Speaker 1: It's nice time with Dan on WAZ Boston.
Speaker 2: How they get it out of this system? It's it's
Speaker 2: nine to one, you know. That's okay, Well, get him tomorrow,
Speaker 2: get him tomorrow, Al no doubt.
Speaker 1: We always have the Celtics.
Speaker 2: Well, that's okay, that's okay. I know that we'll focus on.
Speaker 2: Our focus will be in the Celtics. We'll right about
Speaker 2: the Bruins in the summer and Red Sox will well,
Speaker 2: I'll give Alex Corra Carlton. I don't give him a
Speaker 2: little pep talk. I'm sure that yeah, that'll that'll help. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'm sure sure. Thanks appreciate it. All right, everybody, we
Speaker 2: are changing topics and want to welcome Mark Philbin. Mark Philbin, welcome,
Speaker 2: How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: Good?
Speaker 4: Damn? How are you good?
Speaker 2: Mark's a project developer for charlie Ian Renovations out of Cambridge.
Speaker 2: They do what's called residential design build and we're going
Speaker 2: to explain that and if you have any questions about,
Speaker 2: you know, doing some substantial work in your home. We've
Speaker 2: never had someone who's a project developer on before, so Mark.
Speaker 2: We like to sort of give people something positive to
Speaker 2: think about. We spend most of the week, the ninety
Speaker 2: percent of the week arguing about politics or dealing with
Speaker 2: serious issues like we did last hour with an innocent
Speaker 2: man spending fifteen years in prison for a crime he
Speaker 2: didn't commit. So we like to kind of exhale here
Speaker 2: and focus on happier things. And there's nothing that is
Speaker 2: happier than when people do some work at their home
Speaker 2: and make the home more comfortable, more livable, and in
Speaker 2: some respects I guess, more modern. So tell us first
Speaker 2: of all, tell us about Charlie in renovations out of Cambridge.
Speaker 2: It's been around I guess since what the late seventies,
Speaker 2: early eighties. You folks have quite a reputation and you
Speaker 2: confine your work to the great Boston area. You you
Speaker 2: really are people who want to do a good job.
Speaker 2: From what I understand you've got You've got some great
Speaker 2: some great references from people that I've talked to. So
Speaker 2: you can brag a little bit about the company. It's uh,
Speaker 2: it does some great work. Tell us about it.
Speaker 4: Well, we do a large part of what we try
Speaker 4: to do. It's not just the end result of the project.
Speaker 4: That's the entire process, uh, which we the design build
Speaker 4: process has us as the remodeler in on the ground floor.
Speaker 4: We like to take the project from really from its inception,
Speaker 4: you know, all the way to a you know, feigns
Speaker 4: pick job book, right to the completion of the job.
Speaker 4: So we do a lot of handholding with the clients.
Speaker 4: We try to help with the design. We work with
Speaker 4: the architect and the homeowner together and uh and that
Speaker 4: we think actually is what makes for better project experience.
Speaker 4: It's not just the end project, it's the whole process.
Speaker 4: Working in people's home is is pretty traumatic, as you
Speaker 4: can imagine, tearing apart your kitchen and your bathrooms, sometimes
Speaker 4: half your house. So that's easy thing to live through.
Speaker 4: And so a large part of it we do is
Speaker 4: to try to develop the project properly in a way
Speaker 4: that makes that as smooth as possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's the first question anyone who has lived
Speaker 2: in a house for you know, more than ten years
Speaker 2: and someone says, oh, gee, you know, the bathroom's looking
Speaker 2: a little shabby, or the kitchen needs to be updated,
Speaker 2: or maybe we've got to do some work and maybe
Speaker 2: expand something or develop a family room, whatever, whatever the
Speaker 2: project might be. How do you do that? So people?
Speaker 2: Do people have to move out for like three or
Speaker 2: four months, or how do you work around them so
Speaker 2: that they can live their lives and not have to
Speaker 2: evacuate the home.
Speaker 4: Well, we've done it, you know, both ways. We've done
Speaker 4: remodels of course that are on a scale where people
Speaker 4: do have to move out. They just can't live there,
Speaker 4: no bathrooms, no kitchen, and so some people who actually
Speaker 4: have to move out, But for the most part, you know,
Speaker 4: if it's a kitchen, well we'll set up a temporary
Speaker 4: kitchen in the dining room that people can function out
Speaker 4: of as long as you have a you know, a
Speaker 4: source of water and a place to cook. We will
Speaker 4: typically set something up like that when we do a kitchen.
Speaker 4: A model bathroom remodels a little more difficult. If you
Speaker 4: have two or three bathrooms, it makes it a little
Speaker 4: bit easier. And what we'll typically do is the cordon
Speaker 4: open area that the work is being done. We plastic
Speaker 4: off a section of the house and have a separate
Speaker 4: interest for the contractors and we try to make it
Speaker 4: as easy as possible for people that way. And and
Speaker 4: so it depends, it depends on the scale of the project,
Speaker 4: whether people have to move out or whether they can
Speaker 4: actually live through the house, live in the house, you know,
Speaker 4: during the remodel.
