The Construction Underground

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to the home Remodeling show withEdge Construction on Newstalk thirteen ten WYBA.
Have a question, email it toedge Construction Radio at gmail dot com.
Now here's your host, Sean Friedleon news Talk throteen ten WYBA. This
is the Homer Modeling Show, broughtto you by Edge Construction online, Edge

(00:23):
Construction Company dot com. That's allone word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Write that down even better if yougot your smartphone hand you just pick
it up. Head on over toedge Construction right now. Check out the
recently updated website. They're always updatingit at edge Construction. Also links there
to Housepinterest Facebook. Again all atedge Construction Company dot com. We'll likely
touch on some of the recent projectsas well at the website, so definitely

(00:45):
behooves you to stop by the site. You like that word. By the
way, Mike, but who,I don't think we've used that on the
I don't think we've used that onthe program. I think it was on
my calendar this morning. Yes,delvile number six eight six three six three
three four three that number six threesix Edge of course, joined by Mike
two Wig, owner of Edge Construction. Mike I doing this morning. Great.
I was just thinking, like,where have I heard it? Sounds

(01:06):
like a mister Howell comment done.Yeah, exactly, I think may use
that. That's a good question.Gilligan's Island. By the way, we
can do a whole show on thatone of these days. Well, we're
gonna be talking basement renovation this morning, aren't we. We are, And
it's not probably quite as exciting aswe're going to do our best. Yes,

(01:27):
you know, one of the oneof the great things about living in
the Midwest and as part of theMidwest is basements is what I love is
And obviously the iHeart Radio app andthe show goes out nationwide globally as well
as people don't always know how greatbasements simply having one can be. And
it's a it's a really good placeas we talk about economy and some other

(01:49):
things as far as getting a lotof bang for your buck, A basement
is a really really good place tostart that conversation, isn't it. Yeah.
I mean, if you're looking atyou know, the numbers have gone
up budget wise, but building ahouse now you're probably talking in the two
hundred and fifty dollars foot and up. I would think maybe three hundred dollars

(02:12):
a foot. I hear some ofthose numbers. In a basement space,
you can do it for I don'tknow, on a real budget, maybe
down in the in the I hatedoing these. These multipliers are going down
in the fifty dollars range, probablyup to you know, I've done several
over one hundred dollars a foot.It's still a great buy because you've got
you already have a roof, youalready have a you already have a foundation.
It's not like it's like an additionwithout an addition. How are you

(02:36):
guys? I know, obviously wetalk a lot about like kitchens and bathroom
remodels and trimwork and stuff. Basementremodels. Still they're up right up there
as well, aren't they. Yeah. Quite often it's just for us.
Things kind of come and bursts,like well, we'll be in kitchen land
for a year or half a year, and then and bass kind of intersperse,
and then one thing will kind ofpush to the front. Right now,

(02:59):
we're we're doing more basements again.And I don't know why. It's
just like a popular I think alot of it has to do okay,
how do we get more more space? Uh? I like where we're living.
The schools are great, neighbors aregreat, neighborhood love the neighborhood,
love the house. We just needmore space. One thing that I think
I want to touch on is justthe Uh we show a lot of times

(03:23):
new most basement finishes are in kindof newer houses, so maybe ten years
old or less. And those arerelatively easy. I mean, we're you
know, you've got a clean slate. You can just you can just go
to town on this thing. Itmeans that it's been built with modern codes.
That foundation has so it should bewaterproofed and insulated, and there's there's

(03:43):
kind of a good start, andit's going to have a it's going to
have drainage around it. You're gonnahave a some pump that's going to kick
water out if that happens. Andso that's a good start. But sometimes
we do these basements and in reallyolder houses, and there's a lot of
times when we first walk into thosethat home owners are going is this even
look at this place? You know, it seems like there's a lot that

(04:04):
would prevent you from finishing this basement, but you know it just in a
situation where you really need the extraspace, and let's explore with that.
And it's it's interesting when we thinkabout some of the you know, different
types of homes, different generations,different decades, and those those kinds of
things real quick with newer homes,and I want to talk to you about

(04:26):
as you alluded to there as wellolder homes as well, But with the
newer stuff, a lot correct meif I'm wrong, is a lot of
the newer homes builders have gotten wiseto the fact that oftentimes basements are going
to eventually be updated, and they'reaccommodating for that oftentimes, aren't they.
They are, So if you builta dower house, you might have gotten

(04:46):
a basement bathroom rough in like thebuilder. Is pretty common now for builders
to draw tentative plan, a theorydown there what they think coul appen.
So you know, bedroom's over here, great room over here, it's some
rough storage and then a bathroom.And so the builders will actually rough those
rough those pipes in so that justin theory, it makes it easier someday

