Home Improvement Show 06-06-26

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Good morning and welcome to the Home Improvement Show of
the Midlands. Good to have you with us this morning
on one O three point five FM and five sixty AMWVOC.
My name's Gary David. If we haven't met before, well,
good morning. Where you been. We've been doing a show
for years now and we got fabulous guests to bring
you every Saturday morning, like those we have lined up today.
Jeremy Holliday from Mister Electric with a whole home surge protection.

(00:29):
What is it? Is it worth it keeping your backyard
fun again or making it fun again for the first time?
Trey Power from Mosquita. Joe's got ways to do that.
We'll talk about it. First up, it's Russ Marchesy, the
owner of the Finishing Touch Team. Russ, good morning, my
friend Jerry.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good to be here this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
We were talking in the break here that you got
peppered with questions here recently by somebody inside your organization
I who wanted to do their own little paint job,
and it had a lot of questions before and after
the fact, so that'd be a good let's talk about
some of those things. This morning was if if you
owe some you know, some tips for those di wires

(01:06):
out there.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, absolutely, Gary.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
So yeah, yeah, as you said, you know, our office
manager she uh she had a little project that she
was doing on the side for her for her son actually,
and so I thought it'd be good to ask herreer,
did you have any uh, you know, burning questions that
you had. And of course she was asking me some
questions you know, during during the uh process of it
all that she was doing it. But but boy, she
had some good questions Gary. And you know, she she

(01:32):
was asking about the different types of paint and when
to use the different types of pain versus latex oil
based paints, primers, things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, and uh so it got us, Yeah, it got us.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Sound a good good subject there, of when and where
to use them, when to pull tape off of you know,
trim or a or a wall when you've taped something
around it and you've painted already, things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, Well, I guess maybe the most important one is
using the right kind of pain. How you've told us before,
you If you use the wrong type of paint on
top of the other type of paint, you can have
a real problem, right.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
That's for sure. Man.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
It's detrimental actually the type of products that you use,
and you've got to do some research on it or
ask a professional or get a professional for that matter,
but you really do because it's just imperative. We always
like to test the paint before we apply another product
on there. And you can do that very simply by

(02:33):
putting some to natured alcohol on a rag and trying
to rub on that paint surface to see if the
paint comes off or not to see if it's latex
or oil okay.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
And so we'll do that a lot of times.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
What we'll also do is we'll feel the type of
trim and just obviously from doing it a long time,
we can tell kind of what's what. But the old
saying is, obviously, you know, you don't want to put
latex over an oil based paint, but you can always
put an oil based paint over a latex. Now I
get I get some confusion sometimes because of the primers.

(03:04):
Because a primer, uh like a lot of the good
primers that we use are are oil based primers. There
are petroleum based is what they call it, oil base
those are universal bonding primers and uh you know, uh
sain blocker primers. You can go back over those with latex. Uh,
the way they formulate those those are are penetrating primers,

(03:26):
so you can go over those with a latex. So
I get some confusion on that sometimes when it comes
to those primers, but uh, it's uh, it's it's it's
real important to use those primers as well. Whenever anything
is uh raw gary raw wood, raw sheet rock, things
like that. If a wall has already been painted, there's

(03:46):
no need to prime that wall just because you're changing colors.
That's a that's an old old wives tale type thing.
And and listen, I you know, we we get some
customers sometimes that that want that regardless, and uh, you
know it doesn't matter to us. Well, my saying is,
we'll put pink polka dots on the wall if you want.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's always no, no, no worries on our end, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, but uh, but you don't need to. You don't
need to because that surface is already feeled.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, So well that's that's I guess, you know, you
tell me, that's probably one of the biggest mistakes we make,
is di I wires just using the wrong type of
paint on top of the wrong type of paint. What
happens when you do that time? What happens when you
do that when you make that mistake? Russ.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, So let's say you Let's say you make a
mistake and there was some oil based pain on on
something on some trim in your house.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
You put latex over it. What is what's happening is
it peels off super easy.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Areat you know, if you if you look at it wrong,
it starts to peel off.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Really but but.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
You'll notice, you know, if you're vacuuming and you've done
your baseboards and you hit hit the baseboard with a vacuum,
that code of paint tends to peel off, is what
it does. And you can get your nail in there
and just scrape it right off. Sometimes we see it
all the time, not only residential, but we see.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
It in commercial facilities constantly.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
A lot of schools that we that we do painting in,
uh you know, they have you know, just keep random
people touching up throughout the year, just trying to help
just you know, get in doorframes touched up and things.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
And they don't use the right products.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
And we see that quite a bit where where they've
put latex over an oil based paint, and really there's
there's not a whole lot of fixes for that once
you've done that, Gary, So you want to really make
sure that you're putting the right product down there from
the get go, because once you have done that, like
I said, there's not a whole lot of options other

