Adige Blog

When space is at a premium, and you have exhausted all other avenues of expansion, a basement conversion could be the way forward. Certainly in overcrowded central London, expensive basement conversions have become the norm with super-rich Oligarchs and well-known celebrities vying on who can build the most ostentatious basement conversion. But is a basement conversion a good idea for the average person? Or would you be better renovating the attic or building a regular extension instead?

If you...

Home improvement programmes have become massively popular in recent years. Turn on the TV on any given day and you will be confronted with bright and breezy presenters telling you how to transform your home from an uninspiring box into a palace fit for an A list celebrity. And the best bit? Instead of paying a fortune to a builder or interior designer, if you follow the tips on screen, you can achieve some amazing results with a spot of DIY.

But is it really such a great idea to have a go at co...

The garage is often the most underused space in our homes. Originally garages were intended for storing cars, but over the years garages attached to modern homes have shrunk to such an extent that a large percentage are too small for even compact cars. As a result, garages tend to become the dumping ground for a vast range of miscellaneous items: bicycles, gym equipment, gardening equipment, DIY junk, and anything else that doesn’t have a home, including spiders.

But there is another way. Garag...

There comes a point in every parent’s life when you dream of having a bathroom all to yourself. Instead of queuing up outside the bathroom every morning, feeling as if you are a tenant in your own home, you can relax and enjoy a pleasant soak in the bath or a leisurely shower. With teenagers in the house, such a happy scenario is out of the question. They take forever in the bathroom, doing what teenagers do best, which is personal grooming on an epic scale.

The best way to avoid losing access ...

When space is in short supply and you can’t afford to move to a larger property, the next natural step is to think about extending upwards. Since all homes have some degree of loft space, turning what is ‘dead space’ into usable living space can make perfect sense if your home is just too small now that you have kids/teenagers/elderly parents living with you. But loft conversions are not as straightforward as some people think, and there are a number of important issues to take into consideratio...

Kitchen design can be tricky. Not only do you have to deal with issues surrounding plumbing, electrics and how on earth you are going to fit all those cabinets in that teeny tiny space and still have room to cook, but you also need to think about the overall design of the room. Most people opt to have a kitchen designed by a professional. It’s the easiest way of ensuring everything fits as it is supposed to. But even if you do go down this route, you are still responsible for choosing the fixtur...

Unless you are lucky enough to live in a Bel Air mansion, it is highly likely that your bathroom is a bit on the ‘compact’ size. Sad to say, most UK bathrooms are pretty small. Older properties built before indoor bathrooms were standard often have small bathrooms tacked on to the back of the house or constructed in a partition of a large bedroom. Modern homes are not much better. Here space is at a premium and the family bathroom is squeezed in between two or three equally small bedrooms. So if...

Blocked drains of any description can be a total nightmare. Nobody likes standing in a foot of soapy water every time they have a shower and a blocked toilet is deeply unpleasant, particularly if it’s the only one available and you all ate curry last night. Blockages are one of the commonest plumbing problems. They affect most home and business owners at one time or another, but what not many people realise is that there are two types of blockage: hard and soft. So what is the difference and how...