Why Carports Are Better Than Garages

Carports

Nobody really wants to leave their car outside exposed to the elements. When a car is parked in under a carport or in a garage it is protected from sun, rain, dust, hail, snow, and other weather that might damage it. Either option also makes a car less visible, preventing potential thieves. However, what are some reasons you should install a carport instead of a garage?

Affordability

One of the most obvious advantages carports have over garages is the price. For even a simple, one-car garage, it is easy to spend a lot of money; while a carport, on the other hand, costs much less.

Because building a garage is a big project, you will have to find a contractor or remodeler you can hire to complete the project. You don’t always know what you could be getting yourself into when you have a stranger come in and work on your house. A lot of garages connect directly to high-traffic areas of the house, so you will have construction workers actually in your home for the least part of the building process. Even if you decide to build an attached carport, it is very unlikely that anyone building it will need to enter your home. In fact, while a garage can take weeks for remodelers to build, most carports can be assembled by you and a friend in just a day or two.

In addition, because a garage is a much larger project and needs a foundation poured, it is much more likely that governing bodies in your area will require you to get the project permitted, though you should always get any major home improvement project approved beforehand and make sure you don’t need to fill out any extra paperwork.

Carports

Aesthetic Advantages

The aesthetic of a carport is also very different than that of a garage. A garage can seem impressive and make your lot look much smaller, especially when built as an addition. A carport design, on the other hand, is open and feels much smaller.

Versatility

A carport also has more versatility than a garage. When you have parties, you can bring picnic tables and chairs under the carport so your guests can be out of the sun. You can tie a rope between the support posts of your carport walls and hang laundry out to dry even when it’s raining and it will be protected. If you get creative, you can find all sorts of uses for a carport besides just a place to store your car.

You also have more options for decorating a carport. You can put seasonal plants around the edges so that they will grow up the supports. You can also hang things like wind chimes, plants, or lights from your carport. You can even use your carport as a staging area for a more extravagant holiday decoration setup that will be better protected.

Less Work

Building a garage can be more disruptive to your daily routine than a carport. Since garages are larger, they are most likely connected to high-traffic areas of your home. The construction process of a garage can also take weeks or even a month before completion. Since most carports are freestanding structures, there wouldn’t be drastic changes to your property. Within a day or two, you can already have a fully assembled carport.

More Decorative Options

With a carport, you have more freedom to decorate. Some homeowners place seasonal plants and vines along the edges and around the beams of the carports. This gives it a rustic appearance that would suit the design of many homes. Others take advantage of the carport’s freestanding layout to hang lights, wind chimes and other elaborate holiday decorations to spruce up their home.

Electrician Discuss Need for Electrical Updates

Electrician

Electrical maintenance, electrical replacements, and electronic improvements are needed from time to time due to the age of your home and wear and tear on the electrical equipment that provides your home electricity.  To improve safety and power to your home, you may need an electrician to update your electrical panel.  

Homes need more electricity than ever before. Your electrical panel must be able to distribute this power efficiently and safely. In the past, the regular home could have general lighting for each room with a pair of receptacles. A household would have what are now basic electrical equipment and major home appliances, and most likely they would have only one of them. Gadgets that are so much a part of our lives today didn’t even exist, no computers, no comparable home entertainment systems, no cell phones to charge. An old electrical panel will eventually succumb to the rigors of today’s world, and we’ll give you an idea of what to look for to make sure you and your loved ones are not in imminent danger.

Why do you need to update your electrical panel?

Requirements-Consider this, the houses were originally designed with approximately 50 amps to power the entire building. Newer households can easily quadruple the amount of electricity, central air conditioning and double ovens in perpetual use, and multiple televisions and electronics can be used simultaneously. Older systems have not been designed for this purpose and are capable of overloading and triggering damage.

Battery Advantages–An additional battery reduces the chance of blowing a fuse, which usually happens at the most inconvenient times. Upgrades will improve your ability to run a number of high-powered machines and electronic devices. You can go ahead and plan some celebrations and family get-togethers without worrying about your electronics.

