Home Improvement Show 06-17-23

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Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Good morning and welcome in, myfriends. That is the home improvement show
in the midleft on one of threepoint five FM and five sixty AM WVZ.
Good to have you with us thismorning. My name is Gary David
and we got a full hour herecoming up before we get to the Health
of Wellness show at nine. CaseyAlexander and Marcus Greenwell going to stop by
here a little while from lifetime cabinistcountertop Robert Pulliam. We'll be joining us

(00:33):
from Pulliam Restoration, putting things rightagain after a fire, a flood,
or any other tragedy. It's yourhome or your business. And James carl
Well, the owner of Freedom Plumbing, we'll drop by next half hour to
grace us with his presence as well. But getting things started this morning.
It's Terry Nation from Nation Builders.Good morning, my friend, Good morning,
Gary, good to be here.How are your brother doing great?

(00:55):
How about your sail? I'm well, man, I'm well. We've been
talking. I guess this is maybefour fourth time with us. Yes,
so again give us the quick,the quick of four one one here on
Nation Builders. We're talking about remodelingadditions. Yeah, we've talked bathroom remodels,

(01:18):
kitchen remodels, um, and whenit comes to remoding again, was
we've talked about most remodeling is doneon one of those two rooms. The
vast majority of a bathroom work kitchen, that's for sure. Yeah, I
mean yeah, I guess in amaster bedroom you could be you know,
expanding a closet or something in whichwe I think we talked about a few
weeks ago. But yeah, mostof that works do in that. Then

(01:40):
most clothes are in bathrooms, Iguess, or at least attached to them.
Yeah, on suite was it aFrench thing on suite whatever? I
just called a master master bathroom.But that's me. But so most of
that work's going to be in oneof those two areas. Now, we've
also talked about the way you dobusiness, and you, uh, Page

(02:04):
Butler, I think you work alot with page design. Who you know,
Casey and Marcus will be here ina little while. They work a
lot with Page to it at Lifetimecampus cards. She must be pretty good.
She's pretty good. Casey even saysthat's their best employee. So yeah,
haven't got a lot of that.Uh, but you know, this

(02:25):
is the difference. Terry between hiringa company like nation Builders, and let's
face I mean, there's a there'sa lot of talented people out there who
can do it, you know,some pretty good stuff. But when you're
going to work with a professional companyand it's your home, it's your biggest
investment, maybe somebody tells the otherday besides maybe your kids college education,

(02:49):
but it's it's your biggest investment.And so you want to know when you're
bringing somebody into your home to makemodifications, whether they be minor or major,
you're dealing with a professional company.Absolutely yes, and so part of
what you do that maybe a littledifferent than what some do. We want
to talk about a bit this morning, and that is, you know,

(03:10):
going about getting estimates, getting quotes, and something that that your company does
again that maybe others don't, butthere's a very good reason for it.
And what is that Well, um, we actually had to go to this
about a year ago, maybe alittle over a year ago, but we

(03:32):
started charging for consultations and then wealso had to back that up and start
charging for and I don't like tosay we charge for estimates, but we
charge for project development. Because oncewe get to that point, first of
all, if you're going to payus to come out there and do a

(03:53):
consultation, and look, we'll doa phone consultation for free. We'll do
a ballpark estimate for free based onpictures you send us, or whatever the
case may be to get you tothat next step. But that step of
coming out to your property and goingover the projects and actually being a consultant

(04:14):
for your project, we charge forthat. We and this time invested on
your There is a lot of timeinvested. And it isn't just to go
out right down a few things andgo back to the office and figure some
numbers. So we spend the timeto go out there and actually consult on

(04:35):
your project. And this is thisis no exaggeration at all. We could
spend five days a week given freeestimates. I mean we our phone rings
off the hook and for free estimates. Yes, I would never have time
to estimate a job if I justwent out and did free consultations. So

(05:00):
for one thing, that actually kindof separates the folks who really want to
get some work done or people whoare wanting to get as many free estimates
as they can and start, youknow, kind of price shopping. Sure,
so that helps for that reason,But to sell a service as a
consultation, that's what we do.We come out, we consult. When

(05:21):
you make the original phone call toour office, it's not just setting an
appointment. Candice sits back and sheasks you questions, how did you hear
about us? Exactly what are youwanting to do? And we're not even
going to book a consultation if itdoesn't fit into our wheelhouse. So the
original phone call isn't just a simplelittle phone call. I mean she takes

(05:46):
you through a process. That processleads to the next process. Sounds like
the customer screening you, and you'rescreening the customer exactly right. Yeah,
I don't want to waste their timeand don't want to waste our time.
So we want to make sure thatfits into what we want to do.
And then when we go out weconsult. We ask a million questions.
Sometimes people say, hey, neverthought about that. You know, I

(06:09):
think about this. So that's partof that process, is paying for a
professional to come out and help youdecide all of that, because how many
time, and I've done this beforewith projects like that, you know,
somebody comes out and say I wantto Yeah, I don't know, we
want to think about doing this orthat. Okay, well, uh,
they'll get out the old you know, the tape and they'll do a couple

