Elevating Bathroom Remodels with Meticulous Processes and Interior Design Strategies - Episode 50

Ever wondered how a top-notch construction site operates? Join Chris Kirby and dive into the world of residential construction excellence, where a meticulously crafted job site checklist transforms chaos into a symphony of efficiency. We're talking spick-and-span sites, laser-focused safety protocols, and crews that epitomize professionalism, right down to the volume of their tunes. Hear first-hand how we're raising the bar in accountability, ensuring our teams aren't just hitting the mark—they're soaring beyond it. Plus, don't miss the 'shop talk' that zooms in on the finesse of subfloor leveling, a challenge that can make or break the foundation of your dream home.

But hold onto your hard hats, because the journey doesn't end there. We're bringing in the heavy artillery with an on-site interior design evaluation, where form meets function under the watchful eye of a designer-turned-project-manager. These design maestros navigate the maze of tiles, wall colors, and impeccably placed sconces, championing the client's vision at every turn. Discover how our in-house interior design guru meticulously orchestrates each element, sidestepping costly setbacks and ensuring the final masterpiece meets your highest expectations. Strap in for an episode that not only talks the talk but walks the walk in construction and design.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Homebuilding and Remodeling Show. Let's go. Welcome everybody to the Homebuilding and Remodeling Show. My name is Chris Kirby and I'll be your host. I am the owner of three construction companies on the Alabama Gulf Coast. The show is about residential construction. We're going to cover topics of homebuilding and remodeling. Are you thinking of doing a remodel or building a home? Are you a contractor looking to improve your knowledge base or grow your business? Have you ever done a remodel project or built a home? There were so many things you wish you knew or that you could have done differently during the process. Then this show is for you. We break down the process of building and remodeling and how to have the best results during your project. Whether you are a DIYer looking for tips, someone looking to hire a contractor to do a project, or a contractor looking to expand your knowledge base or your business, welcome aboard. Glad to have you. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 1:11

We kick off the show with my thoughts on homebuilding and remodeling. I'll share best practices and talk about some of our experiences in business and out in the field. These shared thoughts and lessons learned are meant to help you on your very own journey. Let's go. And what it is is things like keeping the job site clean, keeping the job site safe. So there's actually 14 things on this sheet and if they get below a 10 out of the 14, which would be less than a 70, okay, just, in any standard, a C is, you know, the standard. So if they get less than that, once we implement this and moving forward, we're gonna hold them accountable for that, because we do want to be better in every aspect of construction and we want this to be on the job site. So the client sees that there's an accountability for our crews and that they're not just out there doing less than what we demonstrated should be expected as the standard for hiring our companies. And so what we do is we go out there and we check it off right here. You can see these lines day one, day two, and it doesn't have to be days back to back. It could be periodic check-ins throughout the project, but one of our quality control people our quality control person will go out and do this, or a project manager will go out and check this off and make sure that they're just doing it. It's got things like if they're playing music, it should be at a tolerable level.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Different stuff, and I went back and forth about implementing something like this, because it's hard enough for people to do construction at every day out in the field working. They're working hard, especially demo days during remodeling, and so you think, well, some people are gonna see this and say, really, I don't need this. This could be a little bit of micromanagement, but I want people to look at this as you work for a company who cares, who cares about their client, who cares about the standard, who cares about you know, these details are going to make us better, and so I want people who look at this and say let's go. This is the challenge and I accept it and I want to be better. I want to run my crew better. I want my job site better, because sometimes they're out in the field and they're just their head is in the work and they're not always able to just be mindful of this stuff. So this just gives them a little check sheet to make sure that they're keeping up with everything they need to Are your tools in the right spot?

Speaker 1: 4:02

You know personal appearance, are you smoking or vaping within a certain distance of the home? So those are things that we care about. You know, and all of this comes from experience. We've always, you know, ran into some issues or calls about different details that are on this checklist. Again, you can get this template if you become a subscriber to our channel or to our page via Facebook or Instagram, and then we'll put it on our series and TikTok. But you can get access to this and a lot more. We also have some courses that we're going to do and share and, again, just moving forward with the mission that we want to help other contractors, we want to help other businesses get better, and we're just sharing some of the things that we are actively doing in our companies to do that.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So, job site checklist you can keep it simple, start simple, just have something that holds your cruise. If it's you, it helps you as well just to be mindful of certain things, to hold a standard while you're out there doing your work, and so this is a. This is an easy way to do it Just make a little checklist and since we have multiple crews I believe we have five crews so we put this on each job, put a little lanyard on it. We'll go down the checklist. We'll have quality control run through this checklist when they're out and about on the job sites to make sure that everything is as expected, and you know, then we're going to hold them accountable if it's not, and also we're going to reward them if it is, because that's what we care about the most.

