custom bathroom vanity


how many months are we thinking this willtake to complete? this is about a four month project.we have a very short window of time to do this. so we’re talking about getting inhere in 90 days or less. that's 12 weeks. our contractor says construction will take120 days. my client needs it done in 90 days, no excuses. someone is not going to be happy.i’m kayln rothaus. and that’s me at my first building project. and my first powerlunch. for as long as i can remember i’ve wanted to be a designer. and now here i amcreating functional and fabulous spaces. this is my client mark alfieri. founder andchairman of brandstar. and that’s carmen. his executive vice president of operations.they’ve asked me to take this building and

turn it into a modern and efficient workspace.it’s going to be a challenge, but in the end the new workspace will be functional andof course, it will most definitely be fabulous. (music).brandstar is a branded entertainment company that produces programming for network television.they’ve grown through the years from eight employees at the start to over to over a 145today. like a lot of companies while they've grown from a business stand point, their officespace has not kept up with their growth. in our current environment we’re on fourdifferent floors which has created silos without our organization because we’re not together.it doesn’t give the company a sense of cohesion, but there is a vision for a new space.but the new space has its challenges. mark

is moving a hundred and thirty five employeesof the company from a 20,000 square foot space to a new building he’s purchased, but thenew building only has 11,000 square feet. the challenge mark has given to me is to putthe same number of people into a smaller workspace and make everyone comfortable and more productive.the building is what really inspired my design concept. it’s these two intersecting rectanglesthat come together and that is exactly what’s going to happen in his company. all thesedifferent departments and cultures are going to come together and a new culture will emerge.one of the things that i’m excited about is the fact that we’re all going to be togetherin one space. and we believe that that’s going to allow us to have a collaborativework environment and a much more productive

work environment. and kalyn assures me eventhough it might be a little tighter that we’re not going to feel on top of each other, butyet we’re going to get the effectiveness of being together.at this point mark’s approved my design for the new building. he’s appointed meas the interior designer and project manager. i’m working with bill branning from bsaour general contractor along with mark furman our site supervisor and alberto ramudo fromicon design group inc. alberto is our architect and he’s taken my schematic design and createdthe working drawings to submit for permit. today i’m meeting with both bill and albertoto talk about the design and timeline for the project. mark, the building owner, reallywants to move this project along so i want

to make sure that we’re all on the samepage. we’ve designed a complicated space and bill’sgoing to have to build it for us. so i know we’re going to have to work together tomeet these deadlines because mark wants to move his employees into this space.what we need to do is start with the demolition. riteway will come in and perform the demolitionand then right after they’re done we gotta get the building dry. as you know we’rereplacing the windows and we're adding new windows, we’re filling in the garage doorsand then right after they’re done we’ll get the concrete contractor in here.for the day-to-day construction on the building i’m going to be working with mark furman.he’s got a lot of experience of all the

technology going into this space.i’m the middle man between the general contractor, you know, and all the stuff that’s put outout of the office and the design team and the designer and make sure everything kindof comes together properly. to make this new building work it’s goingto require a high level of technology and that’s where we’re really going to dependon mark. technology in this space here, i mean, betweenthe lighting and the building management systems and all of the media, the video walls is amazing.the low voltage work going through this in the infrastructure is very complex and difficultto keep up with, you know, because it changes a little bit as we build.before we can start any new construction we

need to clear everything out of the old building.that includes walls, windows, doors and all of the electrical. we’ve hired riteway demolition,a company with a lot of experience in this type of work. tony stern is the company ownerand will oversee all of the demolition. getting this building ready for a new constructionis not as easy as it might seem. there’s more to it than just taking a wrecking balland knocking walls down. we started by taking all of the acousticalceilings out, cleaning up the ceilings as we were going. we took all the studs out,the conduit, the wiring. we cleaned up the ceilings. we tore down all the dry wall partitionswe separated the metal from the trash to recycle the metal and at the same time we were takingup the floor with the floor machine and hauling

it at the same time. we don’t play around,we come in and get the job done. and get the job done they did. all of thisdemolition has created a lot of scrap that needs to be disposed of. tony’s crew isseparating everything and taking away as much as possible for recycling.now that the building is just a shell it’s time for the fun part. we get to build it!as mark furman and his team begin framing out the building i’m going to turn my attentionto the design plans for the floors. i’ve kind of broke it out into zones. i broke itout into the high traffic zones and the wet areas and the lower traffic areas. when consideringwhat flooring materials to put down in these high traffic zones, i wanted to use the samematerial in the wet areas. so i figured that

concrete would be a great a solution. i justneeded to know could i treat the existing surface and you know just add a coating, likewhat were my options? and then i came across super krete. so i’ve asked tracey lackovich,the president and ceo of super krete to come over to the job site and show me some samplesand i’m really anxious to see what she’s got.kayln really liked the idea of keeping the existing concrete look. but the concrete hasbeen damaged. there was carpet and tile down there previously and so they've had to removeall of that which has left a lot of damage, a lot of glue and mastic. and there’s reallyno way to preserve that concrete in its existing condition. so the best way is to resurfaceit with super krete product.