(06:30):
of quick measurements and say, I'llget back to some numbers. Exactly right,
would you literally discussed okay, nowwhat will this entail? How does
it work? You know, isthere a better way to do it?
That's right? And you go overthe whole process. You know, what
does it mean for us to comeinto your hair house and tear a room
out? I mean, how doesthat affect the rest of the house or
how does that affect your living arrangementsfor that amount of time? Sure,

(06:54):
so there's a ton of conversations thatgo on this not just based on coming
in and change it out of showeror a toilet or a vanity. I
mean there's a process built around that, right, because I'm sure it happens.
Unfortunately it's never happened to me,but I'm sure it happens all the
time. When again, somebody whocan do this, but this is not

(07:15):
really what they do. You don'tknow what kind of cannon worms you're getting?
Ready open exactly right, and listen, we hear the horror stories all
the time. And those horror storiescome from guys who are well, let's
say one not licensed too. Youknow, we get people say I have
called and called and called other contractright, they come out, I never

(07:40):
hear from them again, or theydon't answer their phone. And but you
know, our process is our phoneis going to be answered. I don't
care if we are booked for ayear. We're gonna answer the phone.
We're gonna take the time to seeif your project fits ires and the timing
fits iires. If we come outto your house, We're not gonna go
you. Um, that's all justpart of being a professional company done the

(08:03):
same way. That's getting to bea worse and worse problem by the day.
Oh my good and everything, therum everything that this business gets is
terrible. So we're just trying totang everything else. Yet called it called
a guy a couple of weeks ago, just to get a get an estimate
on a kind of landscape of thing. Never heard back from. Well,

(08:24):
good for you. You must beway too busy to need my money.
I just don't. I never understoodthat that part of a contractor who just
uh decides not to call somebody back. I mean, yeah, I don't
understand. Really weird. So yeah, it's it's important to say when you
know you charge for animates, it'san estimate, you think, is what

(08:46):
is that? Just what we're talkingabout? You come about I look around
a little bit, a couple ofmeasurements. Okay, I'll get back to
you. This is not what you'redoing. This is not what we're doing.
We um. We actually call ourestimating process project development. We're not
just going in throwing some numbers downfor you and coming back with a number.
I mean, we're we are buildinga proposal, and we're building a

(09:07):
timeline. So when when we goto our next step we get page involved,
we want to start knowing exactly whatyou're looking for so we can come
up with exact numbers. We wantto know if our timeline fits your schedule,
so we create a schedule for you. So there is a full process

(09:31):
in us just instead of going backand creating a quick estimate. We could
do that, but that estimate isno good. I mean, when you
when you get a proposal, youwant to know what the real numbers are
and exactly what you're doing. Andso we take it to that next step.
We feel like if you have paidus to come out and do a

(09:52):
consultation, your your next step isto really to start nailing some stuff down.
And that's really what we try todo. It sounds like, and
I'm sure this is the case thatby going through that process, the project
development, you're ensuring that there areno surprises on the when you show up,
for example, and realize, ohwait, now maybe we can't do

(10:13):
it like that, or it's goingto take a month longer, or what
have you. Sure they'll be weatherdelayed whatever. I mean, that happens.
But just and I get I don'tknow how your world works, but
but but I know that things happen. Oh, things happen in every in
everything, things things happen. ButI know as business as you guys are

(10:39):
you, I mean, you've gota lot your time. You can't be
robbed from Peter to pay Paul.Oh wait, I can't get to you.
I gotta finish this other thing.I'm behind because I I didn't do
that thing when I should have beendoing that thing. And so this is
a way really for the for thehomeowner, the business owner to have some
some some piece of mind and knowingthis, this is our schedule, this
is our time frame. Yeah,this is what we're gonna do. Yes,
and then you know too, atthat point the homeowner respect your time.

(11:01):
Um, they respect their time,and obviously it's showing that you respect
there. Absolutely. Yes, Sothat's just that. Just we were trying
to build a different class of contractor, and in order to do that,
you got to have certain standards inplace. You gotta have kind of rules
in place or or what do youcall it? Your um, oh,

(11:24):
my goodness, where I do itall the time. I think we know
kind of where you're going. Youget the rule, you got the standard.
It's you got to set the barman. Yes, we're trying to
raise the bar. I mean,the worst thing that ever happened with contractors.

(11:46):
I don't know that we need tosay that is the free estimate thing.
Because everybody expects you to come outand spend hours of your time to
hand them a number that you mayor may not win a job. Over
hours of your time, you couldbe doing actually doing a job. You
could be actually doing a job.That's exactly right. So it's one of

(12:07):
the reasons why when you when youcall nation builders and they got they're doing
your job. They're doing your joband not out there giving free yes to
best everybody else. No, brother, exactly right. Yeah. So you
know, we put a process inplace and we follow that process. How
to folks reach you, Terry?You can go catch us online at nation
Builders LC dot com or give usa call at eight O three eight O

(12:30):
seven eight one four zero. Allright, good to see again, brother,
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(12:54):
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(13:18):
owner Marcus will even personally come outto do all your measurements. See the
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(13:41):
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Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops Fernandina Road inColumbia, Chapin Road in chap And online
at Lifetime Cabinets SC dot com.Okay, we're back on the Home improvement

(14:16):
Show of the Midlands and we're joinedout by that guy Marcus Greenwell and better
than ever and this guy Casey Alexander. Good morning sir, this morning.
Hey y'all fabulous. Sorry I didn'tmean get so excited about that, just
absolutely wonderful. Well, if it'sgood to hear man, Yeah, how
are you? I'm maybe not asgood as you. Only had two SIPs

(14:39):
coffee so far. So I rodemy motorcycle and that's like an undrilling a
little bit of rush right there,Yes, sir, dodging dump trucks and
everything else. Last time I droveone seven weeks in the hospital. So
yeah, you go ahead and dothat thing, right, Yeah, exactly.
How about. I'm real careful though, safety cushion and all that.