Speaker 2: I assume that a lot of you work. I don't
Speaker 2: think did you advertise From what I can see, I'm
Speaker 2: not familiar with the company. I'm not even familiar with
Speaker 2: the whole idea of house renovations. I'm assuming that that
Speaker 2: you must rely upon word of mouth advertising more than
Speaker 2: most most companies that do any level of remodeling. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Yeah, we don't really have We don't do any advertising.
Speaker 4: It's it's word of mouth. We do have a website,
Speaker 4: people can people can find us on a website. We
Speaker 4: also belong to something we encourage to, you know, clients
Speaker 4: who are looking for a remodel, remodeler or any kind
Speaker 4: of professional contractor is We belong to trade organizations so
Speaker 4: people look up. You know, some of the trade organizations
Speaker 4: for builders and modelers were members of all the main
Speaker 4: trade groups in New England. And that's a that's a
Speaker 4: great resource for people to find, whether it's a contractor electrician, commer, architect,
Speaker 4: and so we get some work to that as well.
Speaker 2: So what are the I'm looking at, like, what are
Speaker 2: the trends? I mean, I know that that depending I'm
Speaker 2: not particularly observant, if you will. When I'm invited to
Speaker 2: someone's home, I tend not to make judgments. But there
Speaker 2: are some people who will walk in and they'll be
Speaker 2: kind of looking around and they'll say, gee, this this
Speaker 2: home is looking very nineteen seventy ish and here we
Speaker 2: are fifty years later. What sort of businesses? What's the
Speaker 2: latest trends in terms of what people are looking for
Speaker 2: looking they looking to update or renovate and is there
Speaker 2: much of a difference between updating and renovation.
Speaker 4: Well, that's sort of the same. I mean, most of
Speaker 4: it is updating. There's sort of that sort of a
Speaker 4: two pronged question. There's what people are looking for from
Speaker 4: a sort of a design standpoint. Is it hasn't changed
Speaker 4: a lot. You know, working in the Greater Boston area,
Speaker 4: people looking for open floor plans as opposed to a
Speaker 4: lot of New England homes are cut up into small
Speaker 4: rooms and so we open up the floor plans doing
Speaker 4: some structural work. So people want to have a much
Speaker 4: more flow through their living space. That's still popular, has
Speaker 4: been for quite a while, and more people looking for
Speaker 4: to get away from looking for more sort of I
Speaker 4: call it urban chicic, it's clean designs, sleek modern sort
Speaker 4: of mid century modern look is what people are after
Speaker 4: right now as opposed to older New England charms.
Speaker 2: When you say mid century modern, look, we're not either
Speaker 2: at mid twentieth or mid twenty first century. Define that
Speaker 2: for me a little bit more.
Speaker 4: That's sort of it would be it's post World War
Speaker 4: two and it's a lot of wood tones, fabric, warm,
Speaker 4: warm tones, earth tones, that sort of thing. It's sort
Speaker 4: of you know, the fifties, you know, post World War
Speaker 4: two into the fifties.
Speaker 2: So what I'm hearing on that say is that maybe
Speaker 2: things that were popular that went out of style are
Speaker 2: now coming back, you know, coming back in style.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's isn't that always the way?
Speaker 2: Well that's interesting. There might be some people, yeah, well
Speaker 2: there might be some people who are listening who have
Speaker 2: never done any sort of a design build or a
Speaker 2: design rebuild at their home, who now they might be
Speaker 2: pleased to hear that, because they're going to say, no
Speaker 2: sense of changing. Now we're back, We're back in style.
Speaker 2: But my guess is Mark philban Mark is a design
Speaker 2: build contractor with a company called Charlie Allen Renovations. Out
Speaker 2: of Cambridge. We've never done a show. We've done probably
Speaker 2: now close to forty one hundred shows. We're never done
Speaker 2: with a with a project developer a this magnitude. His
Speaker 2: company H does residential design builds, so you don't do commercial.
Speaker 2: It's all residential, right it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we used to do some small commercial, but it's
Speaker 4: it's pretty much all residential now. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I'm sure that there are folks out there
Speaker 2: who know more about this subject than I do. Uh,
Speaker 2: And so I'm going to invite then we join the
Speaker 2: conversation at six one seven, two five four ten thirty
Speaker 2: or six one seven nine three one ten thirty. If
Speaker 2: you have a question about your home, or you have
Speaker 2: a question about what you would like to see developed
Speaker 2: for your home, you got an opportunity here. Feel free
Speaker 2: to join the conversation. I'll continue my questions with Mark
Speaker 2: Philbern who is a design build contractor with Charlie Allen
Speaker 2: Renovations out of Cambridge. And again this is we try
Speaker 2: to do some different topics, folks, and we do. If
Speaker 2: you want to show that does the same political show
Speaker 2: night after night after night, and we we mix it up.
