Foreign.

Welcome to around the House with Eric G.

Your go to source for everything home improvement.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric G.

Is here to guide you through the latest tips, tricks and trends coming up in this week's second hour of the show.

Eric G.

Starts out the show talking about a big problem for small business owners in the marketplace selling home improvement products and then dives into his secrets in planning an outdoor kitchen and living space.

This is something again, I'm going to rail on my city of Portland that I live next to.

If I go get a building permit over there for a kitchen remodel, they're going to tell me where to plant these two trees in my front yard if I don't have enough.

And yeah, it's part of the permit process.

It's crazy.

So understanding that.

And then so grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the.

House with Eric G.

Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home and improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

If you want to find out more about this show, head to aroundthe house online.com and of course, this hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

Check them out@monument grills.com for the latest barbecue technology out there.

If you're looking for a great barbecue that is going to outperform that old one that you got at the Home center, but you're not one to pay the custom price, check them out@monument grills.com that is my favorite barbecue for doing a portable style with the propane.

They have got it down and that's what I cook my burgers and brisket with.

It's a great way to go.

Well, today I wanted to talk about a few things in this hour.

First off, I wanted to talk about something that is really hurting our small entrepreneurs out there in relating to stuff that we put inside our houses.

There are so many great people and I meet them usually at the National Hardware Show.

It's all the inventors, creators and things out there that are trying to create something new to make your life a little bit easier, a little bit safer, all of those different things.

And here is the issue that we're running into out there that we really need to find a fix for because right now it's really broken and it's costing you and me and these inventors and creators a ton of money.

So how do we fix it?

Let's Talk about the problem first.

First off, let's say you came up with a brand new product, something that is going to go inside your house.

Maybe it's something that's going to make painting or cleaning or something like that so much easier.

And you spend a couple years of your life developing it out, figuring out how to make it, whether it's made in USA here or overseas.

You file the trademarks, the patents, all the things that you do to protect your invention.

Now here is where the breakdown occurs.

What we're seeing is that once you go to market with this, as soon as it looks like there's a little bit of traction, even though you have done everything in your right to protect this product, all of a sudden on Amazon, hardware stores, online, any one of these different places, you'll see a knockoff product show up.

And the problem is, is you as a small business owner now have to go spend millions of dollars of your own money.

This isn't something that you can really go buy insurance for.

You now have to go spend at least six figures to get the ball rolling.

And then if it goes to court, millions of dollars to go after these people who legitimately stole your product and your idea and all of your hard work.

And so what happens is, is these companies, and this is not just something that we see happening overseas.

This is not something we can wave a flag and go, oh, it's China.

No, these many times are American companies that sit there and take the product, find a cheaper way to build it without all the expensive paying the tens of thousands of dollars to get it through the trademark process and patent process and get you there.

And so all of a sudden you now have to have these attorneys and it could be state, it could be federal, all these different court cases.

And you go back and forth and two, three, four, five years later, you're now going through all this and you have got to win.

But if they don't pay you, you've just spent millions of dollars, your profits.

And this is a problem that we see plaguing ourselves here in the United States.

And we need to come up with a solution so we can protect everyone from the homeowners that are buying a product that is knocked off, that maybe didn't meet the stringent testing, that could be a fire hazard, that could be a safety issue.

They're stealing all that product.

So it's something that I think we need to reach out to our legislators, all of our people out there that are doing stuff to see if there's a better way for us to police this without having to just go to court.

It would be great if we could beef up the US Patent Trademark Office where you could file a, a complaint through them and have it gone that way and let them adjudicate this stuff since they are that organization.

That organization there, they try to protect people, but they don't really have too much teeth in it.

So we need to come up with a way to protect our consumers and our inventors out there.

And if you've got an idea how to fix this, I'd love to hear it.

Head over to aroundthehouse online.com and we can continue that chat over there.

I'd love to get people's ideas on how to do this.

Obviously we need some kind of legislation and I agree we should be taking a lot of different laws out because we've got too many regulations out there.

But in this case, I think we've got a serious issue that we need to fix.

So let's see if we can get that dialed in and make that work a little bit better out there for all of those people that are inventing, creating, and all of us consumers out there that want to buy those products but don't know what we have to do here to find the right product.

Are you even buying the original one?

Are you buying the knockoff?