(15:01):
I just kind of smile and say, oh yeah, mister dump truck,
just don't drop any rocks on me. And for the record, Marcus Casey
is not the guy on the motorcyclethat you see using that line of the
center of peoples an hour. Allthat lane splitting or something, I don't
think so, jeez, that's scarysound. There are some crazy people out

(15:22):
there. Yeah, and some ofthe work here need again a goopro for
that helmet. Right. Let's talka little countertops, guys. It's lifetime
cabmus and countertops. And we've beentalking counters you guys for years now,
Yeah, for years. We're blessedyou've been talking good about us. I
blessed to have you with us allthis time. You got your grannuts,

(15:45):
Yeah, you got Jamar Marble,so we got both in your house.
So those Yeah, that's right.And what's hot now, courts? You
got that. But but yeah,all these years, yeah, yeah,
it's hot as courts. Courts,and there were times you guys were I
won't say down on courts. Butit's not a natural product, all right,
right, yeah, all right,this is the man made Yeah,

(16:07):
but people seem to be flocking tothe courts these days. What's going on,
guys? Well, Well, onething is price point. I mean
that I think I think a lotof it is we're finally getting to a
point where some of these distributors arewilling to hit a price point that we
have more people can afford, moreaffordable. Yeah, I think that's that.
That's a lot that's driving it.Well, where was that price point

(16:32):
before? I mean, if you'regonna rank the four countertop types we just
mentioned, I mean twice granite,Yeah, I mean it was twice.
That was it was at least doublethree times starting price, was at least
double that of starting price. Granite. That was with the cheapest courts.
Okay. Now now we're at abouta level three granite okay, um,

(16:56):
sometimes level two yeah sixties just well, who who cares about that part of
it? But you know up thereit's not as much as you know,
instead of stead of level three,you know, level two. Yeah.
Yeah, and that to give youto some of us because we go,
I don't know what that what thatmeans. But let's put it this way.
At one point you had, granted, was the the the entry level

(17:18):
thing, price point one exactly?What was number two? Let's go back
a couple of years before court sightcame down or courts came down to price
its number two? Wow marble marble. Yeah. And now honestly, I
mean with some of the courts isreally it is flip flop that a lot
of these courtses are less expensive thaneven the you know, uh, entry

(17:40):
level marbles. So really, grantit's still hot, we'll probably it'll probably
still be the number one seller.But the trend, number one trend is
definitely the courts and the courts oneyeah, okay, but the number one
sellers still, you know, becauseyou do all these new houses and all
of them have the level one,not all of them, but the majority
of the new houses level one stone. So I mean it's still grant,

(18:03):
it's still number one, but Courtsis definitely up there, getting up there.
It's taking the market share. Dowe know why? It's like marble,
I mean they're trying to do theyreally do try to achieve a marble
look. And that's what a lotyou know with the whites and grays like
you know that mont blank in yourkitchen and they the shadow storm and stuff

(18:26):
like that. But uh, thethe these are more mimicking a lot of
the Mediterranean marbles that are less accessiblejust for everyday use. Um, you
know you get these uh you knowCarreras and and these you know this this
Calcutta uh style marble that that's youknow, those looks or whether those long

(18:52):
vein Calcutta veining is what everybody wants, but they don't want to sacrifice,
uh you know, the ability inthe function. So that with this Quarts
product, especially than some of thenew stuff we have, uh just just
brilliant looking and that look. Attainingthat look more more efficiently is also driving.

(19:14):
So obviously as the consumer, youyou what's available to use, what
their manufacturing of course. But let'sjust say that you do somebody who who
you know, created this stuff,and you went to them and you said,
and you found some you name it. Whatever is out there, you
name it, whether it's a grantedor a marble or a quart, said,

(19:36):
I wanted to look just like that. Could they do it? Uh?
For the most part, I meanfor I mean, uh, they're
they're actually I don't know about allthe mica. I mean they are putting
some like little mirrors in it andstuff like that on some cases where it
does a little shiny fleck bank youknow. Yeah, they're I mean one
of our vendors, so a whileback actually approach me. I don't know,

(19:57):
I never got in depth with them. Um, but we're offering you
know, custom uh courts products.So I never got very far with them,
you know, see, you know, delving into that program because it
uh it is uh as you canimagine, pretty could thank him. Um,

(20:21):
So I just you can't gotta letthat go, and maybe something I'll
research a little more on, uhin the coming weeks, a little more
on Yeah. Sorry it was juvenileon my part there with anyway. Yeah,
so I'll look into a little board. Maybe have more information before we
uh reconvene in a couple of weekshere, but uh yeah, they have

(20:45):
some ability to get really close.Okay, yeah, we got uh some
somebody was asking me the other dayabout concrete countertops. We don't do concrete
countertops, but we have courts thatlooks like concrete. About that, Okay,
yeah, so let's let's talk aboutso from yeah price, you can

