Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The Mayors Commission on New Government and Judicial Building is getting closer to making a recommendation to Columbus Council on what to do with the 46-year-old structure.

On Wednesday, architects presented members with three conceptual site studies to consider. Later, the group began making plans for a series of forums to seek public input.

Before they put the pictures up, I just want to say, concepts are concepts, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson told the group, as architects prepared to share their PowerPoint slides. They dont necessarily go exactly on the property where theyre located. They dont necessarily look like that. Remember this is not the design committee. Our objective is to get some conceptual proposals to submit to council so that they can consider. And there would be another design committee, or however they want to structure it, in the future.

Tomlinson said the commission plans to have four simultaneous public forums in about 10 to 14 days, which would give the city time to advertise the meetings. At the same time, the commission will be working on a rough draft of the report that will be submitted to council.

And then were off to the races, she said. ... I dont want to make any promises, but I see this getting to council in the Octoberish timeframe.

The conceptual site studies were presented by Tim Jensen, a partner with Hecht Burdeshaw Architects, and Michael Starr, a partner with 2WR. They presented three scenarios for the building:

Scenario 1 - Renovation of the existing tower and wings

Scenario 2 - Renovation of the tower only

Scenario 3 - Total new construction

Starting with Scenario 1, Jensen said renovations to the facility would involve totally gutting the building.

If you imagine the existing structure is there, everything is gone, he explained. So, literally, at the end of the day when the demolition is finished, the sun will shine through, the wind blows through. All you have is structure. Theres no HVAC. Theres no electrical. ... Theres no skin. You would have the ribs that run throughout the building.

... Now, that doesnt quite get us enough space, he said. And so, what we would then do is have an addition that surrounds the tower to make up that space.

Scenario 2 would require significant modification to include a multi-story base added to the existing tower, which would be used for judicial purposes only. The plaza would be removed and a two-level parking deck constructed. Another structure would be built on the site for city administrative offices.

Scenario 3 would involve total new construction. The existing building would be demolished and replaced by two structures a justice center and separate city administrative building. Underground parking would take up the entire southern half of the block.

Starr said Scenario 2 and 3 are common in that they include useable, public green space.

It would rely upon spaces on the north and south side to say, Hey, citizens of Columbus, this is your space, and these are your buildings, he said.

The plans also call for secure entrances for employees and judges, a situation that doesnt exist in the current building, causing safety concerns.

The architects said the cost to renovate the tower and two wings (Scenario 1) would cost about $100,430,602, when demolition, construction and start-date of the project are taken into account. The cost for renovating the tower for judicial purposes and building a new city office building (Scenario 2) would cost $105,417,822. The cost for constructing two new buildings (Scenario 3) would cost $115,506,520.

All three estimates include an increase for time through 2023. They dont include expenses for development of the interior.

The concepts were developed based on 75,000-square-feet for city administrative offices and dont include space for city employees currently located at the annex, the architects said. But they agreed, at the request of commission members, to modify the site plan to include people from the annex, which would require another 27,000-square feet The proposals also include undeveloped space for future growth.

It could be that we could sell the annex building and get some cash for all of this, Tomlinson said.

Kristen Miller Zohn, a local art historian and commission member, asked if the facade and design of the building would be affected in Scenario 1.

Yes and no, said Jensen. Its a new facade. But the intention is we could go back to something thats very similar in nature. ... Today, you have these two columns and what appears to be glass between them, right? So, everything will go away, except for the columns that you see. We would intend to put glass back in between there again, and there would be some other embellishments to the degree that we needed them for functionality.

Zohn then said: So, in none of these scenarios does the original aesthetics of that style of building from 1971 remain intact.

The architects said the amount of space available at the site, code restrictions and the security required for handling prisoners would prohibit the building remaining exactly the same as it is today.

Stay 100 percent completely intact? No. Thats true, Jensen said.

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Government center commission moves closer to council recommendation - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

The Stark County Auditor's office is temporarily on the third floor of the Stark County Office Building until December. Workers are renovating and reconfiguring the auditor's second-floor offices so the public has one common point of entry, so officials have a large meeting space, to improve security and to get all of the auditor's office staff not in the information technology department on one floor.

CANTON Alan Harold became Stark County Auditor in 2011, and he noticed that several people would wander around his offices often looking confused.

