The EnWood Floors Journal

Explaining Engineered Wood Floors

2011-02-21T11:38:00.000+08:00

Engineered wood floor in the home

It is quite odd that many home-owners in Singapore have not heard of engineered wood flooring, or confuse engineered wood floors with laminate flooring. A common refrain heard among potential clients, whether they be home-owners or designers, is that engineered wood flooring is just a more expensive version of laminates. Many also express their concern that engineered wood flooring will not feel the same as traditional solid wood flooring, long considered the standard in timber flooring.

Not surprisingly, this notion that engineered wood flooring is inferior to solid wood parquet flooring has been perpetrated for years by suppliers of solid timber floors. It springs either from not having a clear understanding of engineered wood floors or from the fact that they perceive it as a threat to their traditional line of business.

Having said that, human beings are naturally resistant to change. We have been brought up in an environment that believes that 100% of anything is the best in quality, and that translates even to the choice of flooring in our homes.

Common misconceptions

As it had been said earlier, many home-owners have expressed their unwillingness to go with engineered wood flooring, as they believe that engineered wood is not exactly made from 100% wood, and somehow inferior to their traditional solid timber cousins.

However, when the properties of solid wood floors and its engineered counterparts are compared, there are some notable advantages that are in favour of engineered wood floors. These are:

Dimensional stability in the face of environmental factors
Cost
Environmental protection

Dimensional stability – Defying the elements

Well, not exactly. Engineered wood floors are not impervious to everything nature throws at it. However, when it comes to moisture – the number one enemy for any timber product – engineered wood floors show much better resistance to changes in dimension upon exposure compared to solid timber flooring.

This means that engineered wood flooring can boldly go where no solid timber floor can – below ground level (or in technical terms, below-grade). This is where the surrounding moisture in the air (ambient moisture) is at its highest, having nowhere to escape. Another enemy of timber flooring is air-conditioning, which reduces the humidity level of a room.

Case Study 1 – Too much moisture (High Ambient Humidity)

This scenario usually occurs in tropical countries and in rooms below ground level. When this occurs, the centre of the timber floor boards will tend to be higher than the edges – a condition also known as crowning. This is due to a moisture imbalance when the top surface is wetter than the bottom. In Singapore, the most common cause is wet-mopping the floor. It is known that some domestic workers, in their hurry to complete their task, take to mopping a timber floor as they would a marble or terrazzo one – with liberal amounts of water and detergent. This can wreck havoc on your beautiful timber floor, and even cause large displacements of the floor boards.

Other known causes are faulty air-conditioners, sprinkler systems and not wiping up spills immediately.

Case Study 2 – Too little moisture (Low Ambient Humidity)

Too little moisture can also spoil your timber flooring. When this occurs, the centre of the timber floor boards will tend to be lower than the edges – a condition known as cupping. This is due to a moisture imbalance as well, this time when the bottom surface is wetter than the top one. Local experience has shown that cupping of timber floors in Singapore is usually due to a concrete sub-floor that has not dried up completely and yes, that old enemy – the air-conditioner – which dries out the surroundings.

Warped floor

In both cases, warping – the general name for crowning and cupping - can be minimized by acclimatising solid timber floors to the ambient humidity levels for at least 72 hours. This allows solid timber floor boards to stabilize the rate of expansion and contraction before installation.

However, a leaky air-conditioner or errant maid can still damage your timber flooring. When this occurs, the only option for both cupping and crowning is to sand down the entire solid timber floor – a process which can take anything from a few days to weeks. This will cause massive amounts of sawdust being generated, forcing the occupants to stay somewhere else until the entire process is completed. Factor in the cost of employing flooring specialists to carry out the sanding and re-lacquering of the floor, and you will find that solid timber flooring can be quite an expensive thing to maintain.

Fabian, 23, an Indonesian expatriate living in Singapore, relates his experience with solid timber flooring:

"I have lived in my Singapore home for over 10 years now. Every 3 years, my father has to call in the contractors to sand my whole house because we would start to feel that the wood planks are coming out of the floor. It is a chore to move out of the house for 2 weeks while the contractors sand down, lacquer and clean up the house. Even then, when we come back, we have to poke around into every nook and cranny to clean out the sawdust that they failed to clean!"