Speaker 1: 5:43

We don't want it to always just be daunting and a negative thing. This helps us, it helps them and that's why we did it. And now we move into shop talk. It's the portion of the show where I bring in a co-host and we cover trending topics in home building and remodeling. Hope you enjoy, let's go and we do that quite frequently, even on so on concrete especially, but like on a subfloor, is there, is there, is the subfloor always level, and how do you get that to where you're up?

Speaker 2: 6:17

On subfloors. This wood is framed up and it's usually level, but some of these old homes that we go in with subfloors part of the house is settled. We'll have to. The best way is to raise it up because you don't want to put concrete on wood.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Let me ask this, though in those spots where, let's just say, we've replaced a lot of the floor, we've put down, we've put down wood I've seen it where where that the butt joint is right, you can have some issues there. Do you sand those seams, do you do anything to those, or are you just putting down some type of barrier and and going over that Tell?

Speaker 2: 6:58

them to apply wood. Apply wood. One size is going to be tongue and groove Should be pretty level.

Speaker 1: 7:04

I bet I've seen where it's not so or where they put it so tight together that you've got a little raised edge right at the seam of the plywood and a lot of people they will just assume that it's level and sometimes it's not. You've got a little hung there.

Speaker 2: 7:22

You put like an LVP or something like that. Over time that stuff's going to fill it.

Speaker 1: 7:26

All right, and then for me, I need the most thing. I'd pop those seams.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Sand it down or shim one up.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Make sure to level you established at the floor's level. What I'm saying there on that part is, before you even start your prep, if you're on concrete, use self-leveler. If you're on a subfloor, you definitely still need to make sure that the floor is level and make sure that where your seams are, that those spots sometimes can have humps in them so you might want to sand them down. Just make sure that it's completely level before you start actually putting your floor covering or your tile or your mortar, whatever it is, because eventually it's going to just like with LVP, you're going to have spots that are humped and that'll crack and stuff like that. If you go in, you've leveled out the floor, you're using self-leveler. What is self-leveler?

Speaker 2: 8:26

So self-leveler is like a concrete, but it's real thin and when you pour it and you kind of trowel it around and it'll level itself out. You know what I mean. It's a very nice, smooth usually. Most time what we use it for is when we jackhammer tile that's been stuck for years and and we'll put big gouges and and in the concrete. We use it to coat the flooring to make sure it's all one smooth surface.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Gotcha, and are you able to just kind of lay it? Do you have to spread it or does it kind of gravitate on its own?

Speaker 2: 9:01

Gravitates on its own. But you gotta you work it around for it out and then it would either like a trowel or would it Alright.

Speaker 1: 9:07

So you're working that and you get the floor level and you got to check it, though once it's done You're coming in there right with the Two foot four foot, whatever level. You're checking it. I got your floor level now. Then what's your next step? This is all a part of the, the roughen phase I think we kind of skipped over. Before floor prep. If you have to do plumbing, move, so part of your roughen when with us we use sleuter right. So before you start framing up, putting back the shower, putting in knee walls, you have to establish where the niche goes right niche where your niche is. If there's multiple are gonna come.

Speaker 2: 9:48

When we're putting a shower together, first thing is we get the drain where it's gonna go.

Speaker 2: 9:55

Yeah, so if you're in a tub center or offset or if it's linear, wherever it's gonna go. Plumber's got to do that. We go ahead and get the valve, all the rough end plumbing done, and then we'll be with the customer, usually because they want their niches where it's gonna be the best for them to operate in their shower. We'll get that location, get it set in because it's a pre-made box, and then we'll put our setter pan and then start putting our KERDI board on the walls.

Speaker 1: 10:25

And that's a foam board. The KERDI board that we use is a foam board. If you don't know where, we used to use what's called Dura rock, which is a cement backer board and with red guard, but now the sleuter has Different components that are supposed to work with it. The KERDI board, the KERDI bands and all of that stuff go together Into one system, right for your waterproofing, and there's now. Is there certain Setting materials that you have to use for this stuff?

