Home Improvement Show 07-01-23

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
My friends. Good morning and welcomein. It's the home improvement show of
the Midlands that time again here onone h three point five FM and five
sixty am w VOC. Good morningto tell you. My name is Gary
David and coming up we've got anaction packed hour. Terry Nation from Nation
Builders will be joining us a littlebit later. On this half hour we'll
talk about kitchen remodeling. Marcus andCasey from Lifetime cabins and countertops we made

(00:29):
to build into the outdoor kitchen realmwith the guys today, and our newest
contributors, John and Kathy Fickner fromRock the Top Resurfacing will be here to
tell us how you can save aton of money by resurfacing things like my
bathrooms, showers, bathtubs save aton of money doing it. So we'll
sit down and chat with him nexthalf hour underway though, first on this

(00:52):
July fourth weekend, well, we'vegot to talk to James Carwell because he's
the owner of Freedom Plumbing and happyfourth of July week into you, my
friend. Happy for the July weekendof you. Gary, how are you?
I'm doing good and I know afew plumbers. Man, there's theres
no such thing as a holiday,so hopefully things will be quiet for you
this weekend. I hope, Isure do. Yeah, we definitely try

(01:12):
to give all our guys the dayoff on independent State, that's for sure,
yes, sir. And I knowsome people are taking Monday off too,
so for some of you, you'rewalking the four day weekend here.
So good, good for y'all.Uh, you've got you mentioned to us
a couple of weeks ago that youhad some some new stuff on the way
and uh, and now it's inhouse and this is uh, this is

(01:34):
new technology? Is this is thisbrand new technology here for leak detection stuff
or it's some pretty um new equipment. You know, leak detection has been
around for a while, but thiskind