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Publish by: Ortho Mattress

Ortho Mattress is giving away a free mattress to one lucky winner. There will be one (1) Grand Prize winner. The winner will receive one (1) Queen Sized Doctor Preferred Regency Mattress Set. The winner may select either the Regency Firm, Regency Plush, or Regency Pillow Top and is encouraged to try out each model at their local Ortho Mattress before selecting. The approximate retail value of the prize is $1,000 and includes sales tax and standard local delivery at no extra charge. The winner has the option to apply the $1,000 value toward any Doctor Preferred, Summerhill & Bischop, or Ortho Avant mattress set should they choose to and must pay in full the difference on any upgrade. Should the winner decide to downgrade, any remaining credit will be rendered void once finalized. Standard warranties apply.

To enter, use this link which will direct you to Facebook :   http://goo.gl/LOkfQ

Publish by: ES Creative Glass

Publish by: Discount Glass and Mirror

Headed by Heather and Jim, the custom frame shop at Discount Glass and Mirror in San Diego is a truly remarkable operation. With over 70,000 options to choose from, they can frame just about anything and make it look beautiful hanging on a wall or displayed in your home. Whether you are a homeowner looking for that perfect piece, a sports fan who wants to highlight that amazing sports memorabilia or an interior designer looking for a place to source your artwork, the frame shop at Discount Glass and Mirror is your answer!

Back in the shop, Jim has over 20 years of framing experience. There is absolutely nothing he hasn't seen or can't do.

Up front, Heather is knowledgable and experienced in making your item shine. She can guide you as you design your own frame or take complete control to ensure you end up with a one-of-a-kind job.

They specialize in everything from standard canvas stretching and framing, shadow boxes, textile framing, acrylic trophy cases and much, much more. Call or stop by to discuss your project today and experience why Discount Glass and Mirror is San Diego's "go to" custom framing shop.

See Photos of Custom Framing Jobs and More...

Call us for more information about bringing your custom framing project to life! (858) 549-2442

Publish by: Dakini Engineering General Contracting

Real Estate and Home Inspections in San Diego:
Typically, realitors suggest that a home buyer have a general home inspection performed, prior to close of escrow.  All to often a general home inspector doesn't notice poor drainage issues, foundation problems, slope problems nor do they typically perform a manometer floor level survey.   I have been doing foundation, drainage and hillside inspections for over 24 years in San Diego and have found all to often a home is sold and drainage and foundation issues are not identified properly.  This can cost the new buyer and seller large sums of money in attorney fee's, court costs and repairs.   There is no doubt that a general home inspeciton is important, it's not enough for homes in San Diego area, due to the soils and drainge issues that are so common here.

What makes our inspection services unique is they include a manometer floor level survey, written report, design of repair (if needed) and a detailed cost analysis for the repairs as required.   This is a full service inspection that tells all involved in the deal a full disclosure of the facts and condition of the property structurally relative to it's soils stability.   A manometer survey creates a topographical map of the house showing all elevations, typically 5 elevations per room on a CAD drafted drawing.  This gives everyone proof of stability at the time of the sell.   This document alone can save tens of thousands of dollars in the transaction. 

We highly recommend that all homes being sold have this type of inspection performed for proper disclosure and long term maintenance of the house for years of good service.

Dana Ansell, CEO, forensic inspector, estimator and designer for Dakini Engineering General Contracting
619-247-9294 or 619-697-9000

Publish by: Dakini Engineering General Contracting

From years of designing, building and repairing wood deck on steep slopes and above grade, we have learned many tricks to make your deck last with minimal maintenance.  

We have worked with many different types of materials and have found the two best options are standard Doug Fir deck planks for economy and Ip'e wood deck planks for a high end, very low maintenance and long lasting decking material.  Both are on #2 Doug Fir framing.  We have used composite wood materials and have found them to be over priced, they stain easliy leaving very unsightly appearance and the UV light in San Diego, tends to decompose the material in about 8 years. 

