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Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog

10 things that can devalue your property

Posted by Adrian
July 19th, 2019

Graphic of a house with money going down a drain

10 things that can devalue your property

You can do thing’s that improve your property but you can also do things that will devalue your property, obviously this isn’t a good thing and when selling your property could affect how quickly you sell your property.

You have to think like a buyer and what they maybe looking for, offer a plain canvas so they can put their own mark on the place. The following 10 items maybe good reason for the buyer to knock your asking price down, so take a read and see if you can improve your property before a buyer views your house.

First impressions

First impressions count so make sure your property has good kerb appeal, make sure the frontage is tidy, keep it clean, if you have a garden have some nice shrubs of flowers and keep the weeds and grass down, don’t let the grass get so high you can lose a small child in it. If your property is in need of decoration either do it yourself of call on the services of a professional decorator to do the job for you.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, make it a good one, not a bad one. Bad first impressions are hard to change.

Kitchen

Is your kitchen taken out of the ark? Is it greasier than a chip shop? If your kitchen has seen better days it maybe time to have a new one or at least retrofit it by fitting new door and draw fronts to it. If the walls are greasy use some strong degreaser to remove the grease.

A clean bright modern kitchen will add value to your property, a run down old one will reduce it’s value. The kitchen is the hub of any home, it should be a nice place to be.

Another thing to consider is if you fit a kitchen that nobody else likes this could also devalue your home, that’s not to say you can’t be modern or contemporary with your choices but when people come to view your property they will have in their minds, “Needs a new kitchen”, and knock your asking price down accordingly.

Bathroom

Much the same as a kitchen the bathroom should be clean and bright. If you have carpet is it in good condition or stained and mouldy, an alternative is a tiled floor, which is easy to keep clean and mob up water.

If you still have a bathroom suite from the 1960’s or 1970’s that is chocolate brown, avocado, turquoise or pink unless you have a retro styled bathroom it could knock a little more of the asking price. White is very popular today with more attention being spent on the accessories such as waterfall taps.

A tiled bathroom is often found nowadays rather than papered due to the fact of the dampness you get in a bathroom from the steam, if you have wallpapered walls that is coming off at the corners, invest in some paste and stick them back.

Decoration

There is nothing wrong with bright colours or big bold patterned wallpaper, but all things in moderation, especially from a buyers point of view. If your decoration is in good condition then you don’t have to worry too much but if you haven’t decorated for the past 15 years consider digging out the paint brushes and roller to give your house a lick of paint to freshen it up.

If you have bright bold colours, consider taming them down a shade or two before putting the house on the market, it won’t be such a shock to the viewers then.

Garden

Both front and rear garden’s are important to maintain, mow the lawn, weed the border and plant some nice shrubs and bedding plants in the border. If you have fast growing Leylandii conifers in the garden make sure they are well maintained and trimmed, the last thing you want to do is end up with a dispute with a neighbor, especially if you are trying to sell your property.

If you have a patio area or decking, give it a clean. Sweep up the fallen leaves. Fix and broken fencing or replace fence panels and mend gates. Put the kids toys away.

Bad workmanship

If you have done any work or had any work carried out on your property make sure it is of a good standard, bad shoddy workmanship shows up and will put people off as they know they will have to redo the work again correctly.

You should never do the work yourself unless you have a good knowledge of what is required, any gas, electric, plumbing and heating should be carried out by a qualified person. If bad workmanship is seen people will wonder what else hasn’t been done right or how much is this going to cost me to put right, all of which devalues your property.

Bad or illegal building

If you have had any building work done in must of been passed with the local building authority, if it isn’t you’ll have real problems when it comes to selling, plus it’s illegal and you could be asked to take it down.

Another issue arises if you live in a listed building, there are rules you have to follow and things you are and are not allowed to do to a property, go against this at your peril and at the expense of devaluing your home.

Building with no planning permission when permission is required will make your property untouchable for many buyers, it just isn’t worth the hassle, so make sure all the paperwork is in order and that the local building authority are happy with your new build before trying to sell.

Woodchip and artex

If you still have woodchip wallpaper or artexed walls this could certainly devalue you property as it isn’t in fashion any more and it can be fairly costly to remove it and have the walls plastered smooth again.