(05:09):
for you to finish this basement,because it doesn't always work this way.
I'm saying in theory, because whenthose pipes are roughed in, there's a
lot of times that we want tochange things because this got designed maybe ten,
fifteen, twenty years ago. AndI don't want people to be worried
about that, because there's times thatwill take those pipes in, break up

(05:30):
concrete, and relocate that bathroom acrossthe basement. But another thing that people
don't usually think about, but ina more modern house, your furnace and
AC are going to be sized normallyfor that basement to sometime be finished.
So it's not like you've got toupgrade your furnace and upgrade your AC to
get this job done either. Interesting, by the way, with that,

(05:54):
with the furnace and acs up,is our basement's more energy efficient just simply
because of their location or are theynot as efficient? Yes? No,
okay, yes, and no itgets on the heat colax. It sort
of gets treated the same we dohave. We're building this, this finished
space in a fifty five degree holein the ground, right, So in

(06:17):
theory, it should be easier toheat in the winter because it's not going
to get quite as cold around it, and it's going to be easier to
cool in the summer. So thatgets us into different zones, which we
probably should talk about. So ina heating zone it normally in a house.
In a new house, you're gonnayou're gonna have one heating zone,
meaning there's going to be one thermostat. It's probably going to be centrally placed.

(06:40):
And do you have more than onethurmstad We do? We do have
to, yes, So look onyour face. So where's your where I've
got one in the main part ofthe house and then one on the on
the back half of the house.So the back half is like so we
had an addition put on and thathas its own heating and cooling setting there.
So is it a separate furnace oris it it's a separate recirculating pump
off the boat? We have aboiler. We've got one of each,

(07:01):
one for each same furnace. Though. It's probably very nice because that addition
heats and cools a little differently thanthe rest of the house. Yes,
you have some more windows in it. It's all windows windows. You got
a lot of heat gain, soyou see, see you kind of the
reverse of what of what a finishedbasement is. You know, that's a
very exposed kind of maybe a littlebit leaky because you know, windows aren't

(07:26):
as efficient as a wall keeping heatand cool in. But in a basement,
we can have a separate zone downthere so that that basement, which
is definitely going to heat and cooldifferently, can have its own thermostat.
You can do that off your yourexisting furnace. There is a cost involved,
which which does hit the budgets,but I'd say about half our projects
end up with a separate zone inthe basement. You know, we talk

(07:47):
about I think, like going backto the kitchen er miles things we have
to hear about footprints, and youwere when you were alluding to as well
kind of roughed in plumbing and stuff. You're not hemmed in by that,
is you. It's important to pointout is just because there may have been
like a drawing or some earlier plans, basements are quite flexible as far as

(08:09):
what can go where are they arethey are. But I will say,
like when people have a when homeowershave a plan like that and they've got
a roughed in bath, I kindof think the perception is all the mask
got to go there. Well,yes, you would save money doing that
but I always think a design shouldcome first. Okay, so when that

(08:30):
house got built, you might havehad different plans. You might have you
might have thought differently, or youmaybe weren't as worried about it. Okay,
let's just get it roughed in somewhere. And so from our side,
we're not breaking up concrete. Now. Moving pipes is just not that big
a deal. We do it.It seems like we do it every week,
and so it's not as big abudget hit as you think. You

(08:52):
know, if you're a homeowner,and if the design is really helped by
moving it or rearranging those pipes alittle bit, we're happy to do that.
What about things like egress and otherthing? Is not only our egress
windows fantastic for bringing in light,but they are a safety and depending on
what you're going to do in thatlower space, could also be required by

(09:13):
code, aren't they. Yeah.So in a we'll start off with a
bedroom, right, So if you'regoing to have a bedroom, you've got
a head to be you've got tohave two forms of egress, which means
they can go out the door andgo up the stairs and get out.
Okay, that's one form. Anotherfarm has to be out of that same
room, so you've got to beable to get out a window most of
the time, unless there be anotherstairway going out of that bedroom. But

(09:35):
the code is is basically a twentyby twenty four inch opening, So you're
generally we put in a four footwide window. You know, if we're
going to make a hole, let'smake a hole, if you know,
because you can do a casement andstill have a big enough space to get
out of. It's got to beI think forty four inches off the ground
or less. Anyways, the benefitof that is is a safety thing,

(10:01):
but it's also a feel thing.I don't think. We've also put windows
into great room spaces, and it'seven if they're looking at a retaining wall
or something that's a window. Well, there is something like therapeutic about having
some kind of sun light come in. You know, even in Wisconsin weare
six months of the year, you'veprobably not seen a lot of it.

