The buckets that line the rafters at Sidney Glen Elementary School soon will be cleared.

That is because work began June 30 to replace the schools leaky roof.

Thats a project weve needed to do for a long time, said Tom OBrien, director of facilities and operations for the South Kitsap School District. It was not uncommon to have very, very large leaks coming through the ceiling tiles into some of the offices along the main hallway. One of those was the principals office. There were days when he really couldnt work in there.

SKSD is not the only district in the region to have issues with tile roofs. Bremerton High School is scheduled to put on a new roof next year and OBrien said a Shelton school also is in the process of replacing one.

OBrien said there are a variety of reasons behind Sidney Glens issues, including tile not being the right roof for this community and area. But OBrien, who noted that Hidden Creek and Mullenix Ridge elementary schools still has a tile roof, said there were other reasons behind the problems at Sidney Glen.

I think there were a variety of issues, probably first and foremost was the installation of the product, he said. We feel, anyway, it wasnt lapped properly, which meant we had courses of tile that go across and they basically overlap each other.

OBrien said that led to rain finding its way through gaps, particularly on windy days. He said there was a felt system that was designed to handle rain that penetrated through the roof, but that system became overwhelmed.

What weve found is that it has just deteriorated over the years to the point where that was no long water tight, OBrien said.

SKSD now is in position to replace the roof, OBrien said, because of revenue generated from the maintenance-and-operations levy passed last year. He said the project at Sidney Glen is much more extensive than the 2009 roof replacement at Orchard Heights Elementary School. OBrien said the most significant issue at that school was replacing sheetrock with plywood under the roof there. At Sidney Glen, which is 54,378 square feet and opened in 1991, the tiles must be removed and recycled. There also are thousands upon thousands of linear feet of nailer boards that have to be unscrewed to place a wooden diaphragm on top of the plywood.

Once that portion of the project is complete, OBrien said a protective ice and water shield will be installed.

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Work underway to replace Sidney Glen Elementarys tile roof

By Tom Beasley

A fleet of nine Aston Martin supercars with female drivers at the wheel zoomed into a Coventry girls school as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the variety of jobs available to women.

The event took place at Tile Hill Wood School & Language College, in Nutbrook Avenue, Tile Hill, this week.

It was organised by the Inspiring Women campaign, which was founded by Miriam Gonzlez Durntez, partner in a major international law firm and also wife of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Mrs Durntez spoke to a group of more than 100 pupils at the school, introducing an opportunity for networking with strong female role models from Aston Martin, which has its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

She encouraged the girls present, all aged 12 to 15, not to limit their dreams and to work hard towards achieving a job in any profession in which they want to work even if that was in an area like cars or engineering traditionally associated with men.

Sam Tasker, assistant headteacher at Tile Hill Wood, said: The girls found Miriam really inspirational and a few of them even wanted her autograph.

Tile Hill Wood School & Language College Aston Martin event

The fact that they had access to so many inspirational women means they came away really upbeat because it let them ask what they wanted.

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Driven women spark girls to think of car careers

Trish and her Russian Blue cat, Boo (Geoff Pugh)

Miss Ellis knelt on the bathroom floor, with her ear to the tub. A quiet but desperate miaow could be heard emanating from behind the freshly tiled bath panel.

The cat had obviously gone to hide from the two noisy builders and had unfortunately then been 'walled up inside when they replaced the cracked tile.

Miss Ellis, a personal assistant from Enfield, said: I miaowed back at him for a while but wasnt sure what to do next. So I rang the builder.

When he had finished laughing he immediately blamed his mate and then told me to get busy with a breadknife and screwdriver.

One smashed tile and a chipped fingernail later, the furry grey prisoner was released.

He was right as rain but very indignant to have been walled up in such insalubrious surroundings all day, said Miss Ellis, When the builders come back to fit yet another new tile, Ill say please can you put the cat out not in and especially not in the cavity under the bath."

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Cat freed after getting stuck behind bathroom tiles

The sailors on the USS Lincoln are doing much of the work as the ship goes through it's 25 year refit and refuel.

