Fire protection (Brannvern)

Despite strict fire protection regulations, the predominant use of wood in building, a long heating season, high average electric energy consumption and frequent use of candles are reflected in a high rate of fire damage. Each year, some 60 to 70 people die in fires, most in their own homes, and about 6,000 people sustain burns. Experts believe that almost all home fires are preventable, because very few are caused by unforeseen events, such as lightning strikes.

That’s why fire prevention awareness is taught in schools, and fire prevention is a major factor in building design and approval. All homes now are required to have at least one smoke alarm and either a fire hose or a fire extinguisher (6 kg or larger), and preferably both. Unless an approved storage area is built into a house, the amounts of flammable liquids and gases that may be stored are limited to 5 litres of petrol or alcohol, 20 litres of paraffin oil, 5 litres of propane in disposable cans and 55 litres of propane in refillable containers as used for cooking and lighting. Other regulations concern electrical installations, fireplaces and stoves, chimneys and chimney sweeping, fire walls between attached buildings, fire exits and escape routes, furnace rooms, fire doors and uses of fire retardant materials. The Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (Chapter 11) oversees preventive measures; for further information, contact the nearest fire brigade (brannvesenet or brann og redningsvesen in the Pink Pages).

The Norwegian Fire Protection Association (Norsk Brannvern Forening) has some 10,000 members throughout the country. Its members provide expertise to insurance companies and builders, and the head office acts as a central source for all public and private sector publications on fires and fire prevention, including rules and regulations, codes of practice and teaching videos. For further details, contact Norsk Brannvern Forening, PO Box 6703 St Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo, Tel: 23157100, Fax: 23157101, www.norsk-brannvern-forening.no.

Fireplaces and wood stoves (Peis og vedovn)

Almost every house has a fireplace and one or more wood stoves, as do many larger flats. So, firewood and wood briquettes and pellets are widely sold, and chimney sweeps come once a year to all dwellings with chimneys.

Though they developed to beautiful works of iron, with time, the classic wood-burning stove was found to contribute significantly to air pollution, particularly in cities and towns. So, regulations now require more efficient designs, and wood-burning stoves installed after 1 July 1998 must comply with the new regulations. Older stoves in use before that date are exempt, but must comply with the new regulations if refurbished or moved. Open fireplaces are exempt from the new regulations. For further details, contact your local building authority, listed under bygningsetaten in the Pink Pages.

All stoves now being manufactured comply with the new regulations. Among the most efficient are the elegant, tall-tiled stoves (kakkleovn) of traditional (and now internally modified) Swedish and Norwegian design, and one of the leading builders of them is Norwegian; Kakkelovnsmakeriet, Eckersbergsgt 39, 0266 Oslo, Tel: 22561899, Fax: 22551466, www.kakkelovnsmakeriet.no.

The world’s oldest and largest producer of cast-iron stoves is Jøtul, a Norwegian company founded in 1853 and now global, with sales in more than 20 countries and a total market of about 100,000 stoves a year. The main Jøtul plant is in Fredrikstad and there are dealers throughout the country. Look under ovner og peiser in the Yellow Pages, or visit the company’s website with an interactive dealer locator map, or contact the company, Jøtul ASA, PO Box 1411, Fredrikstad, www.jotul.no, sales@jotul.no.

Firewood (Peisved)

Wood for burning in home fireplaces and stoves (ved, peisved) is sold by the litre and by the cubic metre, in cut lengths of 20 cm, 30 cm, 60 cm and 300 cm. The 20 cm and 30 cm lengths are sold in 40 litre, 60 litre and 80 litre sacks, which can be transported in cars. The 60 cm and 300 cm lengths are sold in stacks and usually are transported by truck. There are four quality classes: (i) extra (extra): birch with no rot; (ii) first class (klasse 1): single sort hardwood (not mixed sorts) with dry rot in no more than 10% of pieces; (iii) second class (klasse 2): mixed sorts of hardwood and softwood (blandingsved) with dry rot in no more than 15% of pieces; and (iv) third class (klasse 3): all sorts including outside slabs (bakhun) and sawmill waste, with no dry rot specification. Sacks and stacks should be clearly marked to show size, sort and quality class. The approximate weights of wood of 20% moisture content in 40, 60 and 80 litre sacks are listed in Table 24.

Before 1997, firewood was sold using an older unit of volume, the cord (favn), usually, but not always, equal to 2.4 cubic metres, of which 1.66 cubic metres are solid wood. A larger unit, the “big cord” (storfavn) is equal to 12 cubic metres. Wood in sacks and paperboard cartons is sold in supermarkets, at petrol stations, building supply stores and garden centres, as well as by fuel merchants (brenselforretninger) who also sell stack wood in larger quantities. Look under ved (wood) or brenselforretninger in the Yellow Pages.

