The Background

Unknown to most homeowners,  on April 22, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pass a law that requires contractors who perform  renovation, repair and painting (RRP) projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 to be certified. The idea behind the law is that lead-based paints found in buildings built before 1978 release harmful dust and chips over the course of renovation work such as demolition, cutting and sanding.

In order to safeguard the general public from lead contamination, the EPA’s law requires contractors to abide by lead-safe work practices.  These practices involve three primary activities:

• Containing the work area
• Minimizing dust
• Cleaning up thoroughly

To be a “Certified Renovator,” companies themselves must be certified, and the companies must have one or more “Certified Renovators” on the job site supervising every day while the paint is being disturbed. To be certified, a person must successfully complete an eight-hour EPA-approved training course conducted by an EPA-accredited training provider. All renovation workers must be trained as well. They can be trained to use lead-safe work practices on the job by a Certified Renovator if the work is not HUD regu-lated, or they can become certified themselves.

The Implication

Given the potential hazards of working with lead-paint, there is has been little fanfare about the RRP rule, especially among homeowners who are most at risk as the primary occupants of the home. Clearly, contractors who are not yet certified have little incentive to bring up the RRP rule with their clients.  The price of certifying the company and individuals is costly, and the fines for not being certified even more so – contractors can be fined up to $37,500 for violating the RRP rule. Still many contractors are conducting hazardous work in the homes of their clients without being trained on lead-safe practices, nor even discussing or acknowledging the potential dangers with their homeowners.

The takeaway is to ask every contractor and subcontractor that you work with whether they are RRP certified, and to ask for proof of both the firm’s and their employees’ compliance. Furthermore, ensure that during the point at which lead-paint is disturbed on your project, a Certified Renovator is on-site for that period.  It is certainly worth asking the questions and being diligent to ensure the safety of your family and home.

At Altera Design, we are proud to say that we are RRP compliant as a company, and that every project manager on our team is individually certified as well. Through our leadership of the Diablo Valley Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), where Jim currently serves as the president, we’ve even taken the initiative to develop training courses for fellow remodeling companies to help them gain compliance. We’re helping to educate homeowners and fellow remodelers about the RRP rule because job site safety has and always will be a foundational operating principle of this company. We’re a safe company and we want others to be too.

For more information, read up on the RRP rule on the EPA’s RRP page.

We recently completed a large kitchen remodel for a family of four with two older children. After many years of living with their original kitchen, this client came to Altera Design & Remodeling for a full-service kitchen remodel, including design-products-build. The previous kitchen was not only uninspired and dated design-wise, but also inadequate in terms of prep space and lighting for serious cooking, which was the lifestyle of the client. See below for  “before” pictures:

Altera Design came up with a new design concept that stylistically and functionally transformed the space from drab and utilitarian to dramatic and luxurious. Most noticeable is the distinctly Asian-feel of the new kitchen has. While the rest of the house had Asian influences, that aesthetic was never over into the kitchen making it incongruent and mismatched. The new kitchen’s sleek overall styling, warm cherry wood cabinets, bamboo detailing on select cabinet doors, and vertically-oriented, green glass Crossville mosaic tiles behind the cooktop that abstractly mimic the color and look of bamboo, all contribute to the understated but noticeable Asian feel.  Even the door to the pantry was replaced with a French door with a bamboo pattern etched into the glass.  Corner shelves facing the breakfast nook provide space for the client to display pieces from their Asian collectibles collection.

Functionally, we added a new Ceasarstone-topped peninsula to provide much needed prep space for cooking.  Set at bar height for improved ergonomics for the client to cook from, this peninsula provides visual interest by forming an intersecting plane that sits higher than the rest of the other countertops.  The peninsula  features decorative, freestanding, contrasting-colored legs, which break up the mass of the cabinets and give them a sophisticated furniture-like look.

