Renovation
Why Is the Kitchen the Heart of the Home?
Many people would have heard the saying that the kitchen is the heart of the home. But why is this? There are many reasons why the kitchen is considered the central or core area of the house. In whatever sized property, including a large country house or a small apartment flat, the kitchen is probably the main area of the house and one of the most used and practical areas of the property.
Here are four reasons why we think that the kitchen is and always will be the heart of the home:
1. This is where the food is. Human beings generally flock where there is food. The kitchen is the area of the home which contains all of the food, in ready-made containers or in separate ingredients ready to cook into a wonderful meal. Cooking or preparing food is something which will take place every single day and perhaps several times a day, especially if there is a family in the home. Having people working in the kitchen makes it an important and much-needed area of the home.
2. Many people have kitchen/dining areas combined. This allows a larger space where family and people can gather in a social capacity. Having this social space means that the kitchen is always going to be the centre of the home. Having a dining and kitchen area means that the larger space gives way for families to come together whilst food is being prepared and then eat it all together around a table, which many people believe is a dying tradition in the UK but really is just as popular as ever when the dining and kitchen area can be combined.
3. Modern gadgets make a kitchen a fun place to be. There are many modern gadgets which can make a kitchen feel far more exciting adds a personal touch to the home. There are traditional gadgets such as microwaves, can openers and toasters, but we are talking eccentric gadgets. This includes kitchen tools which have been designed for sheer practicality and fun. Many people have iPads or other notebooks in a kitchen which allows them to follow recipes in real-time in their kitchen whilst they cook.
4. The kitchen allows multipurpose use in innovative and contemporary design. There are many things you can do in the kitchen, not just cooking but also cleaning, making drinks and even talking on the phone. Kitchen installers can create beautiful spaces you to work in. Kitchen installer can use your style and budget to develop a space which you really enjoy spending time in. Sometimes the kitchen is also attached to a garden, allowing for a very practical space indeed.…
Tips For Managing Your Home’s Storage Area
In this post we will look at a great way to increase the storage area in your home. Many people have accumulated lots of “stuff” and it can clutter your house which is annoying. With this scenario, we want to be sure that those items are not damaged as it wouldn’t be very nice to find out later that the contents have been damaged by water or moisture.
One place that many people overlook for storage is their garage. Usually the garage is more vulnerable to water damage so if you are concerned about that then you can put down some pallets on the ground or get some garage flooring mats.
If you have an attic that isn’t currently functional, why not made some small changes so that it can handle some storage needs? Often times it can be as simple as just putting some plastic down.
Be careful putting your storage in confined areas like the shed in your backyard. If there isn’t enough airflow and there is more exposure to dampness in the air then you will likely be a victim of mildew. It’s amazing how quickly clothing can rot, even tough materials like boots.
Unfinished basements are similar to garage floors, you may want to put down some pallets or you can also use the garage flooring mats if your floor is concrete. Basements don’t get as hot during the summer so you’re not as likely to find mold.
In any case one of the most important things you should do is make sure a couple times a year you visit your storage and open up the bags and boxes for a day to air out. This will make a big difference towards keeping them from rotting with mold or mildew.
Of course, the other option is downsizing via throwing things out or donating items to thrift stores. Many people throw out too much though and end up needing things later. It’s tricky to know sometimes what you will actually use later and what will just sit around collecting dust.…
Minimalist Architecture For New Home Designs
If you are looking for modern house designs especially designed for style and functionality, then choosing Minimalist house designs and plans is right for you. It makes use of clean, geometric lines to create a sleek look. This is great for house design with limited area space. You will be able to make full use of all the space. It is simple, stylish and effective. To achieve a full minimalist effect, most houses use multiple function elements. The heater, for example, could be directly installed in the floors or walls.
Lighting is also very important when it comes to minimalist architecture. It makes use of only high quality lights, because the idea is to create a simple effect. Also, the colours black and white are very common. They are usually the basic colour of minimalist design houses. Sometimes, dark wood is also used for the floors. The roofs are usually flat, unlike regular houses. This is to further create a simple effect. It pays attention to the cleanliness of the joints of the walls as well. This is another reason why minimalist design makes use of flat roofs.
Pops of colour brighten the minimalist designed house. Bright colours like red, yellow and orange provide an interesting and aesthetically pleasing contrast to the overall design of the house. They usually take the form of vases, artworks, or simple pieces of display furniture.
If you want to know more about the latest in home design, it would be best to consult new home builders. They can design homes for you in any style you want. They can easily make use of the minimalist design. You can look at their various house designs and plans to see which one works for you. You can also look at a few house design and plan, for some inspiration. You can easily get your dream minimalist house and land package with the help of a good, reliable home builder.…
Can You Really Install Floorboards Over Cement?
