Blog Archives

Flooring (Decking)

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

Подпись: Fig. 5.20: Doug draws the new board tight with a long spike, which has had its point driven a little ways into the joist. The spike is now a class 2 lever with tremendous mechanical advantage for drawing tongue-in- groove boards together. Start the nail first. image127We decided on two-by-six V-jointed tongue-and-groove spruce planking for our floor. The V-jointed side goes down, making an attractive ceiling as seen from the room below. We like it for its strength, appearance, and ease of installation. We also like the benefit of doing the floor and ceiling below in one operation, a real plus with the plank-and – beam system. Also, we wanted to maintain visual consistency with the original floor, because there would be a direct doorway opening from the dining room into the new sunroom.

The toughest part of the planking was installing the first board, because it had to be scribed to fit a very rough-textured cordwood masonry wall, as can be seen in Fig. 5.19...

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A Checklist for Choosing a Healthy Mattress

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

Our homes are places for rest, retreat, and regen­eration. If designed, built, and furnished simply and intelligently, they can help us restore our bal­ance and our connection with nature. For most of us, however, creating a healthy home environment is unfamiliar — and sometimes overwhelming — territory and it is hard to know where to begin. Even if you can’t make every detail in your home healthy, besure your bedroom is as healthyas pos­sible. It’s the most important room in the house. And the most important piece of furniture in the house is your bed, where you spend a third of your life. We are most vulnerable when we sleep. Our bodies let down, shed metabolic waste, and re­group...

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INSTALLINGм SQUARE-CUT DOOR CASING

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

Few frames are perfectly square, so use a framing square to survey the corners. Note whether a cor­ner is greater or less than 90°, and vary your cuts accordingly when you fine-tune the corner joints. Note, too, whether the floor is level, because side casing usually rests on the floor.

First, rough cut the casing. To determine the length(s) of side casings, measure down from the reveal line on the head frame to the finish floor.

(If finish floors aren’t installed yet, measure down to a scrap of flooring.) Cut the side casings about h in. long so you can fine-tune the joints; then tack the casings to the reveal lines on the side frames. (Use 18-gauge or 20-gauge brads.) Next measure from the outer edges of the side casings to determine the length of the head cas­ing...

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Sliding Stability

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

To provide adequate resistance against sliding, the base of the wall should be at least 3 ft below ground surface in front and below the depth of frost action, depth of seasonal volume change, and depth of scour. Sliding stability should be adequate without including passive pressure at the toe. If insufficient sliding resistance is available, the designer may increase base width, provide a pile foundation, or lower the base of the wall and consider passive resistance below frost depth. If the wall is supported on rock or very stiff clay, a key may be installed below the foundation to provide additional resistance to sliding...

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Mitigation Methods

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

The implementation of mitigation and prevention measures from roads and road traffic should follow the pollutant fate in the environment. Before planning and designing of protection against pollutants from road and road traffic, a conceptual model of the pollutant fate in the particular environment should be established. This should help to estimate potential risks and hazards to water bodies’ pollution. The model usually consist of three main parts that are represented by definition of pollu­tant sources, pathways of pollutants through the environment and targets that receive pollution from the sources in road environment. The concept of pollutant fate in the environment is described in greater detail in Chapter 6.

As in every environmentally-driven decision, care must be taken that th...

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General framework of optimization models

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

Optimization models possess algorithms to compare the measures of effective­ness of a system and attempt to yield the optimal solution having the most de­sirable value of the adopted measures. In other words, an optimization model applies an optimum-seeking algorithm, which enables the search of all alterna­tive solutions to select the best one. The general class of such optimum-seeking algorithms is called mathematical programming, which includes linear pro­gramming, nonlinear programming, dynamic programming, etc.

The main advantage of optimization models is that the optimal solution to a multidimensional (or multivariate) problem can be found readily by using an efficient search algorithm...

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RIGID RETAINING WALLS

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

8.4.1 General Criteria

Rigid retaining walls are those that develop lateral resistance primarily from their own weight. Figure 8.20 shows the terms used in the design of this type of wall. On the basis of their overall cross-sections, those walls may be referred to as L walls or T walls. (See insets, Fig. 8.3.)

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Harrisburg, Pa., with permission)

Examples of rigid structures typically include concrete gravity walls, thick concrete slurry walls, and gabion walls. Additionally, some Reinforced Earth walls, if designed to be reinforced in such a way that limited lateral movement will occur, can also be categorized as rigid walls...

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Economic Considerations

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

During the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of roads, economics plays an important role with pollution mitigation measures providing constraints that have a significant influence on the final cost of the road and its operation. Water protection measurements can represent an important proportion of the total road cost. For example, in Slovenia (a country in which groundwater is a very valuable resource) it was estimated that, over the groundwater sensitive areas, the protection costs represent between 10 and 50% of the total road construction costs.

Roads are constructed due to socio-economic demands and local communication needs. They are among the most important infrastructure objects provided by soci­ety’s development...

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Fill holes and gaps

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

Once the trim has been installed, the next step is to set all the nails, then fill and sand the nail holes. Any nails that are above the surface of the wood must be driven below the surface with a nail set (see the photo at left). If you plan to stain or polyurethane the trim, fill the holes with matching wood putty. For paint prep, you can use painter’s putty or ordinary Spackle® applied with a small putty knife or your finger.

Подпись:Подпись: Fill any gaps with caulk. Before painting the trim, use latex caulk to fill any gaps between the trim and the wall. After applying the caulk with a caulking gun, use a damp rag to smooth the joint.Sometimes the miter joints (where the door and window trim meet) are not tight so you need to fill the gaps. There also may be slight gaps between the wall and sections of door and window casing or baseboard trim. In addition, check for gaps between shelving and walls and around cabinets and other built-ins...

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­Finishing Tips

Posted by on 23/ 11/ 15

Details on stripping trim, prep work, stains, dear finishes, and paints are given in Chapter 18. Here’s a handful of additional tips:

► Most trim stock comes smooth enough to paint or stain. If you find rough spots, sand them with 120-grit to 180-grit sandpaper before finishing. If molding has only a few rough spots, wrap sandpaper around a block for flat trim or use a sanding sponge for shaped stock. Use a palm sander or an orbital sander on flat trim with a lot of rough spots.

► If you apply a first coat of finish or paint to the trim before installing it, you won’t need to worry about getting finish on painted walls and ceilings. Cut and attach the trim, sand and fill joints as needed, sink nail heads, fill holes with crayon putty, and lightly final sand...

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