Just like any home our Lakewood Ranch home had some builder grade items like ceiling fans, faucets, and lighting fixtures that we have replaced. Builder grade screams cheap, but because the items are used so often most of the home improvement stores stock replacement parts. So we lucked out on our exhaust fan where we were able to simply purchase a replacement motor rather than a brand new fan all together.
The fan in the master bathroom was a cheapo NuTone fan with no light. There are 3 parts to it, the grille, the motor, and the housing that mounts to a ceiling joist or truss. Both bathrooms in our house had this same fan so my first idea was to swap the good fan motor from the guest bathroom with the non-working motor (in the master bath) and then get a fancier exhaust fan with a light for the guest bathroom. So now I have the master exhaust fan working fine and have a new Broan fan (purchased at Lowe’s which is close to my Lakewood Ranch home) with a light ready to be installed in the guest bathroom. It was a little bit larger than the other fan so a little extra work would be involved. I would have to cut out some of the drywall to make it fit, go up into the attic to mount it to the steel stud, and take care of the electrical. A few days passed and a phone call to my Dad would change my mind. I told him all about it and he said check Home Depot for a replacement motor. Sure enough Home Depot had it and for about a 1/3 of the cost of the other fan. I know I could have done the extra work and had a nicer fan, but considering the cost savings and the extra work that I wouldn’t have to do it simply was an easy decision to buy the replacement motor. Like I said above the only good thing about builder grade products is the replacement parts are sometimes available.
The builder grade materials are cheap and easy to install and are used in homes everywhere not just the Lakewood Ranch neighborhood I live in. Considering I was able to fix the exhaust fan cheap and quickly I was actually quite pleased that the builder went this route.
Next project for this Lakewood Ranch Home; the air conditioner and that will be left to the professionals.