Posts Tagged ‘patio’

Woodworking Projects You Can Do At Home

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

More and more individuals are turning to creating household goods in their free time as a hobby. Some people make rugs or throws, others make pots and others are turning to woodwork. Wood working is a very gratifying hobby or craft. It is also therapeutic after having finished your day job and when you have finished, you have something useful that you can be proud of. You could even sell it. Both men and women are turning to wood working projects for recreation.

The majority of these new weekend carpenters are not professional trades people and so they need help with a wood working project like a bench or a cabinet. This help comes most often in the form of wood working plans. A good set of wood working plans will give a description of what to do first, an exploded diagram of the item to be made and all the necessary measurements. These details will really help the wood working project to run smoothly.

The first thing to do, clearly, is decide what you want to make. If this is your first wood working project, do not be over bold. Do not leap right in there and choose an ornate display cabinet. The best objects to start with are a bench, a dog kennel or even a bird table. Once you have finished this task, you can move on to something more difficult with increased confidence.

So, having made up your mind on a wood working project, you should look for a set of plans for that article. You will find woodworking plans in DIY shops, hobbyists, craft shops and on the Internet. If you look online, look for a specialist in woodworking plans so that you know that they will be complete in every detail

The next task is to completely familiarize yourself with the plan and the project. You will have to decide which timber you want to use and how many lengths of the different sizes you will need. This information might be provided on the plan. You should order or buy in everything you need (except glass) right from the beginning. You will also require glues, nails, screws and tools. Check which tools you will need for the job and buy or borrow them. This information might be given on the wood working project’s plans as well.

When you have got together your materials and your tools, you should check that the tools are in good condition. The saws and chisels should be sharp. Put a new blade in your craft knife and make sure your tape runs smoothly and that the end is not broken off. It is especially irritating, once you get going, to have to stop and sort your tools out, just when you want to use one of them.

Finally you can begin. It is a fantastic feeling. Try to plan your time too. Neighbours are not going to want to hear your power saw going after dark, so try to get that sort of thing done in daylight hours, you can assemble the parts quite quietly later on in the evening.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, bench woodworking plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

Garden Swimming Pool Safety

Friday, July 15th, 2011

If you have a swimming pool, you have to be aware of the safety aspects concerning that pool. There is no counter-argument, that is one of the legal duties of an owner of a swimming pool . You are going to get visitors coming around who cannot swim; guests who have eaten or drunken too much and should not swim; children and skinny-dipping teenage intruders and you have to provide a safe environment in which to swim for all or them or deny access.

The first area of swimming pool safety to undertake is the denial of access and the easiest way of doing this is the assembly of a security fence. It will deny access to passing children, interlopers and friends who came around to see you on the off-chance when you were not in.

There are thousands of drownings by misadventure in garden swimming pools each year - most of them are children and drunks, who would still be alive today, if the pool had been locked up.

If you have your own children who cannot swim, get them taught as soon as you can and drill some safety routines into them. For example, they must never get in the pool without an adult supervising them and they must always wear flotation devices, which means that you should always have flotation devices on hand.

You will require waist rings, arm bands and life jackets. Those for use in a swimming pool by children are not costly and can be inflatable. It is also a good idea to have some pieces of styrofoam floating about just in case someone gets tired all of a sudden.

Make sure that there is always a capable swimmer on hand who knows basic First Aid, especially artificial respiration with particular reference to drowning. In fact, why not take the whole family down to the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade and all get your life-savers certificate? The least you should have is a proper life belt - ocean-going - on a rope that is long enough to reach anywhere in your pool and tie off the loose end.

It might be possible to get away with not having a security fence, if you use an above ground swimming pool, but you will have to confirm with the local authorities on that one. You will also have to take away the access ladders whilst it is not in use. Forgetting to do so could equate to criminal negligence if anyone were to drown in your pool.

Swimming pool safety is primarily about saving lives but it is also about the peace of mind of the owner of the swimming pool. If someone were to drown in your pool and you knew that you had not done everything within your power to avert it, you would almost certainly carry that burden of guilt with you for the remainder of your life, especially if it was a child and even more so if it was your child or the child of one of your guests.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with Plus Size Bikinis. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Swimwear for Big Busts.

Swimming Pool Heaters

Monday, July 11th, 2011

The most expensive aspect of owning a swimming pool is the construction of it. Maintenance is also costly. Therefore, those who have garden swimming pools usually attempt to get as many hours of use out it as they can. This equates to sitting in the garden at the poolside whenever possible and inviting friends and family around to share it all with them.