Speaker 2: We try to have stuff and guests which will be
Speaker 2: of interest two different people, and hopefully Mark is going
Speaker 2: to be of interest to you. And if you have
Speaker 2: a question, you know the number. Give us a call.
Speaker 2: Coming right back on night.
Speaker 1: Side Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Mark Philman. He's a design build contractor
Speaker 2: with a company called Charlie Allen Renovations out of Cambridge.
Speaker 2: That company has been around for about forty five years.
Speaker 2: The fellow who was the founder, I guess kind of
Speaker 2: an interesting backstory. Mark, he was a student at Harvard
Speaker 2: and he decided to start his own company, and eventually
Speaker 2: he retired and moved back to the state of Washington.
Speaker 2: And this is a company that's been around for a
Speaker 2: long time. Are you right in Harvard Square, per se
Speaker 2: or where are you located in Cambridge?
Speaker 4: Actually not Harvard Square. We are in Central Square, Central Square,
Speaker 4: well right in between between Mit and Harvard.
Speaker 2: Yep. Absolutely, So there's a lot that we can talk about.
Speaker 5: This.
Speaker 2: By the way, the name Mark Philbin. Mark writes a
Speaker 2: biweekly advice column in the Globe, Ask the Remodeler, and
Speaker 2: this is this is your opportunity to ask him a
Speaker 2: question directly. So there's a lot that you and I
Speaker 2: can talk about here in terms of well even the
Speaker 2: timing here that we're talking about tariffs, and without getting
Speaker 2: into the politics of it, this is going to cause
Speaker 2: I assume some turbulence for your business if these tariffs
Speaker 2: are in place for any period of time, without making
Speaker 2: a comment politically or otherwise.
Speaker 4: Correct, absolutely, as all righty, it's a question that comes up,
Speaker 4: excuse me, with a lot of our clients projects we're
Speaker 4: putting together now, they're concerned about should I buy it now,
Speaker 4: will it be more expensive you know two months from
Speaker 4: now when I really need it, will it be available
Speaker 4: at all? So the question is coming up quite a bit.
Speaker 4: And of course you know price of lumber is expensive enough.
Speaker 2: Well we get a lot of well we get a
Speaker 2: lot of lumber out of Canada.
Speaker 4: Right totally that most most of it comes from Canada.
Speaker 2: So why do we not create what? Why do we
Speaker 2: know we used to have mills here in New England,
Speaker 2: you know, lumber mills. Did they just go away? I
Speaker 2: don't understand. I can understand they sent the chips over
Speaker 2: to Taiwan. Again, not getting political, why was it that
Speaker 2: that you know, these lumber manufacturers we now have to
Speaker 2: rely on Canada. We have we have a lot of
Speaker 2: lumber and a lot of trees. Anytime any fly, anytime
Speaker 2: I fly across the country, I love to look down
Speaker 2: and see all the wide open spaces and the forests
Speaker 2: and all of that. But what's the history of that.
Speaker 2: I mean, there used to be lumber mills up up
Speaker 2: in Maine.
Speaker 4: Correct, Well, most of those are paper mills. Most of
Speaker 4: the lumber, you know that came out of New England.
Speaker 4: You know, they harvested all the old growth wood was
Speaker 4: paper mills up in Maine. It was all that was
Speaker 4: all for paper, and so it was never really not
Speaker 4: much lumber. The reason it really comes out of Pacific
Speaker 4: Northwest is they have more trees. They have more trees,
Speaker 4: and and the type of trees that that we need
Speaker 4: for building, the spruce and the and the you know,
Speaker 4: the redwoods and the cedar's just far more plentful. And
Speaker 4: a lot. It does also have to do with our
Speaker 4: environmental laws are a little stricter than Canada, so it's
Speaker 4: harder to cut them down in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2: No, I get it, and I guess once once again
Speaker 2: we've for for good purposes. We put ourselves in a
Speaker 2: bit of a bind here because if these tariffs do
Speaker 2: hold for some period of time, uh, it's only going
Speaker 2: to be more expensive here in Massachusetts. Again, I love trees,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, but uh you good replant trees.
Speaker 2: I realized that. But anyway, let's let's get let's see
Speaker 2: if we get some halls incorporated here. There's so many
Speaker 2: other topics that I want to get to. I want
Speaker 2: to get to. Uh, you know, what are the most
Speaker 2: important factors? What are the challenges? We get to all
Speaker 2: of that in the cape in on Cape car on Cape.
Speaker 2: I actually and how.
Speaker 6: Are you, Hi, Dan? How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great? So I had a mark Philbin. Do
Speaker 2: you have a question? Mark?
Speaker 6: Hello, mister Philman. Can I ask a question? Hi? Can
Speaker 6: I ask a question on roofing?
Speaker 2: Yes? Go right ahead. Sure, that's why he's here.
