[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. I had old wiring in my, and I didn't want to tear out all this stuff and do all this new drywall work. It's really hard to get the way my house was framed for that switch up there to put another set of wires into control. I went to bro new tone. They have a remote switch that runs Bluetooth.

[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: And then you basically just run the power up there. So you don't have to, you could have all those controls without running extra control wires. So that saved me probably two days of drywall finishing and trying to match texture and all that stuff when I could just. Do it that way without having to run new stuff.

[00:00:37] Eric Goranson: So think about that. Let technology be your friend. Sometimes that can be a great addition to that project. Now, here's another one. If you're putting tile in again, if you're in Florida or someplace warm, but I would sure look at doing a heated towel floor, especially if it's a DIY project. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to [00:01:00] know, but we've got you covered.

[00:01:02] Eric Goranson: This is our round. Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I am Eric G. This is where we're going to have a ton of fun today talking bathrooms. And this is my top 10 mistakes people make when designing their bathrooms in 2024. These are the mistakes that I see people make.

[00:01:21] Eric Goranson: And a little bit about me. I've got 30 years behind me as a kitchen and bath designer. I'm a certified kitchen designer. I have run everything from My own company designing kitchens. I had one of the largest design firms in Seattle, all the way around to managing big high rise projects, doing a big project up in Bellevue, Washington, actually, and I did a high rise up there.

[00:01:46] Eric Goranson: That was 43 stories tall, all with a kitchen cabinets on those top floors. So I've done everything from commercial to residential to everything in between working with home builders and everything else. So I really want to give you some of that wealth of information today. So you don't make [00:02:00] these mistakes.

[00:02:00] Eric Goranson: If you're going to tackle. That bathroom remodel here in 2024. If you want to have any questions or outside of this as well, or if you have a topic coming up that you want me to talk about, head over to around the house, online. com. Send me a message over there. I promise get back to you. All right. So first time I list here, very similar to our hour with the kitchen design one, but it's the same rules apply, not hiring a bath designer to tackle this project with you.

[00:02:27] Eric Goranson: Now, here's the thing. Maybe that bathroom layout is so simple that there is nothing That can be moved around. But the problem is there is so many great new technologies out there. That designer can help you figure out the right flooring material, the right paint, maybe the right bath fan, because those have changed a lot.

[00:02:47] Eric Goranson: Maybe the right cabinetry, the right height cabinetry, the right depth. The right toilet. Cause see, the biggest thing that I see people do is they run down to the box store and pick out with what's on the shelf there and they go, that's good enough, [00:03:00] and maybe that's not the best place to be shopping for the parts you need and let your designer help go, Hey, maybe we can save the same money over at this plumbing store and you can get something nicer over here for this.

[00:03:12] Eric Goranson: So this is where you want to lean on your designer to help you make that. Choice the lighting, especially if you're aging in place and you're trying to come up with a bathroom. That's something you can grow into. Maybe you're 50 years old and you're like, Hey, I know next year I got to have a back surgery or knee surgery or something like that, what do I need to do to make this so it still looks beautiful?

[00:03:33] Eric Goranson: But it's going to be more accessible for me as I age. That's where that designer is going to come in and help walk you through that process to get it there. So make sure you got that bath designer dialed in and ready to go for you there, cause that's a big one. So I want to make sure that you do that.

[00:03:49] Eric Goranson: All right. The next one here is a mistake that I see contractors, I see tile centers, see homeowners making, and it's probably [00:04:00] the most expensive mistake that I've seen out there. And I see this on social media. I see it on even some of the tile setting pages out there that are supposedly for pros. This gets really rough guys.

[00:04:13] Eric Goranson: Now, if you've been doing tile for 20 plus years, 30 plus years, you'll know where we came from back in the seventies. You'd see people putting up the green water resistant sheet rock and laying tile over the top of that. They go down and put down the Hardy backer type concrete board or do a mud set pan, or if you're in California, we'll do the hot mop 1 where they put liquid tar over to waterproof it.

[00:04:34] Eric Goranson: Can you know something? Those old technologies to me are best left in the old technology pile because there are so many better ways to do it these days. Now we have systems out there that will give you a lifetime warranty that they'll have a backing to it. And you know something, if it's installed correctly, you'll have a completely waterproof system.

