Our building materials product professionals share ideas and knowledge by publishing their articles on various articles portals. For your convenience, we would like to post these published articles below.

In addition to our own publications, our editors also search for fresh ideas and industry insights. If we found anything interesting or resourceful for our audiences including interior designers, architects, contractors, builders and remodeling DIYs, we will also quote their articles below for sharing purpose.

Hope these articles are useful to you. Enjoy!

Glass Mosaic Tile Series- Part 1: Why Glass Mosaic is a Great Building Material for Architects, Interior Designers and Home Improvement DIYs

History

Mosaic history can be tracked back to 2000 B.C. in ancient China, and glass mosaics became popular in architecture during the Rinascimento (Renaissance) period. Glass mosaics have been extremely popular in Asia since the 1980s but began to diminish in 1990s. However, in the earlier part of 21st century, with the new technology and development, the glass mosaic made a strong come back in Asia and has been becoming more popular in North America since 2004.

Merits of glass mosaic characteristics

With the new manufacturing technology, seems that nothing is impossible in terms of colors, sizes, styles, as well as materials used in the glass mosaic. This wide variety is a distinguishing characteristic of this building material. Also, glass mosaics are used for a very broad spectrum of applications due to its IMPERVIOUS nature. Glass does not absorb any water (a technical materials term as "zero water absorption rate") thus it has no shrinkage or expansion issues, thus it can be used for both indoor and outdoor applications. A lot of materials can absorb water thus it will have the expansion or shrinkage problems when the temperature changes. When the water absorption rate exceeds a certain degree it can not be used as outdoor materials, for example, ceramic tiles; the ANSI standards defines the water absorption rate as being less than 0.5% which can be used as an outdoor building product.

Wide variety of applications

Glass mosaics can be used for a variety of building installations including both indoors and outdoors, for residential flooring (if the surface is polished, it is not recommended for flooring applications where slipping is a hazard), walls, pillars & columns, artwork, furniture, baths, kitchens and swimming pools. The sky is the limit for applications, thus it attracts architects and interior designers’ attention, but DIY’s can certainly also use the glass mosaic to shine in your remodeling projects. With today’s manufacturing technology, glass mosaic can be custom made based on your design. The turnaround time to make a custom sample can amazingly be as short as 5 business days. Yes. 5 business days to make a sample based on the size, color code or an actual sample you get from somewhere else. These methods could barely be imagined as little as 5 years ago.

Materials used to make the glass mosaics

Originally, the glass mosaic type was a vitreous glass mosaic, which was used mostly to make swimming pools. But with the faster and more efficient technology and workmanship developed during the past 5 to 10 years, the glass mosaic tile has evolved to be a material that is very popular for other applications, in addition to the original vitreous glass mosaic as: 1. Crystal glass mosaic, which can be transparent, and is how it gets the name "crystal", but using color paints on the back of the mosaic means that thousands of colors are possible. 2. Iridescent glass mosaic, which has an iridescent coating on the surface of glass mosaic to make the glass mosaic reflect different colors, and can be a terrific option for night clubs, casinos and entertainment places. 3. Metallic glass mosaic, this is a very special material in which the color is not on the back of a mosaic, but the color is melted into the fusion of glass in an extremely high temperature environment. When the glass fusion is out of the kiln and cooled down, the color is part of the glass inside and is evenly distributed. 4. Van Gogh glass mosaic, which goes through the similar manufacturing process as metallic glass mosaic. The difference is that with the metallic glass it can be told that it is obviously glass, but the Van Gogh glass mosaic gives you an oil painted texture on its surface. 5. Stone glass mosaic. The stone mosaic is another kind of decorative building material having been used for more than 2000 years it has endured the ages. People have creatively blended glass and natural stone to make it a stone glass mosaic, which adds a natural yet decorative touch to the area it’s installed in. Giving the high demand and competition among manufacturers, we believe the innovation will be taking place fast and new types of glass mosaics could be created from time to time. We will keep track of the technology closely and keep you posted, if interested, please make sure to check back from time to time or RSS our article regarding this topic.