(05:35):
than trying to stand off as much of that old
that first coding as possible, and then you want a
prime it with something a bonding primer to lock that
down and encapsulate that coding. Then you can go over
it with basically anything that you want at that point.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
So you're you're a cash of a lot of extra
time and money if you do it wrong the first time.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
So it can yeah, yeah, you want to do it
right the first time, you know. And uh, you know,
I I get calls all the time, Gary, from from
just different folks that you know, we just have different
questions about things, And uh, you know, I love answering
things like that for people because they don't make the
mistake and they don't you know, waste their time or
money going through that stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
We we do that all the time. Man. We answer
a lot of questions from a lot of folks.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
So I'm intrigued by this taping up question. Man, uh uh.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Mainly once you do, how long do you wait before
you take it off? I think I've made that mistake before,
and I've ripped it off there and never went to
paint with it.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Man, And the paint went with it, didn't it. Yeah,
that was that was one of the questions.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
She had for me, because she was they were painting windows,
is what they were doing, so, you know, and it's
kind of a it's kind of a twofold question here
because the real question is do you have a second
coat to put on? So let's say we're let's let's
take a window for example. Uh, you know, a six
paneled window.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
There's panels all over.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
The place, and and it takes a long time to
taple on those windows up. Sure, So to remove all
of that tape and then have to put another coat
on and retape it first is a lot of extra labor.
So if you have a second coat to put on,
then now you don't want to remove the tape obviously,
because it's going to take a long time.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
To do that to retape it.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Sure, But if if you don't have to put a
second coat on, or you do have to put the
second coat on, which you do is just take your
you take a razor blade knife and you cut the
corner of it, because what ends up happening is that
paint forms a seal over it. It's like a skin
at the corner of the window and where the tape is.
So if you take a razor blade knife and you
break that edge and you cut it, that tape should

(07:37):
pull off pretty darn easily and it shouldn't take the
paint along with it.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Okay, good tip. And how long do you wait before
you remove that tape? Russ?

Speaker 3 (07:48):
So that's a great question, Gary, You really want to
always try to remove that tape when the paint is
still wet. Really if you can't, yes, sir, because what
ends up happening when it dries, obviously it forms that
the forms that skin onto the tape corner right there.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
So makes sense.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
But again, if you've got to put a second coat on,
you gotta do what you gotta do, and you just
got to remember you have to take a razor blade
to cut that edge right there to make sure it
doesn't pull.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
But yeah, if it's just a.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
One coat kind of clean up thing and you need
to uh, you know, paint something out with one coat,
remove the tape when the paint is still wet, is
the is the best way to do that.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
So you can you could basically paint that paint that
when in this case, that window frame and as soon
as you're done, remove the pat and remove the tape.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Take it right off, remove the tape exactly anything. If
you're if you're doing a ceiling and you're taping the
you know, the walls up, you want to try to
remove that tape as quickly.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
As possible, and that paint is still still dry.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
And you know, and if you made them, if you
took a little too long and it started to dry,
you know, just keep in mind you got to take
a knife and just cut that edge right there and
it should come off h with a lot of ease.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I bet that's a pretty common mistake people DA wires make.
They I can't take the tape off quite yet for
whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
And all the time.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Interesting, interesting, yeah, yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's all the time. We see it all the time.
It's it just pulls it off. Sometimes it'll pull.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Off the uh, you know, if you're if you're putting
your tape on the wall, it will actually pull the
paint off of the wall a little bit sometimes unfortunately,
and uh, you know when that when we see that happening,
it's generally because the wall behind it wasn't primed properly
and so that coating is coming off, is what happened.
So you know, you got to have a little bit
of touch up paint on hand to take care of

(09:28):
little spots like that.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Right, any other burning questions your office manager head before
doing or after her projects.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, they, uh, you know, I think it's an investment
property or something that they're doing. And so they removed
their their old flooring and carpet and it was just,
you know what, there was a smell in there. They
had animals in their prior apparently, and so she was
asking me, is there anything we can do before putting
our floor down? And uh, I gave her the advice

(09:56):
of putting like a Kills primer on that sub floor
for yes, to just completely lock it down all the
odors and smells and stains. It's a really good idea
to do that and just put a real nice, good
heavy coat on that sub floor and uh, then you
put your flooring over it. And that really helps with
any further smells or anything once you put your new

(10:17):
flooring in.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Somehow I was one of the big ones. Yeah, I
happen to know that that little trick. Actually, my wife
knew that. Yeah, that's a good Yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
While I got you a couple of things we want
to talk but we've we've talked about them in the past,
but let's let's revisit them here in the last five
or six minutes or so we have left in the
program this morning. Two things. Number one, you guys, I
didn't know this for the longest time. You guys remove
popcorn ceilings on a pretty regular basis. That is a
massive job and if not done right, can lead to

(10:48):
very big problems. Right.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Oh absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, we we do quite a
bit of it.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
You know, it depends on It comes off with ease
if if the popcorn has never been painted before, but
if once the popcorn has been painted, it becomes a
little bit harder to remove, not not impossible, but a
little bit harder. So generally we like to I like
to go and do a little bit of a test
sample just to see if if the ceiling has been

(11:16):
painted or not, and then we can we can go
about the proper way of doing it, but.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
We we have you know, power tools.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
It's it's called a fest tool and it's hooked up
to a HAPA vacuum so there's hardly any mess anymore.
And it just removes that popcorn, you know, like butter.
It just takes it right off. That's really the easy part, Gary.
The hard part is once you've removed it, you have
to repair this ceiling without skin coat with drywall compound.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
That's the that's the real, real labor intensified part of that,
because that'll take you know, all of a couple couple
runs through a couple of coats of doing that to
get it right. Let's face it, they put the popcorn
up there for a reason. It's cheaper, it's faster, and
what they're doing is they're hiding all of that with
that texture, whereas they don't have to skim coat that

(12:05):
ceiling like perfect like a slick ceiling like you'd see Gary,
you know.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
So that's what that's for.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
So once you remove it, obviously you have to fix
all that and bring it back to a nice smooth,
slick ceiling again.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Ever seen, but ever seen an instance where you you
went on one of these jobs and you remove the popcorn,
and man, no matter what you tried to do, you
just couldn't get that ceiling smooth. I mean, it's can
it be that bad?

