Fireplace design will stop a smoking fireplace. Successful fireplace design criteria have been known for quite a long time.
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The following resources are for chimney construction, design and maintenance. If you need to fill a large space around a chimney crown, try the following list of manufacturers who make cement stable silicone caulks. Also, ChimneySaver's CrownSeal, while not a project you can do at home, can help you with your chimney repair without having to start from scratch.
Chimneys. Every time my kids watch Mary Poppins, I think of chimneys. Imagine how many millions of chimneys there are in the USA: millions and millions. Heck, I've got two on my own house and I've seen houses with as many as four and five. Each chimney must be properly crowned with a gap between the flue liner and caulked with a cement stable sealant. You can also protect your chimney by installing a chimney cap to reduce weather damage.
Concrete driveways tend to be very white. Blacktop or asphalt driveways tend to be very black. Is there an alternative? You bet there is - it is called a tar and chip driveway. If you have access to colored rough gravel in your area, you can have a low cost colorful driveway that looks like a country road. Browns, grays, pale greens are all possible. In fact, if you are fortunate to have a resourceful gravel supply company you can even blend colors. My own tar and chip driveway is a mixture of light and dark brown stone chips.
For a proper installation of your tar and chip driveway paving, check out this inexpensive literature from the National Asphalt Pavement Association and the Asphalt Institute.
Tar and chip driveways are attractive, cost less and require little maintenance. Get a contractor to do the installation for you. Installation during the hot, dry summer is the best weather for the asphalt and chips to adhere, and a standard air blower removes debris without removing the chips. Here are more do's and don'ts of installing and maintaining a tar and chip driveway.
If you want to have long term success with patching holes and cracks in your blacktop or asphalt surfaces, here are some very important asphalt patching specifications.
Finding high quality asphalt repair patch can be just around the corner: in an old-fashioned supply store or at the four manufacturers listed below. Cold patch blacktop now seals better than before, or try an asphalt crack sealer compound with rubber for a slightly more expensive, but high-performance job.
Have you been bothered by your inability to successfully patch your blacktop and asphalt cracks and holes? Quite possibly you have not been using the right materials. It has just been within the past few years that high performance asphalt repair materials have finally started to appear at the residential level. Prior to this time, you had to have some expensive equipment and tools to deliver and install permanent patching materials.
Blacktop sealers can be made by just about anybody - but don't buy from just anyone. Here is a list of manufacturers and members of the Pavement Coating Technology Center who are dedicated to making high-quality sealers.
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