Archive for July, 2009
Stop getting into hot water! Thermostatic control now mandatory!
For most of us, it would be hard to imagine life without hot water – we are all pretty well used to just turning on the tap for hot showers, baths or water for cleaning. It is one of the plumber’s key jobs to ensure that hot water is readily supplied and forms a significant part of plumbing training. However, the supply of hot water to domestic dwellings only became commonly available after 1945 and the end of the Second World War.
Hot water systems design have been continually improving since then and we can now have either instantaneous hot water or water that is heated and stored in a tank until required. All hot water system design is under the jurisdiction of Government Regulations and recently there has been an announcement made that will again, radically improve hot water supply further by addressing a major problem associated with hot water - scalding.
Under measures recently announced by Housing Minister Iain Wright, all new homes will feature inbuilt protection from hot water scalding in baths and will use water more efficiently.
From October 2009, amendments to Part G (Sanitation, Hot Water Safety and Water Efficiency) of the Building Regulations will mean all new build homes will have to feature protective devices fitted to baths to limit hot water temperature, and will need to meet a new minimum standard of 125 litres of water per person per day to improve water efficiency.
The main amendments to the Building Regulations are:
1 A requirement that baths in new homes are fitted with protective measures, such as a thermostatic mixing valve, to limit the temperature of the hot water.
2 A water efficiency standard of 125 litres per person per day for new homes.
3 Extending existing safety measures to all types of hot water systems (not just vented systems).
4 A setting out of where greywater and harvested rainwater can be safely used.
According to the Housing Minister, “Homes account for a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions, so it’s essential we tackle this as part of our efforts on climate change. Water plays an important role in making homes more sustainable, and the measures we announced today will help make new homes even greener as part of our commitment to zero carbon homes from 2016.”
AbleSkills , as a reponsible Constructon Trades training provider, is committed to providing the highest standards of approved NVQ accredited plumbing training to its students that is always up to date and follows mandatory regulations. This includes the commitment to ‘green energy’ training for technical assessments, installations and maintenance.
Look about – get the right adhesive and grout!
Knowing how to put your kitchen or bathroom tiles up properly is as much to do with knowing about the right adhesives and grout to use as is the way you handle the tiles themselves! A little basic knowledge can go along way to save you time, money and frustrating wasted effort!
Floor tiles are placed into categories based on their resistance to wear. In order to make sure that you get the best out of your tiles and to avoid the risk of premature wear, it is important to make sure the tiles chosen are for the correct application. There are clearly stated areas where a particular tile is suitable for only and a rating is given on a scale relating to the abrasion resistance of glazed floor tiles. This can range from very low foot traffic that is walked on with bare feet only, light traffic, which needs to be walked on with only slippers or soft-soled shoes, to a rating where heavy or abrasive traffic is anticipated.
It is important to remember to choose the correct adhesive for use with your tiles. There are quite a few different types available, ranging from splash proof to water resistant, so make sure you buy the right adhesive for where your tiles are being fitted. The type of adhesive required also depends on what surface the tiles are being fixed to. If you are laying floor tiles make sure you use adhesive for the floor, as it has flexible properties to avoid damaging your floor tiles.
If you are doing your own tiling, it’s important to choose the correct adhesive and grout.
The questions that you have to ask are:
• Are the tiles for the wall or floor?
• What am I fixing to, is it solid wall that is plastered or a timber floor etc?
• Where are the tiles going to be used i.e kitchen splash back or in a power shower area?
• Am I using underfloor heating?
When choosing a grout for your floor or wall tiling scheme, you need to try and consider a few points! The most traditional way of grouting was to use white on the walls and grey on the floors. Although not necessarily adventurous, this combination does make sense. The white grout on the walls helps to give a bright feel and shows the tiles off – which, if like a lot of people, you have taken time in choosing the scheme you want.
A grout protector will help to prolong the white freshness of the grout on your walls for much longer and through many cleaning sessions, keeping your tiles looking like new.
So as you can see, with tiling – as in most things in life - there is quite a bit more to consider and plan than you may have first thought, when you had the idea of replacing kitchen or bathroom tiles. It maybe a good idea to practice first, say over one weekend or on a City & Guilds short three week training course here at the AbleSkills dedicated training centre. It may be just the right thing for you, so you learn exactly what to do and gain the confidence to carry out your tiling project, knowing you will get it right and exactly how you always wanted it to look ! You may even be tempted to go on and take further courses with NVQ qualifications and learn the trade in full!
Job driving you insane? Retrain for a career change!
