FEBRUARY 2020 | 13
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
EVERGLADE ANSWERS
BBC’S DIY SOS CALL
Everglade UK, a VEKA UK fabricator and installer based
in Manchester is proud to have contributed to DIY SOS
‘The Big Build’ which transformed the Bolton home of
Heather and Martin Taylor-Mann and their children.
The episode, which aired on
BBC One at the end of November
saw 150 volunteers extend and
reconfigure the house to make
it better suited to the family, and
– in particular – their nine-year-
old son William who is severely
autistic and has a high sensitivity
to noise.
Unable to talk, William com-
municates his distress through
crying. He finds sleeping ex-
tremely difficult and is often
awake through the night, which
also disturbs his sisters.
Everglade Co-Owner Deni
Sirovica explains: “It was fantas-
tic to be involved in a project
that will bring such enormous
improvements to their daily life.
The Taylor-Mann family (of five)
were sharing two bedrooms and
as the youngest daughter got
bigger and William’s condition
meant that he tended to keep
everyone awake, they were
becoming overwhelmed by their
circumstances.
“Martin had begun to build
a third bedroom, but as often
happens, work commitments and
financial constraints meant the
project got waylaid.
“DIY SOS came in to help, with
plans to build a timber-framed,
soundproofed extension for
William where he could have
his own specially designed quiet
bedroom space, and in turn,
his two sisters could each have
their own room upstairs without
William keeping them awake at
night.
“Originally, Everglade was
asked to provide just two win-
dows for the extension. But
when we saw the extent of the
plans for the rest of the house
renovation, and we heard how
William can’t be left upstairs -
even momentarily - because he
tries to climb out of the windows,
we volunteered to fabricate and
install eight VEKA FS casement
windows completely free of
charge.
“The windows we provided
were all ‘A’ rated, which means
they’ll keep the house nice and
warm, and thanks to the quality
of these VEKA systems, they’ll
also keep outdoor noise down.
We fitted them all with child-lock
restrictors to provide peace of
mind that William wouldn’t be
at risk of opening them wide
enough to climb out.
“We also used VEKA profile
to create the front porch, which
brightened up the front of the
house and created a welcoming
entranceway.
“The job was particularly tricky
because the whole project was
completed in just nine days, so
all the tradespeople were trying
to work round each other at the
same time in a very small space,
but it all went well and the family
were delighted - which is what
it’s all about!”
The 150-strong team of volun-
teers completely renovated the
downstairs kitchen and living
room, as well as adding a dining
room, a utility room and a down-
stairs bathroom next to William’s
new bedroom extension (with
specialist automatic taps that pre-
vent him being able to cause the
kind of floods he has in the past).
They also completely reconfig-
ured the upstairs by removing
all the walls and redistributing
the space to create three bed-
rooms and a decent-sized family
bathroom, as well as tidying up
the garden and laying a new
driveway. Not bad for nine days’
work!
As the programme ended,
Heather Taylor-Mann said: “It’s
just perfect. We’re just so grate-
ful.”
Martin added that the trans-
formation will allow the family
to focus all their energy on the
three children: “We don’t have to
worry about the house now, it’s
perfect for us. We can just throw
everything into them.”
When asked if the work was
enough to minimise the possibil-
ity that William might have to go
into care, Heather said: “It’s given
us hope for the future, and it’s
meant that William can just stay
here as long as we can look after
him. And that’s so important…
we want to enjoy every minute...
we need to say a big, big thank
you. It’s more than we ever could
have dreamed of.”
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