Household

Most deck projects begin with a picture in someone's head: a table under string lights, a corner for morning coffee, steps leading down to the lawn. Getting from that picture to a…

A new fence usually starts with a simple wish: more privacy, a safe yard for the dog, a tidier street front. Getting from that wish to a well-built fence, though, involves a…

Most people only think about their pipes when something goes wrong: a drip through the kitchen ceiling, a shower that runs cold halfway through, a drain that gurgles for days. Plumbing has…

In an ordinary house, windows are often the weakest part of the outer shell. In a building designed to the Passive House approach, they are expected to do far more: hold heat…

Water rarely announces itself politely. It arrives as a hiss behind a washing machine, a dark patch spreading across a ceiling or a basement step that suddenly squelches. The minutes after discovery…

A homeowner can live with a slow sink for a week. A business usually cannot. When a toilet backs up in a busy café or the showers stop draining at a gym,…

People decide how they feel about a house within moments of seeing it from the footpath. Faded weatherboards, chalky render or peeling eaves send a message long before anyone reaches the door.…

A single ceiling light treats every corner of a room the same way, and that is rarely what a room needs. One wall holds a print you love, the worktop needs clear…

Few rooms bring water, energy, air quality and building materials together the way a bathroom refit does. That makes it a rare opportunity: decisions made during a refit shape how much water…

Say "chandelier" and many people picture crystal pendants and ballroom ceilings, yet the fittings hanging in many new homes look nothing like that. Rings of light, clusters of glass globes, slim linear…