[00:04:56] Eric Goranson: Or if you're doing a steam shower, a vapor proof system [00:05:00] that won't have water intrusion issues where you have to tear out that bathroom. And do it all over again. So let's talk about it a little bit in a shower. I do not use concrete board anymore. There's no need. It's gone. It's out of my vocabulary. I put that in the same thing as using the green board drywall.

[00:05:19] Eric Goranson: Had its place, I'm not a fan. Because it's not waterproof. It's going to be moisture resistant. But if water gets behind that, here's the thing. Let's talk about this for a second. Tile is not waterproof. Grout generally is not waterproof. So behind that has to be a waterproof membrane to stop moisture from coming back.

[00:05:39] Eric Goranson: Create mold, create a leak, and then it pops off tiles and you're replacing that shower again. So concrete board is gone. I would much rather use a system like Ardex or a Weedy or Schluter. Any one of those brands out there have a great system for waterproofing. And moisture [00:06:00] proofing the area behind that tile.

[00:06:02] Eric Goranson: And it goes quicker. If you have to sit there, put in the backer board, tape the seams, do all that, put on two or three coats of Redguard and deal with that smelly mess. Why don't you just do it all in once, put the foam board up there, the backer tape, the seams, the screw holes, call it a day. You're done so much faster and you have a much better system.

[00:06:26] Eric Goranson: And the same goes with, there's some pros out there that do mud set pans and some, they're probably fine. They probably will last 20 or 30 years. Should a homeowner ever try one? No, let's go get one of your curb systems, put it in, do it right. Get it dialed in. And then you're going to have something that's going to be.

[00:06:44] Eric Goranson: If done correctly, very waterproof. All it takes is to Nick a liner. Or not get the drain set right with the mud set pan or even worse. You get the tar in there. I don't want that tar inside my house smelling that stuff anyway, but these are all [00:07:00] things that I look at and go, man, we do it so much better now use technology and it's going to last a lot longer on, I'm sorry to the guys out there, they're going to send me messages.

[00:07:08] Eric Goranson: I've been doing it 30 years and I've never had a call back. Nope, because you have already left the job site and it's gone. And somebody else like me had to come over there and fix the problem later when it failed. So we've got so much better products out there. It's like when we had old tires in the fifties or sixties and seventies, a bias ply ones, those things blew out all the time.

[00:07:30] Eric Goranson: Had problems. Technology keeps getting better and better. And the same thing goes with tile setting. Use the latest stuff and do it right. It'll last a lot longer. All right. Next up here is, and I've done this in my house. I took out a bathtub, but taking out the bathtub for the shower, tap your brakes a little bit on this bathtubs or back style wise, five years ago, if you would ask me, Eric, is it okay to remove that bathtub and just have a shower only house?

[00:07:57] Eric Goranson: I'd go, ah, sure. Go ahead. Not so much anymore. [00:08:00] We're seeing bathtubs back to people really liking baths. So I think What's happened is a couple of reasons. I think one people buying fairly inexpensive, low volume, water, shower heads, and trying to save water. And it's not giving them that luxury shower experience that if you went and got a breeze, Oh, or a DXV or name the other brand out there, the premium stuff.

[00:08:24] Eric Goranson: But. Bathtubs are back. And I think people after COVID are chilling out a little bit more and want to just go soak and relax, Netflix, whatever, catch up on their shows, soak their body. I think what we're seeing is we're seeing that trend come back. So I'm seeing a lot less showers getting removed. And having shower only when you have that tub shower combination.

[00:08:46] Eric Goranson: So take a look at that. I know it didn't make a lot of sense there, but if you can get away with a tub shower, or if you've got that master that has the standalone shower and the tub, maybe you don't need that big jacuzzi tub. That looks like an aircraft carrier over in [00:09:00] the corner. That's so big. Maybe you need to make that a freestanding on an update a little bit, but I would not go removing a bathtub out of a good sized, Master suite unless you had to I think having that in there is going to be smart So don't just quickly pull out that tub anymore I think that's our latest trend is bathtubs are back And then make sure that you're doing it correctly put something that's going to look good if you're doing that remodel But just make sure that you're not cutting yourself off and ruining some value there with bathtubs coming back All right, guys, we're gonna get back to after these important messages We'll get back to my top 10 mistakes people make When deciding their bathrooms in 2024, just as soon as Around the House returns, Around the House will be right back.[00:10:00]

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: What's up? This is Dixie Dania and Satchel from Steel Panther and you are listening to Around the House with Eric G. Yeah. We love Eric G and you should too.

