April 30, 2025 • 33 mins
Ready to transform your space? Donnie Blanchard kicks off this episode with a roof revival story, sharing how Tyler Dodson from Industrial Softwash completely eliminated ugly algae streaks using an innovative chemical process. As a roofing professional...That endorsement carries weight, for homeowners facing similar issues.
The conversation shifts to the hottest home design trends for 2025, revealing a dramatic pivot from the ubiquitous white farmhouse aesthetic to bold, all-black exteriors. While this monochromatic look might seem extreme, the hosts explore how texture differences between materials create visual interest, with gray emerging as an attractive middle-ground option that prevents homes from looking cookie-cutter.
Flooring choices take center stage as Donnie and his co-host compare pre-finished engineered hardwood versus luxury vinyl plank (LVP), offering practical insights about durability, feel, and cost. This leads to a thoughtful discussion about how our living spaces are evolving, with traditional dining rooms giving way to expanded kitchen islands that accommodate whole families and reflect our more casual entertaining style.
The all-electric home trend continues to gain momentum, with at least one in four new homes now fully electric. The hosts break down why this shift makes sense from both practical and financial perspectives, highlighting how current tax incentives create a "sweet spot" for homeowners considering the switch. For those planning new construction, single-story designs are experiencing a renaissance, offering accessibility benefits that appeal to homeowners of all ages.
Whether you're planning a major renovation or simple updates to your outdoor living space, this episode delivers practical advice from experienced contractors who understand both the technical requirements and lifestyle implications of today's home design trends. Visit thecarolinacontractor.com to see project photos, submit questions, or connect with the hosts about your next home project.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard man.
This is the time of year.
Everybody is doing somethingwith their house projects,
whether it's big or small, andlast week Donnie and I were
talking about some stuff that wewere going to do to our
prospective homes.
I'm in the process where we'vegot a key lock, so we're lining
(00:21):
up some things we want to do atour house and you've got some
project at your house.
You still working on that.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, uh, my fiance and I are going to move in
together and, of course, she hasa long list of uh things that
she'd like for me to do to thehouse, and we've we've gotten
through just about everything.
There are a couple of thingsthat'll have to wait until a
better time of the year Justtoday, matter of fact being that
I own SureTop Roofing.
I don't want to admit that Idid this, but I put my roof on
(00:49):
back in 2011.
And that was back before theyhad the algae deterrence built
into the shingles like they donow.
I want to say now it's 25-yearalgae warranty that they didn't
have a long time ago.
I don't even know if they had10 back in 2011.
So on the north side of myhouse, where I pull in every day
over my garage doors, I hadthese ugly algae streaks there.
(01:10):
So I had a fellow that livesclose by and said you know, I
can get those off no problem andpretty fascinating process.
It's a shout out to Tyler Dodsonwith Industrial Softwash.
He did a great job.
It didn't take him very longand it was a lot less expensive
than what I thought.
Basically, he pulls up and heraised a solution on the roof
and man is before he does theroof.
So he made it a point Right.
(01:46):
And he said well, the firstthing that touches the
landscaping it's going to absorb.
He said so, I don't want thechemical solution to be the
first thing that lands on thelandscaping, which is really
smart.
So he sprays it with freshwaterbefore he switches over to the
solution.
Side note there he has a valveand a remote control in his
pocket that will operate thatvalve on the truck.
So he pushes one button, thevalve turns and it switches from
(02:08):
freshwater solution to thechemical.
And that was a cool thing.
And we're walking around thehouse and he's giving me
suggestions for other things Imight want to do in the future.
And he says man, I hate mulch.
I said why is that?
And he said well, mulch, itholds a lot of fungus.
And I can't quote the type offungus that he said Gosh, I'll
put it up on our social media.
(02:29):
But he showed me a picture andhe said if you have brick,
you're pretty much safe, but thetype of fungus that likes to
live on mulch can actually sendthe spores as high as 15 feet in
the air.
I had no idea.
So he showed me severalexamples of hardy and vinyl
siding, where you know the mulchgets to spores.
Out there, the fungus grows onthe siding and it's to the point
where, if you don't catch itearly enough, you'll have to
(02:51):
sand it off, that you can't evenpressure wash it.
So you know he made a goodpoint, he taught me a few things
that I didn't know, and beforehe was gone my roof looked a
million times better.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So times better.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So thanks, tyler Two things that he first of all
mentioned, what to use insteadof mulch Rubber mulch maybe.
He said he didn't think thatheld the fungus.
But you know, I don't.
I don't, I've never had aproblem, but I do have a brick
house and he said bricks is notas susceptible to the growth.
But but yeah, I guess that'ssomething worth looking into.
Maybe some sort of decorativegravel or something might be a
better option.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Number two I want you to mention his name again,
because you see ads on socialmedia for people who clean
shingles and they have thesedifferent ways.
It's hard to tell who's legit,who's not.
Obviously, this guy was.
So if people in your area wantto know, hey, who was that guy
who did so good on a roofer'shouse, cleaning algae off of it?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
He was again who, tyler Dodson with Industrial
Soft Wash, and he actually ownsthe company and does the work
himself, which I'm a big fan ofthat.
I don't have his informationhandy right this second, but if
you want to get in touch withhim, reach out through the
website thecarolinacontractorcom, send me a message and I will
reply to that email and give youhis info and out of that email
and give you his info and maybewe can get him on the show in
the near future and he couldtalk some about that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, cool.
Well, donnie gave away animportant part of this show and
that's the name of the Carolinacontractor show, the website,
the Carolina contractorcom.
And what we like to talk aboutis we just proved right off the
bat, as your house if you'redoing a DIY project or maybe
you're doing a big project, mywife and I are getting ready to
do some stuff, and Donnie's beendoing that.
This show is for you.
We're the sports center ofDIYers and we're going to talk
(04:28):
about some things that aretrending in houses today and in
the year 2025.
But that's kind of a cool thingabout the roofing, because that
wasn't one of the things wewere going to talk about.
That's not a DIY, but it'sdefinitely a maintenance thing,
and I'm really glad that you,owning SureTop Roofing, could
give your seal of approval onsomeone who does that, because
it kind of some videos look alittle sketchy, don't they?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, they do.
And you know I would love torip those shingles off and put
new shingles on.
But you know I put my roof onnot even half a lifespan ago, so
there was a 30 year shinglewhen I put those on and we're
not quite to the 15 year markand I just thought it would be
wise to spend a few hundredbucks versus a whole new roof,
and I'm going to try to stretchthat thing out as long as I can.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
One of the other things we like to do on the
Carolina Contractor Show how youcan save some money and maybe
do repairs or upgrades versusreplacements.
So today's topic is going to beperfect for everybody tuning in
inside and outside of yourhouse of things you can do.
We're going to talk about thetop home building trends for
2025.
And we've had a wide range oftopics over the past few months.
(05:35):
We won't go into them and go tothe website and see those.
At thecarolinacontractorcom,you download our past shows.
They go back.
We're just talking six yearsplus.
Now we have social mediacontacts Facebook and Instagram
and all that but we've hit sucha wide range that some of our
listeners said when are yougoing to talk specifically about
houses?
(05:55):
Because we learn somethingevery time you talk about that,
and we kind of went that's apretty good idea.
Maybe we should talk abouthouses.
So we're going to tackle someof the trends that are occurring
this year and we're going tostart off with, you know, one
that I want to jump into is youbrought this up and it kind of
(06:16):
hurts my heart because the trendthat is going out is white
houses with black trim and Ilove that.
Maybe I'm traditional, butyou're seeing more of black
houses and black trim be popular.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, it's pretty fresh on the scene for the black
on black on black.
But to hear somebody say theywant black windows, black siding
, black roof, black gutters,it's like, well, what are you
going for?
You know Halloween theme orwhat's going on here?
You're just a very dark person,but for, I'd say, the last five
(06:52):
years, the most popular thingon the market in terms of new
construction seems to be a whitefarmhouse style the vertical
board and batten siding in white.
