How-To : Home Improvement

If your air conditioning is running flat out but your house still feels hot and stuffy perhaps you need to improve the air flow. A great way to move air around is by installing a ceiling fan so what should you consider before making your purchase.

Room size dictates the fan best suited but as a basic rule of thumb most rooms can accommodate a 50″ or 52″ size fan, consequently all manufacturers make their most popular styles in this size. Smaller and over sized fans can be found for special requirements.

The look of a fan is important but the most important factor when purchasing a ceiling fan is the size, power, and durability of the motor. A better quality motor costs more but will move more air without wobbling or noise and can safely be left running for days, weeks or even years without burning out.

5 factors that work together and determine how much air a ceiling fan will move

Blade Pitch

The pitch of the blade and the power of the motor must be well engineered so they can work together and create air movement without going beyond the motors capability, when a fan operates efficiently it will last a lifetime.

Blade Shape and Size

Even the most powerful ceiling fan motor cannot move the blades fast enough if the blades are too long or wide, larger is not always better but too small or narrow is also not good.

RPM

The best fans provide 6 speeds, low to high and many are reversible so that in the summer a ceiling fan can draw warm air up and away and in winter by reversing the fan blade direction can pull warm air from the ceiling down to the floor.

Height from Ceiling

Seven to eight feet from the floor gives the best ceiling fan airflow so you can appreciate the air movement and the ceiling fan can operate most efficiently. Ceiling hugger fans operate in rooms with less head height and would normally operate at slower speeds so as not to cause turbulence and fan wobble.

Motor
The most important factor is the motor, a strong precision made motor will move the most air without noise or wobble if the other 4 factors are present.

For top performance and durability it pays to buy the best you can afford, whilst cheaper ceiling fans may appear better value for money initially they often have to work harder to achieve the same affect and subsequently often don’t last as long.

Installing a ceiling fan can be normally be accomplished relatively easily following the provided instructions but if you don’t fancy the job a good handyman could install the fan for you in a couple of hours or less.

John Buckle has a keen interest in interior decoration and has developed a number of properties and offers ceiling fan design tips and advice at http://www.enmo.org/ceiling-fan/

[tags]ceiling fan,fan,ceiling fan motor,ceiling fan airflow,ceiling hugger fans[/tags]

Last week I told you how to measure your wood window openings to properly order your new vinyl replacement windows. This week I’m going to explain how to remove your old windows. The vast majority of wood sash double hung windows in America have the same specifications. Starting from inside the house and working out, you have a wood stop approximately 3/8″ X 3/8″. Then comes the lower sash (the sash is the piece of glass and surrounding wood frame). Then you have another wood stop (called a parting bead) between the lower sash and upper sash. This stop is approx. 1/4″ X 1/2″. Then you have the upper sash, and finally, the outside wood stop (called a blind stop) that is approx. 1/2″ X 3/4″.

Before beginning, be sure to wear safety glasses and gloves. The safety glasses will protect your eyes from debris, and the gloves help avoid splinters. The inside stop needs to be removed first. Try not to damage these,they will be re-installed after the replacement windows are put in. If you should happen to crack the old stops, you can take a piece to a hardware store or molding store to get replacement wood stops. If the stops have been painted to blend into the surrounding trim or wall, you need to put a flat screwdriver or putty knife into the indented area that separates the stop from the surrounding area. Drag the blade from top to bottom to chip away the paint. Then put a stiff blade putty knife into this seam and pry the stop away from the frame. Start in the middle of the stop where there is the most flexibility. Work the putty knife from the middle to the top, then from the middle to the bottom. The number of nails that were used to install the stop will determine how difficult removal will be. I have seen some stops that have just 3 nails, while others have had 6. Most of the time there will be stops around all four sides of the opening, but I have seen some openings that didn’t have a top stop, and others that had no bottom stop.

After the inside stops have been removed, you should be able to pull the lower sash out. If the windows were painted shut at some time, you might have to pry the area where the lock is located to separate the sashes. Now, once you get the lower sash out, it will still be attached to the cords that hold the window up when you raise it. Take a pair of tin snips and cut the cords while maintaining tension on them. The cords will recoil back into the assemblies. Take the lower sash and set it aside.

Next,we need to remove the middle stop, or parting bead. This piece is going to be thrown away, so you don’t have to be careful when removing this piece. The parting bead will be on top and along both sides. It’s never on the bottom. Take a screwdriver and tap it into the groove between the side frame and parting bead. Pry out. The bead is nailed into a recessed groove. When all of the parting bead is out, the upper sash will come out. If it’s painted to the outside stop, CAREFULLY pry the sash from the outside stop with a stiff putty knife. You want to avoid damaging the outside stop. Remove the upper sash the same way you did the lower sash, cutting the cords under tension.

At this point,you should have the inside stops removed and set aside to be installed later, both sashes removed, the middle stop or parting bead removed and discarded,and the outside blind stop left in place undisturbed. Check to make sure there are no obstructions in the opening such as nails,the metal tab at the bottom for holding in the old screen, etc. The final step is to take a stiff putty knife and scrape the inside face of the outside blind stops to get rid of any old caulking. This is the surface that the replacement windows are going to rest against, and we are going to want this area as smooth as possible. Clean up all loose debris from the opening, and you are now ready to install your replacement windows. That will be our topic for next weeks article…

John Rocco has been installing replacement windows since 1978. To learn more, visit How To Install Windows

[tags]vinyl windows, replacement windows, installing windows, how to install windows[/tags]

People acquire houses for some assorted reasons. Some grouping acquire houses to meliorate on the property, and intend a beatific convey on assets from it. Other grouping acquire concept to delude on. For some think they acquire a concern or property, they would same to wager their bag transformation value.

Estimating your bag transformation continuance is evenhandedly easy. Raising that continuance is foregather as cushy if you undergo what to do, and how to do it. The base conception of moulding is that the more money you place into your house, the more you crapper wait to intend discover of it. It doesn’t concern how bounteous the concern is, where it is located, or what information it is in, there are ever structure to process your bag transformation value.

It doesn’t hit to be grueling impact to process your bag transformation value. All that is necessary is a lowercase taste of planning, time, and money. To turn discover where your concern crapper meliorate you crapper set downbound with a enclosure and a warning of paper. On digit lateral of the warning of essay you crapper indite what your concern has, and then on the added lateral you crapper indite downbound what your concern doesn’t have. For example, on the “house has” lateral of the paper, you crapper write: Two Bedrooms, One Bath, and Basement. You crapper modify in what your concern doesn’t have, and what you would same your concern to hit in the “house doesn’t have” side. Realistically, you module not be healthy to rank every of the things on your list.

In today’s gild grouping wait a destined verify of living. Some grouping won’t modify study hunting at a concern if it didn’t foregather their standards. Things you crapper add that module process your bag transformation continuance are things same en flat bathrooms and player bathrooms, or half baths. Making an en flat shack crapper be as ultimate as adding a entranceway between the shack and the room. Just adding a entranceway crapper process your concept continuance by a lot.

Adding added shack crapper be foregather as easy, and you don’t hit to verify a mortgage to intend it done. If you hit a closet or stowage that is bounteous sufficiency to stop a commode and sink, then you crapper move from there. This is foregather added ultimate artefact to process your concept value.

Adding an player bottom room, or garage crapper also process your bag continuance unbelievably. But if this every seems a lowercase discover of toll range, a newborn cover of paint, newborn flooring, or newborn cabinets crapper also process your bag transformation value. If you follow to albescent with your bathrooms and kitchen it module ready things opinion firm and bigger. Also, albescent is a equal colouration and module attractiveness to most buyers.

If you advert the base conception that finance a diminutive turn into your bag today could process your bag transformation continuance by a goodish turn in the future, you are trusty to do foregather fine. Keep things equal and fresh. Remember your imagine bag and essay to attain it as such as you can, and check your bag transformation continuance climb!

Home Improvement and Repair Information, Advice and Articles at http://homeimprovement.atmyhouse.net/

[tags]home improvement, redecorating, adding on, building, remodeling, house, concept value[/tags]