To execute a property transfer, people had to visit three locations in the "little maze we have here," in the auditor's office inside the County Office Building downtown, which stretched from the eastern side of the second floor by the county treasurer's offices, to the south side and to the west side by the commissioners' offices, Harold said. And the auditor's fiscal department was on the third floor. Visitors were often asking for directions to the department they needed.

The auditor's second-floor staff moved up temporarily to the former third-floor offices of the Adult Probation department. The county has hired a contractor to reconfigure and renovate the auditor's second floor offices to establish one public entrance, convert office space into a large meeting space and revamp the office floor layout so Harold's entire staff can be consolidated onto the second floor.

The work is scheduled to be completed by December.

Harold said the office had more than one public point of entry besides the entrance by the reception desk. Any member of the public could pop into most auditor employee's offices with no notice. Harold felt it wasn't very secure. With the employees spread throughout the building, it made efficient communication between staffers more difficult.

In addition, Harold cut his staff by 23 employees. Much of the old layout had empty space. He felt it would be more efficient to consolidate the second-floor staff and the third-floor staff into 14,000 square feet on the second floor and add new security features.

Planning

Last year, Harold and his staff started planning the entire office layout in consultation with the commissioners, who control some of the funding and oversee the building's operations. The cost of the contractor, NL Construction of Canton, ended up being $367,601 after the cost was estimated at $430,000. The architect, Motter and Meadows, cost about $27,000.

About $100,000 of the bill is being funded from money remaining from the auditor's closed Bureau of Motor Vehicles office, which was shuttered in 2014, and about $300,000 is coming from the real estate assessment fund, which is funded by a percentage of property taxes collected.

Harold has 78 employees. Twenty-seven work in the county's information technology department on Fourth Street NE. The remaining employees work in the Stark County Office Building.

The staff moved out of the second-floor offices by July 20 and into the vacated third-floor offices of what was Adult Probation, which moved into the Frank T. Bow building.

Consolidation

Harold will return to his office on the second floor and near him will be stationed staffers who handle business vendor's licenses, dog tags, property tax supervision and Board of Revision appeals.

The eight Fiscal Department staffers, who handle the county payroll for 2,600 county employees and the payment of $220 million a year in bills for the county, will vacate the third floor and move to the second floor, where the appraisers once had their space.

It will be up to the commissioners to reassign the third-floor space to a new tenant.

He said the workers will eventually remove asbestos in a safe manner from the flooring in the 50-year-old building, replace the 25-year-old carpeting and repaint the walls. Angela Blakney, Harold's executive assistant, who's been involved in much of the planning, picked out a light shade of gray for the new carpet. Harold's office will also buy new furniture and frame old county maps to display on the walls.

Reach Repository writer Robert Wang at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP

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Stark Auditor renovates offices to reduce public confusion - Massillon Independent

Most things look better grouped together, junk on your countertops, decorating accessories and even people. It's true, you can throw your keys, wallet and pocket contents on the counter and feel disarray, but if you bunch it together in a bowl a small sense of order comes to life. Our kitchen countertops began getting cluttered with various cooking necessities, especially the go-to spices we use so often. This led me to search out a small tray that could wrangle all the mess and bring some comfort to my overstimulated eyes.

As I looked around, I didn't want to pay the price I saw on many trays, plus none of them matched the dcor I pictured in my head. That's always the point when my DIY wheels start churning and my own solution comes to life. If you have a messy spot or are looking for some simple base dcor pieces try my new favorite trickput some feet on it.

By adding some cute little bun feet, a rusty old baking pan becomes a farmhouse-style tray to house spices. Put some feet on an old roasting pan lid and a large dcor tray is born. Feet do a few things. First, they add height, which is always helpful in decorating. A variation in height, texture and scale are three important ingredients in the recipe of a delicious vignette. Second, feet get metal off your counter surfaces. If a rusty pan or metal tray sits on a surface and gets wet, it can transfer rust onto your counter. Nobody needs a quick solution that leads to a bigger problem. Wooden ball feet are also less likely to scratch a countertop surface than metal. I might know that from experience. Most of all, little feet make a transformation complete by taking the ordinary and elevating it.

Here is how you make a quick and easy footed tray:

1. Gather an old pan, roaster lid or shallow box that fits your space and intended clutter.

2. Spray paint pan or tray if it needs a color change. If you are using a rusty pan you want to seal it with a matte gloss spray paint.

