder doesn’t come to you through personal recommendation ask for references. Any reputable builder should have a long list of satisfied customers who will should be happy to discuss their work. As with quotes, always ring more than one referee – they might have given you the number of a relative or friend.

• Look for quality marks. There are several schemes builders can get involved with to demonstrate the quality of their work and service.

Ones to look out for are the TrustMark, the Trading Standards Institute Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (look for the TSI logo) and the Trading Standards Buy with Confidence Scheme. Also look out for members of trade associations which have codes of practice and schemes to help resolve any problems.

• Check insurances. Having the correct insurances is a sign of reputable contractor. Ask to see the policies and check they don’t run out before the job is likely to end. Required insurances include Public Liability and Employers’ Liability and if they refuse to let you see the policy, it is possibly they don’t have it in place.

• Get a written contract. Once you’ve decided which builder to go with get down in writing what it is they are going to do. This means that if the builder doesn’t do what is agreed, it will help in getting what you paid for or getting some of your money back. Be very wary of a builder refuses to write anything down.

• Expect to deal with some problems. Very few jobs run 100% smoothly no matter how good your builder is, so be prepared to deal with some hiccups along the way. But make sure you have all the builder’s contact details and let him or her know immediately that you are unhappy about something. Then get down in writing how they are going to put it right.

We hope our tips our useful to you but if you need any further information why not drop into your local MKM branch and speak to one of our staff.

Solid walls can often lead to draughty homes and high energy bills for owners, so it’s no wonder more and more people are looking to get them insulated. The typical way of achieving this is by fitting an external wall product behind a render or brick slip facing. Alternatively, if the owner wants to keep the existing building façade, you can fit dry-lining products such as insulated plasterboard.

Whichever route you pick; it’s important to maintain a continuous layer of insulation around the building envelope, which begs the question: Should pipework be run through the insulation?

The simple answer is, wherever possible, no. Every time you cut or penetrate through insulation you run the risk of damaging the performance of the insulation layer and vapour barrier. In an ideal world, any services should be moved to an area where no insulation will be fitted, however, the realities of retrofit applications mean that this simply isn’t always possible.

If you have no choice other than to penetrate through the layer, best practice details are available to guide you. By following these details, you should be able to ensure that the system limits the risk of condensation or additional heat losses as a result of air leakage and thermal bridging.

Obviously there are a number of different pipes which you may need to accommodate, from water pipes to flues, and the requirements may be slightly different for each.

If, for example, you have to run a gas or oil pipe through a solid wall fitted with insulated plasterboard, you should use a pad saw or core drill (a circular disc drill bit) to cut through the insulation to provide a snug fit and reduce the oversize to a bare minimum. Any damage to the insulation board should be made good by filling any large gaps larger than 10 mm with expanding foam insulation. The perimeter of the pipe should also be sealed with a flexible sealant.

For flue pipes, there may be a requirement to create a separation layer between the insulation and the flue pipe. This will vary depending on the operating temperature of the flue and the flue specification itself so be sure to check carefully beforehand.

In all cases, the installation of gas, oil pipes, flues, electrics and telecoms should only be done by a competent person such as a qualified electrician, Gas Safe, OFTEC, HETAS or BT certified engineer. It is also vital that ventilation requirements for certain combustion appliances are not removed, blocked or reduced in size. All works involving appliances, fittings or flues should be carried out in accordance with Approved Document J for England & Wales, or Section 3.17 – 3.24 of the Scottish Technical Standards and / or manufacturer’s guidance.

Getting to know… Kingspan Kooltherm K17 & K18 Insulated Plasterboard

Both Kingspan Kooltherm K17 & K18 Insulated Plasterboard have been designed on a simple principal: why do three jobs when you can do it just as well in one? The products combine insulation, dry-lining and vapour control in a single board, saving you a lot of time and hassle during installations.