Speaker 2: 10:56

You got to use the sleuter, we use the all set all set and it's awesome. It's great. Yeah, pretty good.

Speaker 1: 11:03

It's real fluffy, easy to work and so you go in and you waterproof, you use the strips on your corners, right, you're putting down, you've got the, the curb right up, all right, and you've set your pan, plumbers come in. He's moved to drain. Now sometimes you have to move your, your valves right, your manifold, depending on what you're doing. If you went from a tub to now a standing shower, so you'll move that stuff and then you'll put in the Nitches where they go, right, right, waterproof, everything's there. Now what do you do after that part? Oh, and then, and also the electricians, depending on how the shower would or how the bathroom was laid out before. If you've moved the shower to the complete opposite side, or you took out a linen closet and made it a shower, you've opened up that space, but now you want to close that shower in the lighting might be off, right, I have to do some light moves that fan different things like that, correct?

Speaker 2: 12:11

right, if we're working on a shower, the electrician and typically he'll be in there while our guys are doing the shower, moving his select for the bathroom space and Then after the shower or jump to that, but you, after you put all your waterproofing and everything, you wanna fill your pan Water test it. And water. Test it overnight, make sure it's not leaking.

Speaker 1: 12:36

What does that look like? What talk to us about water testing your pan.

Speaker 2: 12:41

Okay, so they sell plugs. Put it in your drain, fill it up.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Yep.

Speaker 2: 12:46

And usually leave it shy of the top of the cart.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:49

The way you mean you don't wanna flood the bathroom.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Now it's there, is it even? And all of the water being the exact same spot?

Speaker 2: 12:57

How do you mark it Over and what's the I always mark it overnight, as long as you're didn't lose over roughly about a quarter inch cause you're gonna get evaporation, so as long as you didn't lose quarter to half inch.

Speaker 1: 13:14

And then so you water tested that and you wanna do this before you start. The guitar, and the reason for that is if you, once you start putting down there order and start laying your tile, that's it. Now, if there's something wrong, you're pulling all that up.

Speaker 2: 13:31

Yes, so you usually, if it does leak, you can spot where it's coming from and you can address it before you get too far into it. Gotcha, especially with like the KERDI system that band, the it's a waterproofing membrane. It's real thin. If you're trialing it on, you can accidentally slide.

Speaker 1: 13:51

Ah, you can stuff it, tuck it or pull it without trialing. All right, fit two for the day Always Water test, flood test, whatever you wanna call it. Now we're gonna move into the portion of the show where we talk interior design. We're gonna bring in an interior designer and we're gonna talk trending design and products. Hope you enjoy, let's go.

Speaker 3: 14:18

But now we're getting a lot, now that our showroom actually carries a lot of the Richie Lou hardware and they had different tones of gold on there.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Shout out Richie Lou, yeah, you, if you so you've had tones of gold. Yes, you're working with.

Speaker 3: 14:35

that's why and if you're in our showroom, that almost makes it easier, because we know immediately what it's gonna look like. Yeah, they visualize it.

Speaker 1: 14:43

They can come in and see yeah, let's talk about another scenario, so that's just one. And where you said another best practice or tip is don't be in such a rush as a designer to order that material without reading the reviews. Right, and what are some of the things that color like the color is off. It's not as it. So do people put that in their product reviews? It's not as display or-.

Speaker 3: 15:11

And you gotta be careful. Everybody is different too, so reviews are gonna be-.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Sure Fluid yes.

Speaker 3: 15:18

If that's a very, very exciting. Yeah, I mean everybody's different. You just have to wait for real, like you're looking for a little bit like, and if there's enough of it, if people are repeating the same thing, this looks nothing like the hardware color. I mean it's pretty obvious.

Speaker 1: 15:33

So read those. So it's like, if everything seems okay, you press order, it comes in and let's just say it's right Now. As the interior designer, you've been through that entire process. Are you there for installation, cause stuff happens during that time.

Speaker 1: 15:52

I got a same job going in Monday and I'm gonna be there Going in see, I love how the Courtney is out right now on an install to watch it be installed and just be accountable right, because a lot of the times as we're going through the construction, the designer we've talked about this is really the advocate and they are the client advocate in what you've shown. The client needs to come true.