3. Get four wooden drawer pulls or doll heads from the craft store. These have a flat edge to them so they secure nicely to an item.

4. Stain or paint wooden feet to match your dcor.

5. Flip your pan over and attach feet to the bottom of your pan using a strong adhesive glue such as E6000 or Gorilla Glue. Allow to dry completely.

6. Fill with kitchen counter clutter and breathe a sigh of relief!

Home dcor solutions don't have to be fussy or expensive. Chances are you have some old pans in the donate pile at your house that you could put to good use. Trust me on the gathering bit, a unified front fosters peace in all things.

Kim Jones is a Texas A&M graduate and Bryan resident who writes about creative and inexpensive decoration ideas, garage sale makeovers and thrift store finds. She blogs at huntandhost.com and can be reached at huntandhost@gmail.com.

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Customize trays to elminate countertop clutter - Bryan-College Station Eagle

Junior League of Springfield's annual Tour of Kitchens fundraiser shows off some of the most beautiful kitchens in 417-land all for a good cause.

By Jenna Dejong Photos by Brandon Alms

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article was fact checked and accurate at press time, but 417 Magazine cannot guarantee its accuracy indefinitely.

See six gorgeous, thoughtfully designed kitchens in person at the Junior League of Springfields fourth annual Tour of Kitchens. The organization was built on the ideals of serving others in the community through fundraising efforts and volunteering. To fund some of their projects, Junior League has planned a day full of demonstrations and samples that keep mouths watering from start to finish. Guests load onto a shuttle and are whisked away on an escorted tour to six homes in Highland Springs. During their visit, guests can admire the style and architecture of each gorgeous kitchen as local businesses create some of their most loved meals and recipes. Chefs from Metropolitan Farmer,MaMaJeans Natural Market, Shakers Bartending, Barley Wheat & Rye Social House and more are at the ready to cook up crowd favorites or new tasty treats. Guests start the day at 10 a.m. in the parking lot of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame where a shuttle picks them up and takes them to Highland Springs to begin the tour. At the end of the event, VIP attendees are invited to attend an after party at the Highland Springs Country Club.

The Louth Kitchen (above)

A large kitchen is needed for all of the 18 members of Jim and Suzanne Louths family. The kitchensfloorplanis arranged in such a way that makes hosting and gathering comfortable and functional.The medium blue island acts as a hub for those who are grazing on delicious snacks; the refrigerator is within easy reach, and a pullout microwave is ready for use at just the touch of a button. A large pantry is set to the side and houses a wine cooler and workstation for whipping up a quick batch of cookies. This secret area is key tokeeping the mess out of view from the rest of the kitchen.

The Hicks Kitchen

Combining Kyle Hickss rustic style and Stacy Hickss traditional tastes, the couples kitchen is a room filled with various shades of browns, blacks and grays. The kitchen is set up for the ultimate hostingpast the large island, the room opens into a larger space set up with a cloth sofa, two chairs, a television, a kitchen table and a piano. The area is the perfect setup for mingling and interacting with the host and hostess as they use their indoor grill, ice maker and trash compactor to serve and delight guests with the tastiest of treats.

TheHazelriggKitchen

Chris and JenniferHazelriggs kitchen is organized like a foodies dream. Not quite traditional, but not contemporary either, this transitional kitchen is picturesque in tones of white and gray. Pull-out drawers equipped with reinforcements store heavy dishes within reach, and others are lined with built-in utensil organizers. A large white island with granite countertops offers more space to prepare and serve mouthwatering dishes. To top it off, the appliances in the kitchen were picked with careful consideration and the intent to make cooking and baking feel like an art form.

The Miner Kitchen

Fresh is the first word that comes to homeowner Marta Miner when she looks at her combined kitchen and dining room. Inspired by West Coast homes in Los Angeles, Marta and Jeremy Miner ensured their kitchen and dining room are flooded with natural light from the oversized windows. Their kitchen has a light color scheme complete with white countertops, light gray walls and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen is equipped with two islands, one of which houses a wine cooler. The Viking stove has six burners, and sitting below is a double oven, making cooking and preparing food easy and quick.

