Rubber Floor Mats Do More Than Just Keep Your House Clean

Do you ever notice the rubber floor mat by your front door? If you are like most people, you probably do not even remember all the times that you've used a rubberized floor mat in your life in order to clean off your feet. Many people do not appreciate the wonderful ability that rubber-floor-mats have to help keep your house clean.

The majority of rubber-floor mats are relatively inexpensive and do a great job at keeping homes clean, businesses clean, and are able to minimize the amount of dirt and other substances that get tracked into a building. It has become very popular for most people to have some kind of rubber floor "welcome" mat outside of their front door. This is because seeing a rubber-floor-mat encourages people to wipe the dust and grime from the bottoms of their shoes before entering your home.

Businesses make use of industrial-sized rubber-floor mats for the same purpose: To keep the workplace flooring clean of all debris. Most blue-collar jobs that require a lot of physical labor actually mandate that rubber floor mats be placed throughout the building in order to help keep their workers safe. If you ever inspected the work area of most fast-food restaurants, you would have noticed that there are plenty of rubber floor mats. The reason that rubber-floor mats are used by most fast-food restaurants is to ensure the safety of their workers.

Often times people will have a rubber-floor mat in their kitchen area in order to ensure stability. You surely do not want to slip in your kitchen while carrying a hot dish or pan of food. Therefore, in order to help prevent yourself from slipping up, it is recommended to lay down some rubber flooring. Not only does a rubber floor mat provide good accident-prevention in the kitchen and help keep work-spaces clean of debris, but it also has the ability to help you from getting your car dirty.

If you have ever taken the time to look down at the flooring of your vehicle, chances are that you quickly were able to notice the rubberized floor mat near the driver's side, as well as in the co-captain seat. The reason that automotive manufacturers give you a vehicle with multiple rubber-floor mats inside is because they want you keep the inside of your car clean. Having high-quality rubber floor mats added to your car can really help maintain your vehicle and prevent dirt granules, pebbles, and mud from ruining the interior of your carpeting.

There are certain types of rubber-floor mats that are more effective at trapping dirt than others, so it is recommended that you look into buying the most effective and durable floor mats for your home, business, and vehicles. Since rubber floor mats are very low-cost, you can buy a lot of good quality ones for a fairly low price. Do some internet research and read up on the latest reviews in order to find a rubber floor mat to best suit your needs.

Hampton teaches people how to buy a good-quality rubber floor mat and also what they should know about rubber matting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hampton_Jackson

Tags: Clean, House, Rubber

Seven Steps to Installing Hardwood Laminate Flooring

Once you have all your tools, acclimatized your bamboo hardwood laminate flooring boards and have a perfectly level sub floor, you are ready to start installing your laminate floor. The main seven steps to doing this are:

1. Determine what direction the laminate boards will lay. Usually if there is a great deal of light coming from outside through a door or window, the planks lay in a direction away from the light.

2. The first board laid with one end against a wall and one side against an adjacent wall. Place plastic spacers that come with the boards between the board and the walls. When finished laying the bamboo laminate flooring, these will be removed and the space will give the flooring room to expand if necessary.

3. Fit the end of a second board into the the end of the first board, again placing spacers between it's side and the wall. Use the hammering tool you will have received with the boards to lightly hammer each board into the next. Continue to do this until there is not enough room to place a board between the end of the last board and the approaching wall. Measure the distance between the end of the last board and the approaching wall and cut a board to this length (less the size of a spacer). Then place this cut down board into the end of the last board laid and place spacers at the end of the newly laid board and between it and the wall. There's your first row laid.

4. Use the off cut from the last bamboo laminate board as the first board of the next row, if the off cut is long enough. If it is not long enough, then start the second row with a standard board beginning from the end that you finished the first row with. The aim here is to have the ends of the boards in each row staggered so that they do not line up.

5. Use aluminium mouldings to finish off boards that end in a doorway leading outside or into another room that has a different floor covering. These can usually be bought at your bamboo hardwood laminate flooring retailer. Similarly, you can use moulding to connect laminate flooring in doorways between rooms where both rooms have laminate flooring. Alternatively, you can continue the same boards from one room into another but this can be tricky. Sometimes it requires shaving down the tongue in a tongue and groove system so that a board on one side of the door will easily slide straight into a board on the other side. Note that the only way to do this is to have both boards running along the doorway, not through it.

6. Continue with this until the entire floor has been covered with bamboo hardwood laminate boards. Then remove the spacers.

7. If you already have skirting boards and the flooring has been laid up to them, then you will use moulding to cover the gap between the flooring and the skirting boards. Otherwise if the flooring has been laid up to the bottom of the walls, then you will now install skirting boards to cover the gap.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this article. Bamboo has headed up 6 household renovations over several years. Read more about Bamboo's building and do it yourself experiences, particularly in the area of bamboo hardwood laminate flooring.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Peter

Tags: Installing, Hardwood, Laminate, Flooring

'Radiant Heat' Floor Heating

A warm and comfortable home is what most families dream of having. Comfort is a priority of many homeowners during all types of weather, be it hot or cold. When winter season comes, getting the right warmth for the family is of utmost importance. And how do you achieve this? By using the radiant heat floor heating system.

