Are Eco Friendly Pools Really Safe for Humans?

Are Eco Friendly Pools Really Safe for Humans?

If you have a pool that uses chlorine or salt as a sanitiser you may be wondering if there is a more eco friendly alternative as you plug in your robotic pool cleaner and skim leaves from the top of the pool. There are several alternatives but are they really safe for humans to use? There are at least four alternatives for swimming pools, but you may not like all of them.

For instance, take what is touted as an all natural pool. This is made with clay and gravel and uses water plants to keep the water clean, so you won’t need an automatic pool cleaner. If you are designing your own garden, it is certainly good for the environment as the pure water offers insects and frogs a place to live. Frogs may be attractive and relatively harmless if their name is Kermit.

Otherwise they will croak all night and keep you awake. And they may well come and visit your house. Then there is the problem of snakes, who love to eat frogs and will chase them wherever they go; into the pool or towards your house. Don’t think snakes can’t swim because they are very good at it.

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A Guide To Making An All-New Green Kitchen

A Guide To Making An All-New Green Kitchen

With changing times, changes our responsibilities as well. Cooking is no more just about manufacture and consumption of food; rather, cooking is one of the most necessary components for survival and should be performed accordingly. What is a home without a kitchen? The answer is incomplete. Therefore, in order to make your home a place you feel most comfortable in, it is important to take care in designing of your kitchen.

With increasing workload, the cacophony of an industrial work life seems to get onto our nerves at certain times; and during these times what we crave for the most is a little bit of nature, a little bit of green, a little bit of pure organic life, that would give you the comfort of a mother, unadulterated.

As responsible and conscious human beings, it is not just enough to survive; it is important to ensure a healthy survival of the generations to come. To be precise, sustainability is essential, and it requires us to live in a more environment-friendly manner so that we do not affect the plants/animals/atmosphere around us adversely.

Why should I have a Green kitchen?

An environment-friendly kitchen is a kitchen that cooks eco-friendly manner so that balance is retained between our lifestyle and the outer environment we are living in. In respect to that, an eco-friendly kitchen deserves proper cleaning in a manner that would not disturb the ecological balance of our nature.

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The Effect of Weather on Outdoor Furniture

The Effect of Weather on Outdoor Furniture

It may seem obvious that outdoor furniture should stand up to the weather. After all, you don’t want the hard job of carrying it out and back in every time it is to be used. And unless it can stay outside all the time, you will end up not wanting to use it at all because the job is so onerous. If the furniture is to be located on a grassy area it is even more important that it is weatherproof.

When something heavy is left on grass it will sink in and reach the soil underneath, which is often quite damp. This will rot the legs of most timber furniture, because even if it is painted, that constant wear on the base of the legs will soon penetrate the paint and the moisture will seep up into the inside of the wood. The end result will be the paint is compromised and the timber will rot from the ground up.

At least, this is what happens with softwoods, especially anything left untreated. However, certain hardwood decking will stay strong and in their natural state for many years even though they are outside in the weather. Think of all those heavy beams used for piers or boat masts. They get wet all the time, but they last for many years. Boat wood furniture is therefore ideal for any external design or renovation that needs furniture.

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How to Ensure Scaffolding Safety at the Building Site

How to Ensure Scaffolding Safety at the Building Site

One thing every company that uses scaffolding should be concerned about is safety at the building site. When employees are using scaffolding, their risks increase due to the working conditions being more dangerous. They are usually up high, so any fall is more likely to have disastrous consequences. The working space is limited which restricts their movements to some extent and this can also contribute to injuries or falls. So how do you ensure scaffolding safety at the building site?

    • Make sure all employees have proper training for working on scaffolding. This training should be ongoing, not done once and never again. People forget things and situations change. Training should be done so staff can keep up with the latest safety developments.
    • Never allow an untrained person to go up on scaffolding. It is quite easy to forget who has had training and who hasn’t. Keeping on top of details like this will ensure a better quality of safety for all concerned.

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8 Tips For Caring For Your Landscaping During Long Hot Summers

8 Tips For Caring For Your Landscaping During Long Hot Summers

One of the problems that landscapers and gardeners have in some parts of the world is the weather, and in particular dealing with cold, wet, wintry conditions whilst creating and then maintaining landscaped gardens Conversely, here in Australia, the problems Perth Landscapers from martincuthbert.com.au face with weather are rarely that it is wintry but instead it is the hot, sunny weather that creates issues.

Whilst most people are happy when the sun is out, they are not so keen when the temperatures reach unbearable levels. That same mindset is held by many gardeners, including those who have landscape designs. Although the sun is most welcome as it helps flowers and plants to grow, too much of it, and the excessive heat which is generated, are most definitely not healthy for gardens.

So, if you live in a part of the country which is especially prone to lots of excessive heat and have a landscaped garden to look after, what can you do? Well, to start with, you can follow the eight tips we have outlined below for caring for landscaping during long, hot summers.

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10 Landscaping Tips For Those Who Live In Dry Climates

10 Landscaping Tips For Those Who Live In Dry Climates

One thing that anyone who loves gardening, and landscaping, in particular, knows is that the climate they live in, and the prevailing weather can have a huge impact, both positive and negative, upon your activities. Too cold, and your plants are at risk of being attacked by frost. Too wet and they can literally drown. Too hot and dry and they can wither through lack of the life-giving water and moisture they need.

