Home Improvement Show 01-04-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Good morning, my friends, and welcome in now the home
improvement show of the Midlands one O three point five
FM and five sixty AMWVC. Hey, good to have you
with us, enjoying this first weekend of the new year,
and we got a busy hour plan for you. We'll
be talking to Russ Markesy over at Finishing Touch Team
summer we buy from Beaver Rufic and Gutters, and I
think we'll get a visit too a little bit later

(00:34):
on from our plumbing friend, Yeah, James Carr will overt
Freedom Plumbing. We get the hour underway though with Russ
Marcesy from Finishing Touch Team. Good morning, Russ, good to
be here.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Gary.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's done some partnership work with Diamond Concrete Solutions and
such we do.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
We work together all the time actually with you know,
different contractors. You know, painting and for coding is go
hand in hand quite a bit, actually, Gary. Anytime that
we are looking at a commercial bid, for example, if
not ten out of ten times, nine out of ten times,
they're always asking for some sort of a floor coating

(01:14):
finish of some sort, you know, whether it's a polished
concrete floor or poxies things like that, and so we
work really very well with Renee in Courtney and just
teaming up with that, right because you know, let's face it,
the more trades or you know, scopes of work that

(01:35):
we can offer these contractors under one roof, the better
chance we are of landing the job is the uh,
the idea behind it, right, make it easy for me,
easy for the for the client. Yeah, absolutely right. So
instead of me trying to get into a whole nother
you know, trade of construction, it just works out great

(01:55):
to partner up with Renee and his team. They do
such a fantastic job and we've been working together for
quite a while now.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
These are the sorts of things where you don't want
to be a jack of all trades and a master
of none.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
That is exactly right, That is exactly right. Matter of fact,
it's funny you say that. I get calls all the time,
Gary where they're asking me, do you remove a wall?
Can you build a wall? Can you put up a
bunch of crown molding in my house? Okay? Now we
don't do it in particular, right, We stick to the painting.

(02:28):
That's what we know best, that's what we do best.
And I do feel that when you're looking for a
paint job, that's the type of person that you need.
You don't need a jack of all trades. However, being
in this business Gary for twenty three years, we've come
to know a lot of different people that do this stuff.
So I can always give a referral. I have a

(02:49):
lot of different folks that we work hand in hand
with all the time that we can all the way
down to plumber's, electricians, whatever you really need to get
the job done. But when it comes to painting, that
that is what we do.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
And I say this all the time, and I know
I know this from from his hand experience. This is
the way you guys go about This is the way
that painting should be done. Okay, So unlike a lot
of other things, like, for example, typically if you've got
an electrical problem, you're gonna need to call an electrician.
Sure now plumbing, youre gonn need to call it a plumber. Painting,

(03:27):
I can do it myself, hear it all the time,
or or I can hire the handyman because I don't
really like to paint, but I mean this guy can,
yeah he can maybe you know put up you know
crown molding, so he can probably paint too well. Sure so,
but what you guys do goes beyond just painting. For example.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
It is gary, it really is. It's it's all in
the preparation work. Okay. For your example, the handyman that
puts up the crown mold, for example, Okay, can he
put up the crown mole? Can he slap some paint
up there and get it done? Absolutely? Okay, you know
most of them can. But it's all in the details.
How did he calk that crown molding into your ceiling

(04:13):
and into your wall when you're ceiling and your wall
isn't actually getting painted? Okay? Did he fill the holes
correctly to where they're not leaving little half moon? We
call him cat eyes in the industry. Okay, there's all
sorts of little details. Did he sand the edges down properly?
Because there's always a rough edge on the bottom of
that crown mold. These are all the tiny little detail

(04:34):
things that the jack of all trade type people. And
I'm not trying to put that down whatsoever. But you know,
it's there's a specialty to it. There's a lot of
tricks to the trade, and there's a lot of little
nuances that you know, just everyday people aren't going to
know when it comes to painting, and that's what really

(04:54):
makes or breaks that paint job, makes it look professional
or not.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And you talk about the preparation, and so the preparation
doesn't involve any painting.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
At all, correct, right, correct, Well, maybe some priming possibly,
you know, but other than that.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Even get to that priming, there's a lot you guys
are doing.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Absolutely absolutely, yes, you know, just to elaborate a little
bit on it with with our paint jobs, Okay, this
is just a standard paint job.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
We don't charge more, you know, any more or less
for this. Okay, we'll come in. As you know, Gary,
we did it in your bathroom for you. We remove
all your switch plate covers. We cover everything up very
very thoroughly.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Now going there that morning, y'all showed up. But I'm
gonna bet my wife probably already did that because that's
the way she rolls.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, she did. She helped out a lot, Actually she did.
She was she was very proactive. Actually we appreciated that
we did. We did. No, she's awesome.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
But this is this is part of the project, the process.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
It really is, because you know, it doesn't matter how
good of a painter you are. Okay, Paint splatters, it drips, Okay.
So the difference between a professional and an amateur, I've
always said is a professional will wipe his mistakes up. Okay,
because mistakes are going to happen, right, that's the point.

