The Carolina Contractor Show
The Carolina Contractor Show
Boosting Resale Value and Maximizing ROI!
We dive into the world of home improvement with a focus on increasing your property’s resale value. Discover why the Carolina Panthers are struggling and how that relates to your home projects. From simple DIY upgrades like painting kitchen cabinets to creating impactful curb appeal with strategic landscaping, we provide actionable tips to make your home not just livable, but lovable. And yes, these projects are all about getting results that look like they were done by a pro!
Finally, we tackle the ever-important issue of the return on investment (ROI) for home renovations. Are those high-cost upgrades really worth it? We challenge some popular but potentially misleading advice, emphasizing functional improvements like a new roof or an efficient HVAC system over flashy but low-ROI projects. With expert insights from Donnie Blanchard of SureTop Roofing, we aim to equip you with the knowledge to make smart, informed decisions about your home renovations. Plus, we answer listener questions, making sure you're getting the most out of your investments. Tune in for all this and more!
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with your host, general Contractor Donnie Blanchard. Well, welcome, boys and girls, children of all ages, to another exciting, action-packed edition of the Carolina Contractor Show. My name is Eric Smith. I do inside sales at Home Builder Supply in Wilson. We also have a location in Greenville and a paint store Across from me. A General Contractor, owner of Blanchard Building Company, owner of Sure Top Roofing it's Mr Donnie Blanchard.
Speaker 2:How are you, Donnie, Doing great sir. I haven't eaten all day, so doing the show on an empty stomach is kind of scary, but it gives me something to look forward to. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:Good, maybe it'll give an edge to the show, maybe it'll make something different. Hey no-transcript.
Speaker 2:However, when the body cam footage came out, I saw that he wasn't an antagonist. But he told the guy hey, stop tapping, don't tap on my window, don't tap on my window. And he kind of made the guy mad and the guy switch flipped, which I don't think that was the right thing for the police officer to do, and I think they placed him on administrative leave after the body cam footage came out. But the fact that that he jerked this guy out on game day, put him on the ground and when you saw him putting the cuffs on him he was pulling his arms up, you know, very aggressively. And I didn't, I didn't like what I saw. I don't think it was warranted at all, but, holy cow, I like how you threw it to me and said I was a passenger in the car. But yeah, I don't know how do you feel?
Speaker 1:about it. Well, I agree with you. Here's the thing when you get pulled over by the police, you can make the encounter very simple. Yes, sir, do you know why I pulled you over? No, why Can I have your paperwork? Sure, here you go, be pleasant, it's a five minute thing.
Speaker 1:So did Tyreek throw attitude to the cop? Yeah, he clearly did. Did the cop overreact? Most definitely because officers are trained to deescalate, and someone said if he didn't want to roll his window back down, you got his ID, run his stuff, issue him the citations, give it back. Say, hey, sweet ride, don't know why you're being so mean to me. You were doing 100 plus and a 45. It's part of my job, but good luck with your game, man.
Speaker 1:And this would have been nothing and it just would have been another mark on Tyreek Hill, because I like him too. He was a Kansas City chief for a long time. He's been with Miami a couple of years. He's not exactly a stellar citizen, shall we say, in his personal life. So we as citizens have a right to be a-holes and it's protected. Why you want to do that to a cop, or throw attitude, I don't get that either, but I do think, all in all, the officer is at a higher standard and he didn't have to react that way. He should have just let Tyreek be Tyreek, issue him a ticket and say get on out, Got an autograph and called it a day.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately it's hard to find law enforcement folks these days and I totally understand why. But yeah, I remember I was taking my son to basketball practice. I was the coach, so I had to unlock the gym and I'm doing 75 and a 45 and I get pulled over. And my son asked me Dad, why didn't you argue with him? Why didn't you plead your case? I said because I was wrong. I was wrong, I was guilty. I said I took what I deserved and moved on. So yeah, that should have been how it went down. But you know the initial video. I thought my word, what have they done? And after the facts came out, you know that was kind of both folks at fault.
