Bathroom Remodeling On A Budget

If you ask around, people will probably tell you that the average cost for a bathroom remodel is about $15,000. Remodeling Magazine says the average cost of a master bathroom remodeling project is $25,000. Read more

How To Hire A Denver Contractor

If you are planning to remodel your Denver home or add one or more rooms, one of the most important decisions you will make will be the choice of the Denver contractor you hire to do the work. There are several important considerations in choosing a contractor. But the first step is finding good contractors to interview for your project.

Keeping in mind some important considerations about choosing the best Denver remodeling contractor for the job will help you narrow the field when you start trying to find the contractors you will interview.

Here are some of the key considerations:
• Does the Denver contractor have experience with the specific kind of work you want done?
• Does the Denver contractor have a good reputation in the community?
• What kind of reputation does the contractor have for pricing his/her work?
• Who recommended the Denver contractor?
• Have there been complaints or lawsuits against the contractor?
• Is the Denver contractor properly certified and/or licensed?
• Do you have reason to believe you can trust the contractor to be in your home and around your family?
• Do you have reason to believe the contractor will provide the promised quality of work?

When choosing the Denver remodeling contractors you will interview and from whom you will request estimates on your project, you will certainly want to do your homework and check out each contractor you are considering. You will also want to be certain they will abide by local zoning laws and building codes. No matter how carefully you check out a contractor you are considering, a strong recommendation from someone you know and trust will be one of the most important factors in your decision and evaluation.

Because of the importance of trusted recommendations, this is the best place to start when you are looking for the right contractor for your project.

Here are some of the best ways to find reliable Denver contractors:
1. Ask family members who have had work done in their homes.
2. Ask friends who have had similar work done.
3. Ask neighbors who have remodeled.
4. Ask co-workers about their remodeling experiences.
5. Ask local builders for recommendations.
6. Ask for recommendations from providers of building supplies.
7. Check with the better business bureau and the chamber of commerce in your area.
8. Ask the state licensing board.

These people should be able to give you a list of reliable Denver contractors. You should then ask around about their reputation and check out their background and the quality of their work carefully. Remember that it is okay to ask to see previous work by contractors, especially work that is similar to the project you are planning.

How Do I Reduce Dust?

Dust is the plague of many Denver homeowners. It seems to appear out of thin air and gather in your home. Dust, dander, and allergens permeate the air in any home.

Worse than the dust you can see are the particulates floating in the air of your Denver home that are invisible to the naked eye. Like dust, these particulates will eventually settle. But that can take half a day or more and while they are floating in the air, you are breathing them into your lungs.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will capture 95% of indoor pollutants automatically, without effort on your part. For pennies a day over the life an electronic air cleaner, you can reduce household dust and airborne pollutants.

Where Dust Comes From?
Dust comes from a variety of sources, including skin cells, carpet and fabric fibers, gypsum dust from walls, wood fire ash, candles, pollens, dust from outdoors, your hair, insect remains, and so on. What you can see is just the half of it (well, not even the half of it). Your home is filled with invisible airborne particulates from aerosols, cooking residue, grease, smoke, bacteria, and viruses. Visible particulates collect on your furnishings. Invisible particulates remain airborne for long periods of time, increasing the chance you will inhale them so they will collect on your lungs.

What Can I Do?
Throwaway air conditioning filters can help catch some dust. More effective are mechanical filters (i.e., deep, pleated media filters). The most effective solution—some say the only effective solution is an electronic air cleaner, which traps 95% of indoor pollutants. Over it’s life, an electronic air cleaner costs less than 30¢ per day, a bargain compared to the price of paying someone to dust.

A few facts:

Government research studies have found that indoor air is 10 to 100 times more polluted than outside air. People spend 90% of their time indoors.

Most airborne particles are so small they cannot be seen without the aid of an electron microscope. These particles comprise 80% of the airborne particles in your home. The airborne particles visible with the naked eye represent 0.1% of visible particles. The rest are visible with a microscope.

It should be no surprise then, that each person breathes an average of two teaspoons of dust, dust mites, pollen, mold, viruses, bacteria, pet dander, carpet fiber and second-hand smoke into their lungs each day. These particulates are invisible to the human eye.

