Remodeling Design Trends: Bathrooms, Kitchens, Lighting, Islands, Tile, and Quartz Countertops
Host:
Welcome to the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction on News Talk 1310 WIBA. Have a question? Email it to EdgeConstructionRadio@gmail.com.
Now, here is your host, Sean Prebil, on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Mention the website too, if you have not been over there recently. They are always updating EdgeConstructionCompany.com with recent projects. There are also fantastic links to Houzz, Pinterest, Facebook, and all those different social media platforms.
There is some great stuff there for design ideas, especially on the Houzz link.
If you have been thinking about doing that remodel, again, the number is 608-636-3343. That is 636-EDGE.
We will be talking about some design trends, some of the cool things Mike has seen, and some of the great stuff they have done recently at Edge Construction.
Speaking of Mike, Mr. Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction, how are you doing this morning?
Mike:
I am great, Sean. Good to see you.
Host:
We were talking before the show about North Carolina. We were talking about Asheville specifically, and you were telling me you had the opportunity a few years ago to visit down there and see a little bit of the engineering, marvels, and mysteries.
I know with remodeling, you guys see quite a few marvels and mysteries of your own over the years.
Mike:
If you do not know the history of the Biltmore, it is worth looking up.
I think it is the Vanderbilt family. It was some 22-year-old Vanderbilt’s passion project. He wanted a place in the country, so he bought 500,000 acres and built a 100,000-square-foot mansion.
Host:
I have friends whose parents, generally their fathers, worked in construction.
Are you one of those guys where anywhere you go, you are obviously enjoying vacation, but you are also looking at the engineering and design of everything?
Mike:
Yes.
I try not to pick on other contractors.
I have friends who say, “Oh, look at that. They did not do a good job of this.”
I do not do that.
What I am looking at is, if I am in a big building, I am thinking, “What is behind the drywall? How did they build this roof? Where is all that weight coming down and transferring to?”
I am intrigued by that.
You mentioned the Biltmore.
For somebody in construction, if you are in construction, go one time to the Biltmore and take the tours. See what they did.
This was at a time when electricity was not that common, especially in houses.
They figured out lots of ways to do things and invented technology that really jumped the industry ahead.
They also did stuff fairly quickly, which was cool.
I am always attracted to that type of construction that fits the surroundings. I do not know if this mansion fits the surroundings, but the idea was that it was totally self-supported.
They had cattle. They processed their own milk and sold it to the community. They provided jobs for everybody around them. They built houses for people who worked on the property.
They raised vegetables and crops, and they kind of started the U.S. forestry program that I was telling you about before we started.
It is very interesting.
There are lots of books written about it.
And now they are selling wine, so that is not a bad thing.
Host:
Not bad at all.
We were talking too about the pool that is there and some of the interesting plumbing stuff.
Do you ever come across that?
We have the lakes here, and I know a lot of people have outdoor pools, but do you ever come across indoor pools?
Mike:
Not very often.
Once every five years, somebody contacts us about building something like that.
Usually, they have a good reason. It is either therapeutic, or they have kids who are into swimming or something competitive.
But mostly that seems to have gone away, and the outside stuff has taken over.
Pools had a stigma for a long time, like they were a pain to maintain and even lowered your house value.
I think we are through that now because homeowners we know, and friends we have who have pools, say it is just not that big a deal anymore to maintain them. They have that figured out.
Now there is interesting stuff, like motion pools, where they make waves and you can swim against the current.
Host:
Yes.
Mike:
Those saw a little spike maybe a few years ago, and now we are in a slump again where we are not getting many calls on stuff like that.
But I think it is interesting technology.
If I could go back, and knew it was easy to maintain and could afford it, it would have been a lot of fun to have a pool for the kids.
Host:
A good way is to have friends with a pool.
Mike:
Yes. I made sure to have friends with a pool.
Host:
Speaking of large bodies of water inside the house, this kind of applies to the tub area and design trends.
It is pretty amazing when it comes to technology. You would not think a bathtub would have technology or that there would be as much advancement.
But you have been telling me about certain tubs — the amazing size of these tubs, but also the design and materials that are used.