Sack volume, (litres)	Birch (Bjørk), (kg)	Grey alder (Gråor), Pine (Gran), Aspen (Osp), (kg)	Willow (Selje), Black alder (Svartorr), Fir (Furu), (kg)	Maple (Lønn), Ash (Ask), Beech (Bøk), (kg)	Rowan – Mountain Ash (Rogn), (kg)
40	15	11	13	16	17
60	22	16	14	23	25
80	30	21	25	31	33

Fittings (Beslag)

Most fittings now are to European standards, and many international companies offer broad selections of them. The leader in the country is Grorud Industrier, part of the Swedish Assa Abloy AB group of companies, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of window and door hardware. In alphabetical order by their names in English, the commonplace fittings, as now sold in plastic packets hung on racks in building supply and hardware shops, are:

casement handle (for window) vindusvrider

cover plate deksel

cylinder lock case sylinder falle

cylinder locking set sylindersett

deadbolt reile

door handle (lever type) vrider

escutcheon langskilt

espagnolette espagnolett

Euro hinge Euro-hengsel

fixing plate dørdel

grille hinge sprosserammehengsel

guard barnesikring

guide fitting glidekloss

handle håndtak

hinge hengsel

hook krok

installation bracket feste- og justerhylse

journal supported hinge løftehengsel tappbœrende

key nøkkel

knob knott

latchbolt falle

lift-off hinge løftehengsel

lock case låskasse

lock for interior door falle/reilelås

lock Iås

make-up wedge underlag

padlock hengelås

pivot friksjonshengsel

push bolt kantskåte

side hung ironmongery sidehengsel/løftehengsel

side swing ironmongery sidehengsel

side turn ironmongery side turn glidehengsel

sliding door gear skyvedørbeslag

slim vent spalteventil

snap-in hinge snap-in lagerhengsel

spring hinge fjœrhengsel

striker plate sluttstykke

top hung ironmongery topphengsel

top turn ironmongery top turn glidehengsel

window hasp and cleat vinduslukker

window stay vindusholder

window stop vindusholder

Furniture (Møbler)

Across the country, furniture is most sold by chain stores (Chapter 40), but there are many independent dealers, listed under møbler (detalj) in the Yellow Pages. To find somebody to re-upholster (omtrekking) or repair your furniture look under møbeltapetsertjenester. If you want to have something made to your specifications look under snekkertjenester for a carpenter. Second-hand furniture can be found at flea markets or second-hand shops (Chapter 40). Some useful terms: bed (seng), carpets (tepper), chair (stol), chest of drawers (kommode), coffee table (salongbord), corner table (hjørnebord), cupboard (skap), curtains (gardiner), desk (skrivebord), dining table (spisebord), double bed (dobbelseng), furnishing fabric (møbelstoffer), kitchen table (kjøkkenbord), lamp (lampe), lampshade (lampeskjerm), mirror (speil), night table (nattbord), shelves (hyller), sideboard (skjenk), sofa (sofa) and wardrobe (klesskap).

Gardening (Hagearbeid)

Despite the northerly latitude with its relatively short summer, gardening is popular. You can lengthen the growing season by first planting seeds in sprouting trays kept indoors until the weather is warm enough to permit planting outdoors. For advice, visit a local garden centre (hagesenter). In spring and early summer, garden centres stay open late in the evening and on Sundays too. Winter can damage your plants and pots. If you leave your larger pots outside in winter, check first that they are frost resistant. Cover small trees and shrubs with jute sacking in the autumn. Rake leaves from your lawn regularly, particularly in autumn, because once snow and frost arrive, raking is impossible.

Garden centres also sell decorative containers suitable for inside and out, gardening tools, fertiliser, garden furniture, parasols, barbecues, in fact everything for making life in the garden a pleasure. Some useful terms: bulb (løk), chalk (kalk), clay (liere), compost (kompost), earth (jord), fertiliser (gjødsel), fork (spagreip), garden shears (hagesaks), hoe (hakke), hose (hageslange), jute sacking (sekkestrie), lawnmower (plenklipper), moss (mose), peat moss (myr), rake (løvrive), seeds (frø), shovel (hagespade), sprinkler (spreder), trowel (planteskje) and wheelbarrow (trillebar).