However, there is one more thing that you can do to increase the number of hours you can spend in your pool - you can lengthen the season that you are able to use it in. The temperature of the water is the only real constraint on swimming outside, it does not really matter whether it is snowing or raining as long as the water is warm enough.

Swimming in the rain, the mist and the snow is actually immense fun, at least as much fun as swimming in the sunshine, as long as the water is warm enough and there is no lightening. The answer is to install a water heater into your swimming pool system.

A swimming pool water heater can have a drastic impact on the amount of time you can spend in your pool. If you set the thermostat at 78-80 F (about 25 C), you can double the amount of time you can spend in the water. If you live in a warm part of the country, you may just require to heat the water by a couple of degrees to be able swim in luxury.

A large body of heated water will lose most of its heat through its surface area, so it is a good idea to cover your pool with a good quality insulation blanket-cum-pool cover. The insulated pool blankets will lessen your heating bills quite considerably and it will increase the level of pool safety considerably as well.

The most common systems for heating swimming pool water are liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or oil fired. These systems are simple to set up and relatively cheap to run. Electricity is also used, but it is not economical. If you live in the correct area meaning that you only require to raise the water temperature a couple of degrees, you could use solar power.

The problem with solar power is the profit margin the retailers want to make. If you make your own panels, purchase in kit form or buy secondhand panels, solar power would be the best approach, if you have the sun, but not quite sufficient heat.

At the time, gas-powered swimming pool water heating is still by far the simplest to set up and run and so offers the best solution to heating your pool. You will be able to get LPG water heaters secondhand from numerous sources and you will be able to purchase new from the Net as well. EBay is another good source of LPG swimming pool water heaters

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with Plus Size Bikinis. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Swimwear for Big Busts.

Wooden Garden Furniture

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

What do you do when you get a bit of extra time on your hands? If you are an outdoor person, that could be when the winter comes and the nights draw in or otherwise it could be in the summer when the days are longer, depending on the kind of person you are. In either instance, do you look for a project to fill your time? A lot of wood workers do. They look for a long term wood working project.

Working out your next long term wood working project is not at all hard if you have a garden. There is always something to be added or replaced in a garden. Maintenance is never over.

If you want a long term wood working project for indoors, then I recommend a dining table with eight matching chairs or, if you are very experienced and meticulous, an intricate display cabinet.

However, getting back to our medium level, long term wood working project of wooden garden furniture. Hardwood garden furniture is the best because it will outlast softwoods such as pine, if it is well treated.

However, timber like Red Wood, Mahogany, Maple, Oak and particularly Teak are very expensive, because their supply is restricted in many parts of the world.

Therefore, the first thing to do when searching for a long term wood working project, is to decide what type of timber you can afford to use. Then, when you have the funds ready and know of a supply of the timber you want, you can get a high-quality set of wood working plans for that job. You can obtain these plans from a hobbyist or craft shop, a DIY store or online at a specialist Internet web site.

The wood working plans will probably give you an indication of how much timber you will need, but if it does not, then you will have to work it out from the exploded illustration and the dimensions on the drawings. This is not hard, just a little time-consuming.

The plans might also suggest which nails, screws, glues and tools you will have to have to have at your disposal before you begin. I believe that it is best to have everything in one place, before you begin, with the exception of any glass you may require.

It is also a good idea to make sure that you have all the tools necessary for the task and that your tools are in good working order. The saws must be set well and sharp; chisels should be of the correct size and sharp as should be the planer and the router.

Put a new blade in your knife as well and check your supply of sandpaper in the various grades. You should also have preservative on hand to treat those cut ends and seal the backs of everything.

It is a real gift that most people would like to have: the ability to select a long term wood working project, stay with it and produce a beautiful, unique set of fine wooden garden furniture that will last your family for decades.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, bench woodworking plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

Are Free Woodworking Plans Worth It?

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

If you are going to create a piece of furniture, especially if it is fairly complicated or you have never manufactured anything like it in the past, it is a good idea to get a set of wood working plans. These furniture plans are not dear and free woodworking plans can be found too.

However, it is prudent to be suspicious of free wood working plans as they may not be precise and you will have little recourse to protest if they were free or even pirated. Free wood working plans may be all right, but you do not want to find out that they are not half way through the task.