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah? Now, honestly, Gary, not really.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Unless there was something hidden behind there that that you
couldn't see before. But a lot of times, you know,
you can. You can look at a popcorn ceiling. I mean,
how many times have you been somewhere and you look
at a popcorn ceiling. You can see all the repairs
that have been made, all the patches and spots that
have been done right, you can you can tend to
see those, so you know, you can kind of figure
if they've got a bigger problem, underlying problem in the seeing.

(13:00):
But for the most part, you know that drywall compound
will do wonders. You just got to know what you're.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Doing with it. Put enough of it on and put
enough coats on it, and then and then, and you
can get a pre smooth you really can't.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Something else you guys do, and you do a lot
of this, and people are very appreciative is instead of
replacing cabinets, you guys not only can refinish but with
the folks you work with, I mean, change the shape
and structure of cabinets right and save a lot of
money process.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah man, oh yeah, we we just.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
We love doing the cabinets here, Gary, It's it's one
of our foretes here. We absolutely love doing them because
it makes such a big difference in somebody's kitchen. It
just transforms everything. You get so much bang for your
buck when you when you go this route. You know,
I keep telling.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Folks and preaching it, but look, I mean, you know,
for for an average cost.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Of I'm gonna say anywhere's from fifteen hundred dollars to
three thousand dollars, okay, you can get your cabinets come
completely transformed and repainted versus I mean, I guess at
the minimal replacing doors, you know, eight to ten thousand dollars,
replacing the cabinets completely, you know, on upwards to to

(14:13):
you know, in the twenties.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Gary.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
So it's a fraction of the price and it's a
lot of bang for your buck, and we really enjoy
doing them. We have a great system for doing them.
We have a state of the art spray booth here
at our office in our shop, so we we actually
remove all the doors and we bring them to our
shop to have them everything done in our spray booth
and they come out absolutely beautiful, looking like glass when

(14:36):
we're done.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Don't want to just refinished, but you want to actually
modify them in some way, shape or form. You guys
work with folks who do that too, and you do
quite quite quite a week.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
We sure do, Gary, Yeah, we work with quite a
few cabinet guys. One of the most typical things that
I'll see is where cabinets don't go all the way
up to the ceiling. There's you know, a gap up
at the top, about a one foot one and a
half foot gap. I see a lot of people filling
that gap and bringing it all the way up to
the ceiling and then adding a piece of crown molding
to it, modifying you know, cabinet drawers and doors to

(15:11):
wear their soft clothes or they'll modify and opening at
the bottom where you know, a tray pulls out for
pops and pans, things like that.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Russ marches the Finishing Touch team for your free estimates.
I guess you still got the specials going on into
your next area, right, we do, We sure do till
to the end of August. Gary, we're offering you know,
ten percent off of paint jobs. We're offering you know,
if you paint two rooms, get the third room of
equal size for free full exterior paint jobs.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Gary.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
We're doing a free one year complimentary power washing and
inspection after that. So we've got a lot of good,
good things running right now for the summer. So definitely give.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Us a call, all right, And how the thugs reach
your us?

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, you can always call me at eight zero three
four six seven six seven, all.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Right, Russ Marksy. It is the Finishing Touch Team. Thank you,
my friend, Thank you so much, Gary, appreciate it. Hi,
this is Gary David. You've heard me talk for years
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but the name has changed. That's right now it's Beaver
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(16:24):
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Speaker 4 (16:39):
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(17:03):
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(17:25):
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Speaker 1 (17:38):
Hi is Gary David. Looking to refresh your home or
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(17:59):
Perfection with unwavering commitment to superior craftsmanship and customer service,
free estimates and ten percent off for first responders, vets
and nurses. Find out more at Finishingtouchteam dot com. Welcome
back to the Home Improvement Show of the Midlands on
one O three point five FM and five sixty AMWVOC

(18:22):
and across the entire planet on the free iHeartRadio. No
matter how you choose to listen to us, we appreciate
you doing just that. Yeah, my name is Gary David.
It's good to have you with us this morning, and
we're now joined by Jeremy Holliday. Jeremy is the owner
of Mister Electric here in the middle and is Jeremy.
Good morning, my.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Friend, Good morning, Gary. How's everything going with you?

Speaker 1 (18:41):
That is all good? How about you?

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Brother?

Speaker 5 (18:45):
Same here. We're good, We're blessed and enjoying.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
This weather more than we ought to be. Huh, yes, sir. Absolutely.
Our topic today something we have touched on before, and
that is the topic of whole home surge protection. Question
is morning? Is it worth it or not? I guess Jeremy.
We had to start with what is it? Whole home
surge protection?

