Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
Location is everything in hanging a floral basket
Travelling around Montreal during the nice weather I can't help but notice a lot of basket cases. I'm not referring to inebriated bar patrons, but rather to plants hanging in baskets.Some hang from city lamp posts, others in front of retail stores, and plenty where the restaurants and bars spill out onto the sidewalks. Then, there are the ones we hang around our homes, whether it's from a corner of a balcony or as part of the ornamentation of a deck.
One of the most popular sales items at garden centres in the early summer are arrangements of annuals stuffed into all sorts of hanging baskets. They cascade delightfully over the edges and appear as solid balls of blooms.
Some are wonderful, particularly just after they've been purchased. Others can end up looking really dreadful. Success or failure hinges on care and where you hang them.
Location is everything for a hanging basket.
First, the plants in the arrangement have to be suitable for the sun exposure, otherwise too much or too little light will affect the growth.
Second, being hung on a windy corner is bound to affect the way the basket performs. Either the plants will be rattled and blown beyond their capacity to manage or they will dry out every few hours in the heat. If you must hang one in this sort of location, use tough plants, like succulents or those with woolly leaves and strong stems. And be ready to water them morning and afternoon.
What the container is made of also plays a role.
Plants hanging in plastic pots will resist the drying effects of the wind and sun much better than those in clay pots.
The more decorative hanging baskets often take advantage of the benefits of coir. This rope-like fibre makes excellent liners for wire baskets. The whole arrangement is lightweight, holds the planting mix securely, and resists the effects of wind and sun. A similar arrangement can be created using sphagnum moss as a liner.
Probably the biggest problem for a hanging basket is getting enough water. With the drying effects of the sun and wind working to suck the moisture out of the planting mix, and the mass of plant foliage transpiring moisture at a high rate, everything conspires against the basket.
Watering the basket once or twice a day is one option.
Another problem to watch for is what I call "water creep." If the surface of the planting mix is dry and the edges have shrunk in a bit, any water that you pour on will run off to the edges and run down the sides and out the bottom. Not much will get soaked into the root ball. The only way to avoid this is to water into the centre of the container very slowly, watching the water soak into the root ball, and keep adding more water until you feel the weight of the whole basket increase.
The planting mix can also be part of the problem. If you bought the basket already planted, you're stuck with whatever mixture the grower used. If it contains a lot of peat (quite likely), it will dry quickly and be tough to re-wet. This means slow and careful watering is needed.
If you make your own planting mixture, make sure it has plenty of absorbent materials, like one part each of compost and potting soil, and two parts each of coir (or peat), perlite and vermiculite.
One last trick to keep your baskets moist is to cover the surface of the planting mix with a mulch, like shredded bark.
-- Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
Spray foam wrong choice for structural repairs
QUESTION: We are going to do some work in our basement this summer and would very much appreciate your help and advice. Our house is more than 100 years old, with an old stone foundation. It sits on the Red River-Assiniboine River delta system, Winnipeg, which contains lots of underground streams. Over the years, the basement walls and foundation have deteriorated and crumbled. Based on the amount of rainfall we receive, it can be very wet. With a lot of rainfall, it expands and if it is very dry, it contracts, so the foundation moves. The basement is very cold, especially during the minus 35 days.We are planning to take everything out of the basement to re-do the foundation. One contractor is proposing to use polyurethane or icynene to fill up the holes and then rebuild the rest of it with new material.
Our concern is whether this polyurethane product is safe? What about the side-effects? I do not want to put anything into our bodies that we will regret later, especially our toddlers.
-- Henry Bissoon, e-mail
ANSWER: While you should have significant concerns over using polyurethane or icynene spray foam to repair your foundation, the focus or your worries are way off base. Both of these materials are now widely used for insulation and air sealing in homes and commercial buildings but are not designed for any kind of structural repairs.
