Eric G stops in Dupont's booth at Design and Construction Week and discusses the latest in products from Dupont. From High Performance Building to NEW countertop solutions, they have a ton of new products that make your house perform better inside and outside your home.

We dive into our Countertops Buyers guide and many of the things you should be considering when you are thinking about new countertops for that kitchen or bathroom!

For MORE about Dupont Performance Building Solutions: https://www.dupont.com/building.html

For MORE about Dupont Countertops: https://www.corian.com/

Win a chance to win a $250 VISA gift card at www.sashco.com/ATH

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[00:00:09] the House! (Trasncription powered by Descript and is not edited for content and errors may occur.)

[00:00:31] Maggie Ellis: Carve , it just like wood. Um, and then we use Corian solid surface to make MR. Walls and MR. Walls or, um, uh, we work with a designer, Mario Romano and he cuts and carves are solid surface and they're just beautiful walls. You can make almost any,

[00:00:54] Intro: is around the house.[00:01:00]

[00:01:23] Eric Goranson: It's all right here. And we've got a great guest here. We are in DuPont's booth right now. Alan Hubbell , DuPont. Welcome to around the house product. Thank you, Eric. Man, this is great. Well, you guys have so much going on in this boot today, and there's some great technology in here. Let's talk about what you guys jump into on your side of the business.

[00:01:43] Alan Hubbell: Yeah. And we're showing a few new things. Um, we're showing our new styrofoam product. It's a low global warming potential. So the, you know, the industry is moving towards different blowing agents and, and easier on the climate. So we're doing our part here with this new gray styrofoam. Most people know [00:02:00] styrofoam as a pollute product.

[00:02:11] Eric Goranson: potential. Yeah. We all like healthier stuff out there, especially when we're putting the products on. I fits, you know, that's it, that's it.

[00:02:18] Alan Hubbell: don't give up any of the performance that you've come to expect from it. So we're able to keep the par the properties, the performance and bees you're on the. That's a home

[00:02:39] Eric Goranson: We do. We

[00:03:01] Alan Hubbell: We have many, many different details from many, many different

[00:03:10] Alan Hubbell: Yeah. We call it the DuPont education. And that's where we're reaching out to builders and contractors to, um, to present our knowledge, share our knowledge, share information, and folks can go to our education hub and sign up and, uh, and get on the list for, we do about five webinars a year.

[00:03:39] Eric Goranson: Oh man. I'll tell you what, I don't care where in the country I'm at, but I, I know enough to be dangerous with the flashings and how to do it correctly.

[00:03:57] Alan Hubbell: You know, we have this specialist network who that their job [00:04:00] is to go work with the builders and the contractors. And get them to do it, you know, do it the way we'd like to see done, but good, good building science practices.

[00:04:24] Alan Hubbell: But if you build the trust and sh and show the performance, eventually they'll come around and it start with some of these

[00:04:40] Eric Goranson: Right. So that's old bucks even are like, oh, I wait a minute. There's a better way. You don't know what you

[00:04:47] Eric Goranson: how you progress. Absolutely. What other stuff you guys got going on on the, on the performance side?

[00:04:56] Alan Hubbell: It's a new product and it, um, what it does [00:05:00] in some parts of the country builders build, uh, construction sequences. You put windows in first, which is different than before you wrap then other parts of the.

[00:05:14] Alan Hubbell: They don't do sheathing on the walls.

[00:05:32] Alan Hubbell: And so you flash to that, and then that sits there. And that awaits later in the construction process, they'll come along with the tieback and integrate to the flight.

[00:05:48] Eric Goranson: This is old school, 77. Then the 30 pound felt. And then the T1 11 went over that, right. Same kind of situation, right. A little something about water and you're in, so [00:06:00] that's not the optimal way to do that. I mean, the dark, paper's not going anywhere, but it's come on. As long as

[00:06:09] Alan Hubbell: But today's home. As you know, we build them tighter. That puts more of a premium on water management because when it does. It's harder to dry out your ad and more insulation to the wall that you've made it tighter, less airflow. So, um, it, it just puts a pre that's why we spend so much time on the

[00:06:24] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Because my house, it breeze really well. Whether I like it not, and I can't stop that without having to do a lot of reframing on it because I've got like six inch overhangs. So if I go put something on the outside, guess what? Now I've got water run down the side of that. So it would almost be a reframing that's where that product works really well because I'm not having to add onto the outside of that.

