Home Improvement Show 06-01-24

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Good morning and welcome. It's theHome Improvement Show of the Midlands on one
of three point five FM and fivesixty a MVOC. Hey, it's good
to have you along listening on thisvery first day of June. About that
where did the time go up?We'll spend a good deal of time talking
about improving or fixing your home today, or your business for that matter.

(00:32):
James Carwell is going to be by. He owns Freedom Plumbing answers to all
your plumbing and sometimes even gas linequestions. We've talked about that with James
before. John and Kathy Figner Rockthe Topper Surfacing and going to drop in
and Jessica Smith from Kim Drive ofLexington. We'll be by to enlighten us
as well, getting those services goodand clean and healthy. All right,

(00:56):
First up though, it's Hey,Casey and Marcus Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops.
Good morning, gentlemen, Good morningmorning. He'll through May already. Man,
I just big smile on my faceover here. So it's June crazy,
man, Have me a cup ofcoffee. That's cell. Last month
went well. Yeah, the remnantsale we talked about all month long.

(01:17):
Yeah, I'll say this I meanit's it's taken me the first of June.
But you know we were talking aboutwe'll go well, if you've got
a quote or if you want toget in today today, then we'll arn
it through today Saturday, June first, if you can get in, if
you need to stop by and seeme first, I kind of know what's

(01:40):
out there, can point you ina direction Martin. But David's out all
day till six at one Roads.So if you want that fifteen dollars a
square foot off a remnant, youneed to get in there and purchase something
today at least put you in apositive You don't have to put the whole

(02:00):
down, but get a deposit,get one selected. You know, have
some measurements. When you bring somemeasurements and uh bring your card or preferably
a check. But you know thatyou uh, you know, uh,
we'll do account. We'll figure outif we can in the future do it
again or something. But yeah,it's that you know, we did spring

(02:21):
cleaning, but there's still out there. Thank you all for coming in.
We appreciate it at great deal.A lot of need little projects like little
mean dresser toppers and little pieces.I mean, yeah, what are what
are some of these other uses,especially for remnants, because you know,
we think about came in. Yeahyeah, the one guy came in for

(02:42):
a piece under his grill, Yeah, under the grille. Yeah. Fire.
Yeah. We had a little bar, a small island, a little
milk are like kind of a coffeebar but has like a wine cool underneath
that. There was fireplace. Wewere able to do one big island too.

(03:05):
Yeah. I mean we've got somegood size remnists. I mean it's
not a full slide, but it'sI mean we've got some good size stuff
that you can do some good projectswith. Well, we talked about that
before. Somebody you come in andneed a slab but a third for their
job, and you know, ratherthan get charged with the two thirds of
a slab, you all eat that. Yeah. Yeah. And I had
somebody so worried the other day ona chedule. Why do I do I

(03:25):
have to go into two seconds there? Anyway? Like, look, don't
worry, but let us worry aboutthat. Let's just get it done right.
And uh yeah, you're not payingfor that extra slab, You're paying
for your square footage. The restis are what if I want to do
if you want to add on doother projects. You know, you don't
key right there. They wanted toadd on. So I want to do

(03:46):
that bathroom thing. Sure, yeah, we'll do it for the same price
and square foot costs, so youjust do it, add the square footage.
Okay, all right, So todaythis is the close of business today,
six o'clock. It's all sale,the big, the huge twenty twenty
four spring remnant blowout sale. Yes, sir, Now, you guys do

(04:08):
this usually a few times a year, so you just love someone, you're
gonna do it with this big Thishas been the biggest we've done as far
as you're gonna usually go for awhole month with Yeah. And then the
amount off that we were offering thistime, that fifteen dollars was true.
That that is tremendous. That's right. Well, and then by the way,
this isn't just uh you pay it, you take it home and you

(04:28):
deal with it. I mean,you guys are fit and everything. Yeah,
same service, Yeah, measurement,polish cut, good install So uh
so what's hot these days? Gentlemen? I mean, every now and then
I ask you that question. Youknow, you get to We went into
the year you know, talking aboutwhat's what's the big rage for twenty twenty
four, which I think we hadYou told me was the U the courts,

(04:51):
right, has it still been superhot? Yeah, I've seen a
lot of blue stuff, like someof these court sites and uh yeah,
victory and blue and what we didBrazilia, Brazilia out of Brazil in soccer.
So I mean, these higher enditems have really been what's moving lately,

(05:15):
the high end marbles, not notjust the basic Brazilian white marble.
I mean that these nice Italian marbles, these beautiful quartzites. Done a couple
of Egen blue court site jobs.That's really cool. I got some more
people looking at that right now.All that I love. The decorator stuff
has been really hot for us rightnow. Uh, some of these decorators

(05:36):
are just I don't know what itis that people are getting them involved.
Yeah, and uh yeah, welove decorators, you know. Yeah,
And the decorators are still tending towards, you know, the more cool colors,
the blues and the grays, thewhites. I had a customer last
week asked me, you know,my realtor says people are moving more towards
the warm stuff, And I said, you know, I've heard that twice,

(05:59):
but not from me, anybody reallyin the no, no, I
mean nobody reputable. Yeah, thedecorator is still usually using these cooler colors
right now, and I think thereis something calming, especially these blues,
and it's just they look so nice. I mean, whether it be just
a simple blue pearl or something fancylike that Igen blue or Victorian blue,