A good set of wood working plans, free or not, will give a clear exploded view of the item to be made and a narrative explaining the various steps and procedures. The plans may also make suggestions about the timber and tools to use, the length of time it could take to make in man hours and the complexity level.

If you want a large compilation of wood working plans, there are CD’s around which have 14,000 on them for $30-40. They are a fantastic bargain. Other places you could search are online forums, the library and craft or DIY shops. Shops are probably the dearest option.

Once you have chosen an object to build, you should consider which style you would like. A kitchen cupboard could be hardwood or softwood. It could be a Welsh dresser or a Scandinavian design. It could be contemporary, traditional, Georgian or Victorian, to name but a few.

Once you have answered these questions you can go looking for your wood working plans. You might be lucky or you may have to compromise if you cannot get just what you want. This is why I think that it is better to buy a CD of plans that have been sorted into a database, so that you can easily find out what is to be had in your collection.

You could search for ‘kitchen cupboard’ and 100 woodworking plans might recommend themselves to you. Or you could type in ‘Victorian Welsh Dresser’ and only get two suggestions. The point is that you will not be wasting your time chasing a pipe dream, when there are no plans available for the exact item you are looking for.

When you have a set of appropriate plans, I think that it is better to get them blown up, or maybe that is just because of my eyesight. However, it is a pain to have to remove your safety goggles to put on your spectacles every time you want to check a size. This is effortless from a CD because the majority of printers have a facility to print poster size. If yours does not, take the CD to a printer’s, an architect’s or a technical office. They will be able to print A1 straight from the CC.

Then you can affix this enlarged wood working plan to the wall or an easel and you are all set to start making your furniture in style.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, wood furniture plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

Basic Woodworking Projects - Decking

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

Timber, or wood, is still the first preference for furniture and other home and garden projects like decking. However, there is a large assortment of types of timber to select from. The first alternative is whether you will use hardwood or softwood. Hardwood is a lot more expensive, but it will not rot so quickly as softwood.

Both hardwood and softwood are attractive or can be made to look beautiful with a suitable finish. Softwood normally takes more looking after, but can last just as long as hardwood, if it is preserved properly. If you want to paint the wood, then softwood is the better choice, because hardwood does not permit paint to soak in very well, but it will take staining, oiling and thin varnishing.

Once you have decided which type of timber you are going to use, you can think about which variety you want to use. If you are going to use hardwood, you have many alternatives, such as teak, mahogany or oak et cetera. If you choose softwood the most common timber used is pine. Whichever you eventually use, select each length of timber with care. You do not want warped, curved lengths of timber or lengths with an unwarranted number of knots in it. A good carpenter will inspect each length individually.

Then you will require something to hold the decking down. Nails or screws? Screws are almost certainly best because they will not come loose if the timber dries out. If you are using softwood, it will be OK to use stainless steel screws, but if you are using costly hardwood, then I would use brass screws.

You will almost certainly need three inch screws and they should be neatly countersunk, so that the screw’s head is just below the surface of the wood. You can then plug it or not. Yes with steel screws, not with brass screws, but it is really up to your personal inclination.

Prepare the area before you start. It is probably best to use a concrete or slabbed base. This should be level and above the normal flow of rain water in your garden. If it does get wet, as when you wash it down, the water should fall through the boards and then flow away. You do not want it to stay under the decking so that mosquitoes can breed in it.

It is not hard to lay a wooden deck, but it a good idea to obtain a set of decking plans to work by. They will ensure that you do not miss a stage. They will also give you good hints and tips about which materials to use and how to finish your deck so that it does not rot quickly.

Once you have laid your own decking according to the plans, you could put an advert in the local paper and hire your services out to neighbours and locals. Everybody loves the idea of lounging out on their deck or porch in the evening and once you become a regular customer at the builders’ merchant or lumber yard, you may meet the criteria for substantial discounts on materials, which will make your pricing more competitive.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, wood furniture plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our website, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

How To Buy Garden Furniture On Line

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

Buying garden furniture on line is not the ideal solution as it both solves and presents some difficulties if it is used haphazardly. For example, if you find it difficult to get around the shops and garden centres, the Internet will permit you to visit hundreds of places to contrast styles and prices, but you will not have had sight of your furniture and it may be costly to return it.

Therefore there are a couple of things to watch out for if you want to buy garden furniture on line. Some of these suggestions will apply to other goods as well especially weighty items.

