How To Use Hardwood Flooring To Bring Color Into Your Home

If you are sick of your carpeted or tiled floors, then it
is time to consider a kind of flooring that has been
bringing warmth and beauty into homes for centuries.  Wide
plank hardwood flooring brings an old-world charm into a
home, but it does not limit the house in that way.  Modern
homes look just as gorgeous with wide plank floorings as a
cottage full of antiques.

The beauty of wood floors is that they are both timeless
and stylish, adding a touch of class and a warm glow to any
room.  They are easy to dress up with an ornamental rug or
beautiful to show uncovered in all their glory.  There are
plenty of woods to choose from as well, which will help to
determine the width of the cut as well as the exact color
that you will get from the flooring.

For a warmer, almost golden glow, take a look at an Ash
floor.  If you want a more rich look, American Cherry
flooring is a warm reddish brown that will have you
admiring the floor for hours.  Birch is a very pale shade,
but has variations between light and slightly darker that
draw the eye.  If you want your floor to have a color all
its own, then check out a sample of Brazilian Cherry.  The
bright red of the tree is stunning to say the least.
Eastern Pine is a beautiful golden color that warms up a
room nicely, but for the real variations in the grain you
will want to take a look at Heart Pine.  The swirling of
the grain of this wood is breathtaking.  Hard Maple is a
pale shade that sets a wonderful stage for bold furniture
and décor, and would look lovely in a gallery style room.

Hickory looks wonderful with golden wood and darker knots,
and would fit in well with cabin style decor.  Red Oak has
a reddish tint to the rich wood, and is full of the
swirling of the grain.  Mahogany is a dark red color, and
is very consistent in the coloring.  Sassafras is a warm
color as well, showing an almost orange glow.  Soft Maple
is similar to the Hard Maple, but stains slightly better.
Walnut is a gorgeous reddish color that is marbleized
throughout, showing beautiful patterns.  White Oak is also
a warm golden color with lovely patterning to it.

There are lots of color choices in hardwood flooring.  To
find the right shade for your project, the best strategy is
to take a photo of your furniture to the flooring supplier.
See what works best with your kind of furniture. If
possible, get some samples of wood to take home. No matter
what style of house or apartment you are decorating,
hardwood floors will bring a timeless appeal and a new
richness of color to your surroundings.


----------------------------------------------------
Neil Street is publisher of
http://www.smallbusinessonline.net He wrote the current
article for his friends at Kellogg Hardwood Lumber,
http://www.kellogghardwoods.com who supplied the wood that
was the inspiration for this piece.

 

How to be Cost Effective When Buying a New Water Heater: Bottom Line, Save Money

The situation described in this article only relates to
tank-type water heaters.  Solar water heaters and tankless
water heaters do not apply to this information.

You can do many things to keep an old heater going and make
it last as long as possible.  You could buy a new tank with
the latest technologies. A new tank can be more effective
than sprucing up the old water heater.  Of course, simply
repairing an old water heater could be far cheaper than
doling out a lot more money for a new one.  Which to do?

It's best to find ways to save energy and money with
cheaper ideas like new low-flow showerheads, heat traps,
insulation, vent dampers, or a water heater blanket.  You
could also adjust your thermostat down as well which is
generally the cheapest way to save energy on a water
heater.  Ask a local plumbing service technician if having
these devices installed is practical for your situation.

Maintaining old equipment saves the cost of new equipment,
obviously.  If you can double or even triple the life of
your heater, you would save a bundle on not purchasing a
new heater.  The best thing to do is to perform money
saving activities on your water heater and then with the
saved money, you can upgrade to a new system.  Upgrading to
a new system such as a tankless system could save you even
more energy and money on you electrical bill or gas bill.
Also upgrading to an extremely efficient solar water
heating system could save you the energy and gas bill
almost completely, plus you'd receive a nice big tax credit
on your income tax for the year.

In order to figure out the cost of a new water heater
compared with keeping the old one we have to run the cost
cycle analysis.  A cost cycle consists of operating costs,
fuel costs, lifetime potential, inflationary costs and
purchase price.

To figure out the cost cycle you need the:

Purchase price
Cost of energy or your utility bill

The yearly energy cost to use the appliance which can be
found on the EnergyGuide label.  The energy guide label is
located directly on the water heater and is supposed to be
positioned so that it can be easily seen.  It's not
supposed to be facing the wall, but this does happen in the
installation infrequently.

The estimated life of the appliance.  For electric and gas
water heaters that should be on average 13 years.

A discount factor which is adjusted for inflation.  The
discount factor is 0.83 for both an electric and a gas
water heater.

The formula is as follows:  Purchase price + Yearly energy
cost + Estimated Lifetime x Discount number (0.83) = Cost
cycle

This information is provided by the ACEEE (American Council
for an Energy Efficient Economy)


----------------------------------------------------
Check out http://www.waterheater-info.com or contact
johnnyhayneser@gmail.com  for contact information on solar
water heaters (they're the ultimate in energy efficiency),
tankless water heaters (they save you money on your energy
bill), traditional tank-type water heaters (they're the
cheapest and easiest to install), water heater repair and
maintenance, brand information, warranty information and
which installer to hire.