Laminate flooring is a great flooring option DIY

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring is a great flooring option because you can have the beautiful look of a hardwood floor without all the maintenance.

Laminate floors in no way require a professional to install. All you need is yourself, a few tools and the easy to follow instructions found in this section. From the easy step-by-step guides below, you’ll have your laminate floor successfully installed and looking great in no time!

Laminate Flooring: Advantages

Durability:

Because it's designed with a tough and durable wear layer, laminate flooring is much stronger than most installed solid hardwood flooring, carpets and vinyls, it's more resistant to scratches than softer surfaces (solid hardwood floors for eg.) and is one of the best choices for households with heavy foot traffic, kids, or pets. But, best of all, laminates will look like new for years.

Resistance:

Laminates are highly resistant to stains, fading and moisture and many laminate flooring manufacturers offer warranty protection against them for a long period of time (usually from 10 to 25 years).

Ease of installation:

The top brands of laminate flooring have developed a glueless floating floor installation process. They just need to be cut, clicked together and are ready for walking or even placing heavy things, like furniture, on them. Most professional installers could do it in a couple of days, but expect to take longer if you want to do it yourself.

Easy cleaning and maintenance:

To clean up spills and messes, just use a little soap and water and your laminate floors will look brand new.

Healthy flooring:

Laminate flooring provides a much cleaner and healthier living environment when compared to other floorings such as carpets, with regular cleaning cycles. It accumulates less dust, pet dander, allergens and it doesn't hold residual stain contaminants on the surface. Allergic people will often be recommended to remove the carpets from the living space.

Economical

A typical laminate flooring is and extremely economical solution, if you take in consideration the costs of alternate flooring solutions.

World's longest sea bridge opens in China... (but don't think about crossing it on foot, it's the length of a marathon)

It is not a piece of architecture. This is called some real architecture stuff.

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge - which stretches five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais.

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao.

The road bridge, which is 110ft wide and is the longest of its kind, cost nearly £1billion to build.

A bridge over misty waters: The immense £1billion structure which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars stretches for 24 miles along China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao

Engineering feat: The vast bridge, the largest cross-ocean bridge in the world, cost £960million and took four years to build

Lengthy: The bridge stretches into the distance further than the eye can see and right, the first few cars  roll out across the surface

Don't keep me hanging: The suspension beams form an imposing sight as the reach through the clouds and look down upon colourful flags marking the bridge's grand opening

The long road home: The two roads which run alongside each other wind across The Jiaozhou Bay

Even a few centimetres out would have been a disaster.'

The engineering feat will only hold the record as the longest sea bridge for a few years - it will be beaten by another Chinese bridge in the next decade.

Last December officials announced workers had begun constructing a bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau.

Set to be completed in 2016, officials said the £6.5billion bridge will span nearly 30 miles.

It will be designed to cope with earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0, strong typhoons and the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel.

But both structures will still be dwarfed by the longest bridge in the world, also in China.

The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is an astonishing 102 miles in length.

A driver's dream: Twenty-four miles of fresh untouched tarmac stretch from Qingdao to Hungdao

Role of colors in life and interior designing

COLOR COMBINATION SCHEME

COLOR COMBINATION SCHEME

In design color is everything .It can describe the

mood of website ,blog,output,house,office,and even a room.

It is so much fun picking out the color stand out color

combos because possibilities are endless .Some color you

may not think would pair nice but it would actually

make the other color stand out with each other

Creating a color scheme is

Essential to good design.Here are

Some fantastic tips to help you

perfect your color choices.

So we can select color combination through nature.

WE ARE SURROUNDED WITH COLORS

It is not only the plants and trees and their flowers and fruits which provide us with color, but also the many wonderful creatures who share this planet with us who contribute to the amazing color palette, and the planet herself.

What more dramatic colors could you ask for than the variations of the blues of the sky, the blue/greens of the oceans, and the reds and oranges of sunsets - to name but a few.

Nature is full of colors.

From our nature we can

combine different color

together to make better interior

Nature is full of colors

Nature is full of colors

When exploring some of the connections of Color Therapy and Nature, one of the most obvious is, of course, flowers. They are a very big part of the colors we are all used to seeing around us. Nature is full of healing energy and it is there for us all to share and to enjoy. We just need to look.

Same way it is very important to have the right color combination when we do interiors and exteriors for the house. Whether it is in terms of paint, furniture color, curtain selection, wall decors. Even some of the experts in interior designing they are particular about the bed sheets and sofa colors also.

Acoustic Treatment

      Acoustic is a science of sound, deals with design and construction of different building units to set optimum conditions for producing and listening speech, music at a high quality. The knowledge of acoustics is essential for proper functioning of home theaters, auditorium, hospitals, conference halls etc. also buildings are becoming increasingly mechanized.

       Acoustic treatment to spaces is done by :

• The initial sound from the source should be of adequate intensity.
• The sound produced should be evenly distributed.
• Selecting proper geometric shape for design.
• Use of splayed side walls instead of parallel walls.
• Covering of opposite walls and high ceiling with absorptive acoustic material.
• The outside noise should be eliminated.