Be wary of shipping charges because some companies will strive to hide the fact that they can be horrendous. If delivery charges are an extra, do not forget to add these fees on to the cost of the garden furniture before you evaluate prices. Some businesses will talk some claptrap about an order processing fee in an effort to mask their delivery fees. These companies are being dishonest and you should avoid them like the plague.

Try to switch off to the words ‘discount’ and ’sale price’ until you have added up all the costs and you have compared this total with the total cost of a similar item. Likewise, be very wary of comparisons between list price and sale price. Manufacturers frequently ‘recommend’ a high list price deliberately so that the retailer can offer a discount. It is very common practice, but designed to deceive.

Be careful of ‘price snobbery’. If you see two retailers selling precisely the same things of garden furniture but at widely different prices, do not be automatically convinced that the cheaper one must be second-rate. Instead, look around the cheap web site for extra costs. Do not forget that most retailers buy from the same manufacturers.

Do not trust any firm that says that they will not be beaten on price because they are the cheapest on the Internet or that they will undercut anyone you can prove is cheaper. They have no proof that they are the cheapest and if you prove that they are not they will decrease their price only to you because you caught them in their lie. These people are liars.

Firms that make a big issue out of quick service are not really giving you anything. Every company likes a fast turn-around because they can bank the check earlier and the warranty finishes sooner too. You will find out how decent their service is if you have difficulties. Empty promises and blowing one;s own trumpet mean nothing. Self praise is no praise.

You can check up on the firm’s customer service record by typing the company’s name, city of business and the word ‘issues’ or ‘problems’ into Google. You will soon be able to determine for yourself whether you are dealing with a reputable firm or not. Purchasing garden furniture on line is the same as buying anything else expensive on line: it is up to the buyer to beware before parting with his money because it may be hard to get it back if there is a problem.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a range of topics, but is now involved with farmhouse dining tables. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Solid Oak Dining Tables.

Which Are The Styles Of Garden Furniture

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

If you want to get some new garden furniture, the first thing to do is think about the styles of garden furniture that would suit your garden and your requirements. If you already have an idea of what you would like, you are already half way there, otherwise you will have to do some research on the different styles of garden furniture

This research can be done on line quite easily by typing ‘garden furniture’ into Google, but if you would prefer more information on the furniture, you could get a few magazines on gardening and landscaping. If you rather a more hands-on approach, you can go around the home improvement stores and the garden centres.

In fact, you will have to go to the shops sooner or later anyway unless you intend buying on line too. I personally like to do some research on the Internet first and then use the knowledge that I gleaned from there to make informed decisions in the store. I do not really trust the photos. I want to see and touch the garden furniture and check the joints and finish.

Once you get to the garden centre, you will discover different styles of garden furniture including: farmhouse or rustic, contemporary or modern, resort or poolside and these can be manufactured from hardwood, softwood, plastic or metal.

Hardwood is by far the most popular material for garden furniture and most people prefer the farmhouse style, although there are some fantastic modern styles too.

No matter which style you prefer or what it is made of the number one best piece of advice is to get the best quality that you can afford. This is true of most items you can buy, but I think that it is particularly true of garden furniture because it has a very hard life. Just imagine it: snow, rain, heat; temperatures varying from -5c to + 35c and varying humidity.

Cheap plastic cannot put up with those conditions. I used to buy cheap plastic and needed to replace it every eighteen months. Then I bought expensive plastic and I still have some of that but in essence it only lasted three years. I have seen metal garden furniture and it always rusts, even if it is plastic coated, enamelled or painted. Softwood lasts well, but it will rot after about five years even if it is fairly well taken care of.

The only garden furniture that I have ever had or seen at friends’ houses that lasts and looks good all that time is hardwood. There is a broad selection of hardwoods. There are native hardwoods like oak, cherry, walnut, maple and beech and foreign hardwoods like mahogany and teak. These hardwoods can also be stained to practically any colour although most people prefer the natural look.

Hardwood garden furniture is simple to maintain as well: just rub it over with linseed oil once or twice a year. If you carry out this simple maintenance procedure the timber will not dry out and it will resist the elements for twenty years or more ensuring that you get maximum value for money from this, the finest of all the styles of garden furniture.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a range of topics, but is now involved with farmhouse dining tables. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Solid Oak Dining Tables.

Pool Safety Fences: A Buying Guide

Monday, June 6th, 2011

If you have had a swimming pool for some time or if you are about to get one - either an above-ground or an in-ground swimming pool - you must check to see whether your district requires you to take any safety precautions. For example, some states in America call for the erection of a swimming pool safety fence by law, others are about to introduce such a law and others are thinking of calling for a pool alarm too.