As well as making your life a bit easier, the products also deliver when it comes to space-saving. As you know, for every millimetre of insulation installed in an internal wall application is a millimetre of living space lost, so it’s essential to keep constructions as thin as possible whilst also reducing heat loss. Thanks to their premium performance Kooltherm insulation cores, both products can achieve thermal conductivities as low as 0.020 W/m×K, helping to keep build-ups slim and the owner happy.

The products feature a 12.5 mm plasterboard facing which is pre-bonded to the insulation core. Kingspan Kooltherm K17 Insulated Plasterboard has a glass tissue based reverse surface making it suitable for plaster dab or adhesive bonded applications, whilst the composite foil based facing on Kingspan Kooltherm K18 Insulated Plasterboard make it an ideal choice for mechanically fixed applications.

For assistance calculating what type and thickness of insulation you need for an application, simply visit Kingspan Insulation’s free online U-value Calculator. The calculator is also available as a free app for Windows, Apple and Android devices.

As anyone who’s ever been locked out of the bathroom can tell you, it’s never fun battling a broken door handle. As a common issue, it’s always handy to know how to fix this particular problem – so if your toolbox is prepped and you’re raring to go, let’s get stuck in:

1. When a handle breaks, there’s normally one side that’s faultier than the other. However, regardless of which side is worse, it’s always best to take both sides of the handle off in a bid to gain a clearer picture of the fault.

2. Once you’ve removed both sides, you should be able to identify a cross-member (usually rectangular in shape) that fits between the two handles – take this out using some long-nosed pliers

3. As the years go by, this cross-member wears, meaning that it often becomes too short to run between each fitting (hence why only one side of the handle works).

4. To rectify this fault, simply pad out the groove in which this cross-member sits in each handle using some tiny nuts and a tiny drop of glue. By spacing out the fittings, you’ll be shortening the gap in which this rectangular cross-member sits – which should prevent the fault occurring again anytime soon!

Fixing a shelf is a really common job that everyone can do themselves, providing they have the right set of tools hidden somewhere in the house. So if you’re looking at fitting some shelves in your home, here’s a few simple steps to get you started:

1. First and foremost, it’s really important to check for any cables in the wall you wish to fit your shelf to. By using a simple wire detector, you’ll be able to do this no problem – so be sure to have this handy piece of kit in your toolbox before starting!

2. You should also check for pipes and other obstructions behind the wall before you start. Some detectors will have this functionality built in so you can be sure you’re working safely – you don’t want to accidentally drill into a water pipe!

3. Providing you’ve found no wires or pipes, it’s time to crack on! First, find your desired height and mark with a pencil. After you’ve done this, use a piece of wood and a spirit level and mark a fine line where you want the shelf to sit. Make sure the spirit level is sat nicely in the middle – you don’t want a wonky shelf, do you?

4. Line your brackets up with this line and mark each hole using a small screw. At this point, it’s a good idea to double check your measurements, otherwise you might find yourself filling miscellaneous holes in the wall for the rest of the afternoon!

5. Next, drill out the holes where you have marked with a screw before inserting some screw plugs (NOTE – don’t drill the holes too big, your screw plugs should fit neatly into these holes and shouldn’t have any wiggle-room whatsoever!).

6. Line up your brackets and insert a screw in each hole – tighten using a screwdriver (manual or electric, it doesn’t matter as long as they’re tight!)

7. Attach the shelf to the brackets and revel in your awesome handiwork!

As an issue that affects almost every household at one point or another, a tripped fuse can cause a total loss of power to a certain area of the house. Often caused by a faulty appliance, here’s how to fix this simple issue:

1. In the affected room, start by unplugging every appliance or electronic piece of equipment that’s utilising a socket in the wall.

2. Locate your fuse box and switch any fuse that’s been tripped to the ‘OFF’ position back to the ‘ON’ position (you’ll be able to spot which fuse has tripped as it’ll most likely be the only one facing in a different direction to the others).

3. Head back into the room and plug in each appliance one by one.

4. If the lights in the room go off when you plug a certain piece of kit back into the wall, hey presto! You’ve found your broken appliance.

