A few years ago, we built a driveway with paths (and a patio) for a lovely lady with a beautiful garden.  I mean, her garden was beyond the average – way beyond – and she made it clear to me from the first phone call that she would “not tolerate any disruption” to her pride and joy.

Which is understandable!  Nobody likes big hairy builders coming on their land and making a mess.  And we are always careful, and take extra care when working anywhere beyond the front garden.

But, this lady?  Man, did she go to some lengths to make it clear that ANY mess.  ANY stepping on plants,e ven if ‘accidental’ (her emphasis) would not be tolerated.

And we ‘get’ that. We are really careful.  Always.

In passing, as part of working out how we were going to be “really careful” I asked her,

“So, where is your outside tap?”  and then the conversation went like this…

“I do not have an outside tap!”

“What, you don’t have an outside tap?  So, how do you water your garden?”

“With rainwater from the water-butt.”

“Well,that’s great, but we are going to need about at least a thousand times more than your water butt can hold.  What do you suggest we do?”

So she says…..”Oh well, in THAT case, you will have to dig up the petunia bed because there is a mains water tap buried underneath there!”

And I’m like,  “HUH! You just spent 20 minutes telling me how important it is to be hyper-careful about ruining your plants and now we can dig-up your lovely Petunia plants?”

So she says, “Well, if I am going to get what I really want, I can accept that some plants will need to be sacrificed.”

That kind of thing drives me nuts!  There is a certain amount of ‘hassle-factor’ that sometimes needs to be allowed for, so if you really want a good price for your job……

PLEASE be clear about what you want and HOW you want it done.

Peace.

More often than not, we find ourselves customizing every other part of the home to suit our preferences with little or no attention given to the garage. The garage happens to be the only place where we are comfortable neglecting. Weather stripping is the process of sealing all the openings in the garage for the purposes of limiting your energy consumption. The air spaces let in the cold air, and in winter, this could result in inflated electrical bills.

The conditions within the garage should be optimum to allow you to enjoy your time there. Being the place where your favorite asset dwells, you will find yourself peeping into the garage every now and then for no apparent reason. What most people don’t realize just yet is that the garage can be redesigned to provide enough space for someone to work out in or even try out some yoga. Either way, this article takes a look at two such methods that can be used to customize the garage.

garage door repair naples

“The first area that needs to be taken care of is the garage doors.” Says Customer’s Choice Garage Doors. “The design of these doors is not perfect or rather it doesn’t take into consideration that seasons change. Typically, you will find that most garage doors have small openings that let in air, the effects of which might go unnoticed for a while. In winter though, the cold breeze that enters through the openings needs to be kept in check using electrical heaters. It is this cost of heating up the garage that inspires the writing of this article.”

The gaping holes or openings in your garage door can be sealed off using tight-fitting weather stripping. Consider a six-inch-square hole located in the middle of your garage door. You will immediately have it sealed off, right? Well, most of the doors fitted in your home and garage will have a 1/8-inch-wide crack that runs all the way around the door. The equivalence of this crack is the six-inch-square hole we have just talked about.

Weather-stripping as a method of sealing off the spaces in your door has been proven to reduce the energy consumption by almost 30%. Luckily, nowadays there are a good number of weatherstripping kits that you can use to seal off the cracks and openings in your garage door. But before you proceed with this necessary procedure, its necessity must be verified first by ensuring that the garage door is indeed not airtight.

The second thing that we shall discuss in this article is the use of brick pavers for your driveway and the area around the garage. Brick pavers are a sure way of increasing the aesthetic value of your property. They just have a way of transforming any driveway into one that is classy and elegant. Installation of brick pavers in the driveway can last a good 25 years if the installation was done by a sane mind.

The cost of these renovations might also be a bit steep requiring the homeowner to make prior financial arrangements on the same. The good thing with brick pavers is that they are very easy and straightforward to install and given the time, you can very easily do it yourself. The price per square foot of brick pavers can go as low as $5. In the case where a professional is hired to do the work, the cost of paving will double.

There are other fancier brick paver designs that will cost much more than the $10 per square foot that we have just mentioned. With brick pavers, you will have two options to choose from. You can either install the sand-based pavers or the mortar-based ones. The bricks can also be laid out in whatever pattern you desire. The outcome of customizing your garage by the methods discussed here would be a garage that you want to spend most of your time in. it wouldn’t also hurt to show off once in a while, right?

Wella Serrano was honoured with the Employee Of the Quarter for the First Quarter award for going above and beyond the normal expectations of great customer service..

This special award is given every three month by driveway and paving contractor Birmingham Driveway, based in the West Midlands, UK. Wella Serrano has shown tremendous commitment over the past quarter in every aspect of her duties.

She works in the position of receptionist and she has repeatedly shown her excellence at  liasing with both customers and employees.  She is great at greeting customers with a smiling voice when they first call. and In this job she has consistently shown that she treats everyone as if they were a member of her family by going the extra mile.  she is liked and admired by both customers and staff. These are all qualities Birmingham Driveway holds in especially high regard.

Birmingham Driveway gives it’s Employee Of the Quarter Award because it believes the most important element in its business after it’s customers are it’s employees.

Brian Ratcliff, Owner of Birmingham Driveway said: “Many companies don’t show any appreciation to their employees at all. But here at Birmingham Driveway we like to recognize the great work our employees do and show them that we are paying attention and giving them the recognition they so richly deserve for the hard work they do every day.”

“Wella Serrano is a fantastic worker with a great attitude. She is at the end of the phone to keep everyone up to date with the progress of their job and is a pleasure for her fellow staff to work with. Every day she shows that she really cares about all our projects and is always willing to go the extra mile.”

“Wella displays exactly what we stand for at Birmingham Driveway…her attitude reminds all of us on a daily basis what we are here for: to provide the very best service for our driveway and patio customers.. We’re especially proud of Wella Serrano for that. She’s a very deserving award winner.”

More information about Birmingham Driveway and the Employee Of the Quarter and winners of this award are available at https://birminghamdriveway.co.uk/EmployeeoftheQuarter