10 Tips for Working With a Contractor
February 29, 2008
This is the year you’re going all out. You’re going to build a deck, add a porch, erect a gazebo or lay a patio. You’ve done the research. It’s well within your capability and you’re looking forward to the satisfaction of creating a structure of beauty.
Or not. Yes — you’d like to proceed with an outdoor structure but for you, it isn’t a do-it-yourself project. How can you find the right person to do it for you? Here are 10 tips for hiring and working with a contractor.
1. Plan your project carefully. Clip pictures, make sketches, write a description. This will help you accurately convey to the contractor what you want the finished product to be.
2. Make a list of contractors. Ask your neighbors or friends for the names of reputable tradesmen. Contact material suppliers — lumberyards, for example — and ask for recommendations.
3. Get at least three written bids for the project, but don’t give in to the temptation to automatically accept the lowest bid. A higher bid may be worth the price in better materials, workmanship and reliability. If you get a very low bid, the contractor may have made a mistake or forgotten to bid on everything you wanted. If they have deliberately low-bid, they may use cheaper materials or take shortcuts to make a profit.
Lighting up Your Life
February 29, 2008
You are visiting a friend that has just had a beautiful kitchen remodel done. It is a lovely kitchen with stunning granite countertops and a sharp looking tile backsplash. The glass door cabinets are filled with the good china. Somehow after spending a small fortune the room still looks a bit drab.
So many times people spend a wad of money renovating a room and neglect to take the lighting into consideration. Properly placed lighting of the correct type can literally make or break a room. That tile backsplash can be brought to life with some low voltage linear lighting. The china in those glass door cabinets can really show itself off with some puck lights and glass shelves.
Recessed lighting and a combination of switching options can give a room many personalities to suit any mood. From bright light for working conditions to subtle lighting for a romantic setting can all be accomplished with switches and dimmers. Accent lighting to highlight certain aspects of a project that were carefully planned but would barely be noticed otherwise. Cove lighting above crown moldings helps focus attention to the detail of the room.
Decorating The Bathroom ? Dress Your Mess For Less
February 28, 2008
The bathroom may be the hardest room to decorate. Its use and nature make the room decorative uninspiring, and its limited size and necessity of function make it difficult to add very much. Further, making a major change to the room’s décor generally requires huge sums of money, when you consider the expense of changing tiled floors or walls, or replacing existing fixtures such as showers and sinks. However, there are a few thrifty things you can do to turn your bathroom from an eyesore into a place of decorative elegance.
The first thing you have to do is decide what color range you can use. If the bathroom has existing features such as ceramic tiling or fixtures, you have to choose any other piece you bring in to match those colors that are already there. This is only a slight stifle to your creativity though, as there are an unlimited number of shades and colors you can match up with others. Even if you don’t like the original colors of the room, you can always balance them out with opposite colors in your décor.
There Is Always Something To Improve Or Innovate For Comfort
February 27, 2008
In this fast moving world of the 21st century, we are always forced to do everything in a rush, even eating and sleeping. The normal words of today are "hurry", "rush", "fast", "quick" and "immediately." In comparison with 20 years ago, today we have to move or work as fast as possible to survive in a competitive environment with creative and innovative ways. Even though modern technology innovations were introduced decades ago, the new technology has not yet given us the opportunity to create new products to reduce the stress of people in everyday life. We are living under constant mental and physical stress, with more and more demands from our current society.
There are many consumer products claiming that they will cure stress and make life easy, but it is still hard to find good and innovative products on the market for consumers. From time to time, I wonder why multimillion dollar companies, which have hundreds of research engineers and scientists in their R&D departments, are not creating and producing the new, innovative products for consumers.
Make Your Hardwood Floors Shine
February 26, 2008
You have just installed hardwood flooring in your home. Now what? How do you keep your hardwood floors clean and shiny? Read the following Q&A in which two hardwood floor owners are asking just that.
Q: “I was reading your site and saw that one should not use oil based cleaners. Why? Our installer told us to use vinegar in water, and use a damp cloth to clean the floor about once a week. Will this damage the floor? What is a polyurethane cleaner? Where do you buy it?”
A: If an oil based cleaner is used on polyurethane finished floors, it leaves an oily residue on the surface which can not only make cleaning the floor more difficult, but after a period of time, when the floor is showing signs of wear and needs to be buffed and recoated, this residue can present adhesion problems. When cleaning any hardwood floor, or furniture, minimal water should be used. In other words, wipe with a dampened, not wet cloth. Adding a capful of vinegar can help and is suggested by the National Wood Flooring Association.