The first thing to address is the advice given by the contractor that recommended this material as suitable for foundation repairs. I have heard of some bad ideas, but this one is right up there with the worst ones. I would send the person who suggested this packing and look for a real foundation contractor or mason to do the repairs. My reasoning behind this is that both of these materials can be very effective in providing high quality, moisture and air resistant insulation, but have no structural properties. Replacing deteriorated mortar with foam insulation will do nothing to improve the strength of the old foundation walls, which may continue to move and deteriorate over time. I don't even know if this would stop the majority of the moisture that is leaking into your basement, which should be your primary concern if you plan to finish the basement.
Old stone foundations like yours continue to perform well after many decades, even with considerable deterioration to the mortar that holds the stones together. The first problem normally to address is the seepage that occurs as the old joints deteriorate and turn to sand. If this seepage is minor, improvements to grading and drainage around the home and repairs to mortar joints in the interior of the foundation may be enough to hold the water at bay. If this has been neglected for many years, not only will the water be an issue, but movement in the individual stones may occur. If this movement goes on for some time, as you have experienced, structural damage to the home is inevitable. The only recourse, in that case, is major foundation repairs.
Foundation repairs on stone or rubble foundations, other than minor repointing or parging above grade or inside basements, are not in the scope of expertise of the home handyman. These repairs typically require major excavation, usually by hand, around the perimeter of the home right down to the base of the foundation. Once the exterior of the foundation is exposed, loose mortar can be removed and the foundation repointed. This may have to be done from both the interior and exterior of the foundation, if there is enough damage to the mortar joints. After complete, new damp proofing or membranes and drainage tile system can be installed outside the foundation, if no further structural repairs are required. If there is significant movement in the stones they may have to be removed and reset, or replaced with poured concrete, after the house floor structure is temporarily supported.
As you can see, this type of repair is not one to be taken lightly, or attempted with makeshift ideas using improper materials. Your concern over the composition of the blown-in foam insulation is a moot point, as these products should never be used for this purpose, anyway. What should be more of a health concern for the occupants of your home are the effects of excessive moisture intrusion into the basement.
The good news is that proper foundation repairs will solve both the problems of structural damage to the home and problems related with water leakage. This will not be a low-cost repair but will be money well spent, rather than blown away with the useless installation of foam insulation in place of proper mortar.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors - Manitoba (www.cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be e-mailed or sent to: Ask The Inspector, P.O. Box 69021, #110-2025 Corydon Ave., Winnipeg, MB. R3P 2G9. Ari can be reached at (204) 291-5358 or check out his website at www.trainedeye.ca.
Renovation & Design
You can cut energy bills while working from home
Q: I had dinner recently with some friends who, like me, work out of home offices, and we all agreed that our utility bills were up significantly since we started working from home. Are there are specific things we can do to lower these costs, especially now that they are our bills and not being paid by someone lse?A: Whether your run a business of your own from home or just spend a lot of time there telecommuting to your job, a fact of life is that you're going to be using more energy at home. A lot of it, in fact, when you start considering the office equipment, the lighting and even the increased use of home appliances like a coffee machine or frequent visits to the refrigerator.
Since I also work from home, I've been collecting lots of tips and ideas on ways to save energy, and I've found that they really can make a big difference.
The first thing is little problems that will grow bigger in cost because you're now spending even more time at home during the ay. The need to plug holes and cracks that let air escape outdoors, regulating drapes and blinds to control the sun, making sure your home has adequate insulation levels, turning off lights in empty rooms -- and making sure you've got efficient CFL bulbs in the fixtures since they'll be used more -- and all those other "common sense" energy savers now are even more important because the house isn't sitting empty all day.
Here are some specific suggestions related directly to your increased home use of computers, copiers, fax machines, lights and other energy-users:
Consider buying energy-efficient office equipment and use their energy-conserving features.
A good ink-jet printer might be adequate for your needs, and it costs less to buy than a laser printer and also uses less energy to operate. Don't forget that printers, like other equipment, use energy to keep in standby mode, so turn them off when you don't need them.
Just because you bought a new computer or other component doesn't mean it's automatically saving energy. A lot of equipment has special features and buttons that you need to activate to get them to work. Read the instruction booklet for details.
