Have Kayleen McCabe Rescue Your Renovation at the Home + Remodeling Show

This is a woman who knows her way around power tools. Kayleen McCabe, the star of DIY Network's Rescue Renovation, will headline the Home + Remodeling Show in the Washington DC suburbs at Northern Virginia's Dulles Expo Center January 22-24, 2016.

Kayleen is a licensed contractor who never met a trouble renovation she didn't like. The premise of Rescue Renovation is that she can take a terrible property and turn sad rooms into jaw-dropping spaces in seven days. She says she's willing to go to any length to bring out the existing charm of a home.

Kayleen's great endeavor is to bring young people into the trades. She is an industry leader, teaching kids how to pick up a trade and use it to create a better life.

Kayleen was featured last week in The Washington Post's live chat moderated by Post Home and Design editor Jura Konicus. Readers submitted questions and Kayleen answered dozens of queries within an hour. Here are some of the best excerpts from the chat:

Q: What's the worst room in the house to renovate?

Kayleen: "The worst room? The worst room is a space that was worked on by someone who did things incorrectly the first time. But the most challenging room to work in would be the bathrooms (because of space) followed by kitchens. In each of these spaces you have plumbing and electric and many other trades. In addition, a lot of coordination needs to be done to get the timeline as efficient as possible."

Q: How can you decide if your 80 year old wood floors can be sanded yet again without disappearing? How often do you really need to sand them?

Kayleen: "Old floors are commonly 3/4" thick, but that doesn't mean you have that entire space to use for refinishing. Floors go together in a tongue and groove style. That really gives you one third of that 3/4" to sand - roughly 1/4". When you sand past that you are likely to see larger gaps in the wood, possibly fasteners starting to show, and the integrity of the wood starts to decrease. There are a few ways to preserve them and not go through an entire refinishing process, but I would have to suggest you contact a local flooring expert for their best suggestions."

Q: Hi Kayleen! So excited you are coming to Northern Virginia next week - We have a kitchen floor problem. Bought the house with a tile floor in the kitchen and thought we loved it - until the tiles started to crack. Come to find out that it was a DIY job and the floor was not prepared correctly. Trying to figure out if we start over, use something different, or what? We are overwhelmed and can't seem to make a decision!

Kayleen: "I am very excited to be heading to the east coast as well! With a tile problem like that I would suggest starting over. You could patch it one tile at a time, but the problem might never be truly fixed. Starting from scratch will let you control the outcome, not trying to guess or work around what the previous DIYer did."

Q: It is such a pain to have a full bath redone. We only have one in our house. How long should a total gut of the room and rebuild take?

Kayleen: "A full gut and remodel of a bathroom could take on average 2-3 weeks. The process can go much faster if the project is properly pre-planned - like all of the materials are on the job site before the project starts, and the sub-contractors are scheduled."

Get all your renovation questions answered January 22-24 at the Home + Remodeling Show. Kayleen McCabe will be on stage Friday, January 22 at 6pm and Saturday, January 23 at 2pm and 6pm.

Don't have tickets yet? Buy in advance to save big and skip box office lines. Right now you can get 2-for-1 tickets when you connect with us on Facebook. Click here to take advantage of this exclusive offer.

DULLES EXPO CENTER
JANUARY 22-24 2016.