Speaker 1:I do want to add another thing. I used to drive to and from Raleigh and I know you drive probably more than I used to drive when I was doing a hundred miles a day commute. I would see North Carolina state troopers on the side of the road pulled up behind a car, dressed in their uniforms. You know how sharp they look. They always look like at any moment they're going to kick your A if they need to, but they don't. But I probably saw, in 20 years of going from Wilson to Raleigh and back, 150 times a North Carolina state trooper, no matter the weather, changing a flat tire on a car and they'll never get the credit for the stuff they do. Now, if I saw it that many times how many thousands of times a year to state troopers and other law enforcement officers do things like help somebody who's stranded, change their tire, they could sit in their car and say, call a tow truck or call somebody to change it, I'll wait here with you. No, they get out there and do it because they don't want them on the highway doing it, they want them to be safe.
Speaker 1:So video is very selective on what it shows and what trends on. Social media is very selective and again, not to rehash the Tyreek Hill thing or the fact that you were in the passenger seat too. But it was easily avoidable by the police officer to make Tyreek look like a dork and petulant child. But he probably had a bad day. He's human, you know. He could have a crappy morning and decided screw this, I'm not taking any crap from anybody.
Speaker 2:Well, all in all side with law enforcement and we love you guys and we got a few folks that are loyal listeners to the show law enforcement and we appreciate that and we appreciate what you do for the community. So definitely got a lot of support there.
Speaker 1:Aside from that, did you catch any of the games last week? Well, of course I knew my Chiefs would win, and boy you know, it's gotten bad because everybody's like, oh, the NFL's fixed the Chiefs this, that and the other Just cope better. It's football. And I went on record. I predict them win the Super Bowl. You predicted Philly. So if the end of the season they don't do it, go ahead, Send me some stuff. Make fun of me, I don't care, I can take it, I'm a man.
Speaker 2:Yes, you are. The Philly prediction turned out to be pretty darn good. They looked awesome. And AJ Brown, you know he came to play. That's their number guy. He's not far behind. He had a decent game.
Speaker 2:But I think the Saquon Barkley prediction that I said last week it really came to fruition because he's in a better offense than he had with the Giants and he really came to play. I want to say he had three touchdowns last week and pretty much anybody who played against him in fantasy football took an L my best friend from childhood. He has him on his fantasy team and he really laid the bragging rights on Thick Sunday and I hate when he wins, but that's another story. Aside from that, with Carolina, I know we got a lot of Panther fans listening to the show and man, they got drugged Sunday. It was an embarrassment. I watched other games instead of my favorite team play and I'm almost not embarrassed to say that because they just really laid an egg on Sunday.
Speaker 2:One big takeaway and you don't hear a lot of sports analysts talking about this, but we've got guys that we cycled through our team and got rid of those guys Sam Darnold he's a backup quarterback for the Vikings and, of course the rookie that they had, that was supposed to be a superstar, got hurt in the preseason and he's out for the season. So Sam Darnold found himself in a starting gig with Justin Jefferson, the number one receiver in the league, at his disposal. So you know, of course he had a great day and they won Baker Mayfield. He passed through Carolina a couple years ago and basically I thought he made a fool of himself, but of course he ended up in Tampa Bay and had a winning season last year.
Speaker 2:So two of our quarterbacks that we had previously, both are on other teams getting wins out there. And we've got a rookie quarterback. And you know the coach that I mentioned in Carolina. He was Baker Mayfield's offensive coordinator last year. So supposedly and I said this last week he's the quarterback whisperer, but no dice. This past Sunday, I think the very first play of the game, bryce Young threw an interception and that was just a gut punch for all of us loyal Carolina fans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's only week one and you got to work out some bugs. Some of the teams that have lost this, like the Ravens, lost KC. Do you really think you're going to be crappy this year? No, they're still going to be a strong team. We're going to just go ahead and do this for the next few months. Anyways, we're going to talk sports because it's a cool thing.
Speaker 1:But on the Carolina Contractor Show, wecarolinacontractorcom, you can also go to YouTube. We've got a page there. We've got social media links up that you can find again through the website. We also have a thing called Ask the Contractor and, unlike Kamala Harris, donnie is not afraid to answer questions. So if you have a question about your house the inside, the outside, the top, the bottom, roofs, attics, insulation, electrical, things like that you can submit your question there and have a real licensed general contractor AKA Donnie Blanchard, aka passenger and Tyreek Hill's car the other day. He'll answer. Those get back to you and sometimes we do questions only shows that you can submit questions to. We just rattle off 10 questions and stuff like that. And also you can.