Are you bored with your current career? Has the current economical climate left you without a job, or stuck in a job that you no longer enjoy due to longer working hours and less employees? If you are fed up with your current working situation, you should consider a career change.
The majority of people, even those that are currently in positions that they do not find rewarding or enjoyable, do not consider making a career change. This is mainly due to a lack of proper information about options available to them. People assume that in order to make a career change, which they will have to completely retrain and begin again from the bottom of the working pool. While this could be the case for some specialized careers, more often than not career change retraining can be offered to help adapt your current skills and specialization to something more enjoyable and rewarding to you.
Before you decide on career change retraining, you need to first consider which type of field you would like to move into. You should do plenty of research not only into the field in which you are considering changing, but into the different types of roles available within that field. The last thing you should do is go through career change retraining only to be left in a similar unhappy situation.
Research conducted on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council in July 2008, showed that we waste an average of 40 days per year - just think what you could achieve if you chose to put some of this time towards learning a new skill! With today’s hectic lifestyles, you may feel there just isn’t the time to re-train or learn new skills. But the good news is that modern learning comes in all shapes and sizes and there is something to suit everyone, with a wide range of flexible courses on offer including online, part-time, evening and weekend courses - so you can fit learning around even the busiest lifestyle.
Career retraining or learning a completely new skill such that one can change one’s career is brought on by different circumstances in different people. Many a time this option is not so much a choice as a necessity.
Such a requirement often develops after a job loss. Individuals who have worked for many years suddenly realize that their skill sets are inadequate for them to find a similar job in another company. Learning a new skill then is the only option.
The need for career retraining is also brought about by a change in personal family situation. One may no longer be willing to travel frequently. If travel is a necessary part of one’s present job, then career retraining might become necessary.
Another situation when one voluntarily opts to learn a new skill is when newer job opportunities open up which were not available when one started off with one’s career.
People sometimes also opt for career retraining when some years after choosing one career they decide that they never really wanted to do what they are currently doing. Some degree of career retraining also happens on a broader scale to balance the supply and demand of specific skill sets. If there is a shortage of labour with a specific skill set, some people who were working in different jobs might quit for retraining in this one. Growing industries and technologies witness a large number of people either learning the required skills or leaving their earlier professions to retrain themselves.
Let us assume that your choice to retrain is a voluntary one. You must first research well before you opt for a retraining program. You should assess whether any of your existing skills will be of use to you post your retraining. You must also be aware of the fact that in the new career with a new set of skills, your past experience holds no value. You will therefore have to compete for the same job with people significantly younger than you.
You will need to join a course which teaches the skills required for the new trade you wish to adopt. Retraining to enter the Construction Trades industry as a fully qualified electrician, plumber or builder will require that you are already interested and have some DIY hands-on experience in working with the materials of your chosen trade. Despite the current economic climate, employment opportunities have been greater, and earnings potential now very lucrative indeed, especially with the increased urgent emphasis on implementing ‘green energy’ training for power and heating installations.
If you are considering a change of direction, AbleSkills will help you to on the career retraining path!
Electrical testing made easy!
For most electricians, a time-consuming – and not infrequently – frustrating part of any installation testing, is the recording of test data onto test certificates. An electrical service and testing company is always looking to balance the provision of a fast and efficient high quality test service with offering competitive, value for money pricing. It has been confirmed that many periodic inspection reports, especially for domestic installations, fail to meet a reasonable standard of communicating complete technical accuracy.
Existing installation test and certification systems are often regarded as inefficient and not cost effective as the electrician is expected to carry out dozens of tests to tight timescales to meet productivity targets. Up until now, the process invariably involved taking a blank copy of the certificate for all premises to be tested at the beginning of the working day. As testing is undertaken on site, the electrician then records inspection and test details on the ‘dummy’ certificate. At the end of the day, the manually recorded results will then be transferred to an ‘original’ certificate for the customer.
Because of the cumbersome and time consuming nature of the process, other test and recording systems have been introduced. These include the use of PDAs (personal digital assistant - a handheld computer, also known as a palmtop computer), smart phone and portable laptop devices which work by collecting and transferring dat gathered in the field, via an intermediary device, back to a host computer where the master certificates are held.
However, all of these approaches risk human error with the manual recording or transfer of test data – as well as problems that inevitably arise when trying to get one device to ‘talk’ to another, conducting and recording tests simultaneously and the reduced traceability of results with handwritten records.
