Timber Guild

Color and texture are the watchwords in home essentials this year.

How about a Brazilian Amendoim wood floor or a knotty hickory cabinet? Today’s homeowners want panache when it comes to outfitting their digs, Steve Fenenga, owner of the Floor to Ceiling Stores in Rapid City, said.

Fenenga and his staff will be among 300 exhibitors at the Black Hills Home Builders Association Home Show at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. They will be showing some of the new styles in flooring and cabinetry along with lighting, area rugs, windows and doors.

"In the 10 minutes we spend with a person at the booth, we can give them some basic ideas and pricing for what they are looking for," Fenenga said.

Dennis Drolc, a flooring specialist at Floor to Ceiling, says people are choosing more hard surfaces throughout their homes. That may include wood or natural stone floors.

"We’re only seeing carpet in the bedrooms. Most other living areas are hard surfaces," he said. "People are looking for something that will wear well and is easy to maintain. You won’t see a traffic pattern on hard wood, and quality wood flooring will be there as long as the house is standing."

Floor to Ceiling has a variety of wood species available including domestic favorites such as cherry, pine, oak and maple as well as exotics such as teak, padauk, magnolia, pecan and rosewood.

"People want a lot more contrast in their wood floors. They’re even mixing wood species," he said.

Kitchen cabinets, too, have made a transformation from traditional light woods to woods with more character.

"There’s still lots of hickory but with stain," Fenenga said.

Wood-finished cabinets are still the style of choice; they account for about 80 percent of all cabinets bought, according to a 2002 survey conducted by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (www.nkba.org). And even though consumers are demanding furniture-quality styling, they are opting for a more casual appearance overall. Many of these have multi-step finishes and glazes to make them look like antiques that have weathered generations of use.

The trend is also toward old-fashioned, craftsman-style cabinets with tongue-in-groove details. Cabinet size is changing also with the standard 30-inch cabinets being replaced by some as high as 42 inches. Gone also is the long straight line above the cabinets.

"They’re going to a more staggered look for aesthetics," Jerome VanZee, cabinetry specialist at Floor to Ceiling, said.

Privacy and quiet are becoming rarer and rarer around many homes.

Sometimes the disturbing noise is your teenager's music from the next bedroom. Other times, it's the teenager's music in the home attached to yours by a wall, ceiling or floor.

In the days when the interior walls of most homes were constructed of large studs, and covered with wood lath and several layers of plaster, noise was less of an issue. Walls and floors prevent sound waves from moving from room to room. However, the interior walls in most modern homes consist of nothing more than a 2-inch-by-4-inch stud (the 4-inch side actually measures 31/2 inches) covered with one layer of 1/2-inch drywall on either side.

Controlling noise between floors can be a daunting task. The most effective solution is to increase the density of the material between floors; one of the simplest ways is with a thicker carpet and pad upstairs.

If you've tried that trick, your best bet is to install a resilient channel along with a layer of 5/8-inch drywall on the ceiling downstairs. Resilient channel is a Z-shaped metal channel acoustically engineered to reduce vibration and the transfer of noise. It can be attached with drywall screws right over an existing drywall or plaster ceiling. The channel is applied perpendicular to the ceiling framing and should be screwed into the framing.

Keep in mind that light boxes, heat registers and other ceiling-mounted devices must be extended to align with the new ceiling surface. And the new drywall will need to be finished and painted.

Due to the complexity of this project, you may want to hire a professional drywall contractor. We are hard-pressed to think of a task that requires more physical stamina than hanging those monstrous sheets of wallboard overhead.

Reducing noise from room to room similarly involves increasing the density or thickness of the material separating the spaces. Adding one layer of 5/8-inch drywall can have a profound impact. Adding a layer to both sides of a wall can make it virtually soundproof.

A new layer of drywall is attached to the framing through the existing wallboard with drywall screws and/or construction adhesive. The drywall must then be finished and painted, paneled or papered. Again, if you'd rather be sailing, then a drywall contractor can help.

As with the ceiling scenario, electrical outlets, switches, and other mechanical components and finishes will need to be extended. Electrical box extenders are inexpensive and available at hardware stores or home centers. Crown mold, baseboard, and window and door trim may also need to be replaced.

If you do the work yourself, there are a few tricks that make the job go easier.

Essentially, hanging drywall is like putting a puzzle together. In most cases, the panels are installed with the long side running horizontally, perpendicular to the wall studs. Ceiling panels are installed perpendicular to the ceiling joist.

If the wall or ceiling is framed with proper spacing (typically 16 inches or 24 inches on center), the end of each panel should align with the center of a stud or joist. Thus, there will be ample bearing for fastening nails or screws. In addition, joints are staggered to provide maximum strength and prevent cracks.

There is method to the madness of hanging drywall. Ceiling material is hung first and wall material follows. This allows for a neat corner configuration, which makes finishing easier. It also allows the wall panels to reach down to the floor, leaving only a small gap.

Since most homes have 8-foot ceilings, two panels (one above the other) cover the wall from floor to ceiling. What do you do if the ceiling is higher than 8 feet? Here's what the pros do: Rather than hanging two full sheets high and adding a partial strip at the bottom, they hang one strip in the center with one full sheet above and one below. That places the joints at a comfortable working height, reducing the need to bend over and saving you time, money and back pain.

Hanging the board is as simple as measuring, cutting it with a razor knife, and snapping it in both directions for a nice even edge. Care should be taken to measure for and mark electrical boxes, pipes and other penetrations that will require cutouts. Cut-outs can be made using a drywall saw, jigsaw or router.