Ten Carpet Facts Every Homeowner Should Know  There are a lot of flooring choices available, but none are quite so inviting and comfortable as carpet. If you care for it properly, your carpet can provide you with years of use and good looks— use these ten tips to give it the care and attention it deserves. Occasionally rearrange your furniture. It may seem inconvenient to do so, but it will keep people from walking the same path over and over again, which causes traffic wear on the carpet fibres. Take care of your other flooring. You may not have carpet in every room, and those floors need care as well. Use a broom for sweeping, and put throw rugs at all entrances so people have something on which to wipe their feet before entering your home.  Remove your shoes before coming in, and ask others to do the same. If you make this a habit, you'll be bringing far less dirt into your home and onto your carpet. Keep walkways outside your home clean. You might not think that sweeping … [Read more...]

DIY Floor Sanding If your wood floors have been covered by carpeting and you want to restore those floors the first step is to remove that old carpet. The next step is to start at one corner of the room and using pliers grab the edge of the carpet and begin pulling in an upwards direction. Pull up small portions of the carpet at a time and cut the carpet into lengthwise strips. After you have enough strips you can begin to roll them into a bale and tie the bale using twine or even duct tape. After you roll and tie each bail roll it out of the room. There will be parts of the floor that will have small nails sticking up. Usually the areas are all around the edge of the room so obviously the next step is to remove the nails either with pliers or a pry bar. Now you can begin sanding the floor. Remember that you will be spending a great deal of time and effort to restore the floor so be sure to use professional sanding equipment. If you have a small area to sand say less than 3 or 4 … [Read more...]

Black & Decker Power Tools Can Make Life Easier for the Do-It-Yourself Homeowner Black & Decker power tools can make life much easier when performing many of your do-it-yourself projects around the house. Having the right tools can mean the difference of having the ability to complete the project yourself, or creating a need to hire a professional service. As expensive as it has to hire a professional, you can buy a large quantity of professional power tools, and still save money, simply doing the project yourself. Letting the Tool Do the Work Even if you are not good with your hands, the right tools can often help you master many jobs, and get it done quicker and better. A quality circular saw can accurately cut lumber more efficiently and accurately than a hand saw. Cordless drills can easily be adjusted to lower the torque and driving speed to use it as a powerful screwdriver, or to quickly drive lags bolts deep into dense lumber. The effectiveness of a power tool … [Read more...]

  The Multi-Use Product: Olive Oil   Olive oil is a staple found in any kitchen for cooking purposes. However, many people don’t know the large range of uses for this “miracle” product for cleaning supplies or for daily use. Here’s five ways to use olive oil outside of the kitchen: Leather Maintenance: While this solution is highly debated, I still like to use a tad of olive oil as a quick fix for worn leather. Use a circular motion to rub a little bit of oil into the necessary spot and leave the olive oil to work on the leather for roughly thirty minutes. After simply wipe away with a cloth. Clean Pans: Olive oil mixtures can also work wonders in the kitchen, but no only for cooking. It can be used to clean or shine a variety of cooking pans such as stainless steel and cast-iron. Steel pans get their shine back relatively easily through a little elbow grease and buffing with olive oil. Cast-iron pans take a little more work, with a paste of olive oil, … [Read more...]