(06:20):
uh, the the you know,fantasy blue. There's there's these schooler colors
and a lot of them have someearth tone that you can accent with or
that your floor is gonna match,you know. But even if you've got
you know, kind of brownish cabinetsor something, it's it's not gonna clash
at all. But is this aquestion you ask folks when they come out

(06:41):
to see you and they they're notreal sure exactly what it is they want?
Uh? Do you go through thequestion? Didn't have to admit,
because my wife knows exactly what shewants, exactly what you want. We
didn't have to gameplay this one.But I mean for folks who come out
and really don't know color wise oranything else, I mean, you got
to talk about the other colors inwhatever room you're you're going to install this

(07:02):
in. Right, what I said, my starting point is usually, hey,
you know, just forget what you'veread on the internet, what initially
appeals to you. So look aroundthe room. Let's walk around first of
all, let's take some pictures.Let's look, let's you know, focus
in on what initially jumps out,and usually you'll see two or three that

(07:28):
that they lock in on and keepcoming back to, especially if you walked
a lot. It's to meaning likethey'll see one piece and like, oh
I like that too, Like,well, that's the same stone. Actually
it's just a different you know,cut off a different piece, and so
you'll you'll get a feel of whatthey like. Then I try to bring
in, okay, do you havepictures and and you know, kind of
dovetail into segue into that, Okay, is this going to match? You

(07:53):
talk about pictures of cabit colors.Colors, So then I can all,
right, well that one over there, I know you like it a lot,
but it ain't gonna match. You'reeither have to have to paint or
I'll tell you a lot of timesI'll go out to the house and try
to help finalize the color. Youknow, if if that doesn't work,
and then if that doesn't work,we'll get a decorator involved. Yeah,

(08:16):
that's that's why we At the endof the day, the customer is always
right. Yeah, yeah, Page, Priscilla, whoever it might be,
like, we've got some really strongpeople. That's yeah, Crystal. So
is it would it be accurate tosay that the trends as you're talking about
these blues and such, that it'sthe decorators who tend to drive these trends

(08:39):
or is it HG TV or Imean both sides actually, I mean the
decorator sometimes will come and say,look, you know all you need is
a level one. I mean forwhat you're doing, save some money here,
you know, this will match everything, and and sometimes you'll get that,
or hey, just chose let's usea plain in white courts for this
project because you know it's a dentistoffice bathroom or whatnot. You know,

(09:01):
so you sometimes you know they arethey the girls that we work work with,
are as sensitive to your budget asthey are to the overall style and
everything else. So they want tomaximize your budget, which is great for
the for the client and we youknow, we try to, you know,

(09:22):
work with that, but if youknow their client does have a higher
budget or it's just hey, thisis the last time I'm going to do
this is the only time I wantto mess with it. I want what
I want. Then they're going tohelp find, you know, what they
want. Yeah, And and thegreat thing about a lot of the girls
we worked with is they'll tell you, look, we really don't have a
style of our and in our house, we have a style that we want.

(09:46):
But as far as for you,I'm not going to impress my style
onto you. I'm going to pullout what your style is from you that
you may not even realize. Ithink a lot of people, Marcus think
that, well, you know,a decorator is always going to come in
and you know they're going to suggestthis, you know, really high end,

(10:07):
very expensive whatever it is, thatright, Yeah, And that's not
always the case. I mean,and these these just don't I mean the
ones we were Honestly, they're waymore affordable than some of these decorators I
worked with back ten, fifteen,twenty years ago in furniture. I mean,
I'm super impressed with their pricing andthey know the industry already they have,

(10:31):
they have exposure with other clients,so they can kind of, you
know, even before you step onthe lot, give you a little bit
of guidance and give me some guidanceas to where we want to be.
Well, I guess they get andpaid the same regardless of what overspent,
right, I mean, whether whetheryou're going to basically level on granted or
a high insult, it doesn't changewhat they're getting there doesn't behoove them.
And the more they can satisfy theirclient, the more watermouth business they're going

(10:56):
to get. And that's the samething with us. So if we can
suit your budget and get you somethingthat you truly enjoy, fantastic. Now
if you if your budget is youknow, unlimited, please come see me.
It's you know that we have donesome amazing, amazing high end projects.

(11:16):
And when it comes to that stuff, you are guys. Our guys
are the guys. I mean,there's there is nobody out there that can
touch the quality of install in thisarea that our guys are able to put
together. Period. And I saythat with full confidence seeing what I see
on other people's sites on Facebook andeverything else, and seeing it's not always

(11:39):
better to be cheaper. Well,right, exactly. But you talk about
the call of the install, andlet's be clear, it's not just the
install, but it's what happens beforethe install that's not done right. Well,
then the greatest install in the worldcan't fix it, right, huh.
Yeah, the the eye on thestones coming in and all that kind
of stuff. They have the experienceto plan as they put this up on

(12:03):
the wall or on the counter orwhatnot, how it's going to piece together,
how it's going to match up,and they they just they know how,
you know, you got to shiftthis a little bit this way,
this way. So it matches perfectlythat they they're just better and more experienced
than any other team in the area. Enrique and his folks, they do,
they do wonderful stuff, and theyapply that same quality and that same

(12:26):
instinct and that same experience to thelevel one installs too, right, you
get you get it, no matterwhat their standards, because it's those more
defensive that one. All right.So in a day to day, the
room to sale, the spring cleaningsail absolutely over six o'clock today, done,
okay, don't miss it, allright? So where can they fight
you you'll be at Fernandina today fortytwenty Fernandina in between Greens and Northern Pool