Speaker 1:What was your thing I had? Oh, download past shows. We got hundreds of them. Literally you can download and podcast for them. But let's jump into this, donnie, because we said, oh, we'll just spend like two minutes talking about football. We blew it. Here we are. What we want to talk about today are return on investment projects you can do on your house ROI but we broke them in two categories. The first part of this show we're going to talk about things you can do yourself true DIY and what the return on investment is. The second half of the show we're going to talk about investments you can make on your house that have really high ROIs, but you're going to need someone like Donnie, a general contractor, to do it, because it might entail multiple trades or permits or things like that. But the easiest thing to do is start off with stuff you can do without having to call a Donnie. And what's the first thing on your list, donnie, of a DIY that actually yields a respectable ROI?
Speaker 2:I think the main thing that came to mind when I put the list together was that you can refresh your kitchen cabinets. So this may not be anything more than just paint and cabinet hardware and that's totally in the DIY world Just changing the color of your cabinets. If they're darker, of course, go light. If you have real wood cabinets, you can change the same stain color. But it's one of those things where you know you may want to tackle that in small bites. You want to do maybe one section of upper cabinets one weekend and then the next weekend take a little more on and then switch to the base cabinet. So this could be a four, five, six week project. But the reason I say take your time is because you want to do it right. If you're not going to hire a pro, you're going to use a lot of painter's tape. If you're not handy with a paint brush and you know, just making this thing look like a professional did it is the end game, because kitchens sell houses and that's no secret there. But with the hardware, you know, I would say give yourself a good half day. If you change the hardware, you want to make sure that the spacing matches, because of course you don't want to drill new holes, but I'd say refreshing your kitchen, making it look better, and you know it'll be nicer for you while you live in the house, while it is for sale, so you'll get to enjoy that upgrade and it will bring you more money down the road.
Speaker 2:Um, the next thing I would say is create curb appeal. When you pull up to a house that's for sale, you know you want to say hey, that, wow, like this, the front of this house looks amazing and, um, you know you can hire a landscaper, of course, but if you wanted to do it yourself, I think landscaping is DIY all day long. But if you're not familiar with plants and um, and what is seasonal and what looks good in the front of the house, my recommendation would be get online and Google things. Front elevation plants and front elevation landscaping would be what I would search, and you can take a picture to your local landscaping supply and they could probably line you up with whatever grows best in our area here. So some of the pictures you might find could be from out West, but you could certainly find a substitution and I think the big thing is relying on a landscape supply for layers.
Speaker 2:So when I built my house I put knockout roses in the very front and that was what 15 years ago. I had no idea they were going to take over. So I've got a beautiful Japanese maple that I have to cut all my roses down just to be able to see the Japanese maple every year, and one of these days I'm going to pull them out of there. But you know, I didn't layer my landscaping in my personal house correctly, and that's just something that a landscaping supply can do and not charge you for that service. Moving on, I'd say the next thing on the list would be a front door makeover, which is a super popular thing, and if I remember right, didn't you guys do this not so long ago?
Speaker 1:Yeah, a few years ago my wife wanted which is trendy the red barn color of paint. And it is easy. I didn't take the doors off the hinges. I take that back. I just lied. So there's the first lie of the night. I took our storm door off because that one we painted red. It's a wood one, but the other door that I painted is a solid core. You know your standard, 6p and all I had to do was take the handle off and I painted it on the hinges. I was just careful when I was painting that section of it.
Speaker 1:But easy to do, a light sand I would recommend. I'd also recommend a prime, even if you're going from a light color to a dark, but go ahead and prime it and then paint it. It makes a door look brand new and shiny. You can put your handle on or, as you talked about, cabinet fixtures, that's an opportunity maybe to upgrade to a new deadbolt and handle if you want to do that, because even name brands higher end brands like Schlage or something, you can get a really nice handle for under a hundred bucks and a lot of places will rekey it for free. Easy to do, instant impact on the eyes.
Speaker 2:I agree a thousand percent. I think those door handles that have the programmable code, where if you forget your keys you can punch the code in to get in, they've come down a lot in price. I want to say they're about a hundred bucks. But you know who uses the front door. I think the front door is kind of for looks only, because we come in from the garage I'd say 90% of the time. But it definitely looks good and that's something that would be a good sales pitch.