TheHerschendKitchen

The first thing you notice in the newly renovated kitchen at Michelle and AustinHerschends home is the eye-catching white-and-gray backsplash. Acting as a focal point, the backsplash is a modern twist that compliments the rest of the houses traditional style. The kitchen itself is spacious and makes for easy interacting. The large islands black countertop was replaced with white marble, and the room was recently updated with small touches like switching light fixtures and door handles. When you walk in, you cant miss the gas oven, breakfast nook and a coffee bar with a wine cooler sitting below.

TheMantalaKitchen

This space owned by Dr. MarceloMantalaand MayLylahChua-Mantalahas the creamy feel of a rustic Italian kitchen. With rich hues of brown, gold and tan, the kitchens color scheme and decor make those who walk through feel as though they are entering a different world. Most of the cabinets have glass doors or no doors at all, and on one side, the wall has a large opening looking into the adjoining room. In the center of it all sits an off-white island with a black granite countertop that offers seating to guests while the host and hostess bustle from either end of the kitchen.

Meet 417 Magazine's 10 Most Beautiful Women. Learn about the local charities that they represent, then see them walk the runway at Indulge on September 14.

Bob Noble's private Rivercliff property offers a secluded space for his invitees, but he's looking to a future when the Finley River views are open to the public.

5 Pound Pup is an extension of 5 Pound Apparel that includes mans best friend and gives back to the community.

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Go Inside Highland Springs' Most Beautiful Kitchens - 417mag

When tenants step into Halifax Lofts, the high, spacious hallways will take them back to the days when hundreds of students were bustling through to get to their classrooms that have now been transformed into modern, stylish lofts.

Those classrooms are the very things that lend the old Halifax Elementary School to being favorable to these types of projects, according to Echelon Resources developer Edwin Gaskin.

Just looking from the outside, one can see how the classrooms provide that type of structure for rooms.

Within the 30 units, there are roughly eight floor plans with most apartments being one bedroom, but there are some with two bedrooms.

With these historic redevelopments, you dont often get cookie cutter because youre working around existing walls or features, said Gaskins.

Inside the rooms are grey, black and brown granite countertops alongside black and silver appliances that Gaskin said were actually voted on by a group who follows them on Facebook.

Some rooms still have a touch of the classroom such as a chalkboard down the side of the living area, and one may spot where lockers used to sit.

One of the rooms is specifically unique, the former cafeteria.

Because these are done as part of the National Parks Service Guidelines, we actually had to preserve this space as open, said Gaskin.

It lends itself to a very unique buyer as the former cafeteria now has an open floor plan for the bedroom, kitchen and living area in a 2,818 square feet studio apartment.

The only rooms it has are the bathroom, laundry area and closet space, and the tenant will have his or her very own stage.

We actually already have a buyer for this unit, said Gaskin. We realize that not all of these rooms appeal to every buyer, but we cater to the young professional. That creates an expectation of both style, fashion and security, and we try to deliver on those fronts.

Each tenant will enter the building using a key-swipe entry, and Gaskin has the capabilities and security cameras to keep an eye on all entrances, common areas and hallways of the facility, even from the convenience of his smartphone.

There are five exterior entrances, and some of the units have their own private entrance.

Outside of the main building are what used to be mobile unit classrooms that are now more private rooms.

Additions have been added to the units, and they have incorporated the historic outside of the former classrooms to the inside of the apartments.

These units are in the ideal location to enjoy the 4.2 acres that Halifax Lofts sits on.

Residents of Halifax Lofts also have ample amount of parking and dumpster service, and these apartments are positioned in a safe, quiet neighborhood that is located minutes from the town of Halifax.

That very neighborhood also has been helpful in the aesthetics of the building that houses various photos of old classmates, basketball teams and Girl Scouts that adorn the hallways.

One of the Girl Scouts in this photo actually donated it, and we have people who come in here and name who the individuals are in the photos, said Gaskin.

Even though the lofts offer a contemporary appeal, the building still lends itself to nostalgia for former classmates, and individuals will have the chance to reminisce at a grand opening this fall.

No date has been set at this time, but Gaskin is aiming for late September, early October.

The town and county have been very good to work with, said Gaskin.

Several of the lofts have been leased, and tenants are expected to begin moving in within the month.

Halifax Lofts is their fifth project with the other closest redevelopment being in Chatham.

Interested individuals may find more information about these pet-friendly lofts with rents that range from $800 to $950 a month on their website, HalifaxLofts.com.

Halifax Lofts also can be found on Facebook, and individuals can receive information by emailing halifaxlofts@gmail.com or calling 434-830-1580.

