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SAN JOSE — Roger Van Alst: When you’re looking at building an outdoor island, there are certain considerations that you definitely want to take into account. The first consideration is the shape of the island. Would you like a U-shaped island, which this is? You can also consider a straight island that will have just one straight line, and then an L-shape is usually a good idea if you have the space for it. When you’re deciding the location and the shape, it’s important to consider the entertaining area. You want to make sure your guests have the best view, so consider what they’ll be looking at when sitting at the island. And then also, where the barbecue itself will be located. By giving your guests the best view, and a good place to sit, you can both cook and entertain at the same time. When you only have just a barbecue, you end up having a choice of burning the meat, or entertaining your guests. So, this way you can definitely do both. Also, you want to consider the siding that you’ll place on your island.

This particular island has a natural stone on it. It’s a cladding that goes on the hardy backer of the board. This natural stone is an emerald green natural stone from SUI. You can also consider a stucco surface on the side. The counter top in this case is a granite countertop, which is a beautiful option. You also can use a tile. There’s various tile options that you can place on the top, as well as certain porcelain outdoor-rated tiles for the island.

This particular island has a fire feature, this is a fire table. Great where you get those cooler nights to be able to turn this on for both ambiance and warmth. When you’re looking at equipment, you obviously want to consider a refrigerator. This particular island has both a wine fridge and a meat and beverage fridge. So, these are excellent choices for any island. This is a side burner. This one’s called a power burner by fire magic, and you’ll also have your standard side burners as well. This is if you would like a larger pot, for lobsters and large quantities of corn. The barbecue itself, there’s lots of choices here, but consider the size of your barbecue. When you’re installing equipment, you always want to make sure your island is big enough. You’re going to need the size of the equipment and at least six inches in between each piece of equipment.

Then many people will consider an ice storage chest or an ice maker in this case, lots of storage drawers and potentially a sink. If you are considering an outdoor sink for your island, do keep in mind that there are additional costs associated with plumbing. The waste water has to be brought to the house, and then sent out through the sewer system, and then there’s plumbing required to bring the water out to the island itself. For hot and cold, you can consider having a local centralized insta-hot underneath the sink, or you can attempt to plumb the hot water if you’re not too far from the house. So, by having a beautiful barbecue island, you can entertain while having the functionality of an outdoor kitchen. It really does create that additional living space in the outdoor environment.

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SAN JOSE — Roger Van Alst: Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about porcelain outdoor tile. A few years ago the porcelain tile companies decided to produce a product that’s built specifically for the outdoor environment. It’s still porcelain tile but it’s still two centimeters thick as opposed to the thinner tiles you have for the indoor environment. It’s made non-slip, wet or dry, so it’s completely safe for the outdoor environment. It gives a beautiful contemporary or modern look to the outdoor environment. But there’s definitely some special considerations to think about when considering this product for your outdoor environment as opposed to a concrete paving stone or even other natural stones in the outdoor environment.

First of all, there are some distinct benefits to this. It is made of porcelain, and as you may know from indoor porcelain tile, porcelain is virtually indestructible. You could pressure wash this for three days straight and you wouldn’t lose one bit of any of the surface off of that porcelain material. So, it’s extremely tough. It’s also very beautiful. They’ve simulated wood in this particular piece of porcelain tile, but they also have different stone finishes that you can choose from, and they’ve come up with a screen printing technique that makes it absolutely stunning in the outdoor environment. There’s a few different ways that you might install this product. One is you could inlay it on concrete. If you have a porch or a patio that’s made with concrete, you do want to make sure that concrete has no cracks in it or any areas that might separate or move, because if that underlayment moves and shifts, the concrete will cause the porcelain tile to crack right along with it. So, just make sure your slab is clean and free of any major cracking. It can also be laid on sand. We don’t necessarily recommend that for all installations, because the sand can allow it to shift or move a little bit too much.

