How to Build a Water Garden – Concrete Lined Pool

The advent of pre-formed pools and butyl liners has tended to make the building of pools from concrete a less common option, but if you want a formal pool, do consider using concrete, as it is a durable, strong material with a good, watertight finish. Making a concrete pool is not an easy undertaking, and it requires far more building expertise than using a liner or a pre-formed pool. Remember too, that once built, a concrete pool will be difficult to remove if you decide you do not like it or find it is in the wrong place. Pool removal Sydney is insured to handle any kind of residential or commercial concrete demolition job.

PLANNING

Check the ground on which you are going to put the pool is completely stable. If it is not, you may have to bed the pool into a layer of compacted hardcore. For an informal pool, the deepest part of the pool, where the fish and water lilies will be, should be a rectangle or square, and it should have sides that slope outwards at an angle of about 20 degrees to reduce the pressure exerted as ice expands in winter, which is a common cause of cracks. The rest of the pool, including the planting ledges, can be any shape you wish, but add at least an additional 15cm (6in) to the depth and to all the sides this is the minimum thickness of concrete that will be necessary to make a strong pool. In a formal pool, where it is more likely that you will want the sides to be completely vertical, you should be prepared to make the concrete about 20cm (8in) thick.

The larger the pool, the more important it is that you include heavy gauge wire mesh or reinforcing steel mesh, and it is vital that the concrete completely fills the holes and that there are no spaces left around the mesh. A very large pool will need steel reinforcing rods.

The most problematic part of building a large, formal, concrete pool is the need for shuttering, which is used to hold the concrete in place while it sets. Without shuttering, there is a danger that the concrete will slide down the walls, so that they are thinner at the top but bulging at the bottom. The shuttering, which is a bottomless, topless box made of wood and smaller in all dimensions by the thickness of the concrete, is built inside the pool when the base has been completed.

BUILDING THE POOL

Make the bottom of the pool first by laying poured concrete over a layer of hardcore. Include wire mesh between two layers of concrete, and leave to set. The shuttering must be built in situ so that it is both completely rigid and easily taken apart. Build the shuttering and insert mesh in the sides and then add the concrete. When the concrete is dry remove the shuttering and coat the sides and base of the pool with a proprietary waterproof sealant.

If the mix was wrong in some way the proportions of the cement, sand and aggregate were wrong or if the materials were not thoroughly mixed together before water was added, the pool will leak. Cracks may also occur if the foundations subside.

Ready-mixed concrete is easy to work with and will have been made to the correct consistency. Its main drawback is that everything must be absolutely ready so that the concrete is used on the day it is delivered. You should also think about access and how you will transport your load of concrete from where it is delivered to the site of the pool. If you decide to mix your own concrete, which is possible to do if you are building a small pool, it is vital that you get the proportions right. Use good quality cement, sharp builder’s sand and clean graver or ballast (aggregate) in the proportions 1:2:3 by volume (not weight). Do not add too much water, leaving puddles in the mix: your aim is to get a smooth consistency. Add a waterproofing agent, which will increase the durability and impermeability of the concrete. Using a concrete mixer, which can be hired by the day, will make sure the concrete is thoroughly mixed and will keep it workable for you.

Poured concrete is, sadly, prone to cracking. Even if you do not build your own pond with concrete, you may inherit such a pond in a new garden, and should you discover your pond leaks, is at least possible to effect short-term repairs.

Once you have found the crack, use a thin stone chisel and a club hammer to widen it. Tap very slowly and gently. Clean away all the debris with a stiff brush. Mix the mortar and use a trowel to fill the crack. Leave it to dry for at least 48 hours. Apply a coat of a proprietary pool sealant to the crack to prevent toxins from leaking into the water.

This will not be a very long-lasting solution to the leak, and you may eventually find it necessary to line the pool with a butyl liner.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Patrick_J_Smith/438816

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3038703

Here’s What You Need to Know About Pilates

Pilates is among the most sought-after low-intensity workouts. Everyone has heard of it, even if not everyone is absolutely convinced of its pronunciation, but what is it and what can it do for you? Pilates instructor course performs body conditioning workout on the mat, combining ballet movements with the alignment of yoga and the precision of Pilates.