so tracey thank you so much for preparingthese samples for us today. i wanted to run through these and first talk about the floor.so tell me about some of these different options that you’ve prepared for the floor?ok. looking at some of the inspiration that you had and wanting to keep something moreof a simple modern look, we want to do something that is going to be durable enough for thehigh pedestrian traffic in this commercial environment.what makes the difference between the darker, is there color in this one?there’s not color, but again this is the solvent based sealer that really enhancesit and provides somewhat of a glossy sheen to it. where this is our clear seal plus whichis a water based sealant. this is what is

used in retail stores, malls, anywhere wherethere is a lot of pedestrian traffic. i like this look better. would you recommendthis as a way to go? absolutely. it’s a more natural finish andyou’ll still have the protection that you need for the floor.you know i think mark is on board with the concrete. originally in the building therewas porcelain on the floor and mark seemed a little partial to it, but i think i’veconvinced him to go with the concrete. i’m not really sure they’re happy i’mhere helping them, but i really want to try this!(music). (music).so i wanted to do something a little special

in the bathrooms. designers are starting toturn to concrete as a modern option for decorative finishes for walls. today i’m working withbrett cline, the representative for super krete products. we are starting with the bathroomwalls and the impressions that are really going to make this special.putting concrete on walls is not technically unusual. i mean you have masonry work allthe time, you do stucco. the custom-ability of it all… more and more it’s startingto be used in more of a decorative application. like doing a wood stamp or rocks adds thatmodern feel which is really going to tie in nice. you can see we have nice knots in thisold world reclaimed wood stamp. and so what we can do is we can put this on the wall andget our impression…

and how do you create the delineation betweenplanks? so what we have is we have these wheels andthey’re called grout wheels. so you have skin up this will then, once we remove this,will go along the wall and it will tool in every line. and so we use the laser to makesure we have it nice and level and then this gives us the ability to do any height or lengthof plank that we want. i’m really excited i get to actually createthis pattern with the installer on the job site, it’s really a design build situationfor this wall application and i’m very excited to see how it turns out! they’re catchingup to me! that’s my spot. it’s not so smooth.having kalyn here, that ups the nervousness

a little bit because she’s going to be verypicky on what it looks like. you know, getting a nice straight wood plank is probably oneof the more difficult things to do on a wall. so it was a lot of fun yesterday to actuallyhelp them install the super-krete on the walls myself. you know it helps you learn a lotabout the materials as a designer because in order to understand how materials cometogether and how they actually work creates better detailing. for me to understand thatthat product, when applying it to the wall, it was actually a lot harder and dryer thani had thought. it was difficult and a lot more challenging than it looked. the nextstep is to let the walls cure for about 24 hours.this is a little bit wet from up top, but

all down here is where we came yesterday.and we've still got to come in and we use a product called super scrub, and it cleansup all the release and anything else that’s stuck to it. and then we can come in and sealit. i like what we’ve done so far, but now wehave to wait and see how everything is going to look after it’s had time to cure.(music). there’s a lot going on at the constructionsite today as you can see. with all the crazy sounds. the heat in florida, it’s reallyhot and i’m managing four different projects at once. we have the windows going in today.and actually our doors aren’t coming in today which is unfortunate, it’s movinga little bit slower than i would like, but

it’s getting done.the problem is we don’t have doors yet and so we can’t get the building sealed up andunder air. one of the reasons the doors are delayed is that we need to get the electronichardware installed on the doors for the building access system.i’m working with wausau windows in order to specify the appropriate window, glass andframing for the exterior windows in the building. i’ve designed new window openings becausebefore it was a warehouse and we really require a lot of natural daylight for an office spacefor employees to be productive and feel happy. it’s never easy installing new windows anddoors into an existing building. a lot of things can go wrong. so we’ve asked bntservices, a company with a lot of experience,

to install both our windows and doors. brettand his partner tom have over 25 years of experience retro-fitting windows and doorshere in south florida. i would say the top 3 reasons why you wouldreplace your windows and doors here in south florida is due to the number one reason beingthe energy efficiency and number two would be security enhancement and then number threewould be effortless hurricane protection. the problem with sizing when you do retrofits is you don’t know what was there before so we are dealing with an existing buildingthat may not have been plumb, it may not have been square, so now we’re trying to puta plumb and square product into a non-square and plumb opening so there’s always a challengewith that.

window that we’re putting in here are wausauwindows are very nice. they are insulated, they’re sound proof and they are a verynice design . they are a little bit different then we are used to installing here becausethere’s a certain clip that comes into the space, but it’s designed for movement andit’s a really nice system. they’re rated for 170 miles an hour, that’sour code for wind loads here. it’s in the building code that we have touse impact resistant windows or we’re not even allowed to replace the product. it’sbeen tested to withstand a 2x4 traveling at 55 miles per hour and not only after it'sbeen impacted it needs to stay in that same frame and intact after it’s been impactedso through the duration of the storm.

additionally there is a design component tothis glass in particular because this is a very energy efficient product. it blocks alot of the heat coming in. in fact i had this sample sitting at my window at my desk andit actually was helping prevent a lot of the heat coming into my office space currently.energy efficiency is the main reason why we sell these windows now. they have technologyin this glass that only allows 25% of the heat to get through the glass.having the proper lighting in an office space is extremely important. it all starts withthe natural light from the windows. we’ve taken the first step in giving everyone aproductive and healthy workspace. i’m here! are our doors in yet?! lookinggood, but do we have doors or windows?!