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At Halifax Lofts, a taste of nostalgia - YourGV.com

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Within a narrow angle of vision you can see: shadows of leaves; the dusty soil and stubborn flora of this wooded part of Spain; light bouncing off water; the shaved and polished pebbles of a curving concrete floor; dark steel posts and beam; a curving concrete slab above; above that, a cylindrical water tank in the graded earth colours of a creme caramel; sky; the head and red tap of an external shower; a silvery shower curtain; strings of bare lightbulbs; a white steel pod containing an outdoor toilet; and a big stainless steel cupboard whose angled mirrored surfaces cause it to melt into greenness. Due to a fall in the ground, the trees behind show their foliage rather than their trunks. An elusive honeycomb pattern is set up by the moir effect of the perforated steel wrapping of a freestanding sink unit.

This dense assemblage of stimulations widens out into a larger structure, a perfect 45-metre-wide concrete circle inscribed with multiplying effects of transparencies and reflections. Its like a wood, in that the substance (trees, building materials), without which you couldnt call it a wood (or building), keeps dissolving into shadows, light and depth, without going away altogether. This the use of materials, light and space to intensify experience is what architecture should do. A lot of the time it doesnt get the chance.

This fascinating structure is a holiday house, recently built in the wooded, mountainous district of Matarraa, in Aragon, just over the border from Catalonia. It is one of two so far completed in a development called Solo Houses, which is planned to include a total of 15 plus a hotel, each designed by a different architect. The project was invented by a Paris-based couple, Christian Bourdais, who formerly traded in antiques from south-east Asia, and Eva Albarran, a producer of cultural and artistic events. The idea is to build a collection of architecture as others might art, to make a history of what is architecture at this moment in time, to commission the best possible designs, to follow architects as far as they will go.

The overall project is a bit like Alain de Bottons Living Architecture programme of architect-designed holiday homes, except that Solos are all in the same 100-hectare location. It also resembles the Serpentine Galleries annual architecture pavilion, with the difference that these houses are permanent and habitable. Two of the architects recently favoured by the Serpentine, Smiljan Radi from Chile and Sou Fujimoto from Japan, are working for Solo, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Serpentines artistic director, is advising on a programme of artworks for the development. Indeed, this concept of the architectural collectible could be called obristism eclectic, well informed, international, knowing, with preferences for the idiosyncratic but about-to-be-recognised, for the intellectually alive and the mildly decadent.

Solo Houses choices are those of enthusiasts who know their field and know what they like. Bourdais says he wasnt looking for the fashionable architects that everyone knows, but people of his own fortysomething generation who would think the same way that he does. They were babies when we met, he says, but in the six-year gestation of the project they have ascended some gradations of fame, including the Serpentines recognition of Radi and Fujimoto. For the location Bourdais spent six months touring Europe, looking at amazing sites in which it was also permitted to build. He settled on Aragon because its planning policies are more favourable to building in the countryside thanCatalonias.

The first house was by the Chilean couple Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, who featured memorably in the Royal Academys Sensing Spaces exhibition of 2014. It is a concrete tower that spreads at the top, a right-angled mushroom that counters the usual intuition that, confronted with amazing views and amazing climate, openness is all. Inside the stalk you get dungeon-like darkness, water pipes glinting in the shadows, light coming mostly from viewing panels into the blue water of a pool. When you get to the top you find a square patio house in the sky, with the pool in the sheltered centre and an outer layer of rooms looking out in all directions. From here, finally, you getthe view.

The second, circular house is by the Brussels practice Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen who, since they set up in 2002, have been building respect for their nuanced and subtly subversive work. They wanted, they say, to make their Solo House the least like a house as possible to make contact in a light way with the landscape, and to somehow disappear. This does not mean, for them, camouflage, nor making something woody that might have been assembled by goblins you cant miss that the building is there but trying to coincide with nature.

They use the machine-age materials glass, steel and concrete of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, together with more louche fabric: curtains and screens that filter the light, touches of marble, stainless steel that warps reflections like a fairground mirror. They draw on a modernist fascination with the sensual and illusory that was often ignored by official histories but was practised, for example, in houses, interiors and exhibition pavilions by Mies and the textile designer Lilly Reich in the late 1920s and early 30s. Geers and Van Severen also exploit a modernist love of blurring inside and out: the elements of the house are divided into three enclosures about the perimeter of the circle, a thin sliver containing a kitchen/dining/living space and two more containing beds and bathrooms. You have to go outside to get from one to another.

