Posts Tagged ‘carpeting’
October 29th, 2009 | 
Author: Many older people that live alone are injured from falls. In fact, falls are the leading cause of injuries in older people, and can be the reason many retreat to a life in their lounge chairs. Other seniors lose their ability to live independently, and end up in a hospital or assisted living facility.
Studies indicate that nearly one-third of people aged 65 years and over fall more than once a year. Luckily, many of these falls do not result in life-threatening injuries, but they don’t come without a price. The person can be left with bruises, sore muscles, and stiffness of joints from the impact on a hard surface.
Additionally, falls can cause more serious results, such as:
Hip or wrist fractures
Shoulder dislocations
Head injuries or abrasions
Sprains
Falls can, also, cause older people to lose their confidence about personal mobility and living independently.
Tips to Prevent Falls
Older people do not, necessarily, need to expect they will be injured by falls. Some things can be changed and improved, to reduce injuries from falls.
Exercise can help to improve balance, strength and flexibility. Home or senior exercise classes can be valuable.
Always wear comfortable and well fitted shoes. Shoes should provide adequate toe room, have slip-resistant soles, and provide support to the entire foot.
Safety Inside the Home:
Don’t skimp on lighting in living areas. Use bulbs that provide, at least 60 watts of more. Always use plug-in night lights, including motion sensitive lighting at stairways and in bathrooms.
Replace carpeting if it has worn areas. Holes and frayed carpeting can cause falls.
Clean up spills immediately.
Install grab rails in showers, alongside tubs and commodes.
Be sure furniture used to sit or lay on are appropriate heights to make getting up, out and into easier.
Safety Outdoors:
Be sure walkways are smooth and even.
Install lighting along paths
Provide adequate lighting on porches and near steps
Personal Health:
Personal body care can help reduce falls, such as podiatry, vision, and medication maintenance.
If You Fall:
Try not to panic. Remain still until you regain composure.
If you can’t get up, call for help.
When older people can’t get up from a fall, they could be without help for hours, even days. Injuries can be permanent when needed medical help can not be obtained.
Wearable medical and emergency alarms can be a life-saver in this type of situation, they had access to a device that could have gotten quickly got the help they needed.
Medical alert alarms can call for help when you can’t get to your phone. As easy as pushing the panic button on the alarm, disguised as a necklace or wristwatch, could avoid permanent and longterm injuries.
How To Get Up After Falling:
Roll onto your stomach and try to crawl to a sturdy piece of furniture.
Try to get up onto your knees.
Push upwards, using your strongest leg and arm.
Keep hold of the furniture until you can stand.
If You Can’t Get Up:
Try to crawl and get yourself on carpeting. You will need to keep your body warm.
Call for help by using your personal alarm, if you have one.
If you don’t have an alarm, shout for help or try to bang on walls or floors to make noise. If you can, use something other than your fist to hit hard surfaces.
If you know no one will be able to hear you, keep warm and try to get up later.
When older people know they won’t be heard or can’t get to their phone, they often give up. If only they had a personal alarm that would have been attached to their wrist or worn around their neck as a necklace, they would not need to wait, however long it might be, until someone comes by and finds them.
Things to Remember:
Falls cause major injuries to older people.
Falling can be indications of more serious health problems.
Keep the body mobile through strength and balance exercises.
Don’t allow your home to become cluttered with things that could increase falling risks.
Strongly consider getting a personal medical and emergency alarm.
Choose to arm yourself with the ability to get help and continue to live an independent lifestyle. Peace of mind is well worth the small amount of cost.
Older people can be robbed of their independent lifestyles. Learn how you can give aging parents the gift of peace of mind. Go to http://personalsecuritydevices.walkinsarewelcome.com and learn about the best Christmas gift you could give.
Article Source: How Older People Can Prevent Falls and Injuries
The Dyson DC14 Vacuum Cleaner is a powerful vacuum with a 17′ extendable hose and a brush roller that can be turned on and off depending on the application required. The suction can prove almost too powerful for some-especially those with delicate or wool oriental carpeting as the fibers can be literally ripped out of the backing, even with the brush roller turned to an off position. The cleaning capability of this particular unit isn’t the question, it is whether this machine over-cleans to the detriment of flooring and property.
The Dyson DC14 is equipped with a 17′ extension hose (14′ of flexible hose attached to a 3′ wand) hat allows the cleaner to reach cobwebs as well as dust-bunnies and the suction and power of the vacuum is well-matched to this feature. The main drawback to this unit is the over-suction that results when the brush roller on the floor is used. Great suction is usually a good feature in a vacuum cleaner, however, here it is simply overkill and has resulted in expensive damage to various types of flooring.
