Many different types of rat traps are available on the market today from live catch traps to traditional break-back traps.

The live catch traps on a whole tend to be cage traps. The rat is tempted into the cage with a bait (many types of bait will work from chocolate to cereals). The bait is placed onto the platform or hook (depending on the design), as the rat is feeding it will trigger the trap and the cage door will close trapping the rat inside.

Knowing your pests

The common rat – rattus norvegicus has been around since the early 18th century, these rats can be found in both urban and rural areas, they can be found both indoors and outdoors and often associated with sewer systems.

The common rat will reach sexual maturity at 8-12 weeks, the gestation period is 21-24 days, litter size on average is 6-11 with around 4-6 litters per year, and the weaning period is 3-4 weeks.

The average life span for the rat is around 1 year; it is likely that less than 5% of rats will survive more than 12 months.

Before starting trapping you will need to learn a bit about your pest, identify where they are living, feeding and travelling. Things to look for are droppings, smear marks (these are oily / dirty looking marks) these smear marks can be found along the rats run, around doors, skirting boards holes in the building fabric etc.

The rats droppings are around 1/2″ long spindle and slightly banana looking in shape with pointed ends, they are a dark brown in colour and supple looking, after 3 days they will harden and lose their colour. Once you have identified the run the cage trap can be placed along this run but you have to take into account rats suffer from neophobia, this means that anything you put down for the rat he may well avoid for a good few days.

The trap needs to be checked every 24 hours so not to cause the trapped animal any further distress. Break-back traps and electronic traps are designed to kill the pest instantly.

The break-back trap is set off by the rat placing its paws on the baited platform thus setting off the trap and a spring loaded bar comes down on the rat breaking its back and killing it instantly, the electronic rat killer is a tunnel design, the rat will enter to feed from the bait placed within the devise and as the rats paws touch a pad inside the unit it is electrocuted and dies instantly.

These types of traps need to be placed as above along rat runs and again the neophobia will come into effect.

Carpeted stairs are passé. Hardwood stairs are the way to go, but is it possible to replace carpet on stairs with wood, without destroying the house, living under the mess of a construction site for months on end or selling your only child to the bank? Absolutely, as long as you can answer yes to two questions!

Tearing the house apart to redo your stairs just doesn’t make sense. Besides to build a standard set of hardwood stairs probably costs four times more that taking your existing stairs and changing carpet stairs to hardwood steps, in a wood species to compliment the balance of your home decorating. It is not unusual to save thousand of dollars. So what do you need to answer first?

Question number one: Are your existing stairs structurally sound? In other words if I were to remove the carpet and add a few (or a lot) of screws to the existing structure would they meet the existing building code and NOT squeak in daily use. If this isn’t the case then give up and start from scratch before you waste any more money!

Question number two: Are you happy with the overall layout of your steps? Are they a suitable size, rising enough on each step to be safe and offering enough depth for you to comfortably plant your foot? Many do-it-yourselfer’s and even those in the trade, have trouble with the math used in constructing steps. They often think that when you get to the point of wanting to replace carpet on stairs with wood, that you can also play with the overall layout by adding width to an existing set of treads. They think that if they build up the front of the stair under the nosing it will give them a longer run. They forget that if you do this to every step it kind of cancels each other out, so your layout must be acceptable as is.

Thus, if you are happy with your existing “rise and run,” then you are in the ideal position to recover these stairs. Hardwood of any species can be used for the job, thus here is a list of steps for changing carpet stairs to wood.

Step #1: Remove the carpet, tacker strips and/or any residual glue. Don’t worry if the wood gets gouged in the process.

Step #2: Cut off the existing nosing of the construction stairs on both the front and if you have an open end, there too.

Step #3: Remove and store any spindles that may be drilled into the stairs. Leave the newel posts in place. You can work around them, unless of course your intent is to have a new railing as well.

Step #4: Use a matching hardwood veneered plywood to face the back riser and stringer. No point in using solid hardwood here as it doesn’t take any wear in this location and solids are much harder to work with.

