Trends in Bathroom Remodeling

Bathrooms are a huge area for remodeling in homes. Contemporary colors, new styles and technology advances modernize your home to fit you’re your family’s changing needs. Here are some of the trends we are seeing in remodeling bathrooms.

Contemporary Styling
Changing the style of your bathroom brings a whole new feel to your home. There are many options to choose from for updating the lines and look of your bathroom with new cabinetry and fixtures (lights, faucets, etc.). We can help with interior and design choices to fit your style.

Custom Cabinetry
Custom cabinets have become a huge focus for storage in the bathroom. Each family has its own needs and custom cabinetry can fit your style, your look and your exact family needs for storage.

Dark Espresso Custom-Stained Maple
A newer style people are bringing into their bathrooms for a dramatic look is dark espresso stained wood. The combination of dark wood and warm colors brings out a spa feel for relaxation and beauty.

Large Built-in Linen Cabinets
Expanding on custom cabinets, home owners have been requesting large built-in linen cabinets in their bathrooms to store all their bathroom needs.

Granite Vanity Tops
Adding a contemporary, stylish look and an extra ‘pop’ in bathroom designs are granite vanity tops. Using remnant slabs for small countertops offers a reasonable cost and lasting beauty to bathrooms.

Tile surrounds with In-Wall Niches
Incorporating custom needs into all areas of the bathroom, tile surrounds with in-wall niches for holding items in showers and around bathtubs are extremely popular.

Are Your Locks Safe?

Have you heard of a Bump Key? The bump key is a threat to about 95% of the locks in America.

Standard Locks
Most locks work on a pin tumbler system design that uses a set of lower pins cut at different heights to match the key and a set of top pins that contact the top of the bottom pins. When inserting the right key, the bottom pins are lifted to the correct height, creating an even line between the top and bottom pins so you can turn the key. If one pin is off, the lock cylinder won’t rotate and you can’t turn the key.

The Bump Key
The Bump key can open a lock easily even though it’s not the proper key. By striking the Bump Key in the lock, it transfers a force into the lock system pins making them jump therefore separating the top and bottom pins for a fraction of a second, allowing the lock cylinder to be turned unlocking the lock.

The Pin tumbler lock design is found on most locks we use every day. If a matching bump key is possessed, most likely the lock can be opened in seconds.

Lock Standardization and Quality
There are hundreds of different types of locks available around the world but American manufacturers use primarily use two different key shapes which allows for two kinds of bump keys to open most locks including deadbolts. High quality and deadbolt locks tend to be made to tighter tolerances so the bump key energy transfer process is even more effective.

High Security Locks
Here are some high security locking systems you can research:
- Abloy Protec manufactured in Finland
- Medeco manufactured in Salem, Virginia
- BiLock manufactured in Australia

Protect your home and other valuables by installing bump key proof locks in your home and other valuable areas.

Protect Your Home While Your Away

Over the last year we have done some major whole-house remodeling projects that were as a result of furnace failure while the owners were out of town. This had prompted us to provide some information for caring and protecting your home when leaving for an extended period of time.

It is a good idea to take some precautions to minimize the likelihood of major damage to your home due to equipment malfunction. We have repaired several homes when during lengthy winter vacations the furnace has failed causing freezing and bursting water lines throughout the house. In the summer a washing machine supply hose or icemaker line can burst and with no one home for days, the amount of water damage is unbelievable.

If you are leaving your home to go out of town for more than a few days it is a good idea to:

1. Shut off your water at the main house shut-off by the meter. If you have a well, shut off the well circuit breaker. Do NOT drain the system.

2. Turn off your water heater, or turn it down to ‘vacation’ setting

3. If you are going to be gone for a month or more, fill all drains with RV anti-freeze so they do not dry out. Dry drains will allow sewer gas to flow back into the house.

4. Have a friend or neighbor check your home on a regular basis (daily if possible).

Other things you can do to protect your home while you are gone:

1. Check to see if your furnace thermostat has a battery. If it does, change it yearly. Some thermostats have a battery power supply and do not control the furnace if the battery dies. If this happens while you are on a two-week vacation you will come home to a house full of frozen burst pipes.

