Under the EPA/RRP regulations, all contractors MUST inform their customers of the risks for lead exposure. Contractors must also maintain on file records showing that their customers and tenants have been informed. Here is what happens if they do not follow the regs.
renovation experts
Photo Tour: A Trip To The Stone Yard
Many folks who have renovated their kitchen or bathroom are familiar with stone showrooms. That’s where they go to select the stone product to be used in their project.
Because of what I do for a living, I get to peek behind the fancy showroom into the work areas of the fabricator. It’s a very dangerous place. You’ll notice the heavy stone slabs are strapped tightly to their frames so they don’t fall over.
Because Your Home Should Fit How You Live
Very few of us live in homes that were custom built for us. But this doesn’t mean your home shouldn’t fit how you want to live. Your home can be tailored to fit your needs.
Our family stayed home this Memorial Day weekend. How wonderful it was to do so! We like to cook, have cocktails on the patio, and enjoy the views out of our windows into our yard. We have ample room to entertain and relax, and the house is easy to keep clean, so we don’t worry if friends come over with pets or children.
Signs of an Organized Worksite
Chris, one of our lead carpenters, is temporarily off this job site, where we are renovating a few bathrooms. We have to wait a few days for glass and stone to be delivered, and I was on site today to meet the templaters from these two suppliers while Chris was on a small window replacement project in town. I wanted to share with you what an organized job site looks like:
The job site is left clean.
Something Old, Something New… Something Blue
We are completing a renovation project consisting of three older bathrooms in this 1920’s Mount Airy Stone Twin.
We installed this Forbo Marmoleum sheet goods floor in the powder room and the third-floor bathrooms. The color is #3182 Lapponia.
Marmoleum linoleum is a green product that’s been around a long, long time! It has a jute backing, and the sheeting is made from linseed oil, cork and sawdust plus coloring. The color goes all the way through, so it will wear a long time. The linseed oil oxidizes, which means this flooring repels germs! I used to do oil painting restoration, and oxidized linseed oil was one of the hardest substances we ran into.
You can see that we salvaged the original nickel and glass towel bars, too! The bars are made of 1-inch round glass rods.
Making Home Renovations Sing
A great renovation project is like an orchestra concert. It is a connected series of activities performed by a skilled team working in unison — not a haphazard series of tasks performed by individual players. And the best results happen when all members of the team know a good deal about what the other members are doing.
First and foremost, the designer of a project needs to understand the jobs of the carpenters, painters and other subcontractors to know where to put the framing in a room to get the proper finish at the end of the job. For example, a room framed to be 6′ long instead of 6′ 3″ might not give the best tile or cabinet layouts. So the designer should work with the room and product sizes to get the best results for the finished materials.
New Construction Pollutes!
This blog post was in Boing Boing on Monday:
If each brick releases 1.4 pounds of carbon when it’s made, and Philadelphia is a city made of bricks, how many pounds of carbon were released to make the average Philadelphia row house?
A typical Philly row house is 16 feet wide and about 35 feet deep. Our “test” row house is 3 stories tall.
Whoever comes up with the right answer by June 1, 2010 will win an Official Myers Constructs Inc. Staffer T shirt.
Remember, renovating an existing row house vs. building a new one will save “X” tons of carbon! It’s GREEN to renovate.
New construction pollutes!
In the Beginning: The Starting Point for Every Renovation Project
Yesterday, my neighbor asked me about her kitchen. She explained that she hates the one she has, and she was obviously anxious about getting it renovated. But she was completely confused about how to get started or even identify what sort of renovation she wants. She made the mistake that many people do: jumping right into thoughts about cabinets, layouts and other fixtures. I told her what I tell all of our clients — these items are really just a distraction when you are starting to think about your projects. The features come much later during the design phase.
At our company, we do dozens of renovation projects every year, so understanding where to start is second nature for our team. But that means that we sometimes forget to put ourselves in the shoes of people like my neighbor. She really needs some information to help her figure out how to get started.
Here is a simple breakdown of the first three important steps:
Energy Rate Caps Expiring: How Prepared Are You?
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to electricity consumption in Pennsylvania. The good news is the rates that electricity suppliers could charge you have been capped since 1996 as part of Pennsylvania’s “Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act.”
The bad news is those caps have already expired – or will do so by year’s end – across the state. Those markets that have already become “uncapped” include those served by UGI Utilities Inc., Pike County Light & Power Company, Citizens Electric of Lewisburg, Wellsboro Electric Company, Duquesne Light Company, Pennsylvania Power Company and PPL Electric Utilities Inc. The remainder – areas served by West Penn Power Company, Pennsylvania Electric Company, Metropolitan Edison Company and PECO – will expire on 12/31/10.
In some cases, consumers have found that their rates have gone down after the caps came off, but in the majority of cases, the costs have skyrocketed – in fact, some rates are predicted to rise by as much as 70%!
So what’s an energy consumer to do? As a result of loosened restrictions, there are many companies that will now be able to supply your electricity through the infrastructure supplied by your current utility company. Start shopping now for a competitive electricity supplier to try to minimize the hit you’ll take. To find a list of suppliers in your area, visit The Public Utility Commission’s website You can also take steps to minimize your electricity usage – including installing proper insulation and energy-efficient windows, doors, appliances and lightbulbs, keeping your thermostat at a moderate setting, and unplugging small appliances and turning off lights when not in use.