I finished the basement in my own home and my family and I have found that we spend the majority of our time there. However, we have a uniquely placed kitchen in the basement which enables us to spend our waking time on the lower level. Our ground level floor has essentially been reduced to sleeping and laundry.

If you’ve ever considered finishing your basement, I plan to share some of the issues within this column. The primary reason people finish basements is because it’s significantly more cost effective than adding to the footprint of your home. To finish your basement you’ll probably spend $25-60 per square foot whereas a home addition can easily run into the $100 per square foot range depending on the finishing materials chosen. Plenty of talented homeowners opt to finish their own basements and while that’s a viable option for some, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone unless they had highly advanced DIY skills and tools.

The drawbacks to finishing a basement are usually moisture related. The first thing to ensure before finishing a basement is that it’s bone dry. Next you’ll need to invest in a battery backup sump pump in case of power outage. Some homeowner insurance policies don’t cover moisture damage to basements so also be cognizant of your coverage options with your insurer.

If you’re going to the expense of finishing a basement, spend a little more to insulate it properly. The insulation will obviously help retain your heat in the winter and the A/C in summer. We’ve found that our basement is routinely more comfortable than any other area of the house in both winter and summer.

Many unfinished basements have been previously stubbed for a future bathroom. This can save thousands in plumbing costs if you elect to add a bathroom to your basement project. Busting up concrete and patching it in tends to get expensive. Venting a basement bathroom to the outdoors is a critical step sometimes overlooked.

An unfinished basement provides access to wiring and plumbing systems to the rest of the house. By finishing your basement, you’re closing off access to these systems. Prior to enclosing it, you’ll want to consider any future projects, outlets, natural gas, or plumbing on your other floors. Additionally, you’ll need to plan for access to any shutoffs or plumbing cleanouts which may be covered by the wall system you’ve selected.

When choosing your flooring, be sure to explain to the salesperson that the product will be going in a basement. Even though you’ve made sure your basement is dry, it will likely experience at least some moisture issues in the future. You’ll want to install something appropriate for a basement, especially the carpet pad.

In this housing market, improving your existing property is usually more prudent than upgrading. A properly finished basement will add value to your home – in some cases, even more than you’ve invested.

The best time to finish a basement is during the winter. Contractors who do outdoor work in the fall schedule basements while it’s too cold to work outside. We’re still scheduling a few open slots for this winter so if we can assist you with a basement, kitchen, bathroom, or other home project please call today.

This month’s question comes from Denny of Greenwood: What do you think of those CFL bulbs, Phil?

Answer: CFL’s are Compact Flourescent Light (bulbs) and are available at most home centers and even grocers. I’ve heard them called spiral bulbs. When Energy Star certified, they use up to 75% less energy and last up to 10 times longer than standard light bulbs. They also produce 75% less heat and are generally safer to operate in your home. The drawbacks are primarily convenience and surprisingly, environmental. The bulbs will not operate properly on a dimmer switch. They also contain a small amount of mercury so you’ll need to dispose of them properly when burned out and follow government cleanup guidelines in case of breakage. More information can be accessed on the energy star website at: http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf

©2013 EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION. All Rights Reserved.

In preparation for winter, there are dozens of list items to complete for the average homeowner. I plan to share a dozen of the most important ones. Getting started NOW ensures you won’t be caught by surprise when Old Man Winter arrives. I had originally planned to use this topic for next month’s edition, but now I’m giving you an entire month in advance to get your list done. Say it aloud - “thanks Phil.”

1. Winterize that lawn. There are several different methods of doing this and not everyone agrees, but I’ll give you the basics. Rake up your leaves and miscellaneous clippings. Cut it short one last time and bag it. Aerate. Put down some fall fertilizer. What you do this fall will prepare your lawn for next spring.

2. Fertilize your trees as well – especially if you’re trying to accelerate growth as I am with many of the new trees in my yard. I’m not a landscaper, so that’s all the detail I’ll share. I’m sure our landscaping columnist will have more on this topic on page ???.

3. Clean those gutters. According to my studies, the number one cause of wood-rot is clogged gutters. You should make sure they’re clean after the last leaves have fallen. You’d be absolutely shocked by how many people neglect this simple responsibility. Don’t become one of them.