To address these issues, smarter installation test solutions have been introduced which streamline traditional 17th Edition test and certification processes. By eliminating the need for a separate test instrument alongside paper, PDA or other recording device, an electronic copy of the test certificate within the tester which doubles as a data logger, the user can easily navigate around the onboard certificate and test values are automatically placed in the correct certificate fields. Once all data has been collected, the onboard software scans the certificate and warns the user if any fields appear to be incomplete or invalid. When inspection is complete, the certificate held inside the the tester can be transferred to PC software for completeion and supply to the customer in printed or electronic format.
The Electrical Safety Council is helping to raise awareness amongst consumers of the importance of periodic inspections and in helping to improve the level of of competence of domestic inspectors. Training to become a competent inspector requires a thorough knowledge and understanding of electrical installation procedures and methods to enable an accurate assessment of the condition of an existing installation. AbleSkills have always emphasised the critical importance of assessment and testing within their electrical training courses and offer separate complete training units on 2 day Inspection Testing and 2 day PAT testing. There is also the opportunity for practising electricians who have carried out initial verifications on electrical installations and require further training in periodic inspection, testing and reporting to take the 2391 Inspection and Testing Course.
Summer’s here, so the time is right for building your own barbecue!
When the holiday season comes around, first thoughts often turn to laying on weekend barbecues for family and friends! But digging your wheeled contraption out from the back of the garage, you might discover that it looks a little worse for wear – rusting, grease laden, and falling apart! It’s worth considering having something more substantial and permanent. This means getting to grips with laying down brickwork and mixing up mortar – a great first project if you’re thinking of training to become a bricklayer.
For those of you who are keen to build your own barbecue and have little or no experience of handling building materials, then a short bricklaying course would be ideal and AbleSkills can help you to find the right course for you.
Building your own barbecue requires a bit of planning before you start. It needs to be built a safe distance away from anything that is flammable, and where the smoke won’t fill yours or your neighbour’s house. To get the dimensions for your brickwork you will need your grill set, this will determine the internal width of the brickwork. Place the grill on the ground and place the bricks around it in what will be their fixed position.
Use gloves when mixing / using cement as it can irritate and burn skin, use gloves / safety goggles when handling / cutting bricks.
Make a note of the measurements allowing a little space for the grill rack and coals tray to be lifted out and removed for cleaning etc. If the ground is soft then you will need to dig out a small trench around 250 mm wide and 250 to 300mm deep, this can then be filled with concrete to form a foundation for your brickwork. Try to get the foundations as level as possible.
Once the concrete has hardened (this may take a couple of days) you can start to lay the first course of bricks, don’t make too much mortar as it may ‘go off’ before you have time to use it. A little tip here is to remember the ratio of sand and cement you mix so the mortar colour is uniformed throughout the brickwork. Check the bricks are all level and square using a spirit level and tape measure.
At this point I would strike all the mortar seams with a metal or rubber tube and using a soft brush remove any unwanted mortar to give your brickwork a more professional finish. Let the mortar set and then continue the following day. Before you carry on, decide what height is comfortable to use the coals tray and grill rack.
When your brickwork is complete you could finish it off by cementing some ornamental coping stones on the top. Wait a day for the mortar to set then break out the beers, burgers and steaks. You can of course build variations of this barbecue to suit yourself - the possibilities are endless!
Of course, it may be that you are considering a serious course of training in the construction trades and you will need to undertake NVQ training to proceed in your career progress. Ableskills offer a wide range of accredited and approved courses to suit different requirements, especially if you can only train at certain times or periods in the week. It’s definitely worth getting in touch to speak to one of their training team to find out what’s the best course of action to take and arrange to visit their expansive training centre – they are always keen to help and you’ll be glad you made that first telephone call!
Future trends for electrics ?
An electrician’s fundamental training is all about learning the skills for use every day to repair or add electrics to domestic or commercial premises. You will find out the correct way to run new wires to the right spot to control a light, which outlet box to run wires to add something to a circuit, to know that one junction box may not have a neutral or you can’t feed an outlet off another box because the power to it is switched, when to match a black with a white wire – and understand what the red wire is used for.
The likelihood is some or all of this may change in the near future !
Computer technology is advancing and taking over every aspect of our lives. You can already buy light switches that have microchips built into them. They can receive signals from other devices and control the lights in your home. Groups of lights can work as one to create moods. For example, you can now use your Iphone to control the lights in your house and create modes. A three way remote control switch can be added to a circuit without even adding wires. Ceiling fans come with remote so you can control them from your bed.