If you’re a expert on landscaping in Australia, it is likely the latter of those three scenarios that you are facing most often. Whilst we Aussies like to boast to those from overseas about our sunny weather and how we love spending much of our life on the beach, having the baking sun and intense heat for most of the year-round, which some states have, is not something that most landscapers will be thankful for.

It means the work and the maintenance you need to do to ensure your flowers, shrubs and grasses remain healthy, is increased enormously. No doubt you have often wondered if there is an easier way to look after the plants which grow within your landscaping designed garden. Whilst we cannot do much about the hot sun and dry days, we do have 10 great tips that should help.

Tip #1 – Do Some Research: If you want to do landscaping in a part of the country where rainfall is minimal then research the sort of plants that are well known to thrive or at least survive well in those hot and dry conditions. You can ask Adelaide Building Supplies on advice for what materials suit dry climates.

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3 Advantages Of Using Glass Pool Fencing

3 Advantages Of Using Glass Pool Fencing

Choosing the proper glass pool fencing for your home will go a long way towards helping you create the perfect backyard. There is a wide range of fencing materials and styles on the market, but some stand above the rest as modern, stylish choices.

Glass pool fencing has become increasingly popular recently, as more and more people are choosing it as a low-maintenance option that’s easy to clean and looks great. Consider using glass if you need a new pool fence but aren’t sure what to get.

Here are a few advantages of installing glass fencing around your swimming pool, provided by pool fencing experts.

  1. A Glass Pool Fence Will Secure Your Pool

Swimming pools pose a threat to pets and young children, who are at risk of drowning if they aren’t prevented from entering the pool area without supervision. Glass pool fences will secure your pool, protecting your children and pets and reducing the drowning risk.

Using a glass pool fence to secure your pool is an excellent option because of glass’s increased visibility. You can watch what’s happening inside the pool area from the outside, making it safer. This means that you can safely sit under your patio or at your outside table while your children are swimming without running the risk of them drowning.

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Why Professionally Cleaned Carpets Can Help You Sell Your Home

Why Professionally Cleaned Carpets Can Help You Sell Your Home

Selling your home can be stressful, and one of the most significant stress points is fearing that you cannot sell your home; however, have you ever considered that something as simple as having professional carpet cleaners come to your home could make the difference?

Now, we will state right away that if you price your home at too high an asking price or your home is in poor condition, no amount of carpet cleaning, professional or otherwise, is likely to convince a seller to buy it. But, if you have priced sensibly, and your home is well-maintained, any buyer viewing who also sees that your carpets look almost like new thanks to them being professionally cleaned could be moved closer to a decision to buy your home.

So, let us look closely at why that might be and examine precisely why professionally cleaned carpets can help you sell your home.

Carpets Take Up A Large Proportion Of What Buyers See When They View

Small details can come into play when a potential buyer views a house. However, it will be the more significant element that they will pay the most attention to. For example, when they look at the cleanliness and condition of the carpets on almost every square inch of the floor, this will have a far more significant influence on their decision than the kitchen taps.

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How to Choose a Colour Scheme For Your New Home

How to Choose a Colour Scheme For Your New Home

Colour is a big part of design, whether you’re getting a new landscape design or doing an internal renovation, it can seem a bit overwhelming to choose a colour palette for the whole house. Having the same neutral colours for every room is what you find in rentals. When it comes to your own home, you want something a little more distinctive and up-market than that.  Here are some tips on how to choose colours that go well together without being bland and boring.

  • Walk through the home with a pen and paper and jot down which other parts of the home can be seen from each room. This will ensure the colours chosen for each room will go well together with the colours that can be seen from there. Using a rough sketch of the floor plan is an easy way to keep track of it. It is not only the adjoining rooms that may be seen but places like the hall through to the kitchen.
  • Choose a colour for the room that is the biggest and most central to the whole house. Feeling stressed? Choose a soft, neutral hue for this room and that will make it easier to choose colours for the other rooms. But if you love colour and want to have at least one room painted in bold colours, start from that room. Then looking out from that room, choose somewhat softer colours for the rooms or spaces you can see from there. That’s not to say you can’t use bold colours next to each other, but there is an element of risk in doing so. You don’t want the colours to clash.
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How to Remove Stains from the Carpet

How to Remove Stains from the Carpet

Spills happen in most households and if you have carpet, along with pets or toddlers it is highly likely that you will eventually get a spill of something on the carpet. Even adults can spill things such as wine or coffee. It only takes a moment of inattention and the deed it done. It is what happens afterwards that is important. Treating the spill properly will hopefully remove the stain. Simply blotting it will only remove moisture and leave the stain there, so when it is time to move and then when the removalists are gone you will be left with very hard to remove stains.

To treat a stain on the carpet it is important to know what caused the stain and what type of carpet you have. The first is usually easier to identify than the second, especially if you are renting. However, no matter what type of carpet you have, it is important to mop up that spill as soon as possible. Mopping it up properly will prevent it from spreading and may even stop it from penetrating to the under-felt, which will make the job done by Carpet Cleaning Scarborough easier later on.

How to remove the moisture

First up, blot the stain with paper towelling or a white towel. Do not scrub or rub the area as this will damage the carpet fibres and spread the stain. Even when blotting, surround the edges of the spill with the paper towel and press towards the centre to keep it contained. Continue to press with clean sheets of paper until most the moisture has come out. There will still be a stain, especially if what spilled has deep colour, like wine or coffee.

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