Speaker 6: Go ahead, Okay, thank you. I have a an a
Speaker 6: framed pitched roof, and I had it. I had a
Speaker 6: new roof put on twenty five years ago, and it
Speaker 6: was the second layer. And so I have just a
Speaker 6: just a little handful of quick questions. For instance, my
Speaker 6: first the first time I had my roof downe twenty
Speaker 6: five years ago, I had a small contracting company in
Speaker 6: my city do the job, and he had all his
Speaker 6: own guys. Now I'm finding that the roofing companies do
Speaker 6: not have their own men and they use a preferred
Speaker 6: roofing company. And I have so many questions.
Speaker 2: Well, let's try to end. Let me do this. Don't
Speaker 2: be nervous. Yeah, why don't you ask whatever questions you want?
Speaker 2: The history is interesting, But what what would you like
Speaker 2: to ask? Mark? Go ahead?
Speaker 6: I'd like to ask if a company has their own
Speaker 6: preferred roofing people to do the roof that they that
Speaker 6: they source out, who who holds the oh, the type
Speaker 6: of insurance workmen's compensation insurance? Would it be the company
Speaker 6: that actually is the company, the roofing company or the preferred.
Speaker 4: Company whoever you're It sounds like you're hiring a larger
Speaker 4: company that subs it out. There are plenty of roofing companies.
Speaker 4: Kind of going back with a little bit, plenty of
Speaker 4: companies out there are owner they're basically its owner run business.
Speaker 4: They actually don't sub it out. It is their own employees,
Speaker 4: so you can find them. There's plenty of them out there.
Speaker 4: That's who we use. We use a company whose owner
Speaker 4: is up on the roof with the rest of the crew.
Speaker 4: That said, if you hire a larger company that's subbing
Speaker 4: it out, you want to make sure that the larger
Speaker 4: whoever you are writing the check to is that's who
Speaker 4: you want to have the insurance policy for. And an
Speaker 4: important note here is too, they should have workers' compensation
Speaker 4: as well as liability insurance. They should have both. You
Speaker 4: want to make sure that you can get both those
Speaker 4: insurance certificates, and you want to call their insurance company
Speaker 4: to get that sent over. Don't just ask the contractor
Speaker 4: for it, ask for their insurance company and have it
Speaker 4: emailed over directly from the insurance company. And that's really important.
Speaker 4: To get it from the insurance company, not from the
Speaker 4: not from the company itself. That's how we do it.
Speaker 2: The other phrase that I've heard don't mean to interrupt in,
Speaker 2: but the other phrase that I've had is company who say, well,
Speaker 2: we're bonded to do this work. Is that another way
Speaker 2: of saying we have the we have the adequate insurance.
Speaker 4: That's sort of it's sort of the same thing. Usually
Speaker 4: typically when you're dealing with a bond, you're doing the
Speaker 4: municipal work. You know, we get a bond. If we
Speaker 4: have to work on a sidewalk, we have to buy
Speaker 4: a bond from our insurance company to do sidewalk work.
Speaker 4: It's because it's a public you know, public access, so
Speaker 4: it's sort of the same thing. A bond is sort
Speaker 4: of an insurance policy, but typically it's for municipal work,
Speaker 4: not not HOMEO to work.
Speaker 2: And don't and don't take the word of the company,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we're insured. You want to see the actual
Speaker 2: documentation that proves that they are insured. And are they
Speaker 2: insured for Ian's specific work? Are they ensured generally? Does
Speaker 2: their policy run to the particular client that they're working with,
Speaker 2: or is it more a general liability policy.
Speaker 4: It's no, it should It's usually it's a general liability
Speaker 4: policy and a general workers compensation and you want to
Speaker 4: make sure you get both. It's important to when you
Speaker 4: talk to the insurance company, they should put the bottom
Speaker 4: they're all the same form. The bottom left hand corner
Speaker 4: of the insurance policy should say a certificate holder and
Speaker 4: your name should be in there.
Speaker 6: What kind of question when I call the insurance company?
Speaker 6: What kind of question am I supposed to be asking them?
Speaker 4: Ask them, tell them you know the name of the
Speaker 4: company that you want to hire for the roofs, and
Speaker 4: tell them you'd like to have a copy of their
Speaker 4: liability policy and their workers compensation policy. You want to
Speaker 4: have both.
Speaker 2: And the policy that has been purchased by the company
Speaker 2: that's doing the work for you.
Speaker 7: In Okay, I.
Speaker 6: Understand, I completely stand. I have one more quick question,
Speaker 6: may I okay? Thank you? So, mister Philman, my a
Speaker 6: framed roof, if I have a company do it. I've
Speaker 6: spoken to a few and they say they do the
Speaker 6: roof in one entire day. So my house is one
Speaker 6: hundred and twenty five years old, and I'm thinking and
Speaker 6: visualizing everything is torn off my roof, the two layers
Speaker 6: of roofing, and probably the decking, the wood, the decking.
Speaker 6: Probably I don't even have a decking. I have actual
Speaker 6: old fashioned studs and their big spaces in between. So
Speaker 6: I'm thinking, if everything comes off the roof, including my studs,
Speaker 6: is my house gonna is? When my house collapse like
Speaker 6: a deck of cards. Well, with you thing holding the
Speaker 6: top together, Well.