On precious antiques, wool and oriental-type rugs and carpeting, many of the Dyson models have been known to literally tear the fibers right out of the backing, resulting in at best, a ragged-looking mess where patterns are forever blurred and thinned out portions of the material. Annoying balls of wool accumulate like cottonwood or dandelion seeds in spring across expanses of very expensive carpeting. The key in anything is balance. The Dyson DC14 fall short because this vacuum cleaner has to make up for finesse, it doubles up on the power, knowing that the average consumer looking to clean an investment in flooring will be swayed by what they think is a good vacuum based only on cleaning suction capability.
Other features on the Dyson DC14 include a 1/5-gallon bin that empties with the press of a button. The extra size is appreciated in this model, but it is a little bit of overkill again and results in vacuum cleaner that is on the heavy side and a bit bulky-too bulky to fit underneath beds like a Rubbermaid vacuum can and too heavy to be able to carry it easily from level to level. Another feature, the lifetime HEPA filter, is able to filter out 150 times the airborne mildew and allergy-causing particles than is found in an average air sample.
There is also an automatic carpet height adjustment and a 35 foot cord that allows access to more than one cleaning area with only one plug-in. The 14″ cleaning path is thin enough to fit between most chair legs and small enough for residential use, but registers on the small side when it comes to any area that needs to be cleaned that is of any size. Property owners with large areas of carpeting or hard wood flooring that is delicate like wood-flooring and some laminates may experience scratching even with the brush-roller on the “off” position. A better machine for hard-flooring is the Proteam Super Coachvac with the special soft-foot attachment that is designed to leave hard flooring scratch-free.
The best thing about the Dyson DC14 is the generous warranty that extends to 5 years. While the Dyson DC14 is a very good vacuum cleaner and the warranty is generous, major problems don’t usually crop up until after the warranty is expired. The problem with this Dyson and others is that they are extremely expensive to fix and require more expensive parts that are not as readily available as other prevalent brands. There are accounts of repair bills equaling the cost of the machine. While the Dyson DC14 is a machine with a lot of suction and a generous extension hose, some of its capability is negatively balanced by the amount it may cost to maintain in the long run.
Detailed and comprehensive information about vacuum cleaners and manufacturers. Quality websites with diverse information and many vacuum cleaner reviews on the latest machines. Lee Harris has worked in the wholesale cleaning industry for over 15 years and has extensively reviewed many cleaning related products. Lee is also the creator of sites such as Monsterjanitorial.com
Article Source: Review of the Dyson DC14 All Floors Vacuum Cleaner
When a fire hits any regular building off the street, you can expect that it will not last long. It only takes a few minutes for the raging fires to eat up anything and everything that it touches; especially if you have a lot of carpeting and wood all around your house.
Thus, you need to prepare and make sure that fires will not be able to harm you or your family: from using fire extinguisher cabinets to untangling the mess of wires in your pc, the responsibility lies in your hands.
• Fire Extinguisher Maintenance
Fire extinguishers are the first line of defense that you can use in case of a fire. Make sure that your extinguishers are kept safe in fire extinguisher cabinets to prevent them from rusting and being tossed around, and that they are not past their expiration date. You do not to find your extinguisher de-pressurized at the moment that you will need it the most.
• Wiring and Electronics
Overheating wires and a few sparks from overloaded circuits are more than enough to start a fire in your home, so make sure to check that the wires of your electronics do not wind up too close to each other or to flammable materials. Also, do not stuff all your plugs in one power outlet: the overloaded outlet will have a tendency to overheat and spark a lot when the demand for power grows beyond its capacity to safely supply it.
• Cooking and Cookware
Open flames are always a fire hazard, even in the safety of your kitchen. Curtains blown across an open range, a pressurized canister left beside a hot pot or a small leak in the gas pipes are just a few examples of ways that your kitchen could catch fire.
Check all connections for leaks, be aware of what you pick up and put down, and make sure that all flammable materials are kept segregated from all sources of heat within your kitchen.
• Smoking Safety
Cigarettes are also another major cause for fires. A carelessly flicked butt or a few cinders dropped on the carpet provides the necessary heat to start a raging inferno anywhere in the house.
For safety’s sake, never smoke in areas of the house that are carpeted or full of papers. Smoke outdoors and on stone or metal surfaces, carefully snuff out the cigarette butt and dispose all butts in a non-flammable container to ensure that there would be nothing for the cinders to light up.
