How Easy It is to Install a Kitchen Faucet

 

Your options for your kitchen faucet's main material pretty much come down to solid brass or plastic. Kitchen sinks are one of the most functional elements in any kitchen.

Internally, your kitchen faucet will control the flow of water using rubber washers, a plastic or ceramic cartridge, a plastic, brass, or stainless steel ball valve, or a ceramic disk.

Installing a kitchen faucet into a new sink is simple because you can do it before setting the sink in place, with full access to the faucet parts, including the hard-to- reach mounting nuts.

If the sink is already in place, replacing a kitchen faucet can be a challenge since your only access is from under the sink. Depending on your circumstance, you may find it easier in the long run to remove the sink first.

After installing your new kitchen faucet, remove the aerator from the faucet and flush the lines to ensure that any debris does not clog and reduce the water flow. Many new faucets require some assembly before mounting to the sink; if that is the case, follow the manufacturer's directions.

Insert the rubber gasket between the base plate of the kitchen faucet and the sink top to create a watertight seal. If no gasket is provided, pack the cavity of the faucet with plumber's putty, then inserts the faucet body through the holes in the sink top.

Thread the mounting nuts provided onto the faucet shafts, then center the threaded shafts in the sink's holes and tighten the nuts firmly.

Hook up the kitchen faucet's hot and cold supply lines to the water supply shutoff valves under the sink. Simply wrap a couple of turns of pipe-wrap tape around the threaded nipples on the valves and connect the tubes. Tighten the nuts with an adjustable wrench.

About The Author: Roger King has been writing articles on home decorating ideas for several years, and has been helping people find and review the best value for interior design solutions.

Visit his web site www.all-homeinteriordesigns.com for free tips and guides for your home improvement projects

The Faucet: A Deciding Factor

 

In the design of your new kitchen, the faucet can be one of the largest, most critical aspects of it all. In many cases, you will find that a beautiful one can be the completion of a beautiful kitchen. But how should you decide and what should you look for in the ones that you consider? If you walk into any home improvement store, you are likely to find many to choose from. It can become overwhelming even.

Even though it can be somewhat difficult for you to find the faucet that you know is perfect this is only because you have so many choices. It works well to look at several key points when choosing the right one.

• First, look at the metals used. For most, stainless steel is the best choice because of its ability to stay clean and to resist rusting. But, it is not your only option. For example, you may want to think about options such as copper as well. This can make a grand statement!

• And, that is the next thing to consider. Do you want the faucet to make a statement about your tastes or be simplistic? Do you want it to stand out or to simply fit in? Consider options that fit these needs.

• You should also consider the style and design of the element as well. For some, necessity is all that matters. Even so, you can have a great looking choice that is quite functional.

• The bottom line, though, is that you should choose the one that fits your needs the very best. It should feel right, look right and be what you want it to be.

The faucet that you choose can show your personality and style, or not. It can be whatever you want it to be as long as you love it!

for more information please see http://www.faucet-deals.co.uk

How to Fix a Leaking Showerhead Faucet

A leaky showerhead can be both annoying and costly. After a few hours, the constant dripping noise is as brutal on the eardrums as nails on a chalkboard. And, even though a singular drip is only a few milliliters of water, it doesn’t take long before that leaky showerhead wastes hundreds of gallons – adding an extra zero to the end of the water bill.

Most homeowners don’t realize that a leaking showerhead is pretty simple to fix. There’s no need to buy a new one or, worse yet, hire a plumber. You can finish the job yourself in just a few short minutes with nothing more than a screwdriver, an adjustable wrench, and a washer that you can buy for a nickel at any hardware store.

Now that you’ve decided to take on the job yourself, you need to understand the two most common things that go wrong with showerheads. Either they start leaking at the point where the pipe screws into the actual showerhead, or the holes in the showerhead become clogged, causing water backups and creating a leak.

First, you’ll need to unscrew the showerhead from the outlet pipe. To protect the showerhead from damage, wrap a towel around the point where the head screws onto the outlet piping. Take the pliers and remove the head from the outlet. You’ll see the washer. Pull it off and replace it with the new one. If you think you need a tighter seal, use plumbers tape across the threads before screwing the showerhead back in.