Step #5: Glue down solid hardwood plank stairs to the face of your old treads, using construction glue. Glue that is in a caulking tube is the easiest to apply, otherwise use a small notched trowel to spread, especially when applying it to the ¼” plywood or bulges will be obvious.

Step #6: Replace your spindles and trim any corners with appropriate mouldings to hide seams between the plywood used for the riser and that used for the stringer.

Further: It is best to pre-finish all the plywood and treads before you install. Polyurethanes typically take 48 hours to come to full strength so it can tie up your steps for a bit of time if you chose to do the finishing on site. Besides it is easier to avoid runs if everything can be finished while on the flat.

For further information on replacing stair treads, changing carpet stairs to wood visit our website: http://www.woodsthebest.com Lots of information on how to order custom made hardwood steps in the size, shape and wood species that you really want plus all the tips on how to install like a seasoned pro. After all precision woodworking is all in the details.

Here’s an idea of the sort of jobs that any Handyman should be able to do for you.

Fix a dripping tap.
Stop a floorboard creaking.
Install a washing machine.
Stop a door hinge from creaking.
Fixing the flush mechanism on a toilet.
Change a door lock.
Install Fitted Kitchens.
Putting together flat pack furniture.
Making patios doors open smoothly.
Painting doors and windows.
Install light dimmer switches.
Put up shelves.
Hang pictures and paintings.

Generally they are the sort of jobs where you don’t need a skilled qualified professional. If the job that you need doing is any bigger or more involved than the examples shown above you can find a local professional by checking local online business directories.

If you have never used a Handyman before, make sure you get two or three quotes for the job. Alternatively see if your friends can recommend a Handyman.

Once you have used a local Handyman for two or three times you will be able to recommend him to your friends and family.

Every year, the summer gets hotter, which means we desperately seek for a place to stay cool. However, some individuals have to work in very hot environments during the summer months. Amongst those hot environments are metal buildings. Metal buildings can become very hot, especially if measures are not put in place to keep them cool. Just imagine working in a metal building on a 100 degree day. It may be 100 degrees outside, but it is going to be even hotter in that building, so it is very important to do what can be done to keep it cool.

So what can be done?

1. Using asphalt shingles is a good first step. They work best if they are of a light color because light colors reflect the sunlight rather than absorb it. One color that tends to be favored is white. It is the lightest you can get; therefore it will reflect sunlight the best.

2. Air conditioning is another great way. Of course it depends on the size of the building as to what kind of air conditioning is needed. A small building may suffice with a window unit, whereas a large building may need a central air unit. This can be used in addition to a cool roof system to keep the air conditioning from working too hard.

3. If the steel building has windows, putting in window fans can pull in cooler air while sucking out the hot air. That is if the environment is one that doesn’t need an air conditioner.

4. A cool storage system that is more environmentally friendly. This system makes ice at night and uses that ice to cool the building during the day through radiators placed throughout the building.

5. Roof tiles are also great to place on the roof to reflect sunlight. White is the best color.

6. Insulation and sheet rock can be placed within the building in order to try and keep heat out and cool air in. This in addition to air conditioning or window fan units and cool roofing can cool things off.

7. An insulated ceiling can keep the hot air where it belongs. By doing this, any heat that enters through the roof can be trapped. You can also use a cool roofing system to keep the hot air to a minimum. If this isn’t enough, you can use fans In your windows.

8. A “cool coating” can be applied to the building. Basically, this means a different color coating on the building that reflects sunlight. This coating is also idea for not allowing much heat to accumulate in the walls.

9. Placing your building in an area that doesn’t receive a lot of sunlight can also make it feel cool. If it is possible to place your building in a shaded area, try to do so. Minimal sunlight means minimal heat accumulation.

10. You can also keep windows and doors open while using large fans throughout. This may circulate hot air if there are not window fans in place. It depends on if the working environment will allow for such air circulation since these fans are strong.