Doug fir pre-stained on all sides is the secrete to a relatively inexpensive decking material.  Typically Doug Fir is installed than stained.  This leaves untreated wood ever where that can not be accessed after installation and allows for wood deterioration. When this material is treated and sealed prior to installatioin and epxoy coated deck screws are used for attachment, this material will give you 15 to 20 years of a nice looking surface with a maintenace program of restaining every two to three years.  We also recoommend hand picking the Doug Fir decking so each plank has little knots and few knots per foot.


Ip'e a tropical hard wood that looks like Teak is a great product and only slightly higher expense than composite woods.  Ip'e is a life long product that requires minimal maintenace for a beautiful deck for years.  The cost of installation is higher, due to the need to predrill all screw holes and the use of stainless steel screws for proper installition.  Pre dirlling is required due to the hardness of the lumber and stainless screws so the acid in the wood doesn't deteriorate the screws over time.  Each cut end has to be treated with a siller to prevent spliting due to natural drying.

A big problem we have found with decks is deteriorated framing, especially the joists that the deck planks are screwed too.  What happens is water becomes traped or lays on the top of the joists and between the deck planks and joists.  What happens after about 5 years is the top of the joist wood rot and become soft and the deck planks begin to shift or come loose.  The joist at this point need to be replaced.  This is a very expensive process.  What we have found to prevent this is placing a product known as Jiffy Seal windo flashing atop the joists prior to decking installation.  This water proofs the top of the joists for the life of the deck.

When using Doug Fir we prefer as a stain, an oil based stains, due to there penetration qualities.  Latex based stains do not have this ability.  Latex stains are topical and do not last long in the Southern Ca UV light exposure and require high matenance. 

Ip'e decking is always sealed with a very thin light weight oil stain to maintain a beautiful look.

Railings have many options.  First code requires all railings to be 42 inches tall.  There are three basic materials for this application wood, metal, and composite coated materials.  All three are good options depending on desired look.   Metal is typically the most economical, wood is the next expense with higher maintenance and composite is typically the most expensive and least maintenance if they have a hard shiny plastic coating. 

When building a deck on a slope, the footings are key to it's longevety.  The steepness of the slope dictates the depth and size of the isoltated pier footings.  Rule of thumb for depth for a 2:1 slope is Approx. 6 feet deep or a 1.5:1 slope Approx. 7 to 8 feet deep by 24 inches in Diameter with proper steel reinforcement and a Simpson hardware attachment for the Doug Fir or Preasure Treated Doug Fir columns.  Height of deck off slope dictates the size of the wood columns required.  The concrete isolated pier footins should be formed and poured 12 to 18 inches above the high side of the slope to protect the wood columns.  

The deck needs to be sesmically sound.  This requires wood cross bracing on the under side of the wood diaphram framing screwed to all the wood joists and ending at the rim joists. If the wood columns are taller than 4 feet, they also require cross bracing to prevent lateral movement (domino effect).  

I hope this gives you a good idea what is involved with building a deck at your home. 

Publish by: Dakini Engineering General Contracting


This article is to help home owners understand proper slope maintenance, BMP's (Best management Practices), erosion control and what is an erosion retaining gravity wall.

In my photo albums under erosion control are a set of pictures that compliment this article.

Proper erosion control and maintenance requires the following:

Site or building pad or roof waters of a home or patio slab should never be allowed to free flow over a slope.  This type of uncontoled drainage over a slope is refered to as sheet flow.  This condition weakens the slope surface and creates erosion which destabilizes the slope over time.

All slopes should be uniformily irrigated and planted with deep rooting, drought resistant plants, such as Ficus trees, Red Apple or Disney Land ice plants.  Red Apple is the lowest maintenace ice plant.   If your current slope has an ice plant that is typically referred to as Pickle weed, it can cause superficial surface slides to your slope.  The reason for this, is this type of ice plant is very leaf heavy with shallow roots.  It typically grows wild in San Diego.

For a greater range of plant options, consult a landscape expert, landscape architect or go to the Cal Trans web site for recommended plants for slope stability and erosion control.