[00:10:29] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the next generation of home improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today. Hey, make sure you're following us on all our social media channels. We're going to be continuing to do more stuff on social media. And so you can find all the different stuff up there. Just look for around the house show.

[00:10:45] Eric Goranson: We're on Instagram. We're on, uh, I'm on LinkedIn as Eric Goranson. You can find me there. You can find me. We've got our Facebook group around the house nation. Where you can share up your pictures, your projects, all that different [00:11:00] stuff that you're working on. And we've got a great group of experts, some of which you have seen on home and garden TV and DIY network that love to post stuff up and comment there.

[00:11:10] Eric Goranson: And you could jump over there. It's a closed group, so you can get in there. And show what you're getting and get good advice. Yeah, I have booted people for being mean in there. I just don't play the, the troll game in there. The trolls get kicked out pretty quickly. So if you need something over there around the house nation is our close group and something good with something we haven't done a lot with recently, but I'm going to keep spooling that back up this summer so we can do a lot more with that channel.

[00:11:33] Eric Goranson: We've been talking about here. Top 10 mistakes people make when designing their bathroom in 2024. Little recap here, not hiring a bath designer, not waterproofing tile correctly. bathtubs are back. So be careful taking them out, not installing all the blocking or insulation, towel bars, that kind of stuff, not planning ahead for that.

[00:11:52] Eric Goranson: And then of course, using a cheap toilet in your project. And we just got done talking about using or not dealing with your hard [00:12:00] water problems before the remodel. Now I've got a little one here that I'm going to call an honorable mention, and I'm going to call it not using technology correctly. In your bathroom and what is that explore technology for your bathroom?

[00:12:15] Eric Goranson: You're like, it's a bathroom What kind of technology can there be? Ah, you could do a tv mounted in there I've got a tv in my bathroom because i'm taking a steam shower. Do you want a steam shower? Explore the things you might want on it So I put in on my little side note here during covid was my big project for my bathroom My master bathroom teamed up with and did their total wellness package.

[00:12:35] Eric Goranson: Now. This is a touchscreen. You can watch Netflix. You can watch Pluto. You can watch different news channels. You can listen to Spotify. You can listen to all the different stuff on there. And it's got aromatherapy, chromotherapy, steam generator, all those different things for comfort. And I tell you what that steam shower has been a savior for my beat up body [00:13:00] When I had covid that was awesome because it really cleared out my head It made things go so much quicker as far as trying to get rid of that and it's really been good there And then I installed an aramata drying system And if you've got a shower and you don't want to have to squeegee it when you're thinking about doing the next shower Look at aramata these guys Do a great job.

[00:13:22] Eric Goranson: It's an air jet system putting your car wash, right? You take through the auto car wash and there's jets going every direction. You mount these through your shower wall and there's an offsite location close to there that you put in and it basically pumps air in there into that shower cavity and dries it.

[00:13:39] Eric Goranson: So, in 5 minutes, it's dry, so you're cleaning of the shower is minimal. Because all of a sudden all that mold and mildew isn't there anymore. It just doesn't show up because you've got to dry so quickly. And it works out really well. So explore technology, take a look at what technology can do for you.

[00:13:58] Eric Goranson: Smart toilets with [00:14:00] bidets where auto opens got the nightlight. That's all great. Towel warmers. Oh my gosh. I love towel warmers. And I did one a couple of years ago here and I'll tell you what. Awesome stuff. Towel warmers are the bomb and talk about save you money on laundry. And we'll have those guys back on again here to tell you what, that's a great discussion with that.

[00:14:22] Eric Goranson: And it's, it's very cool to have. So something to think about. So anyway, make sure that's a little side note, make sure that you've got that kind of explored before you do it. Cause so many times with vent hoods and things like that, uh, vent fans in the bathroom, great example. I had old wiring in my, and I didn't want to tear out all this stuff and do all this new drywall work.