Speaker 5 (19:09):
Yeah, that's a good question. So search protector, you know,
a whole home search protector. It sits at your main
electrical panel and it works, you know, like a gatekeeper.
So when a sudden spike of electricity tries to enter
your house, say from like a lightning strike or a

(19:30):
power surge, that grid transfer it diverts that extra voltage
away so it doesn't affect your appliances or electronics. So
you think of it as maybe like a big search strip,
big power you know, search protector strip. Yeah, but for
your entire home.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
So let's say, for example, that I have all my
electrical devices at least TVs and computers and such plugged
into you know, one of these old strips that's supposed
to help protect from something like this. So if I've
got you know, all my valuable electronics on something like that,
why do I need something like this?

Speaker 5 (20:12):
So it's you want to keep those right because the
more layers you have, the better protected you are. But
the serge strips are great, but they only protect what's
plugged into them. So you have other sensitive equipment in
your home that aren't plugged into that surge strip.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
I'm thinking like refrigerators, stoves, that sort of thing.

Speaker 5 (20:34):
Microwaves, yeah, exactly, HVAC systems, oh, you know, washers and dryers, computers,
Wi Fi equipment, garage door openers, you know, smart appliances,
maybe security system sprinklers. There's a lot of different things

(20:56):
that aren't necessarily plugged into a surge stripes the computer
or would probably be hopefully your computer's plugged into a
search strip.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Let me check, hay On. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I've
got lots of computers and lots of search strips going
on over here. You know, I guess if for no
other reason than homes today versus homes you know thirty
forty years ago, we have a whole lot more of
there's valuable stuff sitting around than we used to.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
That's right, So you know, the whole home search protection
is worth it, you know, so you know, with the
storms and the outages and it's just part of life now,
it makes sense for homeowners to have whole home search
protection on their home to protect all that sensitive equipment.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think I remember you telling us this in the
past Yearremy. Let's say you lose your power to your
house totally, totally with storm whatever, good idea to shut
off the main circuit breaker And if so, why.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
So if you're if you're experiencing like a brown out
where your where your lights are dimming and getting real
bright and they keep going on and off. Uh, well
you want to you want to stop that from effecting
your electronics and the only way to do that is
to shut that main breaker off. So where surge protectors

(22:27):
will will protect you from the surges, they won't protect
you from the brown out. Uh So that's one way.
But you you definitely want to have a a whole
home search protector on your house.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
So how how how much does it take to get
one of these things installed? Is that a you know,
I mean, is that a pretty in depth process or
is it just something as simple as coming out installing
it on your your your panel.

Speaker 5 (22:56):
So it depends on Uh, yeah, it's it's a pretty
simple process. You know it we can come out, you
know and give it, give you an evaluation, because, like
I said, there's layers, so you know, you may want
to put search protection on the HVAC system a point
of use. We have point of view searge protection that
we can put on sprinkler systems, we can put on

(23:18):
the garage door opener, we could put on you know,
washing machines, and then also have your whole home search
protector that will we'll go on the main panel, uh,
where the service is located and protect from those uh,
those searches that come in and affect everything at one time.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Well, I guess the obvious question here, Jeremy, if you're
talking about you know, point of view searge protectors, whole
home search protectors, Uh, it seems as though if you
had a whole home search protector that still may not
be enough. Is that Is that accurate to say?

Speaker 5 (23:55):
It's a good starting point, So you want to you
want to have layers of protection, but the whole home
searche protector is the starting point, I would say, and
it's going to protect you from major surges that come
into the home. So your home's constantly creating small surges,

(24:17):
and those small surges, you know, they deteriorate the the
life of your electronics, your your appliances, and your you know,
all the things that we've discussed, they degrade them over time.
So with that whole home surge protector, it's helping with

(24:38):
that instantly. And then your point of view surge protectors
are another layer that comes in between. So say if
for some reason it doesn't go through that panel which
comes from a somewhere inside of the circuit and hits
that appliance or hits something plugged into that area, then

(25:00):
that point of use surge protection will be the gatekeeper
of that circuit where it's plugged in at. So, so
you think of it as layers you have in you know,
exterior service and an interior so any equipment outside, you know,

(25:21):
those are the three major zones you want to have it.
Like a pump HVAC. You want to have a layer there,
and then inside the home where you have things plugged
in a lot of us already have that layer in
place because we can go down to the to the
local store and purchase a power serge strip and plug

(25:42):
in our computer to that power strip. What we have
is receptacles with built in surge protection. So say we
go to somebody's house and we put a TV up
on the wall, and we put a plug up there
to so we don't see the wires. Right, Well, we'll
put a surge outlet up there so the TV so

(26:05):
you don't have to have a bulky surge strip behind
your TV. It plugs right into a surge outlet. And
then so that's your interior trying to block anything that's
created by the home that doesn't go through the panel.
And then your panel is your main whole home surge
protector that protects the whole home from major surges that

(26:28):
come in through the service, which those are normally big,
big surges.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, so so only ask you this year. I mean
the little strips, little you know you may have your
computer plugged into. I mean, are those totally effective or
can they be overwhelmed too?

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (26:41):
I'm sorry? Can you repeat that?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (26:43):
I'm sorry. Yeah, the little power strips, the little surge
protective things you may have your computer plugged into right now,
are they totally effective or can they be like overwhelmed
by a big enough surge and really not do the job.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Yeah. Absolutely so without that whole home search protector. If
you get a major serve, a major surge come in,
then it can overwhelm that surge strip and a lot
of times it will protect the equipment that's plugged into it.
But maybe that serge strip you have to buy a
new one. Okay, the surge strip has taken the damage.