Speaker 4: They're not going to take the raptors out. You're called sheathing.
Speaker 4: You're talking about the old boards are gonna probably have
Speaker 4: to come up. They don't all have to come off.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you can just replace the rotted ones with plywood.
Speaker 4: We do that fairly often, so you don't necessarily have
Speaker 4: to take all that off. I'd say, if they're going
Speaker 4: to replace all the sheathing on your roof, it's it's
Speaker 4: it's going to be more than a day. That's quite
Speaker 4: a bit of work to replace all the wood sheathing
Speaker 4: on top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do.
Speaker 4: You have anything?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me jump in for a second and get
Speaker 2: more than one quotation and make sure you're dealing with
Speaker 2: at least a couple of good companies. Go ahead, Mark,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I interrupted you. Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Do you have you have things stored in the attic?
Speaker 6: No? No, I do not. Just my I had. I
Speaker 6: had the floor of my of my attic all thoroughly insulated.
Speaker 6: So should I ask them I probably should ask them
Speaker 6: to have a covering to protect all that insulation from
Speaker 6: all like the fives and nails and all kinds of deboos.
Speaker 4: That's what I was suggesting. It's going to be really
Speaker 4: really messy down there. It's gonna just there's so much
Speaker 4: to bring. It was going to rain from the rope absolutely,
Speaker 4: it'll be really really messy.
Speaker 2: All right, Anne, I got to let you go out.
Speaker 2: You got a lot of good information. Thank you for
Speaker 2: the call, talk to you so I have a great night.
Speaker 2: Good night, Mark. Very comprehensive answers appreciated. We're going to
Speaker 2: take a quick break out of news at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the Ara back with my guest, Mark Philbin, a
Speaker 2: design build contractor with a company called Charlie Allen Renovations
Speaker 2: out of Cambridge. If you have a question like and did,
Speaker 2: you were more than welcome to join the conversation back
Speaker 2: on Nightside after this, It's.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: Mark, we got more phone calls here. Let me just
Speaker 2: real quickly. You mentioned that the concept of sustainability, uh
Speaker 2: in the materials that you that are used and also
Speaker 2: the energy conservation products that are chosen is important. What
Speaker 2: does that mean when you talk about sustainability, I mean
Speaker 2: something that's going to last long, is what I guess
Speaker 2: you you're referring to correct.
Speaker 4: Well, not exactly. It really is. Sustainability is more sustainability
Speaker 4: of our planet. Earlier we were talking about trends and
Speaker 4: I'd mentioned it's sort of a two pronged question. A
Speaker 4: lot of the trends that we're seeing now beyond just
Speaker 4: the design as the materials that we're using now, and
Speaker 4: that has to do with the sustainability, has to do
Speaker 4: with the sustainability of the planet. People want to have
Speaker 4: products that are sourced responsibly, low carbon footprint. That sort
Speaker 4: of translates into a lot of energy efficiency, and the
Speaker 4: windows that they choose, installations that we use indoor air quality.
Speaker 4: People are much more conscious of that. This is a
Speaker 4: really really important trend in building and remodeling right now.
Speaker 3: Is look I look.
Speaker 2: At that as I look at that more from a
Speaker 2: personal point of view, and that the I'm not going
Speaker 2: to save the planet by bye I myself using energy
Speaker 2: efficient windows. However, I'm going to save some money if
Speaker 2: I use energy efficient windows. I mean, I have friends
Speaker 2: of mine who talk about that, and I look at
Speaker 2: them and and I mean, again not to get into
Speaker 2: the politics of it. You know China and Pakistan is
Speaker 2: they're they're belching stuff out of their factories into the atmosphere.
Speaker 2: I don't think I can offset that by using simply
Speaker 2: you know, I will use the materials that are that
Speaker 2: are the longest lasting and the most efficient and obviously
Speaker 2: I want safety from my family. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: maybe I am out of step with society. But I
Speaker 2: get pitches in the mail all the time from these
Speaker 2: solar energy companies, you know, switch your your gas supply
Speaker 2: or your electric supply to solar energy, and it says
Speaker 2: in very small print, this might cost you more money,
Speaker 2: but you'll save the planet again compared to what's going
Speaker 2: on the rest. I just don't buy into the theory
Speaker 2: that that what I do at my home. And then again,
Speaker 2: if it makes people feel good and feel better about themselves,
Speaker 2: I'm all in on that.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, well that is, I mean that is and
Speaker 4: that is a trend. A lot of people are doing it,
Speaker 4: you know, for altruistic reasons, to do their little their
Speaker 4: little bit to help save the plant on whether it's so. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and to be honest with you, do a lot of
Speaker 4: this a lot of being mandated by the by the
Speaker 4: building codes.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, yeah, I can't get around the stuff
Speaker 2: that's mandated. And more and more is going to be mandated,
Speaker 2: that's for sure. Let me go to Elaine in Melrose. Elaine,
Speaker 2: you're on with Mark Philbin of a company called Charlie
Speaker 2: Allen renovations. He's a design build contract, build contractor go
Speaker 2: right ahead.