The entire kitchen creatively utilizes two-tone Medallion cherry cabinets to create visual interest and highlight certain volumes and details like the crown molding and light rail. Upper cabinets were set at three different heights to create an eclectic look that built up toward the focal point – the cooktop wall – that was set off by the counter-to-ceiling translucent, glass tile. The uppermost portion of those cabinets were further dressed up with frosted glass doors, used as a decorative element to draw attention as well as a technique to break up the tall vertical plane of wall cabinets.

Besides being beautiful, this kitchen is a tremendously efficient place for the clients to cook. The built-in “hutch” adjacent to the oven has drawers, which serve a storage buffet, while the wall cabinets house tabletop appliances like the toaster and coffee maker, hiding them from view when unused to keep the kitchen looking tidy at all times. Also contributing to the streamline look is the Miele induction cooktop, which is twice as efficient as a standard gas cooktop, and the microwave, oven and warming drawer stack that sits neatly as one cohesive unit. Energy-efficient LED recessed lights were used in this kitchen for their quality of light and dimability.

The resulting kitchen is a remarkable transformation that now fits with the rest of the client’s home. While the layout is simple, the details that were executed in this project make it a breathtaking showplace unlike any other kitchen remodel we have done.

With more than 25 years of experience at designing and building kitchens and baths, we’ve seen industry trends come and go over time. However, recently we’ve noticed a consistent, increased interest in kitchens and baths designed for aging in place, also known as universal design.

With the increasing populous that is becoming elderly as a result of the influx of baby boomers, this interest comes as no surprise. For us, this interest is especially pronounced because of our expertise and prominence in the Rossmoor Senior Adult Community nearby, where we’ve been a longstanding “approved contractor.”

According to our customers, finding a company that excels at both designing and building aging in place kitchens and baths is challenging. With our own in-house staff of certified designers and experienced craftsmen however, we’re well-equipped to handle any project, including these.

Recently, we completed a full-service kitchen remodel for a client afflicted with a long-term illness that progressively impairs their mobility. Because of the client’s need to primarily cook while seated, the focus of this project was to design a kitchen that enabled safe and easy cooking and cleaning options throughout the kitchen, in addition to generally updating the outdated old space.  The before photos:

At first glance, visitors will notice the empty space beneath the kitchen sink and cook top, typically occupied by a kitchen cabinet. In this kitchen, those cabinets are removed in favor of an extra-low countertop with an open area underneath, which provides the knee space required to accommodate wheel chairs or specially designed task chairs. Switches typically on the wall behind the countertop or high-up on appliances have been relocated to surfaces at or below countertop height to enable operation from a seated position. Similarly, the wall oven is mounted lower than usual, and all the cabinets feature extra-wide pulls, all to facilitate easy access.

One of the most innovative features of this project is the custom-made, Corian-topped rolling work table. Tucked beneath the countertop in a recess when not in use, this table can be rolled out to and positioned anywhere in the kitchen to provide the client much needed flexibility and mobility to suit their cooking style.

Despite all these unique design features, the kitchen can be easily reconfigured for future owners if they do not require universal design considerations. The extra-low sink and cook top sections can be reinstalled on matching Medallion cabinetry at standard counter height to match the rest of the kitchen. New Corian countertops could then be installed and seamlessly fused to the adjacent counters, which is why, along with their ease of cleaning and maintenance, they were specified on this unique project.

With this project, we wanted to show people that any kitchen, including aging in place ones, can be functional, flexible and attractive at the same time.  Given our experience and expertise with kitchens and baths and the growing elderly population, we anticipate many more projects like this one in the future.

For more project pictures, check out the portfolio.

Welcome to our blog! The Altera Design blog will be a place for us to share with you our most up-to-date thoughts – whether about our most recent project, our favorite new product from our showroom, or our insights from more than 25 years of remodeling.

We want our blog to be interactive and foster a dialogue, so please ask questions and feel free to comment. We want to hear from you!

We look forward to building an online community that is as strong, interesting and enriching as the one we’ve been serving locally since 1986.  See you soon.