(27:21):
So you know, search protection it's about reducing risk, but
it's not making a home invincible, right, So it reduces
the risk by protecting valuable equipment. It's not about you know,
claiming nothing can ever happen. But it's a smart layer
of protection.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
So I suppose if you are building a new home
you could ask for this. But I mean, typically the
sorts of surge protections we're talking about are not included
a new builds, not that I'm aware of, are you.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
Oh, well, they're starting to become more prevalent because you know,
code has changed to where now it is, you know,
required for a whole home search protector to be included
in a new build at a certain point. Now, sometimes
these builders have contracts that were done so they give
them three years to catch up, just so a whole

(28:18):
contract doesn't have to be renegotiated. So you may have
bought a new house, don't don't go, you know, beating
up your builder because you don't have a home whole
whole home search protector. It may just not have been
required at that point in time based on contracts. So
but moving forward, eventually you'll start seeing that all new

(28:42):
homes will have a whole home search protector on them
at the at the time it's built, because they are
required per code now on new builds. So it's something
that yeah, definitely protects your equipment. And seeing that come
into play is just another way to a proof because sometimes,

(29:08):
you know, we never experienced, we may not think we've
ever had a search, but you're getting surges every day.
Your home's creating them, and so you know a lot
of times we'll say, you know, they don't make things
like they used to, and that's completely accurate because now
we have these circuit boards and everything, and if they're
getting hit by little surges and you have no surge

(29:28):
protection in your home, you know, at the service at
the point of use outside on your HVAC equipment, well
then you're exposing it to these small surges and it's
degrading that circuit board in those things, and so we
want it so they may not last as long as

(29:50):
your older unit did, and so you want to protect
that thing and a search protector, you know, when you
when you put it up against the cost of replacing
some of these small appliances, it's a feasible thing for
homeowners to do, and it makes sense to get to

(30:12):
get one installed on that panel in any other location
where you have valuable equipment point of view, And.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I guess we don't as homeowners. You know, we don't
know much about electricity. Ether you plug it in, it
works or it doesn't work. We tend to think that
the only issue we've got to be concerned about is
when your light is popping outside. But it sounds like
there's a lot of other things that can lead to
these surges as well.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Huh, yeah, that's right. Most surges, you know that people
aren't thinking about them, and so sometimes, you know, we
think that it's only from a major storm, but small
surges can happen, you know, and wear equipment down over time.
So when you go to turn that thing on and

(30:55):
it doesn't work a lot of times. It may be
due to it's just gotten tired of being tapped on
with those small surges.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
That cumulative effect. Where is on it after a while? Yeah, yes, yeah,
good point.

Speaker 5 (31:08):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
So I guess my initial question was is it worth it?
It sure sounds like it is. I mean, I know
you can't give specific pricing over the radio because every
situation is different, but I'm just gathering from especially your
last comment about how you know it certainly makes sense
if you if you lose a few of these smaller appliances,
you know, it starts to add up over time. I'm

(31:29):
guessing this is something that's you know, fairly accessible for
everybody to do from a cost perspect.

Speaker 5 (31:36):
Absolutely, And oh yeah, we can build different packages. There's
different size surge protection. If that's something you're interested in.
We always offer the best one that we supply, but
there are lower grade ones that will still help in
the situation that may not last as long and you
may have to replace it down the road again. So

(31:59):
sometimes the uh, you know, just depending on depending on
the budget that you're working with, we can get we
can get some protection in there for you and help
save those uh help you know, diminish the wear and
tear on those electrical items that you have. And it's

(32:22):
very it's we also have you know, go on our website.
We have deals on there a lot of times. Check
your mail. We have stuff going out. Uh sometimes there's
search protection coupons in there. And and we also have
affordable payment options. So we offer uh affordable payment plans

(32:44):
if approved. And you know, so there's all kinds of
different ways we can look at getting it done for
you if you want to get that protection in place, well.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
If you if you, if you're in thinking that Electrician
is just for when something goes wrong, you call them, no,
mister like call you make the call to them before
things do go wrong, make sure they go right. Yes, absolutely, yeah,
the moral of the story here. All right, you mentioned
the website be proactive. Yes, absolutely, you mentioned the website. Jeremy,
tell us what that website is.

Speaker 5 (33:14):
Please it's mister Electric dot com forward slash Columbia or
you can reach us at eight zero three eight six
eight four two four three.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Here all right, Jeremy, how did they mister Electric, have
a good one, my friend, Yes, sir, thank you you
too far.

Speaker 6 (33:32):
When your power goes out, there's not a lot to do,
but you can call mister Electric with priority dispatching. One
of our electricians will be at your door ready to
safely restore your power fast. Because not having electricity is.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Annoying, very annoying.

Speaker 6 (33:50):
So next time you need an electrician, call mister Electric
because life is better with electricity. Services provided by locally
owned and operated franchises. Products and services may be by location.

Speaker 7 (34:00):
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
six eight four two four three or visit my website

(34:23):
mister Electric dot com forward slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
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 on the same great folks behind Anthony John Construction,

(34:48):
just with a new name eight oh three nine nine
to one roof and Beaverroofing dot com the gutter roofing work.
Leave it to Beaver Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Trey Powell,

(35:09):
the owner of Mosquito Joe, now joining us on the
Home Improvement Show of the Midlands on one O three
point five FM and five sixty AMWVOC. He is mister
outside fun again, Trey Powell.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Good morning, my friend, Hey, good morning, how are you.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
I'm good man. That's a fun that's a that's a
fun person to be man, mister making outside fun again.
Good for you man. How do you do it the game?
Yeah right, let's talk this morning about how you make
that happen. And uh I you know I I have mentioned, oh,
several weeks ago we had an outdoor event at the

(35:47):
house and me I'm not worried about mosquitoes because you know,
we got you guys in our backyard every three weeks,
not just laying down the barrier spray, but doing something
else too, right, Trey.