If you wish to hire a gardener to care for your garden, you may find one listed under gartnere in the Yellow pages. For pruning your trees and bushes, you can find an expert in arboriculture listed under trepleie. For extensive works, such as laying flagstones, you can find a landscape gardener listed under anleggsgartnermestere. If you wish to hire someone to mow the lawn (slå gresset), either put an ad up on the noticeboard in your local supermarket or at the nearest garden centre, otherwise look under vaktmestertjenester in the Yellow Pages.

Gas (Gass)

Though electricity is used in most cooking, gas cookers (Chapter 41) are used whenever electricity is not available, as on board leisure craft, in cabins and cottages and in campers, as well as by restaurants and by home gourmet cooks. Several brands of cooktops (gasstopp) and cookers (gass komfyrer) are imported; Husqvarna of Sweden and Smeg of Italy are two leading brands. Most sales of gas appliances are to professional kitchens, so look under storkjøkkenutstyr in the Yellow Pages to find dealers.

Heating (Oppvarming)

The country’s consumption of electric energy is equivalent to 28,000 kilowatt-hours per capita, the highest in the world. Metal refining and other energy-dependent industries are the big consumers, but abundant, hydroelectric power has resulted in most homes being heated by electricity and having heating features that are considered luxuries in other countries, such as heated tiled bathroom floors and heated entrance lobbies to dry out shoes and boots wet with rain or snow.

The most common electric heaters are wall-mounted electric panel convectors (panelovn). They are efficient, but unlike hot-water radiators, they cannot be used for drying wet clothes. When air flow through the heater is restricted, its temperature may rise high enough to burn the clothing and start a fire. So, always heed the warning usually printed on the top edge of a convector and never drape any wet clothing or other material over it. Most convectors have thermostats that prevent this hazard, but some older heaters have no thermostats. Many newer buildings have sub-floor electric heating cables (varmekabel) and consequently need no panel convectors.

Many older flats and houses were built to be heated by fireplaces and wood stoves, though many subsequently were converted to electric heating or central heating. The first central heating systems, installed up through the 1920s, used coal-fired furnaces, so many older houses still have coal bins. However, oil firing is now more common. Look under fyringsoljer in the Yellow Pages for suppliers of heating oil and servicing of your central heating system. Many newer houses are now fitted with heat pumps (varmepumpe).

Many modern houses and flats have fireplaces and wood stoves. However, in terms of the heat it produces, firewood is more expensive than electricity or oil. However, if you cut your own firewood and have a modern wood stove, the heat it produces is inexpensive and nearly non-polluting.

Homemaker assistant (Husmorvikar)

If the person who usually does the housework in a home is incapacitated, as by illness or giving birth, you may ask the municipal social services office to provide a homemaker assistant (husmorvikar) to handle the work. Other similar services include home help for the elderly and disabled (hjemmehjelp for eldre og uføre), home nursing (hjemmesykepleie) and other assistance (andre hjelpetiltak) for persons who need it. The services are provided against a small charge, which depends on your ability to pay. To find out if you are eligible for such assistance, call the bistand og omsorg servicekontoret listed under the name of the municipality in the Pink Pages.

House cleaning (Rengjøring)

Most people clean their own homes, though many hire cleaning services, listed under rengjøringstjenester in the Yellow Pages, particularly for major cleaning jobs, such as after redecorating. Vacuum cleaners (støvsugere) used as elsewhere, on floors, rugs and carpets, walls and ceilings. Most homes have wood, linoleum and tile floors, which by tradition are wet mopped. A mop (mopstativ) with a frame onto which a 60 cm sleeve with mophead fixes, is ideal for the job. Modern mop systems with handles to which a dry acrylic mop head or a damp microfibre mop head are fixed are now the norm in commercial house cleaning and have become so widely used in homes that supermarkets now stock their various parts.

Instructions (Bruksanvisninger)

Most food labels are in Norwegian, though the labels on brand-name foods traded internationally often are in Norwegian and other languages, including English. Other goods are labelled similarly: the instructions on containers of ski wax, for instance, are in Norwegian, English, French and German, and household appliances usually have multi-lingual instruction booklets. Computers and computer equipment may be delivered with either Norwegian or English manuals, depending on buyer preference, and application programs are available in English and Norwegian versions. However, the instruction booklets for some products, such as Japanese cameras, may be delivered in Danish (betjeningsvejledning), apparently because the manufacturers regard the Norwegian market as too small to warrant a Norwegian version and because Norwegians can read Danish. Occasionally, instructions may be in Swedish (bruksanvisning), which is more difficult for Norwegians to read. Nonetheless, most technological products are made for the international market, so instructions in English and other languages usually are available. Sometimes they are in stock (manuals in Norwegian usually are translated from originals in English). But sometimes English or other language versions must be ordered from the manufacturer. So if you cannot read Norwegian (or Danish or Swedish), you should ask to see the instructions for a product upon buying and, if necessary, request a version in the language of your choice. Simple instructions, such as cooking times for packaged foods imported from abroad, may be in the language of their originating countries only, such as the cooking instructions for pasta imported from Italy being in Italian only, while some are pictorial, with step-by-step drawings for preparation. Likewise, the instructions for assembling flat-pack furniture usually have only drawings and no words.