5. Unplug the faulty appliance and repeat step number two to turn the power back on in the room.

6. Take your faulty appliance to your local electronics shop and have it looked at by a trained professional – you don’t want to be tinkering with plugs yourself!

Without a decent photograph or iconic piece of art hanging in our home, our walls run the risk of looking pretty boring. If you’re looking to hang your latest masterpiece but don’t have the skills to do so – fear not, your time is now:

1. Start by marking where you wish to hang your painting with a pencil. A really easy way of determining whether or not you’ve got the right spot is to hold the picture up while a friendly helper stands back and gives their perspective.

2. Pull your painting’s hanging wire to the top of the frame and measure the distance between the edge of the wire and the top of the frame.

3. Using the distance you’ve just measured, mark below the line you made on the wall (again, using a pencil).

4. Again, before you hammer anything you’re going to need to use your trusty detector to make sure there aren’t any wires or pipes in the wall that could potentially cause you grief.

5. Hammer your hook into this second mark on the wall using a small hammer and nail. Hang your picture and flick the kettle on – job done!

As we slowly head towards the summer we are all looking forward to spending more time outdoors. However, with this comes the realisation that our gardens are probably not quite the way we would like them to be. And many people are now opting to make their life easier and install an artificial grass lawn.

In this article we look at the key benefits of artificial grass and provide some guidance on how you can fit an artificial lawn.

The 5 Key Benefits of Artificial Grass

1. A great looking lawn all year round

We all want a great looking lawn. Yet the reality is that takes a lot of work. And even then is only possible for a smaller window of time. With the lengthy winter we have endured this year most lawns will need a lot of TLC to get them looking even half decent. If you throw kids and animals into the mix then natural turf can end up being more of a muddy puddle come spring. And in many cases, it simply is not possible to get your lawn looking the way you would like before the kids and pets start to churn it up again. Artificial grass has come a long way in recent years and a modern, artificial lawn looks and feels great all year round. Come rain. Come shine. Your lawn will look the part.

1. Low maintenance

A high quality artificial lawn needs hardly any maintenance to keep it in tip top shape. This is in direct contrast to a natural lawn that needs a good deal of work to get it looking the part for summer and then almost daily maintenance during the warmer months. Looking after an artificial lawn typically requires nothing more than blowing away the leaves and maybe a quick clean and some weed killer once or twice a year. This gives you more time to enjoy your garden than simply toiling away trying to reach a green nirvana!

1. Good for the environment

We all want a lush, green lawn, and having artificial grass guarantees that your lawn will look great. But artificial grass is also green from an environmental perspective. There is no need for repeated applications of harmful fungicides or herbicides. And let us not forget the frequent watering a lawn can need to look it’s best in the dry summer months. In 2016 and 2017 a drop in rainfall of over 50% meant that a hosepipe ban was almost inevitable which puts your lawn (and hard work) at risk. With an artificial lawn you have a perfect lawn all year round safe in the knowledge that you are not hurting the environment.

1. Family & Pet Friendly

Modern artificial grass is great for children and pets. It is easy to clean and won’t smell. And artificial grass can take everything your children and pets throw at it and still look the part. No more digging and no more muddy paths where your animal tears around the garden in the winter months. Artificial grass is non toxic and won’t hurt your children or animals. In fact a well maintained natural lawn will need a number of chemicals where an artificial lawn needs no such maintenance.

1. Keep the outside, outside

Muddy footprints on the carpet? Mud on the sofa? Muddy pawprints? With our long and often wet winters keeping mud and grime outside can be tough when you have children and animals using the garden come rain or shine. This is a problem that goes away with an artificial lawn. Better still your garden is usable year round with an artificial lawn so your pets and little ones can still play in the garden 12 months a year without bringing the garden back inside with them.

Artificial Grass – Fitting Guide

There are a number of trained installers that can lay your new, artificial lawn but should you want to tackle the project yourself we can provide guidance on how to ensure everything goes to plan.