Also, if you have a rotating or swiveling showerhead, you might as well take an extra step while you have it taken apart. To increase the swivel range and flexibility, take some lubricant, preferably silicone, and lube up the interior swivel ball before you screw the head back in.

If the holes in the showerhead are clogged, take off the faceplate by removing the screws attaching it to the head. If you can’t remove the faceplate, that’s okay, just keep the entire unit unscrewed. The reason showerheads get clogged is the lime deposits that are formed and get stuck in the holes over time. To get rid of the lime deposits, take either the faceplate or the whole showerhead, and soak it in a bowl of white vinegar for at least eight hours. This will dissolve the deposits, and make them easy to remove by sticking a toothpick or small nail through the holes in the showerhead. After that, scrub the faceplate with a stiff plastic brush and screw the unit back into the wall.

Nancy Dean is a freelance author who contributes to several websites, including All Faucets . Coming from a family full of carpenters, she enjoys both doing and writing about home improvement projects.

The Dripping Faucet in Every Organization

 

Each day millions of workers spend 8 hours or more at their respective jobs with many contributing to the dripping faucet within every organization. This faucet much like the leaking kitchen or bathroom faucet’s steadily waste drops of a previous resource – water – every minute of every day until fixed. Yet, the dripping faucet is considered a minor annoyance until the drips become steadier. During this time, thousands of gallons of water are wasted costing the owner probably more money than it took to correct the problem.

Organizations also have dripping faucets not only in their physical plants, but within their people’s productivity. During the last 5 years, I have surveyed thousands of individuals who all believe that their plates are full, but admit to wasting a minimum of 12 minutes each day. For employees who are paid $30,000 not including benefits, this amounts to $14.42 each week for the one lost hour of work or $721.12 annually. If you have a facility with 50 people, the annual cost is at least $35,056. For organizations with at least 1,400 employees, the annual cost rises a minimum of $1,000,000. Dripping faucets are very expensive!

How can you repair this expensive drain on your limited resources? First, consider that most people don’t intentionally come to work to waste your resources. Their performance in many cases is a result of lack of knowledge and skills supported by negative attitudes and habits. These negative attitudes and habits probably contribute much more to their performance.

Second, begin to ask questions about how the organization is communicating its message. If you were to survey 10% of your employees from upper, middle and front line levels and asked them to name the top 3 goals of the organization, would you receive the EXACT SAME ANSWER from each individual. Different responses contribute to people not knowing what they may need to do next and contribute to that ongoing dripping faucet.

Third, determine if your employees truly understand how to plan and achieve their personal goals. If your employees are achieving their personal goals, the likelihood of them achieving corporate goals has been greatly enhanced. Time management is the apex of goal planning and achievement. If individuals don’t have goals, then why worry about time?

Fourth, as you train your employees include interpersonal development along with the job specific skills. If your company promotes from within, the individual is recognized for her or his job specific skills. However, as these individuals moved up through the organization, job specific skills become less while interpersonal skills become greater. Yet, much of the training fails to develop these individuals and the result is that these individuals leave which increases bottom line costs or return to their original position again increasing bottom line costs.

Five, finally, think about the words that you select. For example, ask your employees how they are investing their time instead of spending their time? Frame your questions and statements using positive words that generate powerful mental images. People hear words, but they think in pictures.

Six, align your systems, strategies and people to create loyal internal customers that discover those “moments of truth” leading to external customers. Southwest Airlines understands the power of alignment.

These are just 6 ideas that will help you begin to repair your dripping faucets. So, grab the toolbox and begin to create a culture that does not support wasting your resources, but instead looks to invest them. Remember, the faucet continues to drip and this is very expensive.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. President of ADVANCED SYSTEMS, is the Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business and education experience, she implements and realigns processes to build sustainable change for individuals and organizations and delivers ROI solutions within a variety of industries. As co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential:Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for August 2005 release, Leanne speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. If you desire AMAZING RESULTS, please call Leanne a call at 219.759.5601 or leanne@processspecialist.com. http://www.processspecialist.com/organizations.htm

Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted)

Is Your Money Faucet Leaking?

