10 Tips to Consider When Building a House

Imagine a house completely adapted to you and your needs. There are many who want to turn the dream of a custom-built house into a reality. But with construction of the building, there will be many questions, decisions and challenges to overcome. We asked Patric Jones, an architect and construction engineer with a leading London house extensions company to guide us through the building construction phase. In the end, he pointed out ten important issues you should ask yourself before you begin building a house.

home extension

What kind of house do you need?

The first thing you need to figure out is the kind of house you and your family need and how big it should be.

– I always tell my clients that they should imagine themselves where they want to be in ten years, and start from there. For example, you may  not afford to build a car garage now yet know  that you will need it and and a place to store children’s stuff in a few years, says Patric. Also keep in mind that trends come and go. Today, perhaps may be interested in having Moroccan tiles in your bathroom, but will you really like to have them in ten years?

Such questions are worth asking, says Patric.

How will the house be?

When you buy land, be sure to check if you can get water and electricity to your house. If it is far from a municipal sewage, you may need you own energy source, which is a far more complicated and expensive process. The house should be comfy for you and the children. Even if you have the best white noise machine, you will not get good sleep if the house does not provide comfort on its own.

Where is the house standing on the property?

Do you want the house to be facing with sun all day, or do you prefer the evening sun? Everyone has different needs. However, make sure you know the building rules of the area you are looking to buy.

home renovation

What will it cost?

Find out what you can afford. House developers, of course, want you to buy their houses. Compare prices to get an affordable home.

How have others done it?

Ask for advice from friends who have bought houses in the past on what they did. You can also get advice from experienced craftsmen. The more knowledge … Read More

Choosing a Drywall Screw Gun for Home Improvement

drywall screw gun

Finding the best drywall screw gun could be a great addition to your home improvement tool armoury. While similar in look to a cordless drill, it’s function is totally different. In order to be ready to find the best drywall screw gun, you need to grasp the elements which make up one. Apart from this, you should think of convenience. For example, you do not want a noisy gun that will make you have to wear noise canceling earplugs when working.

Here are the five things that you need to search for so as to find the very best drywall screw gun that you can.

1. Weight

One thing that makes drywall screw guns different from cordless drills is that they are lighter. And being lighter permits you to hold and operate it for longer, which is crucial if you have a long installation job in front of you. The best drywall screw gun will be one of the lighter ones – when you’re doing your research, pay attention to the weight of the gun – some ounces may not seem like a big deal, but wait until you’ve installed two sheets of drywall, and you’ll realize what a difference it makes.

2. Speed

One of the things which makes drywall screw guns the best for installing drywall is they only have one speed. Unlike a cordless drill, where variable speed is an excellent option to have, you only want one speed on an a drywall gun, and that speed is fast. By having continued speed, you’re able to anticipate and depend on the same power every time – which makes you able to install screw quickly, because it’s the same every time.

3. Power

The best drywall screw guns have a good quantity of power. The more power you have, the faster the screws go in. And the faster the screws go in, the faster you get through installing your drywall. Enough said .

4. Corded

Again, here is where the best drywall screw gun is very different from the best drill. That’s because, while it is easy to get enough power in a cordless drill for the jobs you need it for, with a drywall screw gun, so as to get the power you want, you will need an exceedingly pricey cordless drywall screw gun, which is easily attainable from a reasonably-priced corded one. Unless you’re a pro … Read More

Best Concrete Wall to Reduce Noise

precast concrete wallDo you have a neighbor who nags you with loud music? Do you feel that the noise is too loud such that you cannot concentrate and have a peaceful time in your home? Do you feel like sometimes you need to use a mouth guard for teeth grinding because of the loud music? If you answered “yes” to any of the three questions above, you do not worry any more. Installing precast concrete walls will help solve the problem amicably.

Believe it or not, the kind of material that your wall is made of can relatively have an impact on the noise in your home. If there is too much noise, you may have to use earplugs for sleeping. One material that is known to help in noise reduction is precast concrete.

Over the years, reduction of noise within internal areas such as restaurants, offices, and homes has increased. Many people have opted to use precast concrete wall to reduce noise. The concrete, whether it is used as an outdoor fence or indoor wall, provides the highest loss of sound transmission when compared to other walls.

Research has shown that precast concrete walls at some of the nail salons near me require considerably small footprints compared with earth beams to insulate against noise.