He goes on to add:

"In Singapore, your home is your most valuable asset. Everyone wants their home to look beautiful and cosy, and nothing beats timber flooring for aesthetic quality. But the maintenance regime is quite a headache!"

Cost – It's all about the money

When asked what stops her from considering timber flooring as an option in her HDB home, Serena Tan, 26, explained:

"In Singapore, everything is about money. Why should I to pay so much for something I step on every day?"

However, ask any interior designer what the effect of changing the floor would have on the overall look of a house. Just like re-painting the walls a different colour, changing flooring can rejuvenate living spaces. However, out of the many flooring options available, timber flooring ranks as one of the most expensive on the market. This is especially true of solid timber flooring that uses exotic wood species.

Versatile use of engineered wood floors

This is where engineered wood flooring begs the question: Why pay for expensive wood that you will never see? Instead of having a whole floor board made of a solid piece of expensive wood, it makes better economic sense for the visible part of the board to have a “show” veneer of expensive wood while the underlying parts are made of something less expensive. This is exactly the idea behind engineered wood flooring.

In engineered wood floor boards, the top layer is made of expensive exotic wood up to a thickness of 3-4 mm, with the rest of the structure made up of a lower-cost species. Therefore can you imagine the cost savings of a Burmese Teak 12mm-thick floor board, made of 100% Burmese Teak, compared to a floor board of similar thickness using only 1/3 that amount?

That assumes you use engineered wood floor boards with a veneer thickness of 3mm. Current brands on the market, such as EnWood Floors from GYMS Pte Ltd, have a range of veneer thickness that can go all the way down to 0.6mm, without compromising the overall look and feel of the floor!

At an average starting price of $12 per square foot (inclusive of installation), any middle-income family home can now have the aesthetic qualities once thought to be something only the rich can afford.

Environmental protection – It's 'in' to go green

Replicating the expensive look

Everyone these days is talking about going green. Human beings have come to realise that our planet has only a finite amount of resources for us to harvest, and conservation is paramount to sustainable living.

Timber flooring is often seen as anathema to environmental protection. After all, we are often regaled by stories of disappearing rainforests in Borneo and the Amazon Basin. Trees are the 'lungs' of the planet, converting carbon dioxide into life-sustaining oxygen. Die-hard tree-huggers will often tell us to stop cutting down precious trees for wood where other materials can be used, usually with a zeal bordering on fanaticism.

For less militant environmentalist home-owners, however, wood represents the ultimate in warmth and natural beauty in the home. However, vast areas are being stripped of trees that yield high-value lumber. The problem is that these high-value wood trees usually take many years, even centuries, to mature. Their demand outstrips the finite supply we have on Earth.

Engineered wood floors use only 10%-30% of these exotic woods compared to their solid timber counterparts. Thus, it provides an opportunity to manage this precious resource better and limit the demand of high-value lumber.

Conclusion

As Thomas Edison once remarked: “Necessity is the mother of all invention”. The need to conserve wood, provide better properties and less expensive costs have led to the creation of engineered wood flooring. As the world faces growing environmental and economic problems, the need for less expensive and more sustainable building materials is never-ending.

For the consummate home-owner, technology has now provided a viable alternative to traditional solid wood flooring. While engineered wood flooring may not be the cheapest floor for your home, it is nevertheless an affordable option and a worthy investment for your property.

Construction Technology

2010-11-08T17:04:00.000+08:00

Bamboo Carpet Tiles - Easy to install eco-friendliness

Everyone has heard of bamboo: The traditional flooring material popularised by the Chinese which is now enjoying a revival among eco-concious consumers.

Bamboo in the bedroom

Contemporary bamboo flooring in Singapore usually comes in the form of solid flooring strips which consists of the 3 common types of bamboo: Natural, carbonized and strand-woven. Unfortunately, the price of such bamboo flooring can be comparable to its more exotic hardwood cousins, and the time to install takes just about the same time.

The main factor of traditional solid bamboo flooring strips is their weight, especially that of strand-woven bamboo. There is also the matter of cutting the floor planks to size, a considerable feat for strand-woven bamboo given its high Janka Hardness Scale rating in excess of 3000.

