Why a Fireplace Smells Worse in Warm Weather, and How to Stop It Before Summer
The fire has been out for weeks. The room still smells of smoke. On the first warm afternoon of spring it is noticeably worse, and it gets worse again on humid days and after rain. Plenty of Melbourne households assume this means something is wrong with the chimney. Usually nothing is broken. The chimney is […]
Does Winter Mould Go Away When the Weather Warms Up? What Happens in a Melbourne House in Spring
Around mid-September the heating in most Melbourne houses goes off for the year, the windows start opening, and the winter mould gets found. Behind the wardrobe. Along the bottom of the bedroom curtain. In the corner of the ceiling above the shower. On the underside of the windowsill in the room that never gets sun. […]
Which Side of a Melbourne House Goes Green First, and What It Tells You
Walk around almost any house in Melbourne after winter and the green growth is lopsided. One wall has it, the opposite wall does not. The path down one side of the house is slippery and the path down the other is fine. People often read this as a sign that one part of the house […]
Dryer Vent Runs: Why Bends and Sags Matter More Than Metres
Almost everything written about dryer vents is about how often to clean them. That matters, but it skips a question that determines how quickly a run fills up in the first place: what shape is the run, and where does the air slow down? Quick answer: Length is only part of what makes a dryer […]
Where Are the Filters in a Melbourne Ducted System, and Which Can You Clean Yourself?
The filter question comes up every spring, usually in the same form: the system smells or the airflow is poor, someone has read that the filters need doing, and then nobody can find them. It is a fair confusion, because ducted heating and cooling is laid out almost the opposite way to how people picture […]
Where a Melbourne Roof Blocks Up After Winter, and Why Spring Storms Find It
Roofs do not usually fail during the storm. They fail quietly over winter and then get found out by the storm. In Melbourne that timing is fairly predictable: months of leaf drop, bark and grit settle into the drainage path while the rain is light enough that nothing ever overflows, and then the first serious […]
What to Know About Seasonal Air Duct Cleaning in Melbourne
Melbourne’s change of seasons doesnโt just bring different temperatures. It also shifts the way our homes feel inside. As winter trails off and spring begins to roll in, those indoor heating habits from the colder months can leave a mark, especially inside your ducts. The air you breathe often travels through the same vents that […]
Why a Split System That Heated Fine All Winter Can Still Struggle to Cool
It is one of the more common calls we get in the first genuinely warm week of the year. The split system ran all winter without complaint, heated the room fine, and then on the first hot day it either does not cool properly, takes hours to make any difference, or starts smelling of something […]
Birds Nesting in the Chimney: Why Spring Is When Melbourne Flues Get Occupied
Melbourne fireplaces go quiet around now. The last fire of the season gets lit some time in August, the flue cools down, and nobody thinks about it again until the clocks have gone back and the mornings are cold. That gap — roughly September through April — lines up almost exactly with nesting season, and […]
Does Ceiling Insulation Keep a Melbourne House Cool in Summer?
Ceiling insulation gets sold in autumn and thought about in winter. In Melbourne that is backwards, or at least incomplete: the temperature difference the layer has to work against is bigger on a hot January afternoon than on any cold July night, because a roof cavity under direct sun climbs a long way past outdoor […]