What is it?

To begin with, Pilates is an exercise named after German-born Joseph Pilates who defeated asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever through developing his own method of exercises. Pilates sessions in Arlington, MA spin class focuses on both the body and mind to condition and strengthen the body muscles, and train the mind to maintain a constant level of body awareness as well.

What can it do for you?

Pilates is a full body workout that works the physique in an effective way to train you for the physical challenges of daily life. Largely, pains and cramps that hold back a significant percentage of the population are caused by bad posture. If you experience body pain a little too often, then Pilates is for you. It has long been known to improve core stability and postural alignment, thus reducing the chances of injury or pain caused by overuse of one body part.

What many people don’t know is that Pilates is a great workout for those looking for sculpted muscles as well. Though it’s not a cardio workout and won’t exercise your heart and lungs enough, it’d still increase your muscle tone and rapidly burn your calories. It has also been known to reduce stress levels, which is closely associated with weight loss.

Pilates and yoga

Pilates has regularly been associated with yoga in that it can enhance balance and coordination by teaching a greater relationship between the body and the mind. If you think you’re not using your body to its full potential, Pilates is an ideal way to get back in touch with it. This workout can train the mind to stay focused on the workout objectives and push the body for more. This is likely why a large number of people are considering this low-intensity workout for a healthy lifestyle.

Injury rehabilitation

Pilates has also attained widespread acceptance as an approach to rebuilding strength and function following injuries. Pilates is a low-impact workout and as such, it’s ideal for injury rehabilitation. That being said, it’s definitely not a substitute for medical care.

“Where can I practice Pilates near me?” Fortunately, Pilates is now widely available throughout the United States. So, what’re you waiting for? Get started on your journey to improve the structural integrity of your body.

True Business Success Begins With These Social Media Marketing Steps

If you have a business, there is a good chance a lot of your customers belong to social network sites. You need to make sure your business is also on these social media sites. Determine which sites your customers belong to, and include these in your marketing because if you hesitate to do this, you could be missing out on bringing in new customers and creating new relationships with them. An SEO consultant Sydney can take on a wide range of skills at multiple levels for clients, so what I do for you really depends on what you need.

Create new blog entry as often as you can as well at regular intervals. This is also the truth when people subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Be sure you stay consistent to keep people coming back.

When headlines or titles draw readers in to the point that they want to read more, you are going to notice people go where you ask them.

Answer as many questions or comments that people post.

Until you have a better grip on what social media marketing works for your company, mimic the style of those that you admire. Look at what they are posting and filled their profiles and read through their regular posts.

Always provide a way that your business on popular social media websites. Most people use social media sites on a daily basis, so give them a quick way to access you via Twitter, Linkedin or Twitter is a great way to make sure they have instant access when you put up a new post.

Regardless of how big your business is, consumers never want to feel like they are being talked down to. They are essential to your business’s success.

Always respond to posts with questions or comments on social sites. Check these sites more than once a day to see if there are any concerns you need to address. You can change settings to get notifications in your regular email box. Remember that everything you write as a response to a comment will be public for everyone to see.

Ask your customers to answer a survey that reveals how they use of social media. If your target audience does not care about social networks, you will need to find different ways to market your business.

When it comes to social media, Short posts work best, to-the-point messages are generally the most effective. Readers have a better chance of remembering and sharing short pieces of information than long pieces, allowing them to spread the word to other users.Using images properly can also reduce the wall of text that might be otherwise needed.

Use what you’ve learned to send out messages.

When using social media to market your company’s products or services, make sure that you provide some incentives, but you don’t want to seem overly pushy. No one wants a sale. This will make it so your customers get great deals without feeling coerced.

Only include information on Facebook that is interesting or worth sharing. Do not habitually share content just to be posting something for no discernible purpose. Share relevant information that you find to be interesting, factual and interesting information. Make sure that what you share is what people will want to read about. Avoid meaningless quizzes and surveys about irrelevant topics that will only distract or annoy your customers.

Make sure your blog posts stand out by putting in a design or picture of visual interest. People do not enjoy reading lots of text without anything to break it all up. Add graphics, like logos, pictures or borders to make the page more interesting. But remember to not overdo it and make it too stimulating.