(10:22):
But yeah, I don't think anyof the times that we've put extra windows
in a basement people have regretted it. One best year and as we talked
this morning with Mike two, weegon our edge construction about some tips for
renovating your basement and remodeling your basement. As we kind of look at some
of this kind of the bigger picturestuff will kind of get into some a
little more nuanced areas here and there. But with this is again we are

(10:46):
talking about some of the newer ones. You had mentioned older homes as well,
and this is a very popular featurefor folks with older homes that may
have in the past been remodeled ormaybe have never had that you are experiencing
folks calling saying you know, againwe love the neighborhood, or for a
variety of different reasons, we wantto do this. Just because your house
is older doesn't preclude a basement romodel, does it. It doesn't.

(11:09):
It can definitely be tough. We'vewe've had If you look at if you
go on our website and look atthere's a it's called a whole house remodel
lower level. I would just goingon there just to see what's possible,
because this was a basement that thefirst time I walked in it, I
thought this house should just be condemned. It was really bad and it was

(11:31):
not not a howner's fault or anythingit just it's just ceilings were right on
the edge of code, so thingsfelt kind of low and closed in and
dark and damp, and we hadto solve all those problems. Right,
It's a basement that had water comingin it, so we so we did,
uh, we did drain towler onthe outside. We did, and
then we snuck this bedroom in andand got an egress window in the only

(11:58):
possible place. And it was justreally a trick. It was. In
fact, the people that usually doour egress windows looked at it and said,
we're not going to do it.Actually we have the equipment. We
did it ourselves. I would sayit was not pleasant. It was not
fun to have to get it inthere. But the end result kind of
speaks for itself. So that wholehouse or model lower level, if you

(12:20):
can get to the before pictures ofthat lower level, just you know,
be sitting down. You mentioned tilekeeping, the keeping the moisture out,
not just water from outside, butalso basements provide a present kind of an
interesting thing when it just comes tomoisture in general, even if it's air
you know, water tight on theinside, there are things that need to

(12:41):
be done to mitigate things like youknow, at any time you're at a
lower level moisture and other things aren'tthere. Yeah, so there's there's that.
That damp basement that we're all familiarwith has a lot to do with
just air movement. Right. Soif if a basement's unfinished, it might
have a heat register just sticking outof the bottom of a heat trunk,

(13:03):
but it's generally not moving a lotof air. A lot of times they
don't even have return air there,so that air can get very stale.
It's concrete, so you're gonna getyou can get some condensation because you have
in the winter, cold outside thatsort of makes its way, and you
have heat moves toward cold and whereverthey meet you get a little bit of
condensation. So you can get thiskind of high humidity, damp, dank

(13:28):
basement almost all the time. Bythe time you finish this and really do
a good job of HVAC down there, you're cycling the air several times an
hour. You're really moving things aroundyou. Just that feel and that smell
can go away. There's things thatcan help you if you do a good
job of insulating. We insulate allof our inside walls on the inside of

(13:52):
the concrete walls that when we finishthe basement, even if we're not even
if we don't have to buy code, because you know, we're doing whatever
we can and to separate the insidetemperature from any outside forces there. What
about ceiling height for basements. Iknow newer I feel like newer homes have
gotten a lot better about it.I remember I talked to you about this

(14:15):
before. The house that that Igrew up in was a very old that
had field stone, obviously definitely nota candidate for anty type of remodel.
But the other thing was the ceilingwas was quite low in that. Yeah,
and that's you want to make sureyou have this. Have you had
projects where folks said, you knowwhat, let's just completely redo. Let's
go lower with the basement and redothe whole everything from the foundation outer we

(14:37):
have So if you're gonna have afinished space, a bedroom space and a
basement, you need to have eightyfour inches clear set seven feet for I
believe over fifty percent of the space. The trouble with some Madison houses.
You know, there's some modest housesbuilt in Madison's past, and I don't

(14:58):
know why they built them a littleshorter. We've had some that were at
eighty three eighty two prior to thelast year or two. Inspectors kind of
looked at it a lot of thetimes like, well, whatever you're doing
down there is going to really improvethis house. Sometimes they would let that
go through and slide, which isI think probably the way it should be

(15:20):
looked at. Right now, thefeeling is downtown that it's if it's seventy
three and seven eights, I'm sorry, we're not going to improve this,
and so very frustrating for some homeownersbecause there's nothing we need to get that
ceiling. We have in our pastwhen it's really been important to somebody pounded
out the concrete in that basement floor, basically pour a ledge around the outside

(15:43):
because you're you know, you're sittingon footing, so you can't get rid
of that. And then we'll we'llcome back in and pour a floor,
dig things out, and lower thatthing enough to get it down. You
can imagine that this is not apleasant job, and some of these unpleasant
jobs cost a lot of money,so it really needs to be worth it
to do something like that, butwe have done it. Also when when