Acquiring any type of flooring is definitely expensive. As a result, you might want to have the ability to put in the floor yourself. This may save you a lot of money, and the experience can be an extra ability for yourself. Here’s a step by step guide teaching you how to install flooring on bare concrete.
1. Thoroughly clean the concrete subfloor
Using an impeccably clean concrete subflooring is a crucial component of installing your very own floor. This will make certain any type of flooring you’re going to install will look remarkable. Clean the spot profusely and ensure not a single thing is left behind. At the conclusion of the cleaning session, include a humidity barrier so excess humidity doesn’t seep in from the bottom to your top flooring layer. Do not forget and skip this step because it’s necessary to get that moisture barrier if you’d like to protect hardwood floors like bamboo hardwood or engineered wood. Should there be far too much humidity it may split the floors in the future.
2. Place down the boards
Start laying the floorboards down from the longest side of your wall. Use adhesive that is top of the line if you want a perfect installation. Try to not apply an excessive amount, just put a sufficient quantity of adhesive on your floorboard and lay it down. Go on to execute this along the entire wall. Make every effort to press the floorboards firmly in place knowing that there are no spaces in between.
3. Keep the floor boards from slipping while drying
Being the adhesive demands a long period of time to dry, you need to be sure the boards are in place to make sure that gaps do not happen. It’ll be difficult to correct gaps once the adhesive has completely dried. Use something like blue painter’s tape to hold the floorboards in their place while drying. If any of the adhesive presses out from the cracks, wipe it away while it’s wet mainly because it will likely be harder to do once dry.
4. Arranging the planks
Continuously apply the planks on the concrete floor. Be sure that you pick your floor pieces carefully during the time you have them installed. As an illustration, to make sure you possess a uniform floor, you’ll want to use planks belonging to the same box, and examine each floor board to determine if the hue of your planks are all equivalent. Just do not forget that the floor planks may vary when it comes to their shade.
5. Take away the Painter’s tape
Before taking off the painter’s tape, make sure that the adhesive is utterly dry. Patience is virtue because you do not want to rush the drying process. Leave the installation like that overnight or for as long as possible, and don’t allow any foot traffic in the area. It will help your floors dry the way you intended it. If at least 12 hours have passed, then …
How to Choose Kitchen Flooring
The kitchen is a dirty place. Food and water spills on the floor can make it a death trap for many. Once food reaches the floor, bacteria can grow in between the tiles or the small spaces that the flooring does not quite meet up with the cabinets. Dirt from vendors and employees coming in and out of the kitchen can also cause slips and falls making the kitchen flooring one of the most important items in your kitchen, even more so than the mixers, sinks and ovens. When it comes to choosing your commercial kitchen flooring, few things are more important than your flooring being slip resistant. Here are some considerations when looking into purchasing commercial kitchen flooring for your restaurant.
1. Design
It is not necessary to have a beautiful floor in the kitchen; it really should be reserved for the dining area of the restaurant. Safety should be the first priority, and a dirty kitchen is a health hazard for everyone. Tiles in a kitchen can be easily broken from the heavy materials sitting on them and constantly being moved around. This is breeding grounds for bacteria and fungus to grow, which can make everyone sick. It is very important to choose flooring that has minimal cracks or seams that food particles and other nasty germs can live.
2. Slip Resistance-
In a full service kitchen, the hustle and bustle of things can cause a myriad of dangerous situations, grease spills, water sloshing onto the floor from the sink, food or mats sliding around on the flooring and many other hazardous events. With slip resistant floors, or floors covered in epoxy, vinyl floors or Silikal Resurfacing Concrete Floors you can have commercial kitchen floors installed that don’t have to be hideous but are more sanitary and safe than other flooring available like slippery tiles and linoleum floors.
3. Easily Manageable-
The last thing that anyone wants to do at the end of a long day is have to stay longer to clean the kitchen floors. Easily manageable floors such as these epoxy covered floors or floors covered with a slip resistant material are easier to manage. There is no such need to be on your hands and knees picking food pieces out of the cracks of tiles or peeling chips of things off the floor to ensure that mopping does not slide things around. The simpler the floors are to manage, the better they will be taken care of.
4. Durability-
Nobody wants to have a kitchen floor installed so that it can be repaired or replaced a few years later. When you are looking at installing a commercial kitchen floor, you want something that is going to withstand the weight of your heavy cooking equipment. Having to replace the flooring slows the production in the kitchen, possibly stopping production all together if the flooring has to be replaced. The longer the commercial grade kitchen floor lasts, the more money can be put into upgrading or purchasing …
Versatile Performance Flooring
A wooden dance floor is the choice of most dance studios, and for good reason. Seasons of durability and great looks are what keep these types of floors installed for dance purposes. In order to offer as many different types of dance classes at your studio and to increase revenue, you will need to think about how the performance flooring affects the type of dance being performed on it, and how certain types of flooring can enhance or hinder the dance.
All wood dance styles should be of the sprung dance floor type. What this means is that above the bottom sub floor rests a cushioning layer of product. It might be foam core, or other soft materials. Above this is placed the top wooden dance. This makes it possible to dance in a room that might not have sub flooring suitable for dance, such as concrete or other hard surfaces. A sprung wood dance floor provides the resilience that a dancer’s body needs when jumps are performed, as well as when percussive movements of the feet and legs upon the floor are performed. This type of sprung wooden dance helps to prevent tiny stress fractures and other stress injuries to the legs and joints from happening, making for a healthier dancer over time.
The type of wood used can also have an impact on the type of dance performed. For a good tap dance floor, you want a very live floor that offers a lot of sound naturally, without the dancers having to pound their feet hard on the floor to get any sound out of it. This is why hard woods such as maple are an excellent choice for a tap dance floor. Just the opposite is true for a ballet dance floor, where you would want the sound dampened rather than enhanced, so a softer wood would be preferable in this instance.
A ballet floor or a tap dance will often be finished with urethane, which is a coating used to protect the wood’s surface from damage. The top finish coating plays a role in speed, or slipperiness, of the floor’s surface. A tap dance will need a medium speed urethane finish. This helps the dancers to execute tap moves more easily, without the likelihood of twisting ankles due to too much traction on the floor’s surface. You can also use slow to medium urethane finishes for a ballet dance floor, but adjustments to the dance shoes will need to be made. You typically do not want a very slippery floor surface for a ballet dance floor, due to the lifts and jumping involved, which would be quite dangerous on a slick floor. The dancers would need to use rosin on the medium speed ballet dance, but could eliminate the rosin when working on pointe on the slow speed floor.
More information is available about ballet and tap dance floor choices from a manufacturer of sprung wood floors.…
How To Choose A Wheelchair Accessible House Plan
Nowadays it is very easy to get handicapped accessible house plans online from different architects and home designer websites. However, with so many options available, it is important to know how to choose the ideal house plan to meet all your needs, both physically and financially.
Firstly, the wheelchair accessible home plans should be designed by professional and experienced architects preferably ones trained in universal home design. Get professionally designed home plans for the sake of safety and value for money.
Secondly, get all the little details about the house plan’s accessible design. Look at how the home is designed from the front porch space to the master bedroom features. If possible, view the house design in 3 dimension, either as a physical model or CAD software. A 3D view will enable you to have a better sense of how the home will look like when complete, along with how the design is adapted to the handicapped or elderly individual.
Thirdly, do find out from the designer whether it is possible to customize the default handicapped accessible house plans. Remember that the home is designed with a general idea of a handicapped individual’s needs, but only the person in need of the accessible design knows exactly what they require. Maybe the ramps are curved and you prefer them straight, or the placement of the laundry area needs to be changed. Suit the home design for the highest efficiency and convenience to the residents, not simply stick with the given house plan as it is.
Fourthly, get as many copies of the home plans as possible. The standard practice is to get about five to eight sets of the desired home plan: A copy for the home owner, the contractor, the mortgage lender, the local building department, and the sub-contractors. Get these important documents in different formats, including PDF files for soft copies. You should also get a list of the building materials required for the plan from the architect since it will give you a good idea of the cost of building the home.
Keep in mind that once you purchase a home plan, along with its blueprints, you will not be able to return it. Copies of blueprints can be made quite easily, so to avoid losses, designers and architects do not allow returns for any dissatisfied customers. This means that you have to be absolutely sure about your choice of wheelchair accessible home plans before purchasing.
Do your research and learn all you can about universal home design for handicapped or elderly individuals. Use these tips to choose the best wheelchair accessible plan with the best features and best value for your investment.…
The 4 Most Common Septic System Problems
Septic systems are designed to process human waste and decompose it anaerobically over time. Most of the time they function perfectly, but much like any system with some amount of complexity, they are prone to some problems. Here we discuss the common septic systems problems.
Functioning Septic Systems
Septic systems break human and organic waste down into their constituent parts. The bacterial decomposition results in the formation of solids, liquids and gases. The solid part of it settles to the bottom of the tank, where it remains until it is removed by a septic tank pumper (which should be every 1 to 3 years). The gases and liquids are regularly released from the tank vents and pipes.
Almost every household has used their septic system as a dumping ground for non-organic waste. From plastic objects to tampons, people flush a wide variety of objects down the toilet, which the septic process was never designed to handle. These objects, if they do not block the pipes, make it to the septic tank and just sit there taking up space. These objects are non-biodegradable the bacteria cannot decompose them and they can only be removed by pumping the tank out.
