Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Upon returning home to your condo after a long day at the office, all you want is some peace and quiet. As the front door closes behind you and the outside world fades, you remove your shoes and walk over to the couch to relax. Unfortunately, before you can clear your head, the downstairs neighbor begins playing opera music -- again -- at a volume loud enough to be considered a live performance. Not the quietest welcome home.

One of the advantages of carpet is that it dampens the noise around you. In fact, carpeting can create a comfortable, soft feel throughout your home. Carpet can also be a beautiful accessory and can really liven up a room; often, the color and style of your carpet is as important to your home's design as the furniture you select.

Once you've picked out the perfect combination of style and color, it's time to decide whether you are going to hire a professional to install it or make a go of doing it on your own. There are a lot of things to consider before you tackle carpet installation yourself. Often, it might be best to bring in a professional to do the job.

The two approaches -- working on your own and having professionals do the installation for you -- each has its advantages. The determining factors for both revolve around cost, effort, equipment and how much time you are willing to invest in the project.

On the next page, we'll look at some of the pros and cons of professional installation versus do-it-yourself (DIY) installation.

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HowStuffWorks "How Professional Carpet Installation Works"

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What size building or store do you need? When planning your retail store, the amount of selling space will be one of the most important factors in selecting a location. It is can also be one of the most difficult to determine.

As with any new business, most of your assumptions will be based on industry research and comparing similar stores operating in similar locations. To get an estimate on how much selling space your store must have, divide the planned sales volume by your industry's sales per square foot.

Sales Volume Sales per Square Foot = Selling Space

Let's say you believe your proposed book store will do $250,000 per year in sales and market data says the average sales-per-square-foot in a book store is $150. By plugging those numbers into our formula, the amount of selling space you will need is approximately 1666 square feet.

Besides selling space, remember to factor in extra square feet for an office area, stockroom, storage, and/or bathrooms. Although you may want room to grow, keep the size of the building close to your store's needs. A big store takes more inventory to fill and an empty looking store may not attract customers.

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What Size Building or Store Do I Need? - Calculating Retail ...

by WBDG Staff

Last updated: 06-02-2009

The Joint Use Retail space types are stores used for the sale of products and services. Joint Use Retail space types may include news and book stands, flower shops, convenience stores, travel agencies, credit unions, dry cleaning services, shoe shine stands, barber and beauty shops, print shops, courier mail shops, retail of clothing or other hard goods, and similar applications.

Features that are not included in this space type are: dry cleaning services, cashier windows, vaults, built-in safes, drive-through windows, or pneumatic tube systems, barber and beauty shops, and print shops. Some types of leased spaces may be more characteristic of other space types, such as offices for insurance agencies (Office) and pharmacies (Health Care).

Unique to Joint Use Retail space types is the integration of aesthetics into the entrances, windows, and retail areas within the space that help designate the space as commercial, and that can be easily distinguished from areas of the space that are accessible only to retail employees. Typical features of Joint Use Retail space types include the list of applicable design objectives elements as outlined below. For a complete list and definitions of the design objectives within the context of whole building design, click on the titles below.

The following building program is representative of Joint Use Retail space types.

JOINT USE RETAIL

The following diagram illustrates representative tenant plans.

For GSA, the unit costs for Joint Use Retail space types are based on the construction quality and design features in the following table (PDF 52 KB, 4 pgs). This information is based on GSA's benchmark interpretation and could be different for other owners.

The following agencies and organizations have developed codes and standards affecting the design of Joint Use Retail space types. Note that the codes and standards are minimum requirements. Architects, engineers, and consultants should consider exceeding the applicable requirements whenever possible.

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Joint Use Retail | Whole Building Design Guide

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You may be familiar with the ENERGY STAR label on energy efficient heating and cooling equipment, but did you know there are also Quality Installation (QI) guidelines to help ensure that heating and cooling equipment is installed properly? Nearly half of all heating and cooling equipment in U.S. homes never performs to its advertised capacity and efficiency due to incorrect installation, which means homeowners pay higher operating costs over the life of the equipment.

The ENERGY STAR QI program helps homeowners identify contractors who install heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment to the QI guidelines. By purchasing high efficiency equipment and having it properly installed, a homeowner can lower their energy bills, increase comfort in their home, and extend the useful life of their equipment.

