Copper is the New Black

Copper is nothing new. Estimations place its origins at approximately 9000 B.C. It was used for tools in Jordan, tubing in ancient Egypt, and jewelry in the Far East – which is obviously a very brief blip of its history of uses over time, including in the home.

Architects favor copper as a home accent in many respects because it ages beautifully. But homeowners are seeing those benefits more and more, resulting in more copper accents and home elements available. The International Builder’s Show in Las Vegas earlier this year reflected that, with many traditional accents now sporting a vintage style, dressed in copper.

In the Kitchen

Copper sinks provide a beautiful accent to your kitchen design, but there are also several other benefits. First, the anti-rust properties of copper make the material an ideal choice for the kitchen, since sinks are rarely completely dry.

Additionally, there is no special approach necessary for cleaning them – clean a copper sink just like any other. In fact, copper contains several antimicrobial properties that kill bacteria in a matter of hours, as opposed to traditional sink materials that can foster a rich bacterial environment for weeks if not cleaned properly.

Other great places to put copper in your kitchen might be:

• Suspended range hood
• Countertops
• Refrigerator
• Cabinet doors, or alternatively, door handles and drawer pulls

In the Bathroom

Copper sinks in the bathroom are lovely too, but what about a copper tub? In the vintage, claw-foot design, a copper tub and shower fixtures, sinks and drawer pulls can really turn your bathroom into an Italian-style oasis. Not to mention, there’s that anti-rust benefit and the antimicrobial properties that make copper a great fit for the bathroom.  

Design Options

Not only is copper pleasing to the eye, but, unlike many other materials, you can choose from a variety of styles to get the exact look you desire for your room. If you want a little more bling in your style, consider a smooth, shiny finish. If the look you want is a little more vintage, consider brushed or hammered copper.

You can even find copper sinks and tubs with etched designs and tones. Have the copper coated (or frequently use a light wax coating) to preserve that rich, red-brown color, or you can have it exposed to water and air to form patina designs in blues, greens and yellows.

Copper is known to have a “living finish,” which means that how it looks over time can’t be controlled entirely. It will age and it will react to acids that come in contact with it (for example, lemon juice, pineapple, tomato and vinegar will damage a patina finish). So, while it’s stunningly beautiful, if you’re looking for perfection, copper may not be for you. But if you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind accent to your kitchen or bathroom renovation, HA Construction is happy to add copper accents of your choosing to the final design. 

Design Your World With Houzz.com

You have your heart set on remodeling your kitchen. So you hit Pinterest in search of ideas. You enter “kitchen design” in the search criteria, and while you might find pictures of some things that you like, they all link back to such a wide range of websites that it’s hard to cull all of the information into something cohesive to simply put your ideas together.

Which is likely why Houzz.com is building substantial momentum in the social media world. Started by a couple who found the endless stack of magazine (i.e. Pinterest posts) overwhelming when they planned their home remodel, Houzz is a collection of images posted by homeowners and service pros showcasing awesome designs and features.

Not only are the posts you’ll find inspiring for your own design, but Houzz also helps you to find a construction professional in your area, so you can see pictures of the work they’ve done and can know whether they’re a good fit for you based on more than reviews (though those are available too).

Not only do you get the chance to search through photos of completed work, but you can search for and even buy products for your own projects right there on the site. Choose a room from the menu at the top and then an element, and you’ll find a wide range of options both in style and budget.

Houzz also does the Best Of Houzz awards every year, which is a homeowner-to-homeowner guide showcasing the top rated home builders, architects, interior designers, landscaping pros and other residential remodeling professionals on the site (including painters and countertop pros). Winners are determined by the number and quality of client reviews each professional received in the previous year. This helps homeowners to truly find the best of the best contractors in their community.

Follow HA Construction on Houzz and check out all of the great ideas that our projects can give you for your next renovation.

Leveling That Stubborn Shower Tile

Big tiles in the shower are all the rage these days – 12x24, 20x20, 24x24, and so on. It’s also fairly common for a client to request that the tile design be on an angle, making a diamond out of the tiles and increasing that working space to about 30 inches.

And it’s really difficult to keep a 30 inch line level.

Especially because walls are never level. Sure, they look like they are to the naked eye, and a lot of times they can be straight, but they’ll have just a little bow in them, which can cause shower tiles to pop up from the surface after setting if not leveled properly. Or the junctions between the floor and wall or ceiling and wall aren’t quite level, causing tile on one end of the shower to meet the crease, while tile on the other end is half and inch below it.

To avoid these unsightly flaws in a shower tile design, HA Construction uses a special leveling technique. It’s a painstaking process, no doubt, but saves time and money. We’d rather take our time and do it right than suffer through the expense of starting all over when it turns out wrong (which you often don’t notice until you’re nearly done!).

Here’s how the process works: a ‘T’ slides underneath the tile and then a clip is placed on top of the tile. A wedge is used, pushing the tile into the clip and pulling up on the T to level with the adjacent tile. We have to put enough clips on to level all areas of the tile – it typically is about nine clips. As you use the wedge, the tile will move with each clip, so if we put the clips on just a few points, then the tile won’t be level.