The Benifits of Home Ventilation
February 25, 2008
The purpose of a home ventilation system is to maintain a healthy living environment by supplying fresh air to your home while at the same time removing stale and polluted air. Home ventilation also helps to maintain proper humidity levels of 30 to 50 percent.
The air in your home is used many times over, often with fresh air entering only when we open doors or windows. As we strive to build homes more and more energy efficient, we create an environment prone to indoor air quality problems, thereby, reducing the homes ability to breathe and natural air changes do not occur.
The reason for the buildup of indoor pollution in today’s homes is a direct result of our efforts to conserve energy. With insufficient home ventilation, pollutants can build up and become very concentrated. These pollutants come from many sources and some, such as mold, are more problematic when combined with high humidity levels, which is another problem associated with inadequate home ventilation.
When humidity is too high, mold, mildew and rot can become serious problems. A mold outbreak can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to your home and in some cases can make a home uninhabitable.
Feng Shui Tips for Your Kitchen
February 24, 2008
Feng Shui (say “fung shway”) associates the kitchen with both health and prosperity. Couple this perspective with the role of the kitchen as “the heart of the home,” and you can see that any feng shui problems in this room can have a significant impact on your family. Here are some quick tips for improving the feng shui of this important area of the home.
In The Mood
February 24, 2008
Creating a Designer Home With Lighting
Traditionally, spring is the time when many of us think about redecorating or remodelling a room in our home and we begin skimming through glossy magazines, or visiting showrooms for ideas. The results always look stunning, but how do you replicate ‘that’ look in your own home when your rooms are probably a fraction of the size of those featured in home interior publications? Even if you had the time, energy and resources to purchase exactly the same products that appear in a beautifully prepared photograph or showroom, somehow they never seem to look the same in your own home.
So why is this?
The answer may be in your lighting or more accurately your light levels and lighting schemes. Every home will have a unique light level that is dependant upon many things; the way the rooms and windows face, the size and type of windows, the colour of the decoration and the density of furniture in the rooms. It is an eclectic mix, but these factors can make a huge difference. Natural light plays an important part in the mix, since it can create an infinite array of atmospheres and moods in any room through the course of the day, from bright and invigorating to subdued and tranquil.
Hydronic vs Forced Air Heating and Cooling
February 23, 2008
Hydronic, or hot water, heating has been standard for years in many parts of the U.S. It is seeing a surge in popularity at present, mainly because of the increasing use of radiant floor heating, which is known for providing even, comfortable heat. Yet contrary to popular belief, not every home in the free world needs hydronic heat to achieve this level of comfort.
Apples to Oranges
Hydronic heat is sometimes touted as more comfortable than forced-air heat. But since the typical hydronic system is significantly more expensive than the typical hot-air system, especially if cooling is included, this is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Customers willing to invest in a quality hot-air system, rather than a bare-bones package at the lowest price, will find that forced hot air can be as comfortable as hydronic heating. Unfortunately, if the heating system is hot water and the home owner doesn’t spend the extra up front to cool their home, their finished home may be still too expensive to add the cooling system later and probably imposable to even install without doing even more expensive and inconvenient remodeling to accommodate such an install. Or the homeowner may have to add a window air conditioner instead to each of the rooms in the home. Another system maybe a ductless system that is not as efficient as the central split system design on a standard forced air install.
Wood Panels and Humidity
February 22, 2008
Coping with wood movement
All wood workers need to be aware of wood movement when building furniture projects. Failure to consider this important factor can cause wood panels to crack or split.
My high school biology teacher compared the structure of a piece of wood with a bundle of straws. The straws represent the cells and capillaries of the wood. When a tree is growing water and food are transferred up through the cells and are carried throughout the tree.
Once a tree is fell the free water in the wood is lost rather quickly but the bound water trapped in the straw like cell is slower to dissipate. As the level of bound water is reduced these straw like cells get narrower in diameter but maintain their length. This is the fundamental reason that wood expands and contracts across its width but has almost no expansion length wise.
When working with wood it is very important to allow the wood to expand and contract with changes in humidity. As humidity rises the straw like cells expand in diameter with the opposite effect occurring as the relative humidity falls.
Ways to accommodate expansion