I bought the knockoffs on stuff before and I tell you what, I did them on a test when we had my around the House Northwest and we did a little segment called let's test it.

Tell you what, he was a hot mess.

Some of those things, they were bad rip offs, which means you weren't getting the product you thought you were getting.

And that hurts the consumer.

So.

All right, guys, enough on this little rant right here.

We've got a lot I want to talk about today in this hour of the show.

And really, let's see if we can do some research on our own.

We're buying products, we go, oh, wow, that's a cool new thing.

Is that the original product you're getting?

Let's see if we can support our inventors and creators out there a little bit more.

Well, I tell you what, I had an amazing Father's Day weekend this last Father's Day.

It was great.

We had a lot of fun.

It was great hanging out with Stan Hayes.

Operation Barbecue Relief went out.

You know, he was on the show last week and I tell you what, that guy is such a gentleman and a scholar.

I love what he's doing out there.

And with all the natural disasters are going to be happening this year out there in the United States.

Make sure and you support these guys because Operation Barbecue Relief.

It was so great to be over there.

This time I wasn't actually cooking a volunteer and I was just over there enjoying the barbecue festival and it was a packed house.

He was teaching people how to cook.

It was really cool.

Gave some great tips on stuff and showed us some of his secrets to barbecue that I'm going to use the next time here.

But check those guys out.

They're a lot of fun and I'd love to support them because they're out supporting all of us when we need it the most.

Now, a lot of the rest of this hour, I'm going to be talking about with you about my outdoor kitchen and outdoor living design tips.

These are the things that I have learned.

Designing my own place, designing places for others that can really make your life and the design part of this a heck of a lot easier.

Now, when you're designing an outdoor kitchen, there's so many things to consider.

And what I want you to do is the biggest part of this whole thing is to plan out your dream space.

How do you want that to look if it's all said and done?

Because the problem is if you start this nickel and diamond out, like a lot of us do for DIY projects, you want to make sure that you're not painting yourself in that corner in the design thing.

Because if you want a refrigeration unit out there, if you want to have a television, you need to start planning the electrical early on for this.

And if you've got a cover over the top of your cooking area, what are you doing for a range hood so you don't have a combustible area over the top of your barbecue so you don't burn the place down.

So these are all things that you want to consider before you even get started.

For instance, on my outdoor barbecue that I did, I planned in for the natural gas, I planned in for the power because I needed to have power for the lights and all that stuff because it was a built in unit, my blaze outdoor unit there, that was all built in rotisserie, all that stuff that takes its own power.

But then you have to look at it and go, okay, what if I want refrigeration?

Wow, refrigeration is cool.

Like to have that.

Well, that should probably be on its own dedicated circuit that's going to be outside, so I need a plan for that.

And outlets, television, fans, lighting, what all are you going to be doing in that space around the house.

We'll be right back after these important messages.

Don't go anywhere.

We're just getting started in outdoor living.

What it's like to play an instrument, to be in a band.

What's up?

This is Stixitinia 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.

1987.

I never wanna leave you.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to our brand new website, aroundthehouse online.com.

we've got some great stuff coming out here on the website soon, so stay tuned for that.

We're gonna have a lot of fun this summer with new projects and new things I'll be posting up over there as well as our YouTube page.

And this hour is also brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

If you're looking for that brand new barbecue, maybe you didn't get the barbecue you wanted for Father's Day.

Don't worry, there's great ones to be had out there and you can find them@monument grills.com We've been talking about outdoor living space here and what you want to do to create that.

And so we were just talking about creating a plan of, okay, what electrical things do I need?

Am I going to have a stereo?

Am I going to have all the different things?

Figure out what your dream is, do you have?

And are you going to do outdoor landscape lighting?

So figure out how much power you're going to need and what are you going to bring over there?

Are you in a climate where you wanted to water, sewer, have a sink and a faucet going?

Do you want to have some place like that for cleanup?

Well, then you're going to make sure that you've got the plumbing ready to rock on that.

Where's that going to be coming?

And then of course, you want to figure out what you're going to be cooking.

If you're going to have wood for a outdoor pizza oven, that's awesome.

We're going to store the wood.

So you want to kind of make a list of those needs you're thinking about.

And the barbecue is a big one.

