Below are some articles we have found that may be of interest to you.

MYSTERY SHROUDS HEART AILMENT

BYLINE: Mary Ann Roser AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
DATE: October 1, 2006
PUBLICATION: Austin American-Statesman (TX)
EDITION Final
SECTION: Metro & State
PAGE: B01

Six-year-old Nicole Morales was diagnosed with 'Kawasaki disease' several weeks after the carpets in her families home were cleaned. Doctors link the cleaning of her carpets with the potentialy deadly disease. To read more about the possible association of the disease and the carpet cleaning please visit The Austin American-Statesman Online Archives or contact us at (512) 454-8453.

EXOTICS OR DOMESTICS

By Ted Wright

Foreign or domestics. The same old question arises once again, "should I go with foreign or domestic wood?"

The answer is up to you. Foreign wood such as Brazilian Cherry, Santos Mahogany, Brazililan Walnut, Brazilian Teak, Australian Cypress, or Merbau, all are between 40% to 90% harder than Red oak.

Red oak is a domestic wood, and is a traditional wood used throughout the United States.

The janka chart is a test that involves dropping a metal ball from a certain lateral distance and measuring the pounds per square inch it took to dent a wood. You can find one at our website under the hardness chart. Although it's not necessary to have a very hard wood it sure does help. If you are looking for domestic wood harder than red oak try white oak, hickory, or maple. Bamboo is also a good choice. The properties of bamboo is that it is a grass, not a wood. So being a grass, it does not absorb moisture like wood does. Its very stable when it comes to water or moisture.