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  1. CFL Problems

    August 8, 2011 by Bill Dietrich

    Compact fluorescent light bulbs are the, not so distant, future. 2012 to be exact. Aside from health risks from the toxic fumes they emit when they burn out and the disposal hassles associated with CFL’s, there is something everyone who lives in a home should know. That is the potential fire hazards of CFL’s.

    To cut to the chase, there are bulbs on the market that do not contain an internal fuse. Almost all of them come from (surprise) China. What this means is, if the ballasts of these bulbs melt down they will not shut off automatically but continue to stay charged until someone shuts the power off. This is a major fire risk.

    As many of you have already learned, CFL’s do not work with dimmers unless you specifically buy the ‘dimmable’ type. I have heard from electrician friends  that even those should not be trusted. If used with a standard dimmer, they will light when the switch is fully opened but, will over heat which also shortens the life of the bulb.

    Here are a couple of other tips about the use of CFL’s.

    CFLs should not be used in track lighting fixtures.

    They should not be used in recessed (pot lights) or in any fixtures which position the bulb to facing downward and the base to facing upward.

    Doing so allows for excessive heat to be  delivered to the built in ballast at the base of the bulb. Not only does this raise the risk of a ballast melt down but also shortens the life of the bulb by as much as 80%, as does the  simple action off turning the lights on and off under normal conditions.

     

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  2. Master Bath

    May 20, 2011 by Bill Dietrich

    A recently completed master bath for a nice young couple, was painted in a custom powder blue that contrasted nicely against the cappuccino colored cabinetry that comprise the sink vanity, makeup vanity and corner cabinet in the water closet area.. The his and her sink vanity is framed by a soffit which houses LED tape lights for indirect lighting in addition to the sconces. Obviously the suspended oval mirrors have not been installed as of the time of these  photos. The water fixtures are Hansform which include a hand held sprayer for the tub as well as the shower. Miguel, from Shower Door Specialists did his usual bang up job, finishing off the the look with his frame-less shower enclosure.

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  3. Iris’ Kitchen

    September 8, 2010 by Bill Dietrich

    This is a kitchen in a condominium that I was asked to reface. As soon as I looked at it I knew the short answer was “No”. The hard part was breaking the bad news to Iris. I got the remodel  job after six months and several second opinions. Everything had to go and every appliance was relocated. Fortunately, next to the small kitchen was a small dining area which became more of a bar/breakfast nook with seating after I reallocating a few feet for the kitchen.

    I am not going to bore you with the details mainly because, I am too tired to relive it. The most important result of this job was Iris’ happiness. I will let these photos tell the story.

    Click on images to view larger and Esc to return.

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  4. Budget Bath

    May 30, 2010 by Bill Dietrich

    It’ s not always necessary to gut the entire bathroom to achieve a new bathroom.  By minimizing the amount  fixtures to be moved, particularly if you are satisfied with the layout of the room, a huge savings can be realized. Great results can be achieved if you are happy with the condition of the shower and tub, and only want to reface the cabinetry and paint the walls  and ceiling. This of course is the least expensive approach to increasing the rooms value. While this may or may not increase the homes re-sale value, it is important for you to feel comfortable in your home.

    Often times there is a moisture issue that needs to be addressed which prompts the make over; like a leaking shower pan or toilet or  rotted cabinets or mold issues. Perhaps it’s a damaged sink, toilet or  floor tiles that require attention. It is not uncommon for one problem spot to effect another element of the room, opening the proverbial can of worms.  For example, the new cabinet that has a smaller ‘foot print’ than the old cabinet, exposing a huge gap in the floor. The point is, you may end up spending a little more  money than you originally anticipated for the job. That is why planning and foresight are so important.

    In the case of the room pictured below, it was important to the home owners, to remove the giant back to back his and her vanities from the middle of the room. No problem. This requires relocating plumbing and electrical a new floor, some drywall work and painting, as well as new cabinetry and lighting. With all that, there was still a huge savings because the toilet, tub and shower where left as they were. In the end the home owners were able to have exactly what they were looking for, an open space  with a lot of light and fresh feeling.

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  5. Painted Roof

    May 27, 2010 by Bill Dietrich

    There are many known benefits of painting a roof not the least of which is prolonging the life of your roof. Additionally different paints and sealers can provide a wide array of benefits from waterproofing to insulating qualities. In this article I want to focus on aesthetics.

    Recently I have been involved with an association that prides itself on it’s neat, pristine appearance.  As such, it does not take much to stand out like a sore thumb if something isn’t up to snuff with your property. In this case, some roofs have been damaged and repaired from storms resulting in miss matched tiles and unsightly stucco and grout issues.