[00:14:44] Eric Goranson: It was really hard to get the way my house was framed from that switch up there to put another set of wires into control. I went to BroNewTone, they have a remote switch that runs Bluetooth. And then you basically just run the power up there. So you don't have to, you can have all those controls without running extra control wires.

[00:14:59] Eric Goranson: So that saved [00:15:00] me probably two days of drywall finishing and trying to match texture and all that stuff. When I can just do it that way without having to run new stuff. So think about that. Let technology be your friend. Sometimes that can be a great addition to that project. Now, here's another one. If you're putting tile in, I get if you're in Florida or someplace warm, but I would sure look at doing a heated towel floor, especially if it's a DIY project, because you might already be bringing electrical there anyway, because so many times if you've got a 70s or 60s or 50s house, there's not enough power in there.

[00:15:34] Eric Goranson: The outlet and the lighter on the same circuit, you'd have a GFCI. If you're going to run one circuit, you might as well run two and put in some heated tile floors. What you can do with heated tile floors these days in a bathroom is absolutely amazing. And it is amazing luxury and it's not that expensive.

[00:15:53] Eric Goranson: Not only can you do the floor in the bathroom, if you're doing tile in the shower, you can do On the shower floor [00:16:00] as well under the tile, you can go up and do it on the bench if it's a tile seat and you can make that warm. So when you sit down on it, you don't have the shock of a lifetime of 100 shower and a 70 seat there when you go sit down in the shower.

[00:16:16] Eric Goranson: So think about those things. Heated floors are absolutely amazing and they keep it healthier in there too. Cause they dry the floor out so quickly. You jump out of the bathtub, you dry out of the shower, it really warms things up and it gives you just a warm glow in there. It's like having a soft heat and it radiates off the floor up.

[00:16:35] Eric Goranson: And if you're worried about power, it doesn't take that much. You can set it up with smart home sensors in there. There's a lot of different ways to do it, but it's so easy. When you can do something like that and it makes life so much easier and so much more comfortable. And really the parts are under a thousand bucks.

[00:16:52] Eric Goranson: So it's really not that hard to do in the scheme of the project. It's something to consider. So think about that. Now, [00:17:00] speaking of showers, we're gonna talk about this here in this segment and we're gonna talk about the next one as well, I think, 'cause this is a little more detailed. Here's one of the things that style wise you're seeing in all the magazines and you're seeing 'em online.

[00:17:12] Eric Goranson: But I think they're a really poor design because almost everybody that I've designed these of where they've demanded, I've had clients go, I want this. And I go, okay, cool. Let's do it. This is not going to work because of this. And they go, yeah, sure. Great. Here's what it is. Designing these open concept showers, you walk into a room and maybe the toilet, maybe the bathtub or all in the shower cavity.

[00:17:32] Eric Goranson: And that's all within the space. Now tell you why this doesn't work. First off, The amount of steam you have to be in there. So you're not freezing to death in the shower. I mean, it reminds me of being in the shower in a high school on a December day in Eastern Washington, where you're standing in this big open space and it is cold as all cold, unless you're under the water, the rest of that space gets so miserable and so many times I'll design it and [00:18:00] not put a shower door on it.

[00:18:01] Eric Goranson: And then they go, Oh, I can't have this. Then we'll put a shower door on it to help. But these shower door lists, curtain lists, showers, or even these very large 10 by 10 shower areas to me are a massive waste of space. I think it makes it much more expensive to waterproof it. Cause now you have to waterproof around the base of the tub when the shower is in that and the toilet.

[00:18:23] Eric Goranson: I think you've just got too many floor penetrations to work with as well as cleaning that. Oh my gosh. I don't want to be cleaning soap scum off the back around the backside of my toilet or getting the mold off of that. Cause it's in this steamy area around the house. We'll be right back. Don't change that.

[00:18:41] Eric Goranson: So we'll wrap up our top 10 mistakes people make when designing their bathrooms in 2024 after these important messages, Hey,[00:19:00]

[00:19:01] Eric Goranson: this is Ron Kiel, the metal cowboy from Kiel, the Ron Kiel band and stealer. We are rocking around the house with Eric G. Welcome back to the round the house show. The next generation of home improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today. Hey, make sure you're following us on all our social media channels.

[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: We're going to be. Continuing to do more stuff on social media. And so you can find all the different stuff up there. Just look for around the house show. We're on Instagram. We're on, uh, I'm on LinkedIn as Eric Goranson. You can find me there. You can find me. Um, we've got our Facebook group around the house nation.