The ENERGY STAR QI program requires a local sponsor, such as an electric or gas utility. For more information on ENERGY STAR QI program in your area, contact your local sponsor. But even if your utility does not yet offer an ENERGY STAR QI program, you may be able to find local contractors who follow some of the Quality Installation procedures. Use the Bid Comparison Checklist (350KB) to help find the right contractor for you.

When your new heating and cooling equipment is installed to meet ENERGY STAR Quality Installation Guidelines, you avoid common installation problems that can reduce the efficiency of your home. These improvements to efficiency can reduce your heating and cooling costs by as much as 30%.

ENERGY STAR Quality Installation Guidelines, are based on the Air Conditioning Contractors of America's (ACCA) HVAC Quality Installation Specification, and is recognized as an American National Standard. These industry best practices help ensure that your new equipment is:

Whether you are installing a new system or replacing existing heating and cooling equipment, installing equipment properly is essential to getting the best performance.

Estimated savings potential with QI ranges from 18% to 36% for air conditioners and heat pumps and 11% to 18% for furnaces.

The charts below show the losses in typical residential HVAC systems. Quality installations help deliver the equipment's full potential.

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Bert Markgraf

Bert Markgraf is a freelance writer with a strong science and engineering background. He started writing technical papers while working as an engineer in the 1980s. More recently, after starting his own business in IT, he helped organize an online community for which he wrote and edited articles as managing editor, business and economics. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University.

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The installation of geothermal heating and cooling requires an interior heat pump and outside piping to collect the heat. For water source heat pumps, water from a well is piped to the heat pump and then injected into a second well or spilled into a creek or ditch. For ground source heat pumps, a water-based antifreeze mixture is pumped through pipes buried in the ground and circulated through the heat pump. Both types of heat pump require more ducting for forced-air heating than conventional furnaces.

Calculate the size of heat pump required. If you are replacing an existing furnace, it will have a Btu rating. If it is a new installation, a survey of the heat requirements of the house must be carried out. The heat pump will have either a Btu rating or it will have a coefficient of performance (COP) and an energy input in Btu. Multiply the energy input by the COP to get the heat output. Match the heat requirements of the house as closely as possible, taking into consideration that the heat requirements of a new house increase as insulation sags and door and window seals age.

Choose a ground source or water source heat pump by looking at the possibility of drilling wells or digging long, 6-foot-deep ditches in your area. Water source heat pumps require a well which will yield about 5 gallons per minute but a second well is often required to absorb this amount of water. Wells take up little space but are usually the more expensive option.

Ground source heat pumps use pipes buried deep in the ground as a heat source. Vertical shafts as for a well are an option if there is little space and no water. The least expensive solution is usually to bury piping 6 feet deep in the ground but this requires about half an acre of land and ground which can be excavated. One of these solutions will be the least expensive and most appropriate for your project.

Drill the well or vertical shafts or bury the ground source piping as per the heat pump manufacturer's instructions. Water source heat pumps have fewer specific requirements for the water circulating in and out of the heat pump but make sure the required volume is available. The water hardness is also important to minimize scaling.

The requirements for the ground source heat pump are more particular. Manufacturers will usually specify the water based mixture, the size and type of pipe, the spacing, the depth at which it must be buried and the back-fill procedure. Most home owners use qualified installers to carry out this work.

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Geothermal Heating & Cooling Installation | eHow

Marissa Robert

Marissa Robert graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English language and literature. She has extensive experience writing marketing campaigns and business handbooks and manuals, as well as doing freelance writing, proofreading and editing. While living in France she translated manuscripts into English. She has published articles on various websites and also periodically maintains two blogs.

Geothermal heating is making great strides into commonplace usage in this day of increased environmental awareness. Whether you want to have a smaller impact on the environment or you want lower energy bills, consider replacing your less efficient forced air system with a geothermal heating system. It requires a larger up front investment than traditional heating systems do, but it pays for itself in the savings you see on your heating bills within a few years.

How to Install Geothermal Heating & Cooling Systems. Geothermal heating is making great strides into commonplace usage in this day of increased...

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