(06:12):
So we try to mitigate that and cover thoroughly, thoroughly everything. Okay,
take your plate covers off. Then we go through all
your sheet rock, all right, because there's always imperfections in
your walls and your ceilings, no matter what. Some stand
out more than others, some don't. But we see every
bit of that and we go through it with drywall

(06:34):
compound and we repair every bit of that stuff. And
then we go a step further and we do a
two coat spot prime system is what we do.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
We'll spot primeate with regular drywall primer first, and then
we spot prime it with the actual finish paint that
we're going to be using. Okay, This helps for the
end result so that you don't see any what we
call in the industry flashing, all right, when you look
down the wall. How many times if you look down
a wall and you see all these weird little leopardy

(07:05):
looking spots everywhere. Okay, those are called flash marks, is
what those are. So by doing that two coat spot
priming system, we we get rid of all that and
the job just comes out a whole lot better. And uh,
you know, we will we will calk the corners of
your of your room, even if there's no trim up there,
just to create a new line so that when we

(07:27):
cut our line, it's a it's a nice straight line
that you could just about shave with. Okay, that's sharp,
and that's our standard. That is our absolute standard. We
don't veer from that one.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Bet.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
It's been doing it this way for many years and
it's it's you know, proven to be pretty uh successful.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
So now the example, the job you did for us
in the master bathroom, Okay, that was you know, not
a huge bathroom, wasn't small, wasn't huge either, But now
you go into extremely large places.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
And absolutely the process this is the same, I guess,
exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
It really is.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Now if we're doing a new construction, let's say where
it's brand new walls.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
New sheet rock, the imperfections there.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
But yeah, so the sheet rock guys will generally take
care of all that, okay, is what they do. We're
not messing around with sheet rock at that point. We
are focusing on the painting at that point. However, we
also implement certain little systems that we like to put
in place to try to make those and results come
out as best as possible as well. Right, For example,

(08:33):
your walls are always going to get one code of
primer and two coats of finish paint, no matter what.
That's that's the bar none standard right there. Okay, Well,
once you get that prime code on there, Gary, all
those imperfections, even in new sheet rock will show up.
You can't see it until you get some paint on it,
right Okay, Well, at that point we like to have

(08:54):
the sheet rock guys come back in and do their
pull up work that they need to do, because once
we spot prime it, it's getting two full coats of
finish paint over the top of that in lieu of
waiting till the first coat of finished paint went on,
and now you're only getting one more coat. Okay. So
it's all about the millage the build the thickness of

(09:16):
millage of paint on the wall that really makes or
breaks it and makes it look solid and uniform, kind
of like it grew there right the term. So there's
a lot of things like that, and a lot of
a lot of contractors builders, they just don't know the
system of that. So that's where we come in. We
help delegate those type of things so that the job

(09:37):
in the end comes out right because let's face it,
at the end of the job, people eat with their eyes, Gary,
that's what they see. They see the painting, they see
the finish.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's what it's about. You're the last
thing they see. We're the last you're doing that. That's
that's what they see.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Exactly. Maybe maybe uh, Renee, you know, might be the
last guy or us. You know, it's kind of up
for it's a floor of the wall, you know what
I mean. But but we're the finishers. That's what we are.
Uh So we need to come in last and make
sure that you know, everything looks great.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
So really, yeah, well again, like so many times and
again you mentioned Renee again, but we're talking about them.
The details were always in the prep, correct, you know.
I mean it's it's like, you know, practicing all week
and then playing on Saturday, exactly, you know, I mean,
this is, this is, this is I think it's bretting
it out what you did. If you if you don't

(10:30):
do the prep right, if you don't put in the
practice time, the prep time to get to get ready
for the game, then the game is gonna be a disaster.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
That's exactly right, Gary. Uh, there's there's always a little
phrase I like to tell all the guys. Our finishes
are only as good as a substrates that we put
them on. Okay, So if that substrate, if that surface
is not prepped correctly, or we haven't gone through the
proper steps, our finish isn't going to look right. And
it's on us. So we have to know the right

(11:00):
steps to take the right products to use in the
right situations. And there's a variety of them. Gary. It's
it's funny because you referred earlier. You know, everybody says, well,
I can paint it, I can do it, I can
do it, and chances are they can. They can throw
some paint up there, no problem. But there is such
a clear cut difference between professional painting and non professional painting.

(11:23):
They're just is and these are the things that we're
referring to that that make up that difference.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, well, in this particular home, they redid it. Whenever
that was it was pretty obvious that oh it was.
It wasn't a professional painter, no paint up in that
in that bathroom, but there is now. So thank you
for that. Absolutely. I know that the estimates are always free.
It really did. And you know, aside from the job

(11:49):
that you do and the great pride you take in that,
you take great pride in something else too, and that
is customer satisfaction. Customer service.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
We drive on it, Gary, we do.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
We do.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
You know, I can't tell you how many times I've
showed up to a job for an estimate and the
homeowners told me, well, you're the third person that I've
called and the only person that's shown up. Okay, it
just baffles me every time. I can't understand it, you know,
to save my life. But you know, look, this is
this is a service we're providing, okay, And not only

