Our Customers Are Always Interesting!

We love our customers. So many of them are really interesting people.

We are renovating three 80 year old bathrooms in this large Mount Airy stone home. Inside the house has many interesting treasures, some of which we had to move so they would not be damaged during construction. I’ll show you just a few slides of some of their wonderful collection of objects.

Where Is the Lead?

Today I met the Certified Lead Inspector at our RDA/NSP House. Here are some photos of him and his fancy $15,000 “ray gun” in action.

His gun shoots and captures reflected X rays off the lead content inside the layers of paint to create a lead level reading for that surface. Readings are taken for each surface in every room of the house and outside the house as well. These readings are recorded in the gun, and then downloaded into our project home’s digital file.

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Some Kitchen Facelift Photos to Enjoy!

Here are some snaps of the kitchen facelift project we are doing. In these photos you can see;

1. How the tile backsplash looks in process. We miter the outside corners for a nice finish! Our guys’ tile saw was freezing up in the cold!

2. The electrician in installing all new switches and outlets, now that he has corrected the dangerous wiring problem. It could have started a fire!

Project highlights include replacing counters, backsplash tile (insulating first here since there was none!), repairing dangerous wiring to the outlets and appliances, replacing the fake wood floor with a real pre-finished one, installing a new patio door, installing new and better lighting, painting, and reworking the cabinet trim. We had a custom table built in stainless steel as well. Check in later to see more photo updates!

The Glam World of General Contracting

Many times on projects, little SNAFU’s happen. It’s my job to handle the SNAFU’s and make sure the customer doesn’t notice or get upset about them.

Sometimes the problems that arise are just the nature of the remodeling beast, but sometimes there is someone to blame. When a homeowner hires a general contractor (GC), they are hiring a pro who will handle these SNAFU’s along with managing the project.

At our total home reno project in Whitemarsh yesterday, the countertop templater was out to measure for new stone kitchen and bathroom counter tops. Here is a snap of him in action.

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We’re just doing a kitchen freshening up since the cabinets are fairly new and layout is OK. The scope for this room is new pendant light for eating area, the new countertops, new tile backsplashes, new hardwood floors, new outlets and switches, new appliances, proper vent hood, and new trim at the floor. In general, we will make it look a little more upscale and use better, long-lasting materials where we are replacing things.

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Those “Find a Contractor” Services

Here is a true story about those “Find a Contractor” services you see everywhere.

We recently got a call from a nice woman in a split level house. She let us know she has asthma. Her house has forced air heat which is important to remember as you read further.

A first floor toilet in this house overflowed, ruining some carpeting in the first floor den. The home owner’s handy-man removed that carpet and some damaged molding and then he noticed black colored mold on the drywall.

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