July 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Bathroom & Tubs,
Home Care,
Home Improvement
One of the most common household plumbing projects is replacing a water heater. Many potential dangers can result from improper water heater installation. Be sure to check your local codes. Use only the procedures and materials your code allows.
For a gas heater, install the heater’s new draft hood.It’s a good idea to use new vent pipe elbows, since the old ones are probably corroded at their present angles. The vent should go straight up as far as possible.Connect the vent pipe with short sheet metal screws. Now you can make the hot and cold water connections.The water piping is handled depending on whether your house has threaded metal, sweat-soldered copper, or thermoplastic piping, and whether the piping is 3/4″ or 1/2″.For threaded pipe, you should have a union on both the hot and cold water lines. Old unions should be replaced.Allow for the distance the pipe threads into the fittings.
July 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Home Care,
Home Decor,
Home Improvement,
Interiors & Exteriors
An affordable way to give your room an instant redecoration is by installing roller shades. But aside from giving your room a new look, this type of window shades provides functionality. It’s no wonder why many homeowners are ditching drapes and curtains over these smart fixtures.
Most shades are made from sheets of fabric. No matter what look you wish to give your window or room, such can be easily achieved by getting the right shades. There are those that come in solid colors, which look great alone or together with curtains.It’s not only on the way this type of window shades look you should consider. While mostly out of fabric or vinyl, each one of them provides different purposes. Sheer or opaque ones enable you to maximize natural lighting.
When it comes to operating roller shades, you may choose based on your personal preferences. Usually, tugging a string draws them up and down.
Laminate Flooring is a wonderful alternative for someone who is looking at updating the flooring of their house with an attractive, cost effective flooring solution and has several other benefits. Laminate flooring is cheaper than many other flooring options. Other options include genuine wood flooring, carpet, ceramic tiles and vinyl.
Because laminate flooring uses a photograph of the wood it is emulating, your flooring can appear to be any type of wood.Laminate flooring is made from several layers including MDF or plywood. These layers have been pressed and bonded together increasing the overall strength of the laminate flooring. It therefore resists scuffing, marking and general damage.
You can install laminate flooring yourself without too much trouble. It takes about a day to install a laminate floor in a standard size living room.Laminate flooring is easy to clean. Just a quick run over with the vacuum cleaner will do the job.
July 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Floors & Ceilings,
Home Care,
Home Improvement
Stone flooring is an excellent choice for some situations. It’s durable so good for entryways and bathrooms. It makes a great solar mass so is good for passive solar homes as heat storage. It’s elegant so wonderful for living rooms or great rooms.
The material is a natural looking element that has been used in homes for hundreds of years. The most obvious advantage of this type of flooring is the beauty and design that it offers. The major disadvantage to it is that natural stone flooring can be quite expensive. But, there are many ways around that. If you are considering the purchase of stone flooring for your home or business, insure that you realize the many ways in which you can purchase it.
Natural stone flooring, faux stone vinyl flooring, stone laminate flooring, and the new plastic flooring that looks like stone are options you can choose from to create the look you want.
July 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Floors & Ceilings,
Home Care,
Home Decor,
Home Improvement
More and more businesses and homeowners seeking a unique, environmentally conscious look for their surroundings are turning to cork flooring. Cork improves air quality, since it cannot absorb or release dust into the air. Cork “bounces back” – increasing comfort and reducing fatigue. And, cork is environmentally friendly. Cork is a unique natural product with characteristics unmatched by any other material. The bark consists of two hundred million closed air cells per cubic inch. These cells give cork resilience, durability, moisture resistance, and thermal and acoustic insulation.
Another common natural flooring is bamboo flooring. Bamboo is strong and flexible and lasts as long as most hardwoods, if not longer. Bamboo can withstand as many pounds per square inch as medium grade steel. It is naturally repellent to certain insects and bugs and is able to resist moisture. It does not shrink or swell as much as other commonly used woods for flooring, resulting in less holes or gaps in the floor. It is excellent to use in kitchens or baths.
July 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Home Care,
Home Decor,
Home Improvement
The secret to great landscaping and deck designing is to combine good planning and design before you begin. Imagine if you could show a prospective customer a picture of their dream deck before they saw the price. Not a drawing or sketch – a realistic, 3-dimensional image that they can look at from any angle. As they look over the deck and immerse themselves in their new outdoor space, they begin planning parties and visualizing themselves enjoying this new addition.
These days different types of deck design software are available so that you can have a look at what your future deck is going to look like. Some of these common software are Simpson Strong-Tie® DeckTools® deck design software, MTG Studio and lots more which you can buy easily on the internet. You can also ask your decorator to show you your future deck with the help of deck design software.
Comfortable flooring is probably the most understated factor in home design. Most people think of their floors mostly as a structural or decorative element, but don’t really consider flooring comfort. But if you think about it, your flooring plays a vital role in the way your home feels on a daily basis. You make more contact with it than any other surface around the house, and it absorbs much of the impact from your day-to-day activities. That’s why it’s important to invest in comfort as well as style when it comes to floors.
There is a lot you can choose form, for example, carpets, area rugs, rubber flooring, heated floors, and much more. It’s just a matter of knowing what you want out of your floor and finding one that delivers. Other types of flooring options are flooring tiles, linoleum flooring,marble flooring, laminate flooring, wood flooring, vinyl flooring, bamboo flooring,etc.
July 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Carpets & Rugs,
Home Care,
Home Decor,
Home Improvement
Carpet tiles allow you to mix and match designs and colors according to your tastes and your individual room requirements. The added flexibility of removing a single tile for cleaning, replacement or redesign makes using tiles rather than traditional carpeting a favorite design choice.Carpet tiles allow for more versatility in both design and function than traditional carpeting rolls. If you move, you can pick up your carpet tiles and take them with you.
Carpet tiles come in many colors and patterns. One popular brand of carpet tiles, Flor, offers stripes, wood tones, animal prints, florals and more. However, carpet tiles give you the power to make your own patterns. If you buy tiles in two contrasting colors, you can lay them in a checkerboard pattern. Like more colors? Lay them in stripes. You can even take striped carpet tiles and lay them in a parquet pattern to spice up a space.
June 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Home Care,
Home Improvement
Are you looking for good cleaning products that will not only be effective in your cleaning but also very friendly on the environment? Then the DIY Green Cleaning Solutions is the best way to go.
These are products that are usually made from other products that are founding your house. They may consist of products such as vinegar, baking powder, furniture polish and green bleach.
These products can be used in many areas of the house. They have proven to be very effective among those who have been using them for sometime now and have rare or no side effects. These products can be used to clean even the toughest of stains and still be gentle on your hands and also the environment.
So, next time you think of cleaning some of that hard to remove stain on your floor or fabric, you might want try some of these products.
June 07, 2010 // Posted by: qwcdirect // Category:
Home Care,
Home Decor,
Home Improvement,
Interiors & Exteriors
Laminate flooring has become really popular among many home owners. This is because not only are they long lasting yet cheap to install but will also leave your house looking elegant and welcoming the minute you are through.
There are many advantages to using this type of flooring. One of them is the fact that they are really low maintenance and will give you a really good experience. This and the fact that they are stain resistant make it all nice to hear.
Another advantage to all this is the fact that they are fade resistant. This means that when we talk of it being long lasting; means that they retain their glow for a really long time.
They are also used by many because you can actually install them on top of already existing floors. This makes the whole process of installing them is easy and one can even do it on their own.