The basic steps are as follows:

1. Plan your area

First job is to plan the area. You will want to remove the existing lawn and dig a depth of around 2″ and remove any large bricks or stones.

1. Create the edges

You need to create a well defined edge for your artificial lawn so ensure that there is a clear edge where the lawn will end. Typically this is where your patio or pathways will begin but should you require there is a steel edging product available from MKM.

1. Lay the base

You will then need to lay a base of crushed type 1 stone and fine granite stone to provide a smooth surface for your lawn to sit upon. This should be 20mm-40mm and compacted with a compacter plate.

1. Apply the membrane

Next step is to apply a weed membrane. This will ensure that weeds cannot grow up from under your lawn whilst allowing water to drain away.

1. Fit the artificial grass

Finally you can lay your lawn, secure at perimeters and apply the sand infill giving you the perfect, year round, low maintenance lawn.

Fitting video

In this video we show how the professionals from ArtificialGrass.com will specify and fit a new garden lawn:

To help you out in this task we have a fitting guide and calculator over on ArtificialGrass.com that details exactly how much artificial grass, sand, stone, membrane, tape and glue you need to make your project a success.

MKM offer a number of types and styles of grass to suit your project, available in branch or to order direct to site.

All the materials to complete your install are also conveniently available from your local MKM merchant.

Good luck with your garden makeover!

https://www.artificialgrass.com

Has this hot weather left your allotment looking a bit tiresome? Worry no more, as we’ve compiled some of our top tips to maintain a healthy and beautiful allotment plot this summer.

Regular watering is a must.

Watering your allotment at the right time – and the right amount – can be a tricky balance to strike. The best time of day is usually in the morning or evening, generally when it is cooler.

We recommend that you water lightly and consistently – something that’s particularly easily achieved if you install, for instance, a drip irrigation system, or use a soaker hose.

Make sure you’re responsive to your plants’ needs.

Take care to adapt the way you water your plants dependent on how they’re growing.

You’re watering them too much if:

• Their stems are soaked
• There’s mould or moss growing on top of the soil
• Their leaves are yellowing

You’re watering them too little if:

• They’re wilting
• They have brown or dead leaves
• Their growth is stunted

Additionally, if you’ve contributed new seeds to your allotment, be careful not to drown them when you water them: if you do that, they may clump together and not grow properly, or get washed away and not grow at all!

Keep one eye on the soil.

Healthy soil is paramount to healthy plants, which in turn resist insects and disease. Without well-maintained soil, then, your whole allotment will suffer – eek!

Feed for it, care for it and sustain it with close regard – predominantly, we advise covering it with mulch, like topsoil or bark, as doing so has a medley of great benefits, including:

• Reducing evaporation from the soil’s surface
• Cutting water usage by 25 – 50%
• Promoting microorganism activity
• Stabilising soil moisture.

Give it a try – you won’t believe how mulch it’ll improve your plant life.

Weeds hurt seeds! Weeds are harbourers of insects and disease, and sap from your vegetation by taking its water and nutrients.

Make sure you weed regularly – and have a particular go of it at the beginning of the growing season with a proper shovel and a rake (to destroy and unearth hidden ones) – keeping those crop bed baddies at bay.

Dead and diseased vegetation and plants, count as weeds, too – make sure you remove them from your plot, and wash your tools after doing so to avoid infecting the healthy.

Sometimes a diseased plant can be salvaged if you destroy the infected parts of it, but depending on the extent of the infection it might be best to get rid of the entire thing. Dead or wholly vulnerable plant life is a magnet for pests!

Protect your plot from the elements.

Your plants will need guarding against extreme cold and heat, so make sure you have the means to do so.

Cover them with cloth for shade cover when it’s very hot, and provide heat lanterns (if needed – you never know with British weather!) during icier intervals.

Got any allotment-keeping tips of your own? We’d love to hear them. Pop us a message over at our Facebook or Twitter page.

The announcement of the roadmap to take us out of restrictions will inevitably bring opportunities for all the business owners that now have a date to reopen, and those wanting to start a new venture.