They are definitely not what we remember from the olden days with some of these big, old, heavy iron porcelain clawfoot tubs.
There are some really cool modern trends and designs out there, aren’t there?
Mike:
There are.
I do not know when it started, but we just call them freestanding tubs now.
Ten years ago, I was probably calling them clawfoot tubs because I just did not know what to call them.
If you had a freestanding tub, we all just called it a clawfoot tub.
But now that would not do it justice.
If you go to one of the supply houses, like First Supply over by our shop — some of our stuff comes from there — and if we are looking for something unique, or even something not unique but we just want to look at it and see what is out there, we will go poke around.
Our designers will take people to that showroom because you can see a lot of different things.
We have one in our showroom. It is a freestanding tub, and they are much more ergonomic. I think that is the right term.
They feel better.
I am 6-foot-3, so in a normal tub, it is pretty comical. I am sure my knees are sticking out a long way, and I am not really in the water.
With these now, you can bury yourself in water.
The one we have in our shop, I hate to say it this way, but it is sort of our entry point. It is not the cheapest thing on the market, but it is probably more like a midpoint.
We will start with that one. It is a good tub.
It is a two-piece fiberglass tub, so it has this underside that you do not see, and then the part you do see slides over the top when you install it.
It makes it kind of easy to hook up plumbing and things because you can do that stuff, and it is not visible.
That one will feel just the same as a more expensive tub.
We have also done, and I know you alluded to different materials, what I just call the resin tub.
I do not know if anybody really knows what resin is. It is this stuff you can pour into molds. You mix it up, pour it into a mold, and it hardens.
I do not know if epoxies are resins, or maybe you add resin to epoxy, but resin makes this super hard, super dense material that can be molded into any shape.
We have put in several tubs that are resin tubs, and they are a little more modern looking with very thin walls.
It might be three-quarters of an inch thick on top, which looks fairly thin and dainty until you try to pick one up.
The first one we installed was 350 or 400 pounds, and we had to go up two turns in a staircase.
Luckily, our guys can lift stuff.
We had the masons there that day too, and we said, “Okay, everybody is going to pile on this thing.”
So six of us got that tub upstairs.
Now we are conscious of that, but at least we know what we are getting into when we put those in.
If you have this dense material, you are not wanting a heavy tub just for the sake of it. You are wanting a tub that keeps the water hotter longer.
That dense material does a better job than fiberglass material at keeping the water warmer.
That is a really nice touch.
Host:
What about design trends?
Maybe I am off on this, but I see a lot of freestanding tubs with a completely separate shower space.
If you have the space, because obviously this takes up floor space, that seems to be a very popular design thing.
Mike:
Yes, we are doing a lot of that.
If you have the room, and we have kind of poked fun at those whirlpool tubs that went in during the 80s and 90s — I think you might have had one of those in yours.
Host:
When I was growing up, we had one in the house.
Mike:
Those were inefficient and took so much water to fill. Then the water did not stay hot for very long, so they dwindled in use.
But do not worry if you have one of those in your house, because we love coming in there as designers and using the space that thing took up.
Now we have a chance to possibly do a tub like we were talking about, the freestanding tub, and still get a nice walk-in shower in there. That is very popular.
Some things have changed design-wise over the years.
Six, eight, or 10 years ago, it seemed like that shower was much more closed off. It was more like a tile room you walked into and turned the shower on.
Now, if you look at our new designs, we are doing everything we can to open up with glass, whether it is a half wall next to a cabinet and then glass above so you can get light going in there.
I guess what we figured out — and should have figured out earlier — is that people do not want to take a shower in a tunnel. They want to have some openness to it.
It makes it feel a lot better.
Host:
Do we see any of those premolded stand-up showers anymore?
I think of teenagers maybe wanting their own little bathroom in the basement somewhere.
Do we see those being used in that type of application, or is it generally something more open?
Mike:
The molded fiberglass units, either a tub with the surround or a walk-in shower with the surround, yes, we do a lot of those.
They tend to be in main baths, like a kids’ bath upstairs, a second full bath upstairs, in a kids’ bedroom area, or in a basement.
It is almost rare for us to put a tub in the basement because if company comes, they are probably not taking a bath. They would rather have a shower.