(12:25):
are you going to get you know, the highest quality
paint job, but on the front end and the back end, Okay,
front end being the estimate, the service of showing up
when we say we're going to show up, giving you
an estimate and a timely matter. It's a free estimate, uh,
giving you colored in a detailed estimate too, absolutely very
detailed estimate. We break everything down black and white. There's

(12:47):
no no gray areas in our estimates whatsoever. Okay, there's
no room for well, does it really mean this or
does it mean that? Okay, no additional cost ever. These
are the things that really really matter to homeowners they
just do and contractors for that matter. And so we
have gone out of our way to really create a

(13:11):
very thorough system when it comes to that, even down
to helping people pick colors out, what goes with what,
giving advice you know, we do this all the time
on the on the back end of it. Once your
job is done, it's it's we We constantly tell people,

(13:32):
I don't care if it's a month from now or
two months from now or three months from now. If
you see something that needs a little touch up or
this or that, call us. We'll be out within a
day or two to take care of it. Okay, how
many how many painting contractors out there are going to
do this? Okay, they're just not. And it's uh, it's
our integrity. We have to it's just the most important thing.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
You're twenty three years without, Yes, sir Russ. Always good
to see my friend. Same here Gary, and the website
finishing Touchteam dot com. All the infos right there, contact
in for everything else.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Right absolutely, or you can give me a call it
eight oh three four six seven six seven five nine all.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Right, all right, that's going to do it for the
home improvement show the bids this morning, Hey, Rus, have
a great thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
You too, Gary, you too, thank you.

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Speaker 1 (15:30):
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Thanks for joining us this morning. It's the Home Improvement

(16:13):
Show of the Midlands on one O three point five
FM and five sixty AM WVOC and across the planet
anywhere you go worldwide on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, it's
mister Electric. It's dropping by to see us. Jeremy Holliday,
Good morning, my friend.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
How you doing? Man? Good good, good to see you.
How you doing. Oh you know, I'm hanging in there.
We made it to the weekend. I oh my goodness.
Although I don't know what the weekend looks like for
you guys. You know, I mean this up. You know,
this is a good time for us to sit and
talk about this when we do have you know, bad
weather and you know, again it varies. Sometimes you get

(16:49):
storms and nothing much happens. Other times you get storms
and you get a lot of power rautages and such. Yes,
of course, power rautages on that scale, that's something that
utility deals with. I know, it's not you don't call
your local electrician. You don't call Mistro Electric and say
my powers out. I get it. But are there things
that when your power does go out, the damage that

(17:13):
could be caused by that to things. Are there things
you can do to try to circumvent that?

Speaker 4 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, So if your power is fluctuating, you're getting
surges or it goes out, you know, hopefully you have
a surge protector, but if you don't, my advice would
be to shut the power off at your main breaker.
And if you don't have a main breaker, then it's
time for a service change. So call us for a

(17:39):
service change at a later date, not during the storm,
but turn off all the breakers you can find in
your house and unplug everything from the walls, you know,
until the surgeing has stopped and the power comes back on.
Another thing would be that if you're having power fluctuations
or surges, is to call the power company first, because

(18:03):
you're paying a power bill, and what's including in that
is they will come out and check their side of
the service at no additional cost to you. So if
there's a problem on their end which can cause power fluctuations,
they can address it and get it fixed and it
won't cost you any additional money, you know, So and
if they can't, then you would give us a call

(18:23):
and we can come out and figure out what's going
on there and get it resolved. So unplug your stuff
during a storm. And if the storm's real bad, you know,
your powers going on and off consistently all the time,
you know, during the storm, unplug all your stuff and
shut it down.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Especially electronics and things like that. I mean, yeah, that's
always been something. I know. If we go out of town,
I always unplug the big TV.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah, that's the best defense, really, you know, search protectors
will protect you, but there's other ways for surges to
come in sometimes, you know, phone lines, cable lines, sprinkler system,
zoning line, different little areas where surges can come in.
So it's the best defense is unplugged during something like that.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
So what I mean, if you can put it in
Layman's terms, you know what is happening when that surge
comes in? I guess I know, But I mean.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
It's a voltage spike. So the voltage spike, you know, goes.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
All this energy just zip it in there real quickly.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Yeah, that's right. And you're electronics aren't made to handle it.
They're really small components on that circuit board and if
they get enough, they just they just deteriorate instantly and
the magic smoke comes out of.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
The right so sore. They're built to survive on this
little bit of electricity, you know, consistently constantly. But then
when it you know, it gets a big old jolt.
It's just too much of the system.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
Yep, yep, just knocks it out and then and then
you got to replace it. So if you if you
have insurance, you know, some people say, well, you know
they have insurance, and that's good, you should have insurance.
But sometimes it's hard to get the unit that you
fell in love with again, you know, and it's time
consuming and it puts you in a position where you're

(20:18):
not as comfortable as you are with all your stuff working.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
And the heck we try to get something repaired these days,
buy something new for listening to cost to repair it,
that's right, even if it can be repaired. The throwaway generation,
yes we are when it comes to search protectors, because
I guess you know, for for folks like me, the
initial reacts you talk about a search protector, I think about,
you know, one of these molt boxes, you know, you
get stuff plugged into itto the wall that's got a

