Air Purifier Review

Air Purifier Review
by: Jason Uvios

These days air purifiers are fast becoming a device that you need to have in your home to ensure living a healthy life. In their ability to purify the air of dust, pollens, animal dander, mold spores, smoke, allergens and microorganisms they are immensely beneficial in reducing symptoms of allergy and alleviating conditions of asthma.

These days there are literally hundreds of models of air purifiers available from different manufacturers. And as the saying goes, the more the choices that harder it is to choose. The best option would be to go through a few reviews before you settle for a particular model. That way you will be able to get the best purifier that suits your needs and inputs from experts who know what actually makes a good air purifier. There are quite a few reviews available on the internet going through which will help you in taking a decision.

Only trust those reviews that list both the pros and the cons of each of the models. They shouldn’t be promoting one purifier while trashing the others. In such a case, the reviews have to be biased.

Of the various air purifiers available today in the market we here have selected a few to give you a review of the most popular air purifiers. We will be reviewing Oreck Super Air 8, Sharper Image Ionic Breeze GP, Friedrich C-90A, and Blueair 601.

Oreck Super Air 8 is overall a pretty decent model with little noise, efficient cleaning and a good capacity. So it can effectively clean a large area and is relatively inexpensive. It also has a pretty strong warranty.

Sharper Image Ionic Breeze GP comes with an additional UV lamp which helps to tackle the problem of germs. Being an ionic purifier it is relatively quieter, and it also comes with a five year warranty. The Sharper Image Ionic Breeze GP has been approved by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America to be specially effective against airborne allergens and irritants including dust mite allergen, pet dander and cigarette smoke.

Friedrich C-90A is effective as far as cleaning and efficiency goes. However, it can appear to be a bit noisy for some people and is also a bit on the expensive side.

Blueair 601 is particularly effective against odors and gases with activated carbon filters inside it. It is also easier on our pocket and comes with a 10 year warranty.

About The Author
Jason Uvios writes about on Air Purifier Review to visit :- Air Purity Always, Air Purity Always, Crisp Air Purity

Natural Stone Flooring

Natural Stone Flooring
by: Sammer Hakim

Five Handy Flooring Design Tips

Here are a few handy flooring tips to really beautify a room:

Tip #1: If you're laying tile flooring and want to make the room look bigger, use larger sized tiles (18 x 18 or larger) and lay them on a 45 degree angle (diamond pattern). What this does is draw your eye to the two widest points of each tile, giving your flooring the illusion of a larger space. And the larger sized tiles have less grout lines to look at so your flooring doesn't look as 'busy' across your a larger area as say a 12 x 12 would.

Just keep in mind installing tile on a 45 uses more tile because there are more cuts to be made.

Tip #2: If you want a clean, contemporary look, ask your installer to use the narrowest grout lines possible, either a 1/8 or 3/16 and for natural stone 1/16. Larger grout lines give a more rustic, earthy look. And higher gloss (polished) tiles are contemporary whereas heavily grooved and rough give an aged, worn look.

Tip #3: To give your flooring another illusionary trick, lighter colors give the room a more spacious feel while darker colors give it a cozier, smaller feel.

Tip #4: There are many flooring patterns available so don't hesitate to use them! Too many shoppers I met would obsess over what flooring everyone else is doing. This is your home, not anyone else's and you should get the floor that makes you happy. Don't be afraid of not looking like everyone else. That's the whole point! if you want to differentiate a room, then lay different flooring.

Tip #5: I'm a big fan of using matching or contrasting inserts to transform the flooring into a masterpiece. But not many really can create a room. You know, these deco pieces, listellos and natural stone inserts may cost you a couple hundred dollars all up but they give your room an unsurpassed look. Now I strongly recommend when doing these special flooring designs to only hire a certified flooring installer.

DON'T TRY and do them yourself unless you really know what you're doing. I've seen it too many times.

For example, for every insert, you need to make 4 cuts, one for each connecting tile. These cuts need to be pretty much right on, otherwise any unevenness will flash at you right away once its installed. And if you insist on doing it yourself, just remember two very important words: wet saw and diamond blade!

