Intumescent strips — a practical addition in fire safety

Intumescent Strips — A Practical Addition in Fire Safety

Interestingly enough, when an establishment invests in fire safety one stocks up enough fire extinguishes & fire blankets then proceeds to install a network of smoke detectors, sprinklers and a good number of fire safety signs to boot. Of course, there are less known methods of fire safety but certainly quite effective in their own right — one such example is the use of intumescent-based fire safety devices such as intumescent strips.

For starters, lets define in lay terms what an intumescent is. Basically, intumescents are substances that expand when temperatures rise — increasing in volume but lowering in density. This is especially useful then, in lining gaps that may conduct fire into other larger spaces. When the fire starts, the intumescent material then expands closing the gaps to prevent further spread of fire and therefore, any further damage from happening. The usage of intumescent material in this way is part of a larger process known as fireproofing.

Intumescent material comes in a variety of chemical compositions depending on its use. While  intumescent strips in general, come in a variety of forms — a couple examples are the intumescent pipe wrap and intumescent glazing tape. The pipe wrap as its name gives away — is used to protect pipes like ones found behind walls as part of the network that distributes water to the different outlets. Installed properly, intumescent pipe wraps should, upon exposure to the heat of fire expand and collapse while covering any holes for up to 2 to 4 hours. Intumescent glazing tape on the other hand is used for sealing the gaps on fire resistant glass and fire doors. Intumescent glazing tape effectively seals out gaps like these for about 30 minutes.

While the use of intumescent material certainly helps quite a bit in terms of safety from fire spreading, there are a few things one has to note of. First, that excessive moisture tends to ruin the material — and thus proper installation of the material on an environment that is relatively low in humidity is crucial. Secondly, that the human response to the fire must be immediate enough as the intumescent material does not last very long and only serves as a temporary «shield» from further damage. Indeed, intumescent material works best when applied together with other fire protection methods such as a fire alarm and a network of sprinklers.

Used properly, intumescent material such as the intumescent strips mentioned above give ample time and help for response to the occuring fire. This is especially useful in bigger establishments such as in buildings, schools, offices but has ample use for the home as well. This is because the bigger the area, the longer the response time and preventing further damage to expensive building material is more cost-effective than replacing them with new ones. While not as common as perhaps say, a fire extinguisher or a fire hose reel, the use of intumescent material proves to be a worthy edition to any establishment that wishes to safeguard its assets.

How to manage leak repairs

How to Manage Leak Repairs

The rains have left behind some unpleasant marks in your home, such as moisture on the walls and puddles on the floor, so you finally decide it’s time for some leak repairs. The first important step is that you find the leak source, which may turn out to be quite a painstaking process, as many leaks originate rather far away from where they actually appear on the ceiling. You can play detective and try to find the leak source on your own, but there are some dangers involved, especially if your roof is old and not safe to walk on, or if you walk around the basement not looking around carefully. You will also find that some leak repairs are actually quite easy to perform, if your leak is caused by a missing shingle, for instance. However, what’s causing the leak could be a lot more complicated than that, especially if you have roof trusses, which make the leak source tough to spot because of the lumber maze. A leak doesn’t necessarily imply roof replacement but you can take it as a warning that you need an investigation and possibly some leak repairs.

There comes a time when every roofing project will experience a problem such as a leak. Everyone knows that roof should not be expected to last as long as the other structures in your home. When you do see a leak, remember not to panic because roofs can be repaired. Leak repairs are quite easy once the source of the leak has been determined. A leak is nothing like a flood. It can cause a lot of damage, it’s true, but keep in mind that most of the building materials in your home are moisture tolerant, so as long as the leak isn’t prolonged indefinitely, there shouldn’t be any permanent damage to your home. Once again, leak repairs should be performed as soon as the leak source has been determined, so as to minimize the damage the leak could produce. Once you have seen the leak, make sure to remove everything that could be affected by direct moisture, such as TVs, computers, pictures on the wall, chairs, desks, and so on. Install buckets to catch the water dripping from the ceiling. Remember that these are just temporary measures, and that you need leak repairs, because the more you let it drip without taking action the more damage it is likely to cause to your home.

If you feel that you’re not on top of the situation, consider turning to roof contractors who can help you with your problem. If your roof has been installed by a roofing contractor, you may find that they are responsible to carry out at least some of the leak repairs. If you have a signed contract from the roofing contractor who installed your roof, check for responsibilities on the part of the roofing contractor and some possible warranties.