(16:07):
concrete floors were just in terrible shape. So you know, we talked about
old houses and fieldstone walls, andyou know sometimes that those those floors would
be dirt or impartial partially finished withconcrete. And there are times where you
want, you know, what,this floor is just so bad. We
need to just get rid of thatand start over really interesting stuff. This

(16:30):
morning, Mike two, we goon our Edge Construction. We'll talk about
some of the pretty stuff what theydo with basements as we're kind of laying
out the sort of say we'll callit ground work this morning at the Overmodeling
show with Edge Construction talking about renovatingyour basement. Don't forget if I mentioned
the website some of the cool picturesthat they've been there recently. Check it
out always being updated Edge Construction Companydot com. That's Edge Construction Company dot

(16:52):
com. Links there as well theFacebook, Housepinterest, and the telephone number
six so eight six three six threethree four three that number six three six
Edge. Of course, Edge Constructionbrings you the Homer Modeling Show right here
on thirteen ten wib A. Thisis the Homer Modeling Show, brought to
you by Edge Construction Online. Edgeconstruction Company dot com. That's Edgeconstruction Company
dot com. Tell number six soeight six three six three three four three

(17:15):
be number six three six Edge talkingthis week about renovating and remodeling your basement,
and Mike during the record kind ofyou're talking about other things as far
as like fresh air, and youwere talking just before the break too about
you know that that really when itcomes to that that comfort down there,
that moisture is often just because ofair that's just sitting there. Having airflow

(17:38):
and clean air in the basement isimportant too, isn't it. Yeah,
I think it's it's one of thebiggest things. You know, there's a
lot of innovation coming now in HVACsystems. Weirdly enough, because you know,
we thought we had to figure itout. We got furnaces and we
got them to ninety eight percent efficientand things like this. But there is

(18:00):
there is new technology that I know. We talked about it last time we
recorded, and it was to theon bringing in fresh air and how to
efficiently do that and so energy recoveryventilators r vs. They're they're basically a
system that does that. It bringsin fresh air, but it sort of

(18:21):
steals the cold out of it andand uses the warm air that it's going
to ventilate back outside and kind ofwarms up that incoming fresh air. I
don't know if I'm making sense ornot, but perfect, but yeah,
you're it's a way to get freshair into your house and that that really
is a key to having a comfortablehome. Nobody wants to smell that dark,
dank smell, but it's really thethings that you can't smell sometimes that

(18:44):
can do harm too. And soyou can't smell right on, like we
talked a little bit in the breakand you can't smell CO two and you
can't there's there's all these things.So bringing fresh air in is I'm glad
it's kind of getting the light shinedon it because we can control this right
with with a little bit of newtechnology, a little bit of money.

(19:07):
Uh if if you if you're totallyin the dark, UH, do a
little research. Look Google er vs. The energy recovery eventilators. It's very
cool what they can do and howthey can change the environment inside of your
house and hopefully make it a healthierplace to live. You know, we
talked about some of these liveability featuresis I think of, And we'll talk
about some of the you know,the creature comforts and some of the really

(19:29):
cool design things that you're doing withdoing with basements and some of these these
projects you guys worked on at EdgeConstruction, but really it comes down to
with with basements, and I knowyou're talking about airflow. The other thing
we touched on was bringing in naturallight and lighting in general. Some of
those areas that have really made asubstantial difference in the quality and the expectation

(19:52):
for what a what a basement ormodel should be about. Is really making
that space just as good, ascomfortable, as high quality clean, you
know, moving that good air andgood light. These are all part of
kind of really creating that that greatspace, isn't it? It is?
And you know, I when youwere talking, we talked about the natural

(20:12):
light thing. We talked about egress. And there's one little blip that I
didn't give you that it did popinto my brain is that the code actually
makes provision for in a bedroom anatural light requirement. So I believe it's
five percent of the square footage ofthe bedrooms. They don't tount the closet,
and so there are times we gosomebody wants to do a really big

(20:34):
bedroom down to the basement, We'regoing, well, we have to put
a bigger window. We put morewindows or a bigger window, and because
we've got to satisfy the natural lightrequirement. And it's not just in a
basement. I mean if if youhave bedrooms upstairs. You know, when
we built a new house once ina while, we are conscious of that
natural light requirement. We don't wantwe don't want to get busted on that
one and have a red tag becauseof that. But there's also a field

(20:57):
thing we talk about that I've reallyenjoyed doing projects when we put a bank
of windows into a basement or somethingthat, or maybe a couple windows at
least one window in a great roombecause I think people are just drawn to
looking out there. It's it's Idon't know what it is about about a

(21:17):
natural thing, a natural product likelight. I'm assuming you're getting to like,
okay, we when natural light isn'tthe option, what do we do?
Yes, exactly how does that?And I know there's been some amazing
advancements with lighting, and then wetalk about it every single project we ever
talked about on this program. Lightis a huge part of it, and
the basement is no exception, isit. It's not. And so like

(21:41):
whether it's upstairs or downstairs, wenever treat this as a lesser space.
And so we want to especially whenit comes to lighting. So we want
to I call it daylighting. Wewant to daylight it, which means you
have the ability when you go intoa room to make it seem like you
have daylight in there. It's thatlight. Now you want to control it

(22:03):
because not everybody wants to have lightall around them all the time. So
you got to be able to dimit. You got to be able to be
able to massage it and get itthe way you like it. One thing
that's really helped us is just theLED options. So our standard now is
I think the br brand is TAMbut it looks like a recessed fixture.

