Home Removal Services Blog

Owning a koi pond requires regular maintenance in order to keep the nutrients in balance. A healthy and clean pond insures that it will sustain life without the aggravation of fungi and other unwanted diseases. A healthy koi pond is beautiful. One way to achieve this is to clean the pond naturally with products such as Bioverse’s all-natural pond cleaners.

For many years, the only way to clean a pond was to use harsh chemicals which weren’t good for the environment. Nowadays, with attention to products being eco-friendly, there are better choices for naturally cleaning ponds. These cleaners use all naturally derived ingredients that don’t introduce foreign chemical based products into the water.

Here are a few things to think about when looking for a natural cleaner.

1. Does the product claim the ingredients are biodegradable? This is very important when choosing a natural cleaner that doesn’t introduce chemicals into the environment.

2. Is it safe? The cleaner used should not only be safe for wildlife and fish, it should also be safe for children. Some companies even produce special dispensers that will dissolve over time, leaving no waste or chemicals in the water.

3. The most important aspect of the product is its effectiveness. It’s supposed to clean the pond, naturally. Research the product before purchasing on line; it could save money, time, and possibly the life of the pond.

Owning a clean koi pond can be a little work, but with products such as Bioverse’s all-natural pond cleaners, a monthly additive for the water that is completely eco-friendly, makes it a little easier. A clean pond is a sign of a healthy, natural pond.

Trey Casselman enjoys writing and taking care of koi ponds. For more information about water clarity products such as aquarium cleaner or to find about others such as koi pond cleaner products, check out the Bioverse site today.

It is inevitable that you will need to repair your garden shed at some point or other. If you have a cute old shed with character, that time is probably nearer than you would like. I would say that typically a well built shed will last 10 – 20 years before it’s in for some major updates.

Many factors are involved in deciding whether to fix or replace your old garden shed, including your budget, how much you like your current shed (in good shape that is), whether it suits your purposes, and whether it suits your house style.

I had to answer these questions for two separate sheds this year – my own tiny falling down pine board lean to shed, and my mothers lovely large cottage style split roof design which had a severe water problem. My mothers shed was actually quite an easy decision. Her shed was quite large, so it would have been quite expensive to replace. Also, it didn’t actually look in bad shape, except for the holes in the roof and floor. As it turns out, I got away pretty lucky. I did have to entirely replace both roofs, but thankfully there was vapour barrier between the plywood floor and the joists, so I only needed to put down a new plywood floor. The cost for materials was about $550.

Our shed was a different story. Our shed was hidden around the side of our house and really out of view of the house or the back deck. It was approximately 3 feet by 8 feet and about 6 feet tall. Like my mother’s shed it had board and batten siding made out of wide planks. We knew both the roof and floor including the joists and sills were rotten. We thought we had a complete rebuild on our hands.

We started to figure out the material cost for a complete replacement. We both agreed that it needed to keep the character and charm of our old one, so the material costs ended up to be a little higher than the bare minimum. The first price was over $500. It seemed a bit too expensive to replace such a small shed, so we started to look for alternatives. That didn’t go so well, and we found that for the size we wanted, anything new was at the very least $500, plus they were either ugly or ugly and small, and made out of resin or lightweight metal, neither of which lends itself to decent shelving.

After a bit more consideration, we decided to salvage the old siding boards and add a new roof and floor. In fact the roof and floor turned into rebuilding a new frame as well, but the extra cost was minimal. The task was tedious but we took the shed apart board by board, built a new floor, framed in new walls and added a new roof. Then we re-assembled the old board siding just as in the original. I believe the total repair cost was $220.00, although we saved a little on roofing materials that we had left over from my mothers roofing job.

In both cases we were dealing with homes that were over a century old and we felt that the sheds really needed to match the older aesthetic of the houses. In both cases we decided to keep the wood that was salvageable and rebuild the roof, floor, and in our case, the frame. We ended up with 2 very pretty sheds and I think we managed to keep both budgets as low as possible. There are many factors to consider when faced with a garden shed in need of repairs. Do your homework and figure out various budgets. The right answer for your garden shed will become evident.