(20:43):
search protector built in. But you're talking about whole home
search protectors.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, a big search protector that goes on your main service.
So what that's doing is protecting you from surges that
come in through the service wires. And that protects the
whole out everything, Yes, from surges that come in through
the service. So when I say surges come in in
other areas, you have secondary surge protection, and you never

(21:09):
want to get rid of those secondary surge strips that
you have throughout your home, right, and then you want
secondary surges on anything, surge protectors on anything that's located
outside the pool pumps, AC condensing units, or package units.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
So these are things that we're not talking about going out,
Hey buy this surge protector off the shelf and just
plug stuff into. I mean, this is something different we're
talking about. This is just be installed. I guess that's right.
They're normally hardwired.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
And a lot of times the warranty on a surge protector,
as far as the unit goes or the product, they'd
wanted to be installed by an electrician. So just to
make sure that it's installed the correct way, and.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
I guess it varies, Jeremy, But I mean, what kind
of money. Were talking here to if you went to
a home today and they say, you know, we want
to be as protected as we can be. And well,
let me ask this first. How do you know, as
a homeowner, if you've got some of these search protection units?
Can you tell?

Speaker 4 (22:11):
Well, you can look at your panel box and the
device will normally have surge on it, normally will have
a green led light on it.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
You can look at your disconnects where your AC units are.
There are a little box on your house right behind
your AC or right next to your AC, and that
is where you'd see a surge protector on the AC
in most cases. You can look at your meter can
outside if you have a meter Maine. I know some
of these terms. People might not know what I'm talking about,

(22:42):
but the meter is where the power company reads how
much power you're using. And there's a meter out there,
and there's a box that that meter plugs into, and
that box normally, if you have a whole home search protector,
it could be on that box also, especially if they're
as a main breaker on that box.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Okay, but most of us typically wouldn't know where to
look or what to do. And you hear this conversation,
you're thinking, I really want to be protected. Next time
you can give you guys a call, you can come
out and you can you can tell pretty quick obviously,
But I mean how much typically give us a ballpark range.
But what are you talking about? It installed?

Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, so anywhere from uh, you know, three hundred to
I mean it can go up depending on how much
search protection you need. It can go up.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, it go up.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
It goes up from there, you know, So starting around
three hundred to get one unit installed on your probably
like an AC unit or something like that. Anywhere from
the high two s three hundred and on up is
a range that I would I would start at around.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
To three dollars. What's the most do you think? What's
the most? You even?

Speaker 4 (24:00):
Well, I've been to houses with you know, eight AC units.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Let's talk about frous regular focus.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
So you know, a typical home, you know you might
have any you know, fifteen sixteen worth of search protection. Yeah,
that you need installed to protect.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
But that's protecting.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
You got to think about what it's protecting. You're protecting.
You know, the typical person has about sixteen thousand dollars
worth of electronics in their home really. Yeah, it's wild.
Everything the LED lights have electronics. Your your smoke alarms,
carbon alarms, they have electronics, these little things just switches,

(24:42):
smart switches, electronics. You'r all your Google devices, all your
electa devices, your entertainment, I mean, so much electronics in
homes now, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
That's a good point. Yeah. And again, if you've got
a protect on an AC unit and it keeps it
from from from blowing on you, I mean no of you. Okay,
maybe insurance cover it, but now you're dealing with the
hassle not having AC or heat. Yeah, and that's not
something especially AC, we want to do without around here. Obviously,

(25:16):
that that inconvenience. So whether or not that's insurance covers
or not, yeah, you're certainly, you know, put in a
situation you don't want to be in.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
And I think a lot of deductibles are you know
a thousand? Well then there's that too, right, so they've
already Now you're gonna spend the money to replace your
stuff and you still need SARCH protection.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, so go ahead and cut to the chase and yeah,
how how long is it the take to install this
sort of Let's say somebody needed they needed at all.
They needed a whole bottle of wax here.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
You know, you're talking probably uh four maybe five hours, okay,
so yeah, if you need they needed the whole house done. Yeah,
maybe maybe less, could take less. You know, it depends
on sometimes it depends on the guy you get out there.
You know, uh, not that one's any better than the other,
but some are more efficient, you know. Sure, yeah, you

(26:05):
know you're talking averages maybe three hours.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Okay, Well that's not bad at all. Yeah, no, that's
not bad because anytime you guys come out, you have
to do without some electricity for a little bit at least,
right sometimes, yeah, most of the time.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, And we can do you know, at that same
time we come out, we can do a complimentary safety
check on the home and let you know if there's
any other items that you may want to get done
to bring your to make your system safer and bringing
up to current code standards, what.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Sort of things you're looking for those safety checks. I
know we've talked about it before, but.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Yeah, well obviously the the the most apparent things like
that are dangerous. If there's any open wiring or anything
like that. You know, we want to we want to
make you aware of any dangerous items, but then just
code updates and safety items. We're talking ground fault protection,
we're talking arc fault protection, we're talking about surge protection.