Speaker 8 (36:00):
Yeah, when we're I mean, you know, half of the
job for controlling mosquitos is finding where they're breeding, cutting
them off and breaking that breeding cycle, trying to eliminate
the mosquito larvae before they're born into adult mosquitoes and
start biting. I mean, if they're not born, they can't bite,
and so lowering the population by finding where they're breeding

(36:21):
and treating it is really fifty percent of the game
and the key to success in mosquito controlled.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
So we have since I first started talking about it
several weeks ago, we've had two outdoor fence and both
of them went all without a hitch, at least as
far as you know. People weren't bugged by mosquitos outside. Well,
I guess what. And by the way, when they came inside,
they weren't introduced to any bugs either, because you guys
stake care of the inside and the outside for us.
So tell us about your total home pest defense while

(36:51):
we're at it.

Speaker 8 (36:53):
Yeah, you know, it's it really came as a result
of customers, you know, requesting and request I saying, hey,
can you do this also?

Speaker 9 (37:01):
And and so.

Speaker 8 (37:03):
You know, we are a full service pest control company.
We can you know, treat the house making sure that
we're not getting you know, not getting spiders or roaches
or ants inside the house. And we also treat the
yard obviously for mosquitos, fleas, and ticks. So we can
cover you inside and out. We can we can even
do termite protection if somebody needs that, or rodent control,

(37:24):
so any sort of pests.

Speaker 5 (37:26):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (37:27):
Life is better without pests. Uh, you know, both inside
your house and outside. You know, you know, protect your
your house, your yard, and your family from those unwanted pests.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I got it. I gotta mention this trade because this
is how much you guys are a stickler for a schedule.
It's every three weeks should come out. I mean every
three weeks like clockwork. I don't look like everythenthould see
in the past, every time you come to our house,
the next day you come to the house across the

(37:58):
street from us, everybody, I think it one time, you know,
why why why not just do us both at the
same time. But that's that's how much of a stickler
you guys are for saying on an exact schedule that, yeah,
you'll hit one house one day in the house cross
street the next day to make sure that uh nothing's
falling through the cracks.

Speaker 8 (38:18):
I guess right, Yeah, that you know that another house
could be on a different technician so it and some
one a different route. You know, eventually, Uh, you guys
could be you know, put onto the same route. But uh,
you know, we try to be as efficient as possible.
We have thousands and thousands of customers. We're probably in
your neighborhood you know, uh every single week for sure,

(38:39):
and maybe maybe a couple of.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Times a week.

Speaker 8 (38:41):
It really just depends on the neighborhood and and how
many customers that we have to to get serviced in that.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
In that way, well, why why is that three week
schedule though? Important? Well, what's what's the meaning? Why is
it three weeks tray? Well, we'll talk about we talk
about ski to control.

Speaker 8 (38:55):
D is the is the number one, you know, killer
of all things outside and uh, we have a lot
of UV, especially in the summertime, and so you know
when we put down you know, Larva side, obviously in
three weeks you're going to have several rainfalls and lots
of UV, and that barrier spray is going to get
broken down, you know, in place by that UV. And

(39:18):
which is which is good? That's what you want to happen.
You don't want that stuff to end up on the
ground and leaching down into the water. It really breaks
down in place.

Speaker 9 (39:27):
And in three weeks it's kind of done its thing.
If you if you don't.

Speaker 8 (39:32):
Retreat every three weeks, you're really going to start to
see breakthrough and you're not going to get the results
that you want. And you know, if you're paying for this,
you you really want to be able to go outside anytime,
day or night without the threat of having to spray
yourself down or worried about getting bit, you know, by mosquitoes.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
One of my wife and I's new favorite things to
do is to sit out back on about six seven
o'clock every night for at least a few minutes, just
kind of escape the world, get back to nature. And yeah,
you know you I had this conversation we first bought
this house about a year and a half ago because
we we came over here one night before we actually
closed on the home, and uh, and you know, the

(40:11):
backyard gate was open, and went into the backyard and
and sat there for I don't know, maybe a minute
and a half. Then we had to flee.

Speaker 8 (40:20):
Because they were unbearable.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
And I called you the next day and I said, brother,
we don't close for like another week, but let me
go ahead and get on the schedule here because you
were treating the home we were in. We've been treating
our homes for years now. Let's can can we can
we get here? Here's the day we're closed. Can you
guys come out there that day? And and you said, yeah,
I tell you what, We'll come out there a day
or two earlier. You know, nobody's gonna care. Uh. And

(40:47):
you know, I got to tell you. While we were
busy moving and such, we we did spend some time
in our backyard that first week or so, and I
was I was truly amazed at how I had the
problem was here in this backyard and really but just
one treatment, we just really had no issues. I did

(41:09):
not expect it to work that well that fast.

Speaker 9 (41:13):
Yeah, sometimes sometimes you can. You can get them under
control very very quickly.

