Creative Construction of Wisconsin

Quality Contracting

Preparing for Winter

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Keep your home happy this winter
Keep your home happy this winter

This winter is predicted to be cold and snowy. While you are stocking up on hot chocolate and snowman making supplies, follow these tips to ensure that your home is ready for winter.

  • Clean out your gutters. When the leaves are falling in them they create little dams so the melting snow and ice cannot drain properly causing your siding to get damaged in a hurry.
  • Make sure there are no tree branches leaning up against your house’s stucco. When the heavy wet snow falls, the branches can’t always hold the weight and will break causing your snowy evening to be one heck of a messy night.
  • Check your stucco and bricks for cracks and chipping. When water freezes it expands so when water gets into the cracks and freezes it will cause them to grow. This issue has been known to cause some serious damage.
  • Check your smoke detectors. With heaters going constantly and fires to warm you up, you don’t want to take any chances.
  • Make sure to turn off all exterior water sources and drain your hoses. It is a good practice to store your hoses in your garage or basement so they don't freeze and crack.
  • Make sure your snow blower is working properly or you have good quality shovels ready to go. It also helps to have salt or sand for icy sidewalks.
  • Have a plan for snow days if school gets canceled and work doesn’t.
  • Make sure you have flashlights in case the snow brings down power lines.
  • When hanging Christmas lights, make sure the electrical outlets can handle the extra energy load. Don’t plug all of your lights into 1 outlet either, it is best to spread them out to several energy sources.

Spring is supposed to be filled with new growth, don’t let it get filled with home repairs from winter damages.

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Plaster vs Stucco – Is There a Difference?

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The time old question of plaster vs stucco and is there a difference? I mean, they are basically made out of the same materials. We are here to shatter all rumors and inform you that yes, there is a difference. You might have read the snapshot of this discussion in our monthly newsletter but we wanted to elaborate for you.

The simplest explanation is as follows: stucco is for the exterior and plaster is for the interior. You might now say “Hey, they are pretty much the same materials, I mean, you apply them the same way, don’t you?” And yes, we do apply them using the same methods and techniques and that’s because that is what works the best.

The differences:

Textured Stucco before it is painted
Textured Stucco before it is painted

Stucco is a Portland and lime based product. For added strength and support we will sometimes mix bits of fiberglass strands in with the mud. The fiberglass acts as another structural support to make sure cracks stay away and no chunks will fall off. To add some fun texture, different types of sand are used in specific quantities to make sure you enjoy every inch of your home. Before it is applied, we used a layer of metal lath which is sort of like a really really thick chicken wire. This helps hold the stucco to the wall by giving it something to cling to. We used this mostly when we are applying stucco to a smooth surface. When it dries, it is rock hard. (Pun intended since it is a form of rock.) When you visit historical buildings that are hundreds of years old and look what they’re made of, you’ll see that it’s stucco. Stucco will stand the test of time and Mother Nature, no matter how wicked she may be. Although there is no such thing as a maintenance free building, it is low maintenance and will last as long as you want it to you if you take care of it.

Plaster is a gypsum based product that looks wonderful in your home or office. Although it is slightly softer than stucco, it will still hold up for more years than you can count. Instead of metal lath, if we are doing patch work we will use a finer mesh to act as a backbone for the plaster. Like stucco, sometimes the mud just needs something to cling to. Of course you can buy plaster premade from various stores and brands but it’s like Grandma’s cookies: store bought cookies ain’t got nothing on Grandma’s homemade pieces of heaven! A good fresh mixed mud will last much longer and is easier to work with than the canned stuff that will dry out and crack in a year or two.

The similarities:

Textured Plaster with a light coat of white paint
Textured Plaster with a light coat of white paint

If you live in a busy neighborhood or want some peace and quiet at your office, the best building material to cancel out sound is plaster and stucco. This works because once the walls dry, they create a very tight seal that doesn’t allow those pesky sounds wave to intrude. The downfall to this is that cell phone signals sometimes have a weakened signal. No worries, it is not enough to make a difference. You can still call, text, and surf the web on your smartphone.

Both can be applied to be smoother than glass or textured to your wildest dreams. Just let us know what you want! We do have samples available if you need ideas. As far as colors go, both can be painted to match an existing color or a brand new color. The mud can also be colored too.

At the end of the day, mixing stucco and plaster is like cooking the perfect pancake breakfast or baking the best brownies for the church bake sale, you have to mix the ingredients just right. Too much and the mud will get too runny and fall right off your home. Too much and you are guaranteed cracks.

I apologize for all of the food references. This was written right before lunch and I really want cookies…

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Is your Home Lead Safe?

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Is Your Home Lead Safe? We hope you answered YES! to the above question! If not, please please please keep reading.

First, let’s see if your home or office is at risk with this 1 simple question: Was your home or office built before or during 1978? If you said yes, YOU ARE AT RISK! Let’s first discuss where lead is most likely in your home and why it is there.

Lead is primarily found in the paint of these buildings. It was used to help create certain colors of paint such a yellows, reds, and whites. Lead was also added as an ingredient to help maintain a shine for the paint when it dried, resist cracking and water damage, and help thin the paint out so a little paint could go a longer way. These are things we can all agree on are good reasons but you need to understand that science has come a long way since then and now we know better about the harmful side effects of this once great miracle ingredient.