We may have all been waiting for this day to happen and been glued to the screen while the PM made his announcement, but is your business properly prepared to take advantage of the pent-up demand experts expect to see? After a difficult year, have you got the cashflow for the stock you need, the equipment and the transport, or do you have the funds at your disposal for new office furniture, IT equipment or enough money for a fantastic marketing campaign?

We may have a few weeks yet before most sectors can open, but that time will go quickly, and it will be those who plan early and act who will be in the best position to bounce-back quickly.

This is where a finance broker can help…

There was a time when everyone knew their local bank manager and many small business owners could simply schedule an appointment to discuss the finance options available to them. Things today however are very different. 

You are the expert in your business and sector, but obtaining finance can be a complicated matter and you may not find the solution that’s right for you without investing significant time – time right now that’s better spent rebuilding your business. An independent broker specialises in sourcing the right finance that a business needs to flourish.  There are many options open to you which can help in these current times.

For instance…

Did you know that the CBILs (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan scheme) are still available until the end of March, and there are many different versions? These could be ideal to help you prepare to expand again, with the Government paying the first 12 months of interest and upfront fee on your behalf, as well as no personal guarantees on loans up to £250,000, with other lenders offering 12 months deferred repayment terms and have no early settlement fees.  You don’t even need to draw the loan down straight away – you just need to have your application submitted before the deadline to ensure you receive the funds when you most need them. 

Did you know that you can raise cash against assets you already own, and still get to keep? This is called asset refinance where manageable monthly payments are agreed over a fixed term and is available against all wheeled and tracked assets.

Did you know that you could apply for a 3 month VAT deferral on a new van or equipment which could be a huge boost to a business’s cashflow over the next few months?

These are just a few of the options that can help your business now to let you build back stronger.

For more information please call us on 01603 381955 or e-mail [email protected]

Introducing TONIC!  

FurtherMore Marketing have a new guide to call things marketing – TONIC. With our passion for doing more to help and elevate everyone around us, TONIC helps to do just that. TONIC is there for you, and is your chance to get involved with what we do and make the most of what we have to offer.  

So… what is TONIC?  

We’re glad you asked! TONIC brings together everything marketing, with the goal to be easily accessible and filled with lots of valuable insights into the world of marketing. TONIC can be found across all of FurtherMore Marketing’s social media channels, including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 

Well, what does it involve exactly? 

Each month, through TONIC, FurtherMore Marketing will bring you an exciting selection of content, from podcasts and blogs to social media posts and stories on a range of topics – all designed to give you an exclusive insight into the world of marketing – and importantly, how to make it work for you. Whether that’s a business owner, a student looking for tips on how to get into the industry, or even a marketer yourself, TONIC is the answer!  

We need YOU 

We’ve got the recipe; we just need one more essential ingredient – YOU!  

You might be asking yourself, “But how do I get involved?” – and the answer is simple: Interact!  

TONIC is for everyone, and everyone can get involved! We’re here to help in any way we can, whether that’s reviewing your portfolio or a burning marketing question you’ve always wanted to know to the answer to, we are here to help. Scratching your head on how to boost business, or perhaps you’re wondering what on Earth a “Tick Tock” is and why everyone keeps talking about it (tip: it’s TikTok!)? Just pop us an e-mail to [email protected] (why not add us to your contacts for when that next burning marketing question hits!) and we’ll share our responses on socials. 

Want to hear the best part? 

Every few months, we’ll round up all of our tips, advice, podcasts and more alongside combining it with what we’ve been getting up to at FurtherMore plus any extras and squeeze it all into one handy online guide! You can sign up to be the first to hear about it on our website.

Oh, and don’t forget to be part of the action by following us on all of our socials: 

Instagram: @furthermoremarketing 

Twitter: @FurtherMore_UK 

Facebook: @FurtherMore Marketing 

LinkedIn: @FurtherMore Marketing

Tudor Lodge is delighted to be working with patent attorneys, Kilburn and Strode, based in London, the UK and Europe. With over 100 years of history, Kilburn and Strode have been helping individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses to get their patents licensed and bring their ideas to life – whilst helping to grow and scale some of the most well-known brands today.

