Features

By Izzy Schulman, Director, Plumbers4U

The ‘cost of living’ is a phrase that’s rarely out of the headlines, and increasing household bills show domestic spending continues to become more expensive.

In fact, the average annual household spend on home utilities is £1,654 per year, which is around 6 percent of a household’s budget.

From the relatively minor and inexpensive, to major incidents which cause severe damage to walls, floors, and personal property, problems with home utilities are inevitable at some point.

Here are the key signs your home utilities need professional repair:

The drip drops

What’s Your Bathroom’s Expiration Date? Experts Reveal How To Make Your Bathroom Last Longer

Interactive tool shows the average lifespan of all aspects of a bathroom’s fixtures and accessories – from toilet roll holders to shower heads

Expert bathroom installers offer their advice on how to prolong the life of your bathroom with maintenance and care

The bathroom is often one of the most used rooms in a household, so it’s particularly important to keep it in the best condition and functioning well. It’s inevitable that fixtures and fittings will have to be eventually replaced - but did you know when that’s likely to be?

Earnings for self-employed plumbers dipped by just 1.7 per cent last month, according to the latest figures released by Hudson Contract.

Analysis of August payroll data for more than 2,200 construction companies in England and Wales reveals a weekly average of £1,120 for plumbing contractors.

They generated the third highest earnings of all 17 construction trades covered by Hudson Contract, beaten only by specialists in shop fitting and mechanical and engineering work.

Plumbers in the North West saw the biggest increase in weekly earnings in August, rising 18.2 per cent to £945.

They were followed by the South West, up 12.8 per cent to £1,328 and the highest in England and Wales, and Yorkshire and the Humber, up 6.8 per cent to £727.

Worcester Bosch will be launching its Greenstar 8000 Lifestyle range in May - a boiler specifically designed to offer both installers with more choice, depending on installation location and customer need.

After years of development and direct feedback from hundreds of installers, the new Greenstar 8000 Lifestyle includes two models: Life and Style.  Both models see a series of new additions and refinements over Worcester Bosch’s hugely popular Greenstar CDi Classic, which had been installed in well over 1 million homes.

The Greenstar 8000 Life is a direct replacement of the CDi Classic, building upon the well-established foundations from the previous boiler. It keeps many of the tried, tested and much-loved CDI Classic features, and improves on everything else.