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Home improvements allow you to enhance the practicality of your property as well as the look and feel. When carrying out home improvements, there are certain things you should be aware of to help you avoid problems along the way. For example, it can be easy to forget about gas safety measures, but gas safety must be a priority when planning home improvements.
In today’s guest post, we’re taking a look at everything you need to know about gas safety when carrying out home improvements. The key is to balance design with functionality. Following these tips will help you to avoid any dangerous and potentially expensive mistakes.
1. Have Your House Inspected by a Gas Safety Engineer
Whether you plan to live in the house after the renovation or plan to sell it, safety is of the utmost importance. It should be your number one priority. Make sure to check all the gas appliances, including the heaters, ovens, and stoves to see if they are working properly.
Unfortunately, there have been incidents in the past involving gas explosions in houses where people failed to check for gas leaks and the efficiency of the overall gas ventilation system. According to UK law, every landlord must obtain a gas certificate once a year by hiring a gas safety engineer to examine their property.
The gas safety certificate ensures that a gas safe engineer has tested the gas appliances, flues, and fittings in your home. The engineer must then provide documents testifying the safety check has been completed and whether or not everything is safe. It can cost you anywhere from £35 to £150 or more to get your property checked. The amount of money that you will need to spend depends on the number of gas appliances.
If you fail to meet these gas safety regulations, you could end up facing a hefty fine or even jail time.
2. Hire the Right Contractor for your Property Renovation
To ensure the success of any work you do on your property, you should aim to hire the right contractor for the job. It’s not advised to take on remodelling work on your own. A contractor will provide the right labour for the job and bring along their skills and expertise. A contractor will also guide you through the planning process to ensure that the home improvement plans align with your budget.
When looking to hire a contractor you should aim to find a few that you like and compare their qualifications. Make sure to read their customer reviews with gas safety in mind, ensure they are fully licenced, easy to contact, and thoroughly answer any questions you have.
Although the process of checking various contractors might seem exhausting, it will prevent you from hiring a contractor who ends up being wrong for the job and costing you more in the long run. For this reason, it would be wise to meet a few contractors before you make up your mind about who to hire for the job.
3. Focus on Functionality and Safety when Improving a Property
Another important tip that you need to consider when renovating your property is that functionality comes first. Although it might be important for the upgrades to suit the overall theme of your home, you cannot afford to overlook function.
If you focus on just the look and feel, you will mostly likely eventually need to remodel the property again to maintain safety elements such as gas safety. Before starting a property renovation project, you must think about how each component would serve a purpose and if things can be done in a better way.
For instance, if you want your living room to be more spacious, you must ensure that the heating system does not get compromised to make way for additional space. Prioritize functionality and safety over design at all times.
4. Determine the Budget for your Property Enhancements
When renovating your property, you must have an investment budget in mind. This will help you to ensure that you set aside the right amount of money for the refurbishment. Having a budget to go alongside your property plans will help to account for everything you spend and also help to avoid unnecessary spending.
A good rule to follow is to increase the budget by at least 20% after finalizing your costs, as you never know if a gas safety emergency might arise. This contingency is for any unforeseen expenses that can not be avoided. Since unexpected problems are more common than you think, you must be as prepared as possible in case anything goes wrong.
5. Stick to the Original Property Plans
Once you have worked out the plan with the contractor and taken their expertise into account, you should stick to this plan as much as possible. This is to make sure all possible safety hazards have been taken into account.
If you can’t avoid making changes, the plan should be amended and your contractor should check it for any safety issues once again before continuing with renovations. Some small adjustments may not need a lot of changes in the planning process, but your contractor should always be consulted just in case. Not only could changes be unsafe, they can also be costly.
When considering safety, make sure to consider how each planned home improvement might affect the gas safety of the property. This will help minimize the possibility of gas-related incidents.
6. Install a Carbon Monoxide Alarm in your Property
Carbon monoxide alarms detect carbon monoxide leaks. They are sometimes required by law depending on what your property is being used for and what gas fittings you have.
When doing up a property, it is advised to have one fitted to detect any leaks coming from a boiler, a stove, or any other gas appliance.
There are six signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, and knowing these signs could help save a life. They include dizziness, headaches, breathlessness, nausea, and loss of consciousness.
Property renovations and enhancements have become increasingly popular in the last few years. They help to add value to property prices and make properties more functional for use. If we haven’t stressed it enough already, always remember to consider gas safety when doing up a property to keep yourself, your employees, and future tenants safe.