Are you doing propane where it's more of a cart, like something that, you know, Monument Grills makes, for instance, or are you looking at more of a built in one, like the natural gas one that I've got from blaze, it's depending on what you want to do.

So there's a lot of different things that you can plan for there.

Whether they're going charcoal, whether you're going pellet, where you're going natural gas, where you're going propane.

How is that going to be done?

Because you want to figure out what those utility needs are.

So when you build that deck or add on to that deck or put a cover over it, you've got it figured out on what you want to do.

So just assess the needs.

The next thing I want you to do is measure out the space that you want it, determine all those dimensions and figure out the layout of the outdoor area.

And as you're doing this, take a look and see what your local building codes are because this can really affect what you're doing for outdoor cooking, outdoor living.

Can you do a covered patio out there?

What kind of permits do you need for that?

Like in Oregon, where I live here, if I build one and follow kind of their plan on the website, I can do something under 200 square feet if I do it correctly.

So I don't need a permit for that if it's attached to the house.

Now there's a lot of different ways to do that, but you can create some fun spaces without having to get knee deep in the permit process.

Now for electrical, for gas, for water, sewer, of course you're going to need some stuff for that depending on where you're located.

So understanding what those codes are so you can one, either get the right trades in there or get the right permits pulled so you can keep those people happy.

Because these days, I tell you what, code enforcement agencies are getting way interesting out there.

You're seeing them using anything from drones to drive bys to all those different things that can happen.

So you're seeing projects that normally wouldn't get red tagged because maybe they're doing something and they're skirting that line.

Heck, I've seen police standoffs over water heater permits.

I mean, it gets crazy how this stuff goes.

And the more you've made someone mad in your neighborhood, the more likely someone is to report it.

So you could have the nicest neighbors in the world, but if you got that passive aggressive one there that goes, they're going to be partying out there.

We're going to fix this right now.

They make a phone call into code enforcement and guess what?

Now you got somebody knocking on your door wanting to do an inspection.

And I've seen that go completely sideways for people.

So doing that, understanding hoas, all that crazy stuff can really make your life easier on the planning side of things.

So think about how you're gonna design this space.

After that, you're gonna have lounging, kind of a dining thing, entertaining.

You're going to have a movie wall where you're going to use the side of your shed or the side of the garage or something for doing outdoor movies for the kids.

What is your plan?

Because you're going to need power for that.

You see where I'm going?

Make sure you've got that.

The last thing you want to do is have extension cords running around your outdoor space.

So the next step then is kind of figuring out what outdoor features do you want to keep.

You have a little concrete patio out there that you're going to want to take out.

Is there a tree close to the house that's in the way that you need to get rid of?

What pathways are going to work and aren't working now or going to work?

Then?

Do you have a pond or something else?

What is all going to work right there?

And what are you going to embrace and what are you going to get rid of?

And again, with trees, there's another one.

Man, it can take two years in my neighborhood to take a tree down.

It's crazy.

I got to go down to the city, I got to fill out all these forms, got to have an arborist come out and take a look at it.

There's a public comment period.

I mean, it gets insane just to take a tree down in your backyard to do something.

And I get trying to, you know, protect the forest canopy.

I get it.

We've actually got more trees in the Portland area now than we did 120 years ago.

And if you go back and look at the pictures, it's hilarious.

There weren't any trees around here, but now we got a ton of them, so it's a good thing.

But some of this stuff gets absolutely nuts.

And this is something again.

I'm going to rail on my city of Portland that I live next to.

If I go get a building permit over there for a kitchen remodel, they're going to tell me where to plant these two trees in my front yard if I don't have enough.

And yeah, it's part of the permit process.

It's crazy.

So understanding that and then understanding kind of your.

What I call your neighborhood is going on there, what's the context of all of that?

Right.

Are you going to have this very old traditional house and you're putting in a, a wild modern outdoor living space.

Make sure that what you're doing is going to fit the house in the neighborhood of what you got.

Just make sure it looks good.

Make sure that it fits architecturally.

That's where you can get the most bang for your buck.

So once you've got these things kind of figured out, this is where you either bring in the professional design that out so they can draw up drawings, they can do a landscape plan for you.

That is by far the most professional way to do it and the best way to get that.

Yeah, it can cost you a few thousand bucks to have somebody design it out, but then you can really figure out what you got.

And that plan is kind of the biggest key.

