How To Take Care of Your Medal?

As simple as it is, medals represent something important. It's a little token that signifies and honors what you have done or accomplished. To our military men and women, these medals should be displayed with pride. Thus, they earn the proper medal mounting that they deserve.

There are different options to choose from when it comes to mounting your medal. There is swing mounting and court mounting method. A method where medals are mounted in a way where the medals are able to swing freely on the mounting bar that is concealed at the back is called swing mounting. Meanwhile, when you want a more firm mounting, you should opt for court mounting. It is a mounting style where the medals and their ribbon or ribbons are set to a backing board so that they won't be able to move around. In this setting, the medal is placed is the middle, making the ribbons visible between the suspender and the top of the medal. Most of the professional serviceman or woman prefers the latter style because it is much susceptible to damage and chipping.

There are a lot of stores that offer medal mounting service. If you have your medals for a long time, you can have them polished to restore your medal's sparkle. You can be rest assured that your medal will be taken good of. To prepare them for medal mounting, you need to sort which ones were awarded and authorized for you to wear. You may need to take a look at your military service record to see which ones you can have to mounting. Most stores already offer the materials that you need for mounting. You can do this on your own but it can be time consuming.

If you have already chosen a store to mount your military medals for you, what you need to do now is to determine personally the order of precedence of all your awards. If you are having difficulty in sorting your medals out, you can refer to a chart online. Once you are done with this, you can ship them to the store for mounting. Make sure that they are reliable and have years of experience in medal mounting. Ask your fellow servicemen or woman to direct you to a store where they do mounting professionally. Getting a mounting for your medals can be a pain if it's not done correctly. But if you can find the right company to do this job for you, you can wear you military medals with pride and honor. When your military medal rack is assembled, you can wear them proudly. You can fasten them on your uniform, mostly on your left uniform breast pocket. Show them off and let everyone know that service you have done for your country.

Read an interesting article about Medal

Damp Away Course

What is a damp away course and why do I need one?

A damp away course or dpc is an essential part of the construction process in that its function is to prevent rising dampness.

Rising dampness is a result of dampness in the ground being drawn up through the capillary channels in any given building fabric.

Generally a dpc will be installed when the building is constructed. In new buildings the damp away course is physical membrane. This will be laid into a mortar course at the base of the walls. In older buildings it is common for slate or bitumen to be used as the damp away course and some older buildings will not have a damp away course at all.

As said, all of the above provide a physical barrier against rising dampness but why is this necessary? In short it prevents spoiling of the internal wall finishes. When a wall suffers from rising dampness the associated affects to the internal finishes is staining, salting and peeling paint or paper, blown plaster, rotten skirting boards etc.

A damp away course is designed to stop the dampness at low level before it has a chance to do any damage higher up the wall.

Sometimes an older dpc will fail. If it does or if there isn't one can be installed as a remedial or retrofit measure. Typically one of the following methods would be used:

• Chemical damp away course

This involves drilling a series of holes 150mm above the external ground level along the base of the walls and injecting a silicone fluid or cream. The idea is that the silicone content in these products is designed to repel moisture rising up the wall.

My opinion is that this method is a little hit and miss in that the density and quality of the wall will have a big baring on whether it will be affective as will the application method in terms of drilling hole to the correct diameter and depth and volume of chemical installed which is often very hard to gauge. This is why you will often fins a chemical damp away course is recommended along with the removal of internal plaster and re-plastering with a waterproofing additive. The idea is if one doesn't work hopefully the other will.

• Physical Damp away course installation

Believe it or not is possible to retro fit a physical damp away course. Mortar joints along the walls are cut out with an electric joint saw and a new physical damp away course is inserted in sections. The wall is then made good around it.

My opinion is that long term effectiveness should be very good however it is likely to be expensive and externally disruptive because someone is literally cutting through the walls of your house. Imagine the dust!!

• Electro osmosis damp away course

A titanium wire is passed around the walls to be treated and at regular intervals this wire is pushed into holes made in the brickwork, then it is earthed and a safe voltage is applied, this stops the dampness from rising up the masonry.

A pretty unusual method which has opinions divided as to its effectiveness. In my opinion has never really been proved to be an effective damp away course and as such is very rarely seen or used these days.

• Cavity membranes

Not a damp away course as such but more an alternative to one. These systems are becoming ever more popular as an effective solution to rising dampness in buildings.

Cavity membranes are high density polypropylene and polyethylene plastic membranes. The rolls of plastic are molded into a stud formation to give and "egg box" type appearance and for damp proofing purposes they usually have a mesh welded to the surface to provide a base to plaster or dab fix plasterboard onto.

They are described as cavity membranes because the stud profile creates an air gap between the membrane and the wall to which it is applied. Once applied to the wall (usually up to at least 1m) The membrane allows any moisture in the wall to evaporate into the air gap but because it is free to move unhindered it is not pushed to adjacent areas or higher up the wall and the membrane unlike any damp away course will provide an impermeable separation barrier between the damp wall and the new wall finished which is permanently affective against damp, salts, staining etc. The membranes are attached using special sealed mushroom fixings and despite some concerns the membranes can be easily fixed through retrospectively if required. Plastered finish and dab fixed plasterboard and skim provide the rooms usual aesthetic appearance with the peace of mind that the membrane will prolong their longevity. In my opinion this is a good and cost effective method of treatment which can be used in conjunction with or instead of any of the above.

Read about course here

Damp Proofing Course

DIY Damp proofing - Can I do the damp proofing myself? The million dollar question! Many DIY damp proofing enthusiasts are now "having a go" at damp proofing walls themselves with mixed results. With a wealth of information and products easily accessible and a trying economic climate, the DIY damp proofing approach seems simple in principle however the mis-diagnosis of the cause of damp in structures and the wrong product for the site conditions can turn a relatively straight forward damp proofing job into a recurring problem. Common building practice is to incorporate physical damp proof courses into the structure. This is easily achievable in new build construction but in existing properties the ability to assess the effectiveness of a DPC should be carried out by damp specialists. Rising and penetrating dampness and the treatment is a skilled process and legitimate contractors can be sourced who can offer clients insured guarantees for curing dampness in structures. These guarantees are important in the future and are a requirement to have should the client wish to sell on their property in the future.

DIY Damp Proofing Advice Above Ground Or Below 

Now if you are going to take the DIY damp proofing approach and do not require a insured guarantee, you first must establish whether you are dealing with a pure damp proofing job i.e. your property is all above ground.

A damp cellar or basement is not a damp proofing job!

Many DIY damp proofing jobs go wrong when an individual looks to treat damp walls in a basement with simple damp proof injection cream, or a cavity drain membrane without a provision for drainage. The retaining jobs needs an expert approach with waterproofing diagnosis, design and installation fully guaranteed. There are companies now which take on fully design liability for below ground waterproofing. If you can be sure that you property has no retaining aspects then the first step of DIY damp proofing would be to establish whether your property has an effective damp proof course. The damp proof course depending upon the age and style of construction should be visible 150mm above external ground level, it may be slate or HDPE and this does the job of protecting the property above the DPC from wall damp. A defective damp course or lack of is where DIY damp proofing can then be used. OK - injection creams, fluids, paint on bitumen, cavity drain membranes would all be useful DIY damp proofing solutions.

Installation Of A DIY Damp Proofing Course

As a DIY damp proofing solution, damp creams are best choice of damp proofing course for structures of brick, where the cream mixed with the mortar, stops any dampness coming up above that stage. But this method is not an effective one for a structure done of random stones. We cannot expect that the damp proof material injected will provide 100% protection on this structure. The best solution in this case would be installation of a dimpled meshed damp proofing membrane on the interior walls. With this technique, the dimples in the damp proof membrane hold the membrane away from the damp wall and create an air gap, which provides the ventilation required for the damp wall to dry out. The mesh on the membrane then accepts plaster, so it can act as a new wall surface. It is recommended that such work isn't done as a diy damp proofing job, but is undertaken by qualified experienced specialists who do this work very quickly with provide a guarantee for their work.