Qualities of Precast Concrete Walls

The qualities that make precast walls efficient in soundproofing include:

  • The walls are inspected prior installation, thus reducing construction and your time.
  • They are produced to control the environment.
  • They are constructed to reach  high quality standards and are uniform.
  • The walls come with aesthetic options that are best suited for noise reduction. This also gives you the option to have designs that are effective to noise reduction.
  • The walls can be easily adjusted to different construction situations because they have a low water-to-cement ratio.

In most offices, the aesthetic precast concrete wall is preferred because it provides beauty and reduce noise considerably. When someone is snoring, you will use an anti snore device to avoid the noise. For noise coming from the neighbors, you will need a precast concrete wall.  The wall utilizes has a low ratio, allowing lower permeability of water.

The concrete also has air raids within in to allow water to be able o freeze and expand. This minimizes the potential for scaling and deterioration of the concrete.

If you are looking for walls to reduce noise, whether … Read More

4 Graceful Exit Strategies to Get Out from Under a House You Can’t Afford

options when you can't pay mortgageDon’t let yourself get out from under that house you can’t afford with a belly-flop whose splash keeps you wet for a long time—instead, get out of the soaking pool, dry yourself off, and exit gracefully. Here, we offer four ways to help remain composed and unruffled when you’ve just got to give it up.

Listing through an agent seems so straightforward; nothing could go wrong here, right? Wrong. According to Gracie Weis from Blonde Girl Homebuyers in Jacksonville, an excellent agent might not be able to do anything with your house in less than 3 to 6 months. So, keep in mind how fast your equity may be evaporating with lender fees and interest piling up. If you want to use this option, use it quick and you might come out with some cash.

Some people have enough cash-on-hand and can help you by buying your home, and they’ve figured out ways to make it work for them as a business. These smart folks are called investors. Find the good ones that care enough to get to know you, then, consider selling to the investor. Working with an investor can prove to be a lot quicker than signing on with a real estate agent, but be careful because investors are very smart and know what your home is worth more so than an average buyer led in by an agent. Two upsides here: First, the paperwork can be amazingly clean and quick to execute. Second: No fees to pay a REALTOR. In any event, if you do choose to work with an investor, be sure to hire a good real estate attorney—one of your choosing, not the investor’s—to review all of your paperwork before signing on the dotted line.

If you abandon your home there are definite dos and don’ts. If you’re definitely going to lose it anyway, do not make the mortgage payments because you will—trust me on this—need the cash. Do cut expenses by stopping the daily bleeds of all nonessential expenses. Restaurant meals? No more. The same with movies and popcorn, using the car to drive around the corner, landscaping guys, premium (or any) cable—no more! Get in touch with one of the programs in your town that help distressed people pay bills. Have a garage sale for everything you can unload because it costs something to take it with you. No time to be … Read More

Building Homes Using 3D Printers

Protection, food and water may seem basic human needs, but in fact, about 1.2 billion people still live today without sustainable housing, reports World Resources Institute .

Technology and development are moving at a furious pace and it has a company named ICON chosen to take care of. The company has come up with a way to combat the lack of sustainable homes by using effective 3D printing solutions.

ICON has come up with a method of printing a house of about 650 square meters of cement, the cool thing is that it only took between 12 and 24 hours!

The plan that the company has set is to build a community with about 100 homes for residents in El Salvador next year. Apart from this, the company will be building some home items. Some of the items can be built by anyone at home provided they have a good printer and use it on the best 3D printer table.

ICON has helped and initiated a collaboration with New Story, an ideal company focused on international housing solutions.

“We have built homes for communities in Haiti, El Salvador and Bolivia,” says Alexandria Lafci, founder of New Story.

The first house is a step towards providing protection to those who need it most. Jason Ballard, one of ICON’s three founders, says he will try to use the house as an office to experience its practical use.

With the help of the Vulcan printer, ICON can print an entire home for $ 83,000 and plans to reduce costs to 33,000 kr per house .

vulcan 3d printing

When ICON completes its tests and adjustments of the model, the company will move the Vulcan 3D printer to El Salvador and start printing. ICON also says that this 3D print house will create friendly little waste and that labor costs will be reduced. ICON plans to build houses in the United States in the future.

The company is convinced that 3D printing will be a commonly used method for all types of housing. Their visions already look beyond the global housing crises and extend to thinking about societies that one day will be outside the world.

“One of the biggest challenges is how we can create habitats in space,” concludes BallardRead More