Hire a Remodeling Contractor
The license it’s where you start looking, not where you stop. Most contractors are not Remodeling contractors. Check: their license at myflorida.com; their credit; their suppliers; their clients.
Before plans. Don’t just think it, INK it. Write down, the main reason.
Photos from magazines; Ideas on paper. Can be a simple pencil sketch some place to start.
Plans: Get a professional & take time choosing the best one. Some Remodeling contractors can do your design work, check them out.
Don’t buy plans from plan books.
Professional Remodeling: making it looks like it has ALWAYS
been there. Seeing previous Before and After photos is a Must.
Permits: Your contractor will handle all permitting. It’s his license and he is responsible for the job. RED FLAG if they ask you to do this.
Complexity The more complex the project, the smaller the field from which to choose must be, to protect the homeowner.
Quality: is what you don’t see so remember: Ceramic tile “Mud base”, Copper electrical wiring; Plywood on the roof not OSB.
Contractor Paperwork: Contract: binds the parties If you have doubts get legal advice; Waiver of Lien forms: ensure every one got paid; Specifications: The next two paragraphs are examples of the details;
Remodel the master bath which includes removing all plumbing fixtures, lighting, cabinets, ceramic tile and replacing almost all of it, while relocating most of it, within the same area. The exceptions are, the toilet will be reused when relocated and the shower will be reconfigured and remodeled, but not relocated. (In the plumbing section we didn’t include changing the handle and fill valve to brushed nickel, but it should have be shown. We did change those to match)
Interior Doors
Most new interior doors will be the Owner’s choice of Bahama style with louvers on top and panel on bottom half; the door from the hall will be a 6 panel door, similar to the existing doors; all new doors will be paint grade, solid wood units, an upgrade to original proposed doors and which don’t match the existing doors; the only new doors will be in the suite for the bathroom, bedroom and three bi-hinged doors for the new closets. The new door into the suite will be a solid core unit, for noise reduction. The bathroom door will be a sliding door on over head track.
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Dust Control & Floor protection: protects your family’s health & your home.
Insurance: EVERYBODY who works on your home must be insured:
LIABILITY INSURANCE: If something breaks or they drive over or into something, someone has to pay. WORKERS COMPENSATION: If they get hurt working on your home, WHO PAYS?
NO NOs: Don’t set up any deliveries. Don’t hire someone to do other work your home while you’re under contract. Don’t walk through during construction, it’s dangerous, and spreads dust.
Hire the right person: In the final analysis it always comes down to this,
The company and the work is only as good as the person who stands behind it.
Thank you for spending your time with us.
Kip Carpenter Carpenters Construction Co., Inc., 29th Year Aurora Award Winner 2013 and 2 Remodeler Showcase Awards 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 Since 2004 Leon’s 1st Certified-Aging-in-Place-Specialist 850-878-0010
President’s Jefferson and Madison
Q: I was observing a house remodeling project. It’s a major overhaul of an older home, and it seems they’re recreating it or creating a new house from it. My friend said that this was a new American trend, unlike simple additions of the past. Is that accurate?
A: On a trip to Charlottesville Virginia, years ago, while following our Seminoles, we discovered your answer. We had the opportunity to tour both Montpelier, the home of 4th President James Madison and Monticello, the home of 3rd President Thomas Jefferson. Montpelier and Monticello are the names of these homesteads in Virginia.
During Mr. Madison’s second term of office he undertook to greatly expand the simple two story box he inherited from his family. Building two wings on either side and moving the entrance to the new center, his remodeled home pleased him with its size, interior appointments and utility of use, but he found its appearance distressing. In one of the many communications he had with his close friend Mr. Jefferson, he confided that although the home was solid, the inability to match the bricks of a different era left a most unappealing, mismatched exterior. This may have been during one of the many trips he and his wife Dolley took to visit at the Jefferson’s home. They visited so often, in fact, that one of the rooms at Monticello is known as the “Madison” bedroom.
Former President Jefferson had the answer, because it wasn’t only art, artifacts and furniture that Mr. Jefferson had returned with from Europe, he also had the formula for ice cream (thank you Mr. Jefferson) and stucco. The mixing of chalky limestone material along with the Davidson red clay of the Piedmont area, resulted in a peachy pink stucco that covered all the mismatched brick of the exterior. Apparently, before the stucco was hard, they took a joining tool, used to scrap the mortar joints between bricks, and drew lines in the drying material. These lines form rectangles, 3-4 ft. wide and about a foot tall. So from the exterior, it would appear that Montpelier was built of large slabs of stone, when in fact it’s stucco over brick to turn the mismatched brick into a beautifully remodeled exterior. We call this, turning lemons into lemonade today.
Mr. Jefferson had started his home, prior to his five year tour of duty in France, as trade commissioner. Upon his return, Mr. Jefferson undertook as you put it, to recreate a home from the original. The new home, was massively larger, architecturally distant and totally different from the humble beginnings of years earlier.
Today, as we look at a photograph of “Monticello” and view the interior beset with chair rail, crown moldings, interior port hole windows, pocket doors, triple hung windows, dumb waiters, a cupola, labyrinths of passages under and through the main house, we must concede, as Remodelers, we aren’t blazing any new trails today.
However, it does confirm that those of us committed to Professional Remodeling are following in the footsteps of, and in the finest traditions of, our forefathers.
Just one man’s opinion.
Sincerely,
Kip Carpenter, Leon’s 1st Certified-Aging-in-Place-Specialist
Carpenters Construction Co., Inc., 27th Year
Aurora Award Winner 2013 and
2 Remodeler Showcase Awards 2013 & 2014
850-878-0010
Q: We are thinking about building a new house and found plans, in a plan book, which only need a few revisions. Anything we should know before we order the plans?
A: Many plans are site specific so the first question we would ask is whether you already have your land. A one story, sprawling, ranch style plan on a zero lot line, a basement plan from up north, a cedar shake roof, a two story plan in a subdivision of all one story houses are all examples of mismatched and/or inappropriate plans for specific lots or this geographic area.
Given that have got your eye on something that fits with your land, please consider the following prior to such a purchase. Construction in this state is now governed by one uniform code. The building code changes periodically. This means plans drawn for this area, even a year or two ago could require some modification.
All plans require, at the minimum, a wind load analysis by a licensed engineering firm. This wind load requirement also includes all additions on an existing home (if over 100 SF).
When you noted that only a few changes were necessary to those book plans, did you consider who is going to do this? Copyright laws govern such work and alterations are subject to the approval of the creator of these works. Occasionally a local designer has a working relationship with a few of the larger producers of plans. If you happen to have chosen that particular plan company, the local person may be able to contact them and have the CAD drawings sent to them. In these rare instances, they don’t have to draw the entire plan from scratch. They can make the alterations, pay a licensing fee, and turn out the final product in a timely manner. This is not very likely, so locally produced plans are always the best choice. Locally produced plans should address the foundation, wall and roof details necessary to conform to the Florida building codes. These codes vary tremendously from other states, which aren’t prone to the conditions in our state and have issues which we do not.
Engineering analysis, can take from 2 weeks to 2 months depending on the engineering firms work load, the complexity of the project, if the numerous code requirements are included or if the plans have to be sent back to the designers for changes.
In addition to variations in plans, mentioned initially, i.e. having plans that are workable on your property, other attributes of plans should be considered. Plans drawn by someone anywhere north of Atlanta, and this can span across the entire country, probably include snow load designs for the roof and short over hangs due to this snow load. This is the opposite of the more desirable longer overhangs, we like to incorporate here, to block sun from hitting directly on our windows during the hotter months. Northern plans have specifications for freezing and thawing because the freeze line in northern states can extend several feet into the ground, whereas it barely extends to the soles of your shoes here.
Custom home plans are the opposite of stock book plans, because book plans are not designed for anyone in particular. Stock floor plans frequently give little consideration to your need for wall space for furniture, bookcases, artwork, towel rods and other things that are placed against the wall. The flow through the house and traffic patterns within, are many times sacrificed for artistic flair, which look good in books. The result can be homeowners wishing for larger rooms, better flow and fewer design features that look good but don’t work well. We’ve changed numerous 45 degree angles to 90 corners because as nice as the former may look, as a design, it’s not half as useful as the later. A great plan should be a blend of the aesthetic and the practical, sacrificing neither form nor function for the sake of the other.
The best plans are also subject to the Owners changes, and over the years we have experienced that the most changes were usually made by those that were sure they wouldn’t change anything during the construction. When you see a great idea and realize that with only a little effort and money you can have a better house, you’ll want to take advantage of the opportunity. A change in the plans before you build, for a small fee is smart instead of changes after walls are framed.
A mirror image is something that you would see if you could turn the page of plans over and look through the back of the paper. Some times the plans are just perfect except we need a mirror image. A fancy copier can make the mirrored image (basically flipping the plans over) but the written specifications will all be reversed.
Over the years we’ve had one consistent use for book plans and that is for clients to tear out pages of specific features, a master bedroom suite here, a kitchen-family room layout there, a façade they really liked so that the local designers would have one or two things that the Owners already like, even though they didn’t like much else about the specific plans these parts came from.
The roof example, snow loads you don’t need, wind loads you must have, changes during construction, and mirrored images, are only a few of many reasons we could cite, to suggest that your local home designer should be your first and is the best choice, for any type of building plans.
Just one man’s opinion.
Sincerely,
Kip Carpenter, Leon’s 1st Certified-Aging-in-Place-Specialist
Carpenters Construction Co., Inc., 27th Year
Aurora Award Winner 2013 and
2 Remodeler Showcase Awards 2013 & 2014
850-878-0010
In December 1999, I became President of the Tallahassee Builders Association. One of my first acts was to meet with the Tallahassee Democrat. The proposal I offered that day was to provide a column on remodeling named
Ask the Remodeler
The idea was to put a half page or more in the Sunday section, twice a month, which would answer questions and provide details regarding working on adapting, modifying, changing, refurbishing, renovating, and sprucing up homes. Any and all of these simply come under the heading of Remodeling. And much of what we provided was also useful information, for new home construction, too.
As a charter member of the new Remodelers Council, and former chairman of the council, I encouraged participation from other members, a few of which contributed a column occasionally. The column ran for 3 ½ years until someone else took the helm of the column for the TBA.
So I’m resurrecting the name and using it for my blog.
We’ll try to add a new blog every week. We’ve answered so many client questions over the years, that every once in a while we were smart enough to save them, so we’ll also share those with you. We saved a few of the things I wrote in various places, and we’ll dust them off and see if any of those might still be something, you may find interesting. And of course, we’d love to answer your questions so send them to kip@Carpentersconstruction.com
We enjoy writing about houses, almost as much as we like designing and working on them, but its just one man’s opinion.
Sincerely,
Kip Carpenter, Leon’s 1st Certified-Aging-in-Place-Specialist
Carpenters Construction Co., Inc., 27th Year
Aurora Award Winner 2013 and
2 Remodeler Showcase Awards in both 2013 & 2014
850-878-0010