Read about Damp Proof Chemicals here

Size 16 shoes for Women

Scared of your large size foot? Do not be, because you are not the one who faces problem with their large feet. Usually tall women have large size foot and it becomes very difficult to find shoes for them. It is seen that, tall women when opts for a specific design is unable to buy that particular pair of shoes due to the unavailability of the large size. Women’s Size 16 shoes are one such size that creates a huge problem.

It is truly miserable when you cannot the pair of shoe of your choice just due to your bigger feet size. However, this problem has led to an array of companies manufacturing and designing bigger size women’s shoes. Shoemakers make it a point to design the right kind of quality shoe to make their customer happy.

Wearing the right shoe size is very essential for your feet's health. No matter what happens, you should always choose the right size that comforts you and then give importance to the color, style and design that you prefer. Living with huge feet can be sometimes frustrating and annoying. You have felt embarrassed and disappointed whenever you visited a shoe shop to purchase a right pair of footwear for yourself. No doubt women with shoe sizes 8, 9, 10 have faced a lot of problems. Women those who have big feet feels that they do not look feminine and they hate coming out of their house. Seeing this growing demand of big sized shoes, shoemakers have readily come up with a wide variety of women’s shoes size 15, 16, 17, 11 and 12.

The best place to get these kinds of shoes is online shop. Shop online to get a wide variety of women's shoes that will truly fulfill your foot's needs and requirements. You can browse through a number of designer websites, where you will find shoes of your choice and size. Unlike the traditional shoe shops, online shoe store offers different stylish and designer women's shoes size 16. There are a number of online shoe shops that offer women shoes of various sizes, colors and designs that will suit your taste and budget.

For women’s Size 16 shoes, round cut toe shoes are mostly preferred by the young ladies. If you are having big foot, heeled footwear will definitely suit you. Peep toe shoes can be another option for large size feet. Hiking and military boots will look great for the outdoor activities if you prefer wearing something bulky for your feet. You require organizing your outfit with the kind of shoes you wear for your large feet. Preferably denims and trousers will look perfect with large size feet.

Shopping for women’s Size 16 shoes have become quite easier now. With the demand in growth of several brands in the fashion market, women with big feet do not face problems in selecting shoes for themselves. Shop online and find your favorite pair of footwear in no time. You just need to sit comfortably and with just a few clicks make your purchase

Read an interesting article on big feet here

Size 17 Shoes Buying Tips for Women

Style, durability, and glamour are the three words associated with branded shoes. Having footwear of popular brands in the closet is every woman's dream. However, procuring a shoe that fits the feet correctly along with a specified budget is a difficult affair. Women having large sized feet often face problems getting the right pair of shoes that go best with their taste. For instance, women's Size 17 shoes are hard to find. Sometimes even though the shoe size may be found in the shop, their design might not match the taste of the buyer.

Most of the time the shoe shops fail to sell women's shoes of larger size. Shoes size 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 are generally unavailable in the footwear shops. When women with a large shoe size go out to buy shoes, most of the time they return frustrated without buying the footwear of their choice.

The best way to buy large shoes is to go online and shop from the best online shoe store. The online stores generally stock women's footwear of all sizes, whether its size 11 or size 4. You can get the shoe of your size and choice with just a click of a mouse from the online shoe stores. This is great! Isn't it?

Here are five tips to follow while buying women's Size 17 shoes online.

Compare the brands: While shopping shoes online, you can browse through the several brands. Just compare the different brands and buy the best design that matches with your outfit.

Have a detailed outlook: When buying footwear online, you can analyze the pair from different angles.

Before buying it's important to know your shoe size. Generally, it differs depending on the brand. This means if your feet size is 7 in one brand, it is not necessary that your feet size will also be in 7 in other brands. The size may differ. It might get bigger or smaller.

Know whether your shoe is fake or not: While buying a branded shoe online, always check out the website's authenticity. Read a review on the website from where you want to buy the unusual women's Size 17 shoes as that will give you a clear knowledge about whether you can rely upon this site or not.

Read the terms and conditions: Go through the terms and conditions very carefully before buying the shoe. A lot of things may go wrong-the quality, the size, shipping problems etc.

Read an interesting article on Tall Clothing here