And then you know the blackwindows, black gutters and the
black roof.
So really the only thing thatchanged in that equation would
be the siding color.
And I had a homeowner come to meand say they wanted the black
on black on black.
(07:12):
And you know to be open-minded,I went and found a couple of
houses that were that way.
So really the only thing thatbroke up the black was the
texture differences.
So you got asphalt shingles andyou maybe have black vinyl and
then aluminum guttersno-transcript.
(07:46):
That we had on the show threeweeks ago or so and at the very
last minute Ashton decided we'regoing to go gray with the
siding and it's not a boringgray, and I sent you the
pictures earlier.
And man, that house is a banger.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, you got to put pictures up on the IG and the
Facebook and stuff because it isgorgeous and a black on black
on black, I wouldn't go for.
But once you sent me thepictures of her house, wow, that
gray really makes a nice change.
It doesn't look cookie cutterlike other houses, it's going to
make it one of a kind and itgives people a mental option of
(08:21):
what they can do.
I still like my idea of doingthe white with a black trim.
But if we're not clear here,donnie is not only owner of sure
top roofing, he's a generalcontractor and he's owner of
Blanchard building company, andso that house is like right in
your, your wheelhouse, no punintended.
The, the combination of themetal trim on the roof and and
(08:44):
the standard uh shingle, which Igot right, was a charcoal black
by the certainty manufacturer.
Um, beautiful options,beautiful colors, uh, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
overall, I think it's a beautiful house I really
appreciate the compliment andI'm gonna be better about
putting more, more pictures outthere.
I don't put enough of my workout there and I stay so busy.
And I want to be honest again,I don't advertise at all for
Blanchard Building.
With SureTop there's so manymore roofing companies and there
are builders out there that youhave to kind of play the game
with the roofing deal.
But the building thing, I'vegot people waiting in line for
(09:17):
me to do their work and, man,we've done some killer projects
here lately especially, and Ineed to be better about putting
those pictures out.
And I want to comment on onething.
You just said that withBlanchard Building and SureTop I
met a young guy this week andhe does commercial construction.
He's getting his contractorlicense.
Just really, really interestingguy starting a family, maybe
late 20s, and I was telling himall the stuff that I do and I
(09:40):
just go to work every day and Ido this day in and day out.
And you know I have a really Ithink I have a really good
personal life balance with mywork.
But I'm telling them I'm like,yeah, I have, you know, four or
five construction jobs going.
I've got three roofing crewsthat run just about every day.
So at any given moment I've gotseven to 10 jobs going that I'm
handling and he said, dude, youdo what and you do that every
(10:03):
day and I'm just used to it.
So I really want to say to theyoung people that listen to the
show and it seems like the youngpeople, the audience full of
the young guys who were inconstruction really gained a lot
of traction.
I get more interaction fromthose guys than anybody at this
point and, fellas, if you havethe time and the energy to be a
subcontractor and a contractorand you're getting going, you
(10:23):
know, and really, if you'restarting a family and have
children to feed, maybe start aside hustle as a subcontractor,
even if it's a pressure washingguy or a, you know, a landscape
company or just something thatyou can start with a with not a
lot of money, and then you haveyour contractor license as well,
because you can do a lot morethan you think you can and it's
not.
(10:46):
It's hard at first but when youlearn how to delegate and you
learn how to manage these peopleand look ahead and I'm flirting
with the idea of maybe writinga short book on how to become a
contractor and just some of thethings and the cashflow balance
and keeping your bills going andjust several things that are
super important and when you getbusy it's really hard to keep
up with.
But if you keep a handful ofthese things on the forefront,
(11:08):
you can be successful at both.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
What we're going to do in the future, donnie, is
have an unscripted show whereI'm just going to pick your
brain, where you give advice topeople who might be considering
going into construction or evenpursuing a general contractor's
license, and you can just givesome wisdom you've gained and
just talk.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I can't do it all the time, but once in a while my
brain will start firing and I'lljust open my notes up.
And I've got that.
I've got that, that notes pageopen with.
I probably wrote two pages ofthings in 30 minutes when I
started firing.
And you know, some days I'mbrain dead at the end of the day
and I just can't do that.
But but I have some really goodstuff that I would Well, I
(11:47):
think it'd be very valuable topeople.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
We had talked about home projects we're doing and
I've got a few on the plate thatwe're going to do over the next
year or two.
We're going to, we're trying todecide on our floors and we
have a pine hardwood floors andpine is a softer wood so it gets
some dents and stuff and youcan have someone come in and
they can sand it, refinish itand everything.
And we're also considering someluxury vinyl plank LVP and
(12:18):
you're very familiar with it anda big fan of it.
But one of the trends now iscalled pre-finished engineered
floors.
So are hardwood floors reallyout?
These floors are multiplelayers of plywood or OSB
fiberboard and they've got likea hardwood veneer on top and I'm
assuming I've not seen many ofthem that veneer thickness is
different the higher the price,the thicker it is.
(12:39):
But they say it's super costeffective.
It cuts labor costs because youcan put in really longer
lengths and you don't have to dosanding and finishing and it
does cost a little bit less thanhardwood floors.
Do you have any experience withthese pre-engineered or
pre-finished engineered floors,donnie?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, and if I had to explain it to the average
person, I would say that itlooks like LVP.
So the LVP and thepre-engineered hardwood are
about the same, look.
I think the big difference isthe feel.
So the engineered hardwood isactually real wood.
So if you're walking on itbarefooted it feels the same as
a hardwood floor and the factthat they've uh, you know,
(13:18):
condensed it down.
You know, traditional hardwoodis three quarter inches thick,
by either two and a quarter orthree and a quarter wide, and
the uh, the the pre-engineeredstuff is anywhere from three,
eight cents thick to a half inchthick, and but, but it still
has wood property.
So if you want that wood feeland you want to, you want the
wood look then that's the way togo.
(13:39):
Every house that I have goingright now, um, has the lvp.
I'm sorry.
One one that I finishedrecently did have the
pre-engineered hardwood and theylook great.
Um, my big concern there is ifthey will stand up to water.
So if they're in a wet area,like a kitchen or a bathroom,
will they display the propertiesof wood if you have a spill or
(13:59):
multiple spills over in thatsink area?
But everything else I have isLVP.
It's quite a bit cheaper thanthe pre-engineered hardwood and
it checks all the boxes.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So you might not know the answer to this.
I'm curious with LVP, for mosttime you just put over the
existing floor and you mighthave to pull up your quarter
round, trim and and reseat that.
But would you have to pull up ahard?
If, like say, I went with thisengineered hardwood, would I
have to tear up my existing woodfloor to put?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
the stuff down?
No, not at all.
I mean, if you have carpet, ofcourse that's got to come out.
But uh, the the pre-engineeredhardwood and the LVP are usually
right around the same thickness, anywhere from three eighths of
an inch to a half an inch.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Okay cool, but I know you're a big fan of the LVP.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I'm a big fan of uh.
Lvp has more options in termsof the look and you know it's.
It's more durable, scratchproof, burn proof, waterproof
and if you have animals I wouldsay LVP all the way.
The pre-engineered hardwood,the wood properties.
I would say it still can bescratched.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Of course, it all can burn at the right temperature,
but is it burn resistant?
Those are the right questionsto ask.
Another trend coming this yearis mixed use spaces, and you've
got a thing with housingshortages and retail spaces that
are not being optimized thebest they can.
These are projects that combinehome, workplaces, recreation,
(15:20):
everything, but you've reallygot to figure them out Again as
you as a house builder.
Are you seeing a switch onthese kind of mixed use spaces?
Are they becoming more commonor people asking for them more?
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And when I see a floor plan now that has a lot of
space devoted to a dining areaor something like that, and my
first question is how often doyou plan to use this or, um, you
know they?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
have a.
Let me interrupt, Donnie.
What's on your dining roomtable?
Is it set for dinner?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yes, but there's a lot of dust on it as well, and
so you know it's.