What if you wanted to floor a home without moving your furniture out of the house? Or perhaps you want a bamboo floor for that five-day convention booth to promote your products or services?

Luckily for you, there is an answer to your needs: Bamboo carpet tiles!

Whilst it may not be cutting edge technology, having being marketed in the US, UK and Japan for almost 5 years now, this product is still relatively unheard of in Singapore.

Bamboo carpet tiles

What are bamboo carpet tiles?

Bamboo carpet tiles are squares of bamboo veneer typically around 0.5mm thick that are glued to a carpet backing. This gives it the look and feel of a normal bamboo floor but with the easy installation method used for carpets. An installer need nothing more than a sharp utility knife and suitable adhesive (such as Tiger glue, commonly used in Singapore) to install them.

Excesses at interfaces, where the floor meets the walls for example, can be trimmed using a utility knife to cut through the bamboo veneer and carpet backing. Installation is a simple procedure of spreading glue onto the carpet backing and pasting it onto the subfloor. It's that simple!

One of the major drawbacks of using bamboo carpet tiles relates to a disadvantage of using bamboo itself. Bamboo, in general, is susceptible to moisture and humidity, even more than hardwoods. Bamboo is also easily scratched and available only in limited colours. It is also susceptible to fading over time.

However, bamboo carpet tiles still remain as a viable low-cost alternative to flooring a home or office. The top veneer is fairly durable and easy to maintain. It is certainly worth looking into when you decide to floor your home.

GYMS News

2010-10-11T12:36:00.000+08:00

The new EnWood Floors video is out now!

See it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVwF1-VFkyU

Construction Technology

2010-10-11T11:22:00.000+08:00

New Advances in Concrete Technology

Picture courtesy of observatorynano.eu

Over the past decade, there have been numerous advances in building technology, especially in the area of materials engineering. One key focus of materials engineering is the production of concrete with better structural qualities than that of previous generations.

The current generation of high-performance concrete (HPC) today surpasses the quality of traditional concrete by a mile, with many significant advantages and little or no disadvantages.

High performance concrete usually contains recycled materials and thereby reduces the need to dispose of these materials. Some of these materials include fly ash (waste by-product from coal burning), ground granulated blast furnace slag, and silica fume. But perhaps the biggest benefit of using some of these other materials is the reduction in the need to use cement, also commonly referred to as Portland cement. The reduction in the production and use of cement will have many beneficial effects. These benefits will include a reduction in the creation of carbon dioxide emissions and a reduction in energy consumption, both of which will improve the global warming situation. It is estimated that the production of cement worldwide contributes five to eight percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, the use of fly ash and furnace slag is usually cheaper than cement and they have properties that improve the quality of the final concrete.

Picture courtesy of caer.uky.edu

Today’s new concrete technology has produced new types of concrete that have live spans measured in the hundreds of years rather than decades. The use of fly ash and other by-product materials will save many hundreds of thousands of acres of land that would have been used for disposal purposes. Fly ash and other by-products from burning coal, are some of the most abundant industrial waste by-products on the planet.

The elimination of burial sites for these waste by-products will translate into less risk of contamination of surface and underground water supplies. When compared to standard concrete the new concretes have better corrosion resistance, equal or higher compressive and tensile strengths, higher fire resistance, and rapid curing and strength gain. In addition, the production and life cycle of these new concretes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90%.

Project News Update

2010-09-03T16:51:00.000+08:00

Givenchy's first flagship store in Singapore

Givenchy @ Paragon

For the fashion-savvy who religiously read Vogue magazine, the opening of French haute-couture brand Givenchy at Paragon recently is a reason for celebration. Besides housing the women's and men's ready-to-wear collection, the new boutique also carries a wide range of exquisite accessories such as bags and small leather goods.

Unique herringbone design

What excites us at GYMS Pte Ltd, though, is the floor you step on as you enter the spacious 1,500 square feet flagship store. Yes, the beautiful grey herringbone-patterned wood floor was done by us! The floor is made of engineered wood, with a 3mm-thick white oak veneer stained grey.

So, the next time you step into this luxuous boutique, do think of us as well!