How does the lead get into your body? Paint eventually does dry out and create dust and after many years or after damage it will chip. Kids are most at risk of lead exposure because of their curiosity of colors and new things and their animal instincts to put things in their mouth. Also, kids tend to play in all areas of the home and don’t generally try to avoid dusty corners. This makes pets at risk too. But just because you may be an adult, you are still at risk of lead poisoning.

How can lead affect your family’s health? Lead can be responsible for a number of things. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services,

Lead exposure in young children can cause reduced IQ and attention span, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and a range of other health and behavioral effects.

Not to mention it can cause a type of anemia that can impact your health if left undetected or untreated. This list does not include all of the negative effects, it is just a short list. Please consult the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for more information. You can find a link to their website at the bottom of this article.

How can you avoid exposure? First, find out when your house was built and/or painted. You can ask your contractor to send in a sample to test if your house has lead to be certain or you can send in a sample yourself. If you are having any construction work done including remodeling, patch work, or additions, use a Lead Safe contractor. They will be able to provide you their certification card if they are actually a lead safe company. Of course you can remove the lead exposed areas yourself but it is always best to hire a professional to make sure that it is done right and 100% of the possible toxic agent is removed. Note that lead removal will increase the cost of your renovations slightly but it is nothing compared to the cost of the hospital bills that might be endured if exposed. At Creative, we do not increase the cost as a mean ‘Supply & Demand’ gimmick, there is just more work that needs to be done.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us right away. We want you and your family to sleep well knowing you are safe and your customers to be safe in your office.

For more information please visit the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. You can access their website HERE.

Some of the information for this post is from The Royal Society of Chemistry. You can access the article and their website HERE.

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7 Tips to Get Ready for Your Home Improvement Professional

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What am I supposed to do T-ShirtSo you’ve called around, got a couple quotes, have a start date, signed the contract, and payed the down payment. Now what? Do you have to prepare at all? Should stuff be moved? What about your flower beds next to the wall they need to fix? Here is a quick check list to make sure you are ready for your contractor and their team to come and improve the value of your home or office. This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Talk to your contractor and see what they will need and what they request.

  • Remove photos, electronics, and other decorations from the walls they will be working on and put them in a safe place out of the construction area. You don’t want to see anything get broken. This includes TVs and sound systems. Although the contractor’s team will promise to be as careful as possible, accidents do happen and you want to be able to still watch the Sunday football game. If something is too heavy, feel free to ask them to help you move it to a safe spot in your home. They don’t want to break your TV either, trust us.
  • Remove the ‘bad parts’ of your wall if you can. This will help the project move along faster and can sometimes reduce the cost of your project.
  • Do you have bushes, shrubs, or flower beds outside the wall they are fixing or tearing down? It might be a good idea to temporarily uproot the plants for the duration of the project to your roses don’t get crushed and your daffodils can see another spring. If your bushes are too large to move you can still help by trimming them back as much as you can. Not only will you help the shrubs by pruning them, you will keep your construction workers happy because they won’t have to wrestle a juniper to fix the crack that is causing water to leak into your basement.
  • If you are having interior work done, let the contractor know if you have pets. They will need to carry heavy materials in and out of your home and they don’t want you to come home and have to tell you Fido and Mittens are missing. It is best to contain the animals to one area of the home if you can.
  • Let the contractor know if you will be leaving on vacation or having guests over and want them to stop the renovations for a bit. Feel free to stay at home during the construction or leave and go to work. They will do their best to accommodate your schedule and needs if you communicate with them what you need.
  • Give your neighbors a heads up of the work that will be done. Construction requires big trucks and sometimes trailers or lifts and has a tendency to bring with it some noise.
  • Make sure the crew has access to water and electricity. Let them know where they can attach a hose and an extension cord.

The bottom line is if can’t do anything whether you short on time or just simply aren’t able to, just let us know and we will be happy to help you!

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4 Things to Talk to Your Contractor About Before You Hire Them

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Contractor discussing plans with clientsHiring a contractor can be a costly project and quite time consuming but it is a necessary task none the less in order to continue to increase the value of your home or simple repair damages. There are a lot of sales pitches out there that will try to sell you a big price for little work or see what corners they can cut. To hire a contractor that you can trust in your home or office, follow these quick tips!

  • Are they NARI certified? No, we are not putting this on the list just because we are a part of NARI. When you hire a NARI contractor you need to give your smart self a pat on the back. NARI does the dirty work for you by ensuring that the company is insured, up to date with safety and technology, and will guarantee that you are satisfied with their work.
  • What are their credentials? Are they certified in their specialty? If so, how long have they been certified? Are they lead safe if your home was built during 1978 or before? Do they have references? How long have they been in business? A quick start up company statistically won’t do as good of a job as a company who has beenaround for a long time and has many projects under their belts.
  • When will they start your project? Make sure you have a clear date and time so that you and the contractor are on the same page.
  • How long do they plan to take on the project? Will they be working on the weekends or late at night? Be sure to let them know if you need a weekend or a couple days off of remodeling if you have friends coming over or are going on vacation.

Bonus: Someone who shows up on time to your appointment to give you a quote on time and honestly answers your questions up front is more likely to make sure the job gets done right the first time! It pays to pay a little more up front to prevent work needing to be re-done again 5 years later when it will cost you twice as much!

These are important questions and topics to discuss with any contractor before letting them step into your home or office. At the end of the day, you should be able to enjoy your home with peace of mind and satisfaction.

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