(22:25):
It's not really. It's an inchthick stamped fixture. So it's a I
think it's I think it's just madefor basements because if you look up after
we've done mechanicals, there's in thatfloor system above you. When it's open,
you're going to see heat runs goingdown. You're going to see wires
going down, You're going to seepipes going down, and you're going to
think, well, if I hadto do an old style canihlight, those

(22:47):
things stick up into those joy spacelike six or eight inches. It really
limits where you could put lights inthe past. Now with the LED technology,
we can kind of put them whereverwe want. You can straddle a
framing member, a two by tenor or something in that basement behind the
drywall, and you know you canput the lights where you want to.
We're they going to do the mostgood. So that's really helped us a

(23:11):
ton. Do you run into questionsabout noise and then why? I asked
that As you think of the basementbeing the lowest level, are there things
that can be done to mitigate mainfloor noise into the basement or vice versa.
There are So entry level is tostuff some fiberglass insulation up there.

(23:33):
Does it work great? No?But it will dull It'll dull it some.
I mean it definitely helps noise travelsthrough vibration. So you know you've
got flooring on top of plywood subfloor, and then you've got the framing members.
I was talking about two by twelvesor eye joye and then you're attached
to drivel, so everything's connected,so the vibration just goes right down on

(23:55):
through. We have experimented with somethings. There's a there's a metal product
called Z channel and it just lookslike a Z and it separates the drywall
from the framing member. But itwill lower your ceiling height like an inch.
So I mean it and I thinkit's I think it's somewhat limited how
how much it actually works. There'sthere's nothing that we found that that works

(24:18):
great that'll stop all the noise,but there are things you can do to
dull it. Have we talked aboutHave I talked about Rockwell insulation? I
don't know on the show. Iknow you and I have talked off air
about it, but I don't knowif we've talked. Rock Will is a
it's kind of what it sounds like. I think the main portion of it,
it's it's a really good insulator.It kind of looks like insulation but

(24:41):
denser. I guess I don't knowhow else to describe it. Uh,
it's usually kind of a I don'tknow, a tan color. It's thick
and heavy and Rockwell is ground uprock and they spin it with some other
things and make an insulation product.It is by far the best insulator I've
ever seen it, and it's agreat sound insulator. You can also I've

(25:04):
seen demonstrations at the shows where theyhave a two thousand degree torch burning out
all day and it doesn't phase it. It's rocket you know, so you
can you can put it in waterand it'll float. It doesn't really get
get soaked with water. Because it'sa wonderful product. In Europe, they
use a lot of it. Onthe outside of the house. They use
it, you know, rock hoolrigid we call it, and they'll put

(25:26):
six inches or more on the outsideof the house. And one of the
benefits there they will say is okay, it's a great insulator, but it's
also a great sound insulator. Soif you're near a busy road or something,
you're not you're not hearing that thatnoise come in. Now in a
basement, we have a basement fishgoing on right now. Where we had

(25:47):
this discussion with the homeowner and hewas pretty experienced homeower. We could do
a lot of things, and hesaid, well, would you let me
do my own rock bowl insulation inthat ceiling, and yeah, it didn't
matter to us. We didn't haveto deal with it. He got what
he wanted, probably cheaper than ifwe had to be in the middle.
And so it's it's a it's alsoa good product to do around like a

(26:07):
bedroom, so you're going to separatebasements. We usually have a bedroom butting
up to the great room and theremight be a pool table or football table
or a movie going on in there, and so it's it's good to inslight
those walls and separate things out.Interesting, what about do sub floors make
a difference on that we mentioned?I feel like I remember seeing years ago,
like a commercial for some I don'tknow what which company it was,

(26:30):
but probably during like one of theremodeling TV shows, and they were talking
about like keeping the noise down.Does does that type of material make any
difference really? Or is that lotskind of marketing. I'm unconvinced about that.
I will say, the better you'rethis, this subploor thing goes from
really cheap and crappy spartan my French, but to really well, really well