(26:58):
We're talking about you know, smoke detectors are a big one.
Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms. Uh, that's the top
priority on my list normally when I go in a
home and look at it as you know, you want,
you need to have those smoke alarms and those carbon
alarms working.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
We've talked about that before too, and I was surprised
at how many you really should have because we just
moved to a new home and discovered, unlike our old home,
they're all over the place. Yeah. Uh, and I always
think you got one or maybe two and you're good
to go. But if you told us before, I mean,
you need really to be safe, you need more than that.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yes, And that's you know, that's done by the guys
who do that type of stuff. They've evaluated why people
have been hurt or why homes have burnt, you know,
to a certain extent. And uh, you know, the smoke alarms,
the more you have, especially the size of the home,
the more, the more time you have the better response

(27:53):
you have to that smoldering fire or whatever. And we
could go into that, but there's a lot of a
lot of smoke alarms and homes.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Now. Yeah, well regardless of the electrical issue. Maybe it's
not even electrical issue. Maybe you want to add something
and maybe you want to you know, do the Uh
how did you phrase it a couple of weeks ago,
like the outdoor lighting and stuff, you gotta you got
a word a phrase for that.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Yeah, accent lighting or landscape lighting.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, but if you kind of call it an enhancement,
enhancement stuff, yeah, you do it. Yeah, there it is.
It's mister Electric, Jeremy. How do folks get ahold of
you guys?

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Well, they can reach us at eight zero three eight
six eight four two four three, or they can you know,
find us online at mister Electric dot com forward slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
All right, Bud, have a good weekend, Jeremy, you too.

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Speaker 7 (29:46):
Cleant to do, but you can call mister Electric with
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Speaker 4 (30:12):
Hi there, I'm Jeremy Holliday, local owner of Mister Electric
of Columbia. I've been servicing the Midlands since twenty ten,
and I'm happy to answer questions and give you free
estimates with upfront pricing. Schedule your free safety check with
Mister Electric of Columbia and receive fifty dollars off any
work over three hundred dollars. Call eight oh three eight
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(30:35):
mister Electric dot com, forward slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
It's summer from Beaver Roofing and Guttters.

Speaker 8 (30:55):
Good morning, summer, Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Let's talk a bit about roofing here. And you know,
during the week when we talk about y'all's business, I
often mentioned and I refer back to an email I
got from a listener. This would have been Thanksgiving, probably
about three years ago, now maybe maybe two three years ago.
Who made a mistake. We had a thunderstorm roll through

(31:21):
that time of the year, that that that fall, that
late fall, and he had not a big problem, but
just just a minor hole in his roof that he
needed to be fixed up. And rather than call you
guys first, he called somebody else. He listens to the
show all the time. He knows all about you. But
for whatever reason, he wound up calling somebody else, and surprise, surprise,

(31:43):
he was told, well, it's going to be three months
before we can get to you. Three months. Now again,
you got a hole in your roof. I don't care
how big, house small. You don't need the whole roof replace,
but you need that fixed. You got you got somebody
who says they do roof for pairs telling you it's
going to be three months before we can get to you.

(32:06):
All right, No, boy, right, nobody's incredible, nobody's that busy summer.
I mean, come on, so there.

Speaker 9 (32:13):
Is plenty of work for everybody, you know, But it's
just how you treat your customers and how you know,
it's basically how you want your home treated. You know,
you can't, like you said, you can't have a hole in.

Speaker 10 (32:23):
Your roof for three months. What is this gentleman or
homeowner supposed to do? You know? So, yeah, I I.

Speaker 9 (32:30):
Remember specifically the customers. You know, we got out there,
got him taken care of, and he was just ecstatic,
you know.

Speaker 10 (32:38):
Like you said, No he did not need a full.

Speaker 9 (32:40):
Roof replacement, and We're not here to sell everybody a
full roof every time when it's not warranted. Right, you know,
we're out there, we're gonna evaluate it. We're going to
get you back, you know, back to no water penetration.

Speaker 10 (32:55):
Nope, you know where you're you got your dry?

Speaker 9 (32:58):
How about that, You're you're dry, You're not getting leaked
own or anything like that.

Speaker 10 (33:04):
So we may.

Speaker 9 (33:05):
Repairs, we do replacements. You know, we're not here just
only roof only roof replacement.

Speaker 10 (33:12):
That's not what we're here to do.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
And as I recall that listener told me that, y'all
rather within twenty four hours and yeah, once you were done,
you couldn't even tell it was ever a problem. So
congratulations again. But this brings us up to another issue here, summer,
that there are also companies out there who just plane
flat don't do roof repairs, which is really weird to me,

(33:33):
but they don't. So. But but here's the danger, right,
if you have an issue with your roof and you
wind up with a company that only does roof replacements,
guess what you're going to get a roof replacement.

Speaker 9 (33:48):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
So let's talk about from an educational standpoint here as
a homeowner when you have an issue with your roof,
are there any things you want to be on the
lookout for, or if a roofer just comes in right
away and says, yeah, you need a whole new roof,
I mean, how can you know as a homeowner whether
you're getting straight scoop or not?

Speaker 10 (34:12):
So absolutely totally get it.