• Fire Escape Plans
Fires are devastating mostly because they are unexpected. Any preparation you may take will minimize the risks that a fire will start, but this risk cannot be totally discounted. Thus, you still need to be prepared to do something when a fire does hit, and a fire escape plan will make sure that you will know what to do should the time come.
From watching the wiring, putting your extinguishers in a few fire extinguisher cabinets for safekeeping and drawing up an escape plan, you can make sure that you minimize the risk and prepare for the worst. After all, no one wants to lose their beloved family, as well as their own life, in a fire
Having specialized in the fire extinguisher cabinets trade for over 20 years, Brian now works tirelessly to promote affordable fire safety for home and for business.
Article Source: Fire-Free Homes: Keeping Your Family Safe and Sound
Ever since vacuum cleaners were invented in the 19th century, using an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, there has been an abundance of brands out there. Trying to choose one which will fit your needs, especially if you don’t know much about the product is as difficult as trying to manually clean your house the old fashioned way, with brooms and dustpans. Let us attempt to make sense of your vacuum cleaner shopping.
First of all, get the best kind based on your kind of flooring or carpeting. If you have a large floor space, get models with floor attachments that use brushes and/or uprights with metal bottom plates. The height should be able to be adjusted low enough for the flooring. Make sure that the metal plates and wheels will not scratch your floors. Otherwise, you’d end up with a very clean, but damaged floor. If your house has more carpet than flooring, choose a vacuum that has enough suction power, especially if the carpet has deep pile styles. Unfortunately, this can consume a lot of energy, so if your house doesn’t have lots of carpet areas, stick with the one that will cause the least energy consumption, keeping your house clean and helping save the environment at the same time.
If you have long hair or the people in your house keep shedding body hairs all over the place, choose one that has a stainless steel brush roller with ball bearings. Of course it will make the unit heavier, but that beats having to sweep your house every 2 hours because it looks like a beauty salon, with hair lying all around
If your goal is to keep the dust out of the air, which is actually one of the primary goals of a vacuum cleaner, get a bag rather than a bagless one. The bag model has a paper or fabric bag that allows air to pass through but traps all dust and debris in the bag. The bagless models, all the dust and debris goes to a container and a reusable filter.
You need to test the air-tightness of the vacuum first before buying, especially if you’re suffering from asthma. One way is to vacuum for a bit with a floor model and then see how much dust has collected on the outside of the unit.
Another important thing that is not related to its features or functionality, but is essential to your peace of mind is how easy it would be to assemble or disassemble. Make sure that they’re easy to assemble, that they stay together and are airtight during use, and that you can still disassemble them with a minimum of effort
If you live in a small apartment or space, it would be better to buy a small hand held vacuum, rather than a big full one. It’s more energy efficient and you don’t need to lug a big vacuum cleaner around for every small spill or mess around your limited space.
Make an inventory of all the parts that will require replacement, how often the replacement should occur and how much it will cost you annually. It will cost you, but at least you don’t have to buy a new one every year or so.
Andrew Washington can help you to prices and specification on laundry appliances including tumble dryers and dishwashers from different manufacturers and high street stores online.
Article Source: Finding Your Perfect Laundry Partner
I must admit, I am definitely a pet lover. I have a cat, a dog, bird and three fresh water aquariums. My bird is quite a bit spoiled as his “house” is in the living room, and his “condo” is in the bedroom. Well, as I was vacuuming around his condo, I noticed something on the floor where the floor connects to the wall of the adjacent shower. I tell you, if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. It turns out that as I followed the wall along into my closet, I was looking at what seemed to be a bit of mold buildup in the crack! The carpet in the back part of the closet was wet. You got it, my shower pan was leaking!
This happened a few months ago. We had several people give us estimates. It turned out that we ended up having to re-do the entire shower as it was pretty old, and we had to tear out all the carpet from the bedroom and the closet. The wall behind the shower in the closet had to be replaced as well in case there were any mold spores that could have been growing. We ended up choosing to put laminate flooring in the bedroom and closet to replace the carpeting.
When we finally picked somebody to do the work for us, we tried to give them their space. However, can you really trust complete strangers fixing things in your house when they are unsupervised? Sure, you can go and lock everything up and rearrange your things before they show up, but if you don’t have all the time in the world to do that and just trust them, you may be in for a surprise such as the former governor of Massachusetts was. They discovered that 20 pieces of jewelry was stolen from a nearby closet.
If you’re planning on having work done in your house that may take a little while, or if you might be suspicious of a spouse, baby sitter or teenager perhaps, renting a hidden security camera might be a really good option for you! There are several rental hidden cameras to choose from in which whomever you want to “watch” would never suspect it is even there. You simply plug them in, and they’re motion activated!
Yours in Safety,
Regina Jacques
Regina Jacques is the Vice President of BodySecurity and SpyEquipmentHq Visit her companies today for ALL your security, surveillance and spy equipment needs! More information on the
spy
camera rentals can be found here.
Article Source: Can You Trust Your Repairman?
The Xbox 360 is a great thing to behold when it works. With a performance superior to other machines and with addictive games, it draws you in and then…nothing. Right when you’re enjoying it the most you’re suddenly staring at the three red lights or ring of death.
Unfortunately this is a common and very serious problem that affect more than 500,000 consumers around the world. Once the ring of death happens, the problem will never go away on its own. If your Xbox hasn’t had the ring of death failure, there are steps that can be taken which may prevent it from happening to your machine.
The Xbox 360 was hastily designed and built. This means that it’s very prone to overheating. The red ring of death is ultimately caused by an excessive buildup of heat.
To prolong the life of your Xbox, you’ll have make sure that it stays cool. This does not mean placing your Xbox in the freezer or outside in the snow. People have tried this and it’s not recommended because the Xbox’s internal components were designed to work near room temperature.
In order to keep your Xbox cool you must make sure that it stays well ventilated. This means keeping it away from closed in spaces such as a crowded entertainment center or storage cabinet. Wherever you use it, make sure there’s a lot of well ventilated space on all sides.
Keep it off shaggy carpeting because the fans in the back will get blocked. Use props to keep it off the carpet, put it up on a table, or use it on a firm, uncarpeted surface. The fans in the back can also get blocked if cords or cables are bunched up in the vicinity.
Make sure that you keep the fans clean and free of dirt and debris. Depending on your particular set of circumstances, cat or dog hair, dust, lint, grit, and dirt can build up pretty fast. That’s because a great deal of air passes through the fans which funnel dust just like a vacuum cleaner. Using some compressed air to clean the fans will make a big difference.
Don’t keep your Xbox running for lengthy time periods. The components inside will heat up with use and will continue to do so. If you aren’t using your Xbox, let it cool off some by turning it off.
The consumer with the 3 red light error normally ran their machines longer than four hours. If you don’t have air conditioning and live in a warm climate, your Xbox will tend to heat up even faster. In this case, you will have to decrease your playing time even more.
Microsoft has unleashed upon the world, a very fragile and undependable product. Even following the recommendations given here is not a guarantee of avoiding the ring of death failure. However, it is guaranteed to happen if you habitually allow your machine to get too hot.
Marc Sandford is a gaming enthusiast and author. Get Xbox 360 troubleshooting advice about fixing the Red Ring of Death.
Article Source: Taking Good Care Of Your Xbox 360 And The Red Ring Of Death
If you have bought a home that doesn’t currently have an alarm system then many people will tell you that you have no choice but to have a wireless alarm system installed. The logic is simple and that is that it is just too expensive to have someone hardwire a home that is already built for an alarm system. The problem with wireless systems however; is that they are vulnerable to “false alarms” due to outside radio sources.
One option is to do the wiring work yourself. However; be forewarned that it can be a daunting task that will take some time to complete. The problem with wiring a home that is already built is that everything is in the way. Walls are sheetrocked and finished and the attic is full of insulation and duct work.
If you can get under your home you may be able to run the alarm wiring under your floor rather then your attic. Another option is to run your wiring under carpeting and behind baseboards along the walls in your home. When you have to run wiring from inside your home up into your attic, do it from inside of closets where any wall or ceiling damage will be least visible.
Its the exterior windows that you are going to have the most problems with. You can remove a window from the frame and drilll up into your attic but even then you are going to have to access the wire in a very tight space. Consider using a ladder to knock out an eve block, which will give you outside access to this confined work space
It can be done and in fact people do it all the time but it is definitely a labor intensive job. Also, there is no doubt about it and that is that you are going to be left with some walls to patch and paint, carpet to reinstall and repairs on anything else that you remove or damage along the way.
Written by Sandy Oroval. Come visit my website for premium info on south florida video surveillance equipment as well as south florida wireless home security system
Article Source: Simple Tips for Installing Your Own Hard Wired Home Alarm System