Painting: Choosing colour and Choosing your Painter

Painting of the house is seen by some as a very easy job to do, but if you must do it well I have to tell you that you need a professional painter to do the job
There are professional decisions to be taken before painting a house.
What of the risk of climbing a very high ladder and working for hours that you were supposed to use for your business. Paying a little extra to a tradesman will not diminish but increase you. Painting involves you moving heavy equipments and furniture around do you have height phobia?

Choosing colour
Colour evokes emotion; infact a colour can give you an excellent idea of what a building is used for without you having any other clues.
Colours are used for branding you can see this prominent in our banks-bankphb, has blue and yellow, trace of red in UBA and intercontinental new buildings will reflect a lot of blue and yellow. The fast food restaurant for instance has a particular colour common to them all a grade or shade of wine and red.
Inspiration from environment-When you want to decide on a colour to use ,get inspiration from your immediate environment presently you are staying somewhere, you can check the furniture to start and look for colours that are of darker or lighter shades to blend with it. Your rug or window blinds can give you a good idea of the colour you may use. Most houses uses at least 3 different shades of colour, one the lighter and the major one for the walls the door and other attachments like window hood, heaves etc are used to get the best visual.
The houses around you are a good source of inspiration especially when it is a residential neighbourhood, for commercial you may decide to have a contrasting colour to easily differentiate your building from others for identity, the colour of your can also determine the one you will use for your exterior and the colour of your furniture will have to harmonize with the exterior.
Light colour will make your house seems larger and dark siding or bands will make your house seems smaller.
Contrasting colours will draw attention to architectural details in a building but to much of it will cause disharmony to your eyes.
The more intense a colour is, the longer is going to take to fade dark colours absorbs more heat and suffers more moisture problems that is why the larger portion of the building must be light.
For the sheen, of your paint (or texture)- Semi-gloss, glossy or flat. The glossier the surface, the more likely is going to show imperfections of brush strokes and touch up marks on the other hands glossy surfaces are easier to clean. The common thing is to use flat paint for walls and semi-gloss for columns window hood etc and railings and window sashes will be better painted by gloss.
SOURCES
To get a good painter the best option is to visit local paint sellers in your area , if they have customer that has been buying for long, this is a sign that the guy has experience in the job and his services could be employed.
Also look at houses next door one will be painted better than the rest so you can as well ask your neighbour for the painter and if you seen the building you are going to make use of is painter check how the painter was able to protect areas that were not supposed to be painted like concrete pavement, roofs, plants.
For the interior how was he able to protect the furniture the time he spent in completing the job is also important to you.
You can also ask from friends around and when you are ready to finally give in him the job ask for a comprehensive proposal the quotations that will include colour type,volume and mixture.
Use colour scheme when you are deciding on which colour to use, you can choose one colour and add varying tones of it by lightening it or deepening it. A complementary colour is to mix colours that lie opposite each other in colour wheel like blue and orange ,red and green ,yellow and purple. These colours are contrasting colours and when they put place together will create exciting effects.
And a related scheme is using colours that lies side by side in the colour wheel e.g green & blue or with red, orange & yellow which creates harmonious effects.
To choose colour most people will start with magazines,books.
There are no straight rules for choosing colour, the basic principle are hue,value intensity and temperature. Hue simply means colour which is the combinations of primary colours with different values and intensities.
Value is lightness of a colour which is determined by the amount of white mixed with it. When a colour strikes you as light, medium or dark then you are talking about value.
Intensity is the measurement of the brightness of a colour, that is when a colour will strike you as bright or dull then you are talking of the intensity. Low intensity colours are used as the main colour.
Colours are reffered to as warm or cool,red orange and yelloware warm colours,while blue green and likes are cool colours.
When painting the exterior, consider also the landscaping to be able to create harmony with your environment. Not all colourswill retain there looks due to the effects of sunrays and rain and some may have to take more coats to get the desired effects. The best ones are neutral toned with a medium value. That is why you see most often light or medium brown and beige colours are the ones used. The worst colours to use are pure colours like red and yellow which will oxidized very fast.
As I said the interior will have to be determined by the furniture you are using depending on what you want, it could be dramatic cool or simply a non noticeable interior with very plain colours.

Why Asbestos is Used only in poor countries.

