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The Government has announced a massive hike in landfill tax and the building industry is up in arms. This is a charter for fly-tipping if ever there was one.

I came across this building up at Snape Maltings on the Suffolk coast. The original building was almost gone and the new owners could have taken it apart bit by bit and rebuilt it with lime mortar importing used bricks to make up the considerable deficiency. …there’s a touch of Antony Gormley’s Angel of The North in letting the metal …

Condensing boilers have undoubtedly become more reliable over the last few years but the last couple of winters saw thousands of householders caught out by frozen condensate. Manufacturers offer clear guidelines for avoiding freezing but not every job offers the opportunity to do things by the book and terminate the condensation inside the building. If the pipe runs to an …

I am currently working on the building site from hell. It was a job I took on against my better judgment. When I was pricing it alarm bells were ringing in my head because there was a new spec and drawing almost every day. The job itself isn’t actually that bad; it’s a complete re-plumb on a large central London …

The golden rule that I have followed through years of fault finding is ‘never assume and never jump to conclusions’. OK that is two golden rules but the basic message is never say you know something until you prove it. This has stood me in good stead where other tradesmen have come and gone from a job missing one small …

I have just read that the number of carbon monoxide poisoning incidents has increased over last year. The reason isn’t entirely clear but I will offer two suggestions. Firstly, the exceptionally cold winter. Nearly all carbon monoxide poisoning is from open-flued appliances such as gas fires. These require a through-flow of fresh air from outside. Natural ventilation which may be …

Have you noticed any increase in the number of scrap metal men doing the rounds? I certainly have, not least because the scrap metal I had set aside recently on one of my jobs walked off after just ten minutes. Two hours later I had another visit from someone who was similarly interested but this time he didn’t particularly care …

Tax laws are an important factor fuelling inequality within the market. While average inflation, according to the retail price index, shows a 2 or 3% rise, the cost of 'trade' inflation could be much higher. The price of Bricks and concrete have reportedly soared by a potent 20%.