Speaker 1:Let me add to that. You're right, because the big handles with the very decorative base on them that definitely goes on the front entry door. But the people that come into our store they'll order those and they love them. But for their side door or garage door, where they use their primary, use it as their primary entrance they just get a standard, you know, single deadbolt and a locking entry door, usually just a standard round one because that's not as important. So again, front door is for look so big, shiny handle and a new paint job looks great. So we'll move on to your kind of your neck of the woods more than mine because you like to do a lot of stuff outside. But an outdoor living space is a big seller and you don't have to invest a whole lot to get a good return on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and usually decks are on the back of the house and so sometimes they don't get adequate sunlight, especially if it's on the north side. And I think the easiest thing to do and it's if you have a saw you know you could. You could go deck board by deck board and replace those. And if you have treated wood, that's one of those things that it's guaranteed to wear out. So either stain or coat what you have in place or, you know, replace the deck boards.
Speaker 2:We're always advocates for composite decking and the thing to know there is that if you do get a lot of sunlight, then that stuff gets really hot. You can't walk on it barefooted. But other than that, you know, I wear Crocs at home all day but redoing the deck and adding, maybe, a fire pit with some pavers, if you have an area below the deck and you have a relatively flat surface where you don't have to change a lot of elevations, you know that's where fire pits get tricky. So if you're going to build your own fire pit and you don't want to do it on a grade, in other words and you want to have a seating area around it, but adding pavers for a seating area, a few bags of sand. You know, pavers will go in the back of your car, even if you've got to make a couple of trips, but pavers in a fire pit or something that you can throw down in a weekend, and that's something you'll definitely get a lot of use out of Very easy thing to do.
Speaker 1:Moving down to your lower levels of your house, a lot of people have a dark room. Sometimes it's they don't realize their living room or a bonus room is kind of dark, and also if you have a basement that's got high enough ceilings, they tend to be dark, and that's an opportunity to really brighten up that room with lighting. Paint something that will make it look livable versus that place that's under the house, and you can do that for cheap. Even if it's like a block wall, you can paint it and dress it up and get some lighting in there. Throw in a couch and all of a sudden a potential home buyer is going to go hey, look at this, we got all this room downstairs too, cause you've got something like that, am I correct?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah for sure. I left my basement unfinished and then I kind of went all out and um I, um. I think my wife wasn't speaking to me one Valentine's day, so I just camped out in the basement and started the process and so I framed up some walls and made the best part of the day and we have basically a half kitchen down there, refrigerator, ping pong pool and a movie theater room and a workout room, along with a mechanical room and tool storage. So I divided it off just like it fit me. I didn't have to ask anybody for permission or any questions and we rolled with it.
Speaker 2:But we did wood on the walls, tongue and groove wood on the walls, did some stone arches going into the movie room and I went to Appalachian State so I'm very partial to the mountainy look and turned my basement into almost like a cabin oasis. So it is the favorite place for the children to hang out and basements, like you mentioned before. Somebody might think about buying that house and that is a really good place to throw the kids, where they can't make too much noise, and the alternative is them hanging out upstairs over your head, so it's a lot quieter than that.
Speaker 1:I also think any small repairs that you're comfortable making are only going to improve your house. We talked about fixtures on your cabinets and your drawers. We talked about door handles, faucets in every room just changing them out Little stuff that you can do that is going to improve your house Again, if you're selling it and you came up with this quote, donnie it's not just improving the look, it's improving the markability. And when someone pulls up on the curb and the first thing they see is the yard is well-groomed, the windows look nice, it's got a nice barn red door with a great new handle on it. They're already interested. So little stuff can add up quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely think there's a direct correlation between ROI and marketability, because you know if you want to get the max for your house, then it has to look good, and so no secret there. And, like you mentioned to comment on what you said last, the small repairs that you feel comfortable with. There's no excuse for anything now that we got YouTube, because they have so many short videos, long videos and on just about anything you can think of, and so most people, if you're decently handy and competent enough, I think, things like faucet change-outs, like you mentioned. One thing that I tell folks and they'll call me no-transcript.