Speaker 8 (41:17):
It really depends on how many breeding sites you have
and and the fact that we are finding the breeding sites.
You know, sometimes it's very difficult to figure out where
they are breeding. They're up underneath decks or you know,
it's usually someplace that's really out of sight, you know, uh,
you know, ditches and French drains, you know, gutters, things

(41:39):
things that you don't think of all the time, you know,
but a lot of you know, a lot of things
we have hold water and it doesn't take very much
to breed, and you know, I'm glad that we were
able to get it under control.

Speaker 5 (41:48):
For you that quickly.

Speaker 8 (41:49):
Usually it takes two or three treatments before you really
get to where you want to be, but you'll see
immediate difference even after one, you know, one treatment. So
but you know, the surprising thing is is how many
many people you know kind of live like that, and
they really feel like they're a prisoner inside and outside
is not fun and they don't spend any time outside
because of the bugs are so bad. And you know,

(42:11):
you really don't have to do that. I mean a
lot of times people think, you know, what does that
really work? Can you treat for flying insects? What about
my neighbors?

Speaker 9 (42:18):
Mosquitoes?

Speaker 8 (42:19):
And you know, all those things don't don't really matter.
I mean, once you have a professional service that's coming
and treating that yard consistently and properly, we can make
that problem go away for you and keep it that way.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
What about for folks who have a pitch that I
do out in the backyard, I mean, talk to us
about how how what effect that could or could not
have on them.

Speaker 8 (42:40):
Well, one of the biggest threats we have in this
region is heartworms for dogs. It's you know, they The
statistic is that an outside dog who's outside all the time,
twenty four hours a day, if they are untreated in
the course of four or five years, the chances of

(43:01):
them getting heartworms is one hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
It's that hot.

Speaker 8 (43:06):
I mean I don't use that.

Speaker 9 (43:07):
Type of a term very often, but.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
That's that is. The statistic is.

Speaker 8 (43:10):
Within five years there will be one hundred percent chance
they will get heartworms if they are not treated. And
so it's very important that you take your your veterinarian's
advice and take the pill or whatever they're giving you
to prevent heartworms. You don't want your your dogs to
be bit by mosquito mosquitoes because the heartworms is very

(43:30):
very prevalent.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (43:32):
Fortunately, if humans cannot catch that, but it's very very
bad with with dogs. So you definitely want to protect
your your your dogs from getting mosquito bites.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
So that's a that's the main cons Well, yeah, they
because I think I guess in the in the in
the rank of things, human beings are probably somewhat down
the list just because you have other things like birds,
for example, there outside all the time. I mean, I
guess they're top of the top of the heat. For mosquitoes,
that's a big target, right.

Speaker 8 (44:00):
Yeah, mosquitoes kind of live where they live in the
bushes and shrubs and you and so forth, and so yeah,
they are the number one prey for mosquitoes or birds.
But you know, they'll bite anything that's blood bearing, that's breathing.
I mean, if it's breathing and has blood, they can
detect it by the co twos that you're breathing out
and they will come right to it. Whether it's a dog, cat, fox, rabbit,

(44:23):
you know, human, whatever it is, they will they will
bite it for a blood meal.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
So up to now, how is the how do you
categorize the season we've had so far this year?

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Train?

Speaker 8 (44:36):
It has been a roller coaster this year. We started
out with very warm, unseasonably warm and unseasonably wet February
and early March and really kind of took off faster
than most years. And then we had kind of a
cold spell during April, but not so much cold, but

(44:57):
more dryness. We you know, we had thirty nine days
in a row with no rain, which was unheard of
April and the beginning of May, and and that kind
of slowed things down a little bit.

Speaker 9 (45:09):
It wasn't cold enough. It felt cold because we were
wearing jackets in the morning because it was mid fifties.

Speaker 8 (45:13):
But as long as it's above fifty degrees, the eggs
are hatching and and they're they're doing fine, but they
do have to have standing water. So if you don't
have as much standing water, it's going to wait until
it actually rains, you know, to wet.

Speaker 5 (45:26):
Those eggs to get those eggs to hatch.

Speaker 8 (45:28):
And so, you know, it was a little slower hatching
season in April and the beginning of May. But with
all the rain that we've had, you know, recently and
so forth, it's definitely got things back going and back
up to where they normally are in the middle of
South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
Now, I suppose this is on your radar and we've
we've talked about it. I think of the past that, yeah,
we keep hearing about a the elding you effect, and
this year they're talking about a super elding yo. And
I gave us an article last week called it the
u the Godzilla Eldino.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
God. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
So you know how the plus side is they tell
us that will dampen hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin.
But the other flip side of this is that they're
talking about being hotter and wetter, and you know, we're
hot and wet enough around here and human enough, you know,
all summer long. Anyway, if this pattern develops later on
this year, is they keep telling us it would, I

(46:28):
mean hotter, wetter than normal in this part of the state.
I mean, how bad.