Selling the house, huh? Upgrading your electrical system will add value to your home if you ever want to put it on the market.

Wondering when you need to upgrade?

There are a few telling signs that you need upgrades: your circuit breakers often travel.

  • The colors are dark when you turn on other equipment.
  • You need to use adapters or extension cords for additional outlet space.

If your circuit breaker does not run when the circuit is overloaded, the problem is that there is a loose connection somewhere in the circuit and you will want to consult with an Electrician like Bay Area Electrical. Due to inexperience, homeowners often replace it with a larger circuit breaker than the wire can support, which in itself poses another fire hazard.

The difficulty of the work depends on the number of design changes that have been made to the house over the years. Typically, the fewer changes are made to the original layout of the building, the simpler the work. No matter how complex the wiring system is, the primary concern is to make your home safer and better prepared for the demands of life in our time. No, untrained homeowners should try to upgrade their systems, which can be dangerous and costly.  Please contact a licensed electrician for professional home upgrades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGO_B1u8__M

Eco-Friendly Landscape Considerations

Landscape
Tacoma Landscapings

Greenscaping is part of a larger shift toward more environmentally friendly, low-impact living that is gaining traction among homeowners in the United States for their landscapes. Here are a few tips to help make a little greener your yard.

Eco-Friendly Ideas

Waste Not Want Not: 

Everybody wants to see their lawn and garden lush and green, but the American lawn needs a lot of water to do well. Consider substituting some of your greedy grasses with drought-resistant plants to reduce water bills and watering time. Usually, Americans overwater their lawns, wasting millions of dollars and gallons of water every year. Using organic methods to reduce the need for irrigation and artificial fertilizers, such as installing bark mulches or recycling grass clippings into the lawn. Greenscaping encourages soil that is safe. To promote natural growth and greening, put on a good set of garden gloves, grab some tools, and aerate the dirt around your plants.

Healthy Dirt Grows Healthy Plants: 

Choose native plants for your area that are already acclimatized so they can grow with less effort. Do a soil test to analyze your lawn and garden’s health chemically so that you can identify which nutrients to return to the soil. Dousing your yard with chemicals from home and garden shop is not just wasting your money and damaging the environment— it’s actually ruining your soil over time. Practice composting with the nutrients and microbial life forms that are lacking to help revitalize the soil. Increasing your yard’s biodiversity with plants supporting pollinators such as butterflies, bees and birds. Your yard is a tiny ecosystem, and the more resilient it is to damage, the better and more inclusive it is.

Add quality and productivity: 

To grow some of our food at home is one way we can all live more sustainably. Designating a portion of your yard as a food garden will help your family eat better and save money, while at the same time reducing the production of greenhouse gasses generated by moving food from the countryside to our cities and suburban areas. Foods lose phytonutrients with age, so the more fruits and veggies you get out of them, the fresher they get. You will also know how safe they have been developed and how free they are from harmful pesticides. Wherever possible, use locally adapted heirloom seeds to increase yields and benefit most from nutrient value and deliciousness.

Landscape
Tacoma Landscapings

Think Outside The Nursery: 

Xeriscaping is one hot trend in ecological landscaping, encouraging a landscape style with minimal watering. This is commonly done by cactus gardens in the drought-prone areas of the American southwest. But in the South, to integrate natural water sources, it can make use of a variety of natural plants that are adapted to the region and carefully constructed irrigation. It also highlights architectural elements such as zen gardens, stone shows, and colorful mulches. Consider adding to the natural environment hardscape elements such as paths and seating.

Greenscaping is part of a broader trend to live a safer, more prosperous, more environmentally conscious life. We can start by making better, more natural choices in our own backyards. You may adopt a plan to create a healthier environment, either starting from scratch or updating your existing Landscape. Build deliberately and with an eye to usability. Choose local plants and focus on traditional, natural fertilizer and pest control approaches. Conserve water and use passive solar energy to light outdoors. Responsible practices in landscaping will save time and money— and help care for the environment.  If you need assistance with your Landscape Design to feel free to consult with Tacoma Landscapings for your next project. 

