Homeowners build fences for many reasons such as protection, privacy and aesthetic. A brick fence can provide all this, but choose the design carefully because they are costly so give a good look at your home and your budget before deciding what type of fence to build.

Instructions

1. Determine your reasons for putting up a fence. If privacy is your main concern, choose a design of solid brick and one that’s high. Pet owners who want a yard for a small dog can build a smaller, solid wall.
2. The design should combine closely with the appearance of your home. Choose poles, arches, and colors that blend or complement each other and your home. Fences and walls made of stone, brick and stucco enhance Craftsman style and English Tudor houses.
3. Allow your garden and home design to be shown. Choose spaces that will frame the beauty that is inside it, rather than cover it.
4. Combine other materials with brick for an aesthetic appearance. Build designs with steel, aluminum or include a wrought iron gate between the posts. This design enables you to watch inside your property, while providing security.
5. Choose a color that compliments your home. Bricks come in shades of red, white, gray, brown and orange. Select bricks that have multiple colors within them or bricks that have a more uniform appearance. Use a color scheme for a custom design.

Tips & Warnings

Discuss the plans for the fence with neighbors, they maybe are worried about their views being blocked. Investigate local building codes before building a fence, determine whether a permit is required.

Rain water can easily cause a lot of damage to your home if it is not channeled away through the proper means. For a home with a roof that is 1,500 square feet, one inch in, ‘depth of precipitation’ or rain produces 1,000 gallons of runoff. If all this water is not channeled away safely, it could easily cause a lot of damage to your roof and to the rest of your house including the foundation and close surrounding areas. This is why having well designed and properly installed gutters is important for every home.

Importance of maintaining gutters

Even when you have well designed and built gutters, it is still essential that you make sure that they are always in perfect working order. The biggest issue that gutters face is blockage caused by debris that renders them ineffective or at least, not as efficient as they should be.

When blockages happen, the weight of debris and still water (caused by the blockage) can easily cause damage to the gutter itself.

This is why ensuring regular maintenance and inspection of your gutter system is important. The last thing that you want to happen is for your basement to flood or for your house’s foundation to be compromised due to lack of proper gutter maintenance. To say the least, it will cost you much less to maintain your gutter than it will to repair your houses foundation or basement. So why not just get it done immediately?

Signs that your gutter needs immediate attention

If you have not been maintaining your gutters, or if the job has not been done well, the following signs should signal you that you need a skilled professional to come and do the job for you.

• A saggy ceiling and a leaking roof.
• Mold, moss and or dampness on the outside of your walls
• Paint or wallpaper damage on the inside walls of your house
• Unsightly cosmetic damage to the side of your house caused by rainwater splash back damage.
• Rotten fascia boards
• Cracked foundations and
• Damaged landscaping

What to do when you notice damage

If you notice any of the signs listed above, the immediate thing to do is to call a gutter professional to come and diagnose whether the damage could be due to gutter damage. What you should avoid doing is fixing the symptoms of the larger problem caused by gutter damage. If you simply fix a wall or re-do the painting, the problem is still very likely to happen again, since you will not have fixed the cause of your problems which is a damaged, poorly installed or badly designed gutter.

If you have a house that you are trying to sell, then you should be well aware of the fact that dampness can affect your chances of ever selling the home. At best, you will probably sell the house for about three quarters of its value and definitely not for its full value.

If you are still living in the house, dampness can have a lot of ill effects including encouraging mold and mildew which can have negative health effects. Dampness could also ruin the structural integrity of the house.

If you have a basement, keeping it dry through waterproofing can be useful for making the space more habitable and therefore increase the usable square footage of your home.

What causes dampness

Dampness in houses is mainly caused by absorption of moisture into the building material. This can be further accelerated by capillary action that assists the moisture to travel across the building material. The moisture can initially get into the rest of the building from defective or substandard materials, from poor workmanship or from faulty designs in basements, foundations, walls, floors or the roof.

Poor design can also cause condensation which also contributes to the building material becoming damp. Condensation is caused when there are differences in hot and cold air. For example, when warm air in a room gains contact with cold walls, the warm air loses moisture in the form of condensation.