Make comments on the posts of other social media blogs regularly. A simple way to promote yourself is to engage others in dialogue that blog within your niche. This can be a great networking opportunity.

You need to add fresh content now and then to keep the interest of your Facebook page. You can post funny videos or writing interesting articles. Find a balance between being friendly and professional.

You need to stay friendly with other posters on public forums.These users are all prospective clientele, so you need to make sure that you don’t try too hard to advertise to them, instead giving them relevant information.

If you are the owner of a RSS feed, use subscription buttons on your social media sites. This will help the readers of your blog to visit your social media profiles. This is much more convenient for users who are familiar with your company and they can follow you all forms of social media on the net.

Use automation with Twitter API to keep people interested in your page. You can use your Twitter account automatically re-tweet content posted by other users or bloggers. Find good blogs that are trustworthy and timely to share with your followers. This keeps your page fresh so your followers when they search for new content.

Your customers will be impressed with the effort that you put into this.

Prior to selecting a social media marketing firm, find out if they use two-way. This assures you they can handle any problems you are having.

Link social media with advertising and other campaigns.Generate interest by having a contest that is related to your advertisements, or by having a photo contest related to your posters.

The annotation feature found on YouTube is an excellent way to hide a coupon code until the end of your video.

This way you won’t publish materials that may ruin your reputation.

Although it’s great to show that you are human with a great personality, going overboard may appear unprofessional and your followers may develop a poor impression of you.

To motivate people to share the information you post, it needs to resonate with people who aren’t familiar with your niche. Use humor a lot and avoid technical terms. The customers you are talking to may understand you, but it may prevent those followers from sharing the information with friends who are less knowledgeable about your niche.

As you have seen from the above article, social media sites are one of the great ways you can market your business. It allows you to communicate with your customers, attract new customers and get the word out about your business. Dive in and see what happens!

Best Central America Beaches for Surfing

When it comes to water adventurous vacation, Central America comes to the mind first. With a lot of beaches with pristine sands and large open area ideally suitable for a variety of adventurous activities, beaches there offer a good opportunity for full fun and pleasure coupled a chance for digging through plenty of delicious cuisines that you will have irresistible cravings for. Surfing app provides forecasts for thousands of spots around the globe.

If the sea surfing is part of your vacation, Cost Rica and Punt Rica are two best beaches that allow for unstoppable water recreational activities. From sea surfing, boating, motor boating, cruising to fishing, you will have plenty of different experience all you vacation. Not only that, there are many restaurants offering a variety of palatable dishes. So you can have a chance of enjoying beautiful yummy dishes with your family. When in Costa Rica, you must go to the Nicoya Peninsula, the home to a beach often known as Playa Tamarindo that is among the best beaches across the USA. Unlike other places, it is more than just a tourist hotspot that offers a variety of accommodation and entertainment. The Manual Antonio a famous nature reserve is more than a reason for those who want to explore of the beauty of nature from a close distance. Also, the place boasts of many world-class hotels offering great accommodations at the most reasonable price to tourists from across the world. Other beaches widely known for sea surfing and other water sports include Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua as well as Belize. They are less developed areas so they are one of the best places for those who want to explore natural life in a different way. You not just enjoy the surfing, but also dig through a number of amazing things that you can hardly find at other places. They are excellent places for a perfect fun packed vacation either with family, spouse, or colleagues. Another place that makes an ideal choice for an exciting and thrilling vacation is called Palencia which is situated in the sought of Belize at the end of a very small peninsula. It is often referred to as being a beach that allows tourists to have an amazing relax as well as explore the water or marine life in exciting ways. Also, it has incredible flora life. If you have a passion for photography, the place offers a gilded opportunity for photography. Rich wildlife, beautiful aquatic life, and amazing scenery from dusk to dawn make tourists from across the world visit here. It is one of the most visit Central America beaches for surfing and other adventure water activities such as motor boating, scuba diving and so on.

How an Animator Can Bring Your Characters to Life

One of the central features of any animated production is the character that populates it. You provide the vision for those characters. A skilled animation company sharpens that vision and brings it to life. There are many ways in which the animator develops characters perfectly suited for whatever type of project you need, from advertising animation to educational animation and more. The following are just a few of the valuable contributions the 2D animation studio can make to character design. The art of creating pitch winning storyboards is full of challenges for our animatics artist Sydney.

