The Carolina Contractor Show
The Carolina Contractor Show
Backyard to Rooftop: Your DIY Questions Answered
Ever sat in your living room staring at a mysterious crack, wondering if you should worry? Donnie Blanchard and Eric dive into a treasure trove of common homeowner questions in this information-packed episode that leaves no construction conundrum unsolved.
The guys bust open the persistent myth about black shingles making attics hotter. Through Donnie's experience as an insurance adjuster, complete with impromptu temperature tests across various shingle colors, you'll learn that the five-degree difference between colors is negligible compared to proper ventilation and insulation choices. This revelation alone could save you from avoiding a preferred aesthetic for your next roof.
Concrete control joints, those intentional lines in your driveway that always seem to collect debris, get a thorough explanation. "The only guarantee with concrete is that it will crack," Donnie explains, revealing how these joints actually protect your investment by controlling where cracks appear. His practical advice on maintenance will help you extend the life of your concrete surfaces without unnecessary worry.
The deck material debate gets settled with surprising facts about composite options like Trex. Did you know those beautiful, low-maintenance boards are actually made from recycled plastic bags and sawdust? The hosts compare initial costs versus lifetime maintenance, helping you make an informed decision for your outdoor space based on your specific priorities and situation.
From granite countertop sealing schedules to the truth behind shingle warranties and certification requirements, this episode delivers actionable information you can use immediately. The friendly, conversational expertise makes complicated topics accessible whether you're a seasoned DIYer or just trying to understand what needs attention in your home.
Got a burning question about your house? Head to thecarolinacontractor.com and click "Ask the Contractor" – your question might feature in the next Q&A episode!
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with your host, general Contractor Donnie Blanchard. You know, donnie, this is going to be the first show I think we've done where we both have invasive guests in our perspective or our studios that we're using because I've got to fly, or our studios that we're using because I've got a fly, and once in a while I'm going like this like come here, you, son of a, and then I look at you and you've got the same problem going on too.
Speaker 2:Yep, Two different flies but same nuisance. Man, I can't stand it. I grew up in an old house and flies and ants in an old house, you know just one of those things where you had to deal with those on a daily basis and I carried that into adulthood. So, yeah, I got no place for them, but I don't know how this little rascal got in here. I'm going to get them before the show's over. What if it is the same fly? Oh wow, it sounds like some kind of multiverse thing. You're getting too complicated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not going to talk about the inside and the outside. We talk about roofs and basements and crawl spaces and kitchens. And hey, man, if you're a DIYer, if you like to sit in your garage and putter and do stuff and make little improvements on your house, you're going to like the Carolina Contractor Show. The website's thecarolinacontractorcom. That makes it easy to remember. We've got a lot of stuff up there, including links to our social media the IG page. We got the YouTube page.
Speaker 1:We record all these shows and we upload them to YouTube so you can bask in our gloriousness. And then we've got links to past shows. You can download them in podcast form and listen to things, and they're set up by a subject. So if there's something specific you want to hear us or hear our opinion on, you can download that podcast and listen to it at your own convenience. If you have questions, you can mail those to us through the little link on the website. It's called Ask the Contractor. It goes to Donnie and the cool thing about it is Donnie being a general contractor and we'll go on that in a second. He answers all your questions and we sometimes do a show about it. And for quite a while, Donnie, we've been talking about doing a show of nothing but questions, and today is the day that we're going to do nothing but questions for the entire show.
Speaker 2:It's exciting, isn't it? It is man, and these are all over the place, so we're going to cover a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not going to spend too much time screwing around like we normally do, but we want to get right to the questions. If you have one and you didn't know you could submit one, you can go ahead and do that now. Again, the website, thecarolinacontractorcom and click on the ask the contractor button. We do want to thank everybody for their downloads and interacting on social media and Instagram and YouTube and stuff, and this show will be a great example where we want your input afterwards, because there might be stuff that we didn't address.