The circle casts such a spell that you are mostly happy to pad about inside it, savouring the solitude

It then turns out that the outer walls are actually sliding screens that can be shunted out of the way, to expose like a falling beach towel the naked interiors. Beds, baths and kitchen stand open to the horizon. The screens create, along with the shimmers and reflections, a zone of instability and transience that is given definition by the precision of the circle. Further contrast is provided above the roofline, where are placed blunt necessary objects such as solar panels, water tanks and heating and filtration devices, shaped into cylinders, cubes and cones. The two cylinders have been given the colours of earth and sky by the artist Pieter Vermeersch, but otherwise these objects are as solid and factual as the lower level is evanescent. In keeping with the pervasive desire to play with expectations, their placing inverts the architectural hierarchy that traditionally puts the celestial anddreamy above the basicandchthonic.

You are free to wander outside the building into the woods, but somehow the circle casts such a spell that you are mostly happy to pad about inside it, savouring the solitude, mesmerised by the repetitions, correspondences and infinite variety of this horizontal, hedonic hamster wheel. The experiences of intimacy and vastness, of being alone in what is a sparsely populated landscape, are felt with more force inside the circle.

Holiday colonies built in lightly touched nature are not, of course, always good news, but so far the Solo Houses add to their surroundings rather than detract from them. They are there but they dont dominate. There are pitfalls too, in the obristist notion of building-as-collectible, as it tends to favour the statement over the liveable. This trap is also avoided, as for all its richness of materials and ideas the architecture knows when to stand back to allow you, as Geers puts it, just to make your life. The whole thing is rarefied and indulgent, of course, and its not going to solve any housing crises, but at the task it has set itself of creating architecture that is as good as it can be it succeeds.

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The Spanish holiday home as an architectural collectible - The Guardian

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Our management team has been in the Industry for over 40 years and Florida Home Improvement Associates (FHIA) has been one of the leaders in providing quality products needed to make your home beautiful, safe and energy efficient. Serving the entire state of Florida, FHIA provides high impact windows, impact doors, energy saving attic insulations and exterior paints for the home, and we have a large collection of solar products needed to keep your energy bills low each month. With Offices Located up and down the coast of Florida, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, FHIA is here to supply quality products at the price you deserve. Give us a call now and get a free estimate.Read more

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Home remodeling contractor Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia (PRWEB) August 30, 2017

Elite Contractor Services, a top-rated home remodeling contractor servicing Northern Virginia cities as diverse as Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, is proud to announce ambitious website upgrades. As busy Northern Virginia residents search for the best home contractors in the area, the new content upgrades extend the leadership of Elite Contractor Services as a good option for any home remodeling project.

"We realize that our customers turn first to online resources such as Angie's List, Google, and Houzz but they quickly end up on our website," explained Ana Blanco, marketing manager for Elite Contractor Services. "Our new content upgrades help us not only with information on home remodeling, in general, but with specific city information such as for Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax in Virginia."

Interested persons can visit a sample upgraded page such as the page focusing on home remodeling at http://elitecontractorservices.com/home-remodeling/. Similarly, the company is launching localized informational pages such as a page on home remodeling services in Alexandria, Virginia, at http://elitecontractorservices.com/services-areas/alexandria-va/.

THE VALUE OF A LOCAL HOME REMODELING CONTRACTOR

With many aging homes in Northern Virginia and with many affluent consumers, the demand for home remodeling is strong and rising. That said, many consolidated services exist that are not actually home remodeling companies or contractors but rather online services the pull together inquiries. Similarly, many Northern Virginia customers in cities as diverse as Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax would prefer to deal with a family-owned, small business for their home remodeling needs. By upgrading its website to showcase the breadth of service offerings such as bathroom or kitchen remodelings, attic or basement additions, or even custom home buildings, Elite Contract Services is reaching out to Northern Virginia homeowners in terms of online information. Persons, including journalists and bloggers, interested in learning more about this innovative online initiative are urged to visit the website.