(26:56):
made. Uh, it's it's themore stable your product is for that you
know, it's usually three quarter inchOSB or in its strandboard or plywood.
It fuse a really really good marinegrade OSB. That's what we use only
frame. If it rains on thatstuff, it doesn't swell up if it

(27:18):
if you know, it's just superstable, really strong product. I do
feel like that will help because wedo. When we have builders we work
for and they use a cheaper product, it seems like we're going back for
squeaks, We're going back for noises, and it's really hard to stop it
because you know, this stuff getsa little wet and it becomes less stable.
A lot of the plywoods are reallygood, and it's also how you

(27:40):
fasten them, how you glue themyou can have. I think some of
that noise is coming from a floatingfloor on top of that plywood that you're
walking across in heavy boots or shoes, and you're you're hearing that sort of
smack smacks mac. And the moreyou can stabilize that that whole system,
the better. Really interesting stuff.As always, we talk Mike Twoing,

(28:00):
owner of Edge Construction, the websiteEdge Construction Company dot com. That's Edge
Construction Company dot com. Great websiteand resource learn more about Edge Construction.
Also links to Howspinterest, Facebook,man been there recently? Check it out.
They're always updating Edge Construction Company dotcom with recent projects. Also those
links hows have you ever been there? Been thinking about doing some modeling,
whether it's a basement, kitchen,or any room or looking to do an

(28:22):
addition, of course, check outEdge Construction Company dot Com in their housepage.
That's houzz, which is do yourconversation with Mike Twog. We'll talk
more about basements. Next. It'sthe Homer Modeling Show with Edge Construction continues
right here on thirteen to ten WIBA. This is the Homer Modeling Show,
brought to you by Edge Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. That's
all one word Edge Construction Company dotCom. Telph number six so eight six

(28:44):
three six three three four to threethat number six three six Edge talking this
morning about remodeling your basement. We'vekind of done a lot of the the
less glamorous stuff, which is theimportant stuff. By the way, as
we talk about doing a basement remodel, let's talk about some of the funds.
And I know that we talk about, you know, really very high
quality. There is no use tobe back in a day that you could

(29:07):
base being kind of get away withmaybe lesser quality materials and type of things.
People don't want obviously don't want thatat all anymore. But one of
the things that is still somewhat truewith the basement is people tend to be
a little more bold. Am Iright on that when it comes to if
they're going to do a design,kind of be a little more bold with
their design. The basement is wherethat tends to come out. That's the
fun part. Yeah, that's thefun part. I mean if there was
a counter top or or our cabinetcolor or that you were just a little

(29:33):
worried about upstairs when you built yourhouse, it was like, I really
love it, but I don't knowif we can put it on our main
floor. The basement can be aplace where you can take some chances on
design. So this is you alludedto like that, this is not a
lesser space anymore. It's not.I don't hear anybody going, no the
man caves. It's kind of doesn'tseem to be like that anymore. It's

(29:55):
it's a we are conversation right fromthe starters. Hey, we're we're gonna
we're gonna at least match your upstairsfinishes, and most of the time I
think we go to a higher level. So it's it's it's that thing where
that new construction process can be sofast and so it's almost like you don't
have a lot of time to makedecisions sometimes and so when you've had time

(30:18):
to think about it, and theremodel process just doesn't operate at that pace.
So you can you can think aboutit, you get some time,
you get reaction time, you getto look at all the products you and
so that is a fun part becausepeople will bring in a picture and say,
Okay, this is what I reallylike. Can we do that or
can we get close to it?And then that that of course, is
when the designers take over and makeit work. Do we see people using

(30:42):
basements for entertainment things like wet barand other space like there that you know
we have you have company over.Obviously here in Wisconsin there's a good six
to ten months up. Yeah,that yes, it does feel that way,
but we're you know, if you'regoing to have company over, maybe
the you know, outdoors aren't available. Let's have a great place where we
can all get together. Basements usedfor that a lot, aren't they very

(31:04):
much so? And all designed nowfrom our side, we are designing areas
for people to congregate. So whetherwe're doing your kitchen, even if it's
small, we're gon we're going tokind of start with that in the back
of our mind, and basements areno different. And so, yeah,
you asked initially about the wet bars. For sure, probably I don't know.

(31:26):
It must be around eighty percent ofthe basements we finish end up with
a wet bar or a dry bar, at least something down there. And
I think it has a lot todo with entertaining, but it also asks,
you know, what if what ifa relative comes and stays for a
while, maybe or a friend thatcomes and stays for a while, hopefully
not too long for those of youout there, but you know that the

(31:48):
time to do it is when thisis all going in. So basements are
kind of they lend themselves to nichetype areas which are great for wet bars.
Said maybe I always wanted to what'sthe shuffle board game? You know?
Oh? Yeah, the old one? Yeah, see those once in
a while. Sean's making a bigdepressed face I'd love I dream of that.

(32:13):
Do you have a pinball machine?Though I have, I have an
arcade machine. I wish I wanta pinball you know, if you anybody's
selling pinball in contact. I'm alwayslike with those with with kind of that
entertainment. And you mentioned having guestsover as well, do we I know,
movie theaters and that type of thing. Kind of kind of specific spaces

(32:34):
have fallen out, but they haven'tgone away entirely, right, there's still
like really nice TVs, comfortable seatingstill taking in you know, movies or
the big game or those kind ofthings, just kind of in a more
and more comfortable, kind of lessrigid environment or am I miss? I
think like you know, we talkedabout kind of flexible spaces, and so
this this great room has to domore than just be a wet barer in

(32:58):
a place to watch the game.It's got to be for some people.
That does mean okay, if Iwant to watch a movie there there's a
certain segment out there that is verypicky about their av choices and so they
want the best tech they want theywanted to they want the sound to be

(33:19):
right. We now have kind ofgotten out of that business. We used
to do some of it just becausewe're an electrical contractor and I don't want
to see you get dragged in,but you kind of get dragged in.
We will a lot of times runthe wires for people if they're if they're
savvy enough with it to pick outtheir own product and put it up.
Otherwise, we have people that werecommend to help you with that. I

(33:42):
love one innovation that I really likebecause it's it's not very intrusive, is
being able to project on a wall. And I've seen it. I've watched
movies this way. To me,I can't imagine a higher quality situation because
the typical way you used to beyou'd have yourjector up up high. You
are projecting onto a screen. Butscreens are not flat, you know,

(34:04):
they're they color, they curl upon the ends, they're they're there.
They can be kind of wavy,and to me, it affects the experience.
I know there's fixes for some ofthat that people have figured out,
but we started maybe five years ago. When people want it, we'll do
a really smooth finish on a wall, on a projection wall, and this

(34:24):
wall can be painted, you know, I mean, it's got to be
a lighter color obviously, but itcan be the same paint to cover everything
as the rest of the basement.We have as it's like a three stage
paint process, that special paint thatthat will make this a better surface to
project on. And so people thatare just in that in that world,

(34:45):
they know what they want, theyreally are after it. You can now
have projectors sitting on the floor twofeet in front of this wall projecting perfectly.
You're not you know more about this, you should be talking about this.
I'm amazed that you mentioned like likethe projectors is not just how crisp
the pictures, but as you mentioned, like the what they call it you

(35:07):
throw, yeah, is like itused to be. If you want like
a nice big you have to havelike this big, long area. Now
it's like at least projectors with thelenses and the technology. It's just so
amazing. It's amazing and so andI think like the availability of some of
that tech and just the process oflike I talked to the projection wall,

(35:30):
now we can now we can havea space that can do a lot of
other things, and we can stilldo we can still do a high end
tech for projection. Do we seelike home gyms and other things going going
in the space, and is therea way to do a flex gym where
it's the gym sometimes and how doesthat get how does that get accommodated or

(35:50):
is that possible? Or I meancrumb is just so big and heavy.
We do see we are seeing moreof there's some innovative tech on the gym
side as far as workout equipment andthings that kind of come out from the
wall and can do a bunch ofthings, can hit take a lot of
boxes. I always thought it shouldbe flexible, like they should be in

(36:15):
the same room as the laundry,because you know, you can hand close.
Yeah, today the most expensive launchry. We do have one coming up
with I don't know if I've talkedabout. They're called Murphy doors weirdly enough,
and it's like a door that canbe a bookshelf and you slide it
open and then there can be aroom behind there, so it looks it

(36:37):
looks like, you know, itlooks like shelves or it looks like you
know, something else, a cabinets, and then you open up it's actually
a door. And so we haveone coming up I think this summer that
we're going to have a workout roombehind the Murphy door. So I thought
it was because you know, itseparates it from all the boxes and stuff
that you usually have an abasement toats, but you know, you also have

(36:58):
a nice space for working on.You get people who do things like kind
of like a I don't want tocall it, maybe a retreat or like
a like an escatee A lot evenlike you know, I think of like
having like a nice uh maybe aman cave is not the right word for
it, but maybe like a niceroom to just kind of unwind and decompress,
or like as we're talking about gyms, I think like maybe a little
kind of personal spot. I mean, do we do we see that type
of thing where people are like,you know what, this is an area

(37:21):
that's maybe a little off the houseand maybe just a place for to go
after you know, go after work, have a have a have a brandy
or something and just relax after workand those time that would be my dream.
Yeah, but you know a lotof times I don't know if we
would see that because we're in thereduring construction and what people do with certain
spaces. I do know. Idon't know if you've seen the blackout shades

(37:45):
that that you can do now inwindows where it basically seals light one hundred
percent. Uh, So we weactually have to sometimes trim those windows out
a little differently than we normally wouldbe so that you can you can actually
get something that just fills that wholespace, uh and locks it down.
So it is definitely possible to dothose types of rooms. This this is

(38:06):
the case where we're talking about placementfigures in right lighting figures in how much
we can black this out, uh, and maybe installation and sound. Okay,
if you're if you're needing that quietarea and you know, the kids
come rolling in at three thirty,it sounds like I've heard of elephants.