Speaker 2:I want to add one thing before we get going with the questions. A lot of people send questions about the house, but you could ask a broader question. I know that I get private questions. People try to email me or call me on my personal cell to say, hey, we're thinking about building a house, where do we start? And usually we've done a show to answer that question. But it doesn't have to necessarily be about the house If it's about the process or how to find an architect or just what the starting point is, or we're thinking about selling, but we want to have our plan in place before we sell our existing house to build our forever home. And it doesn't have to be just about the DIY or how to do things around the house or tricks and tips, but can be just about anything and just to put that out there. You know we're. We're here for the people and everybody that listens are what drives the show. So feel free to ask anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll give a little perspective for people who might be new to the show. I do inside sales for a home builder supply so I sell lumber and brick and block and RMC and shingles and roofing materials to contractors. Donnie is not one of our customers, Donnie's a general contractor. He also owns SureTop Roofing and owns Blanchard Building Company. So he's out in the field, he's working with people and that's a great point. You don't go to somebody's already completed house and put in an outlet. You build houses from the ground up so you can definitely help people if they want to know how do I buy. You used to be an insurance adjuster so you know stuff about insurance and anything you don't know. In your vast knowledge of construction you have the contacts to ask people who can answer those questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and I want to give you a compliment. So Eric and I last week talked about, uh, we really need to ramp up our social media presence. We have so many cool things out there and, and you know, we both stay so busy that we just don't take the time to post things that we need between work and kids and just life in general. Uh, there's only so many hours in the day. But, uh, eric joined our Instagram account and you're killing it, man. I mean, every day there's something good on there and pretty cool for me to get on there and just see what's going on in your world. But, you know, very exciting with the new location at Home Builder Supply and, side note, there, the only reason I don't buy everything from you is because you work two hours away, and so that makes it a little bit of a challenge, and the delivery fee on that would just crush me into the ground. But check out our Instagram page. Eric's been active.
Speaker 1:You know what? I appreciate that and it's fun, and it's not all construction. It is like you said, donnie, some of the stuff we talk about isn't related to a fix or a build. I was showing my pool. Every year when I open it up, and my pool every year when I open it up, there's a gasp because it usually doesn't have a good color and it's like, oh my Lord, and I'm like just be patient, I'll have that be crystal clear in no time. So I'd put up some pictures. They're not up now because I had them on the Daily Story on IG, but we'll start posting them in real form so they'll stick around longer and people can look at them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I have some crazy jobs going right now. I have some crazy jobs going right now. I text you these pictures privately, when I should probably take that same amount of time to put them online. But I have a couple of additions, slash renovations that are just unbelievable. I've never done transformations like this, and so I need to put it out there.
Speaker 2:And, that being said, we've been blessed to the tune of another year and a half's worth of work on the books right now. So, gosh, and that being said, you know we've been blessed to the tune of another year and a half's worth of work on the books right now. So, gosh, it's a catch 22,. Man, you want to advertise and put it out there, but, but if you have more than you can handle on the books, you know you don't want to turn people away. So I'm going to do it anyway, and, and we've just got stuff that people have to see out there, and rather than do it on the Blanchard Building social media, I'll just put it on the Carolina Contractor, and that'll just be provocative for ideas and so forth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. By the way, I suggested at our new site we put a sign up that says coming soon Buc-ee's, just to generate the attention. But then of course, once it opened and they found out it wasn't a Buc-ee's, that would probably be a negative. But I was thinking maybe Bucky's Home Building Supply People would just absolutely flock to it.
Speaker 2:We're getting a Bucky's in Mebane, so really close, and I know the show airs on about five different radio stations locally, so that's no kidding. We're getting a Bucky's in Mebane and they're going to put I'll get better numbers when we get on the air next but they're putting so many thousand square feet of shopping area and Mebane is essentially becoming the new big city between Greensboro and Raleigh, so I'm looking forward to that and it's just going to drive a lot of people to this area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're a pretty interesting company, how they work, and everybody wants to go to them. But again, we can't do this, donnie. It's so easy for us just dropping these conversations about things going on around us, but we want to get to the gist of this show, which is questions from listeners. Again, if you have one, you can go to the website thecarolinacontractorcom and click on Ask the Contractor. We're going to start off with one that you should definitely know about Donnie owning Sure Top Roofing, and that is a true or false question. True or false? Black shingles make your attic hotter than other colors.
