A free event is being held to help owners of tenement and traditional buildings with maintenance.

Look Up! will give free maintenance guidance, provided by local building experts, to inform home and property owners on how to check if their homes need to have maintenance undertaken.

It will take place in Dunoon on Friday 24 November.

Look Up! Is organised by Dunoon Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) and is part of National Maintenance Week.

It will take the form of a walk around Argyll Street, led by Dunoon CARS officer Feargal de Buiteléir, followed by a seminar with presentations, slideshows and giveaways. Everyone attending will get a free copy of the Tenement Handbook. It starts at noon at Dunoon Burgh Hall. It is open to all owners in Argyll and Bute.

Policy Lead for Economic Development, Council Leader Aileen Morton, said: “This is a free of charge event that will benefit owners of tenement and traditional properties in the area.

“It will inform home owners of the signs to look out for that could show their homes and commercial properties have suffered damage and what to do next.

“It will be a very informative event led and supported by people experienced in the conservation, repair and maintenance of traditional properties and a great opportunity for owners to arm themselves with invaluable guidance.”

The rewards to owners of knowing how to properly take care of their properties are many, from lower fuel bills and avoiding damp to cutting future repair costs that have the potential to greatly increase if not dealt with at an early stage.

Winter rainfall in Argyll and Bute has increased by 45 per cent over the past 50 years. Rainfall can cause issues for roofs, gutters, walls and drains.

A five-point guide to saving your home from damp:

1. Check your roof for slipped slates or tiles.  From street level, you may see loose slates sitting in the gutter. If you can get some height from a neighbouring building, you can also use a pair of binoculars. Roof leaks are also visible from inside the loft where wet timbers and walls show up leaks.
2. Check your gutters when it’s raining – is water coming over the top because they are blocked or leaking through broken joints leaving damp stains on the walls below?  Are the gutters sloping the right way to the downpipes?
3. Fit leaf guards to your gutters (once you’ve had them cleaned of fallen leaves and debris).
4. Check your downpipes for blockages caused by plants and leaves.  Check the backs of your downpipes too – lazy painters often left the backs unpainted allowing the pipes to rust and crack.
5. Check your drains at ground level too to make sure they are clean and taking all that additional rainfall away.

If you live in a flat, the new Under One Roof Scotland website (www.underoneroof.scot), will help you persuade your co-owners to take part and tell you what to do if they won’t join in. The website has more than 100 articles on how to manage tenement, flat and apartment blocks and more than 200 illustrations of typical building problems and specifications to help you get the best from a builder. 

Dunoon CARS is a project jointly funded by Historic Environment Scotland and Argyll and Bute Council that will provide grant funding for repair and conservation works to buildings on Argyll Street as well as traditional skills training and community engagement events. Find out whether your property is eligible for grant funding and how to apply. (https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/dunoon-regeneration).