The Carolina Contractor Show
The Carolina Contractor Show
Home Upgrades That Pay You Back
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with your host, General Contractor Donnie Blanchard. So we had some bad weather a couple days ago there. Donnie, How'd you do?
Speaker 2:in your neck of the woods man. My phone's been ringing off the hook ever since, but I fared well. Not everybody in the community did, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a couple of houses in our neighborhood here in Wilson that had trees drop right through the roof. A couple of them laid on the roof, lots of shingles around the neighborhood and siding and stuff and pretty normal to expect when you have 70 mile per hour gust blow through your town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that one of the contributing factors it's been wet and cold. We had a few warm weeks, you know they were spread out here and there, but when the ground's wet and that root system, just you know it doesn't have the dry ground to hold it in place and you get that wind coupled with that. It was no pun intended the perfect storm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, snap power lines and all sorts of stuff like that. And what I want to also mention is when you go through a storm like that that we had, where it was just a straight line winds when the storm's over, this is a chance for you to go outside and maybe survey a few things about your house. Start with the roof and also look for where water stands and if you've got something that maybe peeled siding. But take a look at your house because if you go ahead and find something, you can report it and get the insurance companies involved. Or if you have a roof problem, call somebody like Donnie at Sure Top Roofing and have them come take a look at it before it gets worse.
Speaker 2:Mitigate any damages, like we say Yep, that's actually a requirement by the insurance company. If you have damage to your house and you don't do anything about it and just let it rain in there, then that's kind of on you. So they'll pay for the initial damage. But any kind of damage is sustained after that for basically lack of any attention to mitigate those damages or put a tarp over there. They consider that neglect.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, this is the Carolina Contractor Show and we hope everybody out there did well with these storms, did well, got by through the storms and didn't have any damage yeah, but of course it happens and it's good to know your insurance policy and know who to call. And, as a matter of fact, we've done shows just on those topics alone and you can find them at the website, thecarolinacontractorcom, download them in podcast form and they're listed by title or subject. So if you want to look up the show about insurance claims or roof repairs or how do you know you have storm damage at all, that's the place to start. You can also check out our stuff on the YouTube site. We have links at the webpage to the YouTube site where we have all our shows that we started uploading.
Speaker 1:The very popular ask the contractor question. Maybe you have a question about some possible damage to your house. You can click on that button and fill out the information and Donnie answers those questions. So now comes the introduction portion of the show. My name's Eric Smith. I do inside sales for Home Builder Supply, so I sell building supplies to people like Donnie, who's a general contractor, owner of Sure Top Roofing, owner of Blanchard Building Company also and, of course, as you started the show off, very busy right now because of those storms that went through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one of those things where this time of year we don't expect a windstorm, probably until about spring or so, and you know that that's coupled with the hailstorms and everything. But I will say it's nice to have a little bit of punch on the workload for, say, march, april, just moving into spring. So it's, you know, it's nice to be busy. We I will. I think I've mentioned this on a previous show at Praise Report we're busier going into this winter than we have been any winter since before the pandemic.
Speaker 2:Roofing has slowed down a little bit. We put these shingles on nowadays that last for 50 years, and so where most of the folks coming out of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s had a three-tab 20, 25-year shingle, now we've been replacing those hard and heavy since 2010. And with that 50 year shingle the wind rating is either I want to say most of them are about 130 mile an hour wind rating and with GAF they have an unlimited wind rating, meaning if you lose a shingle from wind damage, uh, then then GAF will pay for that. You don't have to go to your insurance company and there's never been any kind of warranty like that. So super strong there. But I guess the downside of that is we've replaced so many roofs that everybody's pretty solid for the next couple of decades. So you know, I don't want to say we need a storm or we need a hailstorm, but you know, sure wouldn't hurt anything business wise yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, I just thought with that 50 year warranty, donnie, basically you could put on a roof or replace a roof and your grandchildren, if they got into the roofing business, would be the ones that would replace it the next time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know if it'll go into the third generation or how that's going to shake out, but yeah, and and to be honest, you know there will be another wave um, the several advancements in the roofing world, like algae deterrent you know there used to be a 10-year algae warranty and now they've upgraded that to a 25-year. So there's going to be a lot of people who replace their roofs for algae's sake. And we call a handful of other ones vanity roofs. This is a roof where you just move into a new house, you don't like the color of it and you've got the money to replace it. So you know there's still a lot of those out there. And and, and you know we feel blessed to be called upon and, and you know, top top two or three in our area. So that's um, that's one of those deals where, as long as the phone's ringing, you know we'll answer the call. But but yeah, it's not like it was. You know, 10, 15 years ago. We just couldn't keep up, and at least now the workload is manageable.