[00:19:40] Eric Goranson: We can share up your pictures, your projects, all that different stuff that you're working on. And we've got a great group of experts, some of which you have seen on home and garden TV and DIY network that love to post stuff up and comment there. And you can jump over there. It's a closed group. So you can get in there.

[00:19:57] Eric Goranson: And show what you're getting and get good advice. [00:20:00] Yeah, I have booted people for being mean in there. I just don't play the, the troll game in there. The trolls get kicked out pretty quickly. So if you need something over there around the house, nation is our close group and something good with something we haven't done a lot with recently, but I'm going to keep spooling that back up this summer so we can do a lot more with that channel.

[00:20:17] Eric Goranson: We've been talking about here. Top 10 mistakes people make when designing their bathroom in 2024. Little recap here, not hiring a bath designer, not waterproofing towel, correctly, bathtubs are back. So be careful taking them out, not installing all the blocking or insulation, towel bars, that kind of stuff, not planning ahead for that.

[00:20:36] Eric Goranson: And then of course, using a cheap toilet in your project. And we just got done talking about using or not dealing with your hard water problems before the remodel. Now I've got a little one here that I'm going to call an honorable mention. And I'm going to call it not using technology correctly in your bathroom.

[00:20:55] Eric Goranson: And what is that explore technology for your bathroom? You're like, it's a [00:21:00] bathroom. What kind of technology can there be? Ah, you could do a TV mounted in there. I've got a TV in my bathroom. Cause I've taken a steam shower. Do you want a steam shower? Explore the things that you might want on it. So I put in on my little side note here during COVID was my big project for my bathroom.

[00:21:15] Eric Goranson: My master bathroom teamed up with and did their total wellness package. Now this is a touch screen. You can watch Netflix, you can watch Pluto, you can watch different news channels. You can listen to Spotify, you can listen to all the different stuff on there. And it's got aromatherapy, chromotherapy, steam generator, All those different things for comfort.

[00:21:38] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what, that steam shower has been a savior for my beat up body. When I had COVID, that was awesome because it really cleared up my head. It made things go so much quicker as far as trying to get rid of that. And it's really been good there. And then. I installed an AirMata drying system, and if you've got a shower, and you don't want to have to [00:22:00] squeegee it, when you're thinking about doing the next shower, look at AirMata, these guys do a great job, it's an AirJet system, put it in your car wash, right, you can take it through the auto car wash, and there's jets going every direction, you mount these through your shower wall, and And there's an offsite location close to there that you put in and it basically pumps air in there into that shower cavity and dries it.

[00:22:23] Eric Goranson: So, in 5 minutes, it's dry. So, your cleaning of the shower is minimal because all of a sudden, all that mold and mildew isn't there anymore. It just doesn't show up because you've got to dry so quickly. And it works out really well. So explore technology, take a look at what technology can do for you. Smart toilets with bidets where auto opens got the nightlight.

[00:22:46] Eric Goranson: That's all great. Towel warmers. Oh my gosh. I love towel warmers. And I did one a couple of years ago here. And I tell you what, awesome stuff. Towel warmers are the bomb and talk about save you money on [00:23:00] laundry. And we'll have those guys back on again here, because I'll tell you what, that's a great discussion with that.

[00:23:06] Eric Goranson: And it's, it's very cool to have. So something to think about. So anyway, make sure that's a little side note. Make sure that you've got that kind of explored before you do it. Cause so many times with vent hoods and things like that, event fans in the bathroom, great example. I had old wiring in my, and I didn't want to tear out all this stuff and do all this new drywall work.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: It's really hard to get the way my house is framed from that switch up there to put another set of wires into control. I went to bro new tone. They have a remote switch that runs Bluetooth. And then you basically just run the power up there. So you don't have to, you could have all those controls without running extra control wires.

[00:23:42] Eric Goranson: So that saved me probably two days of drywall finishing and trying to match texture and all that stuff. When I can just do it that way without having to run new stuff. So think about that. Let technology be your friend. Sometimes that can be a great addition to that project. Now, here's another [00:24:00] one. If you're putting tile in again, if you're in Florida or someplace warm, but I would sure look at doing a heated towel floor, especially if it's a DIY project, because you might already be bringing electrical there anyway.