Krafse (Krafse)

Almost every country has some superior implements. Norway has three tools, used in gardening and construction, which have no peers. The krafse (literally “scratcher”), krafsebrett (krafse pan) and fyllhakke (“fill hoe”) are unbeatable for working on the surface of the ground, particularly for moving any weight of soil. The krafse has a half-moon-shaped blade set oblique to its shaft. Depending on the angle at which it is held, the blade can lightly skim the underlying surface, like a squeegee sweeping water from glass, or can dig deeply, as does a grub hoe. The krafsebrett, shaped like a dustpan and fitted with handles on both sides, is used for removing material swept up by the krafse. The fyllhakke has a pointed blade in the shape of an almond shell, attached obliquely to its shaft just below the rounded end. It is unequalled for digging small furrows, as used for planting a row of seeds or bulbs, and for picking stones out of soil. Anyone who has worked with these three tools in cramped spaces, as in ditches or foundations, realises that they have no equals. Simply removing some soil from the bottom of a trench, backbreaking with a spade, is easy with a krafse and krafsebrett. In fact, hand-powered moving of anything on the ground – spreading gravel, distributing fertiliser, levelling sand – is ergonomically sensible only if you use a krafse. This may be why the krafse is Norway’s most popular gardening and construction hand tool by far, with annual sales equalling the combined sales of all other types of construction spades and shovels. Despite the obvious advantages of the three tools and their predominance in Norway, they have yet to be appreciated elsewhere. Even in neighbouring Sweden, they are virtually unknown.

The tools are indigenously Norwegian, not because they are new, but because they are so old that they have been abandoned elsewhere. Their ancestors were devised in the late Iron Age for iron ore mining in Central Europe. Their present forms first emerged in common mining tools of the 15th and 16th centuries. German miners probably brought the tools to Norway in the mid-16th century to work the first found iron ore deposits. Norwegians gave the tools descriptive names by their uses: krafse means to scratch or scrape and pull towards, and fyll means fill or rubble. The tools stayed in the hands of miners for more than three centuries. They first were used for other purposes in the late 19th century. Up until the 1940s, manufacturers apparently felt they owed prospective purchasers some explanation of them: in catalogues, the krafse was called malmkrafse (iron-ore krafse) and the krafsebrett was called malmfat (iron-ore pan). Modern mining machines have replaced hand tools in mines, and the krafse family is now used mostly above and on the ground. In addition to their principal uses, the tools have special applications. Archaeologists have found that they are far superior to the traditional coal spade and scuttle for excavating sites. A skilled sweep of a krafse can pull fine layers into a krafsebrett for examination. Fishermen use them to quickly clean decks and holds. Day-care centres use them to keep sandboxes tidy. And one teacher of commercial-scale fine baking at a trade school reported that he keeps a krafse and krafsebrett handy in the apprentice bakery to remove student errors from the floors and walls.

Laundry (Vask)

Most laundry is done at home, so most houses and blocks of flats have laundry rooms. Laundries (vaskerier) and dry-cleaners (renserier) offer clothes cleaning services. Coined-operated laundries (selvbetjent vaskerier) can be found in major cities and towns that welcome people on holiday; most guest harbours for visiting boats will have laundry facilities. Look in the Yellow Pages. Supermarkets stock washing powders (vaskepulver) and liquids and fabric softeners (tøymykner). Most of the international brands are available, including varieties for sensitive skins. Washing machines (vaskemaskin) and tumble dryers (tørketrommel) can be bought in shops selling white goods (Chapter 14) and rented from rentals companies.

Light bulbs (Lyspære)

The commonplace light bulbs include general lighting service (GLS) incandescent light bulbs (lyspœrer), tubular fluorescent lamps (lysrør), compact fluorescent lamps (energisparepœrer) and tungsten-halogen lamps (halogenly sparer). All are made for 230 V fixtures, except for the tungsten-halogen lamps, most of which are made for 12 V fixtures.

GLS light bulbs are by far the most commonly used and are made with two sizes of standard European screw-thread base – the 14 mm diameter E14 and the 27 mm diameter E27, as shown below.