Throw-away filters trap less than 10% of the pollutants, while electronic air cleaners capture 95%

Article provided by Denae Keutzer, Aardvark A/C & Heating, Houston Air Conditioning Company.

Green HVAC Ideas

Does my air conditioning and heating system hurt the environment?

Many consumers have grown more aware of their personal impact on the environment. People want to find ways to maintain comfortable, modern lifestyles, but they also want to do their part to protect the world we share.

The heating and air conditioning industry has been one of the most responsible about reducing the industry’s impact on our environment. Yet, we cannot do it alone. Some of the greatest environmental gains come from simple steps you can take.

What’s The Easiest Thing I Can Do To Help?
One of the simplest, most economical, and smartest things you can do to reduce your home’s environmental impact is to tune-up the air conditioner every Spring (heat pumps should be tuned in the Spring and Fall) and to clean and adjust the furnace burners in the Fall. This helps the environment by restoring system efficiency and capacity, which reduces waste and run time. It also cuts utility expenses, reduces the potential for an equipment breakdown, and extends equipment life. It’s not just smart for the environment. It’s smart for your wallet and your time.

What’s Can I Do To Make The Most Impact?
The most significant way you can reduce your home’s environmental impact is to purchase one of today’s most efficient systems. Heating and air conditioning technology has improved dramatically in recent years, both minimizing the industry’s environmental impact and energy costs. The most efficient gas furnaces release the least amount of nitrous oxide and other by products of combustion. The most efficient air conditioners and heat pumps use the least electricity, cutting smokestack emissions at generating plants.

How Can I Avoid Damage From Refrigerants?
Older residential air conditioners use HFCs, which do impact the ozone layer, but far, far less than the CFCs found in household refrigerators. Since your air conditioner is a sealed system and we capture and recycle HFCs from your air conditioner, there is little risk that your refrigerants will impact the environment as long as there are no leaks. If your systems leaks refrigerant, it is important to get it repaired or replaced as soon as possible. If you replace your air conditioner, many new air conditioners use a different type of refrigerant that is environmentally neutral.

A Few Facts:

Thanks to the heating and air conditioning industry, our cities are much cleaner today than they were a century ago. It’s true. Remember the foggy London of Dickens’ England? It wasn’t really foggy, it was smoggy London, thanks to coal fireplaces and boilers.

Though unheralded, modern gas and electric heating systems have probably done more than any single innovation to clean the air in our cities.

The heating and air conditioning industry is a leader in environmental protection. Long before there was a Montreal Protocol or Kyoto Agreement, the heating and air conditioning industry voluntarily began to reduce and eliminate the use of ozone damaging CFCs and HFCs.

Article provided by Denae Keutzer, Aardvark A/C & Heating, Houston Air Conditioning Company.

Denver Kitchen Remodeling Ideas

Functionality and aesthetics are the two main objectives of any kitchen remodeling plan. A kitchen must provide an efficient working place, even while it looks good.

Most kitchen designs in vogue for the last few decades have been based on three standard layouts: the U-shaped kitchen, the L-shaped kitchen and the galley kitchen. All of them make use of the classic work-triangle concept that basically positions the three major kitchen components (refrigerator, stove, and sink) in a triangular pattern.

With changing lifestyle and man-woman roles, whereby both wife and husband share home responsibilities, multiple work centers or work stations within the kitchen are gaining popularity in order to allow more than one person to work efficiently without getting in anyone else’s way.

Adding an island is one of the most common ways to have multiple work centers into a kitchen. An island creates two to four small work stations along the perimeter of a kitchen. These stations can become major work centers if a second sink is added.

Placing gadgets and appliances in the kitchen in such a way that they do not obstruct movement is important while preparing remodeling plans. Selecting the cabinetry that best suits your needs and budget, determining whether re-facing or replacing will be your best option would be crucial factors.

The Denver kitchen remodeling plan will have to also include scope for new sinks and plumbing, dishwashers, and ovens, ranges, and built-in microwaves. One has to also examine if your exhaust is in the right place and works more efficiently.