ABOUT ELITE CONTRACTOR SERVICES

Elite Contractor Services (http://elitecontractorservices.com/) is a family owned home remodeling company serving cities as diverse as Washington DC, Alexandria Virginia, and Bethesda Maryland as well as Falls Church home contractor services. Persons looking for a top remodeling contractor for a home remodel or kitchen remodel, can reach out for a no obligation consultation. The company consists of expert contractors for kitchen remodels, home remodels or additions, and even specific jobs such as basement remodels or attic additions. The company aims to be one of the best, top-rated remodeling companies and remodeling contractors in communities as diverse as Arlington or Fairfax, Herndon or Washington DC or up to Vienna, Fairfax County or even Rockville, MD.

Media RelationsTel. 703-813-1678

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Home Remodeling Contractor Serving Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, Elite Contractor Services Announces Website ... - PR Web (press release)

Sometime you might be outside, the guests are arriving for lunch. You planned to serve it on the patio outside the house. Just before they arrive, you get a whiff of a terrible sewer smell.

Theplumbing roof vent pipe and yard-based septic vent pipe is a necessary partof your plumbing system. The purpose of the stink pipe, as it's sometimes called, is to enable the pressure in yourdrain system to equalize. When water and waste flows downyour drains, pressure in your plumbing drains increases asthe air in the system is displaced by water and waste. Withoutthe roof vent pipe, the drains would gurgle up into yoursinks, tubs and toilets.

Theplumbing roof vent pipe, and yard-based sewer vent pipe, are also a placewhere septic gases and sewer gases exit the system safely.These gases are a natural byproduct of the bacteria thatbreak down the waste in either your septic system or sewerline. Because of this naturally occurring cycle, the septicand sewer gases have a foul odor. Normally,the gases are carried up and away from the systems stink pipe. However, under certain conditions, these hydrogensulfide (also known as H2S) and methane gases might be pulleddown into your yard around your home or place of business.

Thereis also a new style septic system design called a pressuredose septic system. This style septic system is becomingmore popular as it utilizes both a solids and a liquid septic tank. By separating the liquidfrom the solids, it allows for a cleaner liquid to be pumpedup into the leeching field allowing the leeching field tobe significantly smaller than what would be necessary ina standard septic system. For safety reasons, this styleseptic system requires that the liquid tank be vented topurge the hydrogen sulfide and methane gases away from theelectronic pump found in the septic tank. With pressure dosestyle septic systems, the septic gases are purged directlyto the yard through a vent causing unpleasant odors, evenunder the best of conditions. This septic tank vent is typicallylocated somewhere in the yard near the liquid tank.

Ifyou notice sewer smell coming from your septic tank vent, don'tassume that you have serious problems with your septic system.As we mentioned earlier, hydrogen sulfide is a normal by-productof the breakdown of wastes occurring within your septic system.

In certain situations the hydrogen sulfide thatwould normally exit your roof vent and be carried up andaway, will actually be pulled down into your yard creatingnot only an annoying problem, but also an unhealthy livingenvironment. (For health information concerning hydrogensulfide see The Toxicology of hydrogen sulfide.)

Differentclimate conditions, such as temperature variances, temperature inversions and changein wind direction, can direct the gases back toward yourliving area. This problem can be magnified by the locationof your home as well. If your home is located against a hillor near objects taller than your roof vent pipe, negative pressurescan naturally develop pulling the septic gas or sewer gasdown from your roof vent pipe and into your yard or place of business. Inthe case of sewer lines, since they dont utilize plumbingtraps, your home or buildings roof vent can be an exit sourcefor not only the sewer gases created within your structurebut for all the homes and structures on your main sewer line.

So, how do you stop septic odor? Whileyou cant stop the creation of septic and sewer gases, youcan eliminate the odor that is caused as they exit the roofvent pipe or septic tank vent by installing a Wolverine Brand activated carbon vent filter on top of your sewer vent.

The Wolverine Brand activated carbon vent filter (sometimes called a charcoal vent filter) was specifically designed tosafely remove the hydrogen sulfide and methane gases fromthe air exiting your septic and sewer vents. And best ofall, The Wolverine Brand activatedcarbon vent filter is easy to install, comes with a 120-day moneyback guarantee and a one-year limited warranty.

So what are you waiting for? Why not let Simple Solutions Distributing help you permanently eliminate that sewer smell outside your house once and for all. Learn more about the Wolverine Brand activated carbon vent filter and the entire Wolverine Brand Family of Odor Control Products.

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About That Septic Gas - Industrial Odor Control