Speaker 1:The average DIYers hands and you've kind of got this three. I list that we kind of refer to that. We'll get to in a sec. But you found a list of items. You can have someone install, repair, reno on your house based in the South Atlantic and we're going to kind of run through some of them, give their opinion and then come back and give our real world opinion on them. But do you want to talk about the three? I's first.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, the three I's are how we're going to. We're going to compare this to the real world, and the three big issues that we have going on right now are inventory, because inventory is still pretty darn low, interest rates are still pretty darn high and inflation is through the roof no secret there. But this list is basically categorized as a latest cost versus value. So what you spend versus what you make it worth is how this list is supposedly based, and I chose to talk about this because it came from someone who has a lot of street cred with remodelingnet and that's a great website. They have a lot of good ideas, but when it came to numbers and I read what they wrote, it just didn't sound right.
Speaker 2:And one of the main reasons I said that and I chose to talk about the list of categories that they have here is because, out of, say, 20 different things you know, entry door replacement, garage door replacement and manufactured stone veneer, which is like if you have a brick house or you choose to put a little bit of stone on the outside of your house to change the look of the front elevation those were the only three things that had a positive payback in the whole list and everything else is saying, hey, if you spend $10,000, you're only going to get $70,000 worth of value out of that.
Speaker 2:But I find that a little hard to believe. And we're going to circle back to marketability and inventory, because all those have a definite impact on whether or not somebody is going to buy your house. And if you spend the money to upgrade your house, of course you want to get that money back. So I think I'll let you run through the list and I'll just comment on some of the items. But entry door, garage door and stone veneer don't strike me as the only things with a positive payback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, entry door replacement. The steel type came first and it lists that your return on the investment is almost 200%. Entry doors are kind of specific on what someone might like. What I like in an entry door might be a solid core, no windows, no glass, maybe side lights, where someone else might want a big decorative front door with a lot of glass and no side lights, and I don't see how you drop entry doors in and get a big payback. My other problem is the price. They listed in this report was saying it's like a $2,300 investment for a nice entry door. Not sure where they're getting their entry doors from, especially if it's steel, but if you want a nice entry door you're going to talk two or three times more than that and I'm sorry I'm not going to walk up to a house and go. The entry door sold it for me, honey, let's go ahead and buy it.
Speaker 2:What's your experience? Yeah, absolutely, and I agree with what you said. Fiberglass or real wood, I know those are what's the most popular in my world, and when I estimate a house, I do it at a minimum of $5,000 allowance for the front entry door. So yeah, them saying $2,300 and you're going to get $4,600 worth of value out of that. I don't think those numbers are correct at all All right.
Speaker 1:I've heard for a long time garage door replacement has a high ROI. This list has it returning at about 190% on your investment. I don't own one, but I've heard commercials saying the same thing. I can't comment because I don't own a garage and I don't look at them the same way maybe other people do. When they're buying a house, they see a garage and they think the door is new and looks great or is fashionable. That'll have a great impact. Your experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I just think garage doors take a beating if you have children especially, and the jam outside of the garage, so that's the thickness of the wall, that area If your child has a basketball or a BB gun. I've got so many scars outside my garage. My garage doors look fine, but I think that the weather stripping and the trim coil all need to be changed out as a courtesy before you put the house on the market. But I can't see just changing the garage door out itself If it's not insulated. Yeah, go ahead and do that, because an insulated garage door is well worth it. But I just think that the price of the garage door at $4,500, that's pretty spot on for a larger door. A smaller door should be about half of that. But I just don't see the ROI being double right there.
Speaker 1:All right. The third thing that said, you'll get more than you put into it. Your ROI is it 150% for manufactured stone veneer and, as you explained a few minutes ago, donnie, a lot of people they put it on around the front door and maybe the front half of their house and the rest of the house might be just traditional siding. It doesn't matter if it's fiber or something like that.
Speaker 2:I kind of like a mixed veneer and so I think there's a classy way to do it, and sometimes they're just downright loud. It just rubs you wrong and people don't pick the right color scheme. So I think that depends on the homeowner designer. But this could go either way. They have man-made stone and they have natural stone. Of course the man-made stone is a little cheaper, but is it weather resistant?
Speaker 2:You know you have to ask all the right questions before you commit to a stone. And then you know I have a wonderful stonemason and he is very just, efficient and very affordable. But it took me about 12, 14 years, something like that, to find this guy, and before that I almost paid double for my stone labor. But this guy is a rock star. He gets in and gets out and so he can charge less. But having the right guy for the labor, that's half the battle right there. So choosing a cheaper stone the other half of the battle. So there's so many factors that play into this that I don't know how they came up with their numbers, but I think they were right around $11,000 to do this upgrade and said that you gained over 17 grand from that. But I don't know. I think they pulled this one out of thin air. I think somebody's sitting in an office and just trying to get an article, to get some publicity, because those numbers just don't make sense.