However, it is not all one-sided. There are also advantages to the owner of the pool of fitting a pool safety fence. The main benefit of such a fence is safety. If you have young children or grand-children, you do not always have the time to supervise them playing in the pool, so a fence is a way of allowing the kids to play in the garden whilst excluding them from the dangerous pool.

Kids can be scallywags, all adults know that even if some parents think that their own kids are not, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone else thinks they are. Our children know that they have to behave in front of us, but what happens while they know that we are not watching? You know, you were a kid yourself once. I climbed the fence into the municipal outdoor pool more than once whilst I was a teenager and mostly after a few beers.

The fact is that if you have an unprotected pool, there is a decent chance that the local kids will use it while you are away and these days that means negligence on behalf of the pool owner. Whether that is correct or wrong, it is like that and if someone should drown in your pool, you would be in big trouble, unless you could establish that your took reasonable measures to prevent unauthorized access to your pool.

A security pool fence is just about the cheapest way of doing that, although fences can be easily scaled as I full-well know. However, having a fence shows that you have considered the problem and that you have tried to deter intruders.

There are quite a number of acceptable styles of pool fencing but it may vary from district to district, so it is first worth checking whether there are any local minimum standards in force in your region. Other than that, there are choices of wire, wood and steel. Wire can include mesh fences as well.

Timber almost certainly looks the best and gives the most options. If you would like total privacy, you can have a full fence or if you would like to be able to see out, you could go for hit-and-miss vertical boarding. I do not like mesh, personally. I have painted tens of miles of fencing in my time and there always seems to be litter caught in the mesh. Iron railings are lovely as well, but pretty costly.

Whichever type of fence you go for, grow a continuous wall of the prickliest, thorniest bushes you can find around the base of it. Pyracanthas are ideal and the berries attract birds - wild birds, that is. Let them grow to three or four feet high and they will deter drunks and give the ladies some privacy whilst lying around the pool.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with speedo swimming costumes. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Swimwear for Big Busts.

Choosing Your Patio Garden Furniture

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Once you have finished making your patio, your deck or your lawn, you will unquestionably start thinking about how you can enjoy more time out of doors. Therefore, you will need some garden furniture. Many shops stock garden furniture. You can try home improvement centres, large department stores and garden centres. There are also businesses on line that will deliver. The hard job is picking your garden furniture.

There is a very broad choice of designs of garden furniture - a style to suit every person and complement every garden. So, before rushing down to the garden centre, it is worth considering for a while what you would like to accomplish with your open-air seating area. Do you want a theme? Do you want to entertain or dine there? Or do you just want to sit peacefully, take pleasure in your garden and read a magazine?

Indeed, the reply may well be a permutation of all those things. If you simply want to sit there with a drink and a book, you may be satisfied to just buy a couple of chairs and a small table, but if you want to entertain or eat family meals outside, you may prefer a more substantial table. A large oak table would be quite expensive, but it would look fabulous and last for a decade or more.

If you choose a table, you will have to have chairs to match, but do you want loungers as well? They could be of plastic and kept in the shed until wanted.

You will likely need some form of shade. This can be supplied by folding, even removable umbrellas or by overhanging trees or shrubs. Wisteria or clematis can do the task as well and cost you next to nothing.

Do you intend cooking in this space? If you do, what and how? Do you fancy a barbecue pit or a proper hob and oven? A lot of people in regions where the climate permits are doing a great deal of cooking outside in a carbon copy of an indoor kitchen, but without all the walls.. If you plan the outdoor kitchen carefully, you will be able to use it in the rain too. I find it lovely not to have kitchen smells in the house and cooking out of doors is a good experience as well.

If it gets nippy in the evenings then you can consider buying some patio heaters. They are not expensive to buy or to run and one standard patio heater can keep quite a crowd of people warm. (By the word ’standard’ here, I mean upright, like a lamp post).

Lighting is the last major point in the list when choosing garden furniture. There are actually two sorts of garden lighting to mull over: lighting to see by and lighting to lure insects away. Again, you could use standard lamps to illuminate your patio. They shine their light far enough so that you can still look at your garden after dusk or you could have separate wall light on dimmers.

The one light I would definitely have is a mosquito lantern. Hang this away from where you sit, because they do draw insects to them which they then electrocute with a pleasing zap.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with visual comfort lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.