I am going to put a plug in for them because, historically, they have not always been the nicest product.
If you look at the new ones, they are much nicer.
They have built-in storage. We can get backers on them to mount grab bars or anything else we want.
The look is much nicer.
They have fancied them up. They are making them better and putting some design into them.
We have people opt for those quite often, and they work really nicely.
One in-between thing we do a fair amount of is a fiberglass base.
It is a molded base with a tile surround.
It is budget friendly compared to building a mud-set tile base all from scratch.
A lot of people like it.
There are people who do not like standing on tile. I am kind of one of them. It just feels funny to me.
We get that from maybe 25 percent of our homeowners. They say, “I love the look of tile, but is there a really nice molded base we can use and then tile around it?”
That is a very popular option.
Host:
What about this?
I remember, however long I have been married now — a dozen years or so. Honey, if you are listening, I am sorry.
Mike:
You should know exactly.
Host:
We went on our honeymoon in Italy, and I remember our hotel had this shower in the corner with this half-round glass that would open and close.
At the time, I remember thinking, “This is very cool but very unique.”
Now I see that look a lot.
Are we seeing that in the Madison area, where it is like a corner shower with glass?
I will tell you, I am not very big horizontally north to south, but east to west, I am a bigger kind of guy.
I remember even though it was glass, it was tight in there.
It looked really cool, but I do not know.
I see them occasionally online.
Do we see that here in Madison at all?
Mike:
Those do not tend to make it into our designs.
I am not sure what the reason is.
I think, as Americans, we tend to like a little more room.
In Europe, I have been there, and every inch counts.
If you rent a hotel room or a hotel room with a shower, it could be something fairly small. It could still be really nice. It is going to get the job done.
There is nothing wrong with those units.
But no, they have not really been popular here unless there is a real space constraint.
I do not think it is a 2020s trend.
Weirdly, we will see it on some projects where a homeowner does their own remodel or somebody who is flipping will put something like that in.
I am not sure why.
I think it is a fairly easy install. It is kind of one unit you can toss in there and get going pretty quickly.
Host:
Always fascinating stuff.
Speaking of really cool ideas and neat trends, as we are talking home design trends, you can always follow Edge Construction Company on Facebook and social media.
Check out their Houzz page. There are a ton of great projects and some really good design there.
Learn more about them online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. There are links to those sites from the website.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We will continue our conversation with Mike.
We will talk a little bit about kitchens and how things have really brightened up from a number of different sources. That is a very popular trend.
We will get the details from Mike next as the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
The Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues now on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking about overall design trends when it comes to remodeling — some fantastic stuff this week.
Do not forget, as always, you can listen back to the podcast.
Have your smart speaker play it. Just say, “Play the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction on iHeartRadio,” and boom, it will play it back for you.
Or, of course, you can listen back at EdgeConstructionCompany.com or the radio station’s website as well.
Mike, we were talking about some different trends and cool things.
For a long time, when you think of kitchen trends, it was “cram as many cupboards into the space as possible.”
Storage was cupboards and pantries, and every inch of your kitchen was covered with different doors from floor to ceiling.
If you were lucky, you had a window, often quite small, above the sink.
We have gone the other way, and for darn good reason.
Windows are very popular in kitchens, aren’t they?
Mike:
They are, and it is encouraging.
You still have to have storage in your kitchen, right? We all have things we store in there.
Now that I am talking about this, I want to challenge my wife to tell me what is in every cabinet.
I wonder if I could have her do a test.
We went through a remodel maybe four or five years ago at our house and did the kitchen.
We did not expand the window. I do not know why we did not. Maybe I was lazy.
She would probably say, “Well, I did not know we could do that.”
I know that was on the table.
Well, for paying customers, it is.
Adding windows, especially in the kitchen, has become a big thing.
Or widening out that smaller 3-foot window over the kitchen and making it four or five feet.
It seems like, “Should a foot or two really make that much difference?”
It does. It makes a huge difference.
From a design standpoint, we love it when a homeowner is willing to sacrifice a little function for form.
We want it to look right and feel right.
If it makes you happy to be able to look outside, which it does for most people, then that matters.
