Here at Finesse Design Remodeling, we want every household in D.C. to have gorgeous and functional spaces, and this should also be true for your DC Kitchen Remodeling. For the next few weeks, we will talk about important factors to consider when remodeling your kitchen. You can check out last week’s tips for load bearing walls and GFCI units here. Without further ado, here are this week’s tips:
Brian Bielski
Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling
One of things that we see a lot of when we go into looking into people’s bathrooms or kitchens, older homes in D.C., Virginia, Maryland or wherever it may be, we see a lot of cracked floor tile. The reason is usually whoever installed that floor tile did not have proper subflooring. To install floor tiles, there is a couple of ways to ensure that you have the proper subflooring.
The American Tile Institute recommends a minimum of an inch and a quarter of sub flooring. That would be three-quarters of an inch plywood and a half inch of cement board tile backer, whether it be Durock, Wonderboard, etc. If you have that three-quarters plus half, you will not have any cracked floor tiles.
The other way you can do this is to go over the three quarter inch plywood. Schluter makes something called Schluter Ditra, which comes in rolls and has honeycombs and is made structurally to basically take the floor stresses off of the tiles. If you use Schluter Ditra plus three-quarter plywood, you will not get any cracks.
Elizabeth Mitchel
Partner at Finesse Design Remodeling
Another important element to consider in your upcoming DC Kitchen Remodeling is the lighting in your space. There are four main types of lighting that your designer will be considering when planning for your renovation. The first type is the natural lighting of the space. This is the light that comes in through windows in the kitchen or through a skylight in the kitchen.
The second type of lighting that you should be considering is the general lighting. This is the artificial lighting that we need in the kitchen when it is nighttime or it’s a cloudy day. You can still get the proper light to be able to walk safely through the kitchen and be able to illuminate what you are doing. Types of general lighting would be recess lighting on the ceiling or other surface mount types of lights such as track lighting or decorative fixtures mounted to the ceiling.
The third type of lighting that is very important to consider is the task lighting in the kitchen. This is most common with your under-cabinet lighting. This is important because it illuminates your work area so when you are prepping food or you’re cooking, you want to make sure you are able to see the countertop area clearly.
And the final type of lighting that especially designers like to consider is the accent lighting. This is to illuminate certain features in the kitchen, such as lighting that is placed above the crown molding over the wall cabinets to illuminate the ceiling. This type of lighting adds the little extra dimension of the space.
We hope these DC Kitchen Remodeling tips help you!
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