Speaker 1:You know that's a perfect segue in today's show, because if you had roof damage and you're going to have to get repaired or, like you said, you want to just change the roof you want to make sure the one you get and that you invest in is something that will pay you back in some way, whether it's longevity or if you go to sell your house. And we call that return on investment. And that's what today's topic is, but we're going to give it a North Carolina twist. Today's topic is, but we're going to give it a North Carolina twist.
Speaker 1:Gaf is a great example, because you can hire someone who's not certified to install a roof and they might do a three-tab deal. Or they're just going to do entry-level shingles. You're not going to have a warranty on them and if they're not certified, there's other things that cannot be warrantied because they're not a certified installer. So if you get a new roof and you want a good return on that investment, you would want to get somebody like Donnie who's certified with SureTop. You'd want to pick a nice shingle, like the GAFs that have these extended warranties and guarantees. And that's what we're going to do today is go over a bunch of stuff when it comes to renovating or repairing inside and outside of your house.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I forget to state the obvious. And we've done several shows with GAF and, of course, our territory manager, ron Cook. He's amazing, but I lose track of the fact that it's been two or three years. We've been doing this for so long and people always ask me what about those GAF shingles? And they don't call it by the acronym GAF.
Speaker 2:But just quick side note is GAF stands for General Analyne Film and General Analyne Film if you're 40 years old or older, you remember the days before the internet when you had these viewfinders and the viewfinders had the little disc wheel with the pictures. And now you can just Google a picture of a place and you can go anywhere and see what it's like. But back then we had to stick our eyeballs right to the viewfinder and click the thing in a circle just to be able to see the sites. And GAF bought that company and I don't know the evolution process, but they eventually evolved into a shingle company. Now their pie chart is exclusively roofing. So they have a silicone low slope division, they have TPO, which is the white membrane that goes on commercial buildings, they have, of course, shingles and they have the strongest warranty in the business and, most importantly, they are American owned and operated, so they pay taxes right here in the USA.
Speaker 1:Yep, we love having Ron on and that was such a interesting story the first time we interviewed him years ago and he told that and it was like what an almost bizarre change of focus that an industry had to go from basically a toy to something that everybody needs and they make the best version of it. All right, today's show, as I said the title, is ROA and NC, because North Carolina is a little different than every other state. You might have things that you could do to your house inside and out that would have an advantage in the Northeast or the Midwest or the Northwest. But even though this show is listened to internationally, we're going to focus on North Carolina and the reason this works out is we've got weather conditions that are pretty unique Humid in the summer, as we have snow one day and 70 degrees two days later, and then ice and then sunshine, and then a big storm rolls through with almost well, not almost no rain, less rain than it was, just a lot of wind, and next week they're talking about flirting with the mid-70s, maybe even hit 80 degrees. That's north carolina. So those are things you want to consider, especially if you're putting on a roof.
Speaker 1:Some of the other things about ROA in NC is your market or where your house is can have a big effect on your price. So your neck of the woods you're kind of like in between a couple of hot spots that carry Rale Triangle area and you can head Greensboro. I'm in a growing but lesser area that is affected by house prices in Wilson, north Carolina. But if you make it to the beach, prices go up Charlotte, prices go up Asheville. So some of these investments that you make will have a different price point because of where you live. But we're going to try to get a basic idea of where you're sitting if you want. But we're going to try to get a basic idea of where you're sitting if you want to make some investments in your house and get a higher ROI.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the middle third of the state is a hotbed for real estate right now and I think a lot of the driving factors is the fact that the inventory is still short and you can't find small houses. Starter houses are hard to come by. And if you have one of those and you can't find small houses, you know starter houses are hard to come by and if you have one of those and you're you're trying to sell, you want to get the max ROI out of that. I would say that, um, you know the front elevation and when we did the TV show, you know they hammered home the word curb appeal. It it it mildly drove me crazy, but anyway, it's a real thing. And, uh, curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal.
