Birthday cards, along with letters and even Christmas cards, are being overlooked thanks to technology such as Facebook, email, WhatsApp and text messages. It doesn’t matter how many fun emojis you put next to your cyber message, however, as nothing is as special as receiving a handwritten card in the post.

A clean carpet is a healthy carpet. But sometimes, things happen that affect the condition of your carpet and you can be left with a floor covering that is less than healthy and definitely not clean. Excessive moisture is one of your carpet’s mortal enemies because introducing one to the other can lead to the growth of mold and mildew.

Living with mold in your carpet is very bad and depending on the extent of the growth, you can take care of the problem on your own. More severe issues might require professional carpet cleaning in Richmond to get the mold removed and if the problem is overwhelmingly bad, the carpet may need to be ripped up and removed from your home entirely.

So how bad is your mold problem? Maybe you’re not even sure what you’re dealing with yet. Here are some helpful tips for removing mold from your carpet:

Identify the Source

The first thing you must do is find the source of your mold. Simply cleaning what you can see at the surface level is not going to get the job done. You’ll just have to do the same work over and over again without actually eliminating the problem. If you don’t get the mold at the source, you’re not actually removing it. You’re only extending and exacerbating the issue.

If you find mold in your carpet, it’s one thing to clean it out of the fibers and the backing material. But that won’t remove the mold for good. You must eradicate it at the source so you need to explore where the mold is coming from. One place to check first is beneath your carpet. If there is a carpet pad laid below that, you’ll need to lift the pad to see what’s doing under there. Mold typically originates in these areas and you need to dig deep to find out if it’s there.

The Sniff Test

Explore your carpet closely with more than just your eyesight. See if you can detect any foul scent or musty odor coming from the carpet. A smell is a major sign of a serious problem and the stronger the odor, the worse the problem might be.

If you can walk into the room and detect a strong musty aroma before you even kneel down to sniff the surface of your carpeting, you may be looking at a replacement job for the entire carpet.

Taking Steps to Remove the Mold

If your mold problem isn’t so bad that your carpet needs to be torn up from the floor, you can take the following actions to eliminate the mold that has grown in or under your carpeting.

Sprinkle Some Baking Soda

Basic indicators of mold growth can be removed by applying baking soda to the affected area of the carpet and letting it sit there for 24 hours. Once you sprinkle the baking soda on top of the mold, be careful not to disturb the area. Let the baking soda get into the mold to help lift and remove it.

Once the 24-hour period has ended, vacuum up all of your baking soda and you should see the mold get sucked up with it.

Scrub with White Vinegar

If the baking soda didn’t work or the mold is a little more spread out across the carpet, mix some white vinegar with warm water and put the mixture into a spray bottle. Start spraying all of the areas of the carpet that have been affected by the mold. Allow the mixture to soak into the carpet fibers for about 5 or 10 minutes.

Then grab a brush to start scrubbing away at the surface of the fibers. Before you do that, however, be sure to wear a mask, goggles, and gloves because your scrubbing will upset the mold and release spores that can be ingested or inhaled without proper protection.

The white vinegar option is a stronger and more effective method for clearing out more concentrated mold and mildew growth.

Purchasing A Store-Bought Option

You may not be getting much luck from the milder, homemade options. The next step is trying something a little more stringent and abrasive to remove the mold. These store shelf alternatives will usually contain harsh chemicals that are formulated to kill the mold in your carpet and keeping it from coming back.

Using these cleansers is typically simple to do, you can follow the directions on the label and many of them work to help improve the smell of the carpet while killing the harmful mold that has grown inside of it.

When you are looking for a gorgeous wedding venue in Raleigh, you need to consider a wide range of factors. This is your wedding day we are talking about here; you want this special day to be perfect, magical, and unique. It’s a day you are going to remember for the rest of your life and if you fail to choose a wedding venue best-suited for this remarkable event, the one thing that you’ll remember the most is that your choice of venue was subpar, at best.

You have put a lot of time and effort into finding the best caterers who have helped design the perfect menu. You’ve picked the invitations and, of course, it seems as if you’ve been shopping for that ideal dress for weeks. But now you have to choose a venue that meets the same high standards that every other component has achieved.

So, let’s consider all of the most important factors that go into finding just the right venue for your big day. There are plenty of options out there but only one is going to serve every purpose you need.