Speaker 9 (34:16):
So what there are so a lot of different reasons
why you know people will call in.

Speaker 10 (34:23):
Here of late.

Speaker 9 (34:24):
Obviously we have had a lot of storm damage or
you know storms, winds, high winds like that, so that's
a that's a whole nother situation. But you know, we'll
go down that hole in just a second, or that
route in just a second. So whenever you know, we
come out, we're gonna get up on.

Speaker 10 (34:46):
The roof, We're gonna take photos.

Speaker 9 (34:47):
We're gonna show you what you have going on.

Speaker 10 (34:51):
So that's the main thing.

Speaker 9 (34:52):
You know, a lot of times they're just oh yeah,
that's it.

Speaker 10 (34:56):
So a lot of stuff going on up there, but
it's probably best let's just go ahead and you let's
replace it all.

Speaker 9 (35:01):
No, we're gonna take into a can't We're gonna take
a look at your pipe boots, We're gonna look at
the grit and the granule on your shingles that are
still less.

Speaker 10 (35:09):
You know, we're gonna educate you about what you have
going on with your roof right now.

Speaker 9 (35:16):
And a lot of times, you know, roofs are they're
still they're in great condition, but they just need a
little bit of TLC if you will.

Speaker 10 (35:23):
So we'll put an.

Speaker 9 (35:24):
Extra feeling around those pipe boots that bent out from
your your bathroom fans or you know, your the fans
over your ovens and things like that, so we'll put
a little extra cock around there. Sometimes roofs get nail pops.
We can put some feeling over that. That's not a
big deal. You know, We're just gonna and we're gonna

(35:46):
make sure that it's it's it's in good shape. Because
if you still have the good granule, your decking feels great,
you don't have any leaks on the inside, you don't necessarily.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Need a whole new roof, right And I guess one
of the things that kind of protects the consumer in
a situation like this is if if a roofing company
just comes out and says, yeah, you need a roof replacement,
well you could be calling your insurance company to begin with,
I guess if there's.

Speaker 9 (36:10):
Been damage, that is correct, you know, And that's that's
what I want to point out. Whenever we get up there,
we're going to take a look at what you.

Speaker 10 (36:17):
Have going on in that in that time.

Speaker 9 (36:19):
And if we don't see marked, uh you know, shingle
lifting and hail spots and things like that all over
the roof, there's no real reason to get that roof replacement. However,
if we do get up there and we do see
damage where wind has lifted the shingles and we see creeping,
or if there's hail or you know, you have your

(36:42):
shingles are in bad shape, we're gonna let you know.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
And the new thing I know that you guys do
then is you don't leave it just up to the
homeowner to deal with the insurance company.

Speaker 9 (36:55):
Right, We're gonna help you along the way because a
lot of times, you know, you haven't done acclaim or.

Speaker 10 (37:01):
Where do I what do I do? Who do I call?

Speaker 9 (37:04):
How do I go about this?

Speaker 1 (37:05):
You know?

Speaker 10 (37:06):
So, yeah, we're going to be there every step of
the way.

Speaker 9 (37:08):
We're going to help you.

Speaker 10 (37:10):
We'll be there when you.

Speaker 9 (37:11):
Call your insurance company, let them know what you have
going on.

Speaker 10 (37:14):
You've had a roofing contractor out.

Speaker 9 (37:16):
They've seen some damage. You'd like to have an adjuster out.
We're going to be there to meet that adjuster, talk
with him, go over things that we've seen and things
of that nature. You know, we're not going to leave
you high and dry, and we're going to be we're
going to advocate for you as well.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
So let's let's talk about this here for a second. Summer.
Let's say somebody listening today just built a brand new home.
I've got a beautiful, nice roof on there on average
around here, how long can they expect that roof to
be to be fully functional? At what point in time
should they think? How many years down the road? And
I need to look at replacing this thing? Okay, brand

(37:53):
new roof, just just finished it yesterday. What's the life
of a roof in a place like like the middle
of South Carolina on average?

Speaker 9 (38:01):
Sure, so we hear, oh, I've got lifetime shingles.

Speaker 10 (38:05):
I'm gonna be good to go forever.

Speaker 9 (38:09):
Not necessarily, not.

Speaker 10 (38:11):
So much.

Speaker 9 (38:14):
So generally, like you said, brand new roof, we're gonna
start thinking maybe fifteen to twenty years down the road.
Maybe we need to start thinking about replacing the roof. However,
however you maintain your roof is going to give that
longevity as well. So as long as you are doing

(38:35):
what you need to do to maintain it, getting just
annual roofing inspections, to take a look to make sure
all of my pipe boots are in good shape, my
ridge fent's in good shape, all of the components of
your roof are.

Speaker 10 (38:49):
In good shape. You know, if you if.

Speaker 9 (38:52):
You don't, you know, it can it can be sooner.

Speaker 10 (38:57):
You know, the water can get to it.

Speaker 9 (38:59):
If you have high straw and leaves that are just
piled up on your roof. That makes these all of
these things impact your roof, you know, and how it
how it does its job. So it's yeah, fifteen to
twenty years.

Speaker 10 (39:17):
You need to start thinking about it. You gotta think
the hot.