You also need to explore if your new kitchen can be remodeled around your existing floor plan or the space needs to be increased to accommodate your appliances and gadgets. Your new kitchen floor needs to be fashioned around the uses, sizes, and footprints of your appliances.

A well-planned and executed kitchen remodeling project can make a significant difference, both in the livability of your home, and in its value.

FEATURED KITCHEN REMODELING CONTRACTOR

Denver Remodeling Contractor - Whether considering a whole house renovation, a new kitchen or bath, a finished basement remodel or an addition, you can trust your home to the experienced professionals at Christie’s Complete Services. Owned by Steve and Diane Christie, who know what’s important to the people of Colorado: quality, honesty and value.
Christies Complete Services Inc.
PO Box 544
Firestonem CO 80520
Phone: 303-833-4715
Fax: 303-325-7344

What You Should Know About Egress Windows

Ventilation is important to basements in order to make them a livable area. Egress windows play a big part in ventilation; just because they may not let much usable light in, they provide another valuable service. Egress windows can help circulate air, and provide a portal for the entrance in and exit out of air that is being circulated. Without this ventilation many Denver homeowners would find their basements depressing and confining, and their use would be limited.

Another valuable function of an egress window is as a means of entrance or exit from the Denver home should situation prove necessary. Because of this use there are certain specification that must be met when selecting egress windows. For one, egress windows are not like the other windows in your home, so do not be fooled into thinking you can just get the same windows for every space in your Denver home. Egress windows are specially designed for installation in masonry foundation walls. Although they are, generally speaking, relatively small in size compared to most of the vast array of windows available, it is important to select egress windows that meet the egress standards of local codes when the windows will be installed in a finished basement. So what are these standards or size, etc.?

According to the International Residential Code, an egress window must be at least 24 in. wide and 20 in. high with a net clear opening of at least 5.7 sq. ft. to allow occupants to escape in an emergency or to allow a fully outfitted firefighter to enter from the outside. While this may seem like a rather large space for an egress window, should your house ever catch fire, and a firefighter need enter through a egress window, you will be grateful for such regulations.

Your egress windows do not just have to be functional. Many replacement windows that are decorative can meet the safety regulations set forth. To give your egress windows a unique twist, try stained glass or etched glass. Because egress windows do not allow much light in anyway, it should not change the lighting configuration of the room.

DENVER CONTRACTOR THAT SPECIALIZES IN EGRESS WINDOWS

Dahl-House Construction
P.O. Box 748
Indian Hills, CO 80454
Telephone: 303-915-5011
Fax: 303-237-4341
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Denver Radon Mitigation

The prevalence of Radon Gas in the soils in the Denver metro area is an issue of growing concern. Radon has been deemed the number 1 cause of lung cancer in non-smokers in a study done at the University of Iowa. Radon gas is found in varying levels in almost all regions of the country. Visit the EPA’s Radon Map Zone at the following link.

If your planned Denver area home is in an area of higher risk, you should plan early on to install a Radon Mitigation System. In many Denver areas now, a test is required with each real-estate transaction regarding residential properties and this will probably expand to include most of the higher risk areas. In any event, your health is well worth the small investment to install such a system.

Installing the basics of the system in a Basement or Slab-On-Grade Foundation consists of inserting a perforated pipe below the slab in crushed rock and stubbing up a connector into the basement. Venting this pipe to the exterior (away from any windows in your house or your neighbors, preferably up through the roof), constitutes what is known as a Passive Radon Mitigation System. If , after your house is complete, a test determines that levels are still too high, you may have to convert to an Active Radon Mitigation System by installing a fan than runs continuously which creates low pressure under the slab and increases the rate of gas evacuation. So you will want to have the slab penetration in an area that is readily accessible and has electric available to power the fan.

Many times the fan is located in the attic, particularly if your foundation is slab-on-grade or crawl space. Also remember that you will want to make sure that the vent through the roof does not allow water to fall down the pipe to the slab below, this would not be a good thing for several reasons.

FEATURED DENVER RADON MITIGATION

Dahl-House Construction
P.O. Box 748
Indian Hills, CO 80454
Telephone: 303-915-5011
Fax: 303-237-4341
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