So, say goodbye to all the pots and the pans that invade your homes and senses. I so love it. From Electrolux, the Heart of the Home Kitchen Concept is a vision for the future and the future is not that far. The Heart of the Home is an intelligent, amorphous and interchangeable cooking surface that adapts to the needs of the user.

When you use this kitchen, all you have to do is place the ingredients on the surface and you will not have to worry about the pans or the recipes. The appliance will analyze the ingredients and present a list of suitable recipes. When you have decided on the recipe to be used, you will mark the extent of the cooking area with the help of your hand.

Once you have decided the area, you can even determine the depth of the surface by simply pressing your hand against the malleable material. When you have achieved the area and the depth of the surface, all that is left is setting the time and the temperature with the touch of your finger.

As usual, we cover the Electrolux design news every year, just as I did with the Electrolux washing machines, the Bio Robot and the Futuristic Kitchen.

Recommended Articles

We have some articles that I would like to recommend to the readers.

Foundation Repair And Maintenance

We have described here the type of foundations, what is a foundation inspection and what should be included in a good foundation inspection checklist. We can discover problems in the foundation to make us ask ourselves if it is safe to live in a house with foundation problems, and what entails a foundation repair. Not only the repair activity itself but how it affects our wallets.

I explain if the foundation repair is actually covered by homeowners insurance and the actual foundation repair cost. We disaggregated these foundation repair costs and determined, the cost per pier when footings or piers are the solutions for the settlement of a foundation.

To repair a foundation, the service provider might require an underpinning system using piers: push piers vs helical piers where helical piers are preferable for residential real estate objects, despite their costs. Also when you compare helical piers with concrete footings, we can determine that helical piers are more cost-efficient than concrete footings, in my opinion.

We have water in the crawlspace, which can be an issue for the whole foundation if the problem persists, and an additional difficulty when selling a house with water in the crawl space, as it can provide the prospective buyer with a lot of bargaining power, so what can we do: I explain what to do when the crawlspace is flooded or there are simply puddles of water always standing, thus I describe how to remove quickly the water in the crawlspace and how to prevent the problem for the future. So I discuss if it is normal to have water in the crawlspace after a heavy rain, and the importance to perform a crawlspace waterproofing thereafter, normally by installing a vapor barrier.

I describe how to improve the air quality in the crawlspace and to accomplish this, I am reluctant to use lime powder in this article, where I explain the pros and cons, as I would be using lime powder only to avoid the dangers of raw sewage under the house.

We discuss the sill plate replacement cost and how to avoid the outdoor sump pump freezing because it happened to me once.

There are always new methods for repairing foundations. One of them that we investigate here is the Powerbrace foundation repair method.

Animals can be a problem when they live near the foundation: In the following articles, we describe how to remove them and how to prevent them from digging and burrowing. The articles are about animals digging holes around the foundation or when they are burrowing below concrete, below a concrete slab, or between gaps in concrete footings, for example.

In regards to basements, I describe how to solve the hydrostatic pressure in the basement, which is a lateral pressure that is the main cause for having a basement wall that is bowing, or that can be caving in or buckling. While a slight inward curve for basement wall bowing is acceptable, after that degree, you have to address the issue and face sometimes relatively high basement wall repair costs.

I provide to you some reasons why we will need a certified specialist to deal with a risky sewage backup in the basement because bacteria survive a long time in a contaminated sewage network, and also we discuss how to deal with a basement drain backing up in general and what to do when it happens only when flushing the toilet, something that is not a DYI project at all.

Concrete

I explain here the process of concrete lifting or concrete raising, which can be done through mudjacking or slabjacking. We recommend the latter, which injects polyurethane foam.

Framing

There are some interesting articles here, in this Framing category. I refer to sistering floor joists, as a methodology to reinforce existing floor joists with some emphasis on sistering 2x6 floor joists or sistering with 2x8 instead, and about the building code for sistering joists, for sistering rafters, and the code for notching floor joists.

Many of these problems have a consequence: sinking or sagging floors.

Water Heaters

About water heaters, we have a complete guide about water heater types and their installation requirements, about power vent water heaters, and venting in tankless devices, and I also explain in detail the difference between a mobile home water heater and a standard water heater. I also describe in detail how to remove the heating element without an element wrench using just a socket, and how to fix leaks.

We have a few reviews when a water heater falls into our hands, such as the Titan product portfolio, Navien lineup, the Titan N-160 reviews, the most praised by our readers, and the Rinnai R94LSi.

I study several water heater capacities and tested 20-gallon water heater units and a comparison between point of use and tankless water heaters.

We open a tankless water heater to show how does it look like inside a tankless water heater, and how to protect your water heater against the effects of hard water. I also explain the pros and cons of tankless water heaters because many people consider that tankless units are better than standard heaters and it is not always the case.

After the lifecycle of the water heater is over, I reveal to you different options to proceed with its disposal.

Electricals

Just because they became popular and related to current news, I study how to identify aluminum wiring and once discovered, how to proceed with its remediation or retrofit.

Pest Control

I have a featured article where I compare Orkin vs Terminix pest control services.

BY M. Kogan

Hello, I am Marcio. I am an architect and designer, alma mater is Mackenzie. Retired in theory, but an architect never retires completely. Along with architectural projects, I am a filmmaker and have completed some short documentaries. Filmmaking and design are my passions. In HomeQN I write about home decoration and foundations. The goal is to teach homeowners to DYI as much as possible, and when this is not possible, enable them through knowledge, to evaluate service quotations and choose the best service technicians.