 

A lot of people who are into information and product marketing online have a problem. They are losing money without realizing it, and the problem lies in the fact that they are not interested in investigating the mechanics the way internet marketing experts do. To be fair, I'm not expecting anyone to be an internet marketing expert. I'm simply suggesting that in order to build the right kind of process and structure within your marketing efforts to double or triple your income effectively.

I'll list down three points of weakness, and hopefully it will get you to think about how to implement your marketing program in a way that could multiply your residual income several times over.

Point of Weakness #1 - You do not have different points of entry.

I've found that when you have multiple points of entry into a product promotion, it becomes more diverse, more robust and definitely more exciting. Send people not just to a landing page. Send them to a shy-yes page or a namesqueeze page. Send them to a product review page. Send them to a blog post. Or even, to an article directory (didn't think of that one did you). Each of these pages should contain your affiliate link. More importantly, the tools should be used effectively to reduce the buyer defense mechanism. After all, when someone sees flashy sales copy, they are going to have their BS detector on overdrive mode. If you send them to places that they are more likely to feel safe and secure, that will be a great entry point to send them to a link you are referring, whether an affiliate recommendation or product link.

Point of Weakness #2 - You do not have a multiplier system.

If you get someone to read one article, one sales copy or one blog post, that's great. People are reading. But, isn't it more brilliant to have people read more than one EACH TIME? See, when people are exposed more times to your promotion campaigns, there is always going to be a time of the day when people are going to just simply stop paying attention. However, where there is great content, there is not going to be much problem. People will learn about it, and they will tell their friends.

Yet we know that sometimes, in order to persuade someone to do that extra step of clicking and sending a link to a friend, it takes a high level of trust and possibility 'ethical bribery'. You incentivize them to do the marketing for you. That's partly viral marketing in action. However, it is true that there are products out there in the market that will never be promoted as virally as the information in that same market. If you just push product, you won't get much unless people can consume it and then use that to tell other people about it. Even for you reading this right now, you would probably feel like you want to tell your friends about it. All you need to do, really, is to drop them an email, but things could be made so much easier if you could do it automatically, right?

See, multiplier systems don't just work with products, or affiliates. Multiplier systems work with credibility and referring links. This is of utmost importance for SEO based marketing, as well as for those who are new who do not have that credibility yet. After all, why not just give away your best content and innovate new content and ideas? How about getting people to give away your best content free to boost your credibility?

Point of Weakness #3 - You do not have leverage.

To understand leverage, think of the analogy of working out. You want to work out, but you don't want to have to find one place to use weights, another place to use a treadmill and another place to use a bench press. You would probably like to have an "all-in-one" gym because that helps you to create far more economy of time for you, right?

Well, think of it this way .On your website, there are many things that they can't see like in a gym. If they read one post on your blog, they may not have realized it's a massive thread on your forum. You may even have a product around this blog post that is stuck somewhere "down there". It's like a gym member only seeing one room and not realizing there are other amazing features there. If you don't have the capability to cross refer automatically, you will still die from exhaustion. There is just too much information out there, if you don't find a way to automatically link things together, it will be a serious problem for you in the future.

Conclusion

All that said, how do you actually leverage? Well, ask yourself if the things you are doing could be automated. Think of innovations to help you to cut short the learning curve and to reduce the number of steps in a process. If you can reduce those steps, it becomes more efficient almost immediately. I encourage people who are involved in setting up their products to look at the way in which they are setting up their products. Could they be more efficient? Or are they clumsy with the process? Are they able to see how the effort for doing certain things could be reduced simply through a new process innovation? While this takes a little experience, I would say that by developing a high level of insight into your own business will open up a plethora of possibilities for you, because your expertise and experience will grow with time.

Stuart Tan is Asia's leading internet marketing expert in business systems and productivity. His approach to leverage has been widely acclaimed in his national bestselling book, "Secrets of Internet Millionaires". He can be found at http://www.InternetMarketingSingapore.com/blog/