I want you to sit down and plan this out, draw it out, dimensions, measurements, all that stuff.

Figure out what you're going to do.

That way you know where you're going and you could actually go through and figure out the step by step process.

Now, as you're doing this, you want to think about gathering areas.

If you're doing an outdoor kitchen, people are going to stand around there.

Do you want to put in a little L shaped bar like I did at my house to keep people out of my cooking area, but still have them be part of the process to tell you.

Tell you what, when I'm out there barbecuing, it's awesome.

I got people lined up around me.

How do I control that space?

How do I figure out to get people away from my cooking area?

Or if I want somebody helping, how do I have two people in that area but still give a place for people to sit down?

I can watch the game or, or some music videos or whatever I'm doing out there.

The next thing is figuring out privacy.

Do you want your neighbors seeing you when you pop in the hot tub at 11 o' clock at night?

Maybe not.

What can you do there for a privacy screen to really make that look awesome?

What are the steps to make that look great?

Now the next thing is, is the comfort.

You want to plan out where your furniture is going to go after you get the structure, everything designed out, if it's covered, and I recommend partially covered for people out there that like to entertain year round.

It is great.

Now when we come back, we're going to start talking about using the right materials for this.

And this is a big one.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't go anywhere foreign.

Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keel the Ron Keel, band and stealer.

We are rocking around the house with Eric G.

Raise YOUR fears.

Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to our website aroundthehouse online.com and you can message me over there as well.

Tell you what, guys, you have done a great job of sending me some wild and crazy questions.

There have been some good ones and there have been some that are, quite frankly, head scratchers.

And I'm like, okay, people are trying to mess with me, which I think is adorable.

So thanks for all those wild and crazy questions and all the people that message me during the week.

Whether it's during the show or during the week when you're working on a project, I appreciate every one of you out there and feel free to contact me over there@aroundthehouse online.com well, this hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

Check them out@monumentgrills.com for the latest in propane and propane barbecues that you convert over to natural gas.

If you want to do that later down or if you just need that portable grill that has all those features of the high end grills without the high end price, you can even pick them up at Lowe's.

Check them out@monumentgrills.com well, we've been talking about outdoor living spaces today and really designing out and my tricks of how to deal with this now, materials is a big part of this and this is where I really want you to think about what you're doing for materials.

So for instance, when it comes to decking, are you doing concrete?

Do you have a concrete pad that you have out there?

You're stepping out into the back concrete slab and that's what you got.

Or are you going to be doing tile?

Tile is a big thing that you see now.

Exterior tile surfaces, even in frozen areas, you're starting to see that as well as so many field stones, all these different features out there.

Patio pavers.

If you're looking at a composite deck, you need to work on getting your masterclass here and composite decks so you could understand what you're looking for.

So last week we had my buddy from Mil Board on if you're looking for something that looks like real wood but isn't going to be scratching, is going to look awesome, that has a rubberized surface, then man, I tell you what, millboard's great.

If you're not looking for that, but you're looking for a premium deck and you're out in the full sun and there is no way for you to build any kind of a cover.

Take a look at a product like Moisture Shield.

They have a composite decking that reflects heat, that uses their cool deck technology that is something that makes that cool like a wood deck.

And I tell you what, these days, unless you're on a budget and you're doing it as a DIY project, it doesn't make sense to me to be using pressure treated type materials or cedar or something like that for a deck.

Unless you are okay with going through and finishing that every one to three years.

That's kind of the lifespan a lot of these finishes.

So to me the composites are the way to go.

Now if you want to do a high end deck and you're looking at doing any one of the exotic woods, I totally get it.

It's gorgeous.

It gives you that high end feel.

It's like you're on an old 20s cruise ship or something like that.

It looks gorgeous.

I get it.

Nothing wrong with that.

But yeah, you are going to pay a premium for any of those exotic woods, especially what you're seeing with prices out there.

I mean, cedar is ridiculously expensive out there.

You know, I went to go buy some cedar shingles for a beach house with my brother and you can spend 500 bucks a square on that stuff and it's insane with the prices out there.

So be careful when you're looking at those material prices now.

There are so many ways when you're building a deck too.

We've talked about this in the past, but understand if you're building a new deck out there as part of it, plan your cover out first and then build your deck around that because you're going to want that to go all the way down to the ground.

Make sure that's going down and then build your deck as part of that structure.

Plan it together and if you're off, if you're 18 inches or above, I would take a look at doing some kind of railing code.

Probably tells you in your area 30 inches.

But I think it's super important to look at it and go, okay, let's plan a railing around here for the safety of the people we're doing and to control where people are going to be jumping off and on the deck.

But when you're designing that deck, what materials you're going to use down underneath it.

One of the issues we have today when it comes to a deck that's going to get wet in many places in the country, especially if you've got tree cover, things like that.

What are you going to be doing to protect that?

Because the problem is you can put 20, 30, 40 year, even 50 year composite decking down, but you've got a pressure treated system underneath it that might last 15 years.

If you're in a harsh climate, you're gonna go steel, you know, aluminum.

You're gonna use joist tape to make sure and protect all that stuff.

You're flashing it correctly.

There is a lot of science, a lot of building science in flashing and building a deck correctly these days.

And I see so many huge mistakes online when people are like, hey, I've got this deck.

Wow.

Make sure that you've designed that deck professionally.

Have somebody make sure that you're building it correctly.

Make sure that the spans right, make sure that you've got the beams right.

You're not just throwing a couple two by twelves up there and everything's rocking and rolling and you got a hot mess going.

Make sure that you're building it correctly.

And if it's above your skill level, that's okay.

Bring the professional in to knock it out.

Because you want to build it once and build it right.

If you're putting a hot tub up on it, did you engineer that for the hot tub?

Because you can be putting thousands of pounds up there.

Just search online hot tub deck collapse.

You'll see crazy pictures of people putting hot tubs up on decks that shouldn't have had that happen.

Now, I will say one thing here.

If our steel prices are going to come down significantly with the whole new tariff situation, if we've got that figured out, that could make with lumber prices and stuff right now and our building material costs, that could make something be very different and much more affordable.

Looking at some of these new steel and aluminum decking systems out there that go underneath the deck.

So take a peek at that.

Sometimes we hit a point where it was that way during COVID that you weren't paying any more for a steel decking system as far as the supports and the structure than you were for wood because it was that crazy of a price.

So do your research, figure it out, design it out and see what's going to work best for your budget and what's going to be the most durable for you.

Because that's a big one right there.

What's going to be the best fit for you and your project.

Now the next one here is a big one.

It is talking about Budget.

What are you going to do to create a budget?

How are you going to figure this out?

Well, the only real way to figure out your budget is to create that plan.

Figure out your materials list so you can then price it out.

Now, if you're hiring a company to come in, you're going to get quotes.

You want to design it out, have two or three different quotes on the same project so you can compare apples to apples on this.

The biggest mistake I see people when they're hiring out a project is they don't hire the designer and design it out.

What they do is they hire three different companies to come over and give them estimates.

There's three different designs with three different prices, and nobody has anything to compare apples to oranges with.

So you want to come up with a plan first, then send that out to bid, take their suggestions and see who's going to be the best.

Fit your prop for your project.

And that's the right way to do that.

But to have that budget, you got to do the math.

Go figure it out.

So you almost want to do a virtual install.

Okay, what's the first thing I'm going to do to build a deck?

All right, I'm going to plan it out.

Where are my posts going to go?

Okay, I'm going to need concrete.

How much concrete?

All right, what kind of brackets am I going to need there?

Okay, I'm going to need these post brackets going to the concrete.

Maybe a post protector if I'm going into the concrete.

Depending on what your building code says.

And yes, this is where you want to make sure and get that involved.

Next up, then you're gonna go, okay, that's gonna go up.

I need a beam going across there.

Maybe the decking and the framing and all that stuff.

What I'm gonna do for railings, how's that gonna work?

So go through this process and understand the materials and almost do a virtual install in your head.

Okay.

If you've built a deck once before, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

What am I gonna need for fasteners?

Make sure you're using some of the good coated fasteners out there that are meant for for it.

And if you're building on a coastal area close to the beach, close to saltwater, make sure you're using all those stainless fasteners and you're using products that are going to hold up to that environment, because those galvanized won't do very well.

Even your brackets underneath can really start to come across pretty poorly.

After a handful of years if you're not doing it correctly.

And yes, you can order in brackets at times that have more galvanized on them.

And if you have an extreme use thing, talk to your lumberyard or one of the bracket companies to see if they've got a better system.

That's not just your off the shelf product, it's your home center.

Now when we come back, we're going to talk about the rest of keeping this on budget and of course, some of the tricks that you can do to make this easier to maintain.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't go anywhere.

All right.

Welcome back to the AROUND the HOUSE show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

To find out more about us, head to our website aroundthehouse online.com make sure you follow us on social media.

Take a look at our closed group, around the House Nation.

We've got a great group there that shares up projects, things we're working on, all that sorts of good stuff.

Now this hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

Check them out@monumentgrills.com for the latest in portable barbecues.

If you want to save some money and get some quality, check them out@montymcgrills.com we've been talking about designing that outdoor space.

But before I do that, before we kind of wrap this up, I do want to say thank you to all of you out there that have been watching on the television show, the around the House Northwest television show that is rounding up.

We are rounding up the end of our third season here.

And I want to thank everybody for tuning in.

We are working on a new home for that because I want to expand that out and get it out nationally.

So we will be having a new home for that.

And we're working on putting together a program for that right now that will take a little bit.

But if you want to catch more video content, just head over to our website aroundthehouse online.com and you can take a look at our YouTube channel.

We're going to be doing a lot more video work over there now that I'm not doing production of the television show for the next short time.

So make sure and tune in over there as well as make sure you're following us on social media.

We got so much stuff going on.

I'm going to be doing some more live things as well in the future.

So we're going to have a lot of fun with that if you're one of the many people out there tuning us on the radio, you're catching us on your local AM FM station.

Thanks for tuning into us here on the Talk Media Network.

I appreciate all of you.

If during the week you want to catch on some of the shows you missed, don't worry.

Just look for the around the house show on your favorite podcast player.

Whether you've got Apple, where you're listening to it on the Apple podcasts, Spotify, I heart any one of those different players out there that play music usually have podcasts as well.

So just search up the around the House show and you'll find me there.

I mean, we're up to 2,000 episodes.

We've only got about 300 that we put up on Apple.

But if you are one of our insiders, you can listen to probably another 7 or 800 on our website where you get exclusive access to those older ones, which is always a lot of fun.

All right, guys.

Well, we've been talking here about outdoor living spaces, designing them, getting them dialed in, making sure that you've got it ready to go so you can enjoy that added space outdoors.

Now, we were talking about creating a budget, making sure that we prioritize all those different things.

This is where you need to figure out what you want to hire and what you want to do yourself.

DIY options are great for many different projects, but if you've never built a deck before and you're going to build your own and you're going to build an elevated deck that's maybe over two or three feet high, you've got to really pay attention and do a lot of research.

You understand how to build that deck and how to flash it correctly.

Now, one of my favorite resources are my friends over at Fine Home Building Go on their website.

They have some great videos on it with Mike Gurton, a buddy of mine.

He is one of the masters of doing a deck correctly and attaching it to the home correctly, flashing it correctly.

It's one of the biggest problems we see with decks and deck failures is that part where that ledger board is attached to the house.

So you want to make sure that that is screwed using lag bolts or structural fasteners into the framing of the house as well as the different weatherproofing between those two points so you don't get water following it in.

And that can be a huge issue when it comes to decks.

So make sure that you've got that done correctly.

That is a big safety issue.

It's just as important as getting handrails and steps and those kind of things.

So know your, what your limitations are and what you're good at and what you're not.

Hire the ones.

Maybe you need that electrician to come out to run some circuits, maybe need the plumber to put the plumbing in for you do that early on so at least it's roughed in so you got the options for later.

Now one of the most important things that people forget to design for is maintenance and cleaning.

This is a big one.

Think about it.

If you're building a composite deck and maybe you got it's raised up off the second floor of the house, do you want to make sure, do you want to have it so it's waterproof underneath that so you can store things down there, or is that another lower deck space?

So think about how you want this to go.

Some of the issues that you run into maintenance is if you've got like me, where I've got big fir trees, I'm living in a freaking forest.

I want to have maybe a little bit bigger gap between those deck boards with my fastening system so that water doesn't pool up.

Because what happens at my house is I get the organic matter that comes down out of the trees, whether it's pollen that turns to a mud like surface to needles, to everything else that can plug up those areas between the deck, between those deck boards and you got a problem.