NEWPORT NEWS When Edward Shields joined the Navy 10 months ago, the recruiter didn't mention jackhammer duty.

But last week, the young Navy airman stood aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, bending his 6-foot-5-inch frame in a cramped passageway, blasting apart floor tiles and making a great deal of noise while doing it. He is part of a 35-sailor team that has pulverized 372,000 square feet of tile since the Lincoln arrived at Newport News Shipbuilding last March.

These sailors normally work on the carrier flight deck. They launch, recover and refuel jet aircraft, and their jobs are considered among the most exciting and dangerous in the world.

Now they're in downtown Newport News.

Living the adventure.

"No, he never told me about jackhammer work," Shields laughed, recalling the recruiter's pitch. "I never thought I'd be doing this."

It might not be exciting, but Shields is participating in one of the military's most complicated fix-up jobs. The Lincoln is at Dry Dock 11 for a Refueling and Complex Overhaul, or RCOH. It happens midway through the 50-year life of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and pulverizing old floor tiles is among thousands of jobs.

A 2002 study from the RAND Institute said a RCOH "may be the most challenging engineering and industrial task undertaken anywhere."

During its first year at Newport News, a milestone marked on March 28, workers had already reinstalled the long-range radar tower, blasted and primed the ship's hull below the water line, refurbished 230 of 399 watertight doors and completed port and starboard rudder repairs.

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Overhauling the USS Abraham Lincoln: a complex challenge | With Video & Photo Gallery

LifeStyle with Denise Simons: Bathroom Remodels Tile Work
Bohnne Jones and Linsey Capps share their remodeling stories.

By: NewsChannel 5

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LifeStyle with Denise Simons: Bathroom Remodels & Tile Work - Video

Windows 8's tile interface is fine on mobile devices, but Microsoft may have just figured out it's terrible for traditional computers.

If recently published reports are to be believed, Microsoft is finally realizing something I've been saying ever since Windows 8 first reared its ugly head: the so-called Modern (formerly Metro) tile interface may work fine on smartphones and tablets, but it basically throws traditional computers under the bus. The Windows 8 start screen is just plain silly on traditional computers.

The situation gets worse the larger the screen of the device in question. Ever look at Windows 8 on a 27-inch monitor? What about on a pair of big-screen monitors? Despite features that let you organize the tiles, the bottom line is that the bigger the screen, the more Windows 8 turns it into a jumbled, confusing mess.

Word is that next year's Windows will present a traditional, Windows 7-style desktop interface on traditional desktops and laptops, while still showing those tiles on smaller, touch-screen devices.

Thank heavens!

Horrendous failure?

On the one hand, this could be seen as a horrendous admission of failure for Microsoft. It bet the company on Windows 8's radical new interface, hiding the traditional desktop and start menu behind a wall of cryptic touch-centric tiles that may have seemed "modern" but never made sense for traditional computing tasks. Making computer users pretend they're working on a tablet raised the ire of rabid commentators and scared off traditional consumers ever since.

Competitors like Apple and Google, meanwhile, offer separate operating systems and interfaces for computers vs. phones and tablets. They, like almost everyone outside of Redmond, seemed to understand that while smartphones and tablets are technically computers, people use them in very different ways for very different tasks. If I'm sitting at my desk working, I have completely different needs than when I'm checking my Facebook feed on my phone or watching a video on my tablet.

While Apple's Mac OS X and iOS are getting more similar all the time (as are Google's Android and Chrome), they still look and feel very different from each other. Which is a good thing.

Promising sign of humility?

Here is the original post:
Has Microsoft finally realised PCs are different than tablets?

Windows 8's tile interface is fine on mobile devices, but Microsoft may have just figured out it's terrible for traditional computers.

If recently published reports are to be believed, Microsoft is finally realizing something I've been saying ever since Windows 8 first reared its ugly head: the so-called Modern (formerly Metro) tile interface may work fine on smartphones and tablets, but it basically throws traditional computers under the bus. The Windows 8 start screen is just plain silly on traditional computers.