Glass Mosaic Tile Series part 2: How to Tell if a Glass Mosaic Tile Has Good Quality or not

There are several glass mosaic tiles available in the market today (we cover that in our part 1 article). But in terms of manufacturing, there are mainly two kinds: vitreous glass mosaic tile and crystal glass mosaic tile.

One type is Vitreous Glass Mosaic Tile, which was the original glass mosaic tile and has been used widely to make swimming pool. To tell the quality if it is good or not, the hardness is the key thing you need to ask. Vitreous glass mosaic tile is not as strong as crystal glass mosaic although when it installed, inside the grout it will stay there for lifetime. You can tell the hardness by scratching the surface of the glass mosaic tile by your finger nail. If it can be easily scratched, then it may be a little problem. The second thing is that you if the color is consistent. Use your common sense and judgment on this.

For crystal Glass Mosaic Tile, the most popular glass mosaic in terms of total sales volume in North American glass tile market. One thing you need to pay attention is: for quality glass mosaic, the mosaic after the color is being coated should be put into the high temperature kiln to make the color stay for life time. Therefore, when you are buying glass mosaic, make sure that you ask your glass mosaic vendor the question "if the back color coating is fired?" some glass mosaic factories, the bad ones, to save money on the manufacturing process, do not go through this process thus will create big color fading problems in 1 or 2 years.

If a factory skips the kiln firing process, they save hugely on the fuel costs (the most equipment use fuel oil or natural gas to heat the kiln) and labor costs. Thus there will be price difference between quality glass mosaic and defective glass mosaic; therefore, you need to ask your vendors and they need to be honest for their answers. Sometimes, there are chances that some distributors or showroom stores do not even know the trick here, if they simply ask for low price from their suppliers or manufacturers, or get their sources from the lowest price bid, they may have the problem that they do not even be aware of. That is something you need to watch out and look into their eyes to make sure they know what your question, if your glass mosaic back color coating is fire mean.

Kitchen Cabinet-how to Select Your Dream Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets

When choosing a kitchen cabinet, the first step to do is to select your favorite wood species from the most popular selecting circle: maple, cherry, ash, birch and oak, and then the door style and the color for the door. Selecting processes for most of kitchen cabinets will follow these 3 steps.

While in order to make the cabinet reflect your unique style and taste to stand out of the normal kitchen cabinet that exist in every common family, details are the most important things to achieve this effect.

The first thing to be taken into account is the above-cabinet treatments. Combine crown or classic crown molding with one of the several decorative molding inserts a look that reflects your own personal style. Whether you’re classic or contemporary, moldings can make a dramatic difference. Details are the things you need to pay attention to. If the curve sharp and smooth? A good workmanship and quality knife used to cut the molding will have very sharp and smooth curve and clear profile. If you use your figure to feel the cutting, you can tell if it is smooth or rough. Also, you can look at the pattern is consistent, for example, if the flower crafted on the column is vivid and consistent for the cutting? Will some place of the cutting too shallow or too deep? Consistency shows the workmanship, the knife and the equipment of your kitchen cabinets manufacturer.

The second thing is decorative pediments that provide a classic look for entertainment centre cabinetry or other furniture pieces. These pediments are perfectly fit the classic people and make their kitchen give off the fragrance of holiness.

The third thing is below-wall cabinet treatment. Don’t leave your wall cabinets with an unfinished look. Choose one of your favorite moldings to complete the look of your wall cabinetry at eye level and you will find what a dramatic difference it makes in your kitchen cabinet.

The forth thing is decorative legs. Cabinetry is furniture, to add great style to your furniture with decorative legs to complete the look of base cabinetry.

The last thing to complete your design is using the wide selection of onlays, ornaments and corbels which will add a touch of elegance to your cabinet and make your cabinet stand out of common ones easily.

Details really make difference. Whenever you buy a kitchen cabinet, to take these factors into consideration will really make you surprised at your own masterpiece and be proud of yourself. After all, kitchen is the center of your home and for most part of your family life. Hope your dream come true.