[00:06:44] Alan Hubbell: right. Yeah. The other, the other cool product we're showing here, it's not launched yet, but we're just trying to gauge interest and promote it. Is this a fire curb, fire resistant laminate. So it's a thin laminate product that goes over like OSB or wood to give it some fire resistance [00:07:00] properties.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: So how does that work? So it's just got a little thin black layer.

[00:07:27] Alan Hubbell: does when the heat hits it, as I understand it, it expands. Oh, I like, I tell people it's like the old snake when you were a kid and you live in your driveway.

[00:07:35] Eric Goranson: Fireworks, snake, that kind of gets all funky and foams up Kona.

[00:07:48] Eric Goranson: of the building. So that is huge on the show here a couple years ago, probably three years ago, we had a Lieutenant Mike Tsangpo from.

[00:08:16] Eric Goranson: Those plates. And there's nothing holding the trust against dangerous war it. Yeah. Right. So the more you can do with down below that to keep that fire in its place, the better off you are. So

[00:08:29] Eric Goranson: Nice. That's going to be great. Hey, we come back. We're gonna be diving into countertops with DuPont here in the DuPont Corian family of countertops, not just. Acrylic stuff. We're talking about courts, we're talking about high-performance porcelain. And we'll talk about that when we come back after these important messages, but stay tuned here in the coming weeks, because we are going to dive more into high-performance building and we're going to bring on a really good friend of mine that I've done a bunch of speaking with over the years, Walt Tamala, and he is [00:09:00] out of the Boston area and he is an expert on this stuff.

[00:09:33] Eric Goranson: Dives in all that more coming up next, just after these important messages, don't change that down.

[00:10:14] Eric Goranson: And I've got my friend Maggie from DuPont in here now, full disclosure. I have your stuff. Out my house as far as the DuPont Corrine in dura everywhere. And I absolutely love it. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Eric. This is great. I mean, and you guys have some new colors. You're, I'm going to talk about the stuff that I love right off the bat.

[00:10:41] Maggie Ellis: Yeah, we were really excited. We have some beautiful metallic colors, uh, which are great for indoors or out. We have some cements and some marbles, and I know you have the marbles inside your shower as cement, I think in your kitchen.

[00:10:58] Eric Goranson: metal crate [00:11:00] memory. We've talked about it enough though, right here. It's great. And I'll tell you why. There is nothing more durable as a kitchen designer, 30 years. There is nothing more durable than I've put in my house than that. I mean, Uh, I can't even say there's legal team and probably tell me what I could do and what I couldn't do on that.

[00:11:41] Eric Goranson: I'm not going to be melting something or scarring. And it's pretty tough stuff. I don't think there's anything more durable in a countertop surface out there. So it's great. That's awesome. Great. Yeah. And you guys have so many other products out there. It's not that you just do the Saab porcelain or sintered stone.

[00:12:01] Maggie Ellis: do. We have the three material lines and Corian solid surfaces, kind of what we're known for. We started that category like, you know, 50 years ago. And it's, uh, it I'll tell you it's changed a lot over time. You know, when you think about Corian solid surface, where it came from is basically just all white.

[00:12:35] Maggie Ellis: You can make, you know, almost anything.

[00:12:52] Intro: You

[00:12:56] Eric Goranson: And so I want to, I want to clear this up for our listeners out there, [00:13:00] because Korean has been such a household name for so long. That is now your countertop brand umbrella, right?

[00:13:14] Maggie Ellis: And of course, everyone knows court's a great material, but

[00:13:30] Eric Goranson: And the colors now, you know, I can stand back three feet away and go, is that slab porcelain, or is that solid surface? Which one is it? And not a few. It was a few years ago. And I'm going to say that because I've been in the industry for 30 years, it wasn't always that way to get to that depth, what you guys have done to extend that brand and the color.