This product is only two centimeters thick, so it has no vertical friction coefficient. So, as something like a concrete paver tries to shift, between the stones among themselves, there’s friction between them that prevent it from shifting. This product being only two centimeters thick does not provide for that vertical friction. So, if you’re laying it on an outdoor environment, we recommend something called Gator Base. This is an underlayment that goes directly below the porcelain tile, a bit like a subfloor in a house that helps to prevent it from shifting and moving. They also make spacers that will go between the porcelain tiles, providing the perfect spacing between each of them in the outdoor environment. When you fill the joints of these, you want to make sure you use the polymeric sand that’s rated for porcelain tile. This is a little bit stickier than the polymeric sand used for paving stones. Polymeric sand hardens a bit like a grout. It’s not a grout, but it hardens a bit like that to prevent weeds and keep the sand from migrating out of the joints. But make sure you use a polymeric sand that’s designed for outdoor porcelain tile.

Also, you want to consider in your design that you keep straight lines. Cutting this in a curved fashion would require special tools, and it’s very expensive, so you want to do your best to design an installation that follows those straight lines and has very little curves. Also, you wouldn’t want to use this in an area where you have a lot of different grade changes for drainage reasons. It’s better if you have one smooth grade going all in one direction, because of the size of these. It’s very hard to change elevations or grades in between locations, and because those grade changes can be very difficult to get the water to run off from those. So, those are your key elements of porcelain tiles. Thank you and good luck with your outdoor transformations.

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SAN JOSE — Host, Sarah Rutan: When planning for a new driveway, walkway or patio, the first thing you’ll need to decide is what kind of material you want to use. Today we’re in San Jose with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Roger Van Alst of Black Diamond Paver Stones & Landscape to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Roger Van Alst: A lot of times, I get asked what are my choices for hardscape? Hardscape being the, you know, the surface that either is going to be used for a patio or a driveway or a walkway or even a pool deck.

Let’s talk about driveways. For a driveway, there’s typically three choices. Someone can go with asphalt, they can have concrete – poured in place concrete or stamped concrete – and then, of course, there’s paving stones. Asphalt is inexpensive, on the initial installation. It’s a little bit flexible, so it can move with ground movement before it will crack, and also asphalt is a product that can be used over long expanses, which is why it’s seen often in roadways. The disadvantage of asphalt is that it will crack over time. It does need to be maintained, so it’s important that it be crack-filled and sealed which does increase the cost over time. And it’s not as attractive. It has, you know, one color. Just black.

And also there’s concrete. So, concrete comes in two forms. You have regular poured-in-place flat concrete. You can also have stamped concrete. The flat work concrete is attractive and strong, but it is just one color, of course. And concrete, especially in California, will crack with the earthquakes. It is pretty much guaranteed to crack.

Paving stones are the third choice. They are a slightly larger investment up front, but they’re very cost effective. You can pick from various styles of color and pattern. Also, if someone needs to access utilities underneath the paving stones, like a water line or an electrical line, they can lift the pavers, fix what’s underneath, and put them back and they would never know the difference. They’re earthquake resistant because they can shift and move. And also pavers are absolutely beautiful for someone’s patio or driveway.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.info.

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SAN JOSE — Host, Sarah Rutan: When installing new pavers, one additional measureworth considering is the application of polymeric sand. Today we’re in San Jose with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Roger Van Alst of Black Diamond Paver Stones & Landscape to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Roger Van Alst: At Black Diamond, we often get asked if polymeric sand would be a good idea for a new paving stone installation. Polymeric sand is essentially a sand that has a polymer added to it. That polymer is a bit like a glue in that it goes in dry, but then once the sand is moisten it will activate and hard. A bit like a grout might. Becomes a solid sand surface between the joints.

Certain pavers, polymeric sand is essential. These paving stones have a gap that’s about a quarter inch wide and typical sand would migrate too much in that paving stone installation. So, the use of a polymeric sand will prevent that migration from occurring. It’s also useful to have polymeric sand around a pool deck where sand would otherwise potentially migrate into the pool. The polymeric sand will harden in between those joints and prevent it from moving.

