House & garden – Page 2

Water leaks

Several houses and whole streets are reporting no mains water still. Added to this problem, the thaw is resulting in leaking stop valves caused by frost damage. So far, Westmeath Co. Co. has been notified of leaking stop valves outside #120, Apt. 18, and #203.

Update [03-Jan]: A leak outside #119 was reported and repaired within the same day.

If you spot any others, contact the council at 044 9332000. They have a long list of reported leakages so it’s unknown when the leaks will be fixed. After reporting them to the council, please add any other leaking stop valve locations by commenting below so we can mark them off the ‘to-report’ list.

[Update : 29/12] All of the reported leaks within Ashefield appear to have been fixed.

Christmas and water

Happy Christmas residents and visitors!

Some homes are reporting frozen water supplies unfortunately. Westmeath County Council’s latest advisory states:

Westmeath County Council is maintaining an uninterrupted water supply to all its customers, however due to the unprecedented cold spell many householders are experiencing problems due to frozen water pipes. No shut offs of water mains have taken place & water is not frozen in public water mains.

Please contact a plumber before attempting to defrost frozen pipes.

If your water supply has frozen you should

source water from your neighbours or
go to a water standpipe using your own water containers.

NB – Water from Standpipes should be boiled before consumption

Westmeath County Council has provided & installed approximately 38 standpipes located throughout the county to ensure that members of the public have access to water supplies.
The closest standpipe to us is Raithin – at the entrance to estate. If several houses are affected, let us know by commenting below or emailing info @ ashefield.com and we’ll ask the council to open the standpipe close to the entrance of the estate, which was used last year.

Hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas and we look forward to your input and news in the year ahead.

House fire

Late on Friday night/ early Saturday morning, the fire brigade and gardaí attended a house fire in Ashefield. The house was recently vacated by tenants so was unoccupied and empty at the time. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the cause of the fire may have been an electrical fault close to the front entrance, which appears to have caused extensive smoke damage throughout the building.

The gardaí are monitoring the house until it can be made safe.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing dense black smoke clouds from this fire; it serves as a stark reminder of the importance to install and regularly check that your smoke alarms are in working order. Learn more about how to keep your home and your family safe from fire.

Home heating oil prices for June, 2010

It may be the longest day of the year but having oil in the tank to heat your home during the inevitable shorter and colder days can’t be forgotten about. Since our last oil price check in April, the carbon tax for home heating kerosene kicked in at the start of May. This added an extra €43 to the cost of 1000 litres of kerosene.

However, even with the introduction of this tax and accounting for the rising oil prices, there has been a dramatic change in the oil prices per supplier. In fact, it’s quite an eye opener.

The most expensive supplier on June 21, 2010 for delivery to Mullingar town is Flynn Fuels (€740) and the least expensive is McGee Oil (€620) for 1000 litres of kerosene; a whopping €120 difference between the two. In this chart below, the April 1st prices are in blue and the June 21st prices are displayed in red.

Even accounting for the carbon tax on home heating oil and rising oil prices, we noticed wide variations in price increases by supplier between the period April 1 and June 21, 2010. As shown in the chart below, for 1000 litres of kerosene, Flynn Fuels increased their price by €140 whereas McGee oil raised their price by just €20; not even enough to cover the carbon tax.

*No updated information for Topaz Energy was available – they didn’t answer the phone despite multiple attempts.

Price differences by supplier between April 1 and June 21, 2010

*No information for Topaz Energy was available – they didn’t answer the phone despite multiple attempts.

As before, the prices quoted above should be considered valid for June 21, 2010 for delivery to Mullingar only and were based on the best cash or credit card price quoted. In this case, no differences between cash and credit card payment were noted.

If any supplier wishes to revise their prices downward, we welcome them to contact us at info [at] ashefield.com and we’ll note it here.