These are ten methods that you can use to keep your metal buildings cool. It is important to do so, especially if there will be people working inside for long periods of time. Since the buildings can be hotter than the outside, it is important to make sure everyone stays cool enough to avoid heat stroke and other issues that can come about due to the heat. You’ll certainly be glad you took the measures to keep everyone safe.

Importance of Blenders & Juicers

When people think of blenders & juicers, they often think of them as unknown and unneeded appliances. While it is true that many people may go through their normal kitchen activities without the use of a blender or juicer, there are a lot of things that can be done with these two appliances.

Those who have blenders can do multiple things; while blenders are usually known for making smoothies and shakes, they can also do more. Blenders can crush ice, and can also help to create certain sauces and dressings. There are multiple types of blenders available, which is one of the differences between blenders & juicers.

Juicers are one of the more amazing appliances that are available for your kitchen. The juicers help to pulverize any fruit or vegetables that you put in it to create juice. The juicers can act as mixers, as you can put together different combinations of vegetables and fruit for the juice flavor.

Types of Blenders & Juicers

There are multiple types of blenders that are available for people to add to their kitchen lineup. A total blender is known as the normal blender that is powerful enough to crush ice. Food processors are other types of blenders that are generally smaller, and are used to finely chop food and create small sauces.

Other blenders that are available are known as hand held blenders; stick blenders, and immersion blenders. These blenders are actually hand held sticks that feature small blades at the bottom. These blenders are convenient, as the blender comes to the pot or bowl used to mix the ingredients. These are quickly becoming popular in the home, as they have been popular in the cooking industry for years.

More Types of Blenders & Juicers

There are generally only a few types of juicers, and all of the juicers will do similar things. The thing to look for with juicers, however, is how the food is put in and how much juice is extracted. All juicers have these capabilities, but each one will perform differently. While some allow you to do the whole food, others will force you to chop the food before juicing.

What to Look For in Blenders

If you are looking to purchase a blender, there are a few things that you need to look for. First, you need to understand what you want to do with your blender, so that you can understand what type of blender you need. If you want to create smoothies and blend ice, you want a normal blender. If you want to do other things, however, you may want to turn to an immersion blender.

After you look at the features, you want to make sure that the blenders that you are looking at are made of great quality. You can find this by looking up brands and companies online to understand what companies are the best, such as Kitchen Aid.

What to Look For in Juicers

When you are looking at juicers, there are a few things that you need to look for that is slightly different than blenders. The first thing that you need to look for in a juicer is the actual food chute itself. Some juicers require that you chop up the food before juicing it, while others allow you too actually but the fruit in whole. This may affect your experience with the juicer, so you should consider what you want.

Another thing to look for in juicers, which are close to blenders, is the cost of the actual juicer itself. You want to make sure that you find the juicer that fits your budget while giving you what you want and need.

Major Appliances

The kitchen always needs a refrigerator and a range, and you want them to match each other. When looking for these major kitchen appliances, you have to decide between built-in and a freestanding model. Think about which refrigerator model suits your design better. The stove likewise could be a counter top stove with a built-in oven somewhere more convenient, or a freestanding traditional range with oven under a 4 or 6 burner cook top. Definitely go for a built-in stove if you want the convenience of two ovens.

The dishwasher and trash compactor are considered major kitchen appliances as well. You can have these match the refrigerator and stove for an overall unified color scheme. Both the compactor and the dishwasher fit under the counter top, however, they both come as freestanding models as well.

Kitchen Appliance Combination Packages

Shopping around for the best price from different manufacturers on individual appliances is a good idea, but when you buy a kitchen appliance combination package the value is usually much better. A combination package will include dishwasher, microwave, stove, oven and refrigerator. They will all match and be the same brand and style. This way the appliances will integrate very well into your new kitchen. This is the best deal when purchasing kitchen appliances, but be sure that the kitchen appliances that you are getting are quality, reliable products, and you aren’t getting stuck with what is left in the warehouse.