For more tips, please see Flooring Decorating & Shopping Tips

About The Author
Sammer Hakim worked in the US retail flooring industry for several years. He shares his money saving flooring tips and advice at his site Flooring Secrets.

Home Improvements. Loans and Credit Ratings

You may have plan to renovate your home to make it nicer, more comfortable or to have more space. Such things involve having the funds to do it, and sometimes, that may mean having to apply for a loan. Whenever you apply for a loan, the lender will normally do a credit check on you. And if you don't have a good enough credit rating, your application for a loan may be rejected or you may be offered a loan less than what you need, or it may be offered with an interest rate that is higher than what you are comfortable with.

If this is the case, perhaps there is a way out because Seasoned Credit claim that they have a way of repairing your credit rating. Seasoned Credit says there are 5 major factors which determine your credit score, namely payment history, amount owed, length of credit history, credit history and type of credit. You can check here for their complete program overview

You can find out more about how Seasoned Credit can help repair your credit rating by entering your first name, your email address and your phone number.

Got the Baquacil Blues?

Got the Baquacil Blues?
by: Rob "Dr. Duck" Coxworth

The easy way to change back to chlorine in your pool.

Baquacil was a huge hit when introduced to the pool market in the late 1980's. While pricey, it gave pool owners the convenience and confidence of a "cook book" solution to the hit or miss job of pool care. If you followed the Baquacil recipe your time invested in keeping your pool water clean and ready was drastically reduced and water quality was rarely a problem. Sound too good to be true?

After a time word began to circulate that it was too good to be true. Too often after two or three years of using the product not only did water quality decline but some weird and unusual infestations took hold in pools on the Baquacil program. Don't misunderstand, Baquacil is safe and has all the proper approvals but as with other sanitizing systems things can go wrong. Unfortunately with the Baquacil system putting things right again usually involves draining the pool and starting fresh.

If this has happened to you and you've decided you want to switch back to good ole chlorine here's the simplest recipe I know to do it.

1. Shut off your pump and shock your pool with 2 lbs. of granular dichlor per 10,000 gallons. Prepare for a jolt because the pool will almost instantly develop a heavy and unsightly surface scum. This is supposed to happen.

2. Let the scum sit overnight. Next day the scum should be sitting on the bottom of the pool in a fine layer. At this point turn on your pump and set the filter to waste and vacuum the scum out of the pool. You will lose some water during this process.

3. Shut down the pump again and test your water with the Baquacil test kit. If it shows Baquacil still present shock the pool again as in step 1 but use 1 lb dichlor per 10,000 gallons. The scum may reappear but should be much lighter and easier to remove. Let the pool sit overnight, vacuum and retest.

4. If your test kit shows no Baquacil present you can refill the pool and restart on a chlorine program right away.

This program is virtually foolproof and is what the pool chemical manufacturers actually recommend. Instead of having your pool drained and out of service, not to mention the expense of refilling, you're up and swimming again in a couple of days.

VITALLY IMPORTANT-Never vacuum the scum into your filter or you will have to change your sand or replace your cartridge. Always vacuume to waste during this process. Baquacil is NOT compatible with chlorine products (that's why it scums up) and is extremely difficult to remove once introduced into a filter.

Rob "Dr. Duck" Coxworth
WebFoot Leisure

About The Author
Mr. Rob Coxworth is a swimming pool industry veteran having held positions as CEO, Sales Manager and Independent rep for various firms. He currently operates Webfoot Leisure.com, a retail site selling pools, supplies and accessories.

Green Glue Instead Of Insulation For Soundproofing

Green Glue Instead Of Insulation For Soundproofing
by: Robert W. Orther

Old School soundproofing still believes that batt insulation is a good soundproofing agent. There are some good sound batt insulations out there such as Roxul AFB and Bonded logic’s bonded cotton insulation and they work well for both soundproofing and thermal protection, however no batt insulation is strong enough to stand alone as the sole soundproofing material in a wall ceiling or floor assembly.

If you can afford a good batt insulation I always encourage it, but if you are soundproofing as ceiling and are not really concerned about the thermal aspects of the ceiling then I feel adding drywall pieces cut to fit perfectly into the joist cavities and screwed to the sub floor above would be much more effective than any batt insulation. Now to super charge this application I recommend that before you screw the pieces of drywall to the sub floor you apply Green Glue sound dampening compound to the back of the drywall pieces prior to screwing them to the bottom of the sub floor.