It's something that never getsused and uh, like I said, I drew
my house plans gosh 15, 16years ago, so that was just
something you did.
I have a breakfast area and adining room and we barely ever
use any.
To comment on your mixed usespace, we use our, we use our
(16:09):
bar in the kitchen for justabout everything and, depending
on the size of the family, howmuch you entertain, you know, uh
, do you have neighbors close bythat eat at your place often?
You know, if you've got twofamilies that come together two
or three times a week, maybe youcan justify that.
But the the great room conceptkind of started this whole thing
30 years ago when everybodykind of combined the kitchen and
the living room there.
(16:29):
So my, I do have that, mykitchen feeds into my living
room and I have a prettygenerous sized island area.
But what I'm seeing now ispeople are doing away with the
dining room, maybe still have abreakfast area, but they have
what they labeled when we didthe TV show Every house.
They were small houses, theyall had eat-in kitchens, and so
(16:57):
what I'm seeing as a result ofthe popularity from eating
kitchens is that we're doingthese giant islands.
So people are doing where myisland will seat four bar stools
you know we're doing more likeeight in their wraparound
seating and and basically Ithink it's wonderful because if
that keeps the family togetherand you don't have two or three
people eating in another room,it's a way to you know, corral
the kids and and you can keep aneye on them if they're smaller
while you're doing your cookingthing.
And I really liked the concept.
Yeah, this past.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Easter, our son came home for a quick weekend visit
and we had Easter dinner in thekitchen table the round kitchen
table where you're going moveover a little and we have a
dining room that seats sixcomfortably.
But exactly what you said.
We just it's not used.
I kept looking over because asI look over at my dining room
table in the other room I cansee I've got a battery charger
(17:37):
sitting on top of the tableright now with a battery in it
recharging for my blower.
So that's how fancy our diningroom is.
Hey, paint we've talked aboutmany shows, donnie is a big
thing you can do.
It's an easy DIY project tochange the look of your house
and make something really standout.
If you did a painted accentwall, I was going to mention the
(17:58):
manufacturer of this paint, butI was unable to find it online,
so I'm not going to say itbecause it could embarrass them
if I did.
But there's these things calleddopamine decor, which is like
vibrant paint colors andpatterns and textured layers and
it's basically a mental healthroom.
Have you ever heard anyone askor?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
talk about that before.
Not really, but I'm a dude andI don't pick paint colors and I
usually leave that up to thewomen.
And I do understand that darkpaint colors make for a dreary
room and you'd want to brightenthings up in most cases and so
nobody ever picks.
You know lots of blacks orgrays for bedrooms or offices or
(18:41):
whatever, and I just think thatthat's.
I mean, it's an interestingconcept.
There's probably some truth toit, but you know, I think that
every time you turn around,somebody's being labeled with a
different condition.
If you have a crappy day, Idon't think the paint color is
going to make you feel betterwhen you pop in the front door.
So and I could be wrong aboutthat that that's each to their
own and everybody's different.
(19:01):
I get all that.
But dopamine decor sounds likean amazing marketing technique
and for somebody that's you knowthat's prone to feel bad when
they get home or they hate theirjob it may be something that
they want to try and you know,if you're going to paint your
house and you're going to paintyour house and you're just prone
to be in a bad mood, then maybethat appeals to you.
(19:21):
So I don't know if I have anopinion, really, either way.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
And I don't pick paints.
I already had to go throughthat with do you want the
off-white egg white or white atdawn for the ceiling, and I'm
like they're all the same color.
Can I leave now, can I go?
And so I went to a sports barto recover.
Another thing that's trendingand I'm going to question this
(19:46):
being a real trend because wedid an entire show on an
all-electric home.
But there's more money for itbecause of the.
The inflation reduction acthelps people, let's face it.
The inflation reduction act wasjust the green new deal it was.
It was kind of put under acamouflage of what it really was
, but it does have somegovernment discounts and tax
rebates to use more electric buta fully electric house.
(20:09):
Like I said, go to the websiteto hear the episode we did years
ago.
But that's becoming more andmore common and it's not
necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
No, I think it's a great thing.
I'm a big fan of all electricand there's so many things that
are pros and so few cons thatyou really can't go wrong with
all electric.
And the one thing when peoplespeculate, there's just that a
lot of speculation.
We really don't know wherethings are going.
We can kind of see wherethey're trending and guess, but
one in four houses right now arealready all electric and it may
(20:39):
be even more than that since wegot this.
I think that statistic camewhen we did the all electric
house show two or three yearsago, so it's probably more than
that at this point.
And the heat pumps, which is theelectric way to heat and cool
your house, they've come so farthat they just work really well.
Gas and people, a lot of peopledon't realize that when you
have gas it's only your heat.
You know you still haveelectric for your cooling and
(21:02):
your air conditioning.
So really the only there'sreally no advantage to that and
the only reason I would say thatgas was so popular for so long
is because a lot of houses wereolder and they were poorly
insulated.
So if you have no insulation,then you're paying an extra
couple hundred dollars a monthjust to have that gas heat.
You know, gas blows out of theregisters at 120 degrees, where
(21:23):
electric only blows out at 90degrees.
But if you have good insulation, 90 degrees is fine and once
you get to the desiredtemperature you're just in
maintenance mode after that.
So electric is definitely theway to go in my opinion, and the
way things are going with solaroptions and just everything
renewable energy wise, having anall electric house sets you up
(21:43):
beautifully for that.
So if you ever go that route,then you know the solar will
work everything in your house,whereas if you're, you have gas
this and gas that, then you'vegot a lot of conversion kits to
buy and I'm just a fan rightdown to appliances, and it all
just works better as electric inmy opinion.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And cars.
Let's face it you now gottechnology where not only do you
have electric cars that yourecharge at your house, your car
can power your house if youlose power to the house itself.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Right.
I think this is a sweet spotand I think that because they're
really trying to push people togo all electric and use these
renewable energy resources,there's more tax credits than
there's ever going to be.
When three out of every fourhomes in the country are all
electric and, say, 50% of thepopulation has some form of
solar, the tax credits are goingto go away or they're going to
(22:32):
be way less than they are now.
So we're in that sweet spotwhere the equipment,
everything's not as advanced asit will be, but it's way down
the road compared to where wewere 20 years ago and the tax
credits and everything you canget back from the government is
pretty much at a peak right now.
So I think sweet spot for aboutthe next five years.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, we got to get that infrastructure going, and
I'm just going to go ahead andsay this too Nuclear power is
what's going to power this ideaof having so much more electric
homes and vehicles and stuff.
Right now we can't do it, sostop fighting the nuke reactor.
They're actually pretty goodand they're extremely safe when
compared to other methods.
I didn't want to go too far offon that.
I just am tired of hearingelectric, electric, electric.
(23:10):
Where are you going to get itfrom?
You got to have something, hey,bo, something.
My wife and I.
As you get older, a lot ofpeople experience this, and that
is going up and down the stairsevery day, because it's very
common to have a two-story house.
I've told my kids look at anice brick one-level house.
If you're buying a house, or ifyou're building, make a big
(23:31):
floor plan but keep it at onefloor.
It's very practical.
Single story homes that'ssomething else that's come up as
a trend in 2025.
Again, your expertise, yourexperience, is that something
you see more and more?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, and if you're a young person buying a house and
you're not going to live thereforever, or maybe you'll
consider it as a rental, thinkabout it this way it's going to
be a slab house If you have, youknow one story with with no
steps going into the, into thehouse, and I'm I'm a custom
builder, so of course I don't.
I'm not a fan of slab housesbecause that's what they'd use
for track builders.
Uh, that's what track buildersuse and so forth.
(24:04):
But if you're going to buy ahouse, it's going to move or you
have a different intention forit down the road.
Think about it like this is thatif you want to rent it out or
sell it and it's one level, nosteps it's going to be a very
attractive option to an oldercouple and it's small, so it's
probably just going to be twopeople buying it, so that fits
the square footage factor rightthere.