Asbestos was derived from the greek word (a-not; “sbestos,” extinguishable) is a form of some minerals and hydrous silicate of magnesium.
Asbestos is still very much used in Nigerian out of ignorance or poverty.
In developed countries asbestos usage has been banned out rightly or relatively reduced to a very small usage due to the facts that some diseases were contacted because of the exposure of it’s fiber to human beings, especially in high volume .
The fibers are light and can easily be carried by air , the three major diseases related with it are ‘asbestosis’, a disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of asbestos particles , ‘mesothelioma’ and lung cancer.
There are two major classes-‘amphiboles & serpentines’ the serpentines constituting 95% of major world supplies.
On several occasions employees directly earning a living by selling asbestos products have always come out to defend it especially in less informed countries, it was noted that the first case of its harmful nature was discovered a long while ago after some group of underground miners were exposed to raw fibers. This has led to the western countries banning the use especially in homes.
Uses
Asbestos usage is wide from fabrics, textiles molded goods (pipes and gaskets), building construction materials (missile and jet parts, paints, brake lining,fibro cement, insulation product, fire proofing product, floor covering, ceiling tiles and roofing materials which is mostly used in Nigeria. (asbestos cement, corrugated and flat sheets and for thermal (heat) and acoustic insulation).
In Nigeria 95% of the population still make use of asbestos, all though there have not really been reported cases of the effects of these fibres on peoples health ,but countries that directly do the mining have had more negative stories about the product .
We may have been drinking rainwater channeled into our tanks from asbestos roof for years and notice no negative effects on our health but it was reported that the effect can be noticed at times after 30 years of its infection.
Hence the rate of infection and when it is going to show depends on the rate at which you inhale the fibers to your lungs.
Asbestos can also be contacted through renovation, demolition of building and roofing works.

Alternatives
In Nigeria is mainly used for ceiling and roof, it may be difficult to fully replace it in every homes due to the cost of the alternatives.
The mineral fiber board for suspended ceiling , the P.O.P or finished plywood are way too expensive as a substitute for common man. The aluminium roof is also on the very high side as well and the traditional zinc materials are just too unappealing and outdated for a lot of people to consider .
But there are products that are now been worked on that are cheaper to acquire like painted galvanized zinc and others will also be brought to your notice later.

Western Architecture versus Tropical Architecture: Why you shouldn't import your house plan from Europe/America

The love for anything western is atimes foolishly adopted by some people in diaspora to include importing house plans to build in africa.
But topography, culture and climate of africa is far different from what you have in the western world.
The reasons are listed below.
1) In tropical architecture due to high humidity, designs are done to expel as much heat as possible so that fresh and cool air will be absorbed, hence fenestrations or windows are of high priorities,but in western buildings heat is usually conserved therefore you may find less windows in some buildings, the ones you have windows in them are mostly to encourage sunrays from penetrating into the house.
that is why you will may see green house in these places (house made of glass) but for the tropical designs, the sunrays are usually shielded by different shading devices recommended by the architect.
2)The african man prefers showing off his house ,hence the aesthetic considerations is in the exterior of building while the western people prefers to have more of the aesthetic reflects in the interior of their buildings.
3)Religion also contributes a lot to the type of building your architect will design for you. The western world are far more liberal and most of them are of no religious linnings.
But in Nigeria we have three major religion which constitutes 98% of the population.
For a muslim man with the probability of having more than one wife, his building plan will be different from that of a christian not to talk of the western people that are now having gay marriages.
4)Culture is deep rooted in the African setting, can you say that of the western world?
When you are designing for an african, it is appropriate to consider your sibblings as part of the family and provisions are made for them in your design but for the white people your brother will have to be invited before visiting you.
The father is seen as head of the family, the grandmother will have to be at home with you one time or the other, in short your extended family is your immediate family in africa. You are somehow tied to where you were coming from hence it affects the type of design of your building that your architect will give you.
5)Sociologically, you can't compare the two worlds side by side and not see a wide difference. For the myopic, you may say there way of life is better, but if you take a second look you will notice that they commit more suicide than what is obtained elsewhere.
The tropical people that are more of Africa and a little of Arabs accomodate outsiders more. You can decide to have your friend that is yet to secure a job to stay in your house for sometimes.Your friend can barge in and out at anytime without invitation.
Your house can be used as a meeting place for your local club members, you can afford to do other things with your house that will be out of place in the western world, therefore your house may have to accommodate all these activities.
6)Security, if you look at some houses in Europe, they are practically designed for outsiders to view the interior of the buildings , very low walls or no walls at all are used, but what we have here tries to discourage robbers vandalizing our houses, hence you see high fences, burglary proof and some architect will even go the extra mile to provide escape routes for you when they are designing your building.
There are cases where we have to make the staircase of a duplex concrete, and this helped someone in Victoria Garden city when armed robbers invaded his house, He locked himself and families upstairs and the robbers were unable to gain access to him.
7)The big gap in technology also makes a lot of difference in the two worlds designs. The western architecture is backed up by up to date technologies that you may practically not need to work too hard to get the building done.
In most parts of the western world,wood or timber is used, these are not ordinary woods but well seasoned that can even last more than our concrete buildings we have down here. Prefabricated houses are much and they are used extensively.
8)Cost: It is far more expensive to build a good house in Nigeria/Africa to the ones you have in Europe e.t.c
9)Economy: The economy of the countries that constitutes the tropical regions does not give rooms for too much of luxuries, these countries are mostly poor countries so unnecessary rooms that are in vogue in western world are practically non-existent in the tropical regions.
10)Erratic power supply: This is by far the most important area to consider when designing your house. The western architects care less about using the natural lights to lighting the building because he knows he will always have stable and steady flow of electricity, but for the tropical architect, a long dark corridor without natural light is considered a failure .
Hence, high priority is given to natural light.
11)Government incentives or Subsidies: The government of the western world seems to care more for their citizens and they make it possible for everybody to have shelter by encouraging different kinds of schemes and subsidies.
12)Development of traditional styles of building: African and others are beginning to look inwards and they are developing their own brands of buildings/architecture improving the traditional building styles to modern innovations.
So changes are taking place so is buildings and their designs.
13)Lack of maintenance culture will also hinder the tropical architect or probably the Nigerian architect from designing and planning your building to look like that of the people of western world.
All said, you can however tell your architect back home to design a modern building that will reflects or meets up with the western architecture.
He is well trained to do that so just tell him what you want and when you aren't satisfied don't hesitate to let him know.

Dangers of Ignoring Concrete cracks in your building

The ultimate effect is the collapse of your building, but cracking does not only happen in concrete alone ,they do also show in other building components.
A crack is a sign of weak structural design or when the necessary precautions are not taking in curing /making good the concrete before removing molds or support for them.
When the reinforcements or iron rods specifications are not adequate or when the contractor out of greed /incompetency decided to use substandard materials.
A cracked concrete allows rainwater which in turn gradually wears it off and may ultimately expose the iron rods that were used to sustain it.
Adequate iron rods are needed in any concrete ,because the concrete exerts a compressive force ,it tends to drag its weight down and concentrate on the center of distribution.
whereas the iron rods are what serves as tensile forces which helps to counter the compressive forces from the concrete.
When a crack occurs and exposed the iron rods to the environmental elements it leads to corrossion or rust this, can affect your entire building.
A cracked concrete will give room for insects and small animals to explore like wall gecko .These animals will make crevices formed as their shelter and create more gaps holes than what would be seen initially in building.
Crack raises cost of maintenance and weakens the building, it reduces the life span of the building.it may still collapse even after Certifying such buildings for several years.
The remedy if it were a small crack quickly patch the space to avoid exposing the iron rods, for a bigger problem you need to call a structural engineer especially if it is a multistorey building.

Importance of a Garage in your Home

Garage untill recent was seen as a space in the house where you park your cars often one or or two at most.
But technology, jostling for available spaces and increase in enterpreneurship has given new roles to garages in your house.
1)Protection of cars -This is no doubt the number one reason for having a garage in your house.It protects against thieves, against weather and environmental nuisances .
2)You can use it as a substitute to store tools,sports equipments and boxes of junks especially when your store at home becomes inadequate or too small.
3)The large space of you garage can also serve as exercise room in the early hours of morning before going to work. Just remove your car from the garage and you have wide space for your routine exercise.
4)It serves perfectly as home office.A good numbers of internet biggest companies started from garages, read the stories of google founders,Dell, Microsoft Bill Gates,Amazon e.t.c they all have somehow been reffered to have started from garages.
5)It adds to the value of you house , though the money you will have to invest is really comparatively a small portion of your building project. The face value/monetary value it adds to your home can be quite staggering. People will pay more for houses with garages to the ones without.
Now building your garage,you should realise you need to get a town planning approval especially if you are doing it as an addition to your existing building. The location will probably be by the side of the building with less fenestrations or windows and better still if it is closer to the access road in your site.
Generally the size is always 3 meters by 6 meters (10ft x20ft).