We were approached by Kilburn and Strode to help give them a boost in SEO (search engine optimisation) and rank better in Google’s organic search terms, specifically for terms such as patent attorneys and patent attorneys in London, UK and Europe. 

We a large and professional site already live, we carried out the following tasks to maximise their search results.

Keyword Research

We always start every campaign by asking the client to confirm a list of around 20-30 keywords relevant to their proposition. Of course, there might be thousands of keywords that they could rank for, but honing in on around 20 to 30 is a nice way to target the best keywords and also monitor their SEO progress and results. We are looking for the larger keywords like ‘patent attorneys’ but also the more specific and longer tail ones such as ‘engineering patent attorneys’ and ‘patent attorneys for life sciences’ – since these could be more targeted and arguably convert a lot better, despite having less search volumes.

Content Changes

Importantly, one must take these keywords and try integrate them into the website. Thus, we have suggested the creation of new landing pages, including a nice long 1,000 word page on ‘patent attorneys’ to really grab all the necessary keywords and give ourselves the chance of ranking top for as much as possible. We are looking to add around 5-10 new pages of content, including adding to additional pages and creating more user intent, such as adding phone numbers, email addresses and forms so that visitors can see the product offering and get in touch – something that Google calls ‘user intent.’

Technical Fix-Ups

We are carrying out a thorough audit of the website from a technical standpoint, using tools like Screaming Frog and making sure that all elements are optimised including meta-titles, descriptions, headings, images, broken links, internal links, sitemaps and more.

Link-Building Boost

To give the Kilburn and Strode site an additional boost, we are adding around 8-10 links per month, in areas that are relevant to their proposition including links from news, tech, medical and legal websites, creating relevancy whilst strengthening their domain and making them rank better for all SEO related keywords.

It is with great pleasure that we are working with Beasts of Poker (https://beastsofpoker.com/) one of the leading sites in the world for Poker reviews. Tudor Lodge has already worked with other operators in this space and is excited to be leveraging their knowledge to help better for a range of organic keywords relating to poker and poker reviews.

SEO refers to ‘search engine optimisation’ and the techniques used to rank better for non-paid search results on Google and other engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Yandex.

We were approached by Beast of Poker to assist with off-site SEO or link-building which helps to generate relevancy and boost the strength of your domain for SEO purposes.

How We Have Approached it for Beasts of Poker

Google algorithms are volatile at the best of times and regular algorithm updates every couple of months mean that if you fall on the wrong side of Google’s recommendations, you can be penalised and fall several positions, pages or off the face of Google completely.

Subsequently you are walking a thin line when optimising with Google, especially in the high stakes industry of casinos or gaming where competition is huge. If you can secure top 5 positions on Google, the volumes and quality of traffic is superior to any other form out there, making SEO so important for any business. In fact, more so in the casino industry, you have competitors who try to rank well just for a few months, knowing that they can capitalise on good traffic and then get penalised and removed altogether – but that hit of instant traffic makes it commercially viable, especially with technology changing the betting lanscape.

With link-building, our approach at Tudor Lodge is always cleaner than clean. So rather than random blogs and directories, we are adding links for Beast of Poker on legitimate news and startup websites and typically linking back to their guides, blog posts and homepage to make it look natural. There is always the temptation to use exact match anchor text to their money pages, but this comes with risks and we prefer to take the long and sustainable approach – since this will not make them volatile to algorithm updates and keep them strong for the long term.

Additionally we recommend removing any low or poor quality links already pointing to their Beasts of Poker website. Using the likes of SEMrush, Majestic or Google Search Console, you can see where you have received links back to your site and we simply recommend manually asking for removals from any low quality blogs or easy-to-add directories. A disavow file to remove any poor links is recommended at least every 2 months (or every month) in this competitive niche – just to make sure your backlink profile is as clean as possible!