TRG Home Concepts, LLC

Clean as a whistle!

Double sill for nailing, cedar clapboard on top of sill framing to pitch sill to exterior, sill flashed/waterproofed with flex tape and wrapped up the jack studs, WRB tucked under sill tape flashing for proper layering/drainage plane on the exterior.

I am loving this tall that I installed today. If you want to see how I framed, flashed, installed the window, and re-installed the siding check out my stories.

This window is going to be right in the working aisle of the kitchen, and it will provide ample light as well as a nice view to the back yard.

Polly is digging it too!

Layout paying off here in the kitchen. Plumbing rough in all wrapped up and just a couple more circuits to run to the panel.

Next well I’ll be tacking some framing and installing some new .

I recently had the opportunity to spend a week in Cleveland with , , , and .

We shot some really great content on a home in need of repair right within the city. I cannot wait to share it with all of you.

It feels great to be at a point in my career that I can step away from the job for some time to explore other opportunities within the industry. I did not anticipate this as a career path, but it has been rewarding and surprisingly challenging. I am excited to continue to grow and move forward.

Started my mom’s kitchen today. A few essentials for demolition:

- polyethylene plastic, poly tape, g tape, frog tape, ram board tape, and general masking tape
- zip walls and zip wall poles
- econorunner and masonite
- air scrubber, filters for air exchanges, filters to protect cold air returns
- dust masks, ppe, remind me not to wear vans
- dump trailer to avoid the use of dumpsters
- appliance dolly, roofing shovel, shop vac, small trash cans to transport debris
- for the 💪🏻

How many of you keep a moisture meter in the truck?

If you don’t, I highly recommend that you do. I use mine to test for active leaks (as seen here), test the disparity between hardwood and subfloor prior to install, and measure the moisture content of trim when it is dropped.

It is an inexpensive tool that can bring such peace of mind and long-lasting quality to a project.

Would you believe it if I told you that this fence/gate is made from all pressured-treated lumber??

In between work and a game I stopped out at this fence that Justin and I built last year in Haddonfield. The gate needed a quick adjustment.

I am happy to see how great it still looks and how well it is still holding up.

Cabinets to the ceiling or not to the ceiling?

I say it depends, but on this kitchen keeping them shy of the ceiling was the move. We were trying to create that handmade English feeling kitchen, and incorporating a frieze with a crown moulding felt too polished and formal.

I have to dig up some before photos of this kitchen, because it was quite the transformation!

Sorry I took so long 😂. Here is the masking for spraying this portion of trim with nitrocellulose lacquer.

We wrapped the cabinet in the ’ trim, masked it, prepped it, primed it, then shot it last thing.

I used a conventional hvlp cup gun ran off of a small jobsite compressor. This setup would not work for a larger area, but for this isolated piece, it did the trick.

This finish is thin, so a tack coat followed by two light wet topcoats is all you need to prevent runs.

I opted to spray the ’ baseboard around this built-in pantry with the nitrocellulose lacquer from the cabinet vendor. It definitely took more time doing it this way, but in my opinion it was well worth it.

Do you want to see the masking setup for doing so?

I recently partook in this field survey with CertainTeed diving into industry trends unique to me and my business. Make sure to check it out!

One of my favorite project for an old customer in Pennington, New Jersey. I am not sure if she is on social media any longer, but she had a massive hand in designing this space!

The handmade with the smaller grout joints was challenging, but I could not be happier with the result.

mouldings adorn the space and are covered with an acrylic enamel in Decorator’s White.

The vanity is cherry wood finished in a clear lacquer. The flooring is a Thassos marble that was custom cut to the sizes that the customer desired. The top is also Thassos marble.

took all of the beautiful photos.

Anatomy of a shower. Remodeling and adding a bathroom to a bedroom in a turn of the century home presents us with copious amounts of unique and complex challenges. One of which is properly locating a drain with regard to tile layout and existing framing. The Kerdi system with a drypack pan affords me the peace of mind that I will be able to make it happen regardless of location, size, and pitch.

Foam pans are fantastic when you luck out, and they work properly! Old homes don’t always afford us that luxury. There is more than one way to skin a cat. I like to be well versed in numerous methods and madness!

Anatomy of a shower.

I opted to wet shim these walls. I am fairly certain this may not be acceptable practice with wedi, so I did some testing before going all in on this one. Five years later nothing has been compromised. Our walls were pretty close to begin with and I used thinset behind the boards.

Nice and flat.

The anatomy of a bathroom. For this space we used a combination of Wedi, Ditra, traditional drypack mortar, and topical crack isolation/waterproofing. Why not mix it up 😂?! What is your preferred system?