We also have to make sure we do this process while the thin set is still wet. If we wait too long, the thin set becomes like clay and the tiles pull away from the wall during the leveling process.

The process can be time consuming, and it certainly looks complicated, but this is the best way to make sure you have clean, straight lines and a cohesive look. We occasionally use this process on floors too, though that’s not as common.

Larry & Kathleen's Bathroom Renovations

HA Construction can be found so frequently at Larry and Kathleen’s home, that an unsuspecting neighbor might think that Andy and his crew moved in. In truth, Larry and Kathleen just really love the work the HA Construction team does and have need of several updated renovations to their home. The latest completed project was redoing the master and guest bathrooms.

The glass-encased walk-in shower in the master bathroom provides a spacious and soothing shower experience. The double-vanity has plenty of storage and mirrors that certainly catch the eye. Larry and Kathleen also had heated floors installed in the master bathroom. If you’re thinking about doing the same, Larry notes that it costs about $7 a month to keep the tile nice and toasty.

While the update in the guest bathroom is simpler, the new cabinetry, counters, fixtures and mirrors provide a crisp, modern appeal.

Vance & Sayla's Master Bathroom Renovation

Vance and Sayla hired Andy and his HA Construction crew to update/replace the windows in their East Springfield home. Through a little bit of small talk, Sayla mentioned she’d like to redo her master bathroom someday, so Andy took a look, gave her an estimate and, ta-da… new project in the works!

Didn’t  it turn out stunning? This master bathroom has the shower that everyone dreams of, complete with dual shower heads, a rain shower head and built in seats! You might as well be bathing under a waterfall!

And how about that tile floor? Beautiful 12x24 inch tile brings all of the elements of the bathroom – the shower, the cabinetry, the fixtures – all together for a cohesive, modern look.

Carpet in the Bathroom | N-to-the-O!!

First glance, there is something seemingly odd about this house for sale in the UK with an online listing that recently went viral on the Internet. For most, the virility was tightly connected to the color choice for the entire home (that’s a whole other blog post in itself), but something that stuck out to us was the garishly long carpet in the bathroom!

Now, some are avid supporters of carpet in the bathroom, and we admit that there are some advantages to it. First, it’s cheaper than putting in heated floors – carpet feels awfully nice under your feet when you step out of the shower on a cold winter day. You’ve got us there. Not to mention the fact that tile can be slippery when wet, but carpet isn’t.

Therein lies one of the major problems, however: wet carpet. Carpet and moisture are not very good friends. In fact, their relationship is pretty damaging. Rhoda’s blog post about her carpeted bathroom on Southern Hospitality shows why; check out that second image and the bottom of the carpet. Do you see all the water rings?

And that is a particularly “best case” scenario. Most often, one can find mold growing in a carpeted bathroom because the moisture never fully dissipates.  This is not only bad for the people that live in your home, but moisture collection can cause the carpet pad and even the sub-flooring to decay.

Let’s not forget about the germs – it’s just a matter of fact. Lots of germs escape from the toilet due to flushing or, in actuality, bad aim. But, consider for a moment what would happen if your toilet overflowed. How much easier that mess would be to clean up if you had anything other than carpet on the bathroom floor. Not to mention the fact that you could be certain the floor was clean and sanitary with tile or laminate, but no matter how your tried, you couldn’t guarantee that the carpet was clean unless you ripped it out and replaced it.

According to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, the 2007 edition of the International Building Code states that carpet cannot be in commercial bathrooms. Now, while bathrooms in businesses clearly see more traffic than the bathroom in your home, that code is a clear indicator of how damaging a carpeted bathroom can be. While there may be some advantages, it is the opinion of HA Construction that the disadvantages far outweigh them.

There are many more affordable options for your bathroom floor – contact us and we’ll help you find the right one for you.

Romines Bathroom Remodel - Spring 2010

BEFORE

 When you remodel a bathroom that is only 5 x 8 feet, you can afford to go with a few higher end finishes, and the Romines project is a great example of how a small hall bath renovation can still turn out great.

Believe it or not, the shower in the Romines bathroom is a walk-in, with no doors – we added water Vanir under the floor around the outside of the shower to help with over spray. The challenge of the project was doing the entire shower in 1x1 inch tiles as requested by the homeowners, but we were up for it and pleased with the results.

After HA Construction remodel

The Romines selected all of the finishes themselves. They were very clear on what they wanted in the bathroom, which actually made the project go more smoothly and helped us to finish faster. In fact, they were quite skilled at picking great fixtures, giving this bathroom a great big WOW factor.

It really is a pleasure working with a family that has a clear picture in their minds of what they want the finished renovation to look like, and has some skill in contributing to the design. Sometimes I find myself trying to help guide clients out of bad design choices and it can be difficult in those situations to find elements that everyone is pleased with. While that doesn’t happen very often, it was certainly not the case with Romines’ project.

After HA Construction remodel

The bathroom took about two weeks to complete. We enjoyed remodeling it and certainly enjoyed working for the Romines family. In fact, they were so pleased with the results that they hired HA Construction to do their upstairs bathroom the very next year. No better compliment than that!