The wizard of Macomber Lane stands about 8 feet tall.

He towers over a bed of asters, echinacea and other flowers planted to attract butterflies in Debbie and Roger Matherly's front yard in Oakland Mills, clutching a staff nearly as big as himself with an owl perched on his shoulder and a fox standing watch at his foot.

He used to be a pine tree, but once his rotting branches started to threaten the Matherlys' roof, they knew it was time for a change. Instead of cutting down the pine and carting it off, they chose to take a more creative route.

"What if we have a statue there instead of a stump?" Roger Matherly said.

So the couple commissioned local carver Evelyn Mogren, who lives just two miles away on Thunder Hill Road, and about a month later, their stump was transformed into a wizard.

He's already cast his spell on the neighbors.

"I think it's awesome," said Kishonna McKenzie, who lives next door.

"It looks like that guy from the Lord of the Rings," her husband, Lamont McKenzie, added.

But the wizard almost couldn't work his magic on Columbia's covenants.

When the Matherlys brought their application to a village committee in charge of approving front-yard structures and other additions to a property, members decided not to give the wizard their blessing at least not if he stayed in front of the house.

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Wizard tree conjures up debate over art in Oakland Mills

Ceramic Tile Flooring Los Angeles (213) 984-4193
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Ceramic Tile Flooring Los Angeles (213) 984-4193 - Video

Flooring America offers you an impressive selection of quality flooring to meet your practical and aesthetic goals. We provide a spectrum of options for home flooring, featuring exclusive brands and styles that are suitable for every taste and budget

We carry a variety of styles and brands, including Tigress and Resista carpet, to offer you the best in the flooring market. Trust that when you buy flooring from our reputable flooring store, you receive exceptional products and services.

From economical Berber carpeting to sophisticated hardwood floors, Flooring America carries ideal flooring types for every household. Busy families with small children and pets love our nylon and polyester carpets, which offer superior stain protection, durability, and casual appeal. Couples who appreciate refined aesthetics may opt for solid hardwood, stunning bamboo, wool, and Saxony textures for formal, low-key rooms. Whatever your lifestyle and your requirements, quality floors for you abound at any one of our 500 stores across the US. Our showrooms are full of display boards and samples to give you a taste of what your new flooring will look like. We offer the latest in stylish:

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Flooring America

There are so many things to consider when you're replacing your home's flooring. With so many options these days its key to do your research before committing to certain style or material. Take into account variables such as foot traffic, durability, stain resistance, effort of cleaning, maintenance and styles. These will all play a part in giving your home the perfect look.

Make sure you have a compromise between looks and function. Beautiful hardwood or slate tile floors might give your home the perfect look, but good involve too much maintenance and not wear as well in your higher traffic areas. Vinyl flooring is a great cost effective alternative to tile and can be installed in less than a day. These days you can just about find any color or style flooring you could possibly want, so be sure to take your time when deciding exactly what you're going to use throughout your home.

Most flooring will be easily installed by a licensed professional. These skilled flooring contractors will help you choose the right flooring material for your home, and should guide you through the entire process. They can also repair damage to your existing floors bringing them back to their original glory. Be sure you compare quotes from different flooring contractors before deciding who to trust your new home improvement project to.

The problem is there are just so many flooring installation contractors out there, it can be tough to know who to trust for your next major home improvement project. I'm sure we've all seen the commercials for carpet and flooring experts, browsed through pages of flooring repair contractors in the phone book and seen the many flooring stores littered throughout local strip malls. Of course each of them will say they are the best, so again the problem is who to choose? Luckily Fix The Home is a great way to ensure you are working with your area's absolute best, hand selected, fully licensed and insured flooring contractors. When you use a reliable and trustworthy flooring contractor that you're comfortable with, you're sure to have a successful project! Get started on your stress and problem free flooring installation, repair or replacement job by finding the right contractor.

Fix The Home's easy to use online contractor referral service is the perfect way to find your area's highest quality flooring experts. From vinyl, wood and carpet, to slate, tile, concrete and everything in between our pre-screened and hand selected specialists do it all. Just complete the short form here on your left and we'll get you started. It's just that simple so compare free estimates from local flooring contractors today!