(21:06):
make it look like almost anything.Yeah, what are the other advantages two
courts are there? I mean stainedresistance, stain resist, I mean it's
very good porous. You deinitely don'thave to worry about resealing it because and
since you don't have a ceiling onit. Since it's non porous, you
can clean with you know, anyof your household cleaners or whatnot that you

(21:26):
or whatever. Really it's not gonnaaffect the finishing only no staining, not
the ones we use anyway. Thereare some lower quality stuff that you can
find out there, but we useit like a twenty five's got a twenty
five year waranty on. Yeah,scratch resistant, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Heat what does that reman the Youcould potentially setting a hot hood directly

(21:48):
off the eye onto onto it repeatedly, could could potentially scored it, Like,
uh, you want you want totest if you you know, if
you're wanting to do something like that, you want to test it first because
it's not rated as high as thegranted because the grant it goes up to
six hundred and fifty degrees. Soyeah, I mean, you're not gonna

(22:11):
pull anything out or higher actually,according to my pocket Tech, much much
higher much Well Google Steakhouse with thatsteak on that Yeah that might scorch you.
But yeah, so and I meanthe courts is rated is rated lower
than that, but it's probably higherthan you know, it's actually probably highering

(22:34):
that as well, because I II actually have done some testing on it
and stuff like that, and Ihaven't been able to heart it. Okay,
while run the subject, you wantto take a hot pot off off
office stove and set it on thecountertop, which the one that you don't
want to do that on what issome courts? Yeah, you don't want
to do that. I mean,ideally you don't want to do that on

(22:56):
the court. You can test itthough on your own, you know,
but if you're doing so is orsomething like that I don't think a seconds
gonna be that hot. Granted,we know because it mean, hey,
you make cutting boards out a granite? Yeah, exactly a granite? Um
seeming too pretty much any to grantyou want to? Yeah, yeah,
the granite's not going anywhere. Youput marble, marble, same thing,

(23:17):
put a hot pan, yeah,because trust me, I've often thought about
doing that, but I have refrained. Yeah, this time it is rated
lower than the granite, though I'velooked at up too, but um,
but it's still I mean they usedit over at Carrabas over there on the
pass through for their food and stufflike that. So yeah, yeah,
so I mean it all stand hotstuff. So what's hot right now?

(23:40):
Courts chords hot? Hot hot?Any other advantages to courts over the natural
stone? The consistency I think,if you you know, from slab to
slab. Yeah, a lot ofpeople won't just a solid color or something
like that. They can do that. There's the granites we're gonna have the
more, you know. But well, okay, yeah, that's all I

(24:00):
can ask the movement because for alot of people, it's the it's unique.
Yeah, you know, I lovea lot of different veining on different
movements, a lot of pieces,but you go with the courts, it
almost sounds like it might be alittle too uniform. And and that's yeah
for me, yes, but fora lot of clients out there, now,
I mean that's what they want,Yeah, that uniformity. And you

(24:22):
know that doesn't exist. Well ifyou got a real busy existing tile or
something like that, there are casesthat going. But if you're going from
a blank slate, you know youcan certainly pick whatever you wanted. Okay.
So now, Enrique, of theguys back of the shop, now,
what do they think about courts?I always use it for them to
work. Is it easier for themto work with or harder or does it
matter? It's about the same.Yeah, it's a little bit harder probably

(24:42):
to work. Well, I guessit'll eat up some blades and cause me
more money. Yeah, it's alittle bit faster, a little bit faster,
but you know it's some of thesequarts sites, now, I mean
it'll really eat up a blade,okay, exactly. And again, do
we have any idea who was incharge of naming the natural court site and

(25:03):
the man made courts, because thatstill doesn't make any sense to me at
all. It has always seemed backwardsto me as well, So I'm not
just unusual that way, or maybeyou and either to you unusual. Yeah
all right, So price point againnot quite as say, affordable as a
granted, but getting closer apparently.Yeah. Well, I mean I think,

(25:27):
you know, how do you viewaffordable though, because it's just it's
equally as affordable as the grant thatI like. So okay grant. Yeah,
yeah, it's a good point becauseyou might get into the cheaper than
you could in something else. Right, yeah, all right, good,
you are very equal pretty much inprice. Okay, Well, can't say
side by side, and I guessover the long term. I mean,

(25:48):
this hasn't happened yet, but Imean, hey, the natural stuff is
the natural stuff, and who knows, you know, I mean, yeah,
earth besides, that's all I gotto give you. Yeah, yeah,
they go three different areas all thetime, these quarries Brazil. But
I have a few pictures from thequarry there in Quaria, Italy. Buddy

(26:10):
of mine that did uh study abroadthere with Clemson, he's an architect,
went to the quarry and the pictureshe has are just some that I haven't
seen on mine and stuff, justdifferent views of the quarry that man,
I think still after millennia they're stillpulling rock out of there. Yeah well
okay, yeah, there's plenty.So whether it's the grant or the marble

(26:32):
of the courts, we're talking aboutthe courts that you can find it at
the lifetime cabinis and countertops and wherecan they fund that? Gentleman forty twenty
Fernandina Road over by Greens gave meto it. And then one five three
Champion Road, as Margus likes tosay, out past the hot Dog Man.
Yeah, between Cash is Chicken,which where we did the granted on
that one, and high a Groundin between those two guys. We did

