Interior Design & Decorating Information

Turning Your Childs Room into a Mysterious Jungle


(When designing a child?s room, you want to create an atmosphere that inspires and stimulates them mentally. The room should be interesting to the child, and should reinforce both rational thinking, and creativity. One way to achieve this goal is with a fun science based theme, which will present a topic in the natural world in an exciting manner.)

The Benefits of Laminate Bamboo Flooring


Bamboo, a grass once conjuring up images of Pandas and rickety boats, is now being used to make quality wood floors in many North American homes. Bamboo laminate flooring is both an excellent building material and environmentally friendly; bamboo is easily renewable and matures in only five years. It is durable, strong, hard, and dimensionally stable.

How to Buy Discount Bamboo Flooring


Bamboo flooring is a relatively new alternative to standard hardwood floors. It offers similar and perhaps superior qualities of strength, hardness, and appearance. Using bamboo (which is actually a grass, not a tree), and modern processing, beautiful hardwood floors can be made that offer the added bonus of saving many of the exotic trees and forests that are cut down for standard hardwood floors. Typical bamboo flooring can cost around $6.25 per square foot, plus installation and preparation charges. The range is usually between $4 and $8 per square foot but there are wholesale bamboo flooring companies offering it as low as $2 or less per square foot.

How to Install Bamboo Flooring


Not just food for pandas or the stuff of cheap picnic mats, bamboo is now being processed with modern techniques into beautiful ?hardwood? flooring that beats standard wood floors in durability, hardness, and dimensional stability.

Finding a Bamboo Flooring Supplier


Bamboo, a type of grass that grows all over China and Southeast Asia, has become a fashionable, high-quality alternative to traditional hardwood floors. Bamboo?s 40-50 foot high stalks reach maturity in just five years and renew themselves naturally, making them a great alternative to cutting down trees that can take decades to reach maturity. Bamboo flooring has been shown to be just as hard, durable, and beautiful as standard hardwood floors, making them a great, environmentally friendly way to add beauty and value to your home.

An Introduction to Hardwood Floors


There?s good news about hardwood floors. Because of advanced construction and finish technologies, they are now more stable than they were in the past. There are three types of hardwood floors: engineered, longstrip, and solid. Within these basic types, there are many variations, so it is worth getting information about many products before determining which one is right for you.

Long-Strip and Engineered Hardwood Floors


Longstrip hardwood floors are wide and long, and each plank has 2 to 3 strips of thin hardwood. These planks can be floated, stapled and glued-down. The floors can be installed in all parts of the home and are made up of numerous wood plies that are glued together, using a tongue and groove connection made from soft core. The core is sandwiched between a hardwood finish layer on the top and soft wood ply below.

A Look at Solid Hardwood Floors


Solid hardwood floors should neither be installed over a concrete slab nor below ground level because of high moisture sensitivity. Unsightly gaps appear when moisture dries and the floors contract in the winter heating months. The floors expand and gaps disappear during summers. The wood planks may buckle or cup because of excessive moisture. In view of these facts, enough space should be left for expansion and wood should be acclimated. Nail-down installations are most appropriate for these floors. The possibility of re-coating and refinishing increases the life and appearance of solid hardwood floors. Generally solid hardwood floors are made up of ash, maple, red oak and white oak.

Refinishing Hardwood Floors


The quality of the wear layer determines frequency of refinishing of hardwood floors. Poor quality products can not withstand being refinished even once. The thicker the wear layer, the more refinishing it can withstand. Good quality engineered flooring can be refinished two or three times depending on subfloor?s smoothness and experience of refinisher.

How to Properly Clean Hardwood Floors


Good care and maintenance of a hardwood floor enhances its life and appearance. Solid hardwood floors can be easily cleaned, and a daily cleaning routine is a must in order to protect the floors from grit and dirt that are most damaging problems. They create scratches, dents and dulling in the smooth finish layer of the flooring. Floor mats help in protecting the smooth layer of flooring by trapping dirt. Do not allow water to collect on the floor, as it can warp. Neutral pH cleansers developed for wood floors should be used for best results. Do not drag furniture over these floors. Felt contacts for legs are a must to avoid scratches on the flooring. A vacuum with a brush attachment is the right choice for cleaning the floor. Exposing the floor to direct sun could cause discoloring. Use drapes, curtains, blinds to block direct sun light. Floors should be swept regularly, and dust mops are recommended for dust.

Installing Hardwood Floors


Hardwood floors can be secured using various installation methods such as floating, glue-down, nail-down, and staple-down. The ¾ inch solid floors can be nailed down. Adapters are used for thin flooring. The hardwood flooring can be stapled down over wood subfloor. The staple-down method is simpler than nail-down.

The Allure of Exotic Hardwood Floors


Exotic hardwood floors are made up of solid exotic wood that is not grown in North America. These wooden planks are imported from Africa, Australia, Brazil, and the Far East. They are known for distinct coloration and wood grain, and can be bought as solid hardwood plank or engineered wood construction.

The Benefits of Pre-finished Hardwood Floors


Pre-finished floors come with an extended factory finish warranty unlike unfinished floors. The heavy duty finishes are urethane-based. Within a few minutes, a number of urethane coatings can be applied on planks using ultra violet lights. However, you also have the option of unfinished hardwood flooring. The pre-finished hardwood floors have a definite advantage, as clean up and labor is not required and one can choose from a number of wood species. Unfinished floors need sanding and coating after they are secured while pre-finished floors do not.

Finding Cheap Hardwood Floors


A wide range of hardwood floorings are available in the market. While deciding the style and material for the flooring, take into account areas to be floored. You should know the size of the area in square feet, type of subfloor, your preference for pre-finished or unfinished flooring, stain color, whether you want to do it your self or hire a professional, the waste factors that depend on product type, and the room?s shape.

An Introduction to Air Purifiers


Air purifiers have been around in various forms since the 1940s, when the first HEPA filter was designed to protect workers from airborne nuclear material. Since then, air purifiers have been used in hospitals, work sites, and homes to protect against viruses, mold, bacteria, pollen, pet dander, tobacco smoke, dust mites, and a great number of industrial and household chemicals. The people who stand the most to gain from air purifiers are those with allergies, asthma, and other respiratory ailments.

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