(24:24):
But the fact that they can getin it and it's wheelchair
accessible, all that's just asuper attractive option.
And I think the thing thatscares people about slab houses
is they think, well, all thatplumbing is down in the concrete
, but really and this isn't thecase always, but most of the
time it's just the drains forall your plumbing that's in the
slab.
Most of the time you don't haveany supply lines.
They come from overhead, sothey come from your attic down
(24:47):
through the walls and the onlything that's embedded in the
concrete is just the drainsystem, which doesn't hold water
until you send water through it.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I mean, I'm very happy where we live.
I love my house.
It's got all the memories, buta one-story house does sound
nice as you get up.
In years, and as we've eventalked in the past, you've done
some renovations on houses ornew builds where you've planned
for that by putting what was itlike two by sixes in the walls.
So in the future if someonewanted to attach a handrail, it
(25:15):
would be supported alreadybehind the wall.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
The handicap accessibility the two by six was
just the envelope of the house,so only the exterior walls were
two by six.
That's what you're thinkingabout there, which is still
wonderful 50% more insulationthan a two by four.
Um, but the handicapaccessibility was that there was
no steps into the house.
But what you were probablythinking about is I blocked
everything.
So I have.
I took all my scrap two by tensand everywhere, in every
(25:38):
bathroom, down, down everyhallway, I blocked in the wall.
So if they ever have to addgrab bars or any kind of
handicap accessibility feature,there was blocking inside the
wall there to support those.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Let's move outdoors real quick, because I'm blessed.
I have a nice big in-groundpool, that is, we've already
opened it.
No one's swimming in it becauseit'll make you sing as high as
Michael Jackson if you jumped in.
The thing is, once the pool'sopen, the weather's warm, you
like to be outdoors and we havea big deck.
I'll put up a picture of that.
(26:08):
I'm blessed with a screened-inporch.
We love that.
It's time to get creative aboutoutdoor design and what are
some things you might have orthat you like to see at a house
that really says let's move thisparty outdoors.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Some form or fashion of cover.
So if you're going to beoutside, it's nice to have a
covered area.
I don't I'm on the fence aboutwhether or not I like screened
in.
I was going to screen in mycovered porch at my personal
house and I just saw it being aleaf and pollen trap and all the
things, and of course you knowyou had a good solution to that
(26:44):
when you wrapped it in plasticduring pollen season.
But I really think some coverand if you have something that's
on the south facing side of thehouse as your outdoor area, you
definitely need.
You know in the evenings thatthat low sun going down is awful
hot in the summertime, so Iwould say that would be number
one.
You know, just refreshing yourdeck space or any kind of patio
(27:05):
space making, making adesignated area for cooking.
So I buy these things calledgrill mats.
So anywhere right around mycooking area if I have a spill
or anything, I'm not ruining theconcrete or the deck boards or
anything like that, and justseveral, you know, accessories
like that, and each house isdifferent.
So, um, the cover would be myfirst priority though.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, I like the idea of maybe a fire pit.
We've got a gazebo and we'vetalked about it'd be a great
spot to put a hot tub, becauseit's a concrete slab next to the
pool.
That's our covered area.
But having the screen porch isa bug thing.
That's kind of nice.
Yeah, true, pollen's a pain,but I don't have an issue with
(27:45):
pollen getting on the screenthat.
That's easy to get rid of.
It's just getting inside.
A fantasy would be um, glassingin that screened in porch with
windows you can drop thatbecomes screen so you can have
the advantage of enjoying summerair, cool fall, or if it's cold
and rainy outside, you can havethe windows up and sit out
(28:06):
there with a cup of coffee andjust enjoy the weather.
So I understand your positiontoo.
The big thing I want to quickadd is the deck materials and
what you use.
I have a lumber deck and peoplesay, well, you got to clean it
and stain it and seal it andtake care of it, and a lot of
people like the?
Um, the synthetic material, thetreks and stuff like that.
(28:29):
Uh, what do you?
You have synthetic, you have alike treks I do.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, I had the five quarter deck boards originally
and they just twisted and turnedand, um, I had to replace those
.
So I went with, I did theextension with the covered porch
and I just went ahead and didthe um, the treks throughout.
But two things that I wanted tomention from what you just said
is the, the treated deck boards.
They're, they're not bad at all, and the thing that I've seen
on a handful of houses hererecently is people are leaning
(28:55):
towards treated two by sixes andyou have to go with number one
grade, which are hard to find,but I have a great resource
locally for that.
But go with a two by six.
A five quarter board means it'san inch, uh, it's one inch
thick and so, um, yeah, you'rethe material man, is that right?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's why it's called five and a
quarter.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
It sounds bigger, it sounds like an inch and a
quarter.
So four, dash four would be aone inch, but with a two by four
, a two by four is only an inchand a half and it says two.
So I think the the nominalversus uh, what?
What the actual is is the whythey say five, quarter and it
only ends up being an inch,which drives me crazy.
But we got, we live in thatworld, yeah.
So what's a two by four?
(29:33):
Right, two by a two by six?
Uh, versus.
That gets you an extra half aninch in thickness and if you
look at the price point, they'renot that far off.
So, uh, a lumber package for adeck may cost you an extra $200
to go with a two by six versus afive quarter, but that's
definitely an option worthentertaining.
You mentioned fire pit.
Have you seen a solo stove?
They market them all oversocial media.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
My coworker has one and I've seen them, but I've not
seen one in person.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Okay.
So I got one a couple of yearsago and I was super paranoid.
They say you can use it on yourdeck.
I'm thinking no way, no how.
And I was super paranoid.
They say you can use it on yourdeck.
I'm thinking no way, no how.
And I put too much into thisdeck to burn it down.
So one night we just said let'sdo it, let's do it, and I
bought a ring.
There's a ring that goes underit.
It's maybe two and a halfinches tall and it holds it up
off the deck or whatever.
And they've, they've got theholes and they've engineered the
(30:20):
solo stove where it breath,breeze from bottom to top.
So I took my little handy,dandy thermometer gun that they
used to use during COVID, youknow, and I shot the bottom of
the solo stove and it was, Iwant to say, 45, 50 degree.
It was a colder, colder night.
The very bottom that ring thatseparates the deck from the
stove was wasn't even 70 degrees.
(30:40):
I put the thermometer gun atthe top and it was like 350.
I put the thermometer gun atthe top and it was like 350.
So we're talking less than twofeet apart and a 300 degree
swing.
Temperature wise, I'm abeliever they have the science
figured out with that thing andthat is definitely a really cool
product.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's cool.
They look pretty cool too, thatmodern design.
Yeah, and I'm going to go backto the five and a quarter.
If you are going to use them ona deck, make sure your spacing
is tight, and I know you havetracks and tracks wants to a
tighter space in between the theJoyce.
But don't, if you've got like18 or two foot wide Joyce,
you're don't use a five and aquarter.
(31:16):
It's not not only going totwist, it's going to just bow
and bounce.
Try to get those closertogether.
Two by six is a great idea.
Two by fours again, if yourspacing is good.
They just aren't going to havethe same flex and it's not like
one is horribly bad compared tothe other.
They both have pros and cons,so it is easier to maintain
(31:37):
something like a Trex versus aLumber.
But I like the look of a wooddeck, Though some of the new
stuff that's coming down thepipe is very hard to tell
difference, especially visually.
Much like the luxury vinylplank.
From a distance you wouldn'tknow that it's not real wood on
a floor, Exactly.
So a lot of trends going on andcool stuff, and we're going to
(31:58):
share some of the things that wedo through the year, Donnie and
I upgrades we make, if we finda new product or, as I do things
in my house, whether it bepainting or if we go with LVP
versus finishing the floors orthings like that hey, maybe I'll
get one of those solo stoves.
You never know, We'll have to.
You should, Okay.
Okay, Thank you for twisting myarm.
And if you have ideas of stuffyou like that you think is a
(32:20):
cool trend or something you'vedone in your house, please share
it with us.