(26:53):
the granted on the entryway on bothof those places right before they opened up
too. I got some free hotHamburgers and oh yeah that's right, Steve,
I gotta come by there and seeyou at the Hot Dog Land.
I'm James Carwell, local owner andoperator of Freedom Plumbing right here in the

(27:14):
Midlands. After working as a plumberfor nearly a decade, I decided to
open my own business and Freedom Plumbingwas born because of my love for this
country and the great respect I havefor the men and women of our armed
forces and our first responders. Inamed my company Freedom Plumbing. What sets
us apart from other companies is ourcustomer service. We have a five star
rating on Google, a five starrating on Facebook, an A plus rating

(27:38):
on Angie's List, and an Aplus rating with a Better Business Bureau.
I'm James Carwell, local owner ofFreedom Plumbing, and we look forward to
servicing you for all of your plumbingneeds. Get fifty percent off your next
service call. When you mentioned youheard us on w VOC. Learn more
at Freedom Dashplumbing dot com. That'sFreedom dash Plumbing dot com. Hi,

(28:00):
this is Gary David. You've heardme talk for years about Anthony John Construction
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(28:22):
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gutters. Hey, We're back onthe Home Improvement Show of the Midlands on
one oh three point five FM andfive sixty am w VC and not joined

(28:45):
by Robert Pulliam Pulliam Restoration. Goodmorning, my friend, Morning Gary.
How are you and I'm doing well? I am doing well. I hope
you are too. Buy we Iwas, you know, talking to Christopher
Thompson the other day. He talksabout you guys all the time here in
a week on Columbia's Morning news here. I know his sister in law.
I believe it was had an issuey'all had to deal with here recently,

(29:06):
and one of these situations where itdoesn't take much to create a big problem
when it comes to water, whetherit's a home or a business. Yeah,
you know, Gary, that water, when it's contained and doing what
it's supposed to do, it's it'slife giving, and it's it's necessary,
and it's useful and allows us tolive our lives. But when it decides
to overstuff, it's bounds either througha pipe breaking or leaking or you know,

(29:30):
any kind of drains of clogging orbacking up. It really reeks havoc,
and it really reeks it quickly.Water is not meant to be in
our built environment, and when itdoes get in there, it needs to
get out just as fast as itgot in. And one of the problems
we've talked about before, Robert,is it doesn't take long to cause damage

(29:51):
that you can't see. Yeah,so there's different kind of damages that water
causes. The one that most peopleare worried about the most, or they
think about first as well. Ifsomething got wet, is it gonna form
mold? You know, mold makesus wheezy and our eyes itch and uh
just makes us uncomfortable in the inthe environment. And you know, my

(30:11):
understanding, Gary, I'm no scientist, I'm a contractor, but my understanding
is that when when a material hasbeen wet for you know, uh,
seventy two hours, mold spores aregonna begin to grow in most situations,
and you know those muld spores aren'tgonna be able to be seen for roughly
two weeks. So you know,you may get something wet and after three

(30:33):
days you're like woo, I madeit. Uh. And then over the
over the coming weeks and months,you start to notice something that's not pleasant
to your nose and maybe your eyesand um. And at that point,
what could have been a simple fixis now a complicated repair. Yeah.
Um. And the second thing isis water. You know a lot of

(30:53):
the furniture these days is made infactories. It's not made by craftsmen,
and because of shipping and cost,it's not made with real hard wood anymore.
It's made with compressed MDF type wood. And when that stuff gets wet,
it swells, and once it swells, it doesn't go back. Um.

(31:14):
So so you know, those arethose are some of the hidden damages
and things that people often don't thinkabout when they have what they may consider
a minor flood. Employee and restorationsset up to find those things. We
know what to look for. Wehave the meter kits that cost us thousands
of dollars, and we have theguys who've been through all the training,

(31:34):
all the certifications, have the onthe job experience and just do this day
in and day out, and theycome in and they look for those things
first. And that's as you mentioned, that's that's part of the problem.
You know, if it's just somethingminor, it wasn't a whole lot.
You know that I was able toclean it up, okay, and it
took me maybe half an hour orwhatever, but I took care of it.

(31:55):
But it's it's it's again that stuffyou don't see it flooring for example.
Let's say in a bathroom or akid you got a leak. Do
you get it cleaned up? Butyou as you talked about the mold issue,
a lot of times that's going tobe festering in places maybe under the
floorboards that you can't see under theflooring of your home or your business.
There's there's no way as a lateperson to know it's there, is there.

(32:15):
That's true. You know. Thatbrings up another point. You know,
I was I was going by aplumbing company the other day and they
had one of those signs out frontwhere they can change the message, and
you know, their message said,hey, uh we fix we we fixed
what's your husband fixed last week?And uh, or we repair what your

(32:37):
husband fixed last week and uh it'sgood, you know, and this this
particular customer might be listened on theradio. But there's a we had a
customer of their day. They hadsome really beautiful hardwoods, and the hardwood's
got wet from my kitchen malfunction,and uh, you know, their first
instinct was they went and grabbed ashop back and started vacuating up the water.