Upgrading of Changi Airport T1

The beauty of bamboo at Changi Airport T1

For a tiny small island, we are huge on shopping malls, that even our only international airport will soon turn into a gigantic shopping mall.

Perhaps that is stretching the truth on my part, but the fact remains that with the ongoing upgrading works done at Changi Airport Terminal 1, you will be amazed at the number of new fashion boutiques and restaurants inside the departure hall.

There is also the garden area for you admire the beauty of the surrounding bamboo, should you wish to take a break from your shopping spree.

Bamboo floors are suited for high traffic areas

Because the strand woven bamboo floors used here is scratch-resistant and hardier than normal oak floors, almost half a year has passed and there are still no obvious stilleto marks on the strand woven bamboo floor

Now that is seriously something to be proud of.

Construction Technology

2010-09-01T00:00:00.001+08:00

New Construction Technology Quake-Proofs Buildings

Picture courtesy of FoxNews

A new method of construction that uses steel tendons and replaceable "fuses" to help a building survive strong earthquakes was successfully tested recently.

On a giant shake table, the system survived simulated earthquakes in excess of magnitude 7, more powerful than both the Northridge earthquake in 1994, which rocked the Los Angeles region, and the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 that devastated parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The massive force of earthquakes often leave behind damaged buildings that are either beyond repair or very costly to fix.

"Most buildings that we design today for large earthquakes are designed such that when there is a large earthquake, the building, in a sense, sacrifices itself to save the occupants," said Greg Deierlein, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University who led the research team.

To reduce structural damage, the new system relies on steel braced-frames, built into a building’s exterior walls, which are designed to rock up and down whenever an earthquake strikes. Running down the middle of the frames are steel tendons that are elastic enough to control the rocking. The tendons also help lift the building back to its proper alignment once the shaking stops.

"What is unique about these frames is that, unlike conventional systems, they actually rock off their foundation under large earthquakes," Deierlein said.

Steel "fuses" that sit at the bottom of the frame also keep the rest of the building from sustaining damage. The fuses are built to flex and dissipate the seismic energy, which confine the damage to certain areas. Like electrical fuses, the steel fuses are easily replaced when they "blow out."

"The idea of this structural system is that we concentrate the damage in replaceable fuses," Deierlein said.

While various researchers have been working for 10 or 15 years on some of the ideas and techniques incorporated in the new system, this is the first time anyone has put them all together and demonstrated their performance, Deierlein said.

The system can be installed as part of a building's initial design or retrofitted into an existing building. It is also economically feasible to implement since it can be built from materials commonly used in construction, researchers say.

(Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/09/08/new-construction-technology-quake-proofs-buildings/)

Building Houses In A Day - No More A Pipe Dream

Building a house now no longer takes more than 1-3 days (depending on the size). With this new innovative building technology pioneered by the Japanese, the MasterFit Method(TM) enables construction to start in the morning and the owner to move in by nightfall.

The key to this extremely fast method of building lies in the materials used in construction. Lighter and portable materials such as wood and fibreboard are used to construct the frame and walls of the house. By employing a modular design and using pre-fabricated parts, the foundations of the building are quickly constructed within 5 hours. Specially designed hinges enable vertical parts of the framwork to be installed easily by a team of two men. Second floor framing is usually done using beams or open web trusses. Thereafter, the walls - made from plywood or OSB (Oriented Strand Board) are installed. the walls are also pre-fabricated to allow the easy installation of windows and doors. This means that when one section of the wall is in place, the windows or doors can immediately be installed without waiting for the entire structure to be completed. This results in massive time savings during the building process.

What is interesting is that such houses were designed for usage in Japan, a country which is earthquake-prone. It is reported that some parts of Japan experience up to 3 seismic shocks per day. One can only imagine the immense opportunities that lay ahead for such technology for other countries with lesser seismic activity, as it has been tested and approved to withstand even violent ground movement - therefore making it suitable for construction in urban areas with high volumes of traffic.

(Sources:
http://www.crookedbrains.net/2007/10/how-to-build-house-in-one-day-can-you.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/masterfit_wood.php)

Fix-IT!

