If you want to increase the value of your house then try installing wood flooring. Wood floor is a more popular option than stone floors or slate floors. Wood has a depth and a warm feeling that will make your house feel cozy all year long.

You can find a large range of flooring in a variety of woods. You can choose the kind of wood you want to install in your home based on your taste and the look and feel of your home. Installing wood Flooring can be a great asset to your home. Learning how to install wood flooring or hiring someone to do it for you is an investment you won’t regret. Wood flooring may not be right for a bathroom or kitchen because of the moisture levels.

Hardwood floors are a very classic choice in flooring. You can choose from wide selection of hardwoods. Try oak, cherry, hickory, maple, walnut or bellawood. You can find these in a natural color or in a stained look. You should think about leaving the wood its own color because some woods have a lovely finish that does not need to be stained. Cherry and walnut are two such examples.

Looking into the options you have for a finish when you have finished choosing the material. You can also buy wood that has been finished already which will make your job a whole lot easier. Usually it is stained and comes with a clear coating on it. This can be more pricey, but often it is worth it for the time it will save you.

You can also put the flooring down and then finish it afterwards. You will have to do the sanding, staining, and put urethane on the floor. After each coat you will have to sand it. This can take a few days to complete this whole process. You more separate coats of urethane you use the better off your surface will be.

You might also want to try reclaimed flooring. This means that it does not have a smooth texture, but they are still very attractive and don’t look like any other finish. You will also not have to see scratches on them like you will in urethane flooring.

You can also choose other things besides hardwood floors. Laminate flooring is also a good option for you. You can get these to look like real hardwood floors, but they are generally cheaper. You can hardly tell the difference between hard wood floors and laminate flooring. You can also look into a wide selection of bamboo or Cork Flooring that can give your home a great look.

Caring for your wood floors will ensure that they last longer and you can practice different things to protect your flooring no matter what kind you are using. Whether it is hardwood, laminate, or any other type of flooring then you’ll use most of the same kind of techniques.

You’ll want to sweep and vacuum your floor on a regular basis to keep the dirty and dust down. You’ll also want to wipe off the floor too to get rid of marks.

Greg K. Hansward
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/learn-how-to-install-wood-flooring-130724.html

All of your suggested colours look great with the brazilian cherry and with each other. (Fall leaf colours.) Could use in different rooms- tie together with fabric -furniture/ window treatments, art & accessories

Olive or sage green will compliment and highlight the red in brazilian cherry floor. Calming colour, easy to live with.

Gold - lean more towards rich caramel gold. Traditional. Higher energy colour.

Artistic Red? - will "wrap the room" in red - drawing the eye to furniture, trim/ceiling, accessories. Perhaps red leaning towards copper.

Favorite - olive/sage green.

Professional Decorator

Building a self build conservatory is actually quite a straight-forward task and if you are a competent DIY enthusiast you will find adding a new conservatory to your home is relatively easy and not as daunting as it may first appear.

The following is designed to provide a general guide to the process of installing a new DIY conservatory and whilst not intended to be a detailed construction guide should provide you with the basics.

1) CONSERVATORY BASE
You have two choices with regard to the type of conservatory base. You can either select a traditional excavated base or you can use a pre-fabricated steel base which will speed up the installation process.

Traditional Base
If you choose the traditional base route you may prefer to employ a local builder to build the base for you as the accuracy of the brickwork is vital in ensuring that your new conservatory can be installed easily and efficiently. Your DIY conservatory supplier will provide you with the base plans to suit your selected conservatory and the base must be constructed exactly to these plans. Using an experienced builder to build the base should ensure that the base is built square, to the correct dimensions and that the footings are excavated correctly. If drains need to be re-routed your builder will have the necessary experience to do this for you during the course of construction. Always agree the cost before work commences and ensure you check the base yourself when the builder has finished to make sure you are happy with the finished result. It can be difficult to get a builder back on site once he has moved onto his next job and any discrepancies in the brickwork could cause problems during the conservatory installation.

Of course you can construct the traditional base yourself and many of our customers have done so but it is time-consuming and very hard work so the savings you will make here by doing-it-yourself will need to be justified against the amount of free time you have to do the job and your expertise in building the foundations and laying bricks.

Steel Base
Installing a pre-fabricated steel base is much quicker and easier than constructing a traditional base as there are no large excavations to undertake so there is minimum disruption to your garden and no need to move any drains. These bases are normally made to order, delivered in kit form and are quite straight-forward to install by two persons over a couple of days or so. If your conservatory features dwarf walls, these will normally be provided as steel cassettes with a variety of external finishes including brick tiles or alternatively, supplied ready for rendering. The base itself is fixed to the wall of the house and sits on adjustable legs that are seated onto concrete pads making it very easy to level the floor which will normally be supplied with insulation and often comes complete with Flooring. A steel base can be a cost effective alternative base for your new self build conservatory, especially when you compare construction times and the fact that there is little disruption to your garden. Once completed, these factory built conservatory bases are often very difficult to tell apart from a traditional constructed base. You could even take the conservatory with you when you move house!

2) INSTALLING YOUR NEW DIY CONSERVATORY

Most DIY conservatories are supplied complete with installation instructions that are designed for the novice installer and will cover fixing the walls of the conservatory, installing the conservatory roof and glazing the conservatory structure.

In general terms these instructions will walk you through fixing the French door, the welded cill, the conservatory windows, the corner posts and the conservatory roof. The most important factor to continually check when installing any conservatory is to ensure the frames and cill remain plumb and level throughout the construction. All screw fixings and their positions should be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the DIY conservatory supplier.

The roof structure will include an eaves beam that will sit on top of the window and door frames, a ridge beam or wall plate that will be fixed to your house wall and glazing bars that will connect between the ridge or wall plate and eaves beam. All components should be supplied factory cut, marked and pre-drilled ready for fitting and apart from trimming the guttering to size there should be no need for you to cut any of the roof components. The roof layout plan will enable you to identify which component and which glazing panel should be fitted in which position. Where the conservatory joins the house you will need to fit lead flashing to form a weatherproof seal.

3) FINISHING THE CONSERVATORY INSTALLATION

With the conservatory walls and roof installed your next task will be to glaze the roof. If you have chosen polycarbonate roof glazing this is a relatively simple task and involves placing the glazing into position and knocking on the PVCu cappings to form a weather tight seal. The roof plan will indicate the required position of each panel. If you have chosen a glass roof the process will take longer due to the additional weight and nature of the material.

Budget DIY conservatories may be supplied with the windows and door factory glazed but made to order conservatories are generally supplied with windows and doors unglazed. Not only does this help to ensure that glass is not broken during the installation process but the windows are generally supplied much longer to provide slimmer sightlines and there could be health and safety issues if the frames were supplied glazed due to the considerable weight of a glazed window.

Most windows and doors are now internally beaded using a “knock-in” glazing bead and the glazing process should become relatively easy once you have glazed a couple of apertures. Glazing packers are used to support and pack the glass so it is square in the aperture and the glazing bead is knocked into place using a rubber mallet. If you are glazing during cold weather it is a good idea to emerse the glazing bead in warm water which will help make the bead more flexible and easier to position. Your installation guide will detail the exact process used.

Finally, silicone sealant will need to be applied to all joints in accordance with your installation guide and the internal PVCu trims will need to be fitted to the roof eaves beam, ridge beam and glazing bars.

Your new self build conservatory should now be structurally complete and weather tight ready for the finishing internal touches.

You will find much more information on installing a
DIY conservatory here or for detailed information on the
alternative base here

Tony Wiggins
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/diy-conservatory-construction-guide-80368.html

These days Hardwood FlooFlooring is extremely popular as it is more convenient, easier to clean and it looks a lot more modern than carpet does. With carpet the constant vacuuming and the effort of trying to clean up spills is often tiring, whereas with hardwood floors it is nothing like that. All you need to do is a quick sweep, a little mop and use a little floor wax in order to keep it shining and looking brand new. It is certainly a lot easier than having a carpet!

Using Floor Wax

Wax is used on hardwood floors in order to keep it looking clean as well as providing it with a protective coating. Using it regularly will really help to stop the floor from ruining and it will also keep the wood healthy. Another good reason to use floor wax is because often with hardwood floors, if they get exposed to water they will expand and the wood will raise and become soft and ruined. The wax acts as a protective layer between the floor and the water and therefore it stops it from being soaked in and therefore it will not ruin the wood.

Obviously when you do apply the wax you will have to be careful as it does not give a look of a slippery surface for nothing! It is best to wear something on your feet which will grip the floor and prevent you from slipping once you have applied the wax. However, there is an advantage to the slippery factor and that is that the floor will be less prone to damage as things which hit it will simply slide off instead of making a dent.

The only downside to using floor wax is that as with many other things, the amount of wax can build up over time as you continue to periodically wax the floor. This will mean that you then have to spend money on a wax remover and you will need to research that thoroughly beforehand in order to prevent any damage to the floor from using the wrong type of product.

Overall however, floor wax is necessary if you want to keep your hardwood floors clean and protected for longer. It really will make a difference and it really does not take that long to do. As long as you research thoroughly beforehand you should be able to wax the floor easily and get the right products which you need in case of a wax build up.

A.Caxton
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/keep-your-hardwood-floors-clean-with-floor-wax-103737.html

Second only to the walls in terms of surface area, the flooring in your home offers a real opportunity to make a large scale style statement. Unlike walls however, flooring has the added task of standing up to a lot of wear and tear. Finding a good balance is crucial to successful flooring.

Carpeting is currently making a huge comeback. A decade of laminate Flooring has left us all yearning for a little comfort and warmth underfoot. Most people ditched their carpet in an effort to toe the minimal line, but today this really is unnecessary as a modern clutter free finish can still be achieved with carpets. The trick is to opt for the pattern free variety. A biscuit or oatmeal coloured carpet will really blend well into a minimal setting whilst creating a warm ambience. Do not be afraid of warm colours when trying to achieve a contemporary look, clinical is not what you are looking for. Generally speaking, it is best to avoid cream or off-white carpets as no matter how careful you are, they will show up any mark- you want to be comfortable not tip toeing all over the sitting room. If you must have a really light carpet, restrict its use to the bedrooms where you are usually barefoot anyway and can also be sure guests won’t be traipsing in and out. If you have children or a dog, you can still enjoy the comfort of carpeting whilst retaining a modern look, simply choice a darker shade. Plum, aubergine, slate, burgundy or even black are all really up-to-the-minute shades that will allow for a few mishaps.

Wooden flooring is probably the favourite of British homeowners at the minute, and not without reason. A wooden floor really does add something indefinable to a space. It natural and comforting and brings a real sense of history and timelessness. Yet at the same time is still amongst the most contemporary and urban chic flooring opting on the market. Available in so many variations it is extremely versatile- a dark oak or mahogany floor will help create some classic British stateliness, whereas walnut or Bamboo creates a real youthful vibrancy. And it is not only the huge array of styles that makes a wooden floor so usable, it is also the unique blend of comfort and durability that means wood is possibly the only flooring material that can be used all over the house. Equally as at home in a light shade in the kitchen when paired up with simple trimmings like a cheap roller blind and chrome bar stools, as it is in a dark stain sitting under the ornate bay window curtains of a Georgian town house, wood really can do it all.

The final flooring must have for the home is tiling. Once restricted to the kitchen and the bathroom, the massive increase in tile variations over the last few years has meant they have began to pop up in less conventional places. This can only be a good thing as a lot of tiles on the market are far too beautiful to be hidden under the bathroom sink. A dark slate floor would provide the ultimate base to a chic minimal living room, and with it being a natural material, it actually won’t appear cold if paired with a big fluffy rug. Mosaic tiles are also a wonderful way to spice up a room. They are available in so many finishes and colours and create an amazing speckled effect on whatever surface they cover. A hallway is a really great place to experiment with tiling. Being the main thorough-fair in the home, it needs to have hard wearing flooring. It is also not a room you spend a lot of time in, so you can afford to add a little more colour than you might in the sitting room.

Terry Henman
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/flooring-fundamentals-698478.html