Speaker 2:So that's a false and that was just something that was an old wives' tale that it probably carried a lot of weight for the last 30, 40 years and before houses were insulated so well, it was probably true and the way that they I'll start from the top down the way they make the shingles. Now the fiberglass mat is a lot thinner but, but it basically is a better shingle that lasts a lot longer in terms of years, but it doesn't hold heat as much. And I'll say that when I used to do my insurance adjuster gig, I had to mark every slope north, south, east, west, and basically had a compass on my tool belt that would do that. Well, the compass hung off my tool belt about knee height, so about 18 inches off the roof, and it had a thermometer on it. I bought the cheapest one I could find and it just so happened to tell me how hot the shingles were just below that.
Speaker 2:So I got obsessive, compulsive, about checking that. And everything from green to red to black to gray, um, they all registered just about the same. They were all within five degrees of one another. So it's a misconception to think that a black shingle is going to overheat your roof. And I say that because it's our number one selling color first of all, and really the only hesitation that people have is exactly what you just asked me, and so definitely a myth in the roofing world. So don't be afraid of the black or the charcoal, yeah, and this is definitely a myth in the roofing world, so, so don't be afraid of the black or the charcoal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is going to look really, really bad on video, but I'm going to kind of hold up A picture. Those are two different colors. Should have done it this way. Shingles, you know, on their certainty they're more a black and silver birch. Those talk about black and white, and one thing you can do to offset that is like a radiant barriers, like tech shield. So if you had a house with more a black shingles versus the silver ones and the ones with black had tech shield on it, they're going to keep your attic cooler than the white ones without it.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely that radiant barrier is a miracle for houses. I mean, it does exactly what it's supposed to do. And the retrofit version is a little bit different where the tech shield, sheathing or plywood that goes on your roof, it has it actually put right on the backside of the plywood, so but it still works. It still works fine. The retrofit version goes on the bottom of the rafters, so it essentially makes a eight inch cavity where the outside air comes in through your soffit and stack effect, heat rises, stack effect pulls that air up to the ridge vent and it basically keeps all that outside air and a nice little cavity and out of the attic.
Speaker 1:So, but either way, radiant barrier definitely has an impact on that All right, donnie, this wasn't one of the questions, but it's something I get on a regular basis. You can get ridge vent filtered or unfiltered and basically it's a little bit cheaper to get it unfiltered and some people like the skip on that $4 a piece. So if you're getting 40 feet of it, you're talking 40 bucks. Is there a big pro or con between filtered and unfiltered? Do you only choose one?
Speaker 2:So yes, no, I'm sorry I didn't answer that right. There is a pro and a con and no, I don't use one in particular. It's a case byby-case scenario. So with the GAF products there's Cobra 3 and there's one called Snow Country, and the Snow Country has a filter on it. It's a lot more popular up north but it keeps that fluffy snow from getting in there and it basically lands on the ridge vent and it doesn't bypass that filter and of course it melts eventually and then it drains right back out of there.
Speaker 2:But where the filtered ridge vent will burn you is if you have a heavy tree cover, especially if you have pines and pin oaks. Those are the ones that have the thinner leaves. So it's one of those things where, yes, it can keep out the snow, but if you have a lot of foliage that lands on your roof every year when fall comes around, then it's basically going to block up your ridge vent and your ridge vent can't do what it's supposed to do, meaning exhaust the heat out of your attic. So it's case by case scenario. If you've got a wide open area, you build your house where it used to be a field and you don't have any mature tree cover around, then go for it. I think it's superior to the unfiltered. But if you've got a lot of hardwoods, pines, pin oaks around your house and you put that filter on there, I wouldn't give it three years before it's completely clogged and it doesn't allow the roof to breathe like it needs to.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to the ground. People see this all over their houses, I'm sure if you've got poured concrete, whether it's slabs, driveways, sidewalks. I've got an issue with my pool deck not a major one, but this is control joints on concrete. Someone said mine are cracked and they're full of dirt and debris. Is this going to impact how they function and whether or not should they clean them out? So will that keep it from cracking more? Dive into that a little bit, donnie.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, first of all I'll start by talking about what a control joint is. And when your concrete guy pours your slab or apron whatever the case may be the only guarantee they'll give you on that concrete is that it will crack, and so a control joint is basically a way of controlling where the crack will be. So, yeah, the only warranty there is, the concrete is going to crack, and they're going to try to control it best they can. So, um, uh that when you see uh, basically a tic-tac-toe pattern or just um, a plus sign pattern in your concrete, that's what that's for.