Green Glue is a visco elastic damping compound that is taking the soundproofing industry by storm. It comes in caulk tubes and is applied using a large quart size caulk gun. Basically you would cut the pieces of drywall to fit snuggly between the joist cavities. You would the liberally apply the Green Glue to the backside of the cut drywall and then screw it to the bottom of the sub floor. The Green Glue will be sandwiched between the drywall and the bottom of the sub floor. The tighter you screw the drywall down, the better the soundproofing will be. In essence, the pieces of drywall sporting the Green Glue in their backsides with become a most effective sound dampening system that will dampen the impact noise from above long before it is able to be transmitted into the joists and ultimately into the ceiling below. Now, is more better in this case? Absolutely, if you are able to double or triple the Green Glued layer of drywall you will indeed increase the dampening ability of the drywall and the sub floor and add greatly to the soundproofing endeavor.

Once you have installed your layers of Green Glued drywall pieces into the joist cavities, now would be a good time to install your sound or thermal batt insulation.

Now for our finished drywall ceiling, I recommend that we spend the money for 2 layers of 5/8” drywall. You will screw in your first layer of drywall directly to the ceiling joists. Now your second layer will be installed directly over top of the first layer however, you guessed it, I recommend that you apply 3 tubes of Green Glue to each 4’ X 8’ sheet of drywall that you put up. Once you have finished with the double drywall using the Green Glue, you should immediately detect a lack of annoying noise coming from the people above. You have soundproofed your ceiling and your neighbors don’t even have a clue that there was a problem there. How awesome is that? Read more about Green Glue and soundproofing walls, ceilings and floors in subsequent articles, for now this is Dr. Bob….Out!!!

About The Author
Robert W. Orther
Dr. Bob O.
Soundproofing America, Inc.
Senior Technical Director
Soundproofing Expert to The New York Times, The San Francisco Herald Examiner,
The San Diego Union Tribune, and the Charlotte Observer
Ph (877) 530-0139 Toll free Fax (347) 721-9079
E-mail: Dr.bob@soundproofingamerica.com
Website: Soundprofing America

Fire Blanket Safety in the Home

Fire Blanket Safety in the Home
by: Mark Fynn

While many of those employed in the emergency services can see the importance of having a fire blanket in the home the same cannot be said for the general public. It is an unfortunate fact most people either ignore the dangers associated with home fires or they just do not realize the dangers that exist.

Most house fires start in the kitchen which accounts for almost 28 percent of all fires in the home. This is a very high number and most fires in the kitchen are caused by either a lack of concentration or because the person was interrupted by an unexpected occurrence. This could be something simple such as the telephone ringing, a caller at the door or maybe one of your children needs your immediate attention.

One of the main causes of fire in the kitchen is when dealing with very hot oil. If not monitored it can reach such high temperatures as to catch alight in an instant. When this happens instant panic will set-in as you try to find a very quick solution while under intense stress and trauma. Most people would dampen a towel under the tap and throw the soaking material over the flames. Smothering the fire does work because it starves the flames of the oxygen they need. But using a small towel to do it causes more danger.

Many people who have tried this method have the burn scars to prove it. The problem is that you feel you have to get very close to the fire to douse the flames. If you miss you may not get a second chance so you get as close as you can get. This is where the severe burning takes place. It may not be the actual flames that cause the skin damage, it could be just the intense heat. Other people have been burned because they may have missed the target and try to retrieve the cloth to try again. This time you may have a partly burning cloth to contend with as well as a fire that is on the verge of getting out of control.

Fire blankets are recommended by all the emergency services and people involved in health and safety. They immediately know the safety benefits that fire blankets can bring when used correctly. They should be made easily accessible near an exit doorway. Never hide them away in draws or cupboards and expect to find them easily when a fire takes hold. Placing them near to an exit ensures that you have away out should the fire blanket not be enough or if things go wrong.

Fire blankets are also ideal for covering someone who has actually caught fire and can also be worn over the head if you need to pass an area that is on fire or where extreme temperatures are causing difficulty. Protecting the vital organs is the most important factor when you are confronted with fire.