Speaker 2:But the thing you can do and we'll get into a couple of things down the list here, but one of the big things we replace the roof on everything.
Speaker 2:And if you have just a plain ranch house and it just doesn't have a lot of shape, all you have is two roof slopes and a gutter line up top. If you're going to replace that roof, one thing that we got a big ROI on is we and of course SureTop did all the roof work. So my guys are experienced framers and we can pretty much do a small house in one day where we strip the old roof and we would build a gable or a dormer on the front of the house just to break up the roof line. And it's not a lot to it, you know it's $500 worth of wood, $500 worth of labor and of course you have to put siding and and trim out the boxing and everything. But you're not talking a $1,500 change to completely, to completely make the front of that house or the front elevation look different. So I would say, from an exterior standpoint, that was one of the big punches that we did to get the most money for the house.
Speaker 1:A lot of people think when you're doing a show on return on investment, it means you're selling your house. Many cases it is, but it doesn't mean you are going to sell your house just because you're putting in something that has a high ROI. Why wouldn't you want to put something in that has a good return, even if it's your forever home? So things like this doesn't necessarily pertain to selling a house. Sometimes you just want your house to look kick ass in the neighborhood and that's why you're going to make these changes. So let's start off with one that always surprises us and I researched multiple places and it always comes out number one and it's garage doors. Almost double what you spend. You get 194% return on investment with a garage door and it's not as expensive as people think $1,200 to $2,000. And, by the way, anything can go to the moon if you want to pay it. They'll sprinkle gold on it if you want, but that's not a big investment to get such a huge.
Speaker 2:ROI, yeah, and a lot of times I would say, especially if you bought a production built home. A lot of those garage doors aren't insulated. So if you have a south facing home, your garage is probably sweltering in the summertime. So just getting a new insulated garage door for under two grand is a good selling point. And side note, there I want to say that a real estate agent is the person to tell you a local real estate agent that is. So find somebody trustworthy and local and they'll tell you If you're going to spend money on a house and say, hey, we're thinking about selling, but not right now.
Speaker 2:Maybe next year go ahead and get in cahoots with that real estate agent, because every dime you spend they'll be able to tell you on their end how they size that house up for market value and we're going to have a real. I'm actually building a house for a real estate agent now and she's she's wonderful, she manages a family life and and it's just a killer at real estate and I've sent several people her way and everybody just raves about her. So I thought it would be wise for us to have her on the show just to share some insights. But that'll be sometime in the next couple of weeks. But yeah, every point we're going to make today if you're thinking about doing this yourself, check with that real estate agent, because that can't hurt a thing.
Speaker 1:The other reason to think about why a garage door is so impactful from the curbside view is because it's usually minimum one car garage. A lot of them are two, so you've got something that is eight to 10 feet high goes across the front of your house. If it looks nice and shiny and new and top of the line, it's going to affect that view. The other thing if you don't have a garage, especially when you pull up to a curb, people might not realize it. But if they're honest, the first thing they look at is that front door, and especially if it's an ugly color, if it's like canary yellow. I don't know what is wrong with people, but the canary yellow door's got to go. That's a preference. I have the very cliche barn red front door, but anyways, a strong looking, nicely maintained, nice hardware on a front door. You can notice that all the way from the street.
Speaker 1:The thing is we talked about this on last week's show. People don't understand doors aren't necessarily the easiest things to order or replace and the return on the investment is really high up, almost double. But the thing is you got to know what you're ordering and the sky's the limit. It's not as easy as just buying a slab and putting it on. It might be, but you need to prepare for it. But the options for doors are almost unlimited. It's amazing how I see it in my side of the business. I'm sure you do too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you probably know more than I do because I get one of these per house and you probably see these roll out the door every single day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doors can go to the moon.
Speaker 2:I mean literally you, you can spend and we talked about this off the air but you can spend 10, 20 grand pretty easy if you want all the bells and whistles and um, uh, one thing that we always knock the big box doors.
Speaker 2:But this is about the only area where, if you need a reasonable front door, uh, the energy code dictates the minimum energy requirement for that. So a lot of times ThermaTru, for instance you know what they can sell to you guys at HomeBuilder Supply, lowe's has a much different contract because they do so much volume with them that you know you can get a decent looking front door for less than a grand, whereas the series that goes to the building supply companies you know you're looking at, you know two, three thousand dollars and that's still not bad. I mean, if you get into the real wood versus fiberglass, um, I would say that you know you're you're upwards of $5,000 when I do a new house and if it's over three, 4,000 square feet, I put five grand on there for a front door allowance and that that seems to cover it.
Speaker 1:I think that's a very good price point to put on it, um, but I'm going to have to disagree with you here, donnie Um, check with your, your home supplier, your independent place, because I'll tell you right now I can. I have more options, I can get you for a door, I can spend more time helping you decide what you want and I dang well guarantee I'll be close on that price point, but I'm still going to get you, in my opinion, a better door. I'm going to get you better entry door locks and deadbolts than you're just going to get if you walk in there. It's nothing against the big box doors, but they work on volume. They're not going to spend time with you to pick out the locks you want or the handle or something like that. So, whether it's fiberglass, which is very common, solid core wood, which is expensive but nice we talked about it too off the show, off the air. Steel doors not very common as an entry or even a side door, but sometimes back Attached sheds to the house, tool sheds in the yard, they tend to use steel doors.
Speaker 1:You can get them for a really good price and they're usually paintable, sometimes stainable. They look great. But um 1500 to 2,500 to get a door. If you're doing a pre-hung, if you're going to get an installer you know is Donnie would be able to pull a door out and put a new one in pretty easily. If, even if it's a pre-hung Um yeah, it's an important investment to get it right and make sure you have a door that fits the look of your house and there's a high quality door that will last, you know, 20, 30 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do agree with that part. There's a lot of value in having somebody that knows what they're looking at, because most of these folks are picking out that door one time for the next 10, 20 years, and so having somebody like yourself that knows you know the manufacturer pros and cons of that, there is value there, even if it's a tick more. So right after I said that, I could just feel Bill and Julie those are my inside and outside sales reps. They listen to every single show. So, forgive me, you guys, I'm still sending them your way. Great.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've not done this, wouldn't mind doing it. Everybody thinks about doing stuff with their kitchen and we're not talking the full overhaul. We're not talking about pulling your existing cabinets down and replacing them with new. Sometimes you just want to maybe sand them, prime them and repaint them, put new hardware, modify the sink, something like that. A kitchen is a big deal. I'm not saying it's not as big in other parts of the country, but I think in North Carolina it is the gathering place. If mom is in the kitchen cooking, the kids and the husband, and when it's holidays, everybody's there in the kitchen area. So it's a pretty important place. You want to do it right. I don't have experience to talk about this. What advice would you give somebody investing in a kitchen upgrade to get a good ROI, donnie?
Speaker 2:Well, solid surface countertops seem to be the big favorite in a kitchen these days and I would say the average house is going to be around $5,000 to take the old countertops out, put new solid surface in and of course you're going to want to get a backsplash that goes with those cabinets.
Speaker 2:So that usually runs a couple thousand dollars. And if you wanted to do a mild makeover you know the cabinet doors are an option you can buy all new cabinet doors with a different, like a shaker style seems to be what everybody wants these days and I'd say the cheapest thing is the new hardware. So, uh, if you wanted to go kitchen remodel under 10 grand and DIY, then you can call the the stone um fabricators yourself or the quartz fabricators yourself and, you know, find a tile guy and then lots of, lots of hardwood stores. So we've got a hardwood store locally and they actually make cabinet doors so you can outsource those. Of course you'll need to come up with a size and there's a little responsibility for the homeowner in terms of that and making sure the hinges are compatible or or whether or not you need new hinges. But that, and then the hardware you're talking tile and solid surface countertop subcontractor and the rest of it is DIY. So if you feel frisky enough to take that on, then you can get out under 10 grand that way.
Speaker 1:Feeling frisky doing the kitchen work. So I do want to mention the hardware. We think that it's a small cost. Keep your hardware if you like it, because you can always repaint it or clean it up. But think of the normal kitchen. You go, oh, we'll just buy new hardware. How much could it cost? Oh, it's only $5 a hinge. And then you remember you have 22 cabinet doors. Each one has two hinges. Now all of a sudden you're at 50 hinges, you're at 22 handles. You might have closers that you want to get the fancier stuff. You can drop a thousand dollars on hardware for the kitchen, cabinets and drawers and stuff, real easy. So maybe think about keeping it if you like it and it's in good shape, and hit it with a glossy black paint or and seal it or whatever. But don't just toss out that hardware for your kitchen. Agreed Good point.
Speaker 1:Back to the outside. This is an obvious thing. First of all, we still get people that come in my store with a piece of siding and go do you sell this? And I say we don't sell Masonite and people who know what it is. It's basically cardboard on your house. But when you redo siding on your house it makes it look like it's almost, especially with new windows, a new build. Overnight, all of a sudden you have this brand new look of beautiful siding. There's a lot of choices in the return on it. You usually will get what you put into it back if you sell your house. But it can depend on what you use. You know vinyl siding versus fiber cement, which a hardy plank that I'm not as familiar with that you might be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the attractive options about vinyl is the price and of course you can go over. If you have a Masonite siding on your house you can usually go over top of that Masonite. If your house is older and poorly insulated, then it gives you the option to add that insulation, the, the um, but with the accordion style insulate, you know, wafer insulation board, you can add a round of that in a half a day and probably a you know thousand, couple thousand dollars, depending on the size of the house, and then just put the insulation right over that. So I agree with what you said, that the combo of that and the windows, you would tell an immediate difference on your utilities. So, um, if you do go with the fiber cement or the Hardy is what everybody calls, there's a couple of other brands called Allura and Nichiha.
Speaker 2:James Hardy basically made a name for fiber cement siding. But if you get with your building supply folks, or just call around, usually the Allura and the Nichiha Allura especially seems to be quite a bit cheaper and it's the same exact product. They don't have as many options. But if you're just going with the regular lap siding or the four by eight, four by 10 panels and doing the board and batten. They have all that as well. They don't have all the pre-painted options. So I'm still a fan of James Hardy. It's a really good product, good warranty. But the fiber cement means you have to pretty much take off everything that's there if you go that route, and the only kicker with that is you have to paint it. So it does have to be maintained.
Speaker 1:And this is Carolina Contractor Show and we're doing ROI in NC, kind of focusing on the Carolinas when it comes to doing renovations to your house or doing upgrades, whether you intend to sell it or not, roa being return on your investment. And you mentioned windows. So let's just go ahead and talk about windows. So let's just go ahead and talk about windows Very pricey thing. We're not talking about replacing one window, but we do like to mention nothing wrong with the high-end name brand windows that you see advertisements for. They make a beautiful product. They make a expensive product.
Speaker 1:But a new window, vinyl window today, your silver line or Jeldwin or whatever, is going to be more efficient and better than a high-end window that was installed five, ten years ago. So you don't have to spend a hundred thousand dollars on windows, unless you want to, which is perfectly fine. But the thing is is you got to budget the cost because it seems shocking. You know, get an 85% return on new windows for your house, but 10 windows installed can put you back, you know, $4,000. That's a pretty good deal. That's a deal I can get. Yeah, I can get a basic 2852, a single hung vinyl window by itself about 300 bucks Just with the low E. We're not going anything too fancy. Maybe no grids in it or anything but install, take some talent, do it right to make it efficient. So if you really and they look beautiful, and I don't like screens if you have new windows with nice, beautiful, clean glass, do not put a gray screen in front of it and and uglify it. Yeah, I hate a screen.
Speaker 2:No, I mean several options there. If you're going to do the siding replacement, then that leaves you the. That leaves you open to do new construction windows which have a flange all the way around, but that has to go up under the siding. So if you're taking the siding off, that's a perfect time to do a new construction window when that should save you a little bit of money.
Speaker 2:If you do a replacement window, really what the big expense there is to labor because they have to cut those old windows out, fit the replacement windows in that same size hole, and what they do to make up for the difference if it's not a perfect, perfect fit is they usually add or they leave the existing brick mold that is the exterior trim of that. And when they put that brand new window in they have to bend the trim coil or the aluminum trim coil to fit around that brick mold to make everything look nice and new. So it's just a big time extra step and with the replacement window they're harder to seal. When we talk about doing the foam around there, you know there's just a few either you're going to leave the trim on the outside or the inside and it just makes it kind of tough for that low expansion spray foam to go in place.
Speaker 2:One thing that I'm a fan of we've done this on several houses are sash replacement kits, and they're a bit cheaper, especially if you have brick to do a replacement window and the brick is just there's a lot to it Pretty labor intensive, and if it's just a sash replacement kit it's really impressive how the springs and everything push all the seals in place. So it is a situation where you know you just don't have as much of tear out and put back and you can do a labor wise. You can do a sash replacement kit on a whole house in about a day.
Speaker 1:And if you want to know what sashes your window would use, open up your window. There should be a sticker somewhere on the frame that tells you the make model loss information. You call a supplier and they should be able to find out if you can do it. Older windows are harder, harder to do that sash replacement. But yeah, you're right, you might have to do some painting around the frame of that, but the sash will make those windows pop. Also, if you did siding first and you didn't do your windows at that time and you just heard Donnie say you know it's an extra step or two to put windows in after that point, don't let that discourage you. The return on that investment is still going to be huge. It doesn't make it cost prohibitive. So hey, if you did new siding five years ago and you're now going, man, I should have gotten windows. Go ahead and get the windows, because it definitely helps your pocketbook when you get those installed properly by a pro. No, doubt.
Speaker 2:I agree 100,000%. What you said earlier probably the most important thing of the whole window segment is that the worst window you can buy right now at the discount builder supply is better than the best window you could buy 10, 15 years ago, because the energy code dictate they couldn't even sell the window if it wouldn't pass code. So the energy code dictates what these windows have to meet in terms of an R value. They all have to have the argon gas between the panes and they have to have the low E coating, which is like an invisible tint on the outside of the glass. So basically, I don't think you need to break the bank on it and shop around. Shop around. Don't take the window replacement flyer out of the mailbox and just bite on that, because a lot of times I see them charge folks upwards of $20,000, $30,000 and that's just highway robbery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you definitely go local and even at our place we have some people. All they do is window installment and they're so much better and because it's all that they do, they're very good at it. We talked a little bit about roofs and how important that is. It's obviously a big return on your investment 60, 80%. It also can lower your insurance premiums.
Speaker 1:Your mileage may vary, but I've said before, if you get a new roof, the first thing you do is you don't call your mom and say, hey, we got a new roof, check it out. You call your insurance company and say I have a brand new roof on with a 50-year warranty. It's a GAF. It was installed by a certified installer. Is that going to help? My insurance and insurance companies love to hear that. So that's a secondary payback you don't even think about when you do it. People are scared and you can talk about this a little bit, Donnie that roofs are going to be $20,000. You got a 2,200 square foot house, maybe just a couple different sections of roofing, and you want to get it done and they're like, no, it's going to cost me 20, $25,000. And you can kind of put a lot of people at ease right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say the average roof is probably 10,000 on a regular house and that's funny that you said that I get that call a lot. I've got a 2,200 square foot house and how much you reckon a roof will cost? On that I said well, the roof square footage is different than the house square footage every single time. So I can't answer that over the phone but we will be glad to come out and check you out.
Speaker 2:I think the rule of thumb is that a brand-new roof adds 7% to the value of the house. So if you have a $200,000 house, that is going to add $14,000 to the value of your house and I'll go ahead and tell you a $200,000 house doesn't call for a $14,000 roof. I'd say a roof replacement is going to add about double, and so it's definitely up there with the other things you mentioned before. But yeah, I mean, of course I'm partial because I own SureTop, but at the same time the numbers just don't lie. And if you're going to sell or even if you're just going to pull in that driveway every day after work, it does feel good to see a nice new roof on the place, and with all these high definition shingle options they have now.
Speaker 1:I mean, you just can't go wrong, it is beautiful and the color options and things like that, and it's. It's just a, like you said, it's a beautiful thing to look at a brand new roof and if you've got new windows in there too and things like that, it just you. Then you don't want to sell your house when you get a new roof because it looks good, you want to stay there.