Keeping your home and valuables secure

Unfortunately, there appears to be a rise in the number of burglaries in the area as reported in the local papers recently. This rise is also apparent across the country. Easy opportunities e.g. a door left unlocked for a few minutes or a window left open, will be seized upon by the opportunist burglar. Extra vigilance might save yourself or a neighbour the turmoil of a burglary so please do report any suspicious activity to the Gardai at 044 9384000. The garda.ie website has a home security checklist to help make your home less attractive for any unwanted attention. Their checklist is as follows:

Doors and windows

Are all your external doors properly fitted and equipped with appropriate secure locking systems?
(i.e. 5-lever mortice locks for wooden doors, multi-point locking for uPVC doors etc.)
If you have glass panelled doors – are they reinforced in some way so that they cannot be
shattered?
Have you a wide-angled viewer in your front/main entrance doors or other means of viewing
callers?
Do you have a door chain / limiter fitted and do you use it?
Since moving into your home (where there may have been a previous occupier) have you had
the locks changed?
Are your spare keys kept with a trusted neighbour and never left under an external mat,
flower pot etc.
Do you lock your external doors when away from home, no matter how short a time?
Do you lock the doors out of your view when working in the garden / yard?
Have you installed an additional lock(s) to your sliding glass / patio doors?
Can you close and lock your garage doors?
Are the garage / outhouse doors protected with quality locks or deadbolts?
Do you close and lock your garage /outhouse doors?
Are all your windows secure?
Can the window openings be restricted for ventilation?
Do you check to see if all windows are secured when you leave your home?

Inside security

Do you ask for identification before allowing unknown servicemen / callers into your home?
Do you avoid leaving cash at home?
Have you automatic timers on some lights when your house is vacant?
Does your home always look like someone is at home?
Have you recorded serial numbers of your valuables?
Have you, for identification purposes, photographed your valuables especially items for which
you have no serial numbers such as jewellery, china, crystal, paintings, antiques etc?
Are your car / house keys kept in a location not visible from the outside?

Outside security

Is your house number visible from the street?
Is there sufficient illumination around your home to allow visible inspection of any dark areas
around it?
Is there sufficient external lighting outside every door to illuminate visitors?
Do neighbours and passers-by have a clear view of your home?
Have you trimmed all hedges and shrubs so they can’t hide a burglar at work on the windows
and doors?
Have you ever walked around your house looking for ways a burglar might be able to get in?
Do you keep tools or ladders etc. in places inaccessible to potential burglars?
Are machines, tools and other high value items stored in garages or sheds securely padlocked
or chained to prevent removal?
Is your shed / garage secure?

Holiday security

Have you a reliable neighbour whom you can notify of your travel plans and give a key to, with a
request for a periodic house check?
Do you have a neighbour collect your mail or newspapers when you are away or do you avail of
Mailminder from An Post?
Do you cancel all deliveries?
Do you have your neighbour park his / her extra car in your driveway when you are away from
home?
Do you arrange to have your lawn mowed?
Do you notify the Gardaí of prolonged absences from your home?

Electronic security

Do you have an intruder alarm system fitted and do you use it?
Does it conform to the European Norm standard EN 50131?
Is it maintained and serviced annually?
Are you aware of the current Garda Intruder Alarm Policy?
Do you know how to operate and use your alarm system functions?
Have you considered connecting it to a monitoring centre or your mobile phone?
Have you appointed a keyholder(s) and will they respond appropriately to an alarm activation?

Download the checklist

Electrician available

Need an electrician?

Contact: Kestas
Telephone: 087 2027676
200 Ashefield

Kestas can install sockets, lamps, distribution boxes, and carry out house re-wiring, fire detection systems, fuse board replacement, install security lighting, additional sockets and lights including downlighting. He can also take care of shower installations, boilers and immersions, garden lights, storage and convector heaters, connecting new appliances, and computer service and repairs.

Bin wars

In what is being described as ‘bin wars’, the confusion over who legally owns the refuse and recycling bins originally given to local residents was addressed by the council recently. In this week’s Westmeath Examiner, they report that:

County Manager Danny McLoughlin said that 14,000 Blue Bins and 1,000 Brown Bins had been purchased by Westmeath County Council over the past six years and delivered to its customers for their use in the Council’s waste collection service, but having taken the decision to get out of the refuse service, they had legally sold them to Oxigen Environmental, as part of the public tendering process.

