Many clients we have met through the years have made comments about previous contractors and the poor quality of their workmanship, especially when it comes to exteriors. Most homeowners do not understand how critical it is to let the bare wood dry when repainting their home, or in the case of applying a new surface material for a siding job/new addition, that we contractors makes sure there is minimal moisture content in the new material before painting or staining. Many paint contractors will try to apply paint or stain when refinishing an exterior, just a day or two after rain fall because they want to get the job done. Unfortunately for the home owner, three years or less down the road the paint is peeling and chipping off, due to moisture that has been locked in the material with the new paint. The materials need to have sufficient time to dry out, and sometimes this could take as much as a week, depending on the active humidity each day. Take a look at the article I recently recieved from my Linked-In access highlighted below. When looking for a reliable contractor who cares as much about your home as our own homes, Country Construction is the best choice for remodeling, additions, kitchens, baths, and basements. We are a full service Design/Build provider of interior & exterior renovations.

Green Advisor on Paint Prepping

Hi everyone,

Grasping the benefits of recycling is in the mainsteam today. If your munincipality is not requiring recycling with your waste pick up, many are applying the recycle effects themselves. Reusing some of the food scraps we consume for gardening support, or wood burning to use the potash in the garden are two great ways to recycle. We love the outdoors and when providing remodeling services, whither kitchens, baths, basements or additions, Country Constuction Co. and it's employees have considerable concern for our environment, and how we as a people interact with the environment. Our basic application is for material recycling. Typically a reuse of existing materials on site, such as re-positioning cabinets in the basement or garage for the client, or forwarding materials and products to our local ReUseIt Center are two basic ways that we provide recycling within the industry. A few others are the separation of material types for pick up, such as paper/cardboard, metals and glass to be disposed of. Good for us & good for the environment.

Strangely it appears some of our wildlife might have a conflict of interests with recycling, especially as it pertains to food recycling. I'd like to entice you to view the link below for a little amusement with regard to recycling.

Let me know what you think, Enjoy!!

Critter Comments

 

Although the midwest has not seen the drama of drought effected Texas has, we should still learn from the effects of this catastrophe and realize that we do have reductions in aquifer content in our area also. The link below is provided to those who might not realize the severity of extreme drought conditions and some of it's after afects beyond the individual impact. References to the damage of infrastructure impacts us in ways that will be relavant to our pockets and increased taxes to offset those public expenses. Please read and comment.

Thanks

Texas Drought Impact

    What exactly does water conservation mean to most of us? Some people understand the concept of home use conservation, but most probably relate water conservation to their yard and local controls over lawn sprinkling. The reality is that water conservation is becoming more of a main stream requirement for todays building departments and most munincipalities are supporting this with code inforcement. What used to be an optional interest for ecologically minded people is now most likely a requirement in your local area. A few townships and citieseven have subsidy programs to reimburse residents for investing in low flow toilets and shower heads. Another common reimbursment program is investing in water barrels, where your local town might provide these products at an steeply discounted rate or refund part of your purchase price.
    All of the designs we produce incorporate water saving features in bathrooms, kitchens, and basements with built in bars or kitchenettes. We also promote the use of whole house water heaters to conserve water usage. It is amaizing how mush water we waste waiting for the warm water to get to the shower head.
    If you would be interested in addition info on water conservation please veiw the article from EcoHome magazine this month. Click this link 'SaveWater' and go their article directly.
    I hope we can assist you in your projects using these water conservation techniques! Our summer special is in effect so please call for an appointment to discuss your upcoming projects!! 

  To really impact green building practices, a major portion of the proceedure is recycling. There are two phases to this application, the primary phase being the disposal of the demoed materials and waste from the consruction site. The close secondary phase is the reuse of products still in excellent condition, either by donating to a local ReUsit Center, or in some cases reusing on the job site. A typical example is the reinstallation of kitchen cabinets in a basement remodel, or setting them up in a garage for storage components.


 
  With an open mind many alternate opportunities exist if we think ahead. On one of our current addition projects, we are reusing the soffit cover from the original back patio overhang on a new front porch to match and continue the style of the home. These are not your normal overhang soffits, but a full cover for the patio overhang. The new front proch will be equally large.
  At Country Construction we always dis-assemble when possible to apply these recycling techniques, whether they are kitchen remodels removing cabinets, or bath vanities and plumbing fixtures. In this case we are able to reapply existing products in another area and save the clients money on construction costs. If we can help you by creating a "Beautifully Built Dream", and save you on the costs, we'd appreciate the opportunity.

Many times we are asked about our great pricing and sometimes there are concerns about being too low priced, but the reality is that we use construction techniques that reduce the time from start to finish on our projects. From production processes for individual approaches to conducting design and development with minimal material use.
Now I do not mean cutting corners, but efficient and effective construction practices. Read this article by Ted Cushman 'Frugal Framing' who explains the efforts of reducing material waste, and is just one of the practices we use at Country Construction Co. for remodeling kitchens and baths, to additions and new Energy Efficient Home Construction. Our Green Building techiniques and subsiquent savings are passed on to you the client. I hope you enjoy the article, and there will be more to come in the next blog.