I think mainly in the kitchen is where we are adding windows before anywhere else because we spend so much time in there.
Host:
When you mentioned form and function, I think some of it too is with the inclusion of things like islands.
We will talk about islands in a minute, but while we are on that design and bringing light in, another huge trend has been lighting in general.
Obviously, bringing in natural light, but also lighting that kitchen.
I know you guys at Edge Construction have described different types of lighting in the past.
There is a lot of thought and design that goes into not only light fixtures and how they fit the design, but the light itself as a feature.
Mike:
If we look at the contrast from where we were before, with a lot of cabinets in the kitchen and every available space filled with storage, then you had a smaller window over the sink and usually one central light fixture.
That one central light fixture was supposed to do the work of the whole space.
Now we look at it much more like daylighting the space — and every space.
Even houses we built 10 or 12 years ago would not have enough light by today’s standards.
So we layer lighting.
TAM is the brand name, but it is an LED fixture. It looks like a can light or recessed fixture.
The advantage is that the whole bottom of the fixture is the light, so your cone spreads out really wide, really fast and gives you a nice balanced background light.
We are trying to basically daylight these rooms, even if they have windows in them.
Because for five or six months a year here, I hate to say it, but some of us are not home when the sun is shining.
If we leave early in the morning and get home when it starts getting dark at 4:30 or even earlier at some point during the year, we have to daylight those rooms so it feels the same whether or not you have natural light.
Our basic package has all that background lighting, some surface-mount fixtures probably over an island, and then under-cabinet lighting too.
Host:
When you mention daylight coming at night and really wanting to have that room bright, do we also see people using light as part of their design, almost like mood or environment?
Maybe certain lights are used when you have company over.
Unless you are actively cooking, you probably do not want to daylight the whole room, but maybe you want certain spaces lit and use that as a design feature.
Mike:
That is a great point because if you add all this light and you cannot control it — it is either all on or all off — it is probably going to be annoying.
I will use myself as an example.
If we are leaving for the weekend, we are probably turning on the light over the sink. It is just a small light.
We like having our under-cabinet lights on at night, dimmed down. They are LED fixtures, and they use almost no electricity. It gives a really nice little background light if you need to go down there for something.
Those recessed fixtures may not be something you want cranked up all the way all the time.
The dimming technology for all the LED stuff has gotten so much better.
Five or six years ago, I almost hated talking about it because the technology was not catching up to the lights.
We had a flickering problem, and probably every other dimmer switch we put in had something wrong with it.
We fought our way through that stuff until it got fixed.
Now it is not a problem we are dealing with. That must mean it has gotten better.
Host:
Obviously, kitchens are probably the biggest example when we talk about lighting, but these lighting philosophies carry through to other rooms too, don’t they?
Mike:
They do.
If we are doing a kitchen and we are hitting lighting in there, and we see a great room off to the side, which we often do, I cannot believe how common it is to not have anything in that ceiling for light and to rely on lamps.
You just cannot really light that room.
If you are in there watching TV or hanging out, it is probably not bad. You can have that low level of light.
But if you are entertaining or there is some other reason you want to really light that room, you are not able to do it.
So it is pretty common for us to ask, “Do you want us to hit this room while we are here?”
Or maybe we will put a ceiling fan in a bedroom or add some of that recessed LED stuff in those other rooms.
That is the time to do it.
Host:
You mentioned leaving the under-cabinet lighting on dimmer at night.
A lot of us like to get up for a midnight snack or whatever.
I know one of the things you have talked about in the past is creating pathways and using light that way.
That is one of those design elements where, until somebody has seen it, I do not know that they fully appreciate it.
It is pretty amazing what can be done there.
Mike:
It is, and it is pretty subtle.
We are probably doing some of that stuff when we help you pick locations for background lighting, and you may not even realize it.
How those lights are laid out will delineate one space from another, or, like you said, can subtly light a path.
It is surprisingly helpful for people who are not familiar with spaces.
It has a universal design element to it too, for somebody who may be a little more challenged in the vision area.
We are thinking about those things when helping design your lighting project.
Host:
It is also really nice when you are craving a cookie and it is 2 a.m., and you do not want to wake anyone else.