It’s All About Location

Whether you decide you want to be married where you live now or you want to go somewhere else in the world to hold the ceremony, you need to find that ideal venue that holds a special importance to you and your spouse. So, the best thing to do is first decide where you really want to get married.

If Raleigh is that place, start seeking out local venues that will tick off all the essential boxes for finding that ideal location for making your day truly unique and distinctive.

Online Resources

Turning to the internet can be extremely useful in helping you to select your dream venue. What’s great about doing this all online is that most potential venues come with websites that display a myriad of photos and explanations of the many features that each location offers.

This access to a multitude of location options leaves you with a variety of choices as you can visit each and every one without leaving your couch or desk. It is extremely important to stress that you should never hire a wedding venue without seeing it first, so when you do start your search online be sure to actually go and visit the venues like in person. The reason being that online photos you might find on the venue’s website may be misleading or just simply don’t capture the true beauty of the place. Always go and visit the venue itself before booking anything for your special day.

Know What Style You Want

Some couples have a look and feel in mind, others may still be searching for exactly what they want. But whether you already have a theme for your wedding or you don’t quite know what that will be just yet, you want a venue that has the style you’re looking for.

You may want to go with something that reflects your personal taste, perhaps you have a medieval wedding in mind or the two of you love horses so a barn is the best place for your perfect wedding. The local banquet hall or hotel ballroom may not be the place for you, your wedding is expected to be a little more particular than something everyone else is doing.

Not to say that those other options won’t work, but they may not be your style and so you should look into other possibilities that are more in tune with your needs.

Capacity

You’ve probably thought about who you plan to invite to your wedding. But have you made a full tally of the guest list yet? The number of people you expect to show up is something you should have in mind already, before you start looking at potential venues. That’s because you want to hire a space that will accommodate everyone.

Think about the activities you plan on while you’re at the wedding. Will there be dancing? Will there be a sit-down dinner or a buffet? Your venue needs to be large enough to accommodate all of your planned agenda for the evening.

There is nothing worse than having a wedding in a space that is cramped. You run the risk of the fire marshal shutting the whole thing down and it can get pretty hot and uncomfortable in a small place with a large number of attendees. So, get an idea of the size of your guest list, then you can start to whittle down your list of potential candidates.

If you’re looking for air conditioning tips, the most useful might be knowing why your air conditioner won’t switch on when you need it to work. The last thing you want is for the thermometer outside to reach triple digits when your AC is on the blink. There is nothing worse than being left to sweat and suffer wishing your air conditioner would work and cool things down.

The good news is that you may not need air conditioning repair specialists to solve the problem. Many such problems are relatively simple to diagnose and fix and you can sometimes deal with the issue yourself, saving a whole lot of money on repair costs and keeping your home a lot more comfortable.

Thermostat Problems

The thermostat is the nerve center of your air conditioning system. It’s the device that controls your HVAC, so if you are finding that your air conditioner won’t turn on, the thermostat is often to blame. The issue may lie there while your air conditioner system is actually operating just fine.

You will need to test your thermostat to see if that is indeed the culprit. The first thing to do is set the device to the correct temperature. When you’re ready to test the thermostat, adjust it to a lower temperature and be sure you’ve switched the system to cool. You should hear a click noise indicating that the system has switched on and working.

But if you get no response after adjusting the thermostat accordingly, check the batteries inside the device. If they are old, leaking, or you just can’t remember when you put in the current set of batteries, it probably means you need to install a fresh set. After that, turn to the switch on your circuit breaker. Has it been tripped? See if a fuse has been blown and then see about setting it back into place.

Either of these could be the reason why your air conditioner won’t turn on. But if nothing is wrong with the fuse and the batteries are fresh and you continue to have problems, there are other things to consider.

Damaged Wiring

Air conditioners are like any other piece of delicate equipment, they can begin to break down and show the effects of wear and tear over time. The wiring in any air conditioner system can start to feel this wear and tear and the result can be an inability to turn on when needed. These internal wires could start to erode, snap, or become damaged in some way that would interrupt the proper operation of the air conditioner.

Leaking Refrigerant

The refrigerant in your system moves among a network of tubes and when an air conditioning system is having trouble operating properly, one of the diagnoses will almost always be a shortage of this essential component. Refrigerant is not something that you might expect to run short on as it’s not a consumable element.

If your HVAC system has run low on refrigerant, that can only mean there is a leak somewhere in the system. A leak in this network of tubes means the liquid is dripping out and getting into the air supply which can be a very bad problem.