Speaker 1:A couple more things we want to do about ROI and NC bathroom spruce ups. These don't have to be the full bathrooms. It could be a half bath that you have, you know, downstairs, but I guess this guy could be the limit. But you know, people think you got to spend $20,000 on a bathroom, but you could do it for only a few thousand dollars. I guess it just depends on how far you want to go to spruce it up to get a good ROI.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, especially if the cabinet already looks nice. If you want a new vanity cabinet, I mean you can find those all day long at some of the wholesale or the discount stores. They have, you know, overages or items that are marked way down so you can get a nice looking vanity cabinet, new sink and everything for what? $300? The fixture allowance I would say $150 for a new faucet or just for easy math, just $200 for a new faucet. The vanity cabinet light $200 for that. A new toilet, a good toilet, $300. And then, if you wanted to put a new floor in there, the LVP now is re-engineered so that the core is waterproof and LVP goes in bathrooms every single day in my line of work. So I mean new floor, new fixtures, new vanity cabinet, lights and even a new mirror. You can still get out under $2,000.
Speaker 1:You know, every time you say LVP luxury vinyl plank when you say LVP, it doesn't matter if my wife's in the same room or the other end of the house. I can hear her go. I mean, that's her thing. We won't do that in the future, but it's amazing. There's nothing you can dream of when it comes to LVP that there's probably not the color, design or install feature available to do it.
Speaker 2:The sky is the limit on making that change and if you look at the comparison between that and hardwood, it beats hardwood in every single category it's burnproof, scratchproof, waterproof and cheaper. So I mean we do that analogy about there's good, quick and cheap. You can pick any two, but you can't have all three. I think LVP might be the only product in the construction industry that knocks that one out of the park.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All right, let's hit one more thing of a good ROI in North Carolina and that would be it seems like a no brainer heating cooling system, especially the heat pump, is. You're going to get a return on that investment for two reasons. One, it's because it's going to run more efficiently and if it's installed correctly, it's going to keep you warm when you want it at a lower temperature and keep you cool when you want it cool, but set at a higher temperature. Efficiency is so important. People balk at it because, of course, the cost is high. It's only going to go up. You're talking 10 to 20 grand. But if you have a service contract and have someone maintain it and take care of it, they also can last noticeably longer.
Speaker 2:So you will get a good ROI on that, yeah, we always preach that the roofing and the HVAC are the two big ticket items on your house that are guaranteed to wear out. So you're going to have to replace them. You know, like you just mentioned, maintenance is a key. A service contract is everything, because you can get an extra five to 10 years out of both of those items. But I would, if I had to give a tip to anyone that's going to replace their heating and air.
Speaker 2:Address your insulation first, and just to give an example of why I say that the rule of thumb on a new build is that a heating and air unit is sized for 600 square feet per ton. If you have traditional insulation, if you have spray foam insulation, you can get upwards of 1000 square feet per ton. So just having a better insulation package, you can have almost half of the heating and air capacity and it'll still do the same thing. And plus, you know, less heating and air takes a lot less energy usage. So you're cutting your utilities in half just by putting a little bit of an investment into some spray foam or just a better insulation package throughout the house.
Speaker 1:We've done whole shows on the spray foam insulation, how far it's come and how incredibly effective it is. One of the guys talking about it said you know, in peak summer and those humid North Carolina summers your AC is running nonstop. And when he did the foam insulation of his own house he was talking about it would run 20 minutes versus running for 24 hours, 20 minutes out of an hour it might run just because a foam insulation is so efficient. Again, go to the website, thecarolinacontractorcom, and you can search up that show where we talk about it. And we also have previous shows talking about ROI. So if none of these specific items were interesting to you, the other shows will have that.
Speaker 1:And again, websites up there with the links to our social media, the links to the YouTube page and, again, if you have a question about the show, a comment, show idea, guest suggestion please click on, ask the contractor and send that information there. And, like Donnie said, we'll talk houses more in the near future. We'll have a real, bonafide real estate agent on to talk about buying houses in this market. So be sure to tune in for that show. We appreciate you tuning in today and listening to the Carolina Contractor Show. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to the Carolina Contractor Show. Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.