There are four leading varieties: standard (normal) and round-bulb (krone) with an E27 base and candle (mignon) and round-bulb (illum) with an E14 base, all with either frosted (matt) or clear (klar) glass envelopes. Compact fluorescent lamps are also fitted with E27 or E14 bases. Tubular fluorescent lamps and tungsten-halogen lamps have pin contacts that plug into their respective standard fixtures. Lamps are sold in supermarkets and food shops, as well as in lighting shops, hardware shops and petrol station shops, in small cartons, usually with one but sometimes with two or three lamps. Carton labelling varies, but usually includes the lamp type along with an outline drawing, voltage (230 V or 12 V), strength in Watts, glass type (frosted or clear) and base type, and sometimes a description of the socket which the lamp fits, such as large (stor sokkel) for E27 bases and small (liten sokkel) for E14 bases. All light bulbs of current manufacture also have CE Marking (Chapter 30). Most brands marketed internationally in Europe are sold in shops. The leader is Osram, the company active in more than 110 countries worldwide and the only one actually manufacturing lamps in Norway.

Mending (Reparasjon, stoppetøy)

If you need to mend rips and tears yourself, shops selling sewing notions will stock bonding fabrics and sprays, patches and necessary needles and thread to make the job easier. Stockists of all-in-one snowsuits (parkdress) sell repair kits. For professional repairs and alterations ask at your dry-cleaning (Chapter 9) outlet or look under systuer in the Yellow Pages.

Municipal fees (Kommunalegebyrer)

Each municipality supports its services through fees collected from owners of homes and commercial properties. If you own a flat in a block of flats, you most likely will pay a monthly service fee that will include the municipal fees for the building. If you rent a house, you may or may not pay the municipal fees for it, depending on your rental contract. The fees are set by the utilities (kommunalteknisk) department of each municipality and vary from place to place, even within the same county. The usual fees, which usually are billed together two or four times a year are:

• 1Water and sewage fees (vann- og kloakkgebyrer) may be charged together or separately. They are based on volume in cubic metres, either metered (målt) or estimated (estimert), or for some properties, on the area of the house in square metres. A connection fee (tilknytningsgebyr) is charged when you first connect to the municipal water supply or sewage lines.
• 2Refuse collection fee (renovasjonsgebyr or søppeltømmingsgebyr) depends on the number of collections a week, usually one, and the size of your household. Most municipalities have a fixed fee per sack (sekk) sized for the average home. Additional fees are charged for additional sacks or for sacks that must be carried (bœretillegg) more than a specified distance. For larger properties, a fee is charged for containers (containerrenovasjon) emptied by the volume of the container in cubic metres. Some municipalities offer a fee reduction for reduced volume of refuse, such as when kitchen organic refuse (kjøkkenavfall) is composted (kompostering) instead of being discarded in the refuse sack.
• 3Recycling fee (gjennvinningsgebyr) usually is included in the refuse collection fee and covers the collection of recyclable materials. Paper and plastic are collected from homes, usually once every three weeks, the paper in reusable sacks, most often orange or another bright colour to set them apart from ordinary refuse sacks, and the plastic in transparent plastic bags that themselves are recyclable.
• 4Chimney sweeping fee (feieavgift) depends on the height and size of the chimney and usually covers one sweep a year, in the autumn.

Paint and varnish (Maling og lakk)

Paint and varnish is sold by paint shops (fargehandel) as well as by hardware shops (jernvarer) and building supply shops (byggevarer). Two large companies dominate the domestic market, Jotun of Norway and Beckers of Sweden. Star of Drammen sells in the southern part of the country, and there are several smaller special product manufacturers, such as Løvolds exterior oil stains and Treol interior pine stains.

Parquet, the care of (Rengjøring av parkettgulv)

To preserve the attractive appearance of a parquet floor, vacuum regularly and wash with a weak solution of warm water and soft soap. You need not rinse the floor afterwards. If the floor is waxed, rewax once a year with floor polish (gulvpuss). Remove marks made by shoes with black soles using mineral turpentine (white spirit), sold by hardware shops, paint supply shops, petrol stations, building supply merchants and some supermarkets. Stick small felt pads under the legs of tables and chairs to reduce scratching. Hardware shops and furniture and interior shops sell them. A badly marked floor can be resanded and resealed. Look in the Yellow Pages for specialists in parquet treatment (parkettsliperi) or general floor cleaning and treatment (gulvbearbeiding). You can also hire sanders (utleiemaskiner) or do it yourself (DIY). A common practice in most homes is to remove your outdoor shoes when coming in, especially in the winter with snow and grit.