Go to the website,thecarolinacontractorcom.
You can contact us there or goon our IG Facebook feeds.
Find us there.
Let us know what you're doing.
We'd love to hear from ourlisteners and also be sure to
check out our YouTube page.
We put all this stuff up onvideo so you can gawk at us
while we talk about your houseand things you can do to it.
(32:43):
And again, if you have aquestion about your house, hit
that same website,thecarolinacontractorcom, and
hit the Ask the Contractorbutton and you can submit
information, questions, comments, recipes or invitations to
Backyard Barbecues for me andDonnie right there at the
website.
We appreciate you tuning in andalso checking out the YouTube
page and we hope to see and hearyou next week on the Carolina
(33:05):
contractor show.
Have a good day everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina contractor show.
Visit the Carolinacontractorcom.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard man.
This is the time of year.
Everybody is doing somethingwith their house projects,
whether it's big or small, andlast week Donnie and I were
talking about some stuff that wewere going to do to our
prospective homes.
I'm in the process where we'vegot a key lock, so we're lining
(00:21):
up some things we want to do atour house and you've got some
project at your house.
You still working on that.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, uh, my fiance and I are going to move in
together and, of course, she hasa long list of uh things that
she'd like for me to do to thehouse, and we've we've gotten
through just about everything.
There are a couple of thingsthat'll have to wait until a
better time of the year Justtoday, matter of fact being that
I own SureTop Roofing.
I don't want to admit that Idid this, but I put my roof on
(00:49):
back in 2011.
And that was back before theyhad the algae deterrence built
into the shingles like they donow.
I want to say now it's 25-yearalgae warranty that they didn't
have a long time ago.
I don't even know if they had10 back in 2011.
So on the north side of myhouse, where I pull in every day
over my garage doors, I hadthese ugly algae streaks there.
(01:10):
So I had a fellow that livesclose by and said you know, I
can get those off no problem andpretty fascinating process.
It's a shout out to Tyler Dodsonwith Industrial Softwash.
He did a great job.
It didn't take him very longand it was a lot less expensive
than what I thought.
Basically, he pulls up and heraised a solution on the roof
and man is before he does theroof.
So he made it a point Right.
(01:46):
And he said well, the firstthing that touches the
landscaping it's going to absorb.
He said so, I don't want thechemical solution to be the
first thing that lands on thelandscaping, which is really
smart.
So he sprays it with freshwaterbefore he switches over to the
solution.
Side note there he has a valveand a remote control in his
pocket that will operate thatvalve on the truck.
So he pushes one button, thevalve turns and it switches from
(02:08):
freshwater solution to thechemical.
And that was a cool thing.
And we're walking around thehouse and he's giving me
suggestions for other things Imight want to do in the future.
And he says man, I hate mulch.
I said why is that?
And he said well, mulch, itholds a lot of fungus.
And I can't quote the type offungus that he said Gosh, I'll
put it up on our social media.
(02:29):
But he showed me a picture andhe said if you have brick,
you're pretty much safe, but thetype of fungus that likes to
live on mulch can actually sendthe spores as high as 15 feet in
the air.
I had no idea.
So he showed me severalexamples of hardy and vinyl
siding, where you know the mulchgets to spores.
Out there, the fungus grows onthe siding and it's to the point
where, if you don't catch itearly enough, you'll have to
(02:51):
sand it off, that you can't evenpressure wash it.
So you know he made a goodpoint, he taught me a few things
that I didn't know, and beforehe was gone my roof looked a
million times better.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So times better.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So thanks, tyler Two things that he first of all
mentioned, what to use insteadof mulch Rubber mulch maybe.
He said he didn't think thatheld the fungus.
But you know, I don't.
I don't, I've never had aproblem, but I do have a brick
house and he said bricks is notas susceptible to the growth.
But but yeah, I guess that'ssomething worth looking into.
Maybe some sort of decorativegravel or something might be a
better option.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Number two I want you to mention his name again,
because you see ads on socialmedia for people who clean
shingles and they have thesedifferent ways.
It's hard to tell who's legit,who's not.
Obviously, this guy was.
So if people in your area wantto know, hey, who was that guy
who did so good on a roofer'shouse, cleaning algae off of it?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
He was again who, tyler Dodson with Industrial
Soft Wash, and he actually ownsthe company and does the work
himself, which I'm a big fan ofthat.
I don't have his informationhandy right this second, but if
you want to get in touch withhim, reach out through the
website thecarolinacontractorcom, send me a message and I will
reply to that email and give youhis info and out of that email
and give you his info and maybewe can get him on the show in
the near future and he couldtalk some about that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, cool.
Well, donnie gave away animportant part of this show and
that's the name of the Carolinacontractor show, the website,
the Carolina contractorcom.
And what we like to talk aboutis we just proved right off the
bat, as your house if you'redoing a DIY project or maybe
you're doing a big project, mywife and I are getting ready to
do some stuff, and Donnie's beendoing that.
This show is for you.
We're the sports center ofDIYers and we're going to talk
(04:28):
about some things that aretrending in houses today and in
the year 2025.
But that's kind of a cool thingabout the roofing, because that
wasn't one of the things wewere going to talk about.
That's not a DIY, but it'sdefinitely a maintenance thing,
and I'm really glad that you,owning SureTop Roofing, could
give your seal of approval onsomeone who does that, because
it kind of some videos look alittle sketchy, don't they?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, they do.
And you know I would love torip those shingles off and put
new shingles on.
But you know I put my roof onnot even half a lifespan ago, so
there was a 30 year shinglewhen I put those on and we're
not quite to the 15 year markand I just thought it would be
wise to spend a few hundredbucks versus a whole new roof,
and I'm going to try to stretchthat thing out as long as I can.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
One of the other things we like to do on the
Carolina Contractor Show how youcan save some money and maybe
do repairs or upgrades versusreplacements.
So today's topic is going to beperfect for everybody tuning in
inside and outside of yourhouse of things you can do.
We're going to talk about thetop home building trends for
2025.
And we've had a wide range oftopics over the past few months.
(05:35):
We won't go into them and go tothe website and see those.
At thecarolinacontractorcom,you download our past shows.
They go back.
We're just talking six yearsplus.
Now we have social mediacontacts Facebook and Instagram
and all that but we've hit sucha wide range that some of our
listeners said when are yougoing to talk specifically about
houses?
(05:55):
Because we learn somethingevery time you talk about that,
and we kind of went that's apretty good idea.
Maybe we should talk abouthouses.
So we're going to tackle someof the trends that are occurring
this year and we're going tostart off with, you know, one
that I want to jump into is youbrought this up and it kind of
(06:16):
hurts my heart because the trendthat is going out is white
houses with black trim and Ilove that.
Maybe I'm traditional, butyou're seeing more of black
houses and black trim be popular.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, it's pretty fresh on the scene for the black
on black on black.
But to hear somebody say theywant black windows, black siding
, black roof, black gutters,it's like, well, what are you
going for?
You know Halloween theme orwhat's going on here?
You're just a very dark person,but for, I'd say, the last five
(06:52):
years, the most popular thingon the market in terms of new
construction seems to be a whitefarmhouse style the vertical
board and batten siding in white.
And then you know the blackwindows, black gutters and the
black roof.
So really the only thing thatchanged in that equation would
be the siding color.
And I had a homeowner come to meand say they wanted the black
on black on black.
(07:12):
And you know to be open-minded,I went and found a couple of
houses that were that way.
So really the only thing thatbroke up the black was the
texture differences.
So you got asphalt shingles andyou maybe have black vinyl and
then aluminum guttersno-transcript.
(07:46):
That we had on the show threeweeks ago or so and at the very
last minute Ashton decided we'regoing to go gray with the
siding and it's not a boringgray, and I sent you the
pictures earlier.
And man, that house is a banger.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, you got to put pictures up on the IG and the
Facebook and stuff because it isgorgeous and a black on black
on black, I wouldn't go for.