So then you're out there with a light duty pressure washer or hose trying to get that stuff that's plugged up between there.

Because you also want to take a look at when you're building the deck, do you want to put a slight slope to that?

So if you do have snow or water build up their ice that will actually drain away from the house.

Little bit of a slope just to send the water the other way isn't a bad idea.

I'm not talking to put a bunch, but if you go just a little bit, just a hair, if you just slope it slightly away, you might be better off.

Of course, when you're building that overhead patio cover, you have high winds, do you have tornadoes?

Do you have hurricanes?

What do you need to do to build that to hold up to mother nature's worst for your area?

And how are you going to maintain it?

Are you putting a gutter system on that that needs to be cleaned out?

Are you going to be trapping smoke?

Do you have a ventilation hood in there?

If you're, if you've got a barbecue and you've got A wood surface up there.

One, it's combustible.

Two, it's going to get greasy because we're all barbecue and greasy stuff out there most of the time.

There's some oils in there, even in vegetables and stuff.

We were cooking.

Can get up there and get that.

So what do you need to do for maintenance?

Think about the furniture you're getting.

I like, like the sunbrella type of fabrics on there that are meant for boats and things like that that'll take it.

And then what's going on, maintenance wise, if you do a metal roof up there and if you've got trees that drip SAP, things like that, that can look not so great.

What are you doing for the roofing surface?

What can you do?

There are so many great products out there.

If you want to put a clear one up there, if you do a big clear surface, awesome.

How are you going to keep it clean?

Do you have access?

Build in access.

You can get up there and clean that.

Because if you're putting in a clean, clear, crystal clear acrylic panel system, how are you going to keep it clean?

Because it's like a window.

The dirt, the pollen, stuff from the trees all will build up on it.

You're going to need to get up there with a soft brush on a pole.

Do you have a way to do that?

Have you designed that into the structure to make it work?

These are all things that I want you to think about.

Do you need to have access underneath the deck for plumbing to work on something?

Do you need to have it for the electrical?

What's going on there?

So thinking about all those different things can really change how you design and build it.

It's just like when you're putting in a building, an outdoor kitchen where you've got natural gas or propane.

What are the vents that are required in that cabin?

You need to make sure that you don't have air building up in that because many times that gas can be heavy or it can be lighter, depending on which gas you're using.

But you want it to be able to vent out of there.

So having a good airspace so that breeze, you don't have an explosion hazard.

And of course, what countertop materials are you putting on the kitchen?

Is that something you're gonna have to keep clean?

Is that something that's going to be.

Stainless steel countertops you see are a big hot item out there.

But if you've got full sun, heck, you could cook eggs on those things on a hot summer day.

So I want you to Think about those different things and how they're going to react to Mother Nature, how they're going to react to grease.

Used to see that with the old first generation Trex products, you can see where the barbecue was because you're dripping grease right there and it soaked in, it looked horrible.

Then they went to vinyls.

Wasn't a problem.

But anytime that they had that natural wood in there, that could be an issue.

So thinking about the maintenance, thinking about how you're gonna take care of things.

Okay, great.

I've got my hot tub up there.

Awesome.

Do I have a hose nearby to clean this off?

Do you need a hose bib there?

What's even better, take a look at prior products.

They have hose bibs that you can have hot and cold for cleaning grease and around the barbecue, hitting the deck with hot water instead of in soapy water instead of cold water.

Tell you what, that's a game changer.

Definitely something I'd be looking for an outdoor living space for cleaning up.

Cost you a little more money to run hot water, but it'll get the job done quicker and times money.

So think about those little added spaces.

What do you do for heat?

Are you going to do ceiling heaters that are electric that you need to run stuff in?

Need electrical for?

Do you need that?

So create the dream space.

Put it all together and you'll be good to go.

And don't forget how you're going to take care of it and how durable that's going to be to hold up.

That way you've got a great project.

And in a year or two, if you're knocking out yourself, you got something, your friends are come over and they're going to want to hang out all season long.

All right, everybody, that wraps up my tips and tricks for outdoor living spaces in this episode of around the House.

Love to see you here.

And if you've got a subject you want to hear from me on a future episode, head over to the website again around the house online.com find out over there you can message me and we'll maybe slide it into a future show.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

We'll see you next time.

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