(music).(music). when you walk into the new space you are goingto be entering in the reception area, and i really wanted to create, you know, it’sa corporate headquarters. i wanted to create this feeling of grandiosity. you know whenyou enter somewhere with hard surfaces, you’re not immediately feeling relaxed and comfortable.it’s a very serious environment. so the super krete floor even though maybe that’snot the first thing you’re going to notice, you’re going to feel the material underyour feet and it will create this sense of arrival. you’ll transition from the sidewalkinto the space. it really will create this grand entrance. applying super krete to theexisting concrete is really a multi-layer

process that can take up to several days.we’ve asked rick hartman and his team to install the super krete throughout the building.one of the greatest things about the decorative concrete industry out there is that this productis designed to last a lifetime unlike the carpets that are changed out annually andtiles and other things out there. this stuff will be here for years to come.kalyn did make a very wise choice in not removing this slab. just the overall costs of havingto do that, you fill up landfills, you fill up all these places with material that isunusable again and now what we do is we just cover it. we are going to make this concretelook like it was poured yesterday. now what this process does is allow us tocome in and take this old foundation, this

concrete floor, and make it look like a cleanslate of concrete that’s more durable than the original concrete itself.i think the important thing with kalyn’s vision was the she wanted to take this existingslab of concrete and make it a part of this building, make it a showpiece that peoplecould look at and say wow that’s different! that’s cool!while the floors are being worked on, the low voltage wiring is also going in. wiring.com,one of the first contractors to arrive on the job site and probably one of the lastto leave at the end, is handling all of the complex wiring for the building.we needed to have a complete picture of the entire jigsaw puzzle first while we’re stillworking in pencil not in concrete. everything

from the building management systems, thehcv controllers, the monitors on the wall, the microphones in the conference room fortelepresence. compile all the specifications and the needs of each vendor and then we figuredout how it was actually going to go in the building. sometimes wires are run overhead,sometimes they’re run in the floor, sometimes they’re run up the walls.all the high-tech equipment that will be installed requires miles and miles of low voltage wiring.well, the doors have finally arrived. that means we are able to seal the building andget everything under air. trust me there is going to be a lot of happy workers today!after all it is summer time, it’s south florida, and it’s really hot. they’reenergy efficient and they meet all the hurricane

codes here in south florida.the wausau doors are like the windows, built to withstand high impact 175 mile an hourwind. the doors have a nice finish, a nice blue tint on the glass, and they accept theelectronic hardware for the building access system. on the outside we’ve installed biometricor finger print technology for access control to the building. it will help the companymanage employees, contractors, and visitors, and most importantly it’s going to enhancebuilding security. in addition, the doors come equipped withpanic bar hardware. panic bars are important because they unlock doors during an emergency.all the hardware inside these doors is here to improve employee safety. it was a lot ofhard work, but the result speaks for itself.

the super krete really revitalized all ofthe existing concrete in the building. (music). (music).well the first chapter in our corporate renovation is about completed. mark, the building ownerand founder of the company, has given us what might be an unrealistic time line. bill branning,our contractor, is looking at 120 days for completion. there’s a significant differencethere between what the owner wants and what our contractor thinks is possible.i like the progress that we’re making on this project. my only concern, and i’vestressed this to kalyn, is that we have to get our employees in here and stay on our90 day timeline and i’m a little concerned

that we may be getting behind schedule. sowe have to get this on track. despite our problems with the constructiontime, we have made good progress. the building was gutted out and we started the build. we’vemade significant progress with all the framing and the dry wall.most importantly, we have the building sealed. we have all the windows and doors in and thatmeans we can get the building under air. i’m also very pleased with the look of the wausauwindow and doors. they are energy efficient and they provide protection for all the southflorida weather. bnt did a great job with all of the installation! the installers ofsuper krete have completed the bathroom installation. it was a lot of hard work, but the resultspeaks for itself. it really presents an interesting

look. we also have all the concrete floorsinstalled. the super krete really revitalized all of the existing concrete in the building.it’s a great entrance that will help provide the impact i’m looking for when people enterthe building. now we move to the second chapter of our construction. we’ve scheduled allthe glass installation next week for the offices and conference rooms, along with the vanities.we also have all of the floors going in for the meeting area and office spaces. everyday on this construction site is a challenge. we have over 50 contractors installing sophisticatedhigh-tech and cutting edge technology. some of it has never been seen before. it’s goingto be quite a ride, but i can’t wait to see how it’s all going to turn out.(music).

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