(12:50):
and Costco there on the hill.Yeah, David'll be out at the Chapin
Road road. Yes, sir,out there. Steve hot dog man,
he said, I and't seen himin a while. I'm been trying to
get in shape, so sorry Steve, but I love the hot dogs.
Chicken salad just past Steve just andthen what is it? Cash is chicken

(13:13):
right there? And then on theleft they're all missing you man. That's
all right, they're as I loveCass all right, Casey Marcus, you'll
have great weekend. Y'll sell you. Thank you. Carpets need a cleaning,
Go green with Lexington kim Dry.Their certified cleaning solution means a healthier
home, safer pets and their humans. Call eight oh three five O four
seven, O seven or visit LexingtonKimdry dot com today. The healthier,

(13:35):
deeper, carpet cleaner. Rock theTop Resurfacing transforms outdated tubs, tile walls,
tile floors, countertops and more withoutreplacements, save money, time and
the environment. Free estimates at Rockdtopresurfacingdot com or eight oh three, nine,
nine, eight, two eight afists. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops is
your locally owned source for countertops,great selection, great prices, and they

(13:58):
pride themselves on so peerior installation andcustomer service. The owner, Marcus will
even personally come out to do allyour measurements. See the selection online at
Lifetimecabinets SC dot com or stop buyone of Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops two conveniently
located showrooms on Fernandina Road in Columbiaor Chapin Road in Chapin and check out
the hundreds of slabs in stock,granite, marble, quartz court site.

(14:24):
They've got it all. And ifyou can't find exactly what you were looking
for when you're there, and that'srare, they will find it. And
it's not just kitchens and baths.Lifetime Cabinets Encountertops does outdoor patios, vanities,
bars, man caves, you nameit. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops Fernandina
Road in Columbia, Chapin Road inChapin and online at Lifetime Cabinets SC dot

(14:48):
com. Hey really appreciate you tuningin this morning listening to the home improvement
show of the Midlands on one Othree point five FM and five sixty AMWVOC.
Morning to you. I'm Gary David, now joined by James Carwell.

(15:09):
He is the proprietor, the ownerover at Freedom Plumbing. The guys riding
around town the big red, whiteand blue trucks. James, Good morning,
my friend, Good morning Gary.How are you. I'm doing well?
Man, doing well? Here thefirst day of the month of June.
Wow, already ready for a longtime? Yes, already been hot?

(15:31):
Yeah, yes it has been.We want to talk about the backflow
issues this morning, and I guessmaybe we can start with defining exactly.
I think it kind of says towhat it is backflow, But what are
we talking about? We talk aboutbackflow, so we're talking about basically protecting
the city water against any contaminants orcross contamination that could occur within someone's home,

(16:00):
maybe due to their irrigation system.Sometimes a hose, so you can
get backflow or back siphonage a coupleof different ways the city main brakes.
There's enough war going out of thatbreak to start pulling the water out of
somebody's house. That can happen.I've gone to a house before open the

(16:23):
hose bib. They said, wedon't have any water. Open the hose
bib and you can hear the soundof what sounds like water coming out,
but it's actually air getting pulled intothe system because there was a water break
on the main you know about overso kind of like that when you see
the pictures of those tidal waves,you know they suck all that water out

(16:45):
before they come in. Kind ofthing I guess I get get something similar
to that, Yeah, okay,you can also it can also happen if
a fire truck hooks up to afire hydrant. You know, they're pulling
so much water out of that firehide that it could create back sipherage to
your home and if you're not protected, then it could potentially pull water out

(17:08):
of your house. Un Let's sayyou're filling a bucket up to wash your
car or something like that. Youknow, you got the hose in the
stoke water. It can pull whateveris in that bucket back into the drinking
water system or irrigation heads. Yougot your irrigation systems on its running,
and you've got the breaking the line, or somebody hooks up to the fire

(17:36):
hydrant and it starts pulling that waterin it can pull that, you know,
fertilizer or anything that you put outon your yard into those irrigation heads
and contaminate the city water. Sobackflows are there to protect against cross contamination.
So what sort of methods are wetalking about here? Is this one

(17:59):
size fits all different things for differentapplications or so residential is typically pretty basic.
There's a what they call it calla dual check valve assembly that's testable
and typically you'll see them see themon irrigation systems. So you'll have your
meter box which again usually ten tofifteen foot from the road, and then

(18:22):
usually perpendicular to that, you'll havea 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 anon testable basically check valve dual check

(18:44):
on the meter. So you'll haveyour water meter, you have your dual
check that checks against anything from thehouse coming back into their system, and
then you'll have the check the dualcheck valve assembly which is test stable on
the irrigation portion and if it's doneproperly, if it's registered, that device

(19:07):
is supposed to be tested once ayear, and you typically get a paper
in the mail that says, hey, it's time to test your backflow.
Okay, all right, let mestop you right there, because I have
never gotten one of those. Itcould 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 andcross your fingers that it is working.