    Though some of the roofs are older they are not leaking and do not yet warrant a replacement. However time and wear and tear have caused the tiles themselves to lose their color while the sun is continuously breaking down the cement tiles. This is a perfect scenario to use roofing paint. What these roofs need are U.V. protection, resistance to surface mold and pigment , in a word, roof paint. Finding the right color to fit in with the other homes can be a bit of a chore. Most paint suppliers will color match any color you bring to them. In the picture below you will see a  painted roof sandwiched between two homes with new roofs. I believe the color works perfectly.

    http://whdietrich.com/painted roof

    Painted Roof

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  6. Small Bathroom Remodels

    September 8, 2009 by Bill Dietrich

    bath 024Remodeling a small bathroom may seem like a  fairly easy task. Certainly the cost of materials will be much less than a large bathroom. However, much of the labor is the same in regards to what needs to be done. For example, if you are replacing the shower tiles the chances are you will end up replacing the underlying drywall with ‘Dura-rock’  and of course this is your opportunity to upgrade the shower pan, diverter and plumbing etc. Undoubtedly, you will want to put in a new toilet and vanity. These are the basic items to be upgraded and they cost money.

    If you are considering relocating plumbing and/or walls, of course you are looking at much more labor and expense. In a small bathroom these are not usually on the agenda unless you are thinking of expanding the bathroom into a neighboring room or closet. In some instances a person will want to remove (or add) soffits, rearrange the lighting and exhaust fans which will call for some minor drywall work.

    In the case of the first two jobs pictured below, bath tubs were removed and a shower put in their place. Obviously, this calls for the removal of the tub, relocating the drain in the floor and recapitulating the diverter plumbing. If this were the only tub in the home, I would advise against it because, the day will come when you will wish you had a tub to soak in.

    Each of these jobs required new ceilings due to the changing of ceiling exhaust fans and removing soffits and new lighting arrangements. Aside from that, the only other drywall work was to the walls due to removing those gigantic wall  mirrors, relocating outlets and switches, relocating the plumbing to accommodate for the larger vanities and the removal of the side wall medicine cabinets. All the tile in the bathrooms were replaced including the floor tiles and the marble window sill. The photos were taken prior to the frame-less glass door installations.

    A final note of caution. A lot of people are getting rid of those old wall to wall mirrors and medicine cabinets and replacing them with ornamental mirrors and larger vanities with lots of drawers in lieu of a medicine cabinet. I just want to point out that if you decide to remove these large mirrors by yourself , it can be done. I remove them on my own all the time as  I did in each of these bathrooms shown here.Just know that they are extremely heavy (you may want to enlist a helper). Also know that they are not safety glass, when broken they turn into shards and can cause serious damage to you and your property, ie. flooring, counter tops and tubs, etc.

    Category Remodeling | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

  7. Hate Popcorn Ceilings

    July 19, 2009 by Bill Dietrich

    It seems like everyone is turning against pop corn ceilings these days. My guess is, we are just tired of seeing it everywhere we go. Another concern of popcorn ceilings is that, it is water soluble and should it get ruined by moisture it is extremely difficult to repair, it usually needs to be removed. Pop corn ceilings are a by-product of the Reaganomics era and is looked upon as cheap and dated. I have nothing against the look of pop corn textured ceilings but, I am glad you hate it and want it removed, that’s fine with me. The problem is, most companies who remove pop corn ceilings want to replace it with another texture on the ceiling and you don’t want texture. Most popcorn ceiling removal specialists do not install smooth ceiling surfaces because, it is too labor intensive. Basically,they simply scrape off the old and spray on the new. On the other hand, thoroughly cleaning the ceiling and re-mudding it is a whole  different story. It sucks and I love it.

    I have yet to do a ceiling job that didn’t turn into a major re-do. Often I get the paint, molding, tile, kitchen, bath, doors and all sorts of work and referrals from one ceiling job, done right. These photos show a recent job where the ceilings were 16 feet high in some areas and the skylight boxes as high as 20 feet. The home owner did not want a scaffold in the house so I did it all with ladders (this also sucks). The textured walls remain as they were. Each wall had a different texture. Due to the mold damage found in almost every room in the house, many areas of the drywall had to be removed and finished to match the existing. In spite of my misgivings about pulling this off, I surprised myself. Even I have a hard time seeing where the patch work was done. So I’m happy about that.

    The happy eventuality of all this is a clean and updated look. In this home  3/4″ X 6-1/2″ square stock was used as base molding and 3/4″ X 3-1/2″ square stock became the casement around the doors and simple 4-5/8″ Colonial crown was used on the lower ceilings and 6-1/4′ up high. Also on the exterior French doors I installed a wood valance right in the jamb to hide the window shade hardware. In the guest bedroom where there is a sliding glass door I built in a valance across the span of the room made of drywall and hand matched the texture of the existing walls. This way, the crown molding is installed directly on the valance, so that it looks like, it was always there as part of the walls and continues that clean look.

    Remember to use the backspace button  to navigate back to page after enlarging image.

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  8. Exterior Paint

    May 5, 2009 by Bill Dietrich

    Here are some interesting exterior projects. This is a good example of personal taste, as much as it is about the mechanics of getting a job done. The location of a property often sways the home owners choice of  color and aesthetics. For example in the first photo there is a house in Normandy Isles very near the Miami Beach area where deep Yellows, Golds, Crimsons and Greens are dominant in the area. This young lady was dead set on what I refer to as school bus yellow. I tried to gently, dissuade her for admittedly, selfish reasons. Yellow can be difficult to work with. Even though I used top quality, top of the line paint (in this instance Sherwin Williams Super Paint) after four coats of paint I could still see through it, when looking at it up close. This was a fun project over all because, I enjoy breathing new life into historic-type homes.