Compare Kitchen Appliance Options

It is really worth the time and effort to compare kitchen appliance options. One of the most obvious reasons that you should take this time is because you will be able to get the best quality and price.

The first thing to check out is the quality. After all, if the product is poorly made then it really does not matter how much you are saving, because you will end up paying more when you have to make repeated repairs or buy the appliance again.

Do a brief background check on the manufacturer. See how long they have been in business, and research online whether they regularly have complaints. You can ask around among friends and coworkers for input as well.

Reading kitchen appliance reviews is the best place to start before making large investments. There are different types and sources of kitchen appliance reviews that will offer a big picture. Many sites offer expert kitchen appliance reviews, which look at most products from a technical point of view. They can provide insight to the potential for repairs needed, and how easy it is to find a service center, and what it will take to install and use the product.

Other sites provide reviews and opinions posted by users of the product. Consumer based appliance reviews are sometimes not completely objective, as people will interject their disappointment in the product into the review. For example, in looking at a review for a particular item, if the unit received great reviews on operation, ease of use, performing as promised, and the company’s response to problems, then take with a grain of salt the reviewer who absolutely hates it. When looking at kitchen appliance reviews it pays to look at more than one website.

An important consideration in comparison shopping is the Energy Star rating. This gives you a rough idea how much the appliance will cost to run. Some kitchen appliances have many wonderful features that may use a lot more gas or electricity. Evaluate the cost of use with the price of the appliance. When looking at Energy Star ratings, be sure to compare apples to apples, that is, make sure the unit of measure you are comparing on two different units is the same.

Armed with your information on manufacturers and styles, the last step is to make a list of the different stores in your area that offer the particular kitchen appliance you are looking for. Compare the suggested retail prices given by the different stores, and take note of which is the lowest.

Kitchen Appliance Colors

In the 1960s the latest in kitchen appliance trends turned its back on classic white appliances, adding such colors as avocado and sunburst orange and yellow. These days the range of colors and textures for these appliances are endless. You have your choice of black, white, off-white, red, navy, stainless, and black glass. Not to mention expensive, custom color choices.

Stainless steel is now one of the most popular finishes for appliances. Many people appreciate the aesthetic appeal of a stainless steel kitchen appliances as well as their ease in keeping clean. Not only do they reject fingerprints, but they fit in better with any kitchen color scheme.

It is proper to remind that among the different methods used for purifying water for drinking and personal consumption, reverse osmosis is mentioned as one of the available options. It is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solution through a semi permeable membrane with a very fine pore structure, whose function is to retain the contaminants on one side and to allow the purified solvent, in this case water, to pass to the other side.

In fact, while it may be effective for some industrial processes that need demineralized water, reverse osmosis is far from ideal for home water purification systems.

Although there is an ongoing debate over the healthfulness of demineralized water as compared to filtered water that includes healthy minerals, it seems safe to argue that naturally balanced drinking water provides all the needed ingredients for human well-being and is therefore healthier. The size of the pores of the membranes used in reverse osmosis are such that permit removing contaminants based on their molecular size. Any synthetic chemicals like herbicides and pesticides molecularly smaller than water cannot be removed by reverse osmosis.

Therefore, to be effective, any reverse osmosis system must be followed by a carbon filter and possibly by an ultra-violet lamp for disinfection (killing) of any microbes that might escape the membrane barrier.

The portion of water enriched in contaminants (twice to three times the quantity of purified water obtained) has to be discarded at a non negligible expense. Given the present and future global concerns for sufficient availability of freshwater supply, this may quickly become an unacceptable waste.

One thing is to return to the sea that portion of discarded water from a desalination onshore plant, another is to throw down the drain all the quantity of remaining water you pay for but is unsuitable for drinking (unless you collect it separately for toilet flushing, car washing and, within limits, for gardening). Don’t forget that, being the process slow, you need a tank to collect the purified product until usage time.

In addition to that, the substantial cost of energy used to pressurize the contaminated water and the necessary maintenance and replacement costs bring the estimates of such processing, per unit volume of treated water, to more than twice that needed for alternative filtering systems.

