An Environmentally Friendly Way to Clean Your Deck

If you have a retractable awning installed on your deck, we bet you have spent a lot of time out there this summer. Spilled food and drinks, muddy footprints, squashed insects, and even bird droppings may have left your deck a little worse for wear, and in need of a mid-season cleaning. What is the best way to clean a deck? A pressure washer? A chemical cleaner? Or a scrub brush with a green-cleaner, such as oxygen bleach? There are pros and cons to each of the methods.

Cleaning Your Deck with Pressure Washer

Pressure washers are extremely popular – and like shoes – they come in all different sizes and the end of the spray wand can be equipped with different tips that concentrate the high-pressure stream of water. A pressure washer can clean a wood deck faster than you can do it by scrubbing by hand. But a pressure washer has drawbacks. It’s noisy, it uses gasoline or electricity and lots and lots of water – and used improperly can deteriorate the wood surface – leaving it rough after it dries.

Cleaning Your Deck with Non-Toxic Cleaners

There is a more environmentally friendly way to clean a deck. Tim Carter, who writes the popular Ask the Builder website, is a big proponent of using non-toxic cleaners and scrubbing by hand. He recommends using oxygen bleach- not chlorine – that is not toxic to you or the plants around your house.

According to Carter, the oxygen bubbles in the oxygen bleach solution does most of the work done by the pressure washer – but without the noise pollution and without using gasoline OR electricity. The solution soaks into the dry wood and the oxygen ions deep clean the wood by breaking apart dirt, algae and mildew molecules. The solution is not toxic to you or any of the plants, bushes or trees around your deck. “You can’t say that about chlorine bleach,” he adds.

But the con about using a green cleaner is time and elbow grease. You will have to do some additional mechanical agitation by using a scrub brush on a pole to get your deck squeaky clean. However, you will be pleased to discover that the wood will not be fuzzy, and there will be hardly any erosion of the soft wood.

There are many different oxygen-bleach products on the market, including Natural Choices, Exterior PROx Deck & Patio Cleaner, and Stain Solver.

For more information on this topic, visit the source of this article at http://www.aristocratawnings.com/blog/

Winter Uses For Your Sunroom

Think a sunroom can only be used during the warm months? Think again!

Winter Uses for Your Sunroom

by Brett Freeman

Only a decade or so ago, you could only use your sunroom during times of mild weather. During summer, sitting in a sunroom could make you feel like an ant under a magnifying glass. During winter, you couldn't sit in the sunroom because it felt like being outside, albeit less breezy. Fortunately, the same technology--low-emittance windows--that has helped make sunrooms comfortable in summer by blocking much of the sun's heat has the opposite effect in winter, keeping heat from escaping from your sunroom. The milder temperatures give you more opportunities to use your sunroom in winter.

Winter Gardening
Setting up a winter garden on your sun porch can not only provide you with home-grown flowers and herbs throughout the winter, but it can also help you through the darkest time of the year, when most people get very little fresh air and sunlight. Potted plants such as dwarf citrus trees continue to blossom throughout the cold season, and herbs like basil, thyme, and rosemary continue to grow as long as they aren't subjected to freezing temperatures or frost.
Flowering plants like orchids and winter jasmine likewise bloom if kept warm enough during winter. You can also supplement the sun with grow lights; only a couple hours a day of artificial light can greatly improve your results. And when winter ends, you are already set up on your sun porch to get your seedlings started, giving you a jump on your outdoor garden.

Exercise Room
Plenty of people blame winter weight gain on an excess of holiday parties. But really, the parties are a minor contributor. The real problem isn't that you're spending a couple nights a week noshing mini quiches and quaffing eggnog. It's that the rest of the week is spent sitting on the couch.
Ice, snow, and frigid temperatures provide plenty of excuses not to exercise during winter. Counter by setting up an exercise area in your sunroom. It doesn't need to be much--a piece of aerobic equipment such as a stationary bike, treadmill, or elliptical machine is all you need. The cool temperature allows you to work out harder and longer without getting tired, and the sunlight coming through the windows helps you avoid Vitamin D deficiency, which afflicts many people during winter.

For more information on this topic, please visit the source of this article at http://www.guidetohomeimprovement.com/sunroom/servicearticle/winter-uses-for-your-sunroom.jsp