Speaker 1:And did you catch your? You said your stonemason is a rock star.
Speaker 2:I did not Look at me.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, Even didn't you're so good, you don't?
Speaker 2:you don't even know it yourself. A few more things let's go over. Would you agree, donnie, that replacing your siding especially if it's higher end don't replace your siding with masonite but with fiber cement? For example, they say it's house is in because higher end homes kind of like good side of town type thing. If you want to put fiber cement on your house, you know there's going to be a market for that. There's going to be people who would appreciate that. You know fiber cement is kind of like your forever siding, so you're never going to have to put siding on, but you are going to have to paint it. So take that into account and I would say that if you put the money into it, I don't think you'll lose that money. But this one may be the only one that's kind of on target that you're only going to recover 90% of what you spend.
Speaker 1:All right, we would agree the same with vinyl. It's going to help. Vinyl has its detractors, but a lot of people like it. It's very common and so we'll put that in the same kind of area that it's beneficial to do. It's not going to help, but I guess when you go inside the house it's a no brainer that remodeling, if it's done right, helps. So a kitchen remodel is going to help you get money back, and that you've got to know from experience.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and we mentioned this on the DIY. But if you want to go full scale, have the cabinets replaced and everything, I think they're saying you know, 27 grand looks like the figure they came up with and you're only going to get 26 grand worth of value out of that. I beg to differ. And this is all situational because of the square footage of the house. It's going to be one of those things where cabinets cost more than they've ever cost and I've watched my cabinet budget pretty much double since the pandemic and everybody that sells cabinets they're charging a lot more.
Speaker 2:And cool side story there we became a cabinet dealer because we have so many in-house guys who are wonderful carpenters. I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and try to bypass the middleman. So in light of doing more kitchen remodels, we can buy the cabinets directly and we cut the folks out who are adding the markup that make those unaffordable. So I still think at $27,000, if it's a decent size kitchen and you incorporate the cost of countertops, because nobody ever wants to put new cabinets in and not put nice countertops on there. So I'd say that that number is kind of low. For the full-blown kitchen remodel you do cabinets, tops and floors, for instance. It's going to be more in that $40,000 to $50,000 range, but I definitely think the payback is way off on this one and I think that you recoup every dime you spend in a kitchen because the wife makes a decision on the house and the wife likes the kitchen. So there you go.
Speaker 1:I'm going to jump around here a little bit, but I want you to bear with me here, Donnie, in the last few minutes. So it lists a wood deck addition to your house will have a return of 80%. But as we move HVAC 65 and getting a new asphalt roof, your return is only going to be 60%. First of all, let's talk about that. Do you think putting lumber in the backyard is going to make a big improvement on your?
Speaker 2:house. Yeah, this one's going to get me emotional. No, I don't. I do think that if you upgrade the deck to composite, I think the payback is there for that. Just changing wood for wood, I don't know that. It's there and, like I mentioned earlier in the show, that's a DIY thing if you're going to go wood for wood, because you don't have to be incredibly skilled to change out your deck boards. But no, I don't think so. And for them to rank decks higher than roofs, I mean, when you pull up to a house, the deck is always on the back of the house and it's one of those things where a brand new roof is about the first thing you see. So I think that the roof should carry much more weight. I think the figure we've thrown out there for years is that a new roof adds 7% to the value of the house, and the numbers that they're throwing out there for a roof, you know saying that it's going to be what? $30,000 for a roof. That's crazy, and so yeah.
Speaker 1:Donnie, they said the deck. You should budget $16,000 to $17,000.
Speaker 2:What kind of what do you have there? I think that they mistook California prices for Carolina numbers because you know it doesn't. The deck replacement, because you don't replace the structural components. You don't replace the deck joists, the deck band, the columns, the support columns or anything. You're basically just replacing the rails and the top and I can't see you hitting 16 grand for that.