2010-08-04T16:27:00.005+08:00

For us that are working in the construction industry, carrying heavy items is common enough. Long hours of moving heavy construction materials around the site is literally back-breaking work. Over the years, many inventions have tried to make our builders' life a little easier with ergonomic tools and gadgets.

Specifically for wood flooring companies, moving around large plywood boards is an everyday routine. Workmen are accustomed to shuffling plywood boards around, dragging them along the floor to get them to the installation site. So far, there have been little in the way of tools to help with this most tedious process of wood floor installation. That is, until GorillaGripper came into the picture.

Image courtesy of Gorilla Gripper

This amazing tool enables one person to carry a 18mm thick plywood sheet with only ONE HAND! Yes, you read that right. Just one hand. To easily carry a plywood base sheet that thick and heavy with two hands was considered a dream to most wood floor installers. This tool surpasses that with it's innovative design which will enable builders to do what was once thought impossible.

Take a look at this video to see what I mean.

See? If that dainty lass is able to lift up that heavy board with just one hand, imagine what seasoned wood floor veterans could do with this amazing tool! To them, this must be a gift from Heaven!

Check out this amazing gadget at http://www.gorillagripper.com.

Construction Technology

2010-08-04T15:15:00.000+08:00

Cost-effective Warning System for Rust Developed

Image copyrighted/courtesy of Fraunhofer IMS

Concrete bridges have to be strong enough to cope with a wide variety of different impacts: frost, heavy traffic and emissions all take their toll on these structures. And then there are the various types of road salt used in winter to combat icy roads. The most common of these is sodium chloride, which is deployed in large amounts on Germany's roads. When the ice thaws, these salts break down into their ionic components that penetrate the concrete, destroying its five-centimeter thick protective alkaline layer. Any salt that leaches through to the steel rods used to reinforce the concrete pad will cause them to rust, resulting in structural damage. The result is cracks. In a worst-case scenario the bridge itself could collapse.

Until now there has been no effective test to determine how deep the ions have penetrated the concrete and what damage they have already caused. Current practice is time-consuming and involves construction workers hammering on the reinforced concrete in search of cavities, which are a sure sign of corrosion damage. But experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg have now hit upon a more reliable and cost-effective method for detecting rust corrosion at an early stage.

With a new sensor-transponder they can continuously measure and monitor how deep the ions have penetrated the concrete. While the sensor was developed by the building materials testing facility in Braunschweig (MPA Braunschweig), the integrated passive wireless transponder system is the work of IMS researchers. The sensor itself is crisscrossed by very fine iron wires, laid down at even distances.

When the dissolved salts reach the iron wires, these begin to corrode and break. The number of defective iron wires is an indicator of the extent of corrosion and the depth to which the concrete's protective layer has been penetrated. This would aid the workers to determine when the next repair work needs to be carried out.

The transponder transmits the measured data by wireless to the reading device carried by the construction workers. The transponder does not get the energy it needs to measure the corrosion from a battery, but from a magnetic field. This means it does not need to be replaced and can remain within the concrete structure permanently.

This technology will help to reduce the rate of bridge collapsing.

New technology aids 110-foot bridge to withstand magnitude-8.0 earthquake.

Photo by Mike Wolterbeek, University of Nevada, Reno

After a succession of eight separate earthquake simulations, a 110-foot long, 200-ton concrete bridge model at the University of Nevada, Reno withstood a powerful jolting, three times the acceleration of the disastrous 1994 magnitude 6.9 Northridge, Calif. earthquake, and survived in good condition.

The University of Nevada research team is experimenting with and testing a number of materials and innovations to potentially revolutionize seismic design of future bridges to help protect lives, prevent damage and avoid bridge closure even when there is a strong earthquake.

This bridge is the use of glass and carbon fibers to support the bridge, precast columns, segmental columns and special steel pipe-pin connections in a high seismic setting. The bridge model is shaken with bidirectional forces to realistically simulate an earthquake.

The succesion in the test will lead to engineers having the ability to build safer bridges, to reduce lives lost during earthquakes.

(Articles courtesy of ScienceDaily)

Real Estate News

2010-08-04T12:29:00.000+08:00

New HDB BTO Projects Announced!

