Month: October 2021

Ideas For Improving Your Home

Veronica Ardito Home, NewsTagged ,

Open rooms, smooth materials, and minimalist furniture are popular nowadays. Of course, it’s lovely, but it’s not great for the acoustics in our homes. The use of common materials like marble, glass, concrete, and stone, as well as open spaces, allows noises to roam freely in your home, resulting in reverberation. Fortunately, there are options available. There are ways to improve the acoustics in your house.

Choose a soft floor

The floor is not only essential for the design and feel of the house, but it is also one of the most crucial acoustic decisions you can make. Tiles and residential concrete, for example, are quite hard and hence have poor acoustics. Soft materials that absorb household noise are preferable. Forbo’s Novilon flooring, for example, which has sound-absorbing qualities, is ideal for this. PVC and cork flooring, on the other hand, are excellent for enhancing sound.

Put down fabric furniture

It is preferable to equip your home with upholstered furniture. So a wonderfully soft fabric sofa, fabric dining room chairs, linen shaded light, cushions, and plaid on the sofa. All of these things aid in sound absorption. As attractive as marble, terrazzo, steel, and other hard materials are, they are terrible for acoustics, so make up for it with fabrics. It’s not just good for the acoustics, but it’s also good for the atmosphere. By the way, if you’re interested, you can find out more at Hugo & Sons. You may see and purchase a gorgeous and amazing bed.

Hang curtains

Curtains not only beautify a home but also improve acoustics. This is because sound-absorbing fabrics have a high surface area. Of course, the amount of sound absorbed varies by material. Fabrics made of Velour absorb a lot of moisture, whereas a thin transparent curtain made of synthetic material absorbs far less. Use as much fabric as possible, ideally in many layers, such as drapes with roman or pleated shades.

Create corners in your room

Long, straight walls may be seen in many residences. As a result, sound waves have unrestricted access to space. The sound might reflect less well through the space and so have less reverberation if you make corners in your living room. You may achieve this by using a room divider or just planting a huge plant against the long wall to block up the sound waves.

Lay down a rug

Rugs are essential for acoustics as well as creating a welcoming ambiance in the home. If you don’t have children, place one near the sofa, one near the children’s play area, and one near the dining table. It is even advised to cover around 20% of the floor surface with a carpet for optimum acoustics. Choose a deep pile rug if possible the more fabrics, the better.

Hang sound-absorbing wall panels

Special acoustic panels are an increasingly popular solution. For example, in the shape of a sound-absorbing work of art or constructed of wood. That way, you’ll have a lovely wall covering as well as improved acoustics. However, actual paintings with no glass in front of them can also help.

Tips For Indoor Paintings

Veronica Ardito Education, Home, Media, NewsTagged , ,

Paint is most effectively applied by painting a number of vertical strokes right next to each other and then spreading them horizontally until you get a plane. Continue to work in areas until the entire area is filled. You consciously choose rollers and brushes that are suitable for the chosen type of paint. The authentic hog bristle brushes, for example, are not really suitable for water-based paint.

The preparation of painting

It seems so easy. A wooden door, a roller or brush, paint, grease, think about the bristles and size, and you’re done. Unfortunately, every successful painting requires good preparation. First of all, you need to make sure the room is ready to paint. Think of covering your floors with plastic, newspaper, or cardboard. Tape off areas not to be painted with masking tape and remove door handles, electrical outlets, door panels, or curtains. If you paint near furniture, make sure that it is also well covered and moved to the side. In addition, think of yourself. Provide adequate ventilation when painting with solvent-based paint and wear a dust mask when sanding. It is best to wear gloves when using corrosive substances.

Substrate preparation

A wooden surface does not necessarily mean a solid wooden surface. There may also be sheet materials such as plywood, plywood, hardboard, or chipboard. These can be painted in the same way as solid wood.

unpainted wood

When painting on unpainted wood, the surface must be smooth, clean, and dry. Make sure you remove grease stains or other pollution with a cleaning agent such as Ruwol Surface cleaner and then rinse well with water. Make sure the wood has dried well before you start painting. Sanding is necessary for optimal adhesion and a smooth end result. For large surfaces, you can use a sander, but it can also be done by hand. The worse the wood is planed, the coarser the grain should be on the sandpaper. Always sand with the grain of the wood and make it dust-free. After this, you can apply a primer for the best result. On untreated wood, you first apply a primer. There are certain types of wood such as Merbau, afzelia, and many dark tropical kinds of wood that contain dyes that are water-soluble. When you paint on it with water-based paint, these dyes will dissolve and cause unsightly stains. Therefore, you should find out carefully which type of wood you use. If the wood contains such dyes, a good insulating primer is recommended. TIP: Use a solvent-based primer as the first coat. Solvent-based primer isolates the dyes in the wood, after which you can continue working with a water-based (primer) paint. Another substrate that can also contain dyes is MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard). It is therefore important to also paint a good solvent-based primer over it.

Painted Wood

The way in which you should process painted wood depends on the condition of the old paint layer. If you are in doubt about the quality of the old layer, there is a simple trick to find out: the adhesion test. In this adhesion test, you make six horizontal and six vertical notches. The result is a small area that resembles squared paper. Make sure there are only a few millimeters between the cuts. Then stick well-adhesive tape over it, press it well and carefully peel it off. If the old paint layer still adheres well, then you will not have a single square on your tape. If he attaches enough, then there are only a few. The paint will not adhere well if you peel off more than half of the squares.

The paint layer is still good

When the test shows that the old paint layer still adheres well, you can start preparing for painting. It is important that pollution such as grease and dust are removed. Dust can be removed with a damp cloth. For grease residues, you can use an alternative cleaning agent, such as Ruwol Surface cleaner. After the surface has been cleaned, it must be sanded. Be careful not to sand through the paint layer. If this does happen, the bare parts must be treated with a primer. After sanding, the surface should be smooth. Then remove the residue with a wet cloth and allow the wood to dry thoroughly before starting the finish. When the old paint layer is still in good condition, you can immediately start applying the final layers.

The paint layer is bad

The adhesion test may also show that the old paint layer no longer adheres well. This is a little more work to prepare, but important nonetheless. An old poorly adhering paint layer has adverse consequences for your paintwork. If peeling paint is present, remove it with coarse sandpaper, paint stripper, or thermal stripping. Afterward, the wood should be sanded as evenly as possible. Then apply a good primer.

woodworm

If you see small holes in your woodwork, it may be that your wood is infected with woodworm. You can see if there are still worms in your wood if small fibers are still visible from the wood. This is called boron flour. Before you start working on this wood, you must exterminate the woodworm. There are various resources for this.

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A Closer Look at the Scarcity of Drinking Water in Saudi Arabia

Dominique Kern UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , ,

Water scarcity has been a long standing problem in Saudi Arabia, as only a few cities receive a constant supply of desalinated water due to low water pressure. Aggravating the problem is the availability of drinking water as health and environmental issues have been raised in the use and production of desalinated water.

Being a water-scarce country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the largest producer of desalinated water on a global scale. The US-Saudi Council reported in 2019 that about 60% of Saudi’s water supply comes from desalination plants. Inasmuch as the process of desalination is energy-intensive, with fossil fuel being the main source of energy, the numerous desalination plants operating across the KSA account as major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions.

While only less than 40% of the water supply in Saudi are sourced from groundwater, this natural source is not without issues. In localities that receive groundwater as supply, citizens have been warned against the regular drinking of tap water. Health authorities warn that the country’s groundwater contains high levels of fluoride, exceeding the recommended safe level of 0.7 to 1.2 milligram per liter.

While tooth decay is the most common health problem attributed to high fluoride levels, newer studies revealed that increased intakes of fluoride can also adversely affect bone and neurological developments.

Why Desalinated Tap Water is Deemed Unsafe for Drinking

Drinking desalinated tap water is also not recommended, since the potability of the supply pumped by desalination plants suffer from three major issues: taste, appearance and storage.

Majority of Saudi Arabians find the taste and appearance of desalinated water unpleasant. However, desalination plants find it impractical to apply additional treatments and processes to improve and correct such issues. After all. only about one (1) percent of the country’s population drink desalinated tap water.

Local Saudi governments have tried to convince their citizens that desalinated tap water is safe to drink. Assessment reports have been disseminated to show that the physicochemical and organoleptic properties meet the recommended parameters for safety.

However, in many neighborhoods in Jeddah, where homes and residential buildings are more than 20 years old, desalinated tap water coming out of water systems are definitely unfit for drinking. Tap water coming out of water systems appear unpleasant due to presence of impurities.

Saline Water Conversions Corporation (SWCC), the company mainly responsible for the treatment of Saudi Arabia’s seawater contend that contamination occurs at point of storage; in water tanks that are poorly maintained and in buildings with piping systems that are in a state of decay. The SWCC maintains that water being pumped by desalination plants are 100% guaranteed safe for drinking.

Apparently, residents in newer amd upscale residential areas in Jeddah have not encountered water contamination problems. Still, in order to avoid getting their tap water contaminated by sludge and insects that find ways to get inside the tanks, building landlords see to it that their water tanks are regularly cleaned by a reputable tank cleaning company like wghsaada.

Why Saudi Bottled Drinking Water is Not Safe Either

While bottled drinking water is considered as a the safer alternative to desalinated tap water, the Consumer Protection Agency in Saudi warns citizens that not all bottled water available in the market are safe to drink.

Based on the agency’s investigations, 90% of the workers in bottled drinking water plants across the Saudi Kingdom are not properly trained, and have been observed to be in violation of sanitation protocols. As a result, 24% of the samples collected from such plants were contaminated with E.Coli bacteria while 16% were contaminated with fecal coliform.

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