Speaker 3: 16:15

Right.

Speaker 1: 16:16

And so you're there, because and we've had it we had a niche recently that we were questioning location, our construction guys, where they put it. Where it actually ended up being was maybe a little bit different. So it is important for you to evaluate and be on site.

Speaker 3: 16:36

You can never communicate too much. Tile layout, wall color. I've literally gone to Homes and put wall color on every single wall.

Speaker 1: 16:48

I mean because Priti has been through a project I've seen and she literally writes on the wall. She'll write notes and stuff pre-demo.

Speaker 3: 16:56

You're wrong so fast.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Yeah, and that's what we appreciate and one of the things that sometimes if you're just an individual interior designer, you're a really project managing at a certain point and it can become daunting to understand why you can't do something or code or contract your language. So we've tried to merge the concepts and we're still working together on that, because there are things that you may have in the vision that in reality, if you give our guys a box of tile and set it in a shower and say I need this installed, they're gonna go to town right and the way that they I need it to be installed the way that they think.

Speaker 3: 17:38

In Asia and I are gonna work on a little reel for that.

Speaker 1: 17:41

The tile layout Perfect because it is important and you don't want to contractors. Here's a tip for you If you are working with a designer and constant communication is the key but check their intentions. Tile layout to a big one. That can get you in real trouble is the hardware placement and mixing the knobs and handles and putting them in the wrong spot, because if you've got super high-end custom cabinets and you drill those holes for the wrong hardware, you are going to cost yourself time.

Speaker 3: 18:18

Right, right, and sconces are really big right now too, especially in the bathrooms, and those have to be. It's kind of ironic because that's something that you wouldn't normally need to be picked out before the rough-in or whatever. But the sconces come at different heights and they come in different lengths and widths, and you know, so for the Dickey house I had to. I was like Joey and we got to lock in these sconces because we need to know where the rough-in. Our electrician has to have that for the four-way.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Correct, because some of the technical aspects of that and this is, I mean, another tip we're just throwing out some of the tips, but when you're looking at so the electricians come in and they're going to place those boxes and what she's saying is, when you're looking at ordering the sconces or whatever hardware it is, those base plates for some of those sconces are huge. They may literally not fit in the space, or they may be and this is something that designers get very picky about If it looks off right. So if it's supposed to be centered and the base plate is huge and it touches the ceiling, oh you guys get so aggravated.

Speaker 1: 19:29

Well we're trying to that. We may as contractors, we may be like, oh it looks good, and you come in and be like Holy moly.

Speaker 3: 19:37

We're trying to eliminate the Recovery process too, right, and we don't want our electricians time to go back in and do that and they're gonna look at us and really be upset. Well, they're having because now you got drywall, now you got to fix the drywall, now you got a textured drywall if it was textured, repain all the so we're. We're trying not to open a can of worms so the more. But, like I said, that's, that's not. I feel like just now, because it's trending so much with the sconces, that wasn't the case ten years ago. I don't see, really a lot of people were having to consider that yeah, and that wasn't on the front end.

Speaker 1: 20:12

Okay, no, you had vanity lighting and stuff like that, but not sconces like we're doing.

Speaker 3: 20:16

That we're doing time to think that through and to pick out that lining. But now there's instances like that where you just really need to know Some of those like we ran into it on the, the small cottage we did over in Robert'sdale.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Essentially, our electricians came in per plans, put the boxes where they needed to go, the client purchased their own lights for the exterior and the goose neck Actually it was it could be installed because, the goose neck.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Yep was too tall for the area outside. I heard that and then see they did it. They did it right. Did he do the same thing? No, no, he did not. They did not go with the design package Eliminated. That would have been eliminated. Maybe I want to call it but Christie with dangster catch stuff like that. It's the details, that is. The details Are so great about having and in-house interior designer, so we'll wrap it up with that. Thank you for talking about mood boards, clue in us in on how much they help and then going into detail and giving us some tips. And until next time, we appreciate you all watching. Thanks, bye. Thanks for joining us today. As always, we are grateful for our listeners and your continued support. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on social media via Facebook, instagram and tick tock, get more info at our website, wwwthethombuildingshowcom and, as always, remember who we are the home building and remodeling show.