Target The Desired Audience

The exact look and feel of any animated project depends in large part upon the audience for which it is intended. For instance, an educational program geared toward children would use bold patterns and bright colors, whereas an animated explainer video for business executives would use more restrained design elements. The studio you choose to provide animation for your project will enhance its effectiveness by creating characters that are appropriate for the audience you wish to reach.

Animation studios will help you define the correct style for your audience right from the start by also providing you with concept design services. These services formulate vague ideas into a specific overall style. A skilled team of animators can walk you through the development of your concept and then create unique characters that fit both your vision and the audience who will be enjoying the finished product.

Visually Depict Personality

Each character in your animated project will have a distinct personality. This personality is one of the traits that will set them apart from the animated characters already out there. Through concept design and character design, your animation partner will work with you to determine the personality that each character possesses. Developing this personality may involve creating a back-story to give them history and depth. The animator will then use this background to inform their understanding and development of the character.

The animator will use their skills to take the traits that were fleshed out earlier in the process and visually depict them in the character’s body shape, facial expressions, and movements. For instance, the animator will use lines to create a body for the character that reveals their personality. Soft lines may denote gentleness, while sharp corners may reveal stronger or negative aspects of the character’s personality. Animator Moritz Schneider, for instance, explains that he used sharp edges on one of his characters to depict that character’s hidden strength and integrity. These sometimes subtle design elements convey to the viewer aspects of the character’s personality that may not be explicitly articulated in the dialogue or actions and give him or her added depth and intrigue.

In addition, the animator will use design elements such as accessories and colors to reveal a character’s thoughts, feelings, and preferences. These elements can become integral parts of the character. For instance, the yellow complexion of the Simpsons has become their trademark look, one of the reasons they first captured viewers’ attention. Reds and blues can convey a sense that the character has something in common with comic book heroes, while dark colors will give viewers the impression that the character has some less than pleasant aspects to his or her personality. Accessories can give viewers a glimpse into the character’s circumstances (such as whether they are rich, stylish, plain, or simple).

Finally, 2D animation companies can add other design features, such as facial expressions, to give the viewer visual clues to the character’s personality. At times, they will exaggerate these features to emphasize certain aspects of the character’s personality, or swerve away from strict realism to create cartoon characters that will have greater appeal to the sensibilities of the target audience. Regardless of the specific techniques they use, however, animators will all strive to produce characters that fit comfortably into the purpose and overall feeling of the project.

Create An Environment To Complement The Character Design

Finally, traditional animation studios can bring your characters to life by creating environments that complement or further reveal their personalities. For instance, an animator may choose to reflect the conflict a character is facing by inserting elements into the surrounding environment that visually clash with the character. Alternatively, the animator may choose to insert small details into certain scenes (such as background objects or colors) that match the proportions or interests of the character. A good animator will understand how the environment interacts with the characters being created so that all the elements of a project fit together convincingly. In fact, a skilled animator will be intentional about nearly every detail they add into a scene, so that the entire project comes together as a realistic and cohesive work of art.

Character design is essential to the animation process, because the characters’ personalities, appearances, and actions have the ability to affect the success of the entire project. Viewers will relate to or be turned off by their experience with those characters. As a result, the animator will work carefully to choose the colors, shapes, styles, and environmental details around the character to create a personality and role within the project that will satisfy your vision and appeal to your audiences. A skilled animator can help you not only flesh out your vision for the characters populating your project but also build them and the world around them into a form that will charm, enchant, instruct, and motivate the audiences you wish to reach.

Powerhouse Animation is a traditional 2D animation studio based in Austin, Texas with offices in Burbank, California. Since 2001, Powerhouse has been bringing ideas to life through animation, illustration, and motion graphics. With a staff of 35 in-house artists, animators, video graphers and designers, Powerhouse works on a wide variety of projects and has created animation for companies including Disney, Sony, Marvel, DC, Old Spice, Miramax, the USO and more. To learn more about some of these projects visit http://www.powerhouseanimation.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Stephanie_Delota/1795205

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9084292