To properly replant a new slope or recently striped slope, one must ensure there are no soft spots or minor weakness's in the slope.  Properly run a UV light, PVC, Sched. 40, pipe system with heads on 15 to 20 centers on an electronic timer system to come on 1 hour prior to sun rise and during the high heat summer months a second time at noon.  Both times should be set between 5 to 8 minutes long.  No more time is required to maintain healthy plant growth.  Over water can destroy the integrity of the slope over time.

Place landscapers Jute fabric over the soils of the slope to retain the surface silts of the soils on the slope until new plants have taken over.   Every 15 foot of vertical slope should have a Straw waddle placed across the slope and at the toe of the slope properly wood staked to the slope to prevent heavier erosion during rain fall.   Additionally, it may be a good idea to add a Silt fence product at the toe of the slope to ensure there will be no silt contamination of propert beyond the slope being planted.

Next on larger slopes, we recommend spraying the slope with a product called Hydroseed with a design mix appropriate to your site that are drought resistant.  This is a straw, fertilizer, seed mix with a binder (glue) to hold the slope during the maturation of the designer landscape planting.

Next plant the slope with your designer plants along with a ground cover like Red Apple or equal.  When planting Red Apple ice plant, it should be placed on 8 inch centers in all directions for reasonable maturation and cover time.

After the plant life have become established, you can remove the lower straw waddle and silt fence. 

The irrigation system should be viewed during operation at least twice a year to ensure it is functioning properly.

If you desire a patio or wall at the top of your slope, the most economical is Keystone Concrete gravity block walls with a fiber glass grid placed as per manufactures design recommendations.  If the wall is designed to be under 3 feet tall, there is no building permit required.  Any patio concrete slab or pavers should be designed not to sheet flow over the slope.  Best design is to place 6 inch Diameter area drains on Approx. 20 foot centers in the middle of the slab or paver system with a non-perforated, 4 inch Dia., SDR35 pipe system which discharges to the front street or to the bottom of the slope in the same type of pipe system to a legal water coarse.   If there are rood eaves with a gutter system and downspouts, they should also be connected to this pipe system.  If the roof eave is absent of an eave gutter system, it's wise to install a seamless aluminium gutter system.  All eave gutter systems should be installed level and tight to the roofing materail.  Never hang gutters with s skew or slope.  They will not function properly if they do slope.  The majority of the eave gutter contractors do not install eave gutters properly.

I hope you find this information helpful in caring for your slope.

Dana Ansell, Forensic investigator and CEO of Dakini Engineering General Contracting.

Publish by: Dakini Engineering General Contracting

What is a Manometer floor level survey?
This is one of the most important inspection services a real estate agent, home owner or buyer can have performed on a house.  The imperical data of documenting the elevations of the homes slab, foundation or wood diaphram floor discloses the homes structural and soils stability.  It also reveals often areas of poor surface and roof drainage issues.  Often the settlement of a house or structure is not visably obvious, due to historical remodeling, cosmetic cover ups, etc.   By measureing approximalely 5 elevations per room gives the inspection and home owner/buyer/agent a true picture of the homes structural condition relative to soils,drinage and condition of the foundation.  Often it will even discover a broken water supply or waste line below the slab or in the crawl space of a home.  Water infitration expands most soils in San Diego area and when a high elevation is discovered in the manometer floor level survey, this is a strong indication of a water problem that is destroying the structural integrity of the home. 

A second advantage of having this test performed is to keep home inspections services and foundation repair companies honest.  I can not tell you how many times a reputable foundation repair or engineering company in San Diego has told a home owner or real estate agent that the home is fine or has a problem.  When I performed the manometer floor level survey, it provided evidence that there was no problem or that there is and to what degree it has a problem.  

I hope this information is helpful in your future home maintenace or purchases.   Have peace of mind and have a manomter floor level survey conducted to your home or the home you wish to purchace before closing escrow.

Dana Ansell, CEO of Dakini Engineering General Contracting.
619-697-9000 or 619-247-9294