[00:13:54] Maggie Ellis: I appreciate it. In fact, we have a couple of our technical experts from our plant in Yerkes and Buffalo, and they're thrilled to be here. A little [00:14:00] warmer weather. That's nice, but they they're the ones that work on the custom colors. So if you want some sort of crazy color or just, just as something different than we offer right now, they're the ones to talk to.

[00:14:13] Eric Goranson: here, right? That's cool. What I like about thermoforming that too, from the design side is I used to love doing that because you could do some funky radiuses and really do something. You can do a countertop up against that wall. That's got a curve to it and make this backsplash fall along and it looks just absolutely stunning.

[00:14:34] Maggie Ellis: Yep. And then there's no seams either for lighter or whatever. So that's

[00:14:43] Maggie Ellis: Yeah, we, um, we've had polished and leathered for awhile, but now that is a new finish for us. And that of course is very popular and then design world.

[00:15:09] Eric Goranson: finished, I love soapstone.

[00:15:31] Maggie Ellis: Yes.

[00:15:44] Eric Goranson: in popular. What's cool with that is, and I loved, and that's why I went with in the, in the Endura, why I went with that concrete look cause I'm home, I've loved concrete for 20 years.

[00:16:14] Eric Goranson: Like a chords or like a, you know, something like that in there. That is awesome. And I'll say that those colors are pretty spot on too. They look like the real thing.

[00:16:37] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. It's fun. It's fun. But to have that flexibility. In each one of those lines, because it's depending on the project. Right. Okay. I need to have a cement look. Well, I got a radius wall over here. I'm going to deal with something like that. Or I want to do something. That's got some flow to it that I'm not going to try to cut and have weird courts or, you know, slab seams with that'll [00:17:00] distract from that design.

[00:17:21] Eric Goranson: It takes my Portland, Oregon winters, summers, everything else. It doesn't care what I throw at it. So it's depending on the project, but I liked that flexibility as a designer to be able to use an each one of those. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Because to me, when I'm designing a home and I'm going to working in it, I like to have some flow through the entire house, including outside of that outdoor living area.

[00:17:54] Maggie Ellis: Yeah. And I'll say one of the things we're seeing in the kitchen space is, you know, like people are interested in, [00:18:00] uh, kind of a solid surface Corian, solid surface around the perimeter so they can get that backs, that code backslash.

[00:18:19] Eric Goranson: trend, you know, anywhere around the house we wrapped back after these important messages.

[00:18:44] Intro: while you're building it up.

[00:19:26] Eric Goranson: Cause I don't have the. Grout to deal with when I'm a tall floor, but that's easy. But putting that in there in the cleanability of just taking a damn cloth and wiping it down, there's no scrubbing needed for me. It's awesome.

[00:19:45] Eric Goranson: you know, that's, that is one of the things that I always say out there.

[00:20:15] Maggie Ellis: yep.

[00:20:30] Eric Goranson: privately.

[00:20:49] Eric Goranson: And it held up. You know, we've got this lab over our heads with suction cups. I'm like, I hope this works. Okay. You know, [00:21:00] no kidding. You need a stump man license for it. But those guys do it every single day and they make it look like art and that's the beautiful part of it. That's great. So you've got some great colors in there.

[00:21:14] Maggie Ellis: gosh. Alabaster Toronto. Good. How are you seeing a lot of trust

[00:21:31] Eric Goranson: I couldn't find anything out there. Now the products, of course, I'm doing more media now, so I have less design projects to worry about, but now of course it's coming into the space and,

[00:21:48] Maggie Ellis: Stone that just catch the light and there's crystals. And so it's really unique and different for us. Um, and it's been really

[00:22:06] Eric Goranson: Beautiful. So what do you see the industry going? I mean, I wanted to ask you this question. You guys have so many products out there. It seems like there's the, now the resurgence of the Korean coming back in or 10 years ago, maybe it had slid down a little bit because there was the new hot courts.