[00:24:12] Eric Goranson: Cause so many times, if you've got a seventies or sixties or fifties house, There's not enough power in there. The, the outlet and the lighter on the same circuit, you'd have a GFCI. If you're going to run one circuit, you might as well run two and put in some heated tile floors. What you can do with heated tile floors.

[00:24:29] Eric Goranson: These days in a bathroom is absolutely amazing and it is amazing luxury and it's not that expensive. Not only can you do the floor in the bathroom, if you're doing tile in the shower. You can do on the shower floor as well under the tile. You can go up and do it on the bench if it's a tile seat. And you can make that warm so when you sit down on it, you don't have the shock of a lifetime of a hundred degree shower and a 70 degree seat there when you go sit down in the [00:25:00] shower.

[00:25:00] Eric Goranson: So think about those things. Heated floors are absolutely amazing, and they keep it healthier in there, too, because they dry the floor out so quickly. You jump out of the bathtub, you dry out of the shower, it really warms things up, and it gives you just a warm glow in there. It's like having a soft heat, and it radiates off the floor up.

[00:25:18] Eric Goranson: And if you're worried about power, it doesn't take that much. You can set it up with smart home sensors in there. There's a lot of different ways to do it, but it's so easy when you can do something like that. And it makes life so much easier and so much more comfortable. And really the parts are under a thousand bucks.

[00:25:35] Eric Goranson: So it's really not that hard to do in the scheme of the project. It's something to consider. So think about that. Now, speaking of showers, we're going to talk about this here in this segment. And then we're going to talk about the next one as well. I think, cause this is a little more detailed. Here's one of the things that are style wise you're seeing in all the magazines and you're seeing them online, but I think they're a really poor design because almost everybody that I've designed these of where they've [00:26:00] demanded, I've had clients go, I want this and I go, okay, cool.

[00:26:04] Eric Goranson: Let's do it. This is not going to work because of this thing. Oh yeah, sure. Great. Here's what it is. Designing these open concept showers. You walk into a room and maybe the toilet, maybe the bathtub are all in the shower cavity and that's all within the space. Now I'll tell you why this doesn't work.

[00:26:19] Eric Goranson: First off, the amount of steam you have to be in there so you're not freezing to death in the shower. I mean it reminds me of being in the shower in a high school on a December day in eastern Washington. Where you're stand in this big open space and it is cold. It's all cold unless you're under the water.

[00:26:38] Eric Goranson: The rest of that space gets so miserable and so many times I'll design it and not put a shower door on it, and then they go, oh, I, I can't have this. Then we'll put a shower door on it to help. But these shower, doorless, Kless shower. Or even these very large 10 by 10 shower areas to me are a massive waste of space.

[00:26:59] Eric Goranson: I think it [00:27:00] makes it much more expensive to waterproof it because now you have to waterproof around the base of the tub when the shower is in that and the toilet. I think you've just got too many floor penetrations to work with as well as cleaning that. Oh my gosh. I don't want to be cleaning soap scum off the back around the backside of my toilet or getting the mold off of that.

[00:27:20] Eric Goranson: Cause it's in this steamy area that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So they look really cool in magazines. You go, Oh, that's beautiful. Practically doesn't work most of the time. So be very careful, understand what you're looking for. And understand the maintenance headache you could have moving forward.

[00:27:39] Eric Goranson: So it's something to consider. Keep that shower nice, good size, the size you want, but when you get too big, the bigger it gets, the colder it gets, the more uncomfortable you are. So be really careful. This can burn you really good. I've seen it happen to a lot of people and all of a sudden they got to go spend [00:28:00] another grand or two to put a shower door on.

[00:28:02] Eric Goranson: Or put another shower to around it to try to fix it. Then the floor is not sloped. And now you're taking a space that was beautifully designed and trying to make it work. Which is never a great situation. If you want to find out more about us, if you're just joining us, head over to around the house, online.

[00:28:20] Eric Goranson: com. You can track me down there. And if you want to give us a call here in the studio with a home improvement question, this phone, uh, leave a message. If I'm not here that I will call you back myself. 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44. That's 833 239 4144. Round the House will be right back to wrap up our top 10 mistakes people make when designing their bathrooms in 2024 after these important messages.