Speaker 7: Thank you so much for taking my call. I appreciate it.
Speaker 7: I had a couple of questions. I have a cottage
Speaker 7: down the cape and we were going to be putting
Speaker 7: in Central Ear in it. It's one level, our three bedrooms,
Speaker 7: a kitchen in a large family room, in one bathroom.
Speaker 7: And I was wondering mini splits versus Central Ear. And
Speaker 7: before I even get to that, there was a person
Speaker 7: we were considering who had done service the similar thing
Speaker 7: with Central here for our neighbors. And he does it
Speaker 7: on the side. He works for somebody who does it,
Speaker 7: but he does it on the side. What's your opinion
Speaker 7: of that? And would we get the same thing that
Speaker 7: you said to the other lady which I really appreciated
Speaker 7: about getting the liability insurance and the worker's conversation. Would
Speaker 7: he provide us with that as well? Or do they
Speaker 7: not do that if they do it on the side.
Speaker 4: No, and you should anybody who works on your home,
Speaker 4: and you should have they could do a lot of
Speaker 4: damage potentially, you know, working with your electrical system to
Speaker 4: get these systems powered up. So anybody who works on
Speaker 4: your house, you want to have a liability and a
Speaker 4: worker's comp policy, assuming unless it's just the only people
Speaker 4: who can work without workers COP would be a sole
Speaker 4: proprietor somebody who works strictly by themselves. In Massachusetts, as
Speaker 4: soon as you have one employee, you need to have
Speaker 4: workers COP. So it's hard to do that work solo.
Speaker 4: So somebody should have a worker's comp policy as well
Speaker 4: as a as well as a liability policy. And I
Speaker 4: think you should also they should be licensed to do
Speaker 4: it and should pull up. We have to pull building
Speaker 4: permits so we don't do any work like that. If
Speaker 4: we were doing a new HVAC system, whether it's any
Speaker 4: splits or whole house, you need to pull a permit
Speaker 4: for that at the time. That's very important because that
Speaker 4: way affected then it'll be done to the code. So
Speaker 4: sort of three things to think about is it should
Speaker 4: they should be a building permit, so he should be
Speaker 4: licensed to do it, which he's doing on a side
Speaker 4: he might not be. And you should absolutely have the
Speaker 4: two insurance policies in hand before anybody works on the house.
Speaker 2: And I want to weigh in here, do you really
Speaker 2: need air conditioning on the cape? How many days during
Speaker 2: the summer. Is it the need air conditioning? It seems
Speaker 2: to me to be a brutal.
Speaker 7: Last summer, the heat was brutal, even on the Cape.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I spent most of the last summer
Speaker 2: in the Cape, and I didn't quite experience the same thing.
Speaker 2: I guess, But that's okay. I mean, you you've got
Speaker 2: to figure out what is best, what is best for you.
Speaker 2: But I think what what what Mark just told you
Speaker 2: is to be very important with whom you with whom
Speaker 2: you're dealing want to make sure that they're they're fully insured.
Speaker 2: Did you have another question for Mark?
Speaker 7: Yes? I did have another question? What Mark? What is
Speaker 7: your opinion of mini splits? The system we put in
Speaker 7: the heating system is gas instant hot water. It was
Speaker 7: a very expensive heating system and when we had mass
Speaker 7: saved come they said that it would it wouldn't be good,
Speaker 7: that it would be foolish for us to do it
Speaker 7: because the heating system was so expensive and it wouldn't
Speaker 7: work for MASSA because you have to go to electric
Speaker 7: and for what we take for that. But what what
Speaker 7: what do you feel about mini splits versus central ear?
Speaker 4: Well, you already have so right now you have what's
Speaker 4: called the forced hot air. The heating system is forced
Speaker 4: hot air. So the duct work is already in all
Speaker 4: the rooms.
Speaker 7: Correct, it's like along the baseboard.
Speaker 4: Oh, okay, that's okay in that case. If in that case,
Speaker 4: I would say the mini splits are a good way
Speaker 4: to go. They're far more efficient, they will be a
Speaker 4: lot less expensive to put in. It's hard to put
Speaker 4: in duct work in a house that's already built, and
Speaker 4: so it's much much more cost efficient to put in
Speaker 4: the mini split system and they're more efficient to run
Speaker 4: in the in the long term, and they also work.
Speaker 4: The mini splits nowadays also do heat and so you
Speaker 4: can actually use the mini splits to sort of take
Speaker 4: the edge off using it as in heat mode. And
Speaker 4: so they're they're they're pretty versatile systems.
Speaker 7: So you could even use them with the new with
Speaker 7: that system that we have, even though masks say with
Speaker 7: saying they wouldn't even touch it because it would be
Speaker 7: crazy to do it. To convert.