Landscaping Near Me & Tips to Crush It

Landscaping Near Me

We all want a gorgeous lawn.  How do we accomplish this? We can do it ourselves or find an amazing company like NW Landscapes Management Inc.  Find these 7 easy-to-follow tips and you will be on your way to creating a beautiful landscape.

What are you doing and what are you needing?

Would you like to have a place to play, a quiet place to read, or a combination of the two? You might want a place to grow your favorite cooking vegetables and herbs. Make a list of your needs and draw a rough sketch of how you want everything to come together to solve this predicament. Use this as a point of departure.

Assess your yard first, assess your yard. Maybe try and search for landscaping near me to find a local landscaper that could help. How is the breeze going through it? What’s the sun’s path? Build sitting areas with shrubs and trees from the line of prevailing winds or block and guide winds. Locate the sunniest areas and decide the best spots for planting trees. It’s ideal to have a place where you can relax and play away from the heat of the day. Even, having a room that takes advantage of the warmth of the sun on cooler days is great. Remember, consider how you are going to get water from one part of your yard to another. Start by measuring the sun’s angle and designing a watering strategy to know how and what to plant.

Live In It Before diving in, living in a room is beneficial. You may not know how or if it fits in with your strategy until you sit in a position and spend time in one room or another. Switch around a chair to find a different place to sit every day. Take note of possible focal points and how your home and window views interact with these places. How are the existing paths working in the mix? Paths that interface with the environment affect the experience of the users, not only guiding them from one place to another but also providing engagement.

Keep it Simple Typically the best is the simplest answer. There is no need for the final decision to be confusing or overdone. Instead, include only the most important things. Start small and start with a frame that allows you to move easily from the inside of your home to a flower bed, veggie plot, or patio. Sometimes intuitive are the best design solutions. For example, when avoiding an existing walkway, the route you created across the lawn could be an indicator of the most convincing layout.

Borrowed Views & Focal Points Provide views beyond your yard. Place trees strategically to frame existing views. Create new views by incorporating as a focal point a tree or a group of trees. In the summer, plant trees that provide shade and vibrant colors in the fall. Think flowering trees such as dogwoods, buckeyes, and crabapples. Colorful focal points are also rendered by flowers and perimeter plantings. Grow a row of flowering shrubs like hydrangeas in the vicinity of a patio or deck to enrich your outdoor experience.

What are You About Plants?

A greenhouse is not a plant-free garden. Keep the plants you want to grow on a running list. Then go back to your review of the site to see what is possible. When you deal with part shade, you may be stopped from plants that enjoy the light. Make sure you come up with a watering plan based on your plants ‘ needs. Determine what devices work best with your project, taking into account a quality hose that can work with a timer.

Embrace Change If in my rising and planting years there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that nothing stays the same. You may choose to take a new path or your patio may be too small. Your ecosystem is the same as you grow and alter.  If you are still unsure how to go about your landscaping project you can always locate Landscaping Near Me to solve all your problems.  

Restoring A Concrete Pool Deck

Houston Stamped Concrete

Do you have a pool in your back yard? Expecting this is the situation, it may be an essential idea for you to upkeep and keep your pool clean for your family and visitors to appreciate. Something very similar ought to be said about pool decks, isn’t that so? Cleaning your pool decks is as critical as cleaning your pool since it is as significant as the pool itself. Your pool will lose its drawing in quality if its pool deck isn’t kept up. Also, an enormous bit of the accidents that happen in the pool is not on the water, yet on the pool decks. Thusly, pool deck reclamation is one critical undertaking one would look to on the off chance that they expected to upkeep their pool zone. Pool decks are important for style just as for security reasons. You have to guarantee that the people who visit your pool can walk safely on the deck when they have to go swimming or just loosen up as an idea in retrospect. Furthermore, reestablishing your pool deck is one huge thing to see. 