(19:32):
We see that quite a bit.You'll have irrigation companies come in, they'll
run the irrigation lines, they'll putthe valve in, but they'll never fill
the paperwork out because they're not qualifiedto do the testing of the actual valve.
That valve is not supposed to gointo operation until it's tested by a
certified tester, and then that paperworkgets sent in to yack the municipality,

(20:00):
which then sends it to d Heck. Okay, so even given, even
given that, still a good idea, whether the municipality notifies you or not,
that you should be checking this.And once this gets tested, once
it's gonna you will get a notethe next time letting you know it needs
to be tested again, because atthat point registered with with whatever municipality you

(20:23):
have or water pure. You're there, okay, So who does this testing?
Is that something that you guys do? 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 orthe end of last year and one at

(20:47):
the beginning of this year. Souh yeah, we had to go take
a what was it a four daycourse on backflow prevention testing, and I
had to memorize each test for becausethere are different backflows for different levels of
hazard. I guess you could say, but typically the ones we run into

(21:12):
around here are going to be forresidential are going to be the dual check
valves the least. And they usedto be able to used to be able
to test them with a little tubeand check the tube and if no water
came out, you're good. Butnow they require a test with a five
valve gauge, and that gauge hasto be calibrated once a year. So
it's a it's a lengthy process tolearn how to do it. I mean

(21:37):
again, you're talking about four daycourse and just testing a backflow. Okay.
So now now from the consumer side, how much is something like this
cost to get tested. I wouldsay it ranges from one to two fifty,
depending on the eyes and accessibility andthings of that nature. We have

(22:03):
some pretty big ones for churches andbuildings that require a lot of water,
and when they require a lot ofwater, they're going to require a larger
testable device, makes sense, Andthose are usually a lot more difficult to
work with because you're dealing with reallybig gate valves to shut off certain portions

(22:23):
of the system and things like that. Okay, well, let me ask
you this then, James. Allright, so your egaging systems, your
egation is gonna be running off ofcity water or off of say, well
water. Does that make a difference. It does. Your well water is
not going to require a backflow becausethe risk of back siphonage into your well
water doesn't really I guess it couldhappen, but a lot less likely to

(22:48):
happen you're well pumped. The checkvalve on your well pumped would have to
go bad in order to try todraw water back into your well. Well.
That must explain my situation. Iswe actually drawed off little creek behind
our house. Well, then yeah, you don't have a dual check valve
assembly at that point you probably havea jet pump, yes, yeah,

(23:10):
yeah, and then it's not verylikely for you to have any kind of
cross contamination issue there. And honestlyif it, if it was to do
it, you probably have the samestuff running off to the pond as far
as fertilizer and anything like that asyou would get drawn through the heads.
So not a basically what we're whatthis is forced check the rest of the

(23:36):
consumers in the city water system,and so you don't you don't have that
cross connection there between the city waterand potential hazards such as again your fertilizers
and things of that nature. Theycould happen in a sink if you had
a hose, because you know somepeople have the hoses. Come, let's
see you have this pool down sprayer. Yes, and you pull down the

(24:00):
spray and you're filling up saying thatsprayer's in the water, and something happened
it could pull that whatever solution youhad in your sync up through that spray
or if there was back siphonage inthe house. And now a lot of
sits actually have a secondary check valvebuilt into their system to where water can't
get pulled through the faucet in theopposite direction. Yeah, you know,

(24:26):
the more we talk tomorrow, Irealize how little the late person knows about
the plumbing in their home, andyou know how many different things. There's
a lot of safety devices needed toreally protect protect the plumbing system. Well,
then then that begs the question,I mean, do you guys,
do you know safety checks for lackof a better word or just you know

(24:47):
it kind of inspection things to helphomeowners know if they're you know, everything
is working as it should and they'vegot everything they should have. Well,
the biggest safety thing as far ascross connections are concerned, would be that
check valve assembly that we can testout in the yard. That that's the

(25:07):
biggest thing that that is there toprotect against cross contamination. Okay, it's
freedom plan they are that they're nowrequiring other devices on other things, such
as you're supposed to have anti siphonhose bib devices on each of your hose
bibs. Now when you when youbuild a house in order to pass in

(25:29):
fashion, you're supposed to have those. It's basically a check valve for your
hose bib you're outside faucet to keepany water from being pulled up the hose.
Again, if you have a dualcheck valve, the non test will
want at the meter. As longas it's working, you're you're not going
to be able to pull anything through. The problem is those just regular dual

(25:52):
check valve is not a testable device. So you know, it could have
been in there for any mechanical thingis eventually going to break, and it
could have been there since the housewas built. So have you ever known
to come back after the fact.Let's say you like, as you say,
if we're doing homeost to be built, it's got to have this on
it right now to meet code.But for all it was built fifty years

(26:14):
ago. To the minicipasers will comeback and say, okay, uh,
you're going to have to go backand change this and change that because you're
not up to today's code even thoughyour home was built fifty years ago.
Yeah, they're usually grandfather of thatkind of stuff in it when it comes
to situations like that, because Iknow, like I said, now they're
requiring those check valves at the hosebibs. They didn't used to require them.