Speaker 4: Yet to convert totally. But you know something that we've
Speaker 4: been doing a lot is we've been putting in mini
Speaker 4: splits and telling people to keep their heating system just
Speaker 4: in case it gets really really cold. You can leave
Speaker 4: your heating system in place and put the mini splits
Speaker 4: in for the air conditioning. If that makes sense.
Speaker 7: Yes, it does. In a quick little question. So the
Speaker 7: place down the Cape is one level, so it's kind
Speaker 7: of long. So the mini do the mini splits?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 7: Are they all around the whole house?
Speaker 4: How do they get They have to run the lines
Speaker 4: which are very small to run compare the traditional you know,
Speaker 4: AC systems. You'd have to have one in each bedroom
Speaker 4: and one in the living room typically maybe one in
Speaker 4: the dining room, kitchen area. I'm not sure how it's
Speaker 4: laid out, but you do have to have multiple you know,
Speaker 4: you have to have multiple heads. And nowadays they make
Speaker 4: some nice units to go into the ceilings so they're
Speaker 4: not hanging on the wall. So uh, but you would
Speaker 4: have to get one in each bedroom, living room, kitchen,
Speaker 4: dining area.
Speaker 2: Helene, I hate to do this to you, but we're
Speaker 2: way past my break here. You've had six minutes. You've
Speaker 2: asked great questions, but I got to move on. Thank you,
Speaker 2: best of luck, and I hope it's a cooler summer
Speaker 2: of the cape form Okay, thanks thanks for calling. You welcome.
Speaker 2: Very quick break back with Mark Philbin. Final concluding segment,
Speaker 2: Joe and Phil and Alex are going to try to
Speaker 2: get all of you in. I promise coming back on
Speaker 2: night Side.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Rayton's News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, John, Phil and Alex. We have about eight
Speaker 2: minutes and I got three callers, so I'm gonna ask
Speaker 2: each of you to be six SYNCD in your questions
Speaker 2: for my guest, Mark, Philbin, Alex set the standard. Go ahead, Alex.
Speaker 5: Hey, how you doing?
Speaker 3: Dan?
Speaker 5: Hey you miss Phil, go right ahead?
Speaker 4: Are you?
Speaker 5: I have a couple of questions, so uh uh home,
Speaker 5: you know, as I call it, my endless love. We've
Speaker 5: had installed the old house generator a couple of years
Speaker 5: ago and it probably used it once, uh, and then
Speaker 5: had a question about the roof, so that uh, you know,
Speaker 5: would you say that would be a good investment, you know,
Speaker 5: as far as uh you know, uh, Godd's value to
Speaker 5: your home or is it you know, uh.
Speaker 2: Absolute absolutely Alex. And when you need a generator, go ahead,
Speaker 2: Mark absolutely. If you can afford a generator, to get
Speaker 2: a generator, go ahead, Mark.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, Actually that was that's something that has been
Speaker 4: coming up with some of the projects that we've been
Speaker 4: looking at and talking to our electricians that the right
Speaker 4: now the energy grid is under such strain right now
Speaker 4: because everybody's going with electric cars and heat pumps in
Speaker 4: their homes. It's being mandated by building codes no fossil
Speaker 4: fuels and the new home construction so hot summer could
Speaker 4: cause a lot of blackouts and brownouts, and generators are
Speaker 4: going to become a bigger part of you know, building
Speaker 4: and remodeling and the not too distant future. Energy grid
Speaker 4: is much under duress right now.
Speaker 2: All right, one more quick question, Alex, I want to
Speaker 2: get everybody a chance to go ahead.
Speaker 5: Our roof is fairly new, but when it comes time
Speaker 5: to change it, do you think installing a metal roof
Speaker 5: is worth the money. They're you know, kind of pricey
Speaker 5: or I haven't seen too many people metal roofs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they they are. They are pretty pricey. They're you know,
Speaker 4: popular up north, so snow slides off of them. That
Speaker 4: that's more important up there than it is down in
Speaker 4: our neck of the woods. It's really not that critical.
Speaker 4: Light roofing nowadays. You can get a good architectural shingle
Speaker 4: with a you know, fifty year guarantee. That's a pretty
Speaker 4: good guarantee without the cost of a metal roof.
Speaker 2: Oh Alex, thanks great, great questions. You got to keep moving.
Speaker 2: Thanks Alex. Let me go next to Joe in Ross
Speaker 2: and Dale. Joe, you're next on Nightside like Alex, please
Speaker 2: be quick and direct. Go ahead, Joe, Yes.
Speaker 3: Joe, Hi Dan, thanks for taking my call. I have
Speaker 3: a question for.
Speaker 2: Mister markhead Mark.
Speaker 3: Yes, Hi Mark. I've said property in Rosindale, it's got
Speaker 3: asbestos siding on it. My question to you is every
Speaker 3: thinking about whether I should repaint it or have the
Speaker 3: asbestos removed? And the question is what is the procedure
Speaker 3: for removing asbestos nowadays? I realize it's hazardous, believe it
Speaker 3: or not.
