There was a great turn out at last night’s Kitchen and Bath seminar. Thanks REEP for hosting and for doing such a fantastic job educating the public with REEP House. Everyone was very engaged and had great questions about kitchens and baths. The conversation also moved to talking about the house as a system. Here are 5 questions that came up last night.
1. How does a grey water system work in a house?
Grey water systems store water that goes down the drain from your washing machine and shower . This water is filtered and treated and then used to flush your toilets. You can see a schematic from Greyter Water Systems that shows how the system would be connected.
2. How do I know if there is lead in my drinking water?
Lead can pose serious health concerns especially in young children. Older pipes and older plumbing faucets could contain lead. Lead solder was used up until about1990 with some copper pipe work. In general the city is only responsible for lead in main water pipes on their property. Any lead in pipes or fittings in your house or the main line leading from your front yard water shut-off is the responsibility of the homeowner. The City of Waterloo has a lead testing program if you are concerned about lead in your house. You can contact the city you live in to see if they offer any similar programs.
3. How do I get more natural light into my kitchen or bathroom without losing cabinet space?
Wall space in a kitchen is critical in order to provide enough space to install wall mounted cabinets. You could use a Velux Sun Tunnel to get more natural light into the dark corners of the kitchen. A Sun Tunnel is a metal tube connected to a small skylight mounted on the roof. Light travels down the tube. There is a round diffuser on the ceiling that spreads the light into the room.
4. Are there portable induction cook tops?
There was quite a bit of discussion on induction cooking vs gas cooking. Induction is a very efficient method of electric cooking. One way to test out if you will like induction cooking would be to try out a portable unit before committing to a full size unit. Facor makes a portable unit and there are many others on the market. Check out the short video on the Facor site to learn more about induction cooking.
5. What is a good way to get access into corner cabinets?
There are many options to get good storage in blind corners of kitchen cabinets. Hafele makes an accessory called a Magic Corner. It is a wire corner shelf system that progressively pulls out to gain access into the far reaches of your base cabinets.
Be sure to check out upcoming programing at REEP they have many exciting programs on offer.
-Trent