Speaker 9 (39:20):
Summers that we have that just bake on these asphalts.
I mean you see it on the roads that literally
you see the waves coming off of the road when
the heat is so hot baking down and that is
the same material that's on our roof, so it's doing
the same thing. And then we have these harsh cold
so there's a lot of expanding, a lot of contraction,
and just a lot of stuff that our roofs are

(39:42):
taking on that we're not even necessarily aware of because
we're like, eh, yeah, it's fine, I don't have any leaks.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Hi, thank you Summer and tell us how folks get
ahold of you so you.

Speaker 9 (39:51):
Can find us at beaverroofing dot com and then eight
oh three nine nine one roof.

Speaker 11 (39:59):
I'm James Carr, local owner and operator of Freedom Plumbing
right here in the Midlands. After working as a plumber
for nearly a decade, I decided to open my own business,
and Freedom Plumbing was born because of my love for
this country and the great respect I have for the
men and women of our armed forces and our first responders.
I named my company Freedom Plumbing. What sets us apart

(40:19):
from other companies is our customer service. We have a
five star rating on Google, a five star rating on Facebook,
an A plus rating on Angie'slist, and an A plus
rating with a Better Business Bureau. I'm James Carwell, local
owner of Freedom Plumbing, and we look forward to servicing
you for all of your plumbing needs. Get fifty percent
off your next service call when you mentioned you heard

(40:41):
us on WVOC. Learn more at Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.
That's Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.

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Speaker 1 (42:06):
James Carlall, he owns Freedom Plumbing, the guy's riding around
town in the big red, white and blue trucks. James,
Good morning, my friend.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Good morning Gary. How are you.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
I'm doing well, man. We want to talk about the
backflow issues this morning, and I guess maybe we can
start with defining exactly. I think it kind of says
to what it is backflow, But what are we talking about?

Speaker 2 (42:24):
We talk about backflow, so we're talking about basically protecting
the city water against any contaminants or cross contamination that
could occur within someone's home, maybe due to their irrigation system.
Sometimes a hose so you can get backflow or backsiphonage

(42:50):
a couple of different ways the city main brakes. There's
enough war going out of that break to start pulling
water out of somebody's house. That can happen. I've gone
to a house before open the hose bib. They said,
we don't have any water. Open the hose bib and
you can hear the sound of what sounds like water

(43:11):
coming out, but it's actually air getting pulled into the
system because there was a water break on the main
you know about over so.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Kind of like that. When you see the pictures of
those tidal waves, you know they suck all that water
out before they come in kind of thing. I guess.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
I get something similar to that. Yeah, okay, you can.
Also it can also happen if a fire trucks hooks
up to a fire hydrant. You know, they're pulling so
much water out of that fire hydrant that it could
create back siphon inch to your home and if you're
not protected, then it could potentially pull water out of
your house. Un Let's say you're filling a bucket up

(43:51):
to wash your car or something like that. You know,
you got the hose in the store water. It can
pull whatever is in that bucket back into the drinking
water system or irrigation heads. You got your irrigation systems on,
it's running, and you've got the break in the line,

(44:12):
or somebody hooks up to the fire hydrant and it
starts pulling that water in. It can pull that, you know,
fertilizer or anything that you put out on your yard
into those irrigation heads and contaminate the city water. So
backflows are there to protect against cross contamination.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
So what sort of methods are we talking about here?
Is this one size fits all or different things for
different applications or.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
For residential it is typically pretty basic. There's a what
they call it call of dual check valve assembly that's
testable and typically you'll see them see them on irrigation systems.
So you'll have your meter box, which again usually ten
a team foot from the road, and then usually perpendicular

(45:03):
to that, you'll have a backflow which is in another
meter box and it basically controls you know, it goes
to your irrigation system. Now, the city on their end
requires a non testable, basically check valve dual check on

(45:24):
the meter. So you'll have your water meter, you have
your dual check that texts against anything from the house
coming back into their system. And then you'll have the
UH check the check valve assembly, which is testable on
the irrigation portion and if it's done properly, if it's registered,

(45:46):
that device is supposed to be tested once a year,
and you typically get a paper in the mail that says, hey,
it's time to test your backflow.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Okay, all right, let me stop you right there, because
I have never gotten one of those.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
It could be that the person that installed your irrigation system,
if you have one, never registered it. So that thing
is just sitting in the ground and cross your fingers
that it is working. We see that quite a bit.
You'll have irrigation companies come in, they'll run the irrigation lines,
they'll put the valve in, but they'll never fill the

(46:19):
paperwork out because they're not qualified to do the testing
of the actual valve, and that valve is not supposed
to go into operation until it's tested by a certified tester,
and then that paperwork gets sent in to HECK or
the municipality, which then sends it to d.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
So even given that, it's still a good idea, whether
the municipality even notifies you or not that you should
be checking this.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
And once this gets tested, once it's gonna you will
get a note the next time let you know it
needs to be tested again because at that point registered
with with whatever municipality you have or water pure you're
theyre okay.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
So who does this testing? Is that something that you
guys do?