Find local Flooring companies and contractors on FixTheHome.com. If you are a home improvement contractor you can join our Flooring contractor directory or contact one of our partners to receive Flooring leads online. To get started just visit our signup page. > Get Listed on this Website > Signup to Get Flooring Leads

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Find Flooring Installation & Repair Contractors

Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Wood is a common choice as a flooring material due to its environmental profile, durability, and restorability. Bamboo flooring is often considered a form of wood flooring, although it is made from a grass (bamboo) rather than a timber.[1]

Solid hardwood floors are made of planks milled from a single piece of timber. Solid hardwood floors were originally used for structural purposes, being installed perpendicular to the wooden support beams of a building known as joists or bearers. With the increased use of concrete as a subfloor in some parts of the world, engineered wood flooring has gained some popularity. However, solid wood floors are still common and popular. Solid wood floors have a thicker wear surface and can be sanded and finished more times than an engineered wood floor. It is not uncommon for homes in New England, Eastern Canada, and Europe which are several hundred years old to have the original solid wood floor still in use today.

Solid wood flooring is milled from a single piece of timber that is kiln or air dried before sawing. Depending on the desired look of the floor, the timber can be cut in three ways: flat-sawn, quarter-sawn, and rift-sawn. The timber is cut to the desired dimensions and either packed unfinished for a site-finished installation or finished at the factory. The moisture content at time of manufacturing is carefully controlled to ensure the product doesn't warp during transport and storage.

There are a number of proprietary features for solid wood floors that are available. Many solid woods come with grooves cut into the back of the wood that run the length of each plank, often called 'absorption strips,' that are intended to reduce cupping. Solid wood floors are mostly manufactured .75 inches (19mm) thick with a tongue-and-groove for installation.

This process involves treating the wood by boiling the log in water at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time. After preparation, the wood is peeled by a blade starting from the outside of the log and working toward the center, thus creating a wood veneer. The veneer is then pressed flat with high pressure. This style of manufacturing tends to have problems with the wood cupping or curling back to its original shape. Rotary-peeled engineered hardwoods tend to have a plywood appearance in the grain.

This process begins with the same treatment process that the rotary peel method uses. However, instead of being sliced in a rotary fashion, with this technique the wood is sliced from the log in much the same manner that lumber is sawn from a log - straight through. The veneers then go through the same manufacturing process as rotary peeled veneers. Engineered hardwood produced this way tends to have fewer problems with "face checking", and also does not have the same plywood appearance in the grain. However, the planks can tend to have edge splintering and cracking due to the fact the veneers have been submersed in water and then pressed flat.

Instead of boiling the hardwood logs, in this process they are kept at a low humidity level and dried slowly to draw moisture from the inside of the wood cells. The logs are then sawed in the same manner as for solid hardwood planks. This style of engineered hardwood has the same look as solid hardwood, and does not have any of the potential problems of "face checking" that rotary-peel and slice-peel products have, because the product is not exposed to added moisture.

Engineered wood flooring is composed of two or more layers of wood in the form of a plank. The top layer (lamella) is the wood that is visible when the flooring is installed and is adhered to the core. The increased stability of engineered wood is achieved by running each layer at a 90 angle to the layer above. This stability makes it a universal product that can be installed over all types of subfloors above, below or on grade. Engineered wood is the most common type of wood flooring used globally.

There are several different categories of engineered wood flooring:

All timber wood floors are made from sawn wood and are the most common category of engineered wood flooring. They do not use rotary peeled veneer, composite wood (such as HDF), or plastic in their construction.

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Wood flooring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We bought our little house a few years ago when we had one baby.

We loved it and it was the perfect fit for us.When I ws pregnant with our third, we decided to renovate our attic.

Our house was built in the 1920s. The attic was basically untouched that entire time. It was

nearly impossible to get into as well. I had never been up there until renovations had started. It was

your typically old and creepy attic. We had a friend who was a builder do the renovations in record timing.

He was amazing and a big thanks goes out to him. He started the work when I was 33 weeks pregnant and

finished it when I was 39 weeks.

We didnt live in our home during the majority of this

process. It would have been impossible to keep kids out of the mess and it wasnt safe

with the dust and chemical exposure. Im thankful that we had willing parents to let us

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Our Attic Renovation: Before and After | The Itsy Bitsy House

Photo: Borges Brooks Builders

Want more livable space in your home? Dont want to spend a kings ransom? Attic conversion has fit the bill for countless homeowners over the years.

Unlike many basements, attics are dry, and being free of major appliances (e.g., the furnace), they are also quiet. You can devote the finished space to any number of purposes: Attics are suitable as home offices, TV rooms, art studios and even bedroomsthe list of possible uses goes on at length.

Related: Planning Guide: Basement Remodeling

Before starting on an attic conversion project, youll need to negotiate a gauntlet of building codes. Of course, these vary from one municipality to the next, but most codes correspond to one or another edition of the International Residential Code for One- and Two-Story Dwellings (IRC).

To view the latest IRC codes (as well as previous editions), go here. If youre confused about which edition bears relevance to your individual home, ask an official in the building department of your city, town, village or hamlet.

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Attic Renovation - Planning Guide - Bob Vila

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