Other cause of dampness are as follows:

• Wetness in the ground and from the foundations can rise up through the walls to the upper levels of the house mainly through capillary action.
• Water splashing on the sides of the walls, for example through rain or poorly designed gutters can also cause dampness in walls.
• Penetration of rain water directly through building materials,
• Condensation in the atmosphere can be absorbed by building materials causing dampness and
• Leaks from bathrooms, water closets, kitchens and other wet areas with poor plumbing can easily find their way into building material

Damage caused by dampness

Dampness in the building materials will eventually result in some or all of the following defects in your house:

• Plaster will easily soften and crumble
• Electrical fittings deteriorate and can then cause short circuits and other dangers related to faulty electrical wiring
• Mosquitoes, termites and other pests and insects begin to thrive in areas of your house and cause pest and insect damage including ruining the structural integrity of your house
• Metallic areas of your house begin to corrode
• Timber areas in your house; warp, buckle and rots and
• Paint begins to flake and acquire discolored patches

Preventing dampness

Waterproofing can prevent the causes of dampness and wetness mentioned above. Surface treatment, to fill up pores that encourage dampness, should be done immediately dampness is noticed.

To do all this, it is important that you find a professional who can get the job done thoroughly and immediately to prevent any dampness from spreading and causing further damage.

There are many benefits of having a concrete floor in your shed. Concrete is more durable and easier to clean than other materials.  They don’t chip and can work well in most climates. Making your own concrete floor is not difficult and doing it yourself you can save a lot of money.

Instructions

1. Make sure your shed floor is clean and smooth. If you have a dirt floor, spread the dirt evenly with a rake and use a shovel to break up any hard lumps of dirt.
2. Place wood planks on the bottom of each wall of the barn to make a frame. This will help the concrete be flush. The plates are then removed and are used only as an extra support to help the concrete to maintain its shape as it sits.
3. Spread a layer about an inch (2.54 cm) thick of crushed rock on the floor and use the shovel to spread it evenly.
4. Wet crushed stone to make it slightly damp. Be sure not to wet it so much that you get stagnant water. If so, let the water dry before proceeding.
5. Mix the concrete according to the instructions. Make enough mixture to be able to support a concrete layer about three inches thick. Your package will tell you how much concrete is needed to do this.
6. Pour the concrete starting from the rear and working forward. Use a concrete spreader to make concrete layer even and level.
7. Remove the planks once the concrete has set and let dry completely.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have trouble filling the crushed rock, you can first pour a thin layer of sand underneath.
• Pour the concrete as soon as possible after mixing it so it does not begin to dry and harden.

A common question is whether drywall is a good choice for tiling near a shower. It’s not, and for several good reasons. However, concrete slabs which are a durable alternative suitable for shower walls, unfortunately are difficult to cut and handle. The price of the material and the extra demand for labor, however, are worth the extra time and money.

Humidity

Cement boards are made with cement and composites, which gives them excellent water resistant properties. In contrast, traditional gypsum panels absorb water and decompose. Over time, the water drywall attracts will accumulate mold and mildew. Even if you seal the walls with the shower tiles, moisture will find a way into the drywall, especially at the base, where the material acts as a sponge, soaking up moisture from the wall.

Variety drywall

Companies produce mildew and moisture resistant drywall called green panels for moisture-prone areas. These panels are named for the green paper resistant to moisture that covers them. This type of drywall is appropriate for a locker room or bathroom (where wet conditions exist), but cannot withstand prolonged and direct contact with water in your shower. Even green panels deteriorate in a shower over time; green lining paper is moisture resistant but not waterproof.

Proper use of drywall in the shower

There is an exception that allows the use of drywall in a shower: the flotation process. Green panels serve as the basis for floating walls, which consist of a first layer of plastic or paper, followed by a wire mesh and mortar mixture of cement and lime. Some experienced tile installers prefer to have a plaster base to float, while others believe that the ideal is to mesh and float on the beams. Either way, the green panels are a good basis for the floating wall, but just because they are sealed with a paper or plastic moisture barrier.

Installing concrete slabs

Producers of cement board require the installation of a plastic sheet 4 mm (unit describing the material thickness), or paper water resistant construction as a repellent barrier to moisture under the cement board. You can take things a step further by applying a waterproof film on the surface of the concrete slabs and tiles placed on the film. Several companies produce suitable films for this application.