But once you sent me thepictures of her house, wow, that
gray really makes a nice change.
It doesn't look cookie cutterlike other houses, it's going to
make it one of a kind and itgives people a mental option of
(08:21):
what they can do.
I still like my idea of doingthe white with a black trim.
But if we're not clear here,donnie is not only owner of sure
top roofing, he's a generalcontractor and he's owner of
Blanchard building company, andso that house is like right in
your, your wheelhouse, no punintended.
The, the combination of themetal trim on the roof and and
(08:44):
the standard uh shingle, which Igot right, was a charcoal black
by the certainty manufacturer.
Um, beautiful options,beautiful colors, uh, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
overall, I think it's a beautiful house I really
appreciate the compliment andI'm gonna be better about
putting more, more pictures outthere.
I don't put enough of my workout there and I stay so busy.
And I want to be honest again,I don't advertise at all for
Blanchard Building.
With SureTop there's so manymore roofing companies and there
are builders out there that youhave to kind of play the game
with the roofing deal.
But the building thing, I'vegot people waiting in line for
(09:17):
me to do their work and, man,we've done some killer projects
here lately especially, and Ineed to be better about putting
those pictures out.
And I want to comment on onething.
You just said that withBlanchard Building and SureTop I
met a young guy this week andhe does commercial construction.
He's getting his contractorlicense.
Just really, really interestingguy starting a family, maybe
late 20s, and I was telling himall the stuff that I do and I
(09:40):
just go to work every day and Ido this day in and day out.
And you know I have a really Ithink I have a really good
personal life balance with mywork.
But I'm telling them I'm like,yeah, I have, you know, four or
five construction jobs going.
I've got three roofing crewsthat run just about every day.
So at any given moment I've gotseven to 10 jobs going that I'm
handling and he said, dude, youdo what and you do that every
(10:03):
day and I'm just used to it.
So I really want to say to theyoung people that listen to the
show and it seems like the youngpeople, the audience full of
the young guys who were inconstruction really gained a lot
of traction.
I get more interaction fromthose guys than anybody at this
point and, fellas, if you havethe time and the energy to be a
subcontractor and a contractorand you're getting going, you
(10:23):
know, and really, if you'restarting a family and have
children to feed, maybe start aside hustle as a subcontractor,
even if it's a pressure washingguy or a, you know, a landscape
company or just something thatyou can start with a with not a
lot of money, and then you haveyour contractor license as well,
because you can do a lot morethan you think you can and it's
not.
(10:46):
It's hard at first but when youlearn how to delegate and you
learn how to manage these peopleand look ahead and I'm flirting
with the idea of maybe writinga short book on how to become a
contractor and just some of thethings and the cashflow balance
and keeping your bills going andjust several things that are
super important and when you getbusy it's really hard to keep
up with.
But if you keep a handful ofthese things on the forefront,
(11:08):
you can be successful at both.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
What we're going to do in the future, donnie, is
have an unscripted show whereI'm just going to pick your
brain, where you give advice topeople who might be considering
going into construction or evenpursuing a general contractor's
license, and you can just givesome wisdom you've gained and
just talk.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I can't do it all the time, but once in a while my
brain will start firing and I'lljust open my notes up.
And I've got that.
I've got that, that notes pageopen with.
I probably wrote two pages ofthings in 30 minutes when I
started firing.
And you know, some days I'mbrain dead at the end of the day
and I just can't do that.
But but I have some really goodstuff that I would Well, I
(11:47):
think it'd be very valuable topeople.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
We had talked about home projects we're doing and
I've got a few on the plate thatwe're going to do over the next
year or two.
We're going to, we're trying todecide on our floors and we
have a pine hardwood floors andpine is a softer wood so it gets
some dents and stuff and youcan have someone come in and
they can sand it, refinish itand everything.
And we're also considering someluxury vinyl plank LVP and
(12:18):
you're very familiar with it anda big fan of it.
But one of the trends now iscalled pre-finished engineered
floors.
So are hardwood floors reallyout?
These floors are multiplelayers of plywood or OSB
fiberboard and they've got likea hardwood veneer on top and I'm
assuming I've not seen many ofthem that veneer thickness is
different the higher the price,the thicker it is.
(12:39):
But they say it's super costeffective.
It cuts labor costs because youcan put in really longer
lengths and you don't have to dosanding and finishing and it
does cost a little bit less thanhardwood floors.
Do you have any experience withthese pre-engineered or
pre-finished engineered floors,donnie?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, and if I had to explain it to the average
person, I would say that itlooks like LVP.
So the LVP and thepre-engineered hardwood are
about the same, look.
I think the big difference isthe feel.
So the engineered hardwood isactually real wood.
So if you're walking on itbarefooted it feels the same as
a hardwood floor and the factthat they've uh, you know,
(13:18):
condensed it down.
You know, traditional hardwoodis three quarter inches thick,
by either two and a quarter orthree and a quarter wide, and
the uh, the the pre-engineeredstuff is anywhere from three,
eight cents thick to a half inchthick, and but, but it still
has wood property.
So if you want that wood feeland you want to, you want the
wood look then that's the way togo.
(13:39):
Every house that I have goingright now, um, has the lvp.
I'm sorry.
One one that I finishedrecently did have the
pre-engineered hardwood and theylook great.
Um, my big concern there is ifthey will stand up to water.
So if they're in a wet area,like a kitchen or a bathroom,
will they display the propertiesof wood if you have a spill or
(13:59):
multiple spills over in thatsink area?
But everything else I have isLVP.
It's quite a bit cheaper thanthe pre-engineered hardwood and
it checks all the boxes.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So you might not know the answer to this.
I'm curious with LVP, for mosttime you just put over the
existing floor and you mighthave to pull up your quarter
round, trim and and reseat that.
But would you have to pull up ahard?
If, like say, I went with thisengineered hardwood, would I
have to tear up my existing woodfloor to put?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
the stuff down?
No, not at all.
I mean, if you have carpet, ofcourse that's got to come out.
But uh, the the pre-engineeredhardwood and the LVP are usually
right around the same thickness, anywhere from three eighths of
an inch to a half an inch.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Okay cool, but I know you're a big fan of the LVP.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I'm a big fan of uh.
Lvp has more options in termsof the look and you know it's.
It's more durable, scratchproof, burn proof, waterproof
and if you have animals I wouldsay LVP all the way.
The pre-engineered hardwood,the wood properties.
I would say it still can bescratched.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Of course, it all can burn at the right temperature,
but is it burn resistant?
Those are the right questionsto ask.
Another trend coming this yearis mixed use spaces, and you've
got a thing with housingshortages and retail spaces that
are not being optimized thebest they can.
These are projects that combinehome, workplaces, recreation,
(15:20):
everything, but you've reallygot to figure them out Again as
you as a house builder.
Are you seeing a switch onthese kind of mixed use spaces?
Are they becoming more commonor people asking for them more?
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And when I see a floor plan now that has a lot of
space devoted to a dining areaor something like that, and my
first question is how often doyou plan to use this or, um, you
know they?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
have a.
Let me interrupt, Donnie.
What's on your dining roomtable?
Is it set for dinner?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yes, but there's a lot of dust on it as well, and
so you know it's.
It's something that never getsused and uh, like I said, I drew
my house plans gosh 15, 16years ago, so that was just
something you did.
I have a breakfast area and adining room and we barely ever
use any.
To comment on your mixed usespace, we use our, we use our
(16:09):
bar in the kitchen for justabout everything and, depending
on the size of the family, howmuch you entertain, you know, uh
, do you have neighbors close bythat eat at your place often?
You know, if you've got twofamilies that come together two
or three times a week, maybe youcan justify that.
But the the great room conceptkind of started this whole thing
30 years ago when everybodykind of combined the kitchen and
the living room there.
(16:29):
So my, I do have that, mykitchen feeds into my living
room and I have a prettygenerous sized island area.
But what I'm seeing now ispeople are doing away with the
dining room, maybe still have abreakfast area, but they have
what they labeled when we didthe TV show Every house.