Eventually people do not spend much on acoustic treatment instead they prefer to spend more on the gears. Just getting high quality acoustic gears will not bring the quality and impact of the sound.
Generally people misunderstand the difference between Sound Proofing and Acoustic Treatment.
In reality Sound Proofing and Acoustic Treatment are two different things.

• Sound Proofing - Sound proofing is intended to minimize of level of sound that pass through the wall. Normally done by using highly dense building material.
• Acoustic Treatment - Acoustic Treatment targets to control the reflection of acoustic waves with in the room.

The elements of Acoustic Treatment are as follows:

• Bass Traps - To absorb low frequency sound waves.
• Acoustic Panels -To absorb mid and high frequency sound waves.
• Diffusers - To scatter the remaining sound waves and noise.

Facade design features of a building

Facade is one external side of a building. Suitably designed and inviting facades can renew and activate the street. An impressive facade of a building represents the architect's innovative vision and a desire to show the world an exclusiveness.
Side and rear facades shall be compatible with the overall building design concept and treated architecturally to avoid blank walls and pedestrian elevations.
The exterior walls are generally drooped from the concrete floor slabs. For example curtain wall and precast concrete walls. The facade structural materials are mainly glass stainless steel and aluminium. These materials are suitable in all climatic conditions.

                                               

                                           
                                            South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center

The vast glass facade wrapped with folded planes is a symbol that represents a design that would pay tribute to the act and art of performance, enhancing the spirit of movement.

Characteristics and finishing of concrete work

A decorative finish for concrete work; achieved  by removing the outer skin of mortar, generally   before the concrete has fully hardened, and exposing the coarse aggregate.

Architectural concrete may be structural or just an external finish/cladding. The choice would be dictated by the weight considerations. For most projects, the architectural concrete layer (especially for building facades) usually takes the structural loads.

CHARACTERISTICS:
Concrete is a unique building material in that it begins as a liquid and ends as a solid, and thus is constructed twice – once as formwork; once as concrete.
When exposed to view as architectural poured concrete, this method of construction reveals the history of the fabrication, leaving a palimpsest of the molded textures of the formwork. Be it the grain of plywood, the lines of the board forms, or the jointing of fiberglass panels, the pentimento of the container remains.
The formwork characteristics, along with the ties that brace the forms, color, finish, and jointing, provide a myriad of choices for the designer to consider.
Tensile ties are required to prevent the spread and failure of the formwork under the pressure of the liquid concrete being poured into the forms.

Their location and pattern is a product of coordination between the architect and structural engineer as their indentations remain on the surface of the finished product.
The color of concrete is affected by the sand in the mixture while the finish of the concrete is affected by the admixtures to create a sheen or a matte surface.
Textures can range from super smooth with use of a steel or fiberglass form and a fine aggregate to a rough brutal finish created by post-curing techniques such as sandblasting or bush hammering to expose the aggregate beneath the surface.
The size of the panels of the formwork determines the spacing of joints as well as the form patterning; typical are 8- and 10-foot spans and 2-inch boards. The joints between panels can be enhanced and revealed by the addition of shaped strips in the formwork. The joint can be deep to provide a dark line, protrude to catch sunlight and cast a shadow, or be reduced to appear nonexistent by a butt joint.

Finishing concrete

For concrete floors and pavements, the appearance, smoothness, and durability of the surface is particularly important. Finishing refers to any final treatment of the concrete surface after it has been consolidated to achieve the desired properties
Exposure can be achieved in several looks.

TYPES EXPOSED CONCRETE FINISH

The most popular finishing forms are represented by: integrally pigmentation of concrete. Pigments based on oxides used at concrete colouring are available in three shapes: fine dry powders, liquids/dispersions, granulated powder. Most frequent shape for pigments using is the dry powder which can be directly mixed with cement or fresh concrete. 

• AGGREGATE EXPOSURE

 Aggregate exposure for supine cast panels is realized by washing the  surface. This process offers a very attractive finishing at a cheap price, and selected aggregates have to be uniform in size,

AGGREGATE EXPOSURE CONCRETE FINISH

• ABRASION 

A large set of formworks with plastic properties are available in a large field of models and profiles, permitting concrete surfaces casting with shape of linear plates.

ABRASION EXPOSED CONCRETE FINISH

• ABRASIVE BLASTING

It's also possible to expose the aggregate after the concrete has set and hardened by using abrasive blasting (either sandblasting or shotblasting). The disadvantage of abrasive blasting is that it can fracture the aggregate and dull its appearance. This method is not a good option if preserving the shape and full color intensity of the aggregate is essential.

SAND BLASTING EXPOSED CONCRETE

• BRUSHING AND WASHING

This is the oldest method and the simplest because it doesn't require chemical retarders or special tools. You just wash away the thin layer of surface mortar covering the aggregate by spraying with water and scrubbing with a broom until the aggregate is exposed to the desired depth.

BRUSHING AND WASHING EXPOSED CONCRETE