Four of the most common problems with septic tanks are as follows:
Excess water being sent to the septic tank. Excess water is never good for a septic tank because it makes the solids overflow through the vents and pipes, which then blocks them. The blockage can completely stop the system from working and cause a backup into your house.
Sending paint thinners and solvents into the septic tank. These are toxic substances which are not good for the soil of the system, where they will finally find home because they are non-biodegradable too.
Using too many household detergents. These detergents contain phosphates, which are helpful in algae growth. Algae can block pipes and then make the septic tank overflow.
Flushing non-biodegradable products down the toilet (mentioned earlier). Non-biodegradable substances need to be regularly pumped out of the tank just because bacteria cannot decompose them.
How to solve common septic system problems:
Use a lesser amount of water than you do normally to solve the problem the excess water problem. There are various solutions to easily reduce water consumption. You can find some examples at your local hardware store.
Do not dispose of non-biodegradable waste into the septic system. At all. Ever.
Do not use the common detergents; instead use liquid soaps and gel soaps which do not contain phosphates.
Do not dispose of toxic substances like paint thinners and solvents into the septic system.
Finally, have your septic system pumped every few years. One to three years is the duration advised by the experts as an acceptable amount of time between pumpings.…
Know A Lot More About The Different Kinds Of Septic Tanks
The tanks are in charge of storing the wastes gathered from the lavatories, washing stations, bathrooms, as well as kitchen. Septic tanks have a self-contained built-in system. Inside, the solids and liquids are split up as wastewater enters in the tanks. The lighter solids float on top of the tanks which make up the scum layer. The heavier solids settle at the bottom of the tanks which make up the sludge layer. The liquid which stays in the middle forms the effluent layer.
The natural anaerobic bacteria that’s inside the septic system will be responsible in breaking down the solids as well as converts them into liquid or gaseous form. These microbes are known as coli-form that are present in the human waste. The tanks are buried underground and has an inlet opening as well as an outlet opening. The wastes which are discharged in the tanks would go through the inlet opening as well as be broken down by the anaerobic bacteria. The partially treated liquid will go through the outlet opening as well as would go to the drainfield. Before the installation of the tanks, one must be aware of types of septic tanks available which will be suited for one’s necessities. There are two kinds of tanks in general, the conventional and alternative. The kind of system which must be set up will depend on the site and soil conditions of the area.
In the conventional gravity system, it is is made up of network of drainfields that lie in gravity. Underneath the tanks, these trenches are fixed in the soil. The liquid passes in the drainfields by gravitational pressure. In this set-up, the drainfields must be underneath the outlet of the tanks. The measurement of the drainfields will depend on the volume of the inflow of sewage base on the use of water, the number of individuals and the soil condition.
The pressure distribution drainfields system is normally installed if the condition of the location doesn’t enable the drainfield to be set up underneath the tanks outlet. The tanks system design will be almost comparable to gravity drainfield, the only distinction is the usage of mechanical effluent pump. This pump is needed to pump the effluent from the pumping compartment to the drainfields.
The professional company could set up any type of septic tanks system depending on the location of the house, the available space and the kind of soil in the area. You must find a dependable company to install the right septic tanks in your location. You can locate many expert service provider firms that could set up the proper septic tanks system depending on the area and the type of soil. These companies can be found on the internet and you can select the right company that could set up the septic tanks system at a reasonable cost. You could ask the service providers all of your questions about the system and they could provide tips on the type of system that’s right …
How to Negotiate With Home Warranty Companies
After you have purchased a home warranty, at some point in the future, there is no doubt that you will file a claim with the company in question. Negotiating with the different companies can be a hassle, but most of the reputable ones will deal with you professionally, but the outcome concerning your claim may not make you happy. What I am talking about here is claim denial and this is where I am going to give you a few pointers.
One thing that you should remember is that any type of insurance company has to deal with a great deal of fraud, so they have many protections put in place to roadblock fraudulent claims or frivolous complaints. But these policies sometimes frustrate homeowners with legitimate claims.
Here is the first thing that you should remember.
When you call in to report your claim, you must remember that the person that you are talking to is just doing their job. You should make sure not to exaggerate your situation or have an unnecessary attitude with the representative. You will catch more flies with honey. Always remember that.
After you have calmly reported your claim, you need to consider the fine print on your policy. If your problem is due to neglect or improper installation, you may just be out of luck, but if you feel like your claim is legitimate and you feel like you are being dealt with unfairly or in an unprofessional manner, then you have another option that many people don’t think about.
If you purchased your home warranty at the closing of your new home, then you probably bought it from your real estate agent. And chances are, he or she has made a commission off of its sale. And that means that the real estate agent has a relationship with the company and you can use this to your advantage. Call them up and see if they can offer you some assistance. Mostly likely they will be a little reluctant but willing.…