Fire blankets can be purchased in many DIY stores and hardware shops and the costs varies with the type and size you need. Many of the fire blankets can be reusable after washing though you will need to check the supporting documents for confirmation of this.

Every home should have a fire blanket located in the kitchen or where cooking takes place. When you consider the minimal cost to purchase one against the protection they provide for your home, your personal effects and of course your loved ones they will be one of the best investments you can ever make.

About The Author
Mark Fynn writes many articles for specialist web sites and you can find more information about fire blankets here Fire Blankets.

Fireplace Mantel Trends

Fireplace Mantel Trends
by: Sam Wilhoit

Fireplace mantels are no longer permanent, immovable wood surfaces. With today’s newer manufacturing processes, fireplace mantels have now become fixtures homeowners can use to update, redecorate or define a rooms look and feel.

Fireplace Mantel Focal Point

If you’re considering replacing your fireplace mantel, Georgia fireplace mantel manufacturer Park Pigott suggests first re-thinking your mantel’s importance. “Number one, a mantel is a piece of furniture. It just happens to go around a fireplace,” Pigott says. “A fireplace with a mantel should be a focal point of a room. When you walk in you should be able to say, ‘Wow, isn’t that lovely!’”

Size up your current fireplace mantel. If you have a newer home, chances are it isn’t really even a fireplace mantel at all. “A builder’s idea of a fireplace mantel is a couple of 1 x 4s on the sides, a 2 x 6 on top and couple of nails,” Pigott says.

If you have that kind of structure, don’t fret. It just means the slim boards are that much easier to remove. If it’s a substantial fireplace mantel that just isn’t eye-catching, examine the installation. You’re likely to find you won’t need a contractor to remove and replace it. And since sites like http://Brick-Anew.com offer manufacturing and shipping on fireplace mantels—something that used to be unheard of—it’s easier than ever to side-step that contractor and select a brand-new fireplace mantel on the Internet.

Fireplace Mantel Trends

So what kinds of fireplace mantels are homeowners clamoring for today? It turns out that ornate, even Victorian, fireplace mantels have reclaimed their throne in American living rooms. Pigott says tiger oak, mahogany and cherry are the most popular woods used to create those ornate mantels.

“People want big mantels, like those you found in the 1880s—grand, palatial mantels with mirrors and columns,” Pigott says, adding traditional styles don’t have to contrast with modern fixtures. “You can hide a flat-screen TV behind a mirror on your mantel.”

Economy Fireplace Mantels

If you want traditional style but have a more modern budget, recent manufacturing technology has created an array of MDF, or presswood, fireplace mantels. Easy to install and costing hundreds less, economy fireplace mantels can be dressed up with fireplace screens and tool sets in stunning finishes that offset the mantel’s paint, which is applied in the absence of real wood grain.

Custom Fireplace Mantels

If you want to decide the style, scope and cost of your fireplace mantel, a custom fireplace mantel may be the answer. Previously, homeowners were restricted by the material available at local lumberyards and the cost of carpenters. Now, it’s easy to measure your fireplace, decide on the building material, choose your style and e-mail in a request for an estimate. When your custom fireplace mantel arrives, it’s easy to install as a do-it-yourself project, or hire a local handyman for the job. Custom mantels are so simple to order and install that Pigott says 50 percent of all of his orders are for custom mantels.

With more and more homeowners defining fireplace mantels as major décor pieces, it’s helpful to know that factory-direct accessibility in today’s fireplace mantel industry makes it easier to afford premium fireplace mantels. At Brick-Anew, we’ve been drawing families around beautifully remodeled fireplaces for years. And with our complete line of every kind of fireplace mantel imaginable available on our Web site, your new family gathering space is just a click away. Choose from hand-hewn or manufactured, finished or unfinished, beautiful Asian choi wood or MDF—you’ll find every style fireplace mantel, for every budget.

About The Author
By Sam Wilhoit of Brick Anew provider of fireplace glass doors: Fireplace Glass Doors, Brick-Anew has been a providor of fireplace paint & accessories since 1997. Please link to Brick Anew when using this article.