Speaker 8 (46:39):
The lack of the threat of hurricanes is certainly a
positive thing. However, you know the the well and some
people will see this as a as an advantage. But
we're probably going to have an Indian summer. We're probably
gonna it's probably going to be warm, you know, well
into November and December, maybe even into January. And if

(47:01):
it's wet and warm, I mean, the mosquito population is
just not going to go anywhere. So I mean, if
you're getting treated, you might enjoy a longer summer and
more time outside and and so forth when it's a
little bit cooler, but not you know, not not so
cold that it doesn't it keeps you from going outside.
So you know, there's pros and cons to it. But uh,
you know, I you know, the lack of hurricanes I

(47:23):
think is a is a great thing. But we're probably
in for a wetter, you know, warmer fall and a
longer mosquito season for sure.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Okay, I don't think we've talked about it a while.
But you're a beekeeper, right or you used to be
a beekeeper. You still still.

Speaker 8 (47:36):
Be keeping I was for many years. I've actually given
away and donated the bees that I had at you know,
one point, to local gardens and things like that. So
I'm currently not I don't I'm not keeping bees this
this time right now.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
But we did.

Speaker 8 (47:52):
We did it for years and and mainally just to
train our team. I mean, you know, being a beekeeper,
I'm very concer learned about the environment and the you know,
the population of bees, and and it's definitely possible to
treat a yard even with a beehive in it, with
a synthetic product if you're treating for mosquitos, where you
can target mosquitos and not harm pollinators. And so I

(48:16):
had it for years just to train our guys and
to get them around bees and let them, you know,
understand and learn a little bit more. You know about
the bees and their act you know their habits and
how they're different from mosquitos, and how you can target
mosquitos and not harmed pollinators. But we do have many
beekeepers who are customers of ours. You know, some are synthetics,
some are all natural u some even use just a

(48:39):
you know, a larvaciding method just to reduce the mosquito
population in their yard. But there's lots of different solutions,
and you know, you can definitely, you know, target pests
without harming beneficial insects like bees and butterflies.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Okay, because a lot of folks have questions about that.
Did you happen to see a couple of weeks ago
this article that Google had applied for a permit to
release sixty plus million mosquitos in California and Florida.

Speaker 8 (49:06):
Did you see that I you know, I saw that
yesterday and I just kind of cringe every time I
see stuff like that.

Speaker 9 (49:14):
And I don't know why, you know, stay in your lane.

Speaker 5 (49:18):
Since when is Google.

Speaker 8 (49:20):
Now a biologist? You know, Dangerous things happen when you
try and play god. Right, last time that they did
something similar to this in Florida, we had a huge
outbreak of zecovirus, which was a you know, and that
sort of thing can backfire and the consequences can be

(49:42):
an outbreak of mosquito born illness and vector diseases. Whether
it's they're talking about doing the same sort of thing
with ticks, and it's like, this is not really proven itself.
You're testing things on the population, and that's really not
a good thing.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Do you know what they're what the goal is? I mean,
it's a the bug kind of thing, they say. I mean,
what are they trying to accomplish.

Speaker 8 (50:02):
Here, Well, they're trying to put into into the population
of mosquitoes, sterile mosquitoes.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
That will breed with breed with other mosquitos.

Speaker 9 (50:13):
And they think they're breeding, but they're not. They're not.

Speaker 8 (50:18):
Actually they're not actually impregnating the female, if you know,
for lack of a better term because they're really sterile,
and so that's that's kind of what the goal is.
But I don't know. In most cases I've seen where
they've tried stuff like this around the world and in
the US, there there's been some constant unexpected consequences where

(50:41):
it kind of backfired and they and they're not doing
it anymore.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
And you know, you.

Speaker 9 (50:47):
Want to experiment on things, do it somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Don't just don't do in South Carolina, thank you?

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Right exactly?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Okay, all right, trades folks who have never used your
services before. I think it's well documented now that you've
got a great opening offer for people to kind of
see what it's all about.

Speaker 8 (51:03):
Right, Yeah, they can try any of our services, either
home past defense or our mosquito control for the first treatment.

Speaker 9 (51:13):
If you've never had that service before, we can.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
We'll do it for you.

Speaker 8 (51:16):
For only thirty nine dollars for the first time, and
there's no contract whatsoever. It's they're all reoccurring services. Each
service has a different reoccurring you know rate. The mosquito
services every three weeks. The home pest defense is either
bi monthly or quarterly. Of course, termites is just an

(51:36):
annual inspection that we do. But we can, you know,
we can bundle those services, put everything on a low,
one low monthly payment and you can just live without
pests and we'll we'll take care of all of it.
So it's only thirty nine dollars for a first treatment,
the second, third treatments and so forth will be based
on the size of the property and so forth. But

(51:58):
we can give you that quote right over the phone.
We can, you know, measure things online and give you
an accurate quote.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Eight five to five Aska Joe right, eight five to.

Speaker 8 (52:08):
Five Aska Joe or Mosquitojoe dot com.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
All right, Trey pal Mosquito Joe, Thank you, my friend.

Speaker 9 (52:14):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 10 (52:16):
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called Drip Ninjas now at eight O three five nine

(52:37):
OHO eight O two six or visit Drip Ninjas dot com,
Drip Ninjas eight oh three, five nine oh eto two
six or Drip Ninjas dot com.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
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There are reasons why they've been so successful doing business
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Don't hire just another painter. Hire the Finishing Touch Team

(53:07):
perfection with unwavering commitment to superior craftsmanship and customer service.
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Speaker 11 (53:19):
I'm James Carwell, 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

(53:39):
us apart 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's List,
and an eight 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 servis call when you

(54:00):
mentioned you heard us on w VOC. Learn more at
Freedom dash Plumbing dot com. That's Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.