That is in brief why it is recommended to be ware of superlative praises for reverse osmosis water filters for home installation and to consider more suitable alternatives instead.

What is so unique about utilizing infrared heating elements as opposed to electrical or convection, or even microwaves for that matter? In order to understand why infrared could be superior to almost all previous means of heating, you need to keep in mind that the conventional oven can only heat food from the outside in.

While the microwave can heat food from the inside out, the microwave doesn’t brown food like a real oven simply because a microwave relies on excitation of the water molecules within food to make it hot. The infrared oven can brown food just like a conventional oven, but has the microwaves ability to distribute heat deep inside food being cooked by utilizing longer wavelengths of infrared light. This means when using the Black and Decker Infrawave Speed Oven, you will not only enjoy the oven-seared goodness of classic oven cookery, but you will enjoy it in half the time!

Along with the utilization of new infrared technology, the infrawave oven also offers a user-friendly interface and a number of interchangeable affects to make your baking experience as hassle free as possible. These affects include a grill rack, and removable pans for easy cleanup. While the Black and Decker Infrawave Speed Oven may not be the final chapter of human cookery, it may have come very close.

First of all, of course you want to look for kitchen remodeling ideas that will help you figure out the best layout for the space that you have available. Maybe it would be best to have a galley kitchen, or to have one of those center islands in your kitchen. You might also want to think about looking into counter depth refrigerators, since these can save some space in the kitchen.

You also want to figure out what sort of overall style you would like your kitchen to have. Maybe you want to go for a country look, or a Tuscan look. You could add a backsplash made out of tiles, or using tin or copper. You might want something more modern, with stainless steel appliances, granite counters, and an under counter TV. There are plenty of resources with kitchen remodeling ideas to help you achieve a particular style in your home.

It is important that you consider what types of appliances you want so that you can fit them nicely into the design. You might want to include convection ovens, or some small appliances that will need either space on the countertop or storage space in the cabinets. You want to make sure that there is plenty of space to work on the counters even with all of your appliances, so you don’t want to have to leave everything out. Those you don’t use often can be stored away when not in use.

When looking into kitchen remodeling ideas you might also want to think about how easy it would be to deal with cleaning whatever flooring and countertops you happen to decide to install. You will no doubt want something that requires minimal time and effort to keep looking nice. You also want to make sure that everything will be in a convenient place when you are working in the kitchen. It not only has to look nice but be user friendly as well.

In order to reduce clean up and additional maintenance, it is recommended that you only use filtered water with a scale inhibitor. The use of tap water will probably have an effect on food taste.

Combi Ovens

A commercial combi oven uses steam, convection, or a combination of both to quickly and efficiently cook food. Despite being relatively more expensive than traditional ovens, combi ovens can replace various restaurant equipment pieces such as warming or holding cabinets, fryers, steamers and traditional convection ovens.

To maximize space in your restaurant, combi ovens can replace other cooking equipment.

How Much Can a Combi Oven Support?

Most steamers come in sizes from 1-4 compartments. A one compartment model has the ability to produce up to 200 meals an hour. Combi ovens are most often used in high volume situations, because they can cook food so quickly and provide multiple cooking options.

Ways to Keep your Commercial Steamer Operating at Peak Performance

Use filtered water with a scale inhibitor. A scale inhibitor removes minerals from tap water. When minerals build up in the steamer, performance problems, as well as having to constantly be cleaned, would result. Various steamer models come with an alert light that indicates when a buildup needs to be cleaned. The taste of steamed food can also be affected by the minerals in unfiltered water.

Steamers should be preheated before you cook food. Most steamers take about 5 minutes or more to heat up. Food should be seasoned after it has been steamed in order to have the best taste. For best results when working with vegetables, separate frozen vegetables and use a perforated pan.

Since steamers are so much more energy efficient compared to other commercial cooking equipment, you will save much more money over time.

Reasons for anyone to buy a commercial combi oven are clear when you consider the superior cooking times and exceptional taste.