Houston Stamped Concrete

Here are the principal walks on what to would in case you like to reestablish your pool decks: 

1. Pick your optimal overlay. Each kind of activity ought to be orchestrated out. Thusly, before doing the reappearing, you first need to plan out and pick what kind of strong overlay you will use. It is similarly best if you get some direction from specialists at Houston Stamped Concrete. You should consider the zone, if it would fit the topic of your overlay, the kind of material that will be used, to guarantee that the engineered exacerbates that are commonly used in pools do not hurt it and to stay in shape as a fiddle and surface. Regardless, security ought to reliably begin things out, that is the reason in picking the material, you need to adroitly pick the one that is shielded to wander into and walk. 

2. Set up the pool. Before doing the veritable reappearing in any case you need to do set up the deck surface. It should be out and out cleaned, empty all the debris and earth, fix all of the holes and parts and consistently make sure to smooth the surface. Furthermore, fittingly direct the water in the pool to keep up a vital good ways from any indispensable contaminations on the water in view of the materials used in reappearing. If you can’t exhaust the water, on any occasion spread it fittingly. 

3. Apply the covering. In the wake of managing the pool, you would now have the option to do the genuine reappearing. You can start applying the covering to the deck surface using the etching gadgets you have. You have to guarantee that the compound you are using in covering is put level and spread consistently and pitifully. You should not make any engravings or on the compound with the exception of on the off chance that it is for the plan and other unequivocal purposes. Taking everything into account, 

4. Permit the too strong dry. After you complete all the dreaded work in reestablishing the pool deck, you by and by the need to guarantee that the strong will dry. Guarantee you put signs and limits to keep up a vital good ways from the wet concrete from getting wandered in or decimated by people who inadvertently walk around the pool. 

No if, and, or buts, pool reappearing is a serious dismal action. If you are new to this yet you envision that your pool decks need reappearing, don’t do the duty without any other person anyway much as could be normal. You should enroll a specialist from pool deck reappearing to make each essential stride impeccably and capably for you.

Woodlands Windows: Tips on How to Install a Window

Woodlands Windows
Woodlands Windows

Installing a window can be hard enough, but it doesn’t have to be.  Woodland Windows explains how easy it can be to install a window. Follow these easy steps below.

Step 1- Remove Window Trim and Casing

 The first thing you need to do is to use a prybar to remove from the new window the window trim and jamb extension. The jam extension is only a piece of wood that has been ripped down and added to the jamb of the window in order to connect it with the wall.

Step 2 – Remove the window from the jamb by unscrewing it. At Woodlands Windows, they take care not to break the glass. Most doors, with running tracks on the bottom, will be several window sashes. It may be easier to remove one sash at a time for these types of windows.

Step 3 Prep / Repair New Window Opening With the window out of the wall, test the window jamb condition to ensure that structural damage does not occur. Leakage of an old window is not unusual, rotting out the jamb. If damage occurs, the affected parts of the jamb must be replaced and fixed before going forward. You will also need to measure your rough opening to make sure your new window can be accommodated. The rough opening should be 1/4 “to 3/8” larger than the new window’s external dimensions.

Step 4 Inspect / Replace Window Stop Window Stop is a piece of torn wood that is put around the window jamb’s exterior side. The stop role is to keep the opening window from sliding. It literally stops the movement of the window. The initial stop is likely to still be in good condition, but if it is broken, you may need to repair or replace it as well.

Step 5 Dry Fit Window -Before adding the silicone to the stop window, dry-fit the screen to ensure no fitting problems. If you have problems with fitting, fix them now and then dry again fit the frame. The window must fit snugly into the opening if done properly. Until you are satisfied with the way the window fits in the opening, do not step forward with the build.

Step 6 Coat the rim of the window with silicone.

  • In this framed area of this home improvement project, Man installs a new window.
  • To keep things even, add cedar chips under part of the new window design.
  • Close a drill that makes a hole in the side of the window for a screw.