(26:41):
They're not making you know, togo back and do that now,
Yeah, they're not making people thatdidn't have them go back and put them
in when it wasn't required. Yeah, it could get kind of caught.
So they're just slowly adding certain andmore safety devices to things as time goes
on. But the biggest thing toprotect against is one, don't don't keep

(27:02):
anything submerged in a chemical, youknow, in a tub of water with
a chemical in it. That wouldbe the number one thing I wouldn't do.
Make sure there's an air gap,which is basically, you know,
air between whatever you're filling and thedevice you're filling it with. As long

(27:25):
as there's an air gap there,then you can't have that spent and you
can't pull anything through. And that'sthe easiest and least cost of way to
protect against cross contamination, any kindof cross connection, and that's the one
that you're required to use when youhave a water source going into a sewer

(27:45):
system. Good stuff, My friend, James carlwill Freedom Plumbing. How the
folks reach you, my friend andgive us call eight O three four four
seven zero four seven one or visitour website at freedom dash Plumbing dot com.
When you power goes out, there'snot a lot to do, but
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(28:07):
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(28:32):
Midlands since twenty ten, and I'mhappy to answer questions and give you free
estimates with upfront pricing. Schedule yourfree safety check with mister Electric of Columbia
and receive fifty dollars off any workover three hundred dollars. Call eight oh
three eight six eight four two fourthree or visit my website mister Electric dot
com forward slash Columbia. Hey,look at here, it's John and Kathy

(29:06):
Fickner rock the top rees surfacing morning. How y'all doing? How are you?
I am well, I can't Ican't complain once well at all.
Y'all y'all here the long vacation youSoon we are y'all pumped up, fired
up, yet a couple of weeksbehind you. But it ain't far away.
Alaska. Here we come, Alaska. Huh yeah, never been there

(29:27):
before. Bucket list? Okay,is this the last thing on your bucket
list? No? Every time,I book every time. If I had
one, h I figure, aslong as I'll make a bucket list,
I'll live forever. Yeah. Okay, hey, we always we talk about

(29:52):
what y'all do in doing two things, for for the for your clients,
for your homeowners, b as owners, whomever. Ye, the state,
you've done worked for the state.It's about all about two things. It's
about saving you time, saving youmoney, lots of money. You know,

(30:14):
this whole time and money thing.You know, it's usually a trade
off. It seems like, youknow, okay, yeah, you can
even have one, but you can'thave the other. And that's true.
Well y'all have come the way tohave both. You have your cake and
eat it too with the coppery surfacing. But the money you can save you
can go to Alaska to see.So. So how is it that y'all

(30:34):
have come up with this genius methodof saving people time and money? Because
John's just smart like that. Youfigure stuff out, You figure stuff out.
This goes way back to the beginning. Really, we've been a contractor
for how many years, thirty thirtysix, But in the early years,

(30:56):
you know, we were a paintcontracting company primarily, and then that quick
became a renovation company and we hada lot of apartment communities and their number
one concern and apartment community is budget. They just they don't have much of
a budget. But if you makeyour budget, you get bonuses. I'm
speaking from the other side of thefence, being the property manager or the
regional and I know lots of them, but they are going to meet their

(31:18):
budget. So if you want toget the work there, you got to
figure out how to be better andfaster and smarter and you know, quicker
than your competition. And so manyyears of this and man, I learned
all the tricks of the trade.But one day I was ripping out a
bathtub off the floor. I hadseven hundred of them to do it at
one of my communities and we wererenovating everything and one of my painters,

(31:41):
I had like twenty five painters atthe time, one of them who I
didn't even hardly know very well.Came in to me and said, you
know, John, why don't youjust leave that tub there and let me
resurface it for you. I'll bedone today, come and look at it
tomorrow. I'm like, you knowwhat, let's check this out. So
he did. I came in andlooked at it the next day, and
I couldn't believe my eyes. Idid not have to take that thing off
of that floor and replace it andat the same time tear all the tile

(32:06):
walls. Because they don't make thosetiles anymore. We can't just take a
tub off the wall without taking thetile wall, so it becomes a really
big job what I was already doing. So I want to looked at that
and I was like, man,this is incredible. He did what I
was going to do in four hours. I was going to take four days
and charge four times as much money, actually way more than that. So

(32:28):
I'm like I showed it to theregional and he's like, Wow, that's
that's amazing. How much I'm like, you know, a tenth of what
I was charging you and it savedthem all this time. So we ended
up doing that, and then thatjust turned into one thing. It turned
into another next thing. You know, we're doing countertops, vanity tops,
ceramic tile walls, seramptile floors,shower stalls, and even that has evolved

(32:50):
to wow, you got a crackall the way across your bathroom floor,
all the way into the shower stall. We can fix that. That's called
the fiberglass repair. Yeah, Kathy, you were saying before you all came
on here. Y'all getting a lotof a lot of calls these days about
it. I got this crack inmy showers? Can you fix it?
Yep? We can. Yeah,we do it lot. We get people
texting photos and yeh, can youdo anything with us? Yeah, one

(33:14):
while we were sitting here two minutesago. Yep. But you go into
a community, usually a lot ofthese developments were all developed at the same
you know, the same year ortwo. So if one guy's got a
crack in his shower stall, verystrong possibility that his neighbors have the same
problems. So when we get intoa community, it's like bam, bam,
bam. They all tell each other. Next thing, you know,

(33:35):
wow, And I guess it's it'skind of similar to say concrete, for
example, you know, concrete cracks. There are folks out there, you
know, the good folks out therewho can can can fix that crack.
But like with you know, thefolks from Dimy Concrete Solutions who are on
the program with us. Yeah,they can do that. But if that's
all you do is fix the crack. If all you do, John is

(33:57):
go out and fix the crack,Okay, always going to tell there was
a crack there, right, Justlike Diming Concrete Solutions and concrete they can
fix the crack, but then theythen they do their overlays, right,
which is very similar to what you'redoing here with a different kind of surface.
You're fixing the crack, but you'renot stopping at that right exactly.
I always tell people the sea inconcrete stands for cracks, and guess what,

(34:19):
there's two seas in concrete. Soit's going a crack certainly, definitely
sooner or later. But yeah,we don't just fix the crack. We
fix it and then we resurface iton top of that. So when we're
done, it's beautiful. Not onlyis the whole thing beautiful, but if
we're talking about ceramic tiles, thegrout lines are also resurfaced, so now
the entire bathroom floor or wall iscompletely waterproof and beautiful and easy to clean.