One great tip is to plug your office equipment into power strips that can be turned off with the flip of a switch, cutting out all that standby power that electronics use.
-- McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Renovation & Design
Red, red gravel of home replaces grass
DALLAS -- Instead of a soft, velvety lawn in my back yard, I now have what landscape designers call hardscape, an expanse of reddish, tannish decomposed granite where the grass used to grow. Although I would prefer to see thick, green turf, I haven't seen thick, green turf back there in several years.A late-winter construction project killed off the original St. Augustine lawn. My husband and I had successfully sodded the back yard ourselves when we bought the house 24 years ago, so I figured we could do it again.
Three tries over the past three springs resulted in the same failure. The St. Augustine died, leaving a mud hole in the centre of the yard, encircled by garden beds. One year it was the drought. Another year it was the never-ending rains. The rapacious chickens, though, are as much to blame as the weather.
They ate succulent St. Augustine blades down to the runners and moved on to the more wiry Bermuda.
The city chickens live in a coop. But I feel sorry for them that they are cooped up all day, so I let them out each evening, when I can monitor them. When I had grass, they promptly started peck, peck, pecking at it. It didn't matter that I supplement their grains and seeds with shredded lettuce and cabbage or that they get served more fresh June corn than my family.
No matter how pretty my back flower garden looked this spring, all I noticed was the mud hole at its centre. As the mud hole turned into hard-packed, black clay in the heat, I began considering chicken-proof alternatives.
Decomposed granite is being used more and more as an eco-friendly paving surface for garden paths and driveways. Landscape architects like it in contemporary garden designs as a ground cover, and my favourite European garden magazines show its application in cutting-edge English installations and at rustic country houses in Provence.
Decomposed granite, called DG in the trade, is granite broken down over millions of years into pieces from pebble-size to grit. It is available in several colors, depending on the location of the quarry. The stone wall and landscape boulders already in place in my back yard are reddish-brown Oklahoma sandstone, so my home centre's DG supply, also reddish brown, is compatible.
I consulted with landscape professionals about having someone install the granite for me. Impatience, frustration and a headstrong nature led to the decision to do it myself. Or, more precisely, to convince my able-bodied son, just graduated from college, that removing three inches of hard-packed clay from the surface area and relocating 3,000 pounds of rock would clear his head and work out his biceps.
While home centre's sell DG in small bags, it's more economical to buy it in bulk.
The standard application process is to spread about 1 1/2 inches of DG, water it thoroughly, wait a day to allow it to settle, then repeat the process -- and sometimes repeat it a third time. A three-inch layer is considered the minimum depth for stability and to keep Bermuda grass from growing through the DG. How-to instructions also recommend using a heavy roller or a vibrating plate compactor to hasten compaction.
A proper DG surface does not move underfoot like sand or gravel, but its porosity allows water to penetrate to the soil below. That aspect makes DG a good paving material around trees.
The downside is that, even compacted, grit particles that can scratch hard-surface floors are tracked into the house. Also, I found my supply to contain a fair share of what I would call granite rocks, not pebbles. They can be crushed with a hammer, if I ever get around to it. Finally, once you rent a tiller and a mechanical compactor, not to mention the considerable labour involved, hiring someone to do it might compare more favourably. Just make sure you or the contractor can do the math correctly.
I like the look of the even surface, and the brown colour is earthy, natural and appropriate in a garden. My husband loves it because it does not have to be mowed or watered. I also like the scritch-scrunch it makes under my garden clogs. My mother, 98, wondered how I would ever get grass to grow on it.
The garden hens are appalled. They loved the process, because freshly tilled soil reveals lots of tasty morsels. The tiller made the clay fluffy, giving the busy hens new territory to scratch. But when they were released from their coop after installation was complete and made their usual beeline down the garden path, they came to a screeching halt when they reached the northern boundary of the decomposed granite.