[00:22:33] Maggie Ellis: agree. And, and, you know, it's interesting, we're seeing a lot of interest in sustainability as a big trend and, and green solid surface is, is actually very sustainable.

[00:23:04] Maggie Ellis: And

[00:23:09] Maggie Ellis: Oh gosh. You know, one last trend I'll say is, is using digital tools to help visualize. What your project could look like. And I know you're a big into that, but that's something that we're definitely seeing a lot of interest in.

[00:23:30] Eric Goranson: with that. Yeah, that's cool. I like your app. Cause we were playing with that yesterday in here and we were messing around and for those people, so many people can't see it.

[00:23:56] Eric Goranson: Yep, absolutely. All right. Thanks Maggie. This is great. [00:24:00] Hey, if anybody's at the show out there, make sure you check out DuPont stuff. It is absolutely amazing in here. There's some great stuff out there. And if you're looking at countertops, make sure and ask your designer. Man, Caroline, that was just a lot of fun hanging out with DuPont and their booth and, and taking a look.

[00:24:34] Intro: That's me. How

[00:24:45] Eric Goranson: You know, here's the thing. As a kitchen designer, there's a lot of cool trends going on. That things are now, you know, like the marble look has hot and all those different marble and concrete looks are hot, but they've become so much [00:25:00] more realistic.

[00:25:24] Eric Goranson: Countertops in my day, back in the nineties and two thousands, when I was first designing, that was the hot material back then, that was

[00:25:35] Eric Goranson: it seamless in the sink. You could repair it. And, uh, you know, if you, if you damaged it, you could have them come out and do it.

[00:25:58] Eric Goranson: It'll look like it's brand new again, which [00:26:00] is great. So it's one of those things that being acrylic, you could Polish it and it takes a little micro scratches and stuff out of it and gives it a nice, cool luster. It looks like bread.

[00:26:14] Eric Goranson: Is there a, there's a huge difference as far as how it looks color-wise back then, it was lots of beiges and, and Y you know, some speckles and that kind of stuff.

[00:26:43] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah, authentic stone and the, and the courts blows my mind because the courts like really looks like a marble or a granite, and you can't tell the court, uh,

[00:27:00] Eric Goranson: I mean, I was listening to a radio show a couple weeks ago that I was super shocked at the information that was going out. So I want to kind of dispel some of those myths of countertops coming up in our next segment. But. Really with courts. It's such a great looking product that super durable. But if, to me, if you want that ultimate durability, you go to like what I did in my house.

[00:27:43] Caroline Blazovsky: and for the courts and the courts is, I mean, I have all courts in my house.

[00:28:03] Eric Goranson: icing on the side.

[00:28:16] Intro: around the house.

[00:28:48] Eric Goranson: already command from even

[00:28:51] Eric Goranson: And you're listening to around the

[00:28:57] Eric Goranson: Welcome. Come back to around the house with Eric G [00:29:00] N Caroline B. Thanks for joining us. This is not your grandmother's home improvement show. This is the latest and greatest of today's material.

[00:29:16] Caroline Blazovsky: are the innovators. We are bringing you the innovation. I love that word.

[00:29:34] Eric Goranson: Right. Hey, first off, make sure you head over to a round the house. Online.com because we have a, a, this week with the show airs, we have a $250. Visa gift card giveaway. So we are given away thanks to , you know, a brand new $250 gift card. So you can save some money on your next project or heck even put fuel in that truck out there.

[00:30:24] Eric Goranson: They were talking about how you have to seal court's counter. Did they really I'm like, yeah, they did. And I was just like, are you kidding me? They're like, oh, they stay. And they have, you need to see no,

[00:30:42] Eric Goranson: to that. I think she was probably getting confused courts versus court site, which is a stone.

[00:31:14] Eric Goranson: It's their version of this. So it's 93% roughly. And then it's got binders holding it all together and it gives you a nice durable, manmade material that looks natural, which I really like. And that's what you've got in your house. Right? That's right.

[00:31:30] Intro: and I love it.