    Speaking of which the Keys house belonged to and was enjoyed by our family, for two generations. It hadn’t been utilized since the last of the kids grew up and stopped using it for weekend partying. Apparently, it was commandeered by crack addicts and was facing condemnation and razing. Although we had family in the Keys who are contractors, when they drove by to see if it could be sold,they didn’t want to work on it. I drove down from Pembroke Pines, to see it for myself. That started a good six weeks of hard ass work with a 2-1/2 hour commute every day. The good news is, after replacing just about everything except the walls (all cement,even interior) and the ceiling (tongue and groove Dade pine) we did turn a profit within a few months. These houses are called conch houses. Many were built during the prohibition by Rum Runners from the Bahamas to stash booze in and are also known as Rum Houses, as we believe, was the case with this one.

    The next three photos are of  a home in Boca Raton, where I painted everything from the roof itself, down to the drive way and patio. The idea with the driveway was to faux finish it to mimic the brick accent of the facade. I sprayed multiple coats of Xylene based stain of  brick red and charcoal grey, back and forth until I achieved the right mix of color. It’s a process I call “smoking the paint”. I don’t know the technical name, or what any one else calls it, nor do I care.

    In the last photos is a home in Weston Hills Country Club. My customers here got semi-screwed over by the previous painters because, they used sub standard paint and preparation. It’s not uncommon to see new concrete stucco facades being painted with no primer, almost as fast as it takes for the stucco to dry. That’s a big mistake. If you can not wait the full sixty days for the stucco to cure then, it’s important to use Crete-Seal or a similar product as a primer. If you simply paint over uncured, unsealed cement it will cast a green-grey tone in about six months to a year. We settled on Benjamin Moore’s, Moore Guard in satin finish. Cafe Royal is the main body and the trim is also Cafe Royal at 25%.

    Remember to use the backspace button  to navigate back to page after enlarging image.

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  9. Crown Molding

    April 23, 2009 by Bill Dietrich

    I got a call from Canada last night. A gentleman wanted to know if, I am capable of installing crown molding for his Florida home,that he is remodeling. The short answer is, “Yes”. I started to send him to this site to see for himself and then realized, I don’t have any pictures of crown molding displayed anywhere. I do now. These are some samples of different jobs and different challenges that go with them. For example, there is a photo of a master bath that had, a pitched ceiling and a lot of angles. Some people will tell you that, it is not possible to install crown molding on anything, other than a level (horizontal) ceiling. They are probably right since, they just don’t want  to do the job, or don’t want to think that hard.

    I’ve included another job where I installed over 5,000 linear feet of triple crown molding. The majority of the triple crown molding was installed in step-like, tray ceilings.The trays go up 18-20 feet, in the center of the rooms. This was all installed and painted using a ladder and working alone. How did I do it?  Well, that’s an ancient Chinese secret, Grasshopper.

    I also wanted to include a couple photos of the remodel of Jackie Gleason’s last residence where the new owner wanted to lose the retro look and create more of an old world look. This involved my building arches and 28 columns from scratch to create a square portico effect at the perimeter of the sunken living room. It also involved creating a coffered ceiling with triple crown molding. All of the crown molding was faux finished, with three different gold paints and then antiqued with amber poly-urethane. The posts of the columns were painted deep bronze (almost black) and also antiqued the same way. From the bottom of the living room floor to the top of the tray ceiling measured 18 feet. The columns measured 14 feet. On this job I cheated. I used a scaffold.

    I’m also including some other photos of crown molding.

    As a side note all of these jobs were also painted by me, as well.

    Remember to use the backspace button  to navigate back to page after enlarging image.

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  10. Whole House Remodel

    March 27, 2009 by Bill Dietrich

    This place was horrid.All the wall paper and pop corn ceilings had to be removed.The paper would not come off after 25 years and had to be sanded off, only to reveal a moldy mess of drywall which needed to be replaced.

    Finally every inch of dry wall including ceilings had to be re-shmootzed. (shmootz is bill speak for dry wall compound, caulking and anything that is shmootzy) and then primed.

    Next I replaced the floor. All of it. This house had four different flooring materials which along with the wall paper really gave it a boxed in feeling.

    All the vanities in the bathrooms were completely replaced and granite tops were added along with new faucets,plumbing, of course, and toilets etc.

    In the kitchen, the cabinet boxes were still good. I refaced them with maple wood veneer stained in cherry and new maple doors and hardware, plumbing fixtures and a microwave oven was added. The counter top was replaced with granite and the sink counter extended 12 in. beyond the half wall to create a short bar into the dining area.

    The floor was replaced with 20 in. porcelain tile set on a bias throughout the house and is now the only flooring material. This adds to the over all flow of the homes layout, to have a continuous floor. It’s important to use a similar  grout color, like the tile, to prevent ending up with a checker board look. The paint also, is the same neutral color through out the house for the same reason. Ben Moore (OC2) “Pale Almond”

    Here’s the result:

    Remember to use the backspace button  to navigate back to page after enlarging image.

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