Kitchen & Bath Residential Construction and Systems

Love the book.

I love the fact that they have an option to borrow a book. You rent it for the time period of the semester and return it when you’re done. However, when you do this, remember multiple people have used these books. I wasn’t thrilled about the book coming in this condition, however, I am glad I didn’t have to buy it new at $250 a book.

At first, when you see "Kitchen & Bath" in the title it is a bit confusing, because this book has little to do with kitchens and bathrooms. Instead it provides a general overview from a bird's perspective at 10,000 feet, of the various ingredients for building a home. It covers everything from lumber grading to tankless water heaters. Because there is so much to fit within 245 pages, none of these topics are covered in a great amount of detail. This book is excellent for a beginner, for example if you occasionally work on home DIY projects or if you want to learn about how homes are put together in a general sense. But if you already have significant experience with residential systems you will find the info too basic to be of much use. Overall, this book is nicely organized with excellent explanations and illustrations, so I would highly recommend it for a beginner.

Given that the NKBA Kitchen Planning book is my go-to resource for all things kitchen design, I expected the same kind of quality with the NKBA's latest release, and I got it. This book deals with construction and building systems (as the name implies) for the kitchen and bath. Some of this information builds on what you get with the Kitchen Planning book, but it also adds a lot of great new information.Chapters 1 - 4 are short and sweet: how to gather your team, knowing where to get codes, foundations of a healthy home and energy efficiency. Chapter 5 builds on Chapter 4 with using natural energy (solar). From there the book delves into foundation needs and materials, then floors (from wood to steel to concrete) and on up the walls, both exterior and interior. From there it tackles doors, windows, roofing and surfaces.Next the book turns to heating and cooling, air quality, water and drainage, equipment, electrical and finally lighting.The book is fairly high level because it is aimed at a very specific audience, so you aren't going to find the general details that you might find in a more general book. It is also not a book for contractors or builders, but designers working with contractors and builders. But it does cover things you need to know for kitchen/bath construction, such as lumber, including cuts and quality in the flooring section, for instance, or constructing a good vapor barrier in the roof.The book includes plenty of diagrams and pictures and plenty of resources if you need something more than the book has to offer. Another exceptional NKBA offering.

This book would be worthwhile for any would-be assembler or contractor. It's essentially a textbook (hence the price), but one that presents its content really well.I'm not in the business, but I'm currently getting ready to hire folks who can redo the upper and lower bathrooms in my relatively old house. This book has given me a lot of info that will let me make better decisions about what I can realistically have done and whom to hire. (To be honest, I was thinking I might be able to do the job myself, but this book has -- wisely -- has convinced me otherwise.)If you're looking for a good overview of the business-side of things, check out Kitchen and Bath Business and Project Management, with Website (NKBA Professional Resource Library). It's excellent, too.

I am actually not a contractor or a carpenter but just a home owner and I wanted a book to guide me through the kitchen and bath construction. I wanted to understand the terms my contractor and carpenter were using. The section on "Maintaining Healthy Indoor Air" was a great section for me because I did not realize some of the options that I had in terms of venting. My contractor looked through the book and thought it was very thorough. Overall a great book for the professional or home owner wanting to understand more!

This is probably the densest design book I've read. By that I mean its 260 pages are nearly devoid of guff. The information is presented concisely and clearly, with plenty of tables and illustrations where appropriate. It covers pretty much everything that a designer needs to consider when it comes to residential construction, and while you will need to look elsewhere for specifics of local codes and materials purchases, you'll find the basics of it all here, making this a worthy guide for projects.

I have three resources when constructing buildingBuilding Codes IllustratedBuilding Code BasicsKitchen & Bath Residential Construction and SystemsThese guides have been the most helpful and are my go to guides. They are all chocked full of valuable information that is well worth their weight in gold.