(32:57):
Sure, yeah, well you know, and I get it. I
mean that's a natural reaction. Andso you know, we came in and
we did our inspection, and whatwe found was well, first of all,
we ended up drying their floors,saving their floors. They didn't need
to be refinished. But when they'vegrabbed that shot back, they didn't realize
the head on it was right,and it scratched their floors. Oh no,
yeah. And so the equipment wehave, you know, we use

(33:22):
it on a job and then webring it back in our wands and things.
We stand those down to get thebirds off of them and those like
things. And it's just something,it's just something you don't think about,
um using the right tool in theright way. And they ultimately called us
anyway, But if they had justcalled us first, you know, that
would have been a nuisance that couldhave been avoided. I hadn't even thought

(33:44):
of that. But that's that's agood point. I'm sure I've probably done
something like that in the past withoutthinking much about it. In that case,
anybody, anybody who's ever done DIYwork, including myself, thinking hey,
you know what, I can justtackle this myself often up with a
story of higue I learned it atand then um, you know the thing

(34:07):
about pollium restoration and restoration companies ingeneral, good ones, it's not just
the work we perform, Gary,it's it's how we perform it right,
and we have we have ki Lee. I don't even know how to how
to say it. Years thousands ofhours of just combined knowledge of like man
ten years ago, we did that. We'll never do it that way again,

(34:29):
you know. And and not thatnot that we come and practice on
your jobs, but we're continually honingour craft and continuing learning, you know,
what works and how to how toperform these specific job functions to get
in and get out and get thesestructures dried and clean in the best way

(34:50):
possible. Let's talk Robert about Okay, the procedure, whether it's a home
or a business, you guys doa lot of work with businesses, a
lot of work good businesses I know. But so regardless of what it is
there, something has happened. Andwe're in this example, we're talking about
water damage. Um, so youcan discover this in your place, walk

(35:12):
us through the steps. What Imean, what's the first thing you need
to do? What happens after that? You know? I mean, when
do you contact you guys? What'sthe best thing to do? Robert?
Well, you know, I wouldsay, you know, if you have,
like if you experience a water loss, it's not just pervasive and you
consider it, you know, inyour own mind to be fairly small.
There's no harm in getting some towelsand things and and starting to soak up

(35:36):
that water, you know, becausethey're soft and not gon do any damage
the structure and stop that water fromrunning and going. But beyond that,
beyond using the towel method, atleast give us a call Gary. Our
inspections are free in the Midlands.We don't charge anything to come out and
let you know what's going on.And we have a culture in our business.
We're not doom and gloom. We'renot gonna come and try to sell

(35:59):
you know, or to sell youwith all the things that can go wrong.
We're gonna look at it very pragmaticallyand use our equipment and say,
hey, look, you said thishappened, here's what we feel like the
damage is. Here's what we feellike needs to happen to clean that up.
And then it's your choice, youknow, whether you want to use
us or not. So there's reallyno harm in calling us to come inspection.

(36:22):
We're not gonna file a claim foryou or do any of those type
things or put you in an adverseposition because you call us. We're here
to help, and that help oftenincludes just giving free advice. And you
know, if we come out thereand we're like, hey, you know
what, those towels did the joband we really don't think there's any further
action, we're gonna tell you that. Um, we stay, we stay

(36:45):
busy, we stay in the wind, we our guys are out. So
you know, if if you hada near miss and there's no damage,
we're gonna tell you that and we'regonna move on and you know, good
for you. But if there isremedial work that needs to be done,
we're going to outline that for youup front, tell you what it's going
to look like, and give youthe option to to you know, move

(37:06):
forward with us. I guess oneof the confusing things for somebody to get.
I want to use the example ofa homeowner because typically situations maybe it's
a little bit smaller, and they'rethey're they're less apt to call, you
know, somebody like Pulliam Restoration orget insurance companies involved and all that.
But but let's say it seemingly tothe homeowner is a small issue. Uh,
they got it, they got itdried up. But they're hearing us

(37:27):
talking, They're thinking, yeah,well you know, I yeah, I
don't know what's under that flooring rightnow. I don't know there's not mold
growing or some sort of structural damage. Is there a like um, you
know, a bar where the damagehas got to be. I know,
deductible isn't all come into play.But when insurance company looks at something like
this, is it like you know, that's that's that's that's too small.
Well, people don't understand. Theythink about Pulliam Restoration and they may see

(37:51):
some of our pictures on Instagram orFacebook or hear our ads and they think,
oh man, I only need tocall them for Well, people don't
know about us, Gary, iswe routinely do jobs for three and four
and five hundred dollars that don't needit deductible and they still cure the problems.
So right, we're routinely, especiallyfor property managers and and people that

(38:13):
manage a lot of houses, we'reroutinely doing jobs for them that are you
know, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred dollars because
it prevents a multi multi thousand dollarjob by not taking care of it.
No job too big, no jobtoo small. Pollium Restoration, Robert olays
a pleasure. And what's the bestway for folks to reach you guys?
Yeah, the best way is justto call us at eight oh three Pollium

(38:35):
twenty four hours a day, oryou can get us on the web at
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(39:00):
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(39:21):
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your property a new lease on lifewith Diamond Concrete Solutions. Hey, we're

(39:45):
back with our final segment of theHome Improvement Show of the Midlands here for
this Saturday morning. But Samby backafter the top of the hour Fox News
Update with the Health and Weller Show, and we've got a full program there
as well. But first things first, let's get this one books and we
join or join that is by ourbuddy, James Carwell, the owner of

(40:05):
Freedom Plumbing. How are you,buddy, Good Gary, How are you
doing this morning? Man? I'mdoing great? All right? Uh we
we well, we thought about talkingabout five common plumbing probs this morning,
but I'm not sure we'll get tofive. We do want to start here
with maybe the most common plumbing issue, and that's uh that steady drip,
drip drip. Yes, the drippingfaucets can definitely be one of the most

(40:29):
common um issues in plumbing, andit could could be an easy fix for
a homeowner. I think that's oneof the things we talked about in our
d d Y fixes d Y Ifixes. Yeah, I do that too
all the time. I little difficultum. Yeah, so yeah, do

(40:52):
what you're self. Internal parts sailingin the faucet is what causes them to
drip. Washers possibly over any situationslike that, But there could be a
reason why those failed if they failedprematurely, and that could be due to
high pressure. Okay, if thatwas the culprit high pressure, would you

(41:15):
only it seems to mealue you tohave maybe multiple faucets that are dripping,
or maybe it can happen, that'sfor sure. It depends on the brand
and you know how how long thathigh pressure has been on that particular facetum.
But you can't have running faces andyou know, running toilets as well,

(41:37):
dripping faucets and running toilets could bea underlying issue from due to high
pressure, so that high pressure isputting too much force on those parts that
hold that water back and that cancause them to fail prematurely, So a
pressure reducing valve. In that case, anything any water pressure to a home

(42:00):
over ADPSI is required to have apressure ducing valve or also called a pressure
regulating valve. Now, when Ithink required, nobody's going out there and
checking houses water pressure and telling youyou need to put a pressure ducing valve

(42:20):
on. When I say that,if you were to build a new home
and the water pressure going to thathome from the municipality was over ADPSI,
the contractor would be required to installa regulator to bring that pressure down below
adpsi. Is it normally a questionthe pressure being too I know for this

(42:42):
particular issue we're talking about, it'sbecause your pressure is too high. But
I know our home and we movedinto a couple of years ago ahead of
you guys out because our water pressureof the house was too low. And
I believe that was a situation whereyou already had a pressure regulating valve on
the system. Yes, and thenit had sailed um and when those things

(43:04):
fail, they can do some strange, strange things to your system. I've
seen it fail and only provide fifteenpsi to a house, so it's just
really reducing that water pressure going intothe home. I've seen it fail and
give full city pressure and low volumeso to have one hundred and twenty psi
going through the home. But whenyou cut the faucet on, it does

(43:28):
that um high pressure and then justkind of dwindles down to a trickle um
and that that could be due toa faulty pressure regulator. Um. I've
heard him make noises throughout the wholehome. You cut the water on,
there's strange hum. So yeah,they can. They can cause multiple issues

(43:49):
when they go bad. And youknow, any mechanical thing eventually is going
to go bad. Sure, andto be specific here, if it's high
pressure, that's the issue that's causingyour faucet or faucets rep Now a regulator
that that controls the entire house,that's not just for one particular faucet or
toilet, right sure. Yeah,we typically install that on the main coming

(44:13):
into the home, either right atthe foundation walls the home or underneath.
If you have a good access inyour in your crawl space. Um,
typically you make one adjustment, that'sthe only time it needs to be touched,
all right, So you mentioned runningtoilets can also be a culprit.
Could be high pressure too. Ifyou're a toilet kind of just the ghost

(44:35):
flush thing, I guess, yeah, all of a sudden, you're here
and it starts running. You're like, well, what's up with that?
Yeah, the ghost flushing is typicallyan issue with the flapper. What's happening
is, um, okay, wateris slowly draining out of the tank,
and then the fill valve reaches apoint where it has to refill the tank
to the proper level. When you'redealing with a running toilet and it being

(44:57):
a pressure issue, typically you're dealingwith a problem with that fill valve wanting
to shut off but still just slowlyallowing a little bit of water to pass
by. Now, as the consumer, how do you know if your problem
is the flapper or the high pressure? I mean, well, that will
occur constantly, and sometimes it'll startwith it just overfilling a little bit higher

(45:23):
than it typically should, depending onwhat kind of fill valve is in there,
or it can be a situation whereit just doesn't stop um and it
just keeps running and running until thewater in the tank reaches the fill tube
and then starts straining into the toilet. Okay, So typically when those parts
go bad, you won't have overflowa tank because that fill valve is in

(45:46):
there and it allows somewhere for thatwater to go. It goes into the
fill valve and down through the fleshvalve or excuse me, into the fill
tube and down to the flesh valve. To James carl All, the owner
of Freedom Plumbing, one of themost common plumbing issues fausts were about fausts,

(46:06):
you just can't shut it all theway off. This is a dripping
faucet. And we've been talking abouthow high pressure, high water pressure,
these those problems. But you startedoff by saying that there are you know,
something it is not high pressure.Then there's something in the actual fixture
itself that maybe you, as ahomewower can fix yourself. So what are
we looking for here? Yeah,So, if you're comfortable with doing it,

(46:29):
you would typically start with shutting thewater off to the faucet underneath please
see emergency shut off valves. Andyou want to remove the handles and then
the stems, which would be thepart that the handle turns to make that
faust function. Now, if youdon't know the brain to the faucet,
if it's not labeled somewhere on there, sometimes there's a tag underneath on the

(46:52):
hot cold supply line that will giveyou a model number. Now you can
call these falset manufacturers you're self.They typically have what's considered a limited lifetime
warranty, which means you call themsay, hey, my face is dripping.
You give them the model number,they send you the part. If
you're handy enough put that part in. It should resolve that issue. And

(47:17):
it just depends on the type offaucet. There's so many different types of
faucets out there and models that here'sthe key. You need to have that
exact part and put that part in. Delta parts aren't compatible with moan parts.
Moan parts aren't compatible with pricesstor parts. They don't work together. Even

(47:39):
different models within the same brand don'tnecessarily work together. So definitely make sure
you got the right part for thatfalset. Are there certain models or or
those made by a certain manufacturer thatmight be easier to do yourself than others.

(48:00):
And this is why I'm a bigSanta Delta UM. I'm just plaid
to say that. But neither.They're one of the easier fasses to work
on UM for a couple of reasons. The parts are easy to find,
and they just seem to care alittle bit more about the people that have
to come in after something's been installed. As far as on the engineering side,

(48:24):
it just seems like they've done alittle extra work to make it easy
to take things out put things backin. Okay, any special tools required
to do this? James with withMoan, Yes, UM, and you
know there's a I think there's onetool out there now that they've made the

(48:45):
fits of multiple Moan UM fasses.But you have the old style moan that
used to pull out and push in. Moan's now gone to like a a
turn based on shower valves. Youknow, if you're shower was dripping,
faws is dripping UM. Mowen hasdifferent parts for that too. But yeah,

(49:06):
there are special tools for Mowen withDelta, you know, just a
simple pair of channel locks and asix one screw driver and maybe some Alan
keys to take the handles off andstuff that most people have laying around the
house. Okay, if you canfind it. If you can find it,

(49:28):
that is right, some of thebetter organizational skills than others. Uh.
I wanted to ask you now,so your your faucets dripping, as
a homeowner, is there a wayto know whether it's going to be just
a mechanical issue with that faucet orit's high pressure? Are you going to
know as the homeowner? People's timeby going and you know, ordering the

(49:52):
parts and replacing all this and youstill got the problem. Well, you
wouldn't necessarily still have the dripping problembecause the new parts would probably take care
of that drip. Um. Butwhat you're doing is you're putting brand new
parts on the system with high pressureand you're just going to be going through
that issue. UM over and over. I had one customer had high pressure

(50:14):
one hundred I think it was onehundred and thirty PSI was in northeast Columbia.
UM. They were using another plumberat the time, and they said
they replaced the sketchen faucet like threedifferent times. UM. So the first
thing I get I do is gocheck the pressure one hundred and thirty PSI.
So let's you need to address thepressure before we mess with that faucet
because you're just going to keep havingthis problem. Sure enough, we had

(50:36):
just to pressure below eighty. Um, we wound up. They've had another
faucet they wanted to put in.When we did the work that day,
and we put that new faucet in, they haven't haven't heard from themselves.
Boom, this is this is yearsago. So UM, I suppose it
wouldn't be a bad idea if youif as a homeowner, you can find
where it is, if you've gota regulator on your home, to go

(50:58):
take a peek every now and thenand see what your water pressure actually is
coming into the house. Well,the regulator is not going to tell you.
But what you can do is youcan go to your local big box
store, Lows home depot one ofthose, and get a pressure gauge,
and that pressure gage will just screwto the outside fall city your home,
the same place you would connect yourhose to and just screw that on,

(51:22):
cut the water on. It'll tellyou what your where your pressure is at.
So let's say you typically we'll seea lot of systems at forty five
PSI because that's where the pressure regulatorscome preset most of them, and if
you wanted to, you could bumpthat up. We usually set them around
sixty five or seventy. So that'ssomething you could do yourself. That was

(51:45):
going to be having my next question. I mean, should you be messing
with that regulator yourself? Where doyou need a professional? Depends on how
old it is, and sometimes asa homeowner you might not know the answer
to that. If it's been inthere for a few years, I may
not mess with it has been setso four years, I probably wouldn't go
messing with it. The this potentialthat you can have some problems just by

(52:08):
making an adjustment because there's there's adiaphragm inside there in a spring. I've
seen some texts tighten it down,so the tighter you make the screw on
the regulator, the higher pressure getsin the home. I've seen some texts
tighten it down too far to wherejust put a branding regulator in and now

(52:31):
it can't regulate. So definitely somethingI would you know if you're if you're
looking to make an adjustment or getsome advice on that asom to come out
and they can check your pressure prettyeasily, pretty quickly and give you some
guidance as to what they would recommend. How can folks reach you guys over

(52:52):
at Freedom Plumbing, my friend,if I need anything, they can give
us call at eight O three fourfour seven zero four seven one, or
visit our website at Freedom and dashPlumbing dot com. But have a great
weekend, man, thanks so much, you did say. All right,
take a quick break here, updateyour news the top of the air,
and then back with the Health andWellness Show here on one h three point
five FM and five sixty am wVOC. Do you wish you could wake

(53:12):
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