4. While you’re up on a ladder inspect your roof. Your shingles should be pliable. If they’re brittle and coming up, you’re due for a new roof. Sometimes the wind will blow shingles off in spots you can’t see from the ground, so do a thorough visual inspection. You don’t want to realize you have a leaky roof with two inches of ice outside.

5. Your deck looks terrible because you missed my column two months ago. It’s okay, we’ll just clean and seal it up in the spring. WRONG. Big mistake. The moist freezing and thawing processes brought on by winter pulverizes wood over time. If you procrastinate this task, water will penetrate, freeze, and crack the wood, thereby shortening the life of your deck.

6. There are two options in this step. You may continue sending all your money to the gas company, or you can make sure you have at least 12 inches of insulation in your attic. Pick one.

7. Cold air and moisture penetrate into your home through cracks in your exterior, especially around trim and windows. Walk around and seal those cracks with a tube of painters caulk. The exception to this rule is the underside of horizontal trim, which is left open to allow moisture a place to escape if it does penetrate the topside. This is another highly-neglected homeowner task which ends up costing money later.

8. For those of you with sprinkler systems, please don’t forget to flush them. I promise you’ll only forget one time. Additionally, if you have any outdoor fountains or misting systems disconnect and stow for the winter.

9. Drain the gas from your lawnmower or just let it run until it’s empty.

10. Cover your patio furniture or store inside if you have room.

11. Clean debris from around your A/C condenser and cover your A/C for the winter. Covering it isn’t absolutely essential, but may extend the life of your unit by keeping it clean. Special A/C covers can be purchased, but I plan to use an inexpensive tarp and bungee cord.

12. Take your heating system for a test run or pay to have it tested. I suspect you don’t wish to discover a problem the first night the temperature dips into the teens. I also recommend purchasing an inexpensive carbon monoxide detector. Too many people have senselessly lost their lives due to ventilation problems with heat systems. Twenty bucks is cheap peace of mind.

Most of these steps can be accomplished in a Saturday or by skipping a couple of Chiefs games on Sunday afternoons. You may not be missing much this year.

©2013 EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION. All Rights Reserved.

We wanted to put something other than carpet in the living area and bedrooms of our home. Carpet retains plenty of dirty and allergens no matter how often you vacuum and clean it. After completing a couple of projects using reasonably priced bamboo hardwood flooring, I presented the option to my wife. Bamboo hardwoods are incredibly trendy, especially due to the green factor. Bamboo is a renewable resource and using it is preferable to cutting fully grown domestic forests. The bamboo product we chose fit within our budget and can even be sanded and refinished.

The bathrooms were floored with decorative slate, a very popular product for homeowners due to its durability and versatility. Slate comes in beautiful natural hues, though the cheaper slate is mostly dark grays. I prefer the lighter colors, which are generally tinted with oranges and yellows. Natural products aren’t subject to color trends and fashion fluctuations as much as the avocado green ceramic tile you may have installed in your home in the 70’s.

Our kitchen had a well-worn white vinyl floor when we bought the house and it was the first thing we decided to replace. We opted for a mixture of a travertine and slate floor. I trimmed the corners from the 16-inch travertine and installed a small, one-inch mosaic slate in a diamond pattern as a decorative element in between. It takes an extra investment of time, but the finished look is well worth the effort.

Another option is laminate snap-together flooring, a choice popular among do-it-yourselfers because you don’t need a lot of specialty tools for installation. I’m not a big fan of laminates because they simply don’t look like wood, but I’ll admit they’re a viable solution for many homeowners. If you do choose to put laminate floor in your home, don’t buy the cheap stuff. It’s cheap because…it’s cheap.

Ceramic is also a great choice, but I definitely recommend professional installation. It’s not nearly as forgiving as natural products, and your grout lines really need to be uniform and precise or the finished product will end up like the many botched homeowner efforts I’ve witnessed over the years.

A few of the worst flooring mistakes I’ve seen made are:

1.Failure to install a proper substrate under tile. Plywood subfloors are not suitable for tiling installation. You’ll need to put down a solid underlayment to prevent expansion and contraction from loosening the thinset and adhering the tile to the floor.

2.Tiling around a toilet. The toilet needs to be removed and reinstalled after the floor is installed. One time I literally had to break a toilet with a hammer to remove it because the installer had grouted the toilet to the floor.

3.Failure to undercut door jams. Cutting the door jam at the exact height of your flooring makes for a simpler installation and makes it look much better than any other method.