Roofing contractors are specialists who will see you through getting your roof back to safety. They can identify the leak source and perform the necessary leak repairs. But choose your roofing contractor carefully, as there are a lot of steps to follow when choosing someone to fix a problem in your home.

For more information related with Roofing Contractors and even about subjects like Leak Repairs please visit this website http://www.MAKRoofing.com

How to make change stick

How to Make Change Stick

Well, I’ve talked about ‘mindsets’, and I’ve talked about ‘groupthink’. So what am I saying: that all you need to pay attention to if you want to produce effective change in your team or your organisation is the attitudes, values and beliefs of yourself and the people you work with?

The Balancing Act

Not at all. There are two clear groups of factors to take into account if you want to make the changes stick and produce outstanding results quickly, efficiently and permanently: the ‘internal’, and the ‘external’. And there’s a sensitive balance to strike when you consider which to pay attention to at any given time.

‘Internal’ factors include people’s mindsets, and ‘groupthink’, together with the attitudes, values, perceptions, feelings and beliefs that dictate how people think individually and in groups. Most importantly, these ‘internal’ factors colour how people react to change in the world about them, including the organisation they work in.

‘External’ refers to what the organisation needs to change. These are the concrete, tangible structures, processes and systems that are needed in an organisation of any size to make it work effectively. Examples include organisation structures, salary schemes, IT systems, and business processes.

In my experience, one of two things happens when most leaders think about developing their organisation. The first is that the instinctive reaction is to focus on the ‘external’ factors — after all, these are generally tangible and concrete and capable of development using the skills many leaders have in abundance: planning, directing, implementing and analysing. Making visible efforts at change also demonstrates to their managers that ‘real’ change is happening. So we see over and over again new leaders, filled with the excitement of their new appointment, restructuring their team; or firing somebody and hiring in a person they knew in their previous job; or scrapping a system that has been used more or less effectively for some time, and installing the very latest thing they have read about.

The second thing that happens is that a leader recognises that his or her organisation is adequately equipped for the moment with the ‘external’ factors, and that the focus needs to move to bringing the hearts and minds of the people along with the changes. But they try to work on these ‘internal’ factors using the skills they know to work on the ‘external’ factors: information, analysis and presentation. Or they find the whole area too difficult and fraught with the possibility of disagreement or conflict, and retire quickly and with relief to restructuring and reengineering!

‘Internal’ and ‘external’ factors need to be focused on equally over time. If you as a leader do not attend to both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ factors and manage them with equal rigour, your change efforts will fail. To produce effective change in your organisation — that is, to produce enhanced results through the changes you introduce, requires that you develop your awareness and skill equally in both areas.

However perfect for your organisation’s current and future needs the process you design and install seems to be, if it fails to get buy in, or even alienates people, the change will fail to deliver. Better to ensure that you take the people with you who will make the changes work and deliver their intended results in the long run than to lose the passion, inspiration and commitment in your team and your business!

Tips for Making Change Stick

— Consciously design your projects, announcements and events to emphasise the integration of ‘external’ and ‘internal’ — separating these is common practice and a common reason for the failure of business transformation. For example, include in your Six Sigma workshops, restructuring announcements or SAP training an opportunity for people to express their concerns and fears. Include in your vision and strategy communication to your staff the opportunity for them to play with the ideas and to contribute their own version of how they would like to contribute to the effort. Consider running separate events for key teams to consider the consequences of new initiatives in their own work area.

— Listen. When listening to people’s opinions, concerns and complaints resist the temptation to argue, persuade, reassure and generally provide solutions that come from your mindset and your view of the world. People’s concerns and opinions only turn into resistance if they are not heard and respected. You’ll be surprised at how quickly people’s mindsets can shift.

— Role model what you want others to be and do. As a leader you are the best source of learning and adaptation to change in your organisation.

— Keep your word! Don’t make promises, especially early in the change process, that you’re not sure you can keep. Once trust is gone, it’s very hard indeed to rebuild.

— Repeat the key change messages as often, and in as many ways, as possible. Tell as many people as you can what the key changes are, the intention behind them, and the reasons for them. If they complain they don’t know what’s going on, it’s down to you!