(34:45):
Yes's much easier because nobody wants toclean those groul lines. Now nobody
does not. You should seal yourgrout lines every year, but nobody does
that. I'm sure shower floors oreven bathroom floors will put an anti skit
on it as well, so thatthat helps with the texture. You'll do
a lot of work, a lotof work at bathrooms. We spend a
lot of time in the bathroom.And likes the tagline. It's true.

(35:09):
It's been a quarter of my lifein the rock the top resurfacing. We
love your bathroom. You want tospend some time in your bathroom. The
uglier the better. We like themyellow, pink, green, blue,
and they don't have to be toreup parts, leave it alone, old
and dingy like. We get alot of the fiberglass tubbins around units that
are just old and dingy and dirtylooking. And so many of the days,

(35:31):
I mean a lot of homes havethose. Yeah, yeah, we
can come in then that surface too, you can. Oh yeah, we've
got people calling us we've got holesaround the drain. It's been there for
two years. We can't afford toreplace all this stuff. We just can't
use our bathroom. Yeah you can. I can fix that. I can
do it in three days. Ifit's just the shower, I can fix

(35:52):
it in one day, and youcan be right back to using again the
very next day. I think you'vetold us before that the only surface you
really can't resurface really is when itcomes to at is linoleum. Right,
yeahole My paints are so strong.I mean, I don't even like to
call them paints, but they're sostrong. They'll they'll eat that stuff,
they'll melt it. Yeah. Sovinyl, Yeah, vinyl vinyl. Yeah,
I guess what would go along.But a lot of times you got

(36:13):
vinyl floor and underneath your floor greenceramic tiles. I thought about you the
other day. I walked past theTV in the house and my wife had
HG TV on. They were showingone of these ugliest houses in America thing
I think that was the name ofthe show. And yeah, this person
had not only pink, but greenin their bath, you know, color
color combination. I thought about John. Yeah, I really probably about how

(36:35):
smart to call those people up?Hey, you guys don't even know about
me. You don't even know aboutwhat we can do. And yeah,
if they did, but I gotto ask you because you know, some
people like those colors. You're notyou're not immune to do that. Yeah,
long customer is always right, Yeahright, And I mean the blue
I kind of like the blue ones, not the tub necessarily. But the

(36:58):
problem is then if they have missingtiles or if it's tipped or cracked,
we can't just you know, doone tile. That doesn't work that way.
We have to do the entire thing. About thirty years ago, they
changed the size of the like let'ssay subway tiles. They used to be
actually four by four now they're threepoint eight eight or something like. That
was intentional, wasn't it. Yeah, they did that just to anybody.
So you can't replace you have tobuy all of them doing But John knows

(37:22):
how to get around that. Ohyeah, We've got ways of making things
work. Yep. That is thepoint we talk about. Tile chances are
pretty good unless your home was likebrand new, and then you shouldn't have
any tile issues. But you're nevergonna find that exact tile again. And
it sounds not even the same sizeanymore much less the same color. And
then well that Towe has been upthere for who knows how long. Yep,

(37:44):
it's this one's brand new. Yeahit's going to be a different shade.
Yeah, you could take a tileand cut it to the right size,
but then you still got the littlebeveled edge and stuff. It's never
gonna You're never gonna get something it'sabsolutely perfect. But we got ways of
making that close. Yeah it happened. Okay, so now we know again
from an esthetic point of view,you could make these surfaces look superior to

(38:09):
what they were. Oh yeah,okay, from a leak point of view,
as you mentioned, espectually in bathroom, yes, with showers and bathtubs,
and then even flooring because this stuffseals it yep, on waterproof.
What about the care and the longevityof the surfaces this is Kathy's department.

(38:30):
Well, I mean, as longas you're taking care of it, it's
it'll last till you're sick of thecolor. Again. Yeah, we've got
we've got bathrooms out there. Wedid twenty twenty five years ago. There's
still in fact, I have someof them. Call me back, like
kitchen countertops, John I want todo the countertop. One one want to
want to redo the countertop, andI'll be like, why, oh,

(38:50):
I just want a new color.Okay, I've done my own kitchen table
first. I bought I built myown kitchen table out of salad ope,
like thirty years ago or something,and I've resurfaced that thing a bunch of
times, just because I like tomess with the colors. But I really
like the color it is now.Rock the Top Resurfacing. So again,
save time, yep, save money, save the planet, save then save

(39:14):
the planet too, because no onegoes on a staff away right all right,
Johnny Kathy, always good to seethe both of you. And uh,
all right, how to folks hityou up? Rock thetopresurfcing dot com
or give us a call it eighto three nine nine eight two zero eight
eight. That's it. Rock theTop Resurfacing. Yep, all right.
You'll have a great weekend, youtoo. Oh boy, We're gonna have
a good one, thanks Garry.I'm James Carwell, local owner and operator

(39:37):
of Freedom Plumbing right here in theMidlands. After working as a plumber for
nearly a decade, I decided toopen my own business and Freedom Plumbing was
born because of my love for thiscountry and the great respect I have for
the men and women of our armedforces and our first responders. I named
my company Freedom Plumbing. What setsus apart from other companies is our customer

