Unit Understanding - Photos & Ideas

A Spectacular Historical Reproduction: Hyde Hall, New York

Langhorne Carpet Company proudly announces its latest collaboration with Vermont Custom Rug Company’s David Hunt on an elegant reproduction of the early 19th century worsted wool carpet for the dining room of historic Hyde Hall. A National Historic Landmark and New York State Historic Site in Springfield, NY, eight miles north of Cooperstown, Hyde Hall is considered “one of the finest examples of the neoclassical country houses in the United States.” The agricultural estate was the project and prize of wealthy British-born landowner George Clarke (1768-1835). Clarke owned 120,000 acres in New York’s Leatherstocking Region and designed Hyde Hall on the bank of Otsego Lake with Albany architect Philip Hooker. The mansion, the estate’s centerpiece, was constructed from 1817 to 1835. Today, Hyde Hall resides within Glimmerglass State Park. Recent years have brought Hyde Hall a meticulous, history-driven, artisan-fueled restoration to recreate Clarke’s precise original vision. David Hunt chose Langhorne Carpet Company to recreate the Brussels looped pile carpet for the property’s dining room. Made from the finest worsted wool, a yarn used today almost exclusively in apparel, Brussels carpets were a 19th-century status symbol among America’s wealthiest citizens, including presidents and major landowners. According to Clarke’s scrupulously kept ledgers, in 1831 he purchased “122 linear yards of Brussels body carpet, along with 24 yards of Brussels border carpet from the showroom of Lowe & Connah in New York City for the sum of $308.00. A hefty amount for the period,” said Hunt. The carpet—which, Hunt said, may well be one of the first examples Wilton carpet woven in the United States—remained in the dining room through the end of the 19th century. As for the two tuffets? They not only survive—they also remain covered in the original textile. This existence of these original tuffets for nearly two centuries, said Hunt, is both incredibly rare and fortuitous. “Having a documented portion of the original carpet, intact 186 years after manufacture, is, for the textile historian, a gold mine of information. Although the border portion of the design remains most visible, having the ability to document and verify the yarn quality, sett (pattern) of the weave and most importantly the original colors is huge.” Hunt “dissected” the tuffets to reveal the yarn that, like in all Wilton weaves, is buried beneath the textile’s back, unexposed to sunlight, air, or cleaning agents. When he did, he found the carpet’s original colors and pattern. From there, he and Langhorne used a black-and-white photograph of the original carpet to create a botanical pattern for the field that would, he said, “honor the style of the border.” He then turned over the work to Langhorne, to create the patterns, match the dye colors, and weave the carpets on narrow looms much like the ones used 200 years ago. Langhorne, he added, is the only mill in the United States—and one of very few in the entire world—capable of doing such a job. “Langhorne has this wonderful capability to do all sorts of different things. I don’t think a lot of people understand that option is out there, and it’s a lot easier than you think to do it,” he said. What’s more, “They’re real people, working people—the folks on the loom, the weavers, the folks in the office: Except for the clothing, they’re the same type of people you would have found in a mill 200 years ago. It takes special people to do this, and that’s Langhorne.”

Strategies To Make Your HVAC Projects Run Smoothly

Total System Service

As a manager of a building or property, you quickly learn the art of mediation. One minute you may be working with a vendor to keep the building’s operating system running efficient and smooth; the next moment you may be calming a tenant down after finding the change in the system disrupted his office’s workflow. Give and take; it’s the only way to make sure every day runs perfectly. Overall, you have two goals to strive for in everything you do. 1. Keep the building running properly, upgrading systems as appropriate, and striving to do all you can on a pre-established budget. 2. Keep the building occupants happy, with as little disruption as possible. While some changes are minor, barely registering on a building occupant’s mind, with HVAC challenges, that’s rarely the case. If a HVAC contractor is replacing an air handler, for instance, and disconnects one and moves to the next unit, it may cause major disruptions to sensitive areas of a building. And if the occupant wasn’t prepared for the disruption, you can have a mighty unhappy customer on your hand. Anytime you are working on HVAC projects throughout your building, there are strategies you can put into place to keep things running smooth. Communicate with occupants Communication is key to any good relationship, and as a property manager, this rule is a great place to start. If you will be working with the HVAC equipment, block out the timeframe for work to be done, and understand the potential consequences of the process. Then communicate this process with every point of contact you have throughout the building. The more detail you can provide, the less surprises you’ll have throughout the process. You can also work with your building’s occupants before the process begins, finding out if there are better timeframes than others. Establish a realistic schedule As a property manager, its easy to provide your expectations for the HVAC project at hand, and request that the proposal be written in such a way that work is completed on your timeframe. Unfortunately, many contractors want your business and will agree to anything upfront in order to win the bid, knowing full well the work will take longer than specified. Instead of projecting your timeframes into the proposal process, ask for HVAC project bids to establish realistic schedules of how long the process will take, and what areas of your property will be most effected throughout the schedule. This will help you avoid crises between you and the contractor, and you and your tenants. Plan for the whole system If one small piece of your HVAC system is weak, its easy to fix that one small piece. But how will that impact your overall system? Will it cause weak spots in different parts of the building – maybe a corner office will have reduced air flow, and therefore be colder in the winter and warmer in the summer? When retrofitting new pieces with older existing systems, its easy to reduce the efficiency of your entire system. Before agreeing to certain repairs, make sure you understand how it will impact your entire system overall. An easy way of handling this problem is by working with the same HVAC contractor again and again, He will understand your system’s potential, and know when to make repairs, and when to replace. Have points of contact available for immediate assistance In many cases, problems arise because connections can’t be made. Can the HVAC contractor get a hold or you or another person that can make decisions at a moments notice if a problem arises? Do you have access to decision makers throughout the building that may be impacted by this change? Many projects have been put on hold simply because a person in authority can’t be found to give the go-ahead to move forward. If you have access to these people during the time of the project, you’ll be able to complete the project in record time. Test Finally, if you can test things in stages, or test when the potential for problems is the smallest, you reduce the chances of bigger emergency issues falling into your lap. If you’ll be installing a new terminal unit, can you make the switch on a Saturday morning when the building is largely unoccupied? If you’re replacing a large system, can you replace and test in phases so the entire project isn’t released at once? Most issues can be avoided with just a little strategy from the beginning. If you’ve never had a HVAC maintenance team to help you stay on track with your building’s heating and cooling, now may be the time to find out how easy a team approach makes the process.

Our Early Years: Rental Unit

N C R

This project is from our early years as general contractors in the Chicagoland area. These photos aren't professionally shot, but it should help you to understand our history of design and construction excellence.

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Basic 0111 White + Lucia 2266 White Silk

United Porte Inc

SET INCLUDES: 2 Door Slabs with Aluminum Strips 2 steel rails 6.6FT each Hangers with wheels Door Stops Floor Guide Brackets Anti-Jump pins Installation Manual Screws for hardware Doors are not pre-drilled! It is not recommended to paint. Thickness of the door slab is 40 mm or 1 9/16". Introducing the Modern Barn Bypass Doors from the Lucia Collection, the perfect addition to any interior wood doors in Brooklyn, NY. These doors are made of high-quality wood with a solid core, ensuring durability and longevity. The doors come in a pristine white color that will seamlessly blend in with any interior decor. One of the key features of the Modern Barn Bypass Doors is their full clear glass layout. The glass panes are of the highest quality, allowing for maximum light transmission while maintaining privacy. This feature makes these doors perfect for interior spaces that require natural light and an open feel. The Lucia Collection is known for its contemporary and stylish designs, and the Modern Barn Bypass Doors are no exception. These doors will elevate any space's aesthetic and add a touch of sophistication and elegance. The barn bypass feature of these doors makes them a practical and space-saving option for interior spaces in Brooklyn, NY. They slide smoothly on tracks, allowing for easy access to adjoining rooms while saving floor space. At our company, we understand the importance of providing our customers with high-quality products that meet their specific needs. That's why we offer a wide range of customization options for the Modern Barn Bypass Doors. From the glass layout to the color of the wood, you can create a unique and personalized look that's perfect for your interior space. In conclusion, the Modern Barn Bypass Doors from the Lucia Collection are an excellent choice for anyone looking for stylish, durable, and practical interior wood doors in Brooklyn, NY. With their full clear glass layout, solid core construction, and customizable options, these doors are sure to impress and enhance any space they're installed in.

W.L. Heating & Cooling LLC

Air Conditioning System Installation And Repair, Heating Unit Installation And Repair, Ventilation Services, Refrigerator Installation And Repair, HVAC Maintenance Services, Air Quality Services, Refrigerator Maintenance, Ice Machine Repair, Freezer Services, Cooler Repairs And Replacements, Air Quality Testing, Custom Work, Estimates, Inspections, System Cleaning, Custom Work, Humidifier Installation

How to Source De-Icing Materials Before Winter Catches You Off Guard

safe ZOnea

Every year, the same thing happens. The first real snowfall arrives, demand for de-icing materials spikes overnight, and the businesses that waited too long find themselves scrambling for supply at the worst possible moment. Facility managers, property owners, contractors, and municipalities all depend on a steady supply of salt and ice melt to keep their properties safe and operational through winter. The ones who plan ahead sail through. The ones who don't pay more, wait longer, and take on real risk. Sourcing de-icing materials well is not complicated, but it does require thinking ahead and understanding the options. The choices you make about what to buy, how to buy it, and who to buy it from have a direct effect on your costs, your reliability, and your ability to keep people safe when conditions turn dangerous. This article lays out what matters. Why Your Choice of Supplier Matters More Than You Think It is easy to treat de-icing material as a commodity, something you grab whenever you need it without much thought about where it comes from. That works fine until the moment it doesn't, usually in the middle of a storm when everyone needs supply at once and the casual sources have run dry. At that point, the relationships you built before the season become the difference between staying stocked and being stuck. Reliable supply is the whole game in winter operations. A property that runs out of ice melt during a storm faces safety hazards, liability exposure, and disruption, none of which can wait for a back-ordered shipment. This is why establishing relationships with dependable rock salt suppliers before the season starts is one of the smartest moves a facility manager or contractor can make. It locks in supply, often locks in better pricing, and removes a major source of mid-winter stress. The lesson here is to treat sourcing as a planning decision rather than a last-minute errand. The businesses that come through winter smoothly are almost always the ones that secured their supply chain early, chose suppliers who could actually deliver when it counted, and never had to gamble on finding material during a shortage. Reliability bought in advance is far cheaper than scarcity paid for in a crisis. Bagged or Bulk: Matching the Material to the Job One of the first practical decisions is whether to buy de-icing material in bags or in bulk, and the right answer depends entirely on the operation. Each format has clear advantages, and many operations end up using both for different purposes. Bagged material offers convenience, control, and easy storage. It is simple to handle, easy to distribute to different locations or crews, straightforward to store without special equipment, and convenient for spot application by hand. It suits smaller properties, businesses without bulk storage, and situations where portion control and tidiness matter. Bulk material, on the other hand, tends to make sense for large operations that go through high volumes, where buying in quantity lowers the per-unit cost and the operation has the equipment and space to store and handle it. The tradeoff is between the convenience and flexibility of bags and the volume economics of bulk. For many operations, the right approach is a mix: bulk for the high-volume core of the work and bags for flexibility, spot treatment, and locations where bulk handling is impractical. The key is to match the format to how the material will actually be stored, moved, and applied, rather than defaulting to one or the other out of habit. Thinking this through in advance avoids both the waste of over-buying bulk you can't handle and the expense of relying entirely on bags for a large operation. Rock Salt Is Not Your Only Option Rock salt, or sodium chloride, is the workhorse of winter de-icing for good reason. It is effective, widely available, and cost-efficient, which makes it the default choice for most operations most of the time. But it has limits, and understanding the alternatives helps you choose the right material for the conditions you actually face. The most important limitation is temperature. Rock salt becomes less effective as temperatures drop, and in genuinely cold conditions it can struggle to do the job at all. This is where alternatives come in. Calcium chloride, for instance, works at much lower temperatures than rock salt and acts quickly, which makes it valuable when conditions are severe or when fast melting matters. Operations that face hard freezes or need dependable performance in extreme cold often keep calcium chloride for sale on hand for exactly those situations, using it alongside rock salt rather than instead of it. The practical approach is to understand the conditions your property faces and stock accordingly. For many operations, rock salt handles the bulk of the work while a faster, colder-rated material like calcium chloride covers the extreme days when ordinary salt falls short. Matching the material to the temperature and the urgency of the situation is what separates an operation that stays ahead of winter from one that is constantly reacting to it. Securing Your Supply Before the Season Knowing what to buy is only half the equation. The other half is making sure you can actually get it when you need it, which means securing your supply before winter arrives rather than after it has already started. Timing is one of the most underrated factors in winter operations. The logic is simple. Demand for de-icing materials is highly seasonal and spikes sharply during storms, when everyone needs supply simultaneously. Prices and availability both move against the buyer at exactly those moments. By contrast, planning ahead, estimating your needs and arranging supply before the season, puts you in a far stronger position. Working with established rock salt suppliers ahead of time means your material is accounted for before the rush, often at better pricing and with the confidence that it will be there when the first storm hits. This kind of planning also lets you think clearly rather than react under pressure. You can estimate your seasonal needs based on your property and past winters, decide on the right mix of materials and formats, and arrange storage in advance. Operations that do this consistently spend less, worry less, and never find themselves making frantic calls during a storm. The effort of planning ahead is modest, and the payoff in reliability and cost savings is substantial. Storing and Handling What You Buy Securing supply is not much use if the material degrades before you can use it, which makes proper storage and handling an important and often overlooked part of the equation. De-icing materials are sensitive to moisture, and poor storage can turn a good supply into a clumped, hardened mess that is difficult to apply. The fundamentals are straightforward. Keep material dry and protected from moisture, since salt and ice melt readily absorb water and can harden if exposed. Store it in a way that suits the format, whether that means a proper bulk storage area or a dry space for stacked bags. Keep it accessible, so crews can get to it quickly when a storm hits and time is short. And handle it with the right equipment for the format and volume, which protects both the material and the people working with it. None of this is complicated, but neglecting it can undermine even a well-planned supply. Good storage practices protect the investment you made in securing supply early. There is little point in arranging your materials ahead of the season only to have them degrade before use. Treating storage and handling as part of the overall plan, rather than an afterthought, ensures that the material you secured is actually usable when the moment comes. It is the final link in a supply chain built to perform under winter conditions. Estimating How Much You Actually Need One question trips up operations of every size: how much de-icing material to buy. Order too little and you risk running short during a storm. Order too much and you tie up money and storage space in material you may not use. Getting the estimate reasonably right is a meaningful part of sourcing well. Several factors shape the answer. The size and type of the areas you treat, sidewalks, lots, entrances, and drive lanes, set the baseline for how much material each application consumes. The local climate matters too, since colder regions and those with frequent snowfall go through far more material than milder ones. Application frequency depends on how often storms hit and how quickly surfaces need to be cleared, which varies with the kind of property and the expectations of the people who use it. And the type of material plays a role, since different products are applied at different rates. Past experience is often the best guide. Operations that track what they used in previous winters, adjusted for the size of the property and the severity of the season, can estimate their needs with reasonable confidence. For newer operations without that history, it helps to plan conservatively and to work with a supplier who can replenish stock reliably, so that a low estimate does not turn into a mid-storm shortage. The goal is not perfect precision but a sound, slightly cautious estimate paired with a dependable supply relationship. That combination lets an operation keep enough material on hand to handle the season without over-committing to volume it cannot store or use. Thinking this through before winter, rather than guessing during it, is one more way that planning ahead pays off when the snow starts to fall. The Bottom Line Sourcing de-icing materials well comes down to a few straightforward principles: plan ahead, choose reliable suppliers before the season, match your materials and formats to your actual needs and conditions, and store what you buy properly. The operations that follow these principles move through winter with confidence, while those that improvise pay more and take on needless risk. Winter is predictable in one respect: it arrives every year, and demand for de-icing material spikes the moment it does. The businesses that prepare for that reality, rather than being surprised by it, are the ones that keep their properties safe, their costs controlled, and their operations running no matter what the season throws at them. A little foresight before the first snowfall pays off through every storm that follows.

Annis Road - London

The New and Reclaimed Flooring Company

http://www.reclaimedflooringco.us/ +1 (424) 395-8398 fiona@reclaimedflooringco.com