In addition to the bins, the database of customers was also sold to Oxigen. This explains why you might have seen their stickers plastered on the bins after leaving them out for emptying. However, the Westmeath Examiner also reports that someone from a refuse company entered private property during the night to place a sticker on a bin. This of course, is illegal so please do report any instances of trespassing to the Gardaí.

The situation seems to be somewhat clearer now. McLoughlin continues:

“…if people did not want to do business with Oxigen, they should phone the company and ask them to take the bins away: “People should give the bins back because they don’t own the bins, these bins were transferred to this company legally”

Read the full article

Both Allied Waste Management and Wallace Recycling will continue to empty the bins as normal. Unlike Oxigen, these are smaller local companies employing local people in a tough market so it makes sense to maintain your support for them. In particular, Allied Waste has been serving Westmeath for the past five years and are less expensive than Oxigen’s normal bin tag prices also.

Home heating oil price check for April

Here are the prices from 11 suppliers of home heating oil (kerosene) for April 1, 2010. There’s not a huge difference in prices for 1000 litres of oil for cash payments. The companies marked with an asterisk (*) are Hamills and Whelans. Hamills quoted €630 for credit card payments and €610 for cash.

Whelans Oil is a local company based in Grove St., Mullingar, and from experience offer the best value as they will deliver out of hours (even late at night if you’ve ordered that day) and won’t leave you stuck.

Please note that these prices are only valid for April 1, 2010 and are subject to change.

Tips for dealing with the freezing weather conditions

frozen pipe A number of houses in Ashefield are experiencing problems with frozen water pipes. If you are one of the unfortunate people, a standpipe has been made available outside house #35 – toward the Ashe road entrance to the estate (10am – 4pm). Update: this water should be available until 8pm.

Here are some tips for dealing with, and preventing frozen water supplies:

If the stopcock is frozen, open the stopcock chamber in front of your house.
Pour warm (not boiling) water onto the stopcock. This water may freeze quickly so try to use as little as possible.
Fill the chamber with fibreglass, rock wool or other non-absorbent insulation. Don’t use an absorbent material e.g. old rags.

More tips for dealing with the freezing weather:

In your attic, make sure that there is no insulation underneath the cold water tank. It can get extremely cold in the attic at night so allowing heat from below to rise up will help prevent the water tank from freezing.
If you have a 60W or 100W incandescent light in your attic, you might consider leaving it switched on. The heat from it may be enough to keep the temperature above freezing point.
Opening the attic trapdoor will allow heat from the main part of the house to enter and raise the attic temperature.
Set your heating to come on for a short time during the night e.g. at 4am.
For driveways, liberal use of dishwasher salt is proving to be a very effective solution. Driveways under snow and thick ice will need a lot of it though. Tesco own brand dishwasher salt is currently €1.25 for 3kg. Normal table salt is too fine for this job; coarse granules are required.
Don’t leave running cars unlocked or unattended while waiting for them to heat up.
Don’t use boiling water to defrost car windows; it may causing cracking or even worse, destroy the window.
If you have any elderly neighbours, please do check in on them to make sure they have heating and essentials.

Home heating oil prices

It may be a good time to fill up your home heating oil tank before the possible introduction of carbon tax in the forthcoming budget. Here are some quotes from companies that will serve the Ashefield area. All quotes were requested on Saturday Dec. 05, 2009 and are for an order of 550 litres of home heating kerosene.

Supplier	Price	Phone number
Flynn Fuels	€308	1800 359667
Whelans Oil	€310	044 9340693
Hamills	€319	044 9348682
Kinnegad Oil	€319	044 9375653
Lakeland/TOP Fuels	€325	044 9343632
Rustic Oil	€330	044 9340502
Leinster Petroleum	No answer	044 9348544