2. There are several models of home monitoring systems. Some have a feature that will call to alert you if the temperature of your home drops below a set level. Others are integrated with a thermostat so you can control the temperature of your home from anywhere in the world through phone or internet connection.
If you have any questions about protecting your home, give us a call.

Don’t ignore the signs of water damage!

It’s easy to look past signs of water damage to your home; the ripple in the paint by the window or the rotten siding under your deck because it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. But not taking action can only cause more damage to your home. In a matter of days mold growth can begin. Over a month or two of leakage into your wall, you can have thousands of dollars of repairs to your home.

The photos below show some examples of water intrusion we have found during window, door and siding replacement projects. In every case, there is evidence all around the damage that it has been there for a long time, but did not get the attention it deserved.

Make sure your house is watertight. At IHP, we can test moisture levels for an assessment of potential repairs. The sooner you catch it, the smaller the repair will be. Give us a call.


Complete rot-through framing from improper deck flashing

Rotten Rim Joist from improper door flashing.

Wall structure water damage from improper window flashing

The Attic’s Weather Role

Has the recent heat this summer in Minnesota soaked through your attic into your house? The amount of insulation in your attic can drastically affect the temperature in your house and the amount of energy you use in air conditioning. Proper ventilation in your attic also plays a huge role in keeping your attic cool. Winter will be coming again before you know it. Keep in mind that these two things, poor insulation and ventilation are the leading cause of ice damns in the winter. We live in an area of serious weather extremes and your attic plays a key role in how well your house performs in those extremes.

We can give you the information you need to properly maintain an attic helps monitor the ventilation in your home.

Being Sump Pump Prepared.

We have been helping customers with more Basement finishing and remodeling this past year as the economy recovers in the Minneapolis metro area. One thing to think about when finishing or remodeling a basement is the possibility of water problems. This past wet spring has sump pumps running constantly in many basements. If your pump fails or if the power goes you could have several inches of water on your basement floor very quickly.

We strongly recommend the installation of a back-up sump pump for any basement that has an existing sump. We discourage battery back-up pumps due to constant battery monitoring and maintenance. Plus, if you lose power for more than an hour or two the battery will drain, the back-up pump stops and you still have flooding. Installing a Zoeller® Home Guard Max back up pump that is powered by your city water is a great solution. The motor is turned by water flow that is connected to your city water line, which never loses pressure. The water powered pump keeps water out of your basement until you restore your electric pump. It pumps out two gallons of sump water for each gallon of city water used. This is not intended for use as a primary pump, but is the best back-up pump solution hands down. For more information on the pumping system check out: http://www.zoellerpumps.com/ProductBenefit.aspx?ProductID=65.

For all your basement finishing and remodeling needs, give us a call.

Relax and Enjoy a Porch

Building a porch addition can immediately add value and instant curb appeal to any home. Plus it gives you extra living and entertainment space to the front, side or back of your home.

A porch addition can be as simple as replacing an existing pediment with a roof over the entrance or by adding more with a "shed roof" or a gable roof complete with skylights! In addition to placing a roof over an entrance, a combination front porch and screened room is a great option by extending both the roof and the size to make it a large outdoor living space. Keep in mind, the porch style needs to match or complement the home's architecture. The materials used to build the porch determine if feels like a part of the house or an extension of the outdoor area. The new porch should match your existing home or you can design a variation that complements the original house. The columns should be the primary focus of the design to create visually interest and depth as an integral part of the home.

Don’t forget to consider your lighting needs and electrical requirements as well as design features for the columns, railings, doors, and decking for your porch.

Additional Considerations:
Unexpected elements can really add impact to your porch:
- Fireplace
- Built-in Grill
- Ceiling fans
- Speakers
- Built-in bookshelk
- Bench swing or a hammock

Home before Porch Addition













Home after Porch Addition