Show and Tell
Saturday, September 30, 2006
We’re here at the San Luis Obispo home show today and tomorrow. The weather is a little chilly but throw on a sweater and come on down. We’ve had lots of visitors at our booth (#30). Stop by and pick up a copy of our latest issue and let us take you on a guided tour of the new Dream Spaces Online.
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Aw Nuts!
Hardwood Floors Take a Tropical Twist
Thursday, September 28, 2006
The search for sustainable alternatives to traditional hardwood flooring has brought us bamboo and mesquite, a tree formerly regarded as a “pest” species by ranchers but now allowed to thrive for commercial harvest.
Now comes the coconut palm. Grown in plantations, these trees produce nuts for up to 80 years, after which they are cut down and replaced. The roots are left to fertilize the soil while the wood is milled to produce vibrant, durable and exotically beautiful flooring.
Palmwood is dense with a stunning grain pattern and deep, rich color. At 1600 on the hardness scale, palm is much harder than red oak (1290). Planks are made by slicing the timber, then drying and laminating it into a sandwich of multiple layers, a process similar to that used for bamboo flooring. Manufacturers like Smith & Fong use non-toxic adhesives to maintain ecological soundness. Palmwood can be sanded like an oak floor using the same techniques and sanding patterns.
Because there are more than 250 species and sub-species of palm, the wood is available in a wide range of natural colors. It can also be dyed or stained for even greater variety and can be ordered unfinished or prefinished.
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Put A Cork In It
The Wonder Material for Floors
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Walking on a cork floor is a little like a warm bath for your feet.
Cork is quiet, soft and warm to the touch. It’s perfect for the bedroom, yet it’s durable enough to stand up to higher-traffic areas like kitchens. Because of its unique cellular structure, it springs back from compression, each cell functioning as a miniature shock absorber—its 200 million air cells per cubic inch make it a back-saver for people who have to stand for long periods of time. And that’s not all—it also insulates against sound, noise and temperature change, and it’s water resistant, insect resistant and fire resistant.
Could it get any better? Well yes, actually. An environmentally friendly choice, cork flooring is made from bark stripped from cork trees. Fortunately, this peeling doesn’t harm the trees. Harvesters leave a thin layer of protective inner bark on the tree, and the outer bark regenerates in a few years. Most cork is grown on sustainably managed tree farms in Spain, Portugal and North Africa.
Cork tiles and planks are available in a wide range of natural colors which can be mixed and matched to form mosaic-like designs. For more information on cork floors, visit Cork Flooring Biz. San Luis Obispo retailers include Phillips Floor to Ceiling and Green Goods.
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All Bottled Up
From Trash to Tile With Recycled Glass
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
That beer bottle you tossed in the recycle bin just might end up gracing your kitchen backsplash or your bathroom floor. Glass tiles and terrazzo made from recylced glass are gaining in popularity and variety.
Glass tiles have been around for a couple of thousand years. They offer a clarity and depth impossible to achieve with clay tile. Despite their delicate translucence, glass tiles are harder than clay and are stain- and waterproof.
While upscale European manufacturers use raw materials, here in the U.S. most glass tile is made from beer bottles, windshields and other recycled glass.
Located in Carlsbad, California, Oceanside Glasstile has been producing and selling luxury glass tiles since 1992. The current glass tile operation uses 1000 tons of recycled glass each year. Oceanside’s varied offerings include several collections of pearly iridescents.
Boise, Idaho-based Sandhill makes its tiles from 100% recycled glass which would otherwise end up in landfills. Each tile takes less than one-half of the energy to produce than ceramic tile, and less than one-fourth of the energy of cast-glass tile. Sandhill’s tiles are available in 36 colors with evocative names like buttercream, honeydew and sandalwood.
In San Luis Obispo, Artisan Tile & Marble carries tile from Oceanside Glasstile. Sandhill tiles are available at Matt Clark Tile & Stone.
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Foiled Again!
An Alternative to Insulation
Conventional insulating materials such as fiberglass, cellulose and polyfoam use their ability to absorb or slow down heat transfer to insulate.
But there’s another option. Instead of installing insulation that absorbs heat, you could line your attic with material that reflects heat.
Radiant barrier insulation systems are basically a layer of aluminum foil facing an airspace. They can reflect up to 97% of all radiant heat. So instead of packing your attic with loose insulation or lining the roof with packed material, you install a thin layer of radiant barrier, only 3/16 of an inch thick. If you’re replacing blow-in insulation with radiant barrier, you gain extra space.
Another plus is that it’s unaffected by humidity. A 1-1/2% change in the moisture content of fiberglass insulation will result in a 36% decrease in performance. A pure aluminum radiant barrier is unaffected by humidity and will continue to perform at a consistent level no matter how humid it may be.
Radiant barrier insulation can also be used on water heaters, pipes and in house walls. And because it’s double-sided, it also prevents heat loss through the ceiling or attic. You save on both cooling and heating bills. Ask your contractor or check it out at Innovative Insulation.
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Quit Wining
And Make Some Furniture
California furnituremaker Whit McLeod turns out award-winning pieces from his Arcata studio deep in redwood country. But his furniture is made not from the surrounding redwood but from wood that has already done duty farther south, in wine country.
McLeod’s singular pieces are almost entirely constructed of reclaimed lumber. Specifically, salvaged oak quartersawn wine barrels. His current inventory consists of material from six different California wineries, made of great oak trees from as close as Mississippi to as far away as France and Hungary.
McLeod’s professional career began in Northern California redwood forests, on the other side of the bark as a wildlife biologist. His reverence for the natural world is reflected in his line of handmade Arts and Crafts furniture.
That spirit of preservation informs his manufacturing process, from relying on vintage machinery that McLeod has retooled himself, to scouring scrap yards for copper to be melted down in his foundry for tiles used in tabletops. Accordingly, every facet of work is done in-house — unusual today but not during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts movement.
His folding chair feels like museum-quality sculpture. Made from white oak, each chair is numbered by the artist on the underside of the seat and branded with the name of the winery where the barrel was used. Finished with natural linseed oil, the chairs retain their original color when used indoors or age gracefully outdoors.
McLeod’s furniture has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fine Woodworking and numerous other national publications. He has been given the American Crafts Council Award of Achievement and his work has been exhibited in the Oakland Museum. Working with McLeod are his wife Kristy and a team of three craftsmen.
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