[00:28:44] Eric Goranson: Back

[00:28:57] Eric Goranson: to the Round the House show, the next [00:29:00] generation of home improvement. I'm Aaron G, thanks for joining me. This last segment today, I really want to talk about some of my top pet peeves here on the top 10 mistakes people make when designing their bathrooms in 2024. Now, here's the thing. If you want to find out more about us, or if you've got a comment on these, you want to argue it out, love to hear it.

[00:29:17] Eric Goranson: Head over to around the house online. com. You can call, leave me a message. You can send me a message on our message system over there. There's a big contact us page right in the front where you can click. And if you're listening to this episode before July 3rd, 2024, there's also our contest over there.

[00:29:36] Eric Goranson: Make sure you check that out. That goes through July 3rd. It's the generator giveaway. So if you're looking to win a generator, there's details over there on the page. And the link is right there at around the house, online. com. So we've been talking about these top 10 mistakes people make. And one of these here is an important one.

[00:29:56] Eric Goranson: And this is really for you people out there. [00:30:00] that are hiring a company to do it. And most people probably do. I'd say most people go bathrooms too expensive, too hard for me to do. I don't know how to lay tile. I don't like doing plumbing. I'm out. And that's okay. But not doing your research on your tile installer is a huge mistake that's made probably one of the biggest ones out there.

[00:30:26] Eric Goranson: So here's what I'm looking for in a tile installer. And this is not a be all end all, but it's an important one. And even though I'm not a tile installer, nor do I pretend to be one, I have a lot of friends that are international experts on laying tile. And so I've spent around, spent a long time with those.

[00:30:48] Eric Goranson: Guys and those crews and really learned and know what to look for. Now, there are certifications out there that you should know about. CTI, [00:31:00] that's one. I would find out what their CTI number is. See if they are up to speed on setting tile. And I tell you what, and we talked about this in previous episodes a lot, but it's worth bringing up here again for some of you new people that are just joining us and because we're on nude radio stations every single week.

[00:31:21] Eric Goranson: So I want to make sure our new audience out there catches this as well. And this was a battle that we just talked about, but I just want to make sure we talk about it again. A couple of years ago, we had the contractor in Colorado that was ripping off a homeowner and I'll say ripping off because he was convicted and, you know, had a felony on his record for this one, but he was doing, and I saw the pictures and I know where, I know who was there to fix it afterwards.

[00:31:49] Eric Goranson: He was doing an absolute ugly job of installing tile. It was going to leak. It was poorly done. It looked like an eighth grader was trying to do an art [00:32:00] project. There was no lack of attention. It was just lack of attention and no skill whatsoever doing the shower. He didn't care or just didn't have the skills to be doing the job and didn't care that he didn't.

[00:32:17] Eric Goranson: This is how bad this was. So you can look this guy up because him and his wife made an absolute fool out of themselves. They rolled in, decided when the homeowner, Amber, went this is not going well, they're trying to pressure me for paying them early. And they kept saying, Hey, I'm going to come over and she goes, I'm not even home.

[00:32:38] Eric Goranson: They showed up. We're told not to come into the house. They went in the house anyway and decided to repossess the bathroom. So they went in there sledgehammer Started bashing the bathroom up. Luckily the neighbor saw what was going on Filmed it and now they are youtube stars because they went out and decided to repossess the [00:33:00] bathroom and what's what?

[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: Here's what was interesting and i'm gonna call out a few contractors out there not by name You But when this post goes up, I see it go up every year or so. And there's a lot of guys out there that, uh, puffed their chest. I'm going, yeah, I should have paid them. What do you expect? That's what I would have done.

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: And that's what you would have done to get a felony conviction as well. Cause you can't break into somebody's home. And even though the work was done poorly, you can't go in there and smash it up and try to repossess it. That's not how this process works. But luckily the guys over at global guys and ladies, you see guys as a group, don't send me hate mail on that.

[00:33:42] Eric Goranson: But the guys over at a global tile posse Facebook group went over there, William white and all those guys over there went over there to Colorado and fixed it for her and did a great job [00:34:00] of it. So put it back together, did a beautiful job. It was a handful of contractors. I'm not going to name everybody off because they did a great job.

[00:34:08] Eric Goranson: And went in there and knocked it out and made it look beautiful. Did a great job. So this is that stuff that if you hire the wrong tile person, it can be the most expensive job. And sometimes that incorrect tile job doesn't get noticed for a couple of years until it's leaking and tiles are coming up and then your warranty is gone.

[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: So make sure you have somebody That knows what they're doing and they're really good at it. Ask questions, do some research yourself, find out the different tile certifications, Google it up, go through that. There's all these different certifications out there for them. And if they have that certification number, you can call and check it up yourself and make sure that's what it is.

[00:34:54] Eric Goranson: Let alone the people out there that need to be licensed, bonded, insured. Just [00:35:00] because you're licensed bond insured does not mean that they know what they're doing. It just means that they've paid the right fees to the right insurance companies, the right bond companies, and someone hasn't called them on it yet.

[00:35:09] Eric Goranson: So make sure when it comes to the bathroom work that you've got somebody that is a tile expert putting that in. So that way they're putting the right waterproofing system, they're using the right grout. If they're using the right grout, they're not getting the stuff off the shelf at Home Depot or Lowe's.

[00:35:25] Eric Goranson: They're getting the stuff that's maybe epoxy or some of the new tech stuff out there that doesn't need to ever be sealed again. So, that's the thing there. My thing is, if they're going in and buying all the stuff off the shelf at the big box stores, My questions start coming up for there. I want to see them buying the better materials because the better materials aren't sold the big box stores.

[00:35:51] Eric Goranson: And here's one thing in the big box stores have their place. And I'm not going to sit here and bash on home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, whatever. That's [00:36:00] not my job here. But what I want you to know is that when you think about those big box stores, that is the entry level to mid price point of materials across the board for your home.

[00:36:15] Eric Goranson: Because price pushes everything down there. So they don't carry the best grout. They don't carry the best tile. They don't carry the best of anything. They carry the affordable stuff that they could get a great buy on by their thousands of stores across the U S and try to get you the best value on, but it is not the premium stuff.

[00:36:36] Eric Goranson: That's going to make your job easier installing this stuff. So that's where that big one is. And I want you to make sure. You understand that. So make sure that you got that. And one of the other tips to hear before we go out to break here too, and we talked about this a little bit, but I want to wrap a nice bow about it.

[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: And that's, I just want to hit this again, guys, not insulating between rooms is a big one. I want [00:37:00] to make sure that you insulate in those wall cavities in that bathroom to quiet it down, help that you need to have a bath fan in there and get a good one. This is, again, one of the biggest fan problems you have, my number 10, not installing a brand new high CFM bath fan in there.

[00:37:23] Eric Goranson: My favorite still, as far as reliability, quietness is still Panasonic. I have put, I have Panasonic in my house here. I replaced it with one of the new Bro new tone ones, and I like the Panasonic better. I do now the Bro new tone one has that system where I can sit there and control the fan. Next time I'm tearing into that bathroom a little bit, I'm going to probably run some wire down there, do that drywall work, take care of it.

[00:37:56] Eric Goranson: I'm probably going to put a Panasonic back in there. They're just [00:38:00] quieter. They're more reliable. They're easy to take care of. And I think they're just a better built machine. Now, bro, Newton's gotten a lot better, but. I think Panasonic just makes a better fan. So what do you need for size? That's a big one.

[00:38:17] Eric Goranson: Small bathrooms. I think building codes is 40 or 50 CFM, which is not near enough because again, that's at the fan, not at, if you've got a 10 or 12 foot run and it has to go out a sidewall or up into the attic, that fan should vent all the way out of the building, all the way out, not into a roof vent, it should go through it and do its own vent outside.

[00:38:37] Eric Goranson: Should go with a either depending on code in your area, either a insulated and flex stock. Or a metal duct that's insulated. And then you want to make sure that you have probably closer to a hundred to 120 CFM and get that fumes and chemicals out of there from all your hair products and who was in the bathroom last, and then make sure [00:39:00] you got that dialed in that will really help you out and get that.

[00:39:03] Eric Goranson: So it's going to be a much more comfortable bathroom. And if you get that humidity out of there, it's so much easier to clean. All right everybody. I'm Eric t and thanks for tuning into Around the House. We'll see you next Wednesday on the podcast. Thanks for listening.