The benefits of polymeric sand are that it’s going to obviously lock the sand into place, it won’t migrate, there won’t be any weeds able to grow between the pavers, and no ants or insects will [00:01:08 infestate] in the joint to the pavers. One disadvantage is that the structure which was flexible is now a monolithic surface solidified with that sand.

So, if there’s any shifting that occurs due to clay soils, expanding or contracting, or ground movement, ground shifts, then there can be a fissure that appears between the joints – essentially like a crack between the joints where the polymeric sand is separating from the paver. It is easily fixed by applying more sand, or scratching out that area and reapplying sand in those areas.

Polymeric sand is about $1.50, a little bit plus or minus depending on the application, and the type of joint, and how much sand would be required per square foot. But, you should expect to pay somewhere between $1.50 and $2 a square foot for adding polymeric sand to your installation.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.info.

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SAN JOSE — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you want to minimize your water consumption, the first place you should look is your landscape. Today we’re in San Jose with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Roger Van Alst of Black Diamond Paver Stones & Landscape to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Roger Van Alst: The average lawn will consume more water than the entire household does put together with showers, bathing, and washing dishes. So, many people have decided to removed their water hungry lawns and replace them with a water conserving synthetic lawn, or low water consumption plants.

So, one of the ways is synthetic lawn. So, we can remove that lawn and you can put in a synthetic product. These have come a long way since the days of AstroTurf. We have brown thatches now inside of the lawn which makes it more realistic. We find that neighbors have to come up and touch it before they can tell that it’s actually a synthetic product. Putting greens are great too for the backyard. So, you can make a play area that also will not consume any water instead of the lawn that’s there.

Customers are also removing their front lawns and back lawns and replacing them with low water consumption plants. So, you can have California native or drought tolerant plants put into a yard and remove the water hungry products that are there. Most cities and counties are also offering rebates to clients to remove their lawns and replace it with low water consumption plants. So, check with your county or your city to see if you can get as much as $1 and $2 per square foot to remove the lawn and replace it with a drip system to feed those plants.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.info.

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SAN JOSE — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you have a paver installation on your property, it’s worthwhile to consider the benefits of having it professionally sealed. Today we’re in San Jose with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Roger Van Alst of Black Diamond Paver Stones & Landscape to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Roger Van Alst: At Black Diamond, we often get asked as to whether sealing a paving installation would be a good idea. Sealer is an option for clients on a new paving installation, or it’s something that can be done for an older paver project to be re-cleaned and then sealed. Generally customers should expect to pay a little over $1 a square foot to have a new paving installation sealed and up to about $2 per square foot to have an older paving stone installation professionally cleaned and then have a sealer applied to restore it to a like-new finish. Sealer has some options to consider.

Most sealers are available with a joint sand stabilizing feature. This will cause the joint sands to be stabilized or locked into place to prevent any weeds from growing and prevent ants from getting into the joint sand. Also, there are different types of finishes that can be applied with a sealer. The matte finish is available which won’t change the color of the sealer much – or color of the paver much. There’s also an enhancing finish which will deepen the hues and enrichen the colors, and a wet look. A wet look is a glossy finish that would enhance the colors the most, but a gloss finish also will show wear over time more quickly in areas that are eight heavy [00:01:28 traffed] or areas that are exposed to the elements.

Sealers can be applied in as little as a day, and then within twenty-four to forty-eight hours the area can be used once again. They do dry fairly quickly. On a typical job site the sealer would be applied with a pump sprayer and a squeegee to work that sealer into the sand joints. Here in the office we’ll just use a simple bottle and a rag to apply it today. And, you can see the enhancing that occurs. Most sealers, when initially applied, are going to have a milky finish, and then as it dries, that finish is going to turn more into just a color enhanced look.

Pavers that have a finish that is textured will benefit definitely from having a squeegee where you can pull the excess sealer across the paver and work it into the sand joints. Especially if it’s a sand joint stabilizing sealer where you want those sand joints to lock into place. The sealer will dry in a few hours to the touch, and then you won’t want to drive on it or put your furniture back for at least twenty-four hours.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.info.