Carpet technology has made impressive advancements in recent years. There are many stain-resistant options and even products suited for basements, which are susceptible to moisture problems. If you can’t afford a pad upgrade or a better grade of carpet, wait until you can. Some of the incredibly cheap builder-grade carpets don’t have more than a couple of years of use in them. If you spend just a few more cents per square yard, you can have a product that may wear well for 20 years or more.

There are dozens of questions to be answered when making a flooring choice for your home, so make sure you consult a flooring professional before making a significant investment into materials. One homeowner I know bought laminate flooring for his library and office, spending $4.00 per square foot, which is pretty expensive for a laminate. In addition to that, he had oak wainscoting on all the walls and the method in which it was installed precluded the install of a floating laminate floor. For less money, I installed a tongue and groove-oak plank flooring, which not only matched the rest of his rooms but matched up well with the oak floor already in the kitchen.

I don’t have nearly enough space in this column to share all the tips and tricks to floors, but I hope some of the knowledge I’ve shared is helpful. Many of the homes in this area are 15 years or older and in need of flooring upgrades. If I can be of assistance in this regard, don’t hesitate to contact me via phone or email. Questions are free.

©2013 EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION. All Rights Reserved.

Decks have traditionally been an inexpensive method in which to create a living space just outside our back doors. Decks used to be built out of fairly inexpensive materials and could be erected in a weekend with a neighbor, circular saw, and hammer over a couple of beverages. Unfortunately, as deck design has grown more elaborate and materials advanced, the price of a highly functional deck has shot upwards. Properly maintaining a deck over it’s lifetime can be more expensive than the initial deck investment itself.

Many homeowners don’t go to the expense of properly maintaining their decks. Instead of lasting 30+ years, a deck which hasn’t been maintained is lucky to reach the age of ten years. My most recent project was a large deck replacement in which we were able to salvage the joists (the support structure or skeleton) from the deck. The age of this deck was 30 years. How were we able to keep 30 year old 2×10 joists? The homeowners maintained their deck over the years. Not only did they seal the top-side decking, but they sealed the supporting joists as well. They saved themselves hundreds of dollars in labor and materials by doing so.

When I’m asked to perform deck maintenance, I generally start by pressure washing the surface. Be very careful when pressure washing wood, especially cedar. The power of the water can literally peel the wood fibers from one another and you may end up replacing deck boards if you’re not careful. There are also deck revitalization chemicals available from most home centers which will replace the use of a power washer, requiring a little more elbow grease but producing similar results.

After the deck has thoroughly dried, I spray on the sealant/stain of the homeowner’s specification. I generally recommend Cabot (available at Lowes). In years past, I’ve used Deckscapes from Sherwin Williams but changed this year based upon independent test results from Consumer Reports. Both of these choices can also be rolled and brushed on if you do not have a sprayer.

It is important to reseal your wood every couple of years, especially in the high trafficked areas. Although deck stains are rated for foot traffic, other variables will contribute to wear. Given our harsh winters and summers, every two years is a pretty good guideline. If your deck is well shaded, you may be able to go longer.

In addition to sharing information about deck maintenance in this column, I’d also like to broadly address various decking choices. Cedar has been the affordable upgrade in decking in this area of the country for some time. However the price of cedar has risen significantly in the past year and appears to continue doing so. This price increase brings the cost of composite decking into the picture for many of my clients. There are many advantages to a composite deck choice. The most significant is the low maintenance factor. Since composite decking comes pre-colored, you do not have to stain it. You don’t have to seal it. You don’t power wash it. Most composite deck manufacturers offer a hidden fastener system. Not having to look at thousands of nails or screws blemishing the surface of the material in which you invested plenty of cash is a priceless benefit.

The only drawbacks to composite decks in my mind are the inability to change the deck color, the initial investment (significantly more expensive than treated lumber), and the fact that composite decking does hold heat more than wood. The temperature of a composite deck that is in the sun will be a couple degrees higher than the same deck made of wood. These are a few things to consider when choosing a decking solution.

I did not have any questions suitable for publishing this month. If you do have questions about home improvement or would like more details about this topic, I’m always happy to answer them to the best of my ability. Some of those questions will appear within this column from time to time and may even inspire the topic of my column in a given month.

©2013 EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION. All Rights Reserved.

It was with much anticipation that my wife opened the letter from the Sidings Claims Service Saturday afternoon. We had filed a claim for our Masonite Hardboard siding in March and were hoping for a sizable check with which to upgrade the exterior of our home. It turns out our siding is in much better shape than we thought - the letter informed us we were to receive a whopping $2.18.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You probably haven’t any idea to what I’m referring. You’re not alone. Fewer than one third of all eligible homeowners have filed a claim to money they are entitled. Let me tell you a little bit about a class action lawsuit of which you are likely a beneficiary.

Many of the homes in our area are clad in Masonite Hardboard siding. This siding has proven to be an inferior product to most of the currently available siding alternatives, but the product was so cheap builders used it as fast as Masonite could produce it. Some common signs of defective siding are paint peeling, nail popping, swelling, edge cracking, warping/buckling, wax spots and board rot. If your home shows any of these symptoms, you should pay close attention to the remainder of this column despite the dismal results I shared concerning my siding claim.

On January 15, 1998, the Circuit Court of Mobile, Alabama approved a settlement in a class action lawsuit known as Naef v Masonite, CV-94-4033. I don’t have nearly enough room to share all the details of the settlement, as it’s quite complicated. One requirement is to cut a 6×6 square sample from your house to send in for analysis. The process is so complicated that most homeowners haven’t bothered to cut through the red tape to get their check.

Due to this, there are more than a dozen independent claims companies which have been formed to assist you. For their services, they receive a portion of the paid claim. The company I used gets 30 percent. I’m sure they’re thrilled about the $0.68 check that will soon hit their payables department on my behalf.

The other critical detail is the lawsuit expires on January 15, 2008 - 10 years after the lawsuit was settled. There is still time to file your claim and homeowners who have filed in the past may be eligible for additional money. You’re actually able to file a claim once per year.

Honestly, when the disappointing letter arrived Saturday I considered pursuing a different topic for this column. However, I still feel that most homeowners in the area should at least investigate the process further. I’m told the average claim pays between $2,000 and $4,000. I’ve heard of other people receiving amounts significantly surpassing the $4,000 mark. Even if your results are not that impressive, it’s free money, right? My neighbor cashed an $800 check, but it was still worth the small investment of his time.

A simple google search on Masonite Siding Claims will return several informative links and companies that may assist you. However, I recommend contacting the local gentleman we used. My poor results had nothing to do with him, as an independent inspector actually surveyed my siding for damage. SCS is a full-service claims company and actually comes out to your home to complete the process. It took about 45 minutes to fill out the paperwork with Mark Gray of SCS in March and he took care of everything else. If you wish, Mark can be reached at 816-529-1798 or 816-886-1251.

Filing a claim does not require any monetary investment from you. Do not pay anybody money up front. If they ask, find another company.

If your home does not have Masonite Hardboard Siding it may still qualify for another claim. There are currently three lawsuits against different manufacturers under which you may collect money for the replacement or repair of your siding.

Sean from Greenwood asks: “I intend to replace the siding on my home, what products should I consider?”

Answer: I plan to get as much life as possible out of my current siding, but when I do have to replace it I will be using a fiber cement siding which looks a lot like the Masonite product but is made of fiber-reinforced concrete. Because it contains no wood, it won’t rot, bugs won’t eat it and it generally holds up better long term. In fact, some manufacturers offer a 50-year guarantee. The most commonly available fiber-cement siding is from James Hardy (available at Lowes, Home Depot and Owen Lumber). I’ve used Hardy siding extensively and it will be the choice in the future. The James Hardy company claims their product will hold paint up to three times longer than wood. Other popular choices are vinyl or aluminum siding, stucco, stone, brick or natural wood products.

©2013 EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION. All Rights Reserved.

EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION is a Remodeling Contractor offering the finest in complete home and commercial remodeling, design and repair.

Whether you need a new kitchen or bathroom, an addition, a new roof, architectural designs or small repairs, we are here for all your needs and to make life around your home more enjoyable. We also provide a consulting service for those “Do It Yourself” projects where you’re just not sure where or how to get started.

Take a look around. Be sure to browse our Portfolio Gallery of past projects and view what our satisfied Clients had to say about our work. Please contact us with any questions. We look forward to working with you.

©2013 EDGEWOOD CONSTRUCTION. All Rights Reserved.