Now you can sneak down there, and the neighbors are not going, “What is going on? All the lights are on over there.”
Exactly.
Cool stuff.
We mentioned earlier cupboards and removing some of those, getting more windows, and that type of space. We also mentioned that a lot of stuff is being handled by the island.
We are going to talk about islands next as the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues.
In the meantime, if you have not been to the website yet, what are you doing?
Head over there now: EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Edge Construction Company brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
The Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues now on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig of Edge Construction about some trends when it comes to remodeling and construction.
We were talking a bit about kitchens in that last segment, and islands came up.
When I was a kid, peninsulas were hot, and that was the way everybody wanted to go. Every kitchen had to have a peninsula.
They were fine, but there were some drawbacks.
Islands have become very popular. If you have the space, I think just about everybody is probably doing an island, and for good reason.
They are really cool.
Mike:
Yes.
The island is better for a few reasons.
If you have a peninsula, I understand why they ended up there. It was a progression in the design of kitchens, but it added a corner to your kitchen.
Corner cabinets are inefficient for storage.
If you love yours, I am not picking on you. I do not want to poke fun at anybody.
But when we design kitchens now, we are trying to get rid of corners when we can.
One way we do that is by taking out the peninsula. If we have some space there, we can put an island in.
Sometimes we have to get inventive with islands.
A normal cabinet is 24 inches deep, but we have done reduced-depth cabinets. We can order those cabinets at a reduced depth for not much of an upgrade price-wise.
We will do an 18-inch cabinet and still get an overhang.
In 30 inches, we have a cabinet plus a place to sit.
Not every house is big and spread out, so you have to be inventive like that.
I think it makes better prep space and better cooking space.
I do not know how many people stand in a corner and make food. It just does not make sense to me.
But if you have that spread-out island in the middle, I think it is a much better cooking space.
Socially, it is much better because people like to stand around things and face each other, and an island lends itself to that.
If you are eliminating that corner cabinet, you are going to pick up some really good storage, which you kind of alluded to before, in that island.
We have had a lot of people putting the microwave down there or some other element down in that island space, plus some storage.
Host:
Do we see much as far as people putting in something like a wine cooler, or a place for bottled water and those types of things?
Mike:
Yes, that is a beverage fridge.
Again, that is a space thing.
When homeowners have space, I would say that happens probably 25 percent of the time.
I do not think anybody regrets it if you can fit it in there.
You are giving up a little storage, but it is really nice to have a separate cooler just for your beverages.
Host:
What about some of the appliances?
You mentioned a microwave, but do we see things like dishwashers or trash bins being hidden away, maybe using a facade from the cabinet so it blends in and is not obvious?
Is that a popular trend?
Mike:
Doing a cabinet front on the dishwasher happens with us maybe once a year.
I do not know why it is not more popular.
Some of it might be that appliances have gotten more attractive, to be honest. They are not as ugly to look at.
When we run into it, it is usually when somebody has had it in a previous house and really liked it. Then they ask us to put a front on.
It is not a big deal. We can do that.
Putting another big-ticket item, one of the big three, like a sink and dishwasher in the island, does happen.
Sometimes we have space constraints.
We cannot always get the fridge, stove, sink, and dishwasher around the perimeter cabinets in a smaller kitchen, so we have to put one of the big things in the island.
The sink is probably the best of those to do in the island.
Host:
You mentioned appliances looking better.
Is stainless steel going anywhere, or is that still the look?
Mike:
It is not going anywhere.
All the manufacturers have their proprietary look, whether it is stainless or what I call gunmetal. I know it is not really gunmetal, but it is like an off-stainless.
We have it in our house. I like it a lot.
Stainless is the true metal. Everything else has kind of an overlay over it.
The gunmetal products do not show fingerprints and stay pretty clean.
Even if they are not clean, they look clean, so that is really nice.
I think every year since I started construction, people have been saying, “This year, we have no-fingerprint stainless.”
Do you have stainless?
Host:
Stainless shows everything.
You do not even have to touch it. You get close to it and suddenly a fingerprint appears.
Mike:
You breathe on the fridge.
Host:
Exactly.
With that gunmetal look, we are talking about darker finishes.
That is a great look.
Mike:
Yes, it is a nice look.
From a design standpoint, stainless is so forgiving and kind of goes with everything.
There is nothing you can put in there that is going to clash with it.
With some of those gunmetal colors, for lack of a better term, there are elements of green, brown, or charcoal color.
That then becomes another color to deal with in the design, so be careful with that.
Host:
I know we have talked about subway tile being popular.
What about larger tile?
I think one of the notes says a 4-by-12-inch tile.
Mike:
Yes, that is getting very common.
The old 3-by-6 subway tiles are still being installed, and it is a cool look.
But thankfully, it is not all that.
Those 4-by-12s are popular.
People are still calling that subway tile. I think anything rectangular gets called subway tile now.
We have also done some very large-format tiles.
We have done some backsplashes with tiles that are over a foot wide and three feet long.
One actually had two recent projects in the last year or year and a half with that wavy white tile, if you remember that.
It is on our website or on Houzz.
Those tiles are three feet long.
I found an odd one back in our back shop and thought, “Holy cow, this thing.”
We actually had to buy a saw to cut those types of tiles because it is a real challenge to get a perfectly straight cut on that long of a tile.
Host:
One of the things we have been seeing with backsplash and tile is not just bringing the backsplash up to the cupboard line, but going all the way up, right?
Mike:
Yes.
I kind of fought our designers on that a little bit.
I said, “You know what you are asking us to do? Now we have to go around cabinets, windows, hoods, and things like that.”
It is so much easier to go to the bottom of the cabinets.
But the look really should go to the top. It just looks so much better.
If you have it behind your stove, the stove creates a lot of nasty, gunky stuff, and you can clean tile with soap and water.
It is harder to do that on painted drywall.
Host:
That goes back to form and function.
Not only does it look beautiful, but as you mentioned, having tile means a little warm water and some soap gets it clean.
A lot of people do not realize how much stuff gets in the air when you cook.
Mike:
Every time I whine about something like this to our designers, they say, “Well, I thought you guys were supposed to be good carpenters and tile people. Are you telling me you cannot do that?”
We lose the argument in those situations too.
Host:
How is the venting handled at that point?
If you have tile going all the way up, what do you guys do?
Mike:
Trade secret.
We just did one a couple of weeks ago.
We actually mount the hood, get everything kind of hooked up, trace it out on the drywall, pull everything back off, and then tile about an inch in all the way around so it looks like it is going behind the whole thing.
It would be harder to wire it and get the vent pipe through there if we fully tiled behind it.
That is how we do it.
Host:
Interesting. I always wondered about that.
I have seen some pictures on EdgeConstructionCompany.com and the Houzz page, and I wondered how you get the tile there.
Mike:
There are some hoods or tiles that do not lend themselves well to that.
If the tiles have a lot of texture, are wavy, or have turned-up edges — which is popular now with these imperfect tiles — then it is going to show gaps and things.
In that case, we will cut to it and cut around it.
Some of the hoods we are putting up are a little ornate, and it is a challenge to cut that tile around everything.
Host:
Is that a trend too, having that ornate range hood if you have the setup for it?
Mike:
Yes, when people have the room.
The look is nice.
The fan we put in there is much better than something underneath the microwave.
Not that we do not still probably do more of those where the microwave has the vent, but if you have a dedicated vent, you can do a much better fan.
It looks nice, and there is a payoff there too.
Host:
I am trying to remember the term.
Is it negative airflow?
Mike:
Do you mean recirculating?
Host:
Yes.
We have talked about that.
For people who do not know, what am I talking about?
Mike:
A lot of times, when we go into a house and talk about a kitchen remodel, people ask if they can have their fan vented.
They have the range hood and microwave all in one, and whoever installed it did not take the extra step and run a pipe out through the roof, into the soffit, or out the side of the house to get it vented outside.
They took the easy path, mounted it, and set it up to recirculate.
So it is going through this little filter thing, but it is not perfect technology.
It works much better to vent it outside.
Host:
Before we bought our house, the last place we lived was a little townhouse in Oregon.
When you would turn the fan on, the two cupboards up top would just blow air right through.
Mike:
Yes, you know where that air is going.
Host:
Exactly. Oh goodness.
We are talking with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is Edge Construction Company dot com.
We have not talked countertops, and I know what the trend is this year because it has been popular for the past few years.
We are going to get the details on all the different options when it comes to countertops and different materials.
Specifically, we will talk about quartz.
In the meantime, check out the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
That is Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
You are listening to the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction. Email your questions to EdgeConstructionRadio@gmail.com.
Once again, here is Sean Prebil on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
It is a great website, and there are a couple of links there as well.
You definitely want to check out Houzz, H-O-U-Z-Z.
Just head over to EdgeConstructionCompany.com. You will see a little green H that links there.
There are also links to Pinterest and Facebook.
If you are thinking about doing some home remodeling and have some ideas, talk with Edge Construction.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner of Edge Construction.
Do we see any sign, as we are talking this morning, that quartz is waning at all?
Or has it recently always been the big player in countertops?
Mike:
I am thinking back to when we started doing the show.
It was not that big then, was it?
Host:
No.
I think we were still kind of coming off Corian.
Mike:
Yes, that is the term.
Host:
It was kind of the tail end of that, and then we started talking about quartz.
For good reason, quartz has been very popular.
What is popular in quartz tends to change a little bit here and there, doesn’t it?
Mike:
It does.
We have talked ad infinitum about the marble look in quartz.
People love that marble look.
If you are going to do a true marble countertop, it is usually pretty expensive, unless you get a great buy, which I have heard recently is around a little bit.
But marble has some drawbacks for me that I do not love.
It will last forever. You are not going to wear it out.
But marble is much more susceptible to staining, burns, and things like that. It is just not as hard a stone as quartz.
In fact, quartz is actually a harder stone than granite.
So right now, on the hardness scale, quartz is at the top.
Is it ever going away?
Yes, when somebody finds a better product than quartz and can make it.
But the quartz people — and I always talk about them like there is some conspiracy — are coming up with new designs on stone countertops all the time.
It feels like every week we are getting new samples.
They can take a slab of granite in Scotland or Italy, mimic that design, and have it look like that.
It is going to be a harder stone, and we can make it here.
We do not have to cut it out of the mountain there and ship it over.
Some of this is made fairly regionally. Minnesota is a big producer, and we get some stuff from there.
I like that.
I was joking during the break that I am not getting sick of the marble-look quartz I have at my house, if that tells you anything.
I remember a few years ago, our main supplier came to us with three quartz samples, and they were all the marble look.
One had almost no veining, one had medium veining, and the other had a lot.
Right now, for the past few years, those have been our most popular pieces.
People seem to like them.
The lighter countertops fit into designs really well.
As soon as you get into a color, you have to be careful and make sure everything goes.
The quartz product is feeling great for us now.
Host:
With quartz, we have talked about the benefits for a homeowner, but what about on the design side and installation side?
Is it a little more forgiving for that?
I do not know if it was a show I saw where somebody had gotten a marble countertop, and as they were installing it, it cracked.
Any countertop is going to be bad if that happens, but especially knowing the history behind the selection and what it took to get that piece there, it is pretty painful.
Mike:
That can happen with any stone countertop.
I have seen it happen with granite. I have seen it happen with quartz.
On the lake a few years ago, we were working on a house, and it was like a 10-foot by 8-foot slab. I do not know what that thing weighed.
A group of guys went to set it down, and it just blew into a million pieces.
We all felt terrible.
But the truth is, that stuff is going to happen once in a while.
I do not see quartz going anywhere.
It fits into design so well, mostly because there are just so many options.
We probably have 40 granites in our showroom right now that we like.
Quartz? I do not know. We probably have access to hundreds of quartzes.
I will tell you a little secret about designers.
You mentioned whether they like these products.
If they do not like the products, they are probably going to be at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.
They may not be as accessible.
I am joking.
They want to make sure everybody gets to look at everything.
But yes, if you cannot find a quartz you like, I do not know how to help you.
Host:
That is a great thing about working with Mike and the team at Edge Construction.
They can help you, and they would love to work for you.
All you have to do is head over to the website, EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.