They were small houses, theyall had eat-in kitchens, and so
(16:57):
what I'm seeing as a result ofthe popularity from eating
kitchens is that we're doingthese giant islands.
So people are doing where myisland will seat four bar stools
you know we're doing more likeeight in their wraparound
seating and and basically Ithink it's wonderful because if
that keeps the family togetherand you don't have two or three
people eating in another room,it's a way to you know, corral
the kids and and you can keep aneye on them if they're smaller
while you're doing your cookingthing.
And I really liked the concept.
Yeah, this past.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Easter, our son came home for a quick weekend visit
and we had Easter dinner in thekitchen table the round kitchen
table where you're going moveover a little and we have a
dining room that seats sixcomfortably.
But exactly what you said.
We just it's not used.
I kept looking over because asI look over at my dining room
table in the other room I cansee I've got a battery charger
(17:37):
sitting on top of the tableright now with a battery in it
recharging for my blower.
So that's how fancy our diningroom is.
Hey, paint we've talked aboutmany shows, donnie is a big
thing you can do.
It's an easy DIY project tochange the look of your house
and make something really standout.
If you did a painted accentwall, I was going to mention the
(17:58):
manufacturer of this paint, butI was unable to find it online,
so I'm not going to say itbecause it could embarrass them
if I did.
But there's these things calleddopamine decor, which is like
vibrant paint colors andpatterns and textured layers and
it's basically a mental healthroom.
Have you ever heard anyone askor?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
talk about that before.
Not really, but I'm a dude andI don't pick paint colors and I
usually leave that up to thewomen.
And I do understand that darkpaint colors make for a dreary
room and you'd want to brightenthings up in most cases and so
nobody ever picks.
You know lots of blacks orgrays for bedrooms or offices or
(18:41):
whatever, and I just think thatthat's.
I mean, it's an interestingconcept.
There's probably some truth toit, but you know, I think that
every time you turn around,somebody's being labeled with a
different condition.
If you have a crappy day, Idon't think the paint color is
going to make you feel betterwhen you pop in the front door.
So and I could be wrong aboutthat that that's each to their
own and everybody's different.
(19:01):
I get all that.
But dopamine decor sounds likean amazing marketing technique
and for somebody that's you knowthat's prone to feel bad when
they get home or they hate theirjob it may be something that
they want to try and you know,if you're going to paint your
house and you're going to paintyour house and you're just prone
to be in a bad mood, then maybethat appeals to you.
(19:21):
So I don't know if I have anopinion, really, either way.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
And I don't pick paints.
I already had to go throughthat with do you want the
off-white egg white or white atdawn for the ceiling, and I'm
like they're all the same color.
Can I leave now, can I go?
And so I went to a sports barto recover.
Another thing that's trendingand I'm going to question this
(19:46):
being a real trend because wedid an entire show on an
all-electric home.
But there's more money for itbecause of the.
The inflation reduction acthelps people, let's face it.
The inflation reduction act wasjust the green new deal it was.
It was kind of put under acamouflage of what it really was
, but it does have somegovernment discounts and tax
rebates to use more electric buta fully electric house.
(20:09):
Like I said, go to the websiteto hear the episode we did years
ago.
But that's becoming more andmore common and it's not
necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
No, I think it's a great thing.
I'm a big fan of all electricand there's so many things that
are pros and so few cons thatyou really can't go wrong with
all electric.
And the one thing when peoplespeculate, there's just that a
lot of speculation.
We really don't know wherethings are going.
We can kind of see wherethey're trending and guess, but
one in four houses right now arealready all electric and it may
(20:39):
be even more than that since wegot this.
I think that statistic camewhen we did the all electric
house show two or three yearsago, so it's probably more than
that at this point.
And the heat pumps, which is theelectric way to heat and cool
your house, they've come so farthat they just work really well.
Gas and people, a lot of peopledon't realize that when you
have gas it's only your heat.
You know you still haveelectric for your cooling and
(21:02):
your air conditioning.
So really the only there'sreally no advantage to that and
the only reason I would say thatgas was so popular for so long
is because a lot of houses wereolder and they were poorly
insulated.
So if you have no insulation,then you're paying an extra
couple hundred dollars a monthjust to have that gas heat.
You know, gas blows out of theregisters at 120 degrees, where
(21:23):
electric only blows out at 90degrees.
But if you have good insulation, 90 degrees is fine and once
you get to the desiredtemperature you're just in
maintenance mode after that.
So electric is definitely theway to go in my opinion, and the
way things are going with solaroptions and just everything
renewable energy wise, having anall electric house sets you up
(21:43):
beautifully for that.
So if you ever go that route,then you know the solar will
work everything in your house,whereas if you're, you have gas
this and gas that, then you'vegot a lot of conversion kits to
buy and I'm just a fan rightdown to appliances, and it all
just works better as electric inmy opinion.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And cars.
Let's face it you now gottechnology where not only do you
have electric cars that yourecharge at your house, your car
can power your house if youlose power to the house itself.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Right.
I think this is a sweet spotand I think that because they're
really trying to push people togo all electric and use these
renewable energy resources,there's more tax credits than
there's ever going to be.
When three out of every fourhomes in the country are all
electric and, say, 50% of thepopulation has some form of
solar, the tax credits are goingto go away or they're going to
(22:32):
be way less than they are now.
So we're in that sweet spotwhere the equipment,
everything's not as advanced asit will be, but it's way down
the road compared to where wewere 20 years ago and the tax
credits and everything you canget back from the government is
pretty much at a peak right now.
So I think sweet spot for aboutthe next five years.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, we got to get that infrastructure going, and
I'm just going to go ahead andsay this too Nuclear power is
what's going to power this ideaof having so much more electric
homes and vehicles and stuff.
Right now we can't do it, sostop fighting the nuke reactor.
They're actually pretty goodand they're extremely safe when
compared to other methods.
I didn't want to go too far offon that.
I just am tired of hearingelectric, electric, electric.
(23:10):
Where are you going to get itfrom?
You got to have something, hey,bo, something.
My wife and I.
As you get older, a lot ofpeople experience this, and that
is going up and down the stairsevery day, because it's very
common to have a two-story house.
I've told my kids look at anice brick one-level house.
If you're buying a house, or ifyou're building, make a big
(23:31):
floor plan but keep it at onefloor.
It's very practical.
Single story homes that'ssomething else that's come up as
a trend in 2025.
Again, your expertise, yourexperience, is that something
you see more and more?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, and if you're a young person buying a house and
you're not going to live thereforever, or maybe you'll
consider it as a rental, thinkabout it this way it's going to
be a slab house If you have, youknow one story with with no
steps going into the, into thehouse, and I'm I'm a custom
builder, so of course I don't.
I'm not a fan of slab housesbecause that's what they'd use
for track builders.
Uh, that's what track buildersuse and so forth.
(24:04):
But if you're going to buy ahouse, it's going to move or you
have a different intention forit down the road.
Think about it like this is thatif you want to rent it out or
sell it and it's one level, nosteps it's going to be a very
attractive option to an oldercouple and it's small, so it's
probably just going to be twopeople buying it, so that fits
the square footage factor rightthere.
(24:24):
But the fact that they can getin it and it's wheelchair
accessible, all that's just asuper attractive option.
And I think the thing thatscares people about slab houses
is they think, well, all thatplumbing is down in the concrete
, but really and this isn't thecase always, but most of the
time it's just the drains forall your plumbing that's in the
slab.
Most of the time you don't haveany supply lines.
They come from overhead, sothey come from your attic down
(24:47):
through the walls and the onlything that's embedded in the
concrete is just the drainsystem, which doesn't hold water
until you send water through it.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I mean, I'm very happy where we live.
I love my house.
It's got all the memories, buta one-story house does sound
nice as you get up.
In years, and as we've eventalked in the past, you've done
some renovations on houses ornew builds where you've planned
for that by putting what was itlike two by sixes in the walls.