Corporation Tiara

For those who love the wild wild west, you will be thrilled to know that HDB had recently announced the launch of two estates in Taman Jurong and Bukit Panjang.

Senja Gateway

Christened as Coporation Tiara and Senja Gateway respectively, there are close to a thousand units (mostly 4 and 5 rooms flats) available for balloting. With the government investing in the infrastructure for the western part of the island, the journey to the west has just began.

Indicative Price Range for Corporation Tiara

Indicative Price Range for Senja Gateway

New player in District 10

Located at 31 Nathan Road, Loft @ Nathan is a freehold property expected to be completed in 2015. It is a proposed 7-storey mixed-use development, comprising of 26 commercial and 121 residential units with basement carpark, roof garden and swimming pool etc.

The central location serves a great convenience for those whose favourite hung out place is Orchard road, Great World City and Vivo City. VIP preview has started.

Foreword

2010-07-01T17:03:00.001+08:00

June have been a pretty eventful month here in GYMS Pte Ltd. We welcome a new colleague in Miss Praise Poh, our purchasing consultant. She will be in charge of providing you with timber flooring solutions to your projects. If you have any problems, do drop her an email at praise@gymscms.com.

We have expanded our social media presence. We are now on Tumblr, our regular blog that gives you an idea into what we see or hear daily in our lives. It will be written by all members of the GYMS Pte Ltd family. We also have Twitter account that we send out news to our followers. We have also started uploading our pictures onto Flickr account. Our monthly newsletter is also being put up onto enwoodfloorsjournal.blogspot.com. We are doing all these in order to stay in touch with you and at the same time keep you updated with what is happening in our company.

This month, we have completed 4 small- to mid-sized projects and clinched a hotel project. Our Classique range of EnWood Floors, the wide boards are specified and confirmed. I will be doing a very close update on this project once it start work to show to you how amazing EnWood Floors are.

Another thing that we will be doing moving forward is also the fact that we will be purchasing new equipments for our flooring installations in the coming months. I realize that Asian installers are usually not productive enough as compared to Europeans or Americans mainly because the tools that they are using is not the best tools available.

So after some thoughts, I have decided that we should change our tools for the flooring installation and we should be using the right tools for the right jobs. I believe that once we are well- equipped, we will be able to increase our productivity level by another 10-20%.

Whenever we get a new tool, I will showcase it and show you how they will be able to assist us in our installation better and safer. We want to be one of the best in the industry, thus we have to own one of the best tools in the industry as well!

Lastly, looking at the contracts that we have secured over the last month, next month will be another busy month for us! Looking forward to it! And of course the World Cup Finals as well!

Cheers!

Michael Ong

Director

GYMS Pte Ltd

Construction News

2010-07-01T17:02:00.000+08:00

World's First Recycled Plastic Bridge!

International engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff have designed the world's first recycled plastic railway bridges for the US Army at Fort Eustis, Virginia, USA.

The bridges use Recycled Structural Composite (RSC), a thermoplastic material manufactured by Axion International Holdings from recycled domestic and industrial plastic, which can support up to 30 tonnes.

Axion's RSC technology was developed in conjunction with scientists at Rutgers University, where it was patented.

RSC technology represents another truly historic event for both structural engineers and environmentally-conscious individuals across the nation. Utilising RSC technology, structures are built with cheaper costs compared to similar steel, wood or concrete structures.

Furthermore, the bridges require very little maintenance and have the same life expectancy as conventionally-built ones.

The recycled plastic bridge has completed trials last May and commercial applications are expected to start in June 2010.

A Window That Serves Dual Purpose

Sunlight is an endless source of energy. Solar panels have been around for many years and are usually installed on the rooftops to generate electricity. In a new twist to solar panel structural applications, Hua Qin has produced solar panel windows. These solar windows are capable of generating 2 Watt per square feet.

They are slightly foggy and can replace conventional glass windows.The windows can come in slightly hazy to opaque. Generally, the lower the transparency of the window, the higher the power output of the solar windows.