— Recognise, celebrate and market internally any successes, especially early on. Let everyone know about great results and recognise those who made them happen.

Learn internet marketing video training

Learn internet marketing video training

Easy Video Player This software has changed the way many online business owners use video content to market their products and services online, and is slowly revolutionizing the entire video marketing industry. Many online marketers are not quite sure about how this program works and how it can help them, and I will tell you more about my experience and how this software can help you make more sales.

1. How Does The Easy Video Player Software Really Work?

This tool allows me to host all my videos for a very low cost and in private. Every gigabyte of video data can be stored online for just a few cents, and works very well with Amazon Web services. Prior to this software launch, it was very tedious and difficult to manage online videos using the Amazons video storage interface. By combining this program with Amazon’s video storage capabilities, you can have a system whereby you are able to host large volumes of videos and handle huge amounts of incoming traffic without any problems.

2. How Do You Use the Easy Video Player Software to Make More Sales?

I can now easily embed my opt-in boxes into my online marketing videos and also get people to purchase directly after watching them. This has led to the generation of more sales and leads with the same video after it starts to spread virally over the Internet. Besides all these, the software also allows you to track all the sales and traffic statistics of all your videos, including the amount of money that you have made, the percentage of viewers who watched the videos and the total cumulative number of views that every video has gathered. Once the video has finished playing, you can easily choose to redirect your visitors to any other sites that you wish.

Easy Video Player has an intuitive user-friendly web interface and is simple to use for both beginners and more experienced video marketers alike.

The software will guide you, step by step on uploading a video to your Amazon account, choosing how you want it to look and then giving you the embed code so you can plug the video straight into your blog, sales page or whatever else!

Plus, you don’t even have to worry about installing the software because there is also an option to have a qualified technician to install it for you upon purchase for a totally hassle-free customer experience!

Easy Video Player can supply you with comprehensive statistics so you can see exactly how each of your videos are performing.

You can see how many times your videos have been watched and the percentage which have been watched all the way through. You can also see how many sales your videos have made and how much money they have earned you!

Easy Video Player leaves nothing to chance and will tell you exactly how your video marketing campaigns are performing!

Visit to read a FREE report about this new Video Marketing Easy Video Player System.

It

It

There are suitable bookkeeping software solutions for businesses of all sizes. In today’s competitive environment, a business needs the accuracy and efficiency that this software introduces to its operation. Business owners can easily find bookkeeping software solutions that can be tailored for a business of practically any size. Once a bookkeeping software system is installed you’ll wonder how you every operated without the key tools it provides for your daily operations. Use your personal computer to perform many of the tedious, everyday tasks associated with your business. Tracking customers, performing inventory audits, billing, accounts payable and receivable and payroll are just a few of the routine tasks you can leave to this software. Your new software doesn’t make tax time a slam dunk, but it alleviates much of the pain. In the past few years, bookkeeping software has become much more user friendly, with interfaces simplified to a degree that training’s been reduced to days rather than weeks and months. Large and small operations should have little to fear in moving their bookkeeping to computers. Modern software makes it quick and nearly painless. Once the relative heavy-lifting of the transition is complete, maintenance of the fiscal aspects of your business will routinely require only a short period of the day; and your financial house will remain ship shape throughout the year. One of the features that all top-of-the-line software packages should offer is complete installation and operation documentation. Additionally, most of the software developers provide nearly 24/7 support by phone, email or online chat systems. Every popular computer platform and operating system is supported by bookkeeping software. Some even run on the increasingly popular Linux operating system. A business needs to take an orderly approach to selecting the bookkeeping software package that best suits their business and the accounting method they intend to use. One of your first steps is to decide what are your most important bookkeeping and financial needs. In some cases it might be inventory control, another operation might require extensive job tracking control, or strong accounts receivable tracking. An important software selection step is prioritizing the requirements of your business. A search for bookkeeping software on the Internet reveals a multitude of options. At the top there will be multiple links to well-known names as Quickbooks, Peachtree and Microsoft Money. All are first rate packages, but a business doesn’t necessarily need to limit their search to these monsters of the bookkeeping market. Be careful not to be blinded by all the attention the most popular software vendors get, also consider solutions from companies like Pastel Accounting Software, Sage Bookkeeping Software, Timberline Accounting Software, Accpac Accounting Software, and Lawson Accounting Software.You can Google these names for additional information.