So in the future if someonewanted to attach a handrail, it
(25:15):
would be supported alreadybehind the wall.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
The handicap accessibility the two by six was
just the envelope of the house,so only the exterior walls were
two by six.
That's what you're thinkingabout there, which is still
wonderful 50% more insulationthan a two by four.
Um, but the handicapaccessibility was that there was
no steps into the house.
But what you were probablythinking about is I blocked
everything.
So I have.
I took all my scrap two by tensand everywhere, in every
(25:38):
bathroom, down, down everyhallway, I blocked in the wall.
So if they ever have to addgrab bars or any kind of
handicap accessibility feature,there was blocking inside the
wall there to support those.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Let's move outdoors real quick, because I'm blessed.
I have a nice big in-groundpool, that is, we've already
opened it.
No one's swimming in it becauseit'll make you sing as high as
Michael Jackson if you jumped in.
The thing is, once the pool'sopen, the weather's warm, you
like to be outdoors and we havea big deck.
I'll put up a picture of that.
(26:08):
I'm blessed with a screened-inporch.
We love that.
It's time to get creative aboutoutdoor design and what are
some things you might have orthat you like to see at a house
that really says let's move thisparty outdoors.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Some form or fashion of cover.
So if you're going to beoutside, it's nice to have a
covered area.
I don't I'm on the fence aboutwhether or not I like screened
in.
I was going to screen in mycovered porch at my personal
house and I just saw it being aleaf and pollen trap and all the
things, and of course you knowyou had a good solution to that
(26:44):
when you wrapped it in plasticduring pollen season.
But I really think some coverand if you have something that's
on the south facing side of thehouse as your outdoor area, you
definitely need.
You know in the evenings thatthat low sun going down is awful
hot in the summertime, so Iwould say that would be number
one.
You know, just refreshing yourdeck space or any kind of patio
(27:05):
space making, making adesignated area for cooking.
So I buy these things calledgrill mats.
So anywhere right around mycooking area if I have a spill
or anything, I'm not ruining theconcrete or the deck boards or
anything like that, and justseveral, you know, accessories
like that, and each house isdifferent.
So, um, the cover would be myfirst priority though.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, I like the idea of maybe a fire pit.
We've got a gazebo and we'vetalked about it'd be a great
spot to put a hot tub, becauseit's a concrete slab next to the
pool.
That's our covered area.
But having the screen porch isa bug thing.
That's kind of nice.
Yeah, true, pollen's a pain,but I don't have an issue with
(27:45):
pollen getting on the screenthat.
That's easy to get rid of.
It's just getting inside.
A fantasy would be um, glassingin that screened in porch with
windows you can drop thatbecomes screen so you can have
the advantage of enjoying summerair, cool fall, or if it's cold
and rainy outside, you can havethe windows up and sit out
(28:06):
there with a cup of coffee andjust enjoy the weather.
So I understand your positiontoo.
The big thing I want to quickadd is the deck materials and
what you use.
I have a lumber deck and peoplesay, well, you got to clean it
and stain it and seal it andtake care of it, and a lot of
people like the?
Um, the synthetic material, thetreks and stuff like that.
(28:29):
Uh, what do you?
You have synthetic, you have alike treks I do.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, I had the five quarter deck boards originally
and they just twisted and turnedand, um, I had to replace those
.
So I went with, I did theextension with the covered porch
and I just went ahead and didthe um, the treks throughout.
But two things that I wanted tomention from what you just said
is the, the treated deck boards.
They're, they're not bad at all, and the thing that I've seen
on a handful of houses hererecently is people are leaning
(28:55):
towards treated two by sixes andyou have to go with number one
grade, which are hard to find,but I have a great resource
locally for that.
But go with a two by six.
A five quarter board means it'san inch, uh, it's one inch
thick and so, um, yeah, you'rethe material man, is that right?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's why it's called five and a
quarter.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
It sounds bigger, it sounds like an inch and a
quarter.
So four, dash four would be aone inch, but with a two by four
, a two by four is only an inchand a half and it says two.
So I think the the nominalversus uh, what?
What the actual is is the whythey say five, quarter and it
only ends up being an inch,which drives me crazy.
But we got, we live in thatworld, yeah.
So what's a two by four?
(29:33):
Right, two by a two by six?
Uh, versus.
That gets you an extra half aninch in thickness and if you
look at the price point, they'renot that far off.
So, uh, a lumber package for adeck may cost you an extra $200
to go with a two by six versus afive quarter, but that's
definitely an option worthentertaining.
You mentioned fire pit.
Have you seen a solo stove?
They market them all oversocial media.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
My coworker has one and I've seen them, but I've not
seen one in person.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Okay.
So I got one a couple of yearsago and I was super paranoid.
They say you can use it on yourdeck.
I'm thinking no way, no how.
And I was super paranoid.
They say you can use it on yourdeck.
I'm thinking no way, no how.
And I put too much into thisdeck to burn it down.
So one night we just said let'sdo it, let's do it, and I
bought a ring.
There's a ring that goes underit.
It's maybe two and a halfinches tall and it holds it up
off the deck or whatever.
And they've, they've got theholes and they've engineered the
(30:20):
solo stove where it breath,breeze from bottom to top.
So I took my little handy,dandy thermometer gun that they
used to use during COVID, youknow, and I shot the bottom of
the solo stove and it was, Iwant to say, 45, 50 degree.
It was a colder, colder night.
The very bottom that ring thatseparates the deck from the
stove was wasn't even 70 degrees.
(30:40):
I put the thermometer gun atthe top and it was like 350.
I put the thermometer gun atthe top and it was like 350.
So we're talking less than twofeet apart and a 300 degree
swing.
Temperature wise, I'm abeliever they have the science
figured out with that thing andthat is definitely a really cool
product.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's cool.
They look pretty cool too, thatmodern design.
Yeah, and I'm going to go backto the five and a quarter.
If you are going to use them ona deck, make sure your spacing
is tight, and I know you havetracks and tracks wants to a
tighter space in between the theJoyce.
But don't, if you've got like18 or two foot wide Joyce,
you're don't use a five and aquarter.
(31:16):
It's not not only going totwist, it's going to just bow
and bounce.
Try to get those closertogether.
Two by six is a great idea.
Two by fours again, if yourspacing is good.
They just aren't going to havethe same flex and it's not like
one is horribly bad compared tothe other.
They both have pros and cons,so it is easier to maintain
(31:37):
something like a Trex versus aLumber.
But I like the look of a wooddeck, Though some of the new
stuff that's coming down thepipe is very hard to tell
difference, especially visually.
Much like the luxury vinylplank.
From a distance you wouldn'tknow that it's not real wood on
a floor, Exactly.
So a lot of trends going on andcool stuff, and we're going to
(31:58):
share some of the things that wedo through the year, Donnie and
I upgrades we make, if we finda new product or, as I do things
in my house, whether it bepainting or if we go with LVP
versus finishing the floors orthings like that hey, maybe I'll
get one of those solo stoves.
You never know, We'll have to.
You should, Okay.
Okay, Thank you for twisting myarm.
And if you have ideas of stuffyou like that you think is a
(32:20):
cool trend or something you'vedone in your house, please share
it with us.
Go to the website,thecarolinacontractorcom.
You can contact us there or goon our IG Facebook feeds.
Find us there.
Let us know what you're doing.
We'd love to hear from ourlisteners and also be sure to
check out our YouTube page.
We put all this stuff up onvideo so you can gawk at us
while we talk about your houseand things you can do to it.
(32:43):
And again, if you have aquestion about your house, hit
that same website,thecarolinacontractorcom, and
hit the Ask the Contractorbutton and you can submit
information, questions, comments, recipes or invitations to
Backyard Barbecues for me andDonnie right there at the
website.
We appreciate you tuning in andalso checking out the YouTube
page and we hope to see and hearyou next week on the Carolina
(33:05):
contractor show.
Have a good day everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina contractor show.
Visit the Carolinacontractorcom.
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