Proper Airflow

Sometimes, your air conditioner won’t run properly if it’s not getting the air flow it needs. Movement of air through the system is imperative to ensuring that it works correctly. Without it, you can bet your air conditioner won’t turn on. So, you’ll want to check your air filter to see if it’s clean or if it needs to be replaced. A clogged and dirty air filter can hinder that air flow the system needs to run smoothly.

Changing out your filter can also improve the air quality in the home by filtering out those microscopic particles, bacteria, and various hazardous contaminants that can move freely through the home. A clean air filter keeps those harmful elements out of the air and out of your lungs.

Malfunctioning Compressor

The compressor’s main purpose is to pump the refrigerant through your air conditioner system. However, if the compressor starts to malfunction or poops out altogether, you will need to eventually replace that component. The unit will work extra hard to continue trying to do the job it has been tasked to complete, but eventually, even that will tax the system and the air conditioner will end up breaking down entirely.

As a result, it will not turn on and you will be left with an inoperable HVAC system.

One of the most interesting colour schemes for a stately home is that Polesden Lacey. It has stables used now for catering, an expansive garden plus a huge lawn that requires the attention of a lot of gardeners. They will now doubt be needing the services of a company that deals in Mountfield Spares to help them. Why is this stately pile the colour that it is?

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The first house goes back to 1336. It wasn’t yellow and it looked nothing like the house today. Polesden Lacey as a site has seen several different properties on top of it as each owner wasn’t happy with the previous one, or so it seems. The current house is a Thomas Cubitt creation and its the one that’s stuck. Sir Clinton Edward Darkins got the place in the early part of the twentieth century and he decided to keep all of Cubitts bits and get Sir Edward Poynter to extend it. Darkins only got to enjoy it for a bit, dying soon after it was finished.

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When Ronald and Margret Greville saw the place they literally jumped for joy (unlikely as they were Toffs so they probably  just said “Good show!”). It was the perfect place to show off all of their artistic pieces they had collected. This they did and, true to form, Robert died two months afterwards. Why’s it yellow? No one knows.

Marketing your brand can seem like a minefield to beginners. The help of a marketing strategy consultant such as https://www.reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/marketing-and-strategic-development-services/marketing-strategy-consultant is important when you are trying to get it right, as you really need someone who knows what they are doing. Today we are going to look at colour in marketing and why it is so important that you get it right.

Because humans subconsciously rely on colour to guide them, it is crucial in marketing your brand to choose wisely. From your logo to the look and feel of your website, each colour can be associated with certain ideas and provoke certain feelings in someone. Here are some of the main colours used and a bit of the psychology behind them…

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Red – Red is used commonly in fast food logos as it invokes a sense of urgency. It also stimulates feelings of hunger, and an ‘act now’ response which is why you will also see signs advertising sales in red. It commands attention.

Yellow – The colour of sunshine, yellow can promote feelings of optimism and happiness. It is important when using yellow in a logo though to match it with the right colour, otherwise you could end up undoing the positive feelings that yellow promotes.

Blue – Blue is a calm colour, and represents to us clear thinking, level headedness and wisdom. It is a popular colour for many companies for these reasons, but you need to be careful that you still stand out from the crowd if you use a lot of blue in your logo.

Green – Human beings are drawn to green as the colour of calm and of nature. This is why health foods and hospitals will use a lot of green in their logos. It can also represent prosperity which is why it is also popular in the banking sector.

Purple – Purple has strong historical associations with royalty which is why it is seen as the colour of decadence – prestigious health spas and hotels use the colour purple, as well as Cadburys chocolate!

Pink – Pink is used to appeal to females and most of the brands that use pink in their logo are directing themselves at a female market, and often at the youth market as well. There are some exceptions, and the colour pink can help you to stand out from the crowd.

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Black – Black is seen as stylish and sophisticated, so many brands that want to portray that image rely heavily on black in their logo. Combined with another colour it can also have a striking impact. It can also signify luxury as well as purple.

White – White is associated with a clean and modern look, and brands that use white in their logo are aiming to portray that to people. The pitfall of using a lot of white is that if it done incorrectly, can result in the brand not standing out from the crowd.

For some reason everyone seems to sigh when accounting and accountancy is mentioned or brought up. However, this is a bit short sighted as the Accountant has one of the most important roles within an organisation by far. They are responsible for ensuring that the companies finance is on a level footing, all Tax has been paid and rebates claimed, plus any expenditures are properly explained and costed. They will also look at producing the budgets for the next year so that the business can stay within its means.

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So, there is a need but where does it come from? As Cheltenham Accountants https://www.randall-payne.co.uk/ will tell you the origins of accounting date back to the dawn of humanity.  We may not have had a name for them but it is clear from records that someone was responsible for ensuring that stores were full and that some kind of wages were paid to people.

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The big name in Accounting is that of  Luca Pacioli. It was he, in fifteenth century renaissance Italy, who takes the idea of double entry bookkeeping, used by the Roman and Chinese, and starts to add plus and minus figures to illustrate debit and credit. It is so popular that others such as Leonardo Di Vinici use it in their figures too. Modern accountantcy is born.

If you are new landlord, you will need to look into how to create an inventory.

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What Is an Inventory?

Basically, it is a key list of what is in the property, what condition items of furniture, etc. are in and details of any damage. The inventory acts as your main piece of evidence should you need to withhold some of the deposit.

Reasonable deductions include unpaid rent and costs to cover damage – cleaning costs are the most common reason for a deduction.

So Where Do I Start?

The best thing to do is go round the flat or house room by room and list everything that is in it, their location and (importantly) their condition. Also include things such as plugs and light-fittings. You can take photos if you wish – indeed this can be particularly useful if there is any damage such as a broken tiles or stains.

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Make sure you include any garden/outside areas that are considered part of the property.

There are numerous examples of inventory templates available on the internet.

Don’t forget to make a note of any utility meter readings so that bills can be sorted out fairly.

When the Tenant Moves In

It is important to go through the inventory with the tenant at the very beginning of their tenancy. Make sure they agree with everything and make any adjustments if mutually agreed. Once you have done this, get them to sign and date the inventory, give them a copy and keep your copy somewhere safe.

When the Tenant Moves Out

When the tenancy finishes, you should go around the property with the tenant who is leaving and note down any changes to condition of any items, any missing items and any damage that has appeared.

What Is an Inventory Clerk?

Alternatively, to take the strain off you, you could employ someone to do all this for you. These people are known as inventory clerks and will be experienced in this field. For more details as to what they are and what they do, why not take a look at a specialist website such as https://inventorybase.co.uk/blog/what-does-an-inventory-clerk-do-and-should-i-hire-one/ today?

Whichever route you decide to go down, an inventory is essential part of being a landlord and should always be completed at the start and at the end of any tenancy.

Nickel plating using an Electroless process (ENP) deposits a nickel coating without using the electrical current that’s normally used in an electroplating process. Industrial ENP processes generally contain between 2 and 14 percent phosphorus. A higher phosphorus content means better corrosion resistance at the expense of reduced hardness of the coating.

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How does it work

In the ENP process, a chemical reducing agent is used to turn nickel ions into metallic nickel. The coating is naturally hard and resistant to wear and abrasion, it also has a natural lubricity, making it good for surfaces that come into contact with each other and would otherwise suffer from excessive wear.

As we’ve said, corrosion resistance can come at the expense of hardness. Heat treatment can increase the hardness of the coating, but the trade-off here is that microscopic cracks can occur in the surface coating, reducing its effectiveness.

How well ENP adheres to the substrate is largely down to preparation. Provided surface preparation is good, the adherence rate to carbon steel is around 200 to 400 Mpa, and for stainless steel it’s 160-200. It is difficult to deposit nickel on steels that have a high chromium content though.

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Surfaces must also be clean of dirt, oils and soaps. Edges should be rounded off and welds ground down too. Precise temperature control of the plating bath is also essential to the process being able to deliver a high quality of finish.

Where is it used

The electroless nickel plating process is mostly used in industry, on things like pipes, valves and fasteners. The coating thickness can be varied and a greater thickness can be applied to a rough surface in order to produce a smoother final finish.

ENP is also often used as a way of improving the corrosion resistance of carbon steel, especially when it’s used in mildly corrosive environments such as where it may come in contact with caustic solutions, acids and chlorides.

Electroless coating can be used with other substances, but nickel is the most common application. It offers a solution that is cost-effective for applications where extending the service life of a component by reducing the chance of wear and corrosion is required. It means that often ENP coated steel can be used in these instances, in place of more expensive corrosion resistant alloys.