Speaker 2:But anyway, those things look nice and if you spend a lot of time outside then someone would appreciate that. But I just think that the payback numbers are all wrong because a brand new roof will sell a house. I mean, ask every realtor that we work for that can't get a house to move. They put a new roof on it and it moves within a week and so and I just think that the roof numbers. The average roof doesn't cost anywhere near $30,000, more like $8,000 to $10,000 on an average size home and if you do that, 7% of what the house value is doesn't equate to what they're saying here on these numbers.
Speaker 2:But to comment on the other two things that you mentioned HVAC and window replacement they're not incorporating the fact that if you replace all your windows, especially in an older home, with a brand new window, especially in an older home with a brand new window. The worst window you can buy now is better than the best window you could buy 10 years ago, because the energy code has gotten so much more strict and the HVAC systems, of course. The SEER rating minimum requirement is up to a 16 now, so they are just so much more efficient. An electric heat pump can do almost what a gas system could do in the wintertime. That is 10, 15 years ago, so they have gotten so much better, cheaper and more efficient that I think a new HVAC system should carry a lot more weight than it does there.
Speaker 2:And what they're not accounting for is that it's going to lower your both of those in combination. Especially if you do air sealing around the windows like we preach, those are going to lower your monthly utilities by a couple hundred, if not more, dollars every single month. So when you multiply that number times the end game of a 30-year mortgage dude, it's wild. You know you're spending a little bit now to save a whole lot down the road and I just think that they're taking in the initial cost to do it and what somebody they think somebody would pay on, you know an increased sale price. But I think this whole list is just garbage and every number on here is skewed man.
Speaker 1:Well, I think somebody wanting to spend $17,000 on lumber to improve their backyard is just. They want people to go. Hey man, you got a big deck out here and they want to show off their wood and I don't think that that's worth the ROI right there. I see what you did there. I gave an example before we started the show. I want someone considering buying a house to think this which is more important, to prove that this list is kind of junk If I were selling my house and I said to you I have a brand new wood deck out back and the roof is 10 years old, versus I have a 10 year old wood deck out back, but I have a brand new roof, which house are you going to choose?
Speaker 2:Oh, the roof all day long. I mean you've got a roof that's going to be a 50-year warranty and you've got a treated wood deck that's going to be a maintenance nightmare for years and years. That's a yearly, if not every other year, maintenance problem, and so definitely, having that roof we always talk about roofing and heating and air are the two big ticket items on your house that are guaranteed to wear out. So I think those are the most. I always tell people those are the most two important things if you're going to buy a house, to make sure that the warranty is documented or know when the installation happened, because those are the two things that are going to cost you down the road.
Speaker 1:So if you have a house that you're thinking about selling and you know your roof is due for a replacement or maybe an inspection, it's a great time to call Donnie, because, again, he owns SureTop Roofing. Or you can go to the website suretoproofingcom, get a free inspection or get it on, because, as we just talked about, when you have someone like Donnie who's a certified installer, give you a new roof, you're going to get that money back. If you're getting ready to sell your house because, especially with GAF, you have 50-year warranties the new buyer gets that same warranty. It comes along with the house. Talk about a selling point. Having a wood deck out back or having new handles on your front door if you painted it barn red or bright canary yellow ain't going to return a real investment on it. But a roof will up-to-date HVAC system, correct insulation, new windows. That is where your return is. So this list is interesting but for the most part I'm going to give it a D minus for accuracy on the ROI Full agreement, man, full agreement.
Speaker 2:So I just kind of wanted to burn through this, because this is the stuff that the internet puts out there and we live in the real world, and also I filtered this list to be tailored around our area. So these are supposedly the house prices that would apply to where we live, but I think they're all out of whack and I just anybody listening that was thinking about doing a remodel or improving their house or just anything DIY to improve the ROI. Don't go to the internet. This is the real world stuff we're putting out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this would be a great question for Donnie. If you want to go to the website, thecarolinacontractorcom, click on, ask the contractor. And if you have a question about one of these renovations or one of these remodeling jobs or something for an increased ROI, go ahead and ask him. Hey, if I do this in my house, what do you think the ROI? He's building houses and he's around them all day. He knows what moves them and what increases their value. So go ahead and give him a holler there at the website and if you have any other questions or comments about the show again, you can do it at thecarolinacontractorcom. We want to thank everybody for tuning in to the Football Turned Contractor Show and we hope you tune in again next week for updated scores in the NFL and something to do with your house. So we'll see you next week. I'm going to eat. Say thanks everybody. No-transcript.