(39:58):
service. I have a five starrating on Google, a five star rating
on Facebook, an a plus ratingon Anjislist, and an A plus rating
with a Better Business Bureau. I'mJames Carwell, local owner of Freedom Plumbing,
and we look forward to servicing youfor all of your plumbing needs.
Get fifty percent off your next servicecall when you mentioned you heard us on
WVOC. Learn more at Freedom dashPlumbing dot com. That's Freedom dash Plumbing

(40:23):
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(40:46):
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(41:07):
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with Diamond Concrete Solutions. Welcome backto the Home Improvement Show of the Midlands

(41:39):
on one O three point five FMand five sixty am. Wvoc into our
final segment this morning, and welcomeback to Jessica Smith from Kim dry Alecxing
and good to see you. Gethow are you. I'm doing good.
We were talking a couple of weeksago and we we talked a lot about,
you know, coming out of pollenseason, although even at the time
we didn't really see much of that, but we talked about, you know,

(42:00):
the issue something of that cause iswhen it comes to carpet or anything
in the home for that matter,because you're tracking it in and it gets
especially in those carpets. It getsground down in there, and you know,
you mentioned, you know, besure to vacuum a lot. But
even that, I'm going to guesseven the most expensive, you know,
high falutin vacuum cleaner is not goingto get all of this junk out of

(42:24):
the the base of that carpet.I mean, it's gonna leave something behind
it. It doesn't have the powerto do so, right, okay,
unless you just suck the whole carpetup and you know, and destroy you
So this is you know, youguys come in there and this is kind
of a busy time of the yearfor you, coming out of pollen season,
heading into summer and you know,getting getting carpets, you know,

(42:44):
back to the role. But notjust carpets, Not just carpets, what
a polstery, pulstery, LVP,hardwoods, tile and grout and the oh
and of course well not really pollingon your countertops. But if you got
granted, we can clean, sealand polish those o can you? Okay?
Okay, that's good to know,but you guys do a lot of

(43:07):
we We spent all last couple ofweeks ago talking about you know, your
home and by the way. Theyabout about within a week or so of
making an appointment, you guys canget out and typically on most occasions and
take care of your needs at home. But you guys do a lot of
commercial work as well, correct,So we service commercial facilities such as daycares,

(43:29):
churches. We can even do thepews in churches, you know,
the foam seating and bolstered seats yep. Doctor's offices carpet VCT uh, which
people don't really know what VCT is. It depends. Usually they're in the
doctor's offices for like exam rooms ordental offices. It's the vinyl composite tile.

(43:50):
Those would need those would need tobe uh, depending on the condition
of the finish. It's like ait's like a wax they need. We
need to be maintenanced or strip andwax where you come in and remove the
previous wax and then get it downto the tile and apply new coats.
Why is that important? We justhad those scuff marks and things from if

(44:14):
chairs are wheeling around them and differentthings yep. So it just it's just
a good idea to maintain those.We have that for a sheriff's department,
you know, just foot traffic inand out to where we can come in
and maintain that. That finish onthose floorings. Restaurants and hotels, sure,

(44:34):
yeah, polstery for those things,you know, the little love seats
that are in the rooms, wecan come in and clean those. Law
offices, insurance agencies clean those aswell, because we can do not only
their chairs, we do their flooringof like LVP, and then we also
if they have a throw area rug, we can clean those as well.
And a lot of these places youmentioned, you know, hotels aside for

(44:59):
example, but you know a lotof other places they they're not necessarily putting
carpet in lobbies and waiting rooms anymorelike they used to. Maybe, but
you mentioned daycares and you run tooa lot of at least usually that's a
very low it's not a big youknow, pile yep, very low indoor

(45:19):
outdoor, tight door kind of thing. And and but I guess there's a
there's a catch twenty two of thatbecause because it's it's such a flat surface,
you're going to see stains and dirtand such a lot quicker on that.
Then it might kind of seep downin a you know, a bigger
pile and a carpet, you maynot notice it as much, right or
they you know, especially for daycarespills spills exactly or a big thing.

(45:45):
Or they have the the traffic becausethey have an area rug matt, you
know where all the kids either sitdown do like circle time, you remember
that, So they have the foottraffic around that, so you can see
where than that was, so itmight be a little bit darker versus when
you keeel back an area rug andyou see the because it's been covered up.

(46:07):
So we come in and we cleanthat. Removing gum. That's a
good that's a good thing. Wehave different solutions to remove gum and slime.
I was gonna say that that's that'syou're talking about germ factories here,
you know. I mean, theyjust are, let's face it, spills,
spots and spills. Oh that remindedme of a song they But yeah,

(46:31):
we have we have different solutions fordifferent stains, different types of stuck
on things, adhesive type things,you know, like I said, slime
or gum we can get up.Well. See, and this is interesting
because whether we're talking about a homeor even a daycare, any sort of
a business you have to, youknow, as the owner, the homeowner,

(46:53):
of the business owner. I mean, you've got to maintain these things
between cleanings. But yeah, you'reprobably doing it with the aim solvent or
so or whatever. It is thesame cleaner all the time, and you're
sitting here telling us that depending onwhat the issue is, you've got different
things for it. Correct. SoI was in a home that they showed

(47:16):
me a bottle of what they wereusing for a particular spot, and the
bottle listed everything from salad dressing tochocolate to food spells. One size fits
all, one side fits fault,to pet urine, and there is no
one size fits all solution. Soif you have an organic water based stain,

(47:39):
you need an organic water based solutionto combat that. If you have
an oil type stain, you needto combat that with an oil. It's
a it's the way it works molecularlyto break down everything to remove the staining.
There is no one size fits allcleaner that's going to do everything.