Speaker 4: If that's true, sais if you want to take it
Speaker 4: off carefully, you can and get a special dumpster that
Speaker 4: it goes into. If you have a contractor do it,
Speaker 4: it's they have to be licensed to do it, and
Speaker 4: it's incredibly expensive to have because of their liability policy
Speaker 4: that they have to have. If you don't want to
Speaker 4: take it off, I can tell you right now if
Speaker 4: that's the siding, well, if you paint it, that's perfectly
Speaker 4: acceptable and uh it'll last forever. It's it's the most
Speaker 4: durable siding I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: Joe, you just might save yourself a lot of money
Speaker 2: by making this phone call.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, thanks Mark, Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: And I won't hould you an because I know you're
Speaker 3: running out of time there.
Speaker 2: So well, you saved yourself some money, Joe. Listen to
Speaker 2: what the gentleman said. Thanks Phil in Boston. Phil, you
Speaker 2: gotta be quick. We got about a bit and a
Speaker 2: half left.
Speaker 8: Go ahead to the colonial house windows Wooden. Should I
Speaker 8: keep the storm windows and get the rope free places
Speaker 8: in the windows that want open open up and downs,
Speaker 8: I just you know, lock them all out and putting
Speaker 8: the windows in.
Speaker 4: You know, we've done both. You know there tends to
Speaker 4: be about the same price. We've we've done a lot
Speaker 4: of restoration of windows where you get the windows properly, uh,
Speaker 4: the the old pulleyweight windows. You can put weather stripping
Speaker 4: on all sides of them and make them much much
Speaker 4: more thermally efficient, and then get a really high quality
Speaker 4: storm window on outside of outside of that on the
Speaker 4: attached to the casing of the house. And that's actually
Speaker 4: is a is a very good way to uh, to
Speaker 4: get a thermally efficient window without ripping the old ones out.
Speaker 8: You need a permit for that.
Speaker 2: You got that.
Speaker 4: Not to do windows now, not to do windows of
Speaker 4: storm windows, you don't need a permit.
Speaker 8: All right, doing heck of a job. Thank you, thank
Speaker 8: you very much.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, Phil, you just might have got
Speaker 2: some great advice. And again, the company is out of Cambridge.
Speaker 2: You in the city, what neighborhood?
Speaker 8: Well, I'd rather keep that well fair enough.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well Phil, let me ask you. Are you in
Speaker 2: the greater Boston area? They only work Okay, good, that's
Speaker 2: all I'm just saying. Well, that's great, no problem, no problem.
Speaker 2: All I'm just saying is it's the company is Charlie
Speaker 2: Alan Renovations out of Cambridge. It wouldn't hurt to have
Speaker 2: them come over and give a look and give you
Speaker 2: a price. Do you do that work type mark? Do
Speaker 2: you go out and price a job for someone like
Speaker 2: like Phil?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, we've done that, and we also have some
Speaker 4: contractors that specialize in it. So either one, depending on
Speaker 4: the scope and size of the project. But yep, yep,
Speaker 4: wen we could do that.
Speaker 9: Okay, sounds great, Phil, Phil, Phil Will Phil Phil Phil
Speaker 9: Phil I'm out of time, Okay, I'm sorry I got
Speaker 9: to let you go, but thank you for your call.
Speaker 2: And again I think you got some good advice. Appreciate it, Phil,
Speaker 2: talk to you soon, all right. I want to thank
Speaker 2: you Mark, Philbern of Charlie Allen Renovations. You know Cambridge based. Uh,
Speaker 2: you certainly know your stuff. I wish I had better questions,
Speaker 2: but there's there's a lot to consider here, and anyone
Speaker 2: who's looking to do some some work at their home.
Speaker 2: I think you've listened to a guy tonight who knows
Speaker 2: his stuff. Mark. I appreciate your time and really doing.
Speaker 2: Of course, people can read you in the Globe every
Speaker 2: couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: As well, right every two weeks. Yeah, it comes out
Speaker 4: every two weeks in the Boston dot Com and the
Speaker 4: UH and the Boston Globe.
Speaker 2: And the name of the column it's is give us
Speaker 2: the name of the column. They can look forward.
Speaker 4: I'll ask the remodeler. It's in the UH. It's any
Speaker 4: address section of the Globe, Okay.
Speaker 2: And do they do you end up in the print
Speaker 2: section or only in the digital?
Speaker 4: No, No, it's in both. It's in Boston dot Com
Speaker 4: and that comes out on a Wednesday, and then it's
Speaker 4: in the Sunday Globe in the address section, sort of
Speaker 4: the real estate section. Ye Globe on the Sunday print.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, Mark Philman, thank you for your time. I
Speaker 2: really enjoyed the conversation. Thanks. I learned a lot myself.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: I thank you.
Speaker 2: When we get back, it's Brushes with Celebrity, having done
Speaker 2: it in a while, line up, let's get the calls going.
Speaker 2: Brushes with Celebrity coming up on the eleven o'clock The
Speaker 2: twentieth Hour,