[00:31:33] Eric Goranson: The last thing you need to do though, is put a sealer on. Now. Now, if you bought one of those inexpensive Chinese ones that came in, that don't have a name brand. And you have to seal it. Well, that's a whole other issue, but if you're looking at all the name brand products out there, correct that have warranties, then you're good as gold.

[00:32:20] Eric Goranson: There, they don't have a manufacturer warranty. So there's, there's many times that these little companies that you see these off-brand that are so inexpensive, it's a distributor. That's distributing them and not a manufacturer. So as soon as that product gets, can discontinued from the distributor, you now have a problem where the warranty goes away with it.

[00:33:02] Caroline Blazovsky: of problems do you see with courts? Because I see it as being a pretty durable product and I'm hard on my countertops, whether it's hair dye, you know, toothpaste, all that kind of stuff, especially in the bathroom.

[00:33:20] Eric Goranson: usually cracking is not a big issue. It can happen sometimes. You'll see it. Uh, if someone's hard on it, it'll pit a little better. A chunk will come out of it. But most of the time here's what happens.

[00:33:55] Eric Goranson: So when it comes out, you almost have to, you have to anneal it like class. And what a kneeling [00:34:00] is, is when that comes out as a big panel. Lower the temperature incrementally. So it doesn't typically tension inside of it. So it cools in a controlled manner. So there's not this built-up tension. I have been in stone shops while they're cutting a piece.

[00:34:37] Eric Goranson: And the piece explodes into a bunch of million pieces. I've seen that happen a bunch of times. It sounds like a car wreck happening right next to you. And that's where you have some problems. Is that internal tension, that internal tension also means that around cooktops and say, That you could get a crack or something like that to happen.

[00:35:11] Caroline Blazovsky: and things like that. Do you have to worry about fading with it?

[00:35:18] Eric Goranson: Well with courts, one of the weaknesses of courts is, do not use it where you get UV sunlight on it, because UV will affect the, uh, those binders and that are in there. It's not an epoxy, but it's the binders that are in there.

[00:35:50] Intro: But overall, I

[00:35:52] Intro: love it.

[00:35:57] Eric Goranson: And that's me now, there's some great granites out there, but [00:36:00] there are some great court's products out there that are beautiful, but for durability. Yeah, of course, you know, natural stone has fissures and weaknesses in it. So you're most likely to have much more problem with that. And you know, here in the us, Caroline, it's funny.

[00:36:40] Eric Goranson: So, you know, other things that I want people to be careful with, and this is kind of down your road a little bit, there's a trend right now, taking those old laminate countertops and people putting like a proxies over them and doing a poxy finishes. I am not a fan of doing a proxies and kitchens

[00:36:59] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. You kind [00:37:00] of do this stuff.

[00:37:25] Eric Goranson: So you gotta be really careful bathrooms, anything from hair products, toothpaste, you know, kids in the Bluetooth paste. That'll, that'll turn into

[00:37:43] Caroline Blazovsky: And it just picks it up. If you get it on Cory and it soaks right into the material. Now, I don't find that happening with the courts, which is interesting. I don't know why, but it just doesn't soak in. Now

[00:37:58] Caroline Blazovsky: I do it with a little buffer, you know, one [00:38:00] of those, um,

[00:38:01] Eric Goranson: Clean, scotch Brite pad, just one of those cleaning pads out come right off. So that's the advantage of that with that. And then the other thing I really want people to be careful with is wood countertops. You know, as a budget item, people out there are going the butcher block block countertop way, and you gotta be really careful because one.

[00:38:35] Caroline Blazovsky: But also the wood is prone to bacteria and growth, so you can get all kinds of salmonella and E coli and Tara back there, all that stuff gets right into your wood and you can't clean it.

[00:38:48] Eric Goranson: wipeable. Yeah. And doing a whole wood. Countertop is not going to do it. Carolina. Hear that music in the background. You know what time it is? It's time to call it a show for this hour. I am Eric G and I'm Caroline. [00:39:00] And you've been listening to Around the House