The use of radiant heating goes back to the Roman period. Today, this is a popular source of heat for many homes. Home heating systems that use radiant heat come in different types - underfloor heating systems, wall heating systems, radiant ceiling or overhead panels and overhead gas fired radiant heaters. Among the four, the underfloor and wall heating systems are the most common.

Underfloor heating systems can either be electric or hydronic. In other words, they can produce heat through the use of electricity or hot water. This type of heating system normally involves the installation of tubes or electric heating elements underneath the floor area or the concrete slab. The floor, in this case, acts as a radiator of heat in the entire house.

There are two options when choosing the electric radiant floor heating type of system. For newly constructed homes, the electrical heating wiring can be installed before the concrete slab is poured. For homes with existing concrete floor, very thin electric heating mats are available that can be embedded in thin cement or gypsum overlays without the need to increase the floor height. Cost-wise, the electric radiant heating system can be expensive. It is only when thermal mass or the availability of time-of-use rates can this be considered cost effective.

The other type of radiant heat floor heating is the liquid based or hydronic system. This uses hot water the reason for its name. In this heating system, tubes are buried beneath the floor and it is here where hot water is circulated to provide heat to the home. A boiler is responsible for heating the water and this can be run by electricity or any other fuel. Energy sources that can be used with this type include the standard gas-fired boilers, wood-fired boilers, solar water heaters or a combination of these sources.

The benefits of using the radiant floor heating system are many. First off, it provides a consistent level of heat in the home that is easy to control. Secondly, no noise is emitted because of the absence of a fan. Thirdly, the system does not produce dust or allergens that can cause allergies to people occupying the house. This is because there's no air that circulates inside the home through the vents. What happens instead is convection or the natural circulation of heat as warm air rises from the floor.

The best part of this heating type is its energy efficiency. Compared to a forced air system, this system consumes less energy which translates to lower electricity bills for your family. If you live in areas near the power grid or where electricity rates are high, this could be a major advantage.

This article is brought to you by Gloria Smith of RadiantFloorHeatingInfo.com Help save energy cost with Radiant Floor Heating. Learn more about the simply way it works by visiting our website: http://www.RadiantFloorHeatingInfo.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gloria_Smith

Tags: Floor, Heating, system, electric

Floating Hardwood Floors Can Save You Time and Money

When you are looking to save both time and money for a hardwood floor, choosing floating hardwood floors is something that you may want to consider. You will find that you can find them in just about every variety that is available for standard floors and that depending upon where they are getting installed, they are actually the wiser choice.

Engineered flooring is something that a lot of DIY installers are using. You avoid the time consuming detail work of staining and finishing and they are often much easier to put down. These styles of floors are constructed over several layers with the top layer being a thin sample of the wood of your choice.

When you are looking at the different types of floating hardwood floors, you will see that there are basically three different styles that you will have to choose from. Something that is very popular is the two strip design because it gives the appearance of boards that are lying side by side. In contrast, you have a one strip design that has more of a plank look.

A very big concern when you put down hardwood flooring is how it is going to react to the change in climates throughout the year. Wood will naturally retract as the conditions become dry and will then re-expand as moisture is introduced back into the air.

When you use standard hardwood floors, it is generally attached to a sub floor that is made of plywood. As the conditions change, the floor shifts and is actually fighting against this sub floor and separation is not uncommon. You may also see warping or bubbling of the floor. With floating hardwood floors, the whole unit is moving together and this means that the wood can sustain itself much better under these conditions.

We had briefly touched on the sub floor that has to be put down on a standard floor. This of course means more work for you as you have to not only put down the hardwood floor, but also have to measure, cut and install the sub floor. In many cases, floating hardwood floors can be put down directly over any surface, including concrete and tile.

While you will have just about every wood type imaginable to choose from, there are two styles of fabrication that are separated by both quality and price. One style is actually cut with a large blade that basically peels the wood from the source. You will see a wide grain and it will be much less expensive. For a truer look, choose a sliced cut floating floor that has a tighter grain and a truer likeness to regular hardwood flooring.

If all of this has not yet convinced you to go with floating hardwood floors, all you need to do is look at how long they last for. If they are cared for properly, you are looking at more than 40 years of life from this flooring. When you consider the fact that these floors are very popular in the climates that destroys regular hardwood floors, the decision does not seem so difficult to make.

Floating hardwood floors are becoming more and more popular due to their flexibility, reasonable cost, and ease of use. If you're thinking about a DIY project, don't make a decision until you fully consider floating hardwood floors for your project.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Lewis

Tags: Floating, Hardwood, Floors, Money