(48:00):
Well, let me ask you this, I mean, are you aware of
maybe the most common mistakes that weyou know, the labor people make when
okay, it's a stain or it'sthis or it's that and we go attack
it, or is it possible wecould be doing more damage than good.
Yes, you could actually set inthe stain by using the wrong solution,

(48:22):
the do it yourself type. Hey, I'm going to look up how to
remove this thing. I'm going onto YouTube, and somebody does not.
They're just like it works for everything, try this. It doesn't. And
so you can actually set in astain, or you can take that stain
and end up like dyeing the carpetfibers versus because you're setting it into the

(48:44):
fibers versus lifting it up and removingit. Is that irreversible? Then when
that happens, we cannot redie carpetfibers. We can clean, We can't.
But if they just if they dosomething and set the stain in,
let's say it doesn't dye the carpetfibers, but they just set that stain
in, can that ever come backout again? Possibly? Yep, And

(49:04):
we do our very best with oursolutions to do so to remove that set
in stain. So I guess fora lot of folks, maybe your only
real experience with this unless you've calledKim dribal Lexington is to go maybe to
the grocery store and rent that thingup front, which I don't see much

(49:29):
of those anymore. I think they'reon the way out. Hopefully they do
not have enough extraction power. Andthe detergent it uses leaves behind a soapy
residue. So as when I saysoapy residue, it attracts dirt. So
if you were trying to get outa spot, that's the problem with the
residue. It attracts more dirt,attracts more dirt. It's kind of even

(49:50):
the same thing if you were tospell let's say water. If you spill
a thing, a cup of water, and you blot it out, but
you don't get it entirely up,and that water will actually have a little
bit of a residue, and asyou walk on it, now you have
a gray stain showing up on yourcarpet. Oh great, And that's why

(50:12):
our solution does not leave behind adirt attracting residue. And by the way,
that grocery store thing, you don'tknow where that thing's been. No,
have you ever lifted up those littleplastic covers of them? No,
you don't want to, don't evengo there. Now, Oh my goodness,
there's there's a reason why you goto shop for meats at the grocery

(50:32):
store and you go to shop fora clean carpets but came dry to Lexington.
Okay, a very good reason forthat. The explain to us that
the process and just okay, Iknow there's different ways depending on what the
what you're attacking, but I meanyour typical carpet cleaning. And I brought
up the grocery store thing because andmaybe you own one of these things at

(50:54):
home much you bought you know,off the internet, and it's you know,
you're we used to have one.You rub it across up and you
run it across the air, andit puts water on and it sucks the
water back out again supposedly probably notenough, Probably not enough. I mean,
but our experiences lay people is thisis what this is. You're doing.
This is all it's all about.Your process is a little different,

(51:17):
right, so a lot different.Yeah, So when we arrive, we'll
perform a walkthrough to take a lookat the areas, look at what type
of staining you have. Like Isaid, makeup would be different than a
food spill. So they'll look ateverything and determine what if you need any
pre sprays to loosen up any heavilysoiled areas. That would be like getting

(51:39):
a grass stane on your clothes andif you're doing a pretreater before you throw
it into the wash. So wewould apply a pre spray if it's needed,
and then we'd follow that up withour hot carbonation solution. That it's
very hot. It gets down appliedand then it works into the base of
the carpet and on those fibers,and then we extract it through our powerful

(52:02):
equipment. So it's carbonated. Isit's hot carbonation? What is what is
it? What's the trick with thecarbonation? This is something chemical? I
know. Yeah, bubbles, thinkof bubbles. So bubbles lift dirt and
are it explodes the dirt from thefibers and then it gets whisk away in
our equipment and no dirt. Ido not try this at home. I

(52:25):
mean, don't go get a bottleof carbonated water now and pour it on
the carpet, because you're just gonnapour water on the carpet, right,
That's that's what happens, right,Yeah, that's what happens. Uh Okay,
but back to the when it comesto commercial work, and I guess
no job is too big or toosmall. Huh Nope, no job too
big or too small for us,terrific. So whether it's did you mention

(52:47):
daycarees, doctor's offices, lawyers offices? Yep, let's see insurance agencies,
nursing homes yep. So nursing homes, of course have a tile in their
kitchen. Usually we can clean thattile. And oh we have one that
has LVP in their dining area,and then the carpeted halls and rooms,
so we can tackle tackle tackle itall ok? All right, So what's

(53:12):
the best way to reach you all? And I think again you told us
a couple of weeks ago. Isit still the case that you can get
usually get to somebody within about aweek's time. Correct, We're still good?
Okay, How do folks get ahold of you? Kim Dry,
Lexington, So you can call meat eight O three five hundred four seven
zero seven, visit us at Lexingtonkimdriydot com, Instagram, Facebook, Lexington,
Kim Dry terrific, Jessica, goodto see, enjoy the rest of

(53:37):
your weekend. Thank you too,Hi, this is Gary David, You've
heard me talk for years about AnthonyJohn 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 thejob, but the name has changed.
That's right now it's Beaver Roofing andBeaver Gutters. Leave it to Beaver for
all your roofing and gutter needs.The same great service and the same great

(53:59):
folks behind Anthony Jock Construction, justwith a new name. Eight oh three
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to Beaver Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters.