Well, if you have seen on my Twitter account over the last couple of days, you will have seen that me and Soph have finally had some good news given to us about finding a house! After seeing an independent mortgage advisor about what we could possibly afford, he came back with some very disappointing [...]
GOOD NEWS! Today it was announced that the economy grew by a barn storming 0.6% in the second quarter of this year! This follows on from a 0.3% rise in GDP in the first quarter of the year. So, total growth of 0.9% for the year so far. That's not bad going compared to the [...]
After such a disastrous first quarter due to one of the worst winters in recent years, FENSA is now reporting a very strong come back in the second quarter of this year. April, May and June all saw growth, which is the first set of three consecutive months of growth since 2007. April was up [...]
Back on August 1st 2012 I reported on the troubles of a Conservatory Outlet dealer in Kidderminster called 5 Star Windows: https://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/2012/08/kidderminster-5-star-windows-and-conservatories-goes-into-administration/ A few days ago they left me a comment which did originally get put in the spam section of my dashboard. I did post the comment but I fear it may have been lost [...]
What is this? Could this actually be what I think it is? Summer? Well, yes it is! It looks like the sun and some genuine heat is about to show it's face for a bit longer than just two days. As we all know, the last few British summers have consisted of about one good [...]
The last few years in this industry of ours has demonstrated very neatly the importance of moving forward. There are those that have had the energy and forethought to keep R&D busy and innovate and create new products to keep the market fresh and the new business coming in. Then there have been those that [...]
YEA stands for the Young Engineers Academy and this brilliant little organisation is based in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.According to their website: YEA is a recycling social enterprise helping young people start work. We assist them to develop the work place skills needed to become an asset to any employer. Our competence is in the dismantling of [...]
As confirmed by FENSA last week, the first quarter of this year saw a fairly significant drop in new window and door installations. Almost all of it certainly due to the poor weather. Yes there will be a few that bucked that trend, but on a national scale, Q1 was bloody hard work! However, I [...]
The other day on Twitter I put out this tweet: Is there more profit and opportunity in becoming a 'high-end, specialist bespoke' installations company? It did start a couple of quite long and slightly confusing discussions about the importance of quality in our industry and the correct fitters to do it justice. I guess what I meant [...]
I had mentioned at the end of last Friday that it had been a punishing week. I wasn't lying! My body is starting to show signs of tiredness. I'm running the National Fenestration Awards with my good friend @GlazingGuru, I have this site to run, I have the family business website to run and constantly [...]
Whilst having my usual industry related conversations on an evening after a session at the gym, the general health of the industry came up. I think it's a fair observation that a lot of the talk online is generally quite positive. The generally accepted commentary is now that the industry seems to have turned the [...]
Our lovely little industry has been bashed a bruised a little bit over the last couple of weeks from stories of stubborn councils and blatant pain-in-the-assery from groups like English Heritage and the National Trust. However, it appears that this grey cloud might have a silver lining! In the form of Brighton & Hove Council... [...]
Well I'm very happy to report that January has been a very productive month indeed! In fact, after doing some numbers and recording some stats, it turns out that for our business it has been our best January since 2007! We sold more than the posted target and more than what we sold in January [...]
Whilst the problem of the cowboy image is probably down to us, this is not what I am talking about. I am on about the perception of the industry as a cheesy, smarmy, slimy profession that only attracts particular types of people. This was a comment left by Peter from Bristol Bifolds on my OFT [...]
I have now been able to complete my full table of stats for this site, and it has been one hell of a year of growth! To take a look at a monthly break down of how this site performed in terms of visits, page views and unique visitors per months, go visit my Stats [...]
It's been a great start to the year so far! Much better than January 2012 and most of the people I speak to online are reporting great starts as well. So as we take stock for what has been a good first week, I'm going to talk about just a few of the products that [...]
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