In a week which saw the global oil price crash, David Cameron set out his plan to curb immigration and absolutely ridiculous scenes from stores taking part in Black Friday sales events, it’s time to take a look back at the weeks posts on DGB.
Now, as you can immediately see, I am having a play around with the format of weekly reviews. Whilst I believe the old format worked, it was very text heavy and took a while to put together on a Friday evening. However, whilst I was putting in a ton of effort to put together these reviews, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. I actually have a feature in this site which will compile a lot of the content for me in a couple of clicks! The layout of the reviews are going to be a little different, but with added images breaking up the text. I think it actually looks better! Please give me your feedback on the new look.
This week the most talked about posts were the two which discussed the six things our industry was doing wrong and the five things our industry was doing right. I wanted to highlight areas that I thought the industry was still struggling on. If we could eradicate those things we were doing wrong, I think we could go a long way to repairing a lot of the damage we have done to ourselves as an industry. But I also wanted to highlight some of the areas which I thought our industry was doing well in. I think the two posts complimented each other quite nicely. And if you’re wondering why I stopped at five things for the positive post, I simply ran out of ideas when I was writing it!
There was a couple of sponsored posts in the mix this week, a black composite doors post for Door Supermarket, which was apt given it was Black Friday when it went out, and a post from the guys at Purplex on behalf of TWR Bifolds.
I wrote about the internet on Friday and how it has changed our working lives. This was a post I had planned in the works for quite a while, and I finally got round to writing it up to post this week. Also, a post about concrete and ceramic doors I was desperate to publish on DGB. Anyway, enjoy the new weekly review. As always, all comments welcome!
One In Four Homeowners Encounter Problems With Home Repairs, Citizens Advice Finds
New research highlights widespread issues with home improvement work and growing consumer distrust One in four homeowners has experienced problems with their most recent home repair project, according to new research published by Citizens Advice, with millions of households facing unfinished work, disputes with traders and unexpected costs. The charity's latest findings estimate that around 4.8 million homeowners have encountered problems with home repairs during the past 18 months. Home repairs also remain one of the largest sources of complaints received by the Citizens Advice Consumer Service, which recorded almost 37,000 complaints relating to the sector during 2025. According [...]
Saint-Gobain H1 2026: Construction Giant Demonstrates Resilience
Saint-Gobain has delivered a robust set of first-half financial results for 2026 that underline both the resilience of its diversified business model and the gradual improvement beginning to emerge across parts of the global construction sector. While headline revenue edged lower compared with the same period last year, the French building materials giant succeeded in returning to organic growth during the second quarter, maintaining industry-leading margins and continuing to generate exceptionally strong cash flow despite a mixed macroeconomic backdrop. For the wider fenestration and construction industries, the results provide another indication that the prolonged downturn seen across many European [...]
Morley Glass Reveals Latest Integral Blind Colour Trends
Around two-thirds of all Uni-Blinds® integral blinds manufactured by Morley Glass are in colours other than white, with black on the ascendancy and silver continuing to prove particularly popular for specific systems, according to an analysis of the company’s latest sales data. Anthracite’s declining popularity is reflected in Morley Glass’s data, although the drop was relatively small. In 2024, anthracite’s share stood at 30.4% of sales, and this has reduced to 28.7% in the latest report. One of the reasons why anthracite is being chosen by fewer customers compared to previous years may be the availability of more ScreenLine® [...]
Beating The Heat With Integral Blinds
As the UK’s increasingly regular summer heatwaves begin, now is a great time for window and door installers to provide homeowners with a solution that will help keep their homes cool in the form of integral blinds. According to Morley Glass, the UK’s largest manufacturer of bespoke ScreenLine® integral blinds, an IGU complete with an integral blind and solar control glass can reduce heat transmission to such an extent that the temperature difference between outside and inside is cut by up to 9° Celsius. This level of heat reduction is maintained over the lifespan of the company’s Uni-Blinds® units, [...]
BDC Aluminium Launches Two-Week Lead Time On Alitherm 400 Windows
BDC Aluminium is helping installers keep projects on track with a two-week lead time offer on Smart Alitherm 400 windows in the popular black, white and anthracite grey colour options. The fast turnaround service has been introduced to support installers and contractors facing increasingly demanding project schedules, helping to minimise delays without compromising on product quality or performance. Suited to both residential and light commercial applications, the Smart Alitherm 400 window system is widely specified for refurbishment projects and new build developments. It combines strong thermal performance, security credentials and fabrication efficiencies, making it a reliable choice for modern [...]
Flat Builders’ Merchant Value Sales In May, But Volumes Fell -5.8% Year-On-Year
The latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report, published in July, shows May 2026’s total like-for-like value sales (adjusted to remove the effect of trading days) were essentially flat, -0.1% lower than May 2025. But like-for-like volume sales were down -5.8% year-on-year. With one less trading day in May 2026, year-on-year unadjusted value sales were -5.1% lower. Volumes were down -10.5% while prices increased +6.1%. By value, only two of the twelve categories sold more: Workwear & Safetywear (+7.5%) and Services (+3.3%). Of the 10 categories selling less, Renewables & Water Saving (-10.7%), Decorating (-6.8%), Ironmongery (-6.7%) and Heavy [...]
Making Tax Digital: Two Weeks To The 7 August Deadline
Subbies who haven’t started can still be filed and finished in under an hour. More than 864,000 sole traders and landlords have until 7 August 2026 to send HMRC their first quarterly update under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax. Among them are hundreds of thousands of construction subcontractors: the fitters, plasterers, sparkies, brickies and groundworkers paid under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). Plenty of them have not started. With two weeks to go, the job is a lot smaller than the noise around it. With invoices and expenses to hand, a subbie can get the whole quarter [...]