Having woodchip or artexed wall could also show to potential buyers that you haven’t decorated in a while, it could be a deal breaker so consider removing them if you still have them before selling, or be prepared to drop the asking price accordingly.

An Englishman’s home is his castle

As the old saying goes, “An Englishman’s home is his castle”, but that doesn’t mean you have to ram in every period feature into one house, it is good to have original period features but if you adding features be careful not to over do it.

You don’t want to have a ceiling rose with a large light fitting, a picture rail, a dado rail, ornate eight inch skirting boards in a 1960’s end terrace, it just won’t look right and may put people off buying your house as it doesn’t look like a 1960’s end terrace it may look just a bit, over done. So it maybe a good idea to try and keep true to the period of your property when you do it up.

Smells

If you have pets such as cats, dogs and you let them run freely around the entire house you may have pet smells in your house, to avoid this try keeping them downstairs and maybe to one or two rooms to keep smells to a minimum.

Also be aware of leaks, a slow drip from behind the concealed toilet cistern or a leaking kitchen tap will make the surrounding area damp and in time this will smell, if you know you have a leak try and fix it as soon as possible, if you have rotten wood caused by a leak, replace it.

Smells can also come from leaking drainage, you should fix these as soon as possible, not only because of the smell but because of hygiene also.

In summary

I hope this post has been thought provoking as well as useful and pointed out some things that could devalue your house but maybe you hadn’t thought about before.

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How to repair an Artexed ceiling

Posted by Adrian
August 2nd, 2016

How to repair an Artexed ceiling

I recently decorated a room for a client, part of the job was to repair an Artexed ceiling where the joint tape had come away for whatever reason, either previous water damage or simply failed tape.

I decided to make a video showing how I repaired the ceiling and through to its completion, painted.

So here is the short video showing the steps taken from start to finish.

The same principles can be applied for Artexed walls also.

You may also want to read this article, How To Remove Artex, specifically the section headed “Artex And Health Issues” especially if you have older Artex in your house.

How to repair an Artexed ceiling video

A short video showing step by step how to repair an Artexed ceiling.


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How to remove artex

Posted by Adrian
June 4th, 2013

Artexed Ceiling

How to remove artex

Artex is a decorative finish, you may have it on your ceilings and maybe your walls. There are several popular finishes such as swirl, stipple, broken leather, scroll, circle and bark for the walls. Artex was very popular until the 1990’s were it became less popular in favour of smooth plastered ceilings and walls.

Before the mid-1980’s Artex contained white asbestos to strengthen it. Depending on when your house was build or when Artex was applied in your house will depend if it contains asbestos.

Artex and health issues

If you are unsure if your Artex contains white asbestos or not it is best to get a local firm to test it first, for advice, contact the Environment Agency or your local environmental health department or look at www.asbestoswatchdog.co.uk.

If the Artex is untouched and has been sealed with paint, or the Artex was produced after the mid-1980’s then there shouldn’t be any health risks, but if unsure always get it checked first.

For more information of Artex you can read more about Artex on Wikipeadia.

How to remove Artex from ceiling and walls

First be sure that your Artex doesn’t contain harmful white asbestos, if you are unsure get it checked before doing any removal or disturbing the Artex, or call a local firm to remove it for you.

Artexed Ceiling

Once you are sure the Artex doesn’t contain white asbestos you have a couple of options to get rid of it.

You can skim over it with plaster, making it smooth and ready to paint or wallpaper once dry. This option is a quicker and far less messy option, although it may require some scrapping to remove high spots before plastering.

The other option is to completely remove it, this can be done with a scrapper. Make sure you wear protective clothing, goggles and a mask and cover the floor with dust sheets. Use a scrapper to scrape the Artex off, this could take some time, once the worst is off you could use a wallpaper steamer to remove the rest. This will obviously make a fair bit of mess, especially if your removing Artex of the ceiling.

Once you have removed all the Artex you can then plaster or if the ceiling or walls are is in good enough condition paper over them, you may have to fill holes, joins and scrapper marks before this is possible.

If you found this or any other post on the Property Decorating blog, please feel free to leave a comment, share on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You can also follow us and Like us to find out when we have a new decorating tip go live.

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