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yep. We've got two licensed technicians, one me including myself
and another technician and we got those uh I think
at the beginning of or the end of last year
and one at the beginning of this year. So uh yeah,
we had to go take a what was it a
four day course on backflow prevention testing, and I had

(47:37):
to memorize each test for because there are different backflows
for different levels of hazard. I guess you could say,
but typically the ones we run into around here are
going to be for residential are going to be the
dual check bots the least. And they used to be

(47:58):
able to used to be able to test some of
the little tube and check the tube and if no
water came out, you're good. But now they require a
test with a five valve gauge, and that gauge has
to be calibrated once a year. So it's a it's
a lengthy process to learn how to do it. And
again you're talking about a four day course and just

(48:20):
testing a backflow.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Okay, So now now from the consumer side, how much
is something like this cost to get tested?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
I would say it ranges from one to two fifty
depending on the size and accessibility and things of that nature.
We've some pretty big ones for churches and buildings that
require a lot of water, and when they require a
lot of water, they're going to require a larger testable device,

(48:55):
makes sense, and those are usually a lot more difficult
to work with, because you're dealing with really big gate
valves to shut off certain portions of the system and
things like that.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Okay, well, let me ask you this then, James. All right,
so your egazing systems, your gas is gonna be running
off of city water or off of say, well water.
Does that make a difference.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
It does. Your well water is not going to require
a backflow because the risk of back siphonage into your
well water doesn't really I guess it could happen, but
a lot less likely to happen. You're well pumped the
check valve and your well pump would have to go
bad in order to try to draw water back into

(49:35):
your well.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Well I must explain my situation, and we actually drawed
off that little creek behind our house.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
So well, then, yeah, you don't have a dual check
valve assembly at that point. You probably have a jet pump, yes, yeah, yeah,
And it's not very likely for you to have any
kind of cross contamination issue there. And honestly, if if
it was to do it, you probably have the same
stuff running off to the pond as far as fertilizer

(50:04):
and anything like that as you would getting drawn through
the heads so not a basically what we're what this
is forced to check the rest of the consumers in
the city water system. And so you don't you don't
have that cross connection there between the city water and
potential hazards such as again your fertilizers and things of

(50:29):
that nature. Oh, they could happen in a sink if
you had a hose, because so you know some people
have the hoses. Come, let's see you have this pull
down sprayer. Yes, and you pull down the spray and
you're filling up sink that sprayers in the water and
something happened, it could pull that whatever solution you had
in your sink up through that sprayer if there was

(50:50):
back siphonage in the house. Now a lot of sets
actually have a secondary check valve built into their system
to where water can't get pulled through the faucet in
the opposite direction.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Yeah, you know, the more we talk to more, I
realize how little the late person knows about the plumbing
in their home, and you know how many different things.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
There's a lot of safety devices needed to really protect
protect the plumbing system.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Well, then then that begs the question, I mean, do
you guys, do you know safety checks for lack of
a better word or just you know it kind of
inspection things to help homeowners know if they're you know,
everything is working as it should and they've got everything
they should have.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Well, the biggest safety thing as far as cross connections
are concerned, would be that dual check fouve assembly that
we can test out in the yard. That that's the
biggest thing that that is there to protect against cross contamination.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Okay, it's freedom.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Plumbing now they are. They're now requiring other devices on
other things, such as you're supposed to have anti siphon
hosebib devices on each of your hose bibs. Now when
you build a house in order to pass in fashion,
you're supposed to have those. It's basically a check valve
for your hose bib you're outside fawcett to keep any

(52:15):
water from being pulled up the hose. Again, if you
have a dual check valve, the non test will want
at the meter. As long as it's working, you're not
going to be able to pull anything through. The problem
is those just regular dual check valve is not a
testable device, so you know it could have been in

(52:38):
there for any mechanical thing is eventually going to break
and it could have been in there since the house
was built.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
So have you ever known to come back after the fact,
Let's say you like as you say, if we're doing
almost to be built, it's got to have this on
it right now to meet code. But for all those
built fifty years ago to the minicipasers will come back
and say, Okay, you're going to have to go back
and change this and change because you're not up to
today's code even though your home was built fifty years ago.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yeah, they're usually grandfather of that kind of stuff in
it when it comes to situations like that, because I know,
like I said, now they're requiring those check valves at
the hose bibs. They didn't used to require them. They're
not making, you know, to go back and do that now. Yeah,
they're not making people that didn't have them go back

(53:26):
and put them in when it wasn't required.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Yeah, good stuff. My friend, James Carwell, Freedom Plumbing. How
do folks reach you, my friend and.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Give us call eight oh three four four seven zero
four seven to one on our visitor website at Freedom
dash Plumbing dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Hi, this is Gary David, You've heard me talk for
years about Anthony John Construction and the wonderful jobs they
do for folks all across the Midlands. When it comes
to roofing and gutting, well it's the same people doing
the job, but the name has changed. That's right now
it's Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Leave it to Beaver
for all your roofing and gutter needs. The same great
service and the same great folks. I'd Anthony John Construction,

(54:01):
just with a new name eight oh three nine nine
one roof and Beaverroofing dot com the gutter roofing work.
Leave it to Beaver. Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters.