How to Look after Antique Furniture Properly

If you own antique furniture, you own an investment and an asset. Indeed, each piece may be worth several thousand dollars, if not more, although this does depend on its overall condition. Exact prices for antique pieces vary depending on age, where it was constructed and the craftsmanship involved as well. If you have a piece that is worth quite a bit of money, you need to make sure that you know how to look after it properly.

Keeping it Clean

First of all, you need to know how to keep antique furniture clean. You should never neglect them and ensure they are part of your routine. Dust your furniture at least once a week, although preferably every other day. Make sure you use soft cloths, as you don’t want to scratch the pieces. Do not use sprays, including furniture police, however. This is because the chemicals contained within these sprays can discolor and stain the wood, and it can cause weak spots. You need to learn how to clean to preserve, rather than your cleaning routine adding to the wear and tear. Orange oil is particularly good for antiques and you can use it once a week. If applicable, wax the furniture every month or two, so it continues to shine.

"EnkhuizenZuiderzee museum antique furniture" by Jane023 (talk) 17:30, 25 January 2011 (UTC) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Protecting Your Furniture

You must always protect your antique furniture from damage, including damaging caused by cleaning it. Never allow any fluid to sit on the wood. If there is some sort of spillage, you should dab at it with a soft cloth until the liquid is removed. Do not wipe, however, as this would make the fluid more ingrained, damaging the wood overall. Also make sure your antique furniture is not in any direct sunlight as this could discolor the wood, which can never truly be repaired.

Keep the Environment Clean

Remember that a piece of antique furniture is sensitive and old. Hence, you have to make sure that the environment in which the pieces are placed is suitable for them. The temperature must be constant, as variations can cause the antiques to be damaged. You may also want to consider placing a humidifier in the room to further protect each piece.

The value of an antique piece is in its condition and in its age. However, various factors, and particularly distinctiveness, quality, period and splendor, add greatly to the overall value of the piece. If you have a nice piece of antique furniture, you can guarantee that there will be a collector who is interested in it. When they look, however, they search for the oldest age in the best condition. This ratio is, overall, what will determine value.

In most cases, buying an antique is very costly. Everyday people generally cannot offer them, as they simply do not have the money to make that type of investment. If you have deiced to buy an antique, therefore, it will be even more important to know just how to look after it properly so that you may end up seeing a return on investment when  you do decide to sell.

Happy Birthday my LOVE!

I am so thankful to the Lord for the gift of my husband. He truly is a man who loves the Lord and desires to do all things to please Him. May I remind you today how much I love you, honor you and respect you. May I do you good and not harm all the days of your life and always offer you my best in everything. I pray that I will always be your faithful helper.

A blessed birthday to the MAN I LOVE! Stay blessed and be a blessing Honey!

Glass for Gas Fireplace Specifications and Details

When flat glass is created, the molten silica mixture is slowly cooled in conditions that have been carefully controlled. This procedure means that any undesirable stresses have been removed from the glass itself. Cooling happens in a “lehr”, which is also known as an annealing device. Glass that has gone through this process is known as ordinary glass.

However, there is also something called “heat treated glass”, which is the type of glass for gas fireplace. This has been heated to the point of melting, after which it is cooled very rapidly. This type of heating and cooling induce stress on the glass, making it much stronger. It also allows the glass to endure heat and become more resistant overall. Heat tempered glass can be either heat strengthened or fully tempered. Fully tempered glass has to have at least 10,000 psi of surface compression, or 9,700 psi of edge compression at least. Heat strength glass has to have between 3,500 and 10,000 psi of surface compression, or between 5,500 and 9,700 psi edge compression. Anything below that is classed as ordinary glass. Furthermore, heat tempered glass has a number of specific fracture characteristics.

Source: http://fortikur.com/modern-ventless-gas-fireplace/

The Principle of Heat Treatment

When the edge or surface of glass is placed under tension, it will fracture. Any edge fissures or inherent surface will then propagate, becoming a visible crack or even a full break. The heat treating process utilized in tempered glass means that there already is a surface or edge compression in its initial condition. This is done by heating the glass firstly, and then cooling it very rapidly. The center of the glass, at the time, is then still hot compared to the actual surface of the glass. The center will then start to cool, compression the edges and surface. As a result, any type of impact, be that heat, wind pressure or even a missile impact, must then overcome this compression before it can fracture the glass itself.

The Process of Manufacturing Glass for Gas Fireplace

The most important procedure of heat treating glass is found in applying a very rapid air quench, which must happen as soon as the hot glass (it must be around 1200 degrees Fahrenheit at least) is removed from the furnace. It is the sustained and immediate application of the air quench that provides the glass with the necessary temper. The direction of the air against the hot glass should be mixed in nature, including reciprocation of blast nozzles that rotated and that are fixed. This means that the entire surface, on both sides, has had the heat extracted in a uniform manner. If it is uneven, the glass surface will heat back up again, as the center is still hot. The quenched condition of the glass is classed as stable when the surface temperature is reduced to around 500 degrees Fahrenheit. All of this can be achieved either through a vertical position, or through a horizontal position. There is no difference in strength between these two methods.

Getting the True Value Out Of Huge Windows

We're in an era where glazing seemingly takes priority over everything in the mind of the architect. All of the contemporary home magazines seem to feature those properties which look as though they are constructed entirely out of glass - with this supposedly being the definition of modern architecture.

We're not going to disagree with the last sentence - glazing is modern and in most cases, it looks fantastic.

Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to this method of construction. For all of the benefits that they bring, large windows can bring a few problems to properties. They range from thermal issues, to sound problems, right the way to privacy. However, with the correct set of window treatments installed, it's possible to eradicate all of these issues.

Let's start with the thermal problems. Any window is going to worsen the energy efficiency of a building, so it goes without saying that the bigger they are the worse hit they are as well. This is where the insulated blind comes into play, with this helping to retain a building’s heat and allow it to prosper from an energy efficiency perspective. Alternatively, for those properties built in warmer climates, the solar shade can stop all of those hot UV rays filtering through and cool your house down in the process.

If we move onto the topic of sound, it’s pretty much been addressed in the previous paragraph. As well as being an excellent insulator for heat, it should go without saying that insulated blinds can work wonders from a soundproofing perspective as well. Particularly if you opt for one of the thicker solutions, you can limit the amount of sound penetrating your glazing tremendously and quickly eradicate another of the renowned problems of large windows.

Privacy is even simpler to resolve and also easier if you don’t need to tamper with your building’s thermal or acoustic efficiency. In other words, all you need is a blind that’s capable of blocking out prying eyes when the need arises. For particularly large windows vertical blinds are probably one of the cheapest options that can manage this, although if you want to spend a little more wood Venetians can be manipulated to filter varying amounts of light through the slats.

Of course, every instance is going to be different and as you’ve probably gathered, large windows in cold country are going to be treated much differently to the same sized windows which are situated in a warm environment. On the other side of the coin, some rural homes might not have privacy high on their agenda, which again provides them with much more flexibility when it comes to choosing their window treatment.

Regardless of your situation, the rules remain the same though. Large windows can open your house up and even improve it from a thermal perspective and through the aid of window treatments, you can cast aside all of the drawbacks that some industry experts like to focus on.