Speaker 2:Some folks cut uh control joints a little deeper than others, and having the dirt and the debris packed in there isn't a great thing, but it doesn't really hurt anything. It doesn't affect any kind of expansion or contraction with the concrete. My advice in that scenario would be to pressure wash everything out of the crack, and what you don't want to do is have an open area for water to penetrate down below the slab and get under the concrete. So it doesn't hurt anything to take in some exterior caulking and pressure wash out all the control joints and just put a bead of caulk on the crack down below and then you know you can maintain that as the years go by. But that's really cheap insurance to make sure you don't get a lot of water that penetrates that slab and gets up under it and can cause a lot more problems than the expansion and contraction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in June I'm having a company come by and they're going to do a little bit of lifting and reinforcing using the polyurethane foam system. People see commercials for it where it shows a sidewalk is like dropped an inch or something and they come in and they drill through the concrete and they inject the foam and it takes just a few minutes under 30 minutes and you'll see in the commercials where it raises it up level. It also helps support the ground underneath too Cheaper than tearing up all the concrete repouring it. So I'll report back on that when they come out and do it. But I'm kind of excited about this being done. I'm going to take some pictures. I've talked with the guy who came out and I'll tell you this. The guy who came out was spent an hour and change just doing every possible measurement tapping with a rubber hammer. I mean it was very, very impressive. So I'm kind of excited to take some pictures before and after and see how it comes out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a simple concept and I just think it's genius the way that they figured out how to do this with expanding spray foam. And usually the reason that problem would happen in the first place is because water penetrated that slab somewhere and either compacted or washed the dirt out, so that caused a settlement from the get-go. So, anyway, awesome point and yeah, I can't wait to hear about the results.
Speaker 1:All right. Next question Someone said what's the best way to insulate a well pump house? Very common, especially if you're living out in the sticks. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Thanks for that. I have a well. But anyway, the thing you want to stop it wasn't a dig A pump house. If you have an airy, open pump house, the temperature is going to change from outside to inside a lot quicker. So we talked about on the weatherization show a couple of weeks ago convective versus conductive heat transfer and the convective is air movement like a convection oven and basically you want to stop the open air movement from outside to inside. So a spray phone we're big advocates for that on the show. Inside, so spray foam we're big advocates for that on the show.
Speaker 2:And I think what I would do if you have a decent size well house is I would try to insulate the walls, the inside of the walls, with rigid foam insulation. It's pretty cheap and grab a tube of liquid nails or some sort of caulking will usually do the trick. You can cut the rigid foam with a regular razor knife and basically stop the. That would be conductive because that's the wall heat transfer. But I basically run it up past all the gaps and then I buy the cheapest uh bat insulation I can I can find to put in between the rafter cavities on the pump house assuming it does have rafters. And then what's not covered.
Speaker 2:I take one can of spray foam and you can just get the regular spray foam it doesn't have to be low expansion and I seal all the gaps between the two of those, and so that's the best way to tackle both convective and conductive heat transfer. I will say the conductive is way more important. You know, if the temperature drops overnight and basically the inside of that pump house is still going to stay 10 degrees warmer through the night and really you have to just make it until the sun comes up and things start to escalate temperature wise and you're usually OK. But dealing with the convective or keeping them, keeping the wind out of that thing, is probably the most important. I think another thing you could do is buy just some regular cheap pipe insulation, cheap pipe insulation, and if the water line that goes to the house is exposed in that short distance between the wellhead and where it goes underground, make sure that's insulated as well, because that's a vulnerable point.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm calling an option here. I'm going to switch two questions the order we had them because I think it'll make more sense. This is the time of year, especially with us. I know with YouTube people want decks built or they want the tops redone or something. Most common question I get is what's the difference between treated wood and a composite material like Trex? And I jokingly say one's made out of wood or one is real and the other isn't. Wood's a real thing. Trex is synthetic, but you correctly wanted to point out that that's not entirely true?
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I didn't know this until I dove in. Years ago I changed my deck out to composite and so I have the Trex material and I absolutely love it. You know, it holds up the weather a lot. I can pressure wash it and it looks brand new right after that. Pressure wash it and it looks brand new right after that. But big misconception that the composite is just a fake material because it's actually a combination of recycled plastic and sawdust. So they actually take sawdust from the sawmills and I don't know where the production facilities are and how that all goes down, but they mix that with recycled plastic. Side note there I want to say, the one that I read up on had a contract with one of the big box stores and they got all their plastic bags. So when you look at composite, as nice as it is, it's just basically a combination of recycled plastic bags and sawdust and that doesn't sound fancy at all, but the end product looks great.
Speaker 1:It sure does, and I know the literature. Trex what I'm speaking about is Trex is 95% recycled material. Lots of colors, it's beautiful. It's a great option to consider. The pros and cons are mainly two Wood. You're going to have to stain it. You're going to have to take care of it a lot more often than you will ever with a Trex. As you said, give it a pressure wash and it looks pretty much the same. Trex can be a lot hotter to step on if it's had a lot of direct sun exposure. So if you've got little kids or dogs or something, you've got to be aware of that. Also, if you have an existing deck with joy spans already set and you want to get Trex, they have to be a little bit closer. I believe they recommend 16 inches, so if you're like me, I have a 24 inch spread I would have had to put in a joist in between every existing one, and so I stayed with just using traditional lumber for mine.
Speaker 2:But the startup cost is higher with trex, but the maintenance cost is almost zero Third option on the deck and I was pleasantly surprised when I looked into this. But you can also use number one grade two by sixes instead of a five quarter by six. A two by six will also work in that case and you have to space those out and account for expansion and contraction. But if you do that, there's only a handful of places around that sell number one grade material. You definitely have to use number one grade. Number two wouldn't be great under your feet if you don't have shoes on. But I was fascinated to know that the two inch material, or inch and a half material, was just about the same price as the five quarter, which is a true one inch material and, um, and you know that that's a bulky base on your deck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's funny, A lot of people who aren't familiar with lumber hear us say the five and a quarter is a true inch and the two is a one and a half, and they're like what's going on? We're not. We could do a whole show on the measurements of of lumber now compared to how it originally was.
Speaker 1:We're not going to do that. So, Donnie say, someone takes the position of I'm going with real wood, I like it. Whether they're doing the two by sixes or they're doing the five and a quarter boards, there can be a period of time we need to let the wood cure before we try to paint or stain it, especially stain it If it's still too green. How long do you wait?
Speaker 2:for that. It's case by case and orientation of the deck matters. So if it's on the north side of your house, that treated wood is going to take longer to cure out and I recommend a minimum of three weeks. But I really recommend holding out for about three months, if you can wait that long to put any kind of stain on it. One way that we tested is with a moisture meter and it needs to be less than 15%, and 15% being the bare minimum. If it's 12, 10, then that's even better.
Speaker 2:But treated wood has moisture injected into it and that's how it rejects water. So I think a big thing to do to make sure you hit this thing right on the first try is to do the water test. You know, put some water on a on a horizontal surface and see if it absorbs the water. And so if it, if it beads the water, then it's still not ready. That means it's still in curing mode. So, like I mentioned, it usually takes at a minimum of three weeks, but it could take a maximum of three months if it's on the north side and doesn't get a lot of sunlight.
Speaker 1:Hey, let's move inside. Granite countertops big thing. A lot of people have them. They take a little bit of maintenance and mainly you have to seal them. Some people may have had them for several years and not realize there's maintenance with my granite. What do I do? How do I seal it? What do they do, donnie?