The way homes are currently wired can be labour intensive and not very flexible. In the future, houses may become less complicated to be wired up. The difference could be in how we control the devices on our home electrical system. Microchip controlled switches will become cheap enough that they could be incorporated into every light. That would get rid of complicated wiring circuits such as three way circuits and switch legs. Every single light would just need a simple feed. That is just a black, white and a ground.
The same thing would be true at the locations where you would want to control your lighting. Instead of light switches in each room you would have control panels powered with simple feeds. These panels would use your house network to control the switches built into each light. You would be able to tell each control panel to act whatever way you want. Ever panel could be a timer, a dimmer, and a mood setter. They could also work other parts of the house like the radio or drapes.
All this will affect how we wire a house and ultimately, the type of electrical skills training required in the future. ‘Green energy’ is now an urgent issue and this will only increase and be reflected in the type of energy efficient electrical appliances and components that will be manufactured to strict regulations. AbleSkills, as a leading training provider of City & Guilds accredited NVQ level electrical training, is keen to ensure their courses are ‘futureproof’ and students are thoroughly taught all aspects of any new legislation requirements and latest electrical installation methods.
Mastering the plastering is an ancient craft!
The oldest traces of plaster renders are 9,000 years old ! We also know that 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians burnt gypsum in open-air fires, then crushed it into powder, and finally mixed this powder with water to make jointing material for the blocks of their monuments, such as the magnificent Cheops Pyramid for example. The ancient Egyptians used models of plaster taken directly from the human body.
The Greeks also used gypsum, in particular as windows for their temples when it was of a transparent quality (”selenite gypsum”) and the Romans cast in plaster many thousands of copies of Greek statues.
Of course, materials and techniques have moved on since those days and we now have potentially, a much easier time of it by the relatively straightforward application of a range of ready-mixes to flat plasterboard, in most cases.
However, the technique of laying up correct ly mixed and perfectly flat, glass-like finishes is still dependent on good, solid skills training, patience and understanding the materials you work with.
It’s quite an easy mistake to make, for example, to lay plaster onto the surface very thinly, by scraping on with the trowel, instead of laying onto the surface. The plaster then dries off too quickly, not adhering sufficiently to the surface, and there will not be enough plaster depth onto the surface in the first place for trowelling up later.
Applying plaster should be as reasonably even as possible so once the whole wall/ceiling is plastered, you can start to trowel out some of the ridges later on. However, resist overly reworking by adding clumps of plaster or playing with it too much, once having just applied onto a surface, but instead, lay on a band of plaster and smooth out your strokes so that you have a reasonably level application the first time, then move onto the next section of your surface to be plastered until completion.
By applying a few strokes of plaster, it is sometimes tempting to work on that particular area trying to level out as much as possible before moving towards the next strokes, but by paying too much attention to the area you have just laid on, you are helping to dry it off more quickly plus you are likely to interfere with good adhesion to the wall surface. So in summary, lay on, smooth level strokes and move on until completion.
Finding out all the time-honoured and well-tested secrets of the trade is invaluable training, and will save time, money and frustration by being shown and taught the kind of mistakes you should avoid and the correct ways to go about achieving practical success. AbleSkills offers a range of courses for those of you who wish to upgrade your DIY skills to simply decorate your home and full-time block course accredited NVQ training for those looking to begin their training for a career in the Construction trades industry. There are also great opportunities to see what you can do on weekend courses, so there’s bound to be a course time for you to to get started!
Plumbing is Labour’s UK No.1 priority – and Conservative’s new promise plan!
Once again, the priorities of learning key trade skills, plumbing and electrical, are up in the spotlight, as both the Labour Government and the Conservative opposition announce welcome plans to boost youth training across the UK.
It was only a few weeks ago that the government held an awards ceremony to recognise the achievements of Britain’s best apprenticeships, where the skills secretary, John Denham, described apprenticeships in areas like plumbing as “critical” to the country’s success.
Now, the Conservative party are getting in on the act by announcing that they will put plumbing at the top of the agenda by promising an additional 100,000 apprenticeships, some of which will be in the trade.
David Cameron has launched the green paper plans, which would also see plumbers working with other small businesses such as electricians when providing the training schemes. Shadow skills secretary David Willetts said learning skills like plumbing could help improve social mobility. He continued: “Many of our social problems stem from the disengagement of young people and we want to provide more opportunities, particularly to young men, to get them off the streets and on their way in life.”
Estimates vary for the current skills shortages around the UK but figures quoted range from 32,100 plumbers required to 36,900 electricians required!
