FreshDuctMoving Into a New Home: Should You Clean the Ducts Before You Unpack?
Spring and early summer are busy moving months in Melbourne. Contracts settle, keys change hands, and suddenly there is a long list of jobs to do before the removalists arrive. Duct cleaning rarely makes that list, but it is one of the few jobs that is genuinely easier, and more useful, before you move in […]
Not Using the Fireplace Any More? Your Options for an Unused Chimney
Plenty of Melbourne homes have a fireplace that has not been lit in years. Maybe a split system or ducted heating took over, the previous owners stopped using it, or you simply do not want the work of wood fires any more. The fireplace stays, but the question becomes what to do with the chimney […]
Office Split Systems Before Summer: A Checklist for Small Businesses
In a small office, the split system is one of those things nobody thinks about until the first hot morning of the year. Someone turns it on, a stale smell drifts across the room, the air coming out feels weak, and by lunchtime half the team is complaining. Most of that can be caught in […]
Cleaning Mould and Green Growth Off Fences and Retaining Walls
Walk down the shaded side of almost any Melbourne house after winter and you will see it: a timber paling fence gone green along the bottom, a sleeper retaining wall streaked with black, a brick garden wall with grey-green crust in the corners. It is one of the most common exterior cleaning jobs we see, […]
Mould After a Water Leak: What Dries Out and What Has to Go
A burst flexi hose under the vanity, a storm that finds a weak spot in the roof, a blocked gutter overflowing into the wall cavity. Water gets into Melbourne homes in all sorts of ways, and once the drip stops, the next question is always the same: what can be saved, and what has to […]
Evaporative Cooler Not Cooling on Humid Days: Is Something Wrong?
It is one of the most common calls of a Melbourne summer. The cooler worked brilliantly on a scorching dry day last week, and today, on a warm, sticky, overcast afternoon, the air from the ceiling outlets feels barely cooler than the room. The natural worry is that something has broken. Often it has not. […]
Selling in Spring? What Buyers and Building Inspectors Notice on the Roof and Gutters
Spring is the busiest selling season in Melbourne, and most sellers spend the weeks before listing on the inside of the house: paint, carpet, decluttering and styling. The roof and gutters tend to get forgotten, yet they are in almost every front-of-house listing photo, and they are one of the first things a building inspector […]
Do Evaporative Cooling Ducts Need Cleaning Too?
When people think about duct cleaning, they usually think about heating. Melbourne is a heating city, and most of the talk about dusty ducts happens in autumn before the gas ducted heater goes on. But many Melbourne homes also have a second set of ducts in the roof: the large ones that carry air from […]
Hot Roof Space in Summer: Does Insulation or Roof Ventilation Matter More?
On the first properly hot day of a Melbourne summer, the roof space above your ceiling becomes the hottest part of the house. Anyone who has climbed up through the manhole on a sunny afternoon knows the feeling. The question that follows is a fair one: should you deal with that heat by insulating the […]
Dryer Taking Two Cycles to Dry? Check the Vent Before You Blame the Dryer
It creeps up slowly. A load of towels that used to come out dry now needs another half hour, then a full second cycle. Through a wet Melbourne spring, when the clothesline is no help, that extra cycle every load adds up quickly, and many people assume the dryer is simply getting old. Quick answer: […]