Speaker 2:I'm being a big time hypocrite when I say this. You should seal them once a year. That's what the manufacturers say, and I have had my granite countertops for about 12 years now and I've probably sealed them three times ever. And it's fine. You can definitely tell. In the areas where you may have a soap dish or you know where we keep our detergent rack, that's always kind of a. It stays wet, you know every day, and so you can definitely tell that there's a visible change in the way the granite looks right there. So those areas have to be maintained.
Speaker 2:I would say every year is a good practice. But you know those are the ones that really matter. You don't really get water on all your countertops. I think that sealing them around the sink areas are what's most important. And so, that being said, with quartz. You know quartz doesn't have pores like granite, so of course doesn't have to be sealed ever. But you know there's trade-offs there, because you can't take a hot pan off the stove and sit it on quartz. It'll damage it, and that's not the same with granite. So there's tradeoffs in both directions. I cook a lot so I don't want to get rid of my granite. She likes quartz better. So I guess I'm going to get rid of my granite. But yeah, I, uh, I, I definitely uh. You know these, these countertops have served their purpose. We're just looking for a new look more than anything. And you know I can use a potholder where where I need to, instead of just slinging pans all over the kitchen. But but yeah, I would say at a minimum every three years is necessary.
Speaker 1:All right, man, we we said at the beginning of this show, donnie, that we're going to be jumping all around. We're not going to talk about quick fixes. So let's go back outside. And this is something people come into my store and ask about when they're getting shingles. They'll say, yeah, I need a bundle of shingles for repair. I'm doing a roof and I say, do you want 30 or 25 year, or architectural or three tab? And some people say, well, how long do they last? Does that mean it's going to last 30 years, guaranteed? No, it's just describing the type. But how long can a 20 or 30 year or how long can a 30 year architectural last? It can last 30 years or longer with correct maintenance, right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We see 30 year shingles that were put on 30 years ago make it to that 30-year mark here and there. Shingles have come so far in the last 30 years that now what used to be a 30-year shingle is a 50. And so we normally see other things happen, like the algae deterrent isn't in place on a 30-year-old shingle. So, you know, the north side of that roof looks so terrible that people will go ahead and replace it before that 30-year mark. It's pretty rare to see it hit 30. I do once in a while.
Speaker 2:But you know they didn't have architectural shingles around 30 years ago like they do now. So now everything's architectural. Where they had a lot of three tabs and faux architectural, there was a CertainTeed Horizon shingle that was a three tab painted up to look like an architectural and of course those got discontinued and that's a. Like you said. We could do a whole nother show on that. But definitely the right question to ask would be if the person installing it is certified with the shingle manufacturer, so the builder. I call it builder grade shingles. Those are the cheaper architecturals. They are still 30 years and prorated all day, every day. But when you get into the larger brands GAF, certainteed, owens, corning they all offer a 50 year warranty, but the installer has to be certified with the company, meaning they're vetted, educated, trained and they're set apart from just average Joe installer because they do all the bells and whistles underneath the roof that you can't see and that's what makes it last 50 instead of 30 these days, and I stress this all the time.
Speaker 1:There are many, many reputable roofers out there who do excellent work, but they might not be certified and if you're going to invest the money in a top shingle like CertainTeed or GAF, they have requirements that not only the employees be trained on how to install, but certain materials being used. A common thing from roofers is to use three-tab as a starter strip, and we won't go into the details, but basically they're taking a three-tab shingle and flipping it upside down. I think GAF requires this too, but CertainTeed requires you use their starter strip or it can void some or all of the warranty on the shingles being put down. That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:When we do a CertainTeed roof, we use all CertainTeed. When we do a GAF roof, we do all GAF, unless somebody requests otherwise. But the more products of that manufacturer you use on the roof, the stronger the warranty is. And so with GAF, for instance, they have a system plus warranty which is 50 years non-prorated on the shingle, meaning if you have a problem with that shingle, they don't prorate it for how many years it's been on the house. Then they have silver pledge and golden pledge, which gets into 10 year workmanship, 25 year workmanship warranties, meaning if something happens to me and I check out of here tomorrow, you've got a warranty with a $6 billion company and that's strong. And if you ever have a problem, they find the next guy in line who's a master elite like we are. They find the next master elite which is much stronger than just being certified with the company. We're their guy and they'll find somebody highly qualified to fix your problem and then they'll pay for it. So doesn't get any better than that?
Speaker 1:What are your other standings with like CertainTeed and what are their? Like you said, master Elite, what CertainTeed.
Speaker 2:Shingle Master. They didn't get fancy but yeah, they both, they're the Coke and the Pepsi of my world and so we really we, we really try to encourage people to go with one of the two. I would say Owens Corning is a close third place, but GAF and Certainty just really have a good lock on the market. They stay ahead of of whatever the latest, greatest may be. You know, we see the amount of market research they put and just the amount of care they put into saying, hey, who's out there installing our shingles? We want to make sure that they're representing us well and that they're very well trained and highly qualified to do that job. And they both offer several lines of designer shingles.
Speaker 2:So we were revamping the website here, but we bought the domain name designer shingle dot com, which I think will be the new architectural shingle in another 20 years. But we feature every single designer shingle from both of those companies and Owens Corning has a couple. I think there's a couple from Atlas on there. But we have a pretty intense gallery that you can go through and just look at designer shingles for days, and the goal there was for us to be the authority on designer shingles and then they stopped making them when the pandemic hit and it took them a couple of years to get back in production. But I'd say by this time next year they'll all be back up and running and we can get our hands on all the more popular designs just here today. So if anybody's curious about that, feel free to reach out and I can send you some information.
Speaker 1:Time for one more question. Donnie, you sent me some video earlier of a house you're doing some work on and it had interior railing systems and stuff. Is there a pro or what are the basic pros and cons of wrought iron railing versus aluminum handrails? Basically, everybody could identify either one. Wrought iron usually has those cool designs and they twist and everything. Aluminum is more easily, I assume, installed, manufactured, definitely, and there's a cost difference. But since you put stuff like that in, do you have a preference or can you explain real quick the differences?
Speaker 2:I'd say the big differences are what you mentioned. Cost is a big thing. Aluminum is definitely less expensive. In the roofing world aluminum is more, but with the aluminum it doesn't cost as much as the wrought iron, and I believe that the reason is that it's not as customizable. So if you have something where you want the detail and the things like I mentioned, I showed you today in the video, so wrought iron might be your only choice there, but say it's on the outside.
Speaker 2:You know aluminum doesn't rust, it's. It's superior to any kind of steel, especially if it's painted steel. It's superior to that in terms of how long it's going to hold up and how good it's going to look. So a combination we do is we do a lot of wrought iron inside and a lot of aluminum out and we save a lot of money. The drawback with the aluminum outside is that it comes in six and eight foot sections and so you just basically have to take the spacing of your columns, figure out if you need sixes or eights, and you just basically have to take the spacing of your columns, figure out if you need sixes or eights and you buy a divider post where you need to. But I'm a big fan. It's a really good-looking set of rails and on the inside I haven't really put aluminum on the inside. Usually if people go that route, they want the wrought iron. And I will say if you do go with wrought iron, you want to get it powder-coated.
Speaker 1:It costs a little more, it's hundreds, not thousands more and that powder coating is going to last a lot longer than just having it painted. Well, cool man Again. If anybody out there has questions about their house, again we covered everything decks and roofs, and inside and outside. Please go to the website, thecarolinacontractorcom. You can submit it there by clicking on Ask the Contractor. We love doing these shows. Even if you have a comment about it, a direction, a topic you want us to discuss in general, please let us know. You are the reason the show exists. So go to the website and find that information. Don't forget you can find us on social media. You can find us on YouTube and Facebook and, of course, you can hear us on the radio too, every weekend and sometimes some weekdays too. We've got several stations. We're on in North Carolina and you get details about that also at the website. Thanks for tuning in and checking us out. We hope to hear from you very soon on the Carolina Contractor Show. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to the Carolina Contractor Show. Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.