It simply is the case that Colleges do not have the capacity to train the yearly requirement of new plumbers with only space for about 3,000 trainee vacancies per annum of which, it has been claimed, only 50% finish the course and go on to work in the industry.
This can only mean recognizing the growing importance of a training centre like AbleSkills to supply vital human resources to the UK construction trades industry, especially when coming out of recession. AbleSkills is one the country’s fully accredited and approved City & Guilds NVQ course providers, and as a result of their success have just recently opened brand new expanded training facilities to accommodate the increasing demand for both plumbing and electrical training.
Energy efficiency and conservation impacts plumbing !
AbleSkills are seriously engaged with providing skills training in the latest ‘clean energy’, offering courses that will give trainee plumbers and those plumbers on advanced courses a thorough grounding in current requirements and practical installations.
Major changes to regulations affecting plumbing are literally ‘in the pipeline’ as proposed revisions to two parts of the Building Regulations G :Hygiene, and L :Conservation of Fuel and Power, are currently the subject of consultation with the construction industry. Part G in particular, has major impact on plumbing/heating work in residential and non-residential properties.
Plumbers are very much on the front line of energy efficiency and conservation issues that are being now vigorously tackled on all fronts, by Government regulations, manufacture of new types of water and heating appliances to the new specifications, and the requirement to be fully capable of implementing the new installation and checking procedures to approved statutory standard.
The main proposed changes to Part G – Hygiene include:
• Renaming the document to Sanitation, Hot Water Safety and Water Efficiency with the following sections
• G1 Cold Water Services - The uses of non wholesome water (rain water and grey water)
• G2 Water Efficiency - limiting use to 125 litres/per person/per day
• G3 Hot Water Services –
o Mandatory use of thermostatic mixing valves on all baths/showers/bidets
o Changes to unvented systems, installation and design
o Changes to vented systems to include more safety devices
Training to be a plumber now requires both knowledge and capability to work with new ‘green energy’ products, conservation and efficiency guidelines and be able to advise homeowners on best methods and appliances as the new regulations become enforced.
Putting the smiles back on your tiles!
Knowing your porcelain tiles from your ceramic tiles can make all the difference to how they are installed, how long they will last and their safe preservation! If you want to know how to put - and keep – the smiles on your tiles, then you need to do your research.
Better still, it would be well worth your while to spend a few hours on a weekend tiling course to really get to find out ‘how its done’ by the experts. It will save you money, time and possibly your sanity, by getting the essential ‘know-how’ and skills training. You never know, you might decide you are really good at it and want to go on and learn more, maybe make a whole new lucrative career path - the decision is yours!
A few handy tips to whet your appetite to go on a quick a course never goes amiss, especially if you are a beginner…
As you might know already, porcelain tiles have grown ever more popular in recent years as they are often made in larger formats and are more durable and stronger than traditional ceramic tiles. A superior finish can also be obtained in some instances, by what is often called, an ‘engineered’ product.
However, the additional strength of a porcelain tile can also mean that they are harder to cut and drill, and will require more specialist drilling and cutting equipment. A standard, or worse, a cheap and poor quality drill bit will not do the job and are a waste of money. So, it is essential that you get yourself the right drill bits and tools if you are serious about carrying out a good standard of workmanship.
Most ceramic tiles are ‘pressed’ which means that the edges of the tiles are slightly rounded, which is absolutely fine in most bathroom or kitchen environments. However, in a room where a very specific design is required and the tiles must be butted exactly flush against each other, tiles with flat, 90 degree edges are the only type that will work to the specified requirement. The 90 degree edge is known in the trade as ‘rectified’, and this allows flush fitting without a grout joint if necessary.
Despite porcelain and ceramic floor tiles growing in popularity because of their strength and durability, the demand is for a newly tiled floor to look good for as long as possible.
The good news is that both porcelain and ceramic floor tiles can be treated in order to preserve their finish. Almost invisible to the human eye, tile surfaces can become finely pitted, even those that are polished, and these very small pits have the potential to trap small pieces of dust. Over time they are likely to deteriorate and become more apparent.
Protective products are specifically designed for fully vitrified and porcelain tiles for low absorbancy surfaces. It helps to fill those tiny pits making your floor much much easier to keep clean and looking good for longer, creating a smoother surface.
Getting to know all about how you can best work with the myriad of different makes and styles of tiles from first installing to preserving their finish quality is a worthwhile endeavour and AbleSkills can provide all the necessary training, at a time that will suit you, either when you are planning ahead to do DIY improvements or thinking of changing jobs or career switching.