Window installation The actual window installation is very simple. Next, run a silicone bead on the inside edge of the stop window and then move the window into place. Place a level across the top of the window and press cedar shims between the bottom of the window frame and the jamb as needed to get the sitting level of the window. Normally the window comes with its own hardware box, usually consisting of four screws that go through the unit’s sides to connect it to the jamb. On each side of the window, two screws should be mounted, one near the top and the other near the bottom. Pre-drilled holes for the screws will be in the window frame.

Woodlands Windows
Woodlands Windows

Woodlands Windows

Step 7 Add insulation The wall studs may have gaps around the original window frame, and this is the perfect opportunity to better isolate those areas. Cut bits of roll isolation and load them into the holes for wider gaps. You can use expanding spray insulation foam to make it more difficult to reach areas.

Step 8 Apply Jambs Extension and Trim Molding Choose a molding design that suits the decor of your home and build a window frame. Measure each piece’s length and cut the trim to the appropriate length using a miter saw. Design the cuts at angles of 45 degrees so that the trim blends with a beautiful picture-frame feel. Using finish nails to connect the trim to the board. You may also need to within the original window frame to cover the gap between the new window and the drywall add thin strips of wood trim (a jamb extension, see Step 1).

At first, use only enough nails to secure the trim to the wall until all four sides of the window frame have been successfully lined up. Once the correct fit has been achieved and you are certain that the trim will not require additional changes to match, you can go back and add more finishing nails every 6 to 8 inches. Upon painting, any small holes in the corners can be filled with silicone.

Step 9 Paint then Apply finishing touches.  Fill any nail holes with stainable/paintable wood putty and painting or staining for a finished look around the door.

Equinox louvered roof system

louvered roof
Equinox Louvered Roof

An equinox louvered roof adorns the outdoor environment to chill and relax with your pals and mates.

The louvers are fully remote controlled and move with the touch of a button. Louvered Roof is definitely something that will enhance your time outdoors and add value to your home. You can create the ambiance according to you. Sunny, partial sunlight, splashes of rain or full protection from rain, everything is available at your touch.

Louvered Roof Materials

Louvered roof systems are strong as well as durable. They are made from aluminum which makes it lightweight and durable. It also resists the corrosion which helps it in retaining strength for a longer time. As they are not made up of plastic or fabric so they can counter all types of weather. Solid patio covers are able to provide 100% shade and protect you from the rain. Let your houses and workplace to merge with this innovation to get a new luxury.

Designs

Equinox louvered roofs can be customized as per your choices to get your dream architectural style. You can use the various color combination on the beam and supporting frame to give it an elegant look. Each equinox louvered roofs can be built to match the look and feel of your home.

Benefits of Equinox Louvered Roof

It is useful for both household and commercial purposes. It increased space and usability. You can utilize the sun as per your needs and demands. When it rains you can close the louvers instantaneously to prevent it from entering the area. On a sunny day, you can also open it to get the sunlight and heat. Closed louvers also provide 100% shade which reduced the interior cooling costs of the place. These are automated so it reduces your efforts obviously. Motors used in this system are generally solar powered. It helps in saving energy.

Louvered Roof
Equinox Louvered Roof

An Equinox Roof is really awesome because it is motorized unlike many other patios out there. This is technology taken outside to create a motorized patio system. With a push of a button, you can position your louvers however you want in a 160-degree range of motion for a precise amount of protection or ventilation you want. It has a solar-powered battery pack that protects the battery against outside exposure.

Another benefit when you buy an Equinox Roof is that it is manufactured with such quality parts, precision engineering, and offers superior aesthetics to create the ultimate outdoor space you were dreaming of.

Working of the louver roof system

Equinox louvered Roofs contain louvers or blade that rotate within a fixed frame. The louvers are rotated with the help of motors. It helps in harnessing the desired amount of sun and eventually shade and ventilation. Rainwater is channelized to the gutter through the slight pitch. These are operated on solar-powered battery

So, it does not require any wiring or power from the home. These roof systems are very large and the number of toggle switches also depends on the size. It works on remote control.

Houston Louvered Roof

1305 West 11th Street, PMB # 4043 Houston, Tx 77008

(281) 761-6316