For more information, please visit: http://www.wareground.com/articles/hua_qin_solar_glass_generates_electricity_lets_most_of_the_sun_shine_in

Self-healing Concrete

Michelle Pelletier, a University of Rhode Island master's degree holder from Woodsocket, RI has invented a new form of concrete that can “self-heal” when damaged. By inserting a micro-encapsulated sodium silicate agent into a concrete matrix, the concrete is able to self-repair itself when tiny cracks form. These tiny ruptures break the capsules of sodium silicate which form a plug to seal the cracks.

The sodium silicate reacts with the calcium hydroxide naturally present in the concrete to form a calcium-silica-hydrate product to heal the cracks and block the pores in the concrete. The chemical reaction creates a gel-like material that hardens in about one week.

There a two unique features about this material. Firstly, it can have a localized and targeted release of the healing agent only in the areas that really need it. Also, Pelletier's healing mix recovers 26 percent of the original strength of the concrete block (after being stressed to near breaking) compared to just 10 percent recovery by current repair methods using standard mixes.

This self-healing concrete will help to extend the life of the structure, helping builders save cost in the long run.

For more information, visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143421.htm

Real Estate News

2010-07-01T17:01:00.001+08:00

Newly Launched property

Waterfront Gold

Developers: Frasers Centrepoint and Far East Organization,

Location: Bedok Reservoir Road
Apartment Type: Condominium
Tenure: 99 Years

Boasting an 8,000 sq ft observation-cum-exercise skypark on the 16^th floor of the 361-unit Waterfront Gold, residents would be able to enjoy the waterfront resort-style living with reservoir-fronting view and breezy fresh air.

A MRT station is also in the pipeline, with the Down Town Line opening in 2016. Buyers can choose from one bedroom-units of 581 sq ft to four-bedroom units penthouses with a maximum area of 3,057 sq ft.

Units available:

1 bedroom (581sqft)
2 bedrooms Compact (667sqft)
2 bedrooms (872- 893sqft)
3 bedrooms Compact (1012- 1055sqft)
3 bedrooms (1195- 1346 sqft)
4 bedrooms (1378 - 1464 sqft)
4 bedrooms Penthouse (1927 - 3057 sqft)

Fix-It!

2010-07-01T17:00:00.001+08:00

Welcome to the first installment of Fix-It! In this section, we will highlight various DIY tips that you can do around the house as well as showcase nifty new gadgets that can enhance your DIY experience.

In this issue, we will kick off with a gadget that has immense use in wood flooring installation. As we all know, there are many factors that affect a wood floor installation process. One of the key factors to consider is the moisture content of a concrete sub-floor. As most of us live in high-rise apartments, a concrete sub-floor or screed is usually the default floor that is given to us upon key collection. A newly-completed house usually has a concrete sub-floor with a high moisture content as the water in the sub-floor may not have enough time to evaporate out. This is a problem as most wood floors need a sub-floor moisture content of between 10-12%. This is even more important for solid wood flooring products such as parquet and solid wood long boards.

Failure to heed to the manufacturer's recommended moisture content specifications may lead to warping and cupping of the floor boards. This is especially so for parquet floors where the strips are shorter in length and more susceptible to water absorption from the concrete sub-floor.

There are many moisure test kits out there, but the cheaper paper-based ones tend to be inaccurate. It is also a problem if you have to test the moisure content in a few areas to ensure moisture content consistency. So how would we solve this problem? Enter the portable moisture meter...

The one shown here is the Lutron MS-7003. It has both a digital readout as well as a coloured graphical indicator to show the moisture content of a particular material. It has 2 modes: Concrete and Wood. This comes in handy when doing wood flooring installation as a it allows you to test both the concrete sub-floor as well as the wood flooring itself.

Some of the more advanced functions of this particular moisture meter is its ability to record maximum and minimum moisture content over a particular area. This is handy when trying to determine the average moisture content and to detect locations where there is a higher concentration of water.

Usage of the instrument is pretty easy. Simply switch the instrument on, select the material, and stick the 2 pin probes into the material to be tested a minimum of 2mm below the surface. The digital readout will show the exact percentage of moisture content (accurate to 1 decimal place).

Quick and easy determination of moisture content is important in wood flooring installation, and the Lutron MS-7003 is one such instrument which makes an installer's life a lot easier!