(38:27):
I don't know how how reflective you'llbe in that space. I just dream
of like having that room where youjust like a piece of quiet direction exactly
all it is like you open upand there's a recliner there and a TV
and that's that's it. But there'slike one of these Murphy dolls where you
can hide this space from the restof your family, like a little sneaky,
yes, sneaky space. We haveto talk during the break. That's

(38:50):
what it was like. Two ownerof Edge Construction the website Edge Construction Company
dot com. That's Edge Construction Companydot com. That's one of the fun
things too about basements is really reallyhaving that conversations. You never know what's
possible and still still you start thatconversation. I can just pick up phone
game a call at Edge Construction sixeight six three six three three four three
that number six three six Edge willcontinue the Homer Modeling Show with Edge Construction

(39:13):
next year. I'm thirteen to tenwib A. This is the Homer Modeling
Show brought to you by Edge ConstructionOnline. Edge Construction Company dot com.
That's all one word Edge Construction Companydot com. Delphy number six O eight
six three six three three four threethat number six three six edge Edge talking
this week about basement remodels, andwe really just kind of got started on
some of the base basic basement stuff, basic stuff on the on the remodeling

(39:37):
of basements and Mike one of thecool things and we just kind of started
touching on it in that last segmentis basements are obviously all rooms. Any
space getting remodeled is always a funproject. But as we were talking about
on that last segment, basements allowa little more leeway for individual kind of
you know, you get to bea little bit more personalized when it comes

(40:00):
to that stuff some things that youmay hold back on on the main level.
Basements allow you a little bit moreflexibility on that. And as part
of that discussion is understanding and meetingwith designers, how is this space going
to be used, who's going tobe using it, what are the different
different things we want to accomplish withthis space. It can be a lot
of fun, but it's also oneof those areas where you really want to

(40:21):
make sure that you're exploring those optionsbecause when it's done right, it's a
huge reward well, and it's notlike you want to do this every ten
years when your needs change either.So I think it's it's pretty important when
you're in that design process. You'reme working with a designer that's going to
be in their head be going Okay, we want to tick all your boxes,

(40:42):
but we also are conscious of afuture owner or maybe a maturing family.
So it might get used a certainway today, but we want this
to fit four years in the future. So that's that's one thing I love
about this flexible flexibility trend in design. And it's not just in a basements,
it's pretty much all over. Wewant those spaces to not necessarily be

(41:07):
single use. We want to bewe want other possibilities down there. And
so that's just a good trend indesign and a good idea when you're designing
your basement with that and with youknow, as we talk about kind of
the basement design and overall design trends, we've talked about some of the different
tools out there and different websites.I know when you go to Edge Construction
Company, dot Com, House,Pinterest, a couple of really good examples

(41:29):
for that. And when people cometo you, guys, they often have
with basements today. Is that anotherone of those spaces where they come and
say, you know what, I'vegot this idea, I saw something really
nifty online, let's let's do thisin the basement. Or is that one
of those things where people are like, we just don't know, we just
know we've got this space, we'dlove to make use of it. Yeah,
it's like half and half. IfI think it's really healthy for a

(41:52):
homeowner to do some research on ourown before they even contact somebody like us,
because it'll help you kind of siftthrough, well I like this,
I don't like this. Sometimes it'seven valuable. You're going, well,
I don't I like this one.But I don't know why. You know,
it's not anything in particular to agood designer that's going to tell them
a lot. They're gonna be able. They're gonna learn a lot about you

(42:14):
based on the things they see inyour house that you like and maybe have
purchased. And they're also going tolearn from some of those things that you
you bring to the table. It'svery com much for me on the first
meeting to say, hey, ifyou have anything tagged online or if you've
built a library on Pinterest or house, please give us access to that because
it'll it'll give us clues to whatyou're going to like. It's really amazing

(42:37):
stuff. By speaking of house,Pinterest, Facebook, all that stuff.
Head on over to Edge Construction Companydot com. Check out their projects.
Check out those links as well.Been inspired and think about doing sermodel.
They love talk the Edge Construction.I got to just pick up phone,
getmccall six so eight six three sixthree three four three that number is so
easy to remember, six three six. Edge. Of course, Edge Construction
brings you the Homer Modeling Show righthere on thirteen ten wib A