Good help just keeps getting harder and harder to find!!!

All of the red oak beams in our Medford kitchen were hollow. We used a lock-miter bit on a router table to mill all of the parts.

During the frame stage we installed blocking in the ceiling. Once we got things drywalled, we laid out the beams with chalklines, then installed plywood blocking with adhesive and screws, kissing the sides of our chalklines. Each side of each beam was scribed to the ceiling, then the parts were assembled on the floor, prepped, then tacked through the sides to the blocking with 18g nails.

Less of a traditional beam that definitely required a bit more work.

How did we attach our posts to our roof deck?

First thing we did was to allow our lumber to dry. If you waterproof the material and then it shrinks, you are screwed.

After the material was dry, we located our rafters or joists (depending on which side you viewing) and drilled up beside them through the existing fiberglass. Then we cut out square holes in the roof deck to let the pressure treated posts through the roof assembly. Next we slid the posts into the ceiling framing, shimmed them and locked everything together with lags and structural screws, ensuring they remained plumb.

We temporarily sealed pe*******on with a liquid applied flashing until the fiberglass contractor arrived. They then ground down the sharp corners at the base of the post to ensure the fiberglass adhered well and could easily wrap the material. Last thing to do after they gel coated the entire area, was to slide the trims and posts on and install the rails.

For good measure, I like to drill the bottom of the bottom rail to allow water to weep out of the assembly rather than stay in there and make its way down toward the posts where we have fasteners penetrating the lumber.

I hope you all are enjoying a little rest and relaxation this holiday season!!

Here is a simple detail I used to hide the steel brackets supporting the countertop on the back side of the island.

What do you think?! Worth the extra work or not?

So close I can taste it!!! Get it?! 🙄

In the homestretch of this one. We will be turning it over next week, and then I have a few things to button up outside.

Just in time for the holidays!

is the designer on this one.

One step closer to punching this one out. Applied the stain on the beams with a natural bristled brush. Two coats, and then buffed it out for a buttery smooth finish.

Last night while checking out with five rolls of tape at Benjamin Moore, the associate said “Wow, that’s a lot of tape!” Then I got all self-conscious because I knew I had about 30 more on the job. Do you think I have a problem?

Loveeeeee me some tape and protection.

In most locales it is code to install a smooth walled duct from the exhaust hood to the roof or sidewall outlet. This basically limits you to using hard pipe. Without a cabinet above, a dummy panel, or access from the top or exterior of the home, this can be very difficult to do. Those joints are to be taped or sealed as well.

Most jobs that I demo, there is some sort of corrugated flex duct that is covered in grease. Imagine if that sucker went up in flames!!!

For this hood we cut an access panel to tie in and hook up our rigid pipe. We then screwed on the piece of plywood and taped the seams with cbu tape. Now I can sleep at night.

Still struggling through this one, but in the homestretch now. Tile, paint, and then refinishing the floors. We missed the mark on the stain color, but as promised from the get-go, we will make it right.

Covid really changed the window game in my opinion. Nowadays there are so many additional considerations that were never on the table.

What has been your greatest struggle with windows and doors since 2020?

I used a handful of 400 series windows on our current remodel. Given the cost, timeline, quality, and customer service, this window was hard to beat. We were on a serious time crunch and our scope/budget had grown considerably. We did not anticipate replacing these windows, so our schedule was at the mercy of the manufacturer. These windows came in early and helped ease the financial burden of the added scope. One sash came in damaged, and within ten minutes of sending an email to my vendor, a new sash was ordered. No questions asked or documentation other than some photos required.

Oftentimes relationships and service are as important if not more important than the product itself. Andersen and the entire team who supports me and knocked it out of the park. Thank you!!!

All the boxes are set. Next up are trim/mouldings. It’s nice having so much room to work in this space.

Designer:

Missing some boxes, drawer heads, and having some door issues, but banging out this install. I always enjoy the complex designs. Hiding fasteners, fitting scribes, thinking outside the box.

Designer:

Well I’ll be darned. We started installing cabinets!!!

So far so good. Our planning and prep is paying off!

is the designer on the one.

While loading all of my floor protection onto the job yesterday, I thought to myself, “Geez, all this time and money to make sure the floors don’t get damaged. What is it worth?”

Then I quickly realized how much these floors cost and how long they took install, sand, finish, and refinish.

The cost to repair these floors would be at a minimum the cost of the protection and setup. And that is assuming minor damage. With cabinets getting set, trim installed, countertops, appliances, paint, electrical, tile, and plumbing left, the chances of damage is high. That is a risk I am not willing to take.

How much do you allocate in your budget to protecting work that is in place?