It was funny to watch, at first. They gave the foreign matter wide berth, ducking under rosebushes in flower beds, hopping from mossy boulder to mossy boulder and flapping from there to iron garden chairs in succession until they reached familiar territory.
But when they started flapping from planted container to container, squashing blooms, I started some flapping of my own.
Do the math: How much DG do you need?
Multiply the length of the area to be covered, in feet, by the width, in feet, which gives you the area's square feet.
Multiply the square feet by .25 feet (representing a minimum depth of 3 inches, converted to feet), which gives you cubic feet.
Landscape stone is sold by the cubic yard at rock yards. Therefore, divide the total cubic feet by 27 to get cubic yards (27 cubic feet equals 1 cubic yard). The result is how much decomposed granite you need to order.
-- Dallas Morning News
Renovation & Design
Readers across country share super solutions
Back by popular demand, here are 15 super solutions sent in by readers:1. To store rolls of gift wrap, use an empty wine box. The dividers help hold the rolls upright in a relatively small space. You can store the box in the guest-room closet or basement. Pam
2. When cooking omelettes, do not overbeat the eggs and do not salt until cooking time is almost complete. Salt can break down the structure of eggs. Also, keep the pan moving while the eggs are cooking and do not overcook. If it is your intention to add mushrooms, onions or other veggies to the omelette, for best flavour saut © them first before adding the ingredients to the omelette. Chefs Mike and Brandon
3. Recipe for "Berrylicious Smoothie": In a blender, combine 1 cup frozen, unsweetened assorted berries, 1 cup pineapple juice, half cup fat-free soy milk or 1% milk and half cup frozen vanilla yoghurt. Blend until smooth. Meghan
4. You can use silly putty to clean muck off of your computer keyboard. It can also be used to remove lint from clothes. Teresa
5. While cooking tomato sauce, add a half a teaspoon of instant coffee to the sauce. This extra step takes the acidic edge off of the tomato sauce. Lila
6. When Jan's friends went to Australia for six weeks, they visited a tea plantation. The owner of the plantation explained how to remove caffeine from tea. Add hot water to loose leaves and steep for 1 minute. Discard the liquid. This first brew contains most of the caffeine of the tea. Add water to the teapot and let steep for 2-3 minutes and drink that infusion that has only small amounts of caffeine (over 80% of the caffeine is removed during the first wash of the leaves). Jan
7. Freeze your pre-shaped cookie dough. Virtually any drop cookie can be easily frozen in its dough state to bake at a later time. Simply line a jelly roll pan with plastic wrap (make sure that the pan fits flat in your freezer), scoop out your dough into balls with a cookie scoop and place each ball side by side on the jelly roll pan. Fit as many as you can tightly together. When the pan is full; cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it flat in your freezer. When the cookie dough balls are completely frozen, lift up on the bottom layer of plastic wrap to release the balls individually and place them in a zippered plastic freezer bag. Return to freezer. Extra tip: If cookie dough gets gluey, resist the impulse to add extra flour so that the cookies don't become tough. Cool in fridge until firm, or roll out between two pieces of waxed or parchment paper. Norma
8. When barbecuing hamburgers this summer, don't press down on the meat when the burgers are on the grill. That will just press out moisture and you'll end up with dry burgers. Carter
9. I make rice pudding with leftover rice. Place rice in bowl, add 1-2 cups of low fat Cool Whip, rinse half to 1 cup raisins and add about 2-3 tsp of cinnamon. Mix well and cool in fridge until needed. It is delicious. This would be for using about 2 cups of rice. Gail
10. Yesterday, my daughter got gum in her hair, and I was dreading the peanut butter treatment. Rather than use ice, or cut her hair, I took the section of hair that was full of gum and put a paper towel behind it, then sprayed it thoroughly with Pam cooking spray, let it sit for a couple of minutes, and was able to comb all of the gum out. A quick hair shampoo and problem solved. The paper towel was used to help catch the spray from soaking into the rest of her hair. Tina
11. I save rainwater in 45-gallon plastic barrels and I like to have open tops so I can scoop the water out with a bucket for flushing the toilet and watering etc. (I also salvage my laundry water and reuse it for flushing the toilet). Anyways, I learned a hard lesson when I returned from a week away and found a deceased red squirrel in a barrel that was half full of water. It had fallen in and couldn't climb out so it drowned. I had forgotten to put a two by four into the barrel so any squirrel that happened to fall in the water could climb out. I also tie the wood down so it doesn't float up and out. Dick
12. Juice from canned peaches, apricots or pears may be mixed with melted butter and lemon juice and used as a yummy baste for broiled chicken. Extra tip: To get truly golden-brown and crispy chicken, you'll need a cast iron skillet. Cast iron simply cannot be beat for even heat distribution and temperature maintenance. The most important factors contributing to perfect fried chicken are the temperature of the oil and the actual step of frying. Vegetable shortening, lard, and peanut oil are all popular frying mediums, as they have a high smoke point. Sandi
13. A great way to recycle egg shells is to put them in the bottom of plant pots as a substitute for rocks. Egg shells are much lighter than stones and carry plenty of nutrients for plants. Extra tip: Instead of throwing out egg shells lay them in the soil near tomatoes. Calcium is great for tomatoes; the extra calcium helps prevent blossom end rot. Roma
14. I was burned with hot butter over most of my hand, I immediately sliced a russet potato, placed the slices over the burn and wrapped my hand with a kitchen towel. The starch in the potato stopped most of the blistering and eased the pain. Pat
15. For crunchier coleslaw, cut a cabbage in half and soak it in salted water for an hour. Drain well and use. Lester
Solutions, is compiled from various sources. Thanks to all who contributed! Similar information may be found elsewhere.
Solutions sleuth Reena Nerbas is a home economist and speaks professionally on the topic of household challenges; she is also the author of two national bestsellers, Household Solutions 1 with Substitutions and Household Solutions 2 with Kitchen Secrets. She can be heard on radio and television programs across Canada.
Renovation & Design
Good paint finish starts with preparation
IF you've been putting off painting that bedroom, or avoiding the painting project for the spare room, it's good to know painting is not as onerous a task as you might imagine.The key to a successful and hasslefree painting job is proper preparation, explains the manufacturer Painter's Mate Green brand tape, geared especially for painting and ideal on glass, wood and metal.
The company says tackling a painting project is not as intimidating as it looks if it's broken down into a few simple steps. While making the decision to change a bedroom wall color can happen on a whim, the best results usually lie with those who take the time to select the right materials and prepare adequately for the job.
Follow these simple prep steps for a smooth project:
Take down any wall hangings or other . removable fixtures and the nails holding them up.
Remove electrical and phone switch covers.
To prevent accidents it is a good idea . to shut off the breakers that serve the electrical outlets in the room you're painting.
Move furniture out of the room. If that . is not an option, place furniture items in the centre of the room and cover them with plastic or canvas drop cloths. (TIP: Pre-taped drop cloths feature a pre-taped edge that helps drop cloths to stay in place. They are available at home centres and paint stores. Make sure they are securely in place using painter's tape).
Patch and repair any holes or imperfections in the wall by filling with spackling compound and sanding down to a smooth finish.
Clean walls with a sponge and a diluted soapy solution starting from top to bottom. Be sure to rinse the sponge frequently. Make sure walls and other surfaces to be painted are completely dry before painting.
Protect everything you don't want paint on. For the sharpest paint lines and accurate results, apply good quality painter's tape on trim, window and doorframes and baseboards.
Apply a pre-taped drop cloth, carpet masking tape or tarp against baseboards to protect the floors.
Paint walls following the directions . from the paint manufacturer. It is important to remember that there are different types of paint and finishes, which all need to be considered to find the best paint for your project.
To ensure sharp paint lines, remove . tape at a 90-degree angle before paint fully cures. When painting more than one coat, use a utility knife around the inner tape edge to break the paint bond to tape, and then remove at a 90-degree angle.
--Canwest News Service