The situation gets worse the larger the screen of the device in question. Ever look at Windows 8 on a 27-inch monitor? What about on a pair of big-screen monitors? Despite features that let you organize the tiles, the bottom line is that the bigger the screen, the more Windows 8 turns it into a jumbled, confusing mess.

Word is that next year's Windows will present a traditional, Windows 7-style desktop interface on traditional desktops and laptops, while still showing those tiles on smaller, touch-screen devices.

Thank heavens!

Horrendous failure?

On the one hand, this could be seen as a horrendous admission of failure for Microsoft. It bet the company on Windows 8's radical new interface, hiding the traditional desktop and start menu behind a wall of cryptic touch-centric tiles that may have seemed "modern" but never made sense for traditional computing tasks. Making computer users pretend they're working on a tablet raised the ire of rabid commentators and scared off traditional consumers ever since.

Competitors like Apple and Google, meanwhile, offer separate operating systems and interfaces for computers vs. phones and tablets. They, like almost everyone outside of Redmond, seemed to understand that while smartphones and tablets are technically computers, people use them in very different ways for very different tasks. If I'm sitting at my desk working, I have completely different needs than when I'm checking my Facebook feed on my phone or watching a video on my tablet.

While Apple's Mac OS X and iOS are getting more similar all the time (as are Google's Android and Chrome), they still look and feel very different from each other. Which is a good thing.

Promising sign of humility?

Go here to see the original:
Has Microsoft finally realized PCs are different than tablets?

725 Webster Street, Palo Alto
725 Webster Street, Palo Alto Finely Constructed Handsomely Detailed Prime Downtown Palo Alto 3 BR | 2.5 BA | 1665 SF Only blocks to downtown, this stunning newly-constructed home offers...

By: zachtrailergroup

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725 Webster Street, Palo Alto - Video

Pity Justice is blind to all that limestone and wood finish interior, Moravian tile work and Terrazzo flooring.

With its landscaped promenade, historic stone fireplace cafeteria and multimedia screen technology, the future Bucks County Justice Center might make one yearn for one of those long jury trials or lust for a lawsuit.

On Friday, county officials led members of the media on a sneak peek tour inside the $85 million, 285,000-square-foot complex now dominating Doylestown's skyline.

Some 520 county workers are scheduled to move into the center in mid-January, said Jerry Anderson, the countys general services director.

Construction is running more than a year behind schedule and 4 percent over original contract estimates. The building is to house the district attorney and sheriff's offices as well as family, civil and criminal courts.

Officials broke ground in July 2011, predicting then that it would open by August 2013. As evidenced during the tour, many in government are quite eager to open, if only to show it off.

On Friday, crews were busy laying the foundations for a covered exterior pathway, leading from the countys Union Street parking garage to the sole, public entrance planned on Main Street.

Curved, tinted-glass windows rise eight stories above the front door. Above, sixth-floor balconies provide stunning views of the borough's downtown district.

Each of the 52 municipalities in Bucks County is to be represented in special tiles crafted by the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works.

Information about each days scheduled court hearings could be posted on computer screens located off each of the four public elevators.

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Bucks County shows off new justice center

Tile art brightens up Chapelhay Community Playgarden

1:00pm Friday 27th June 2014 in News

ARTISTS took inspiration from nature to create a new tile display at a Weymouth garden.

Around 50 budding artists of all ages popped in to Chapelhay Community Playgarden recently to create brightly coloured painted tiles for the community area.

The tiles will be varnished, fired, mounted on a board and then displayed for the community to see at the garden. The project was organised by the playgarden and Steps club for young people. Youngsters from the club ran the activities while the garden group provided the tiles and the artists.

Clare Sutton, chairman of the playgarden group, said: I used to be on the committee at Steps and it was great to work with them again.

Youth worker Jenny Hart, said: It was great to see our young people encourage others in a peer education role and we very much hope to do other projects with the playgarden.

The playgarden group meets on the first Sunday of the month from 11.30am.

For further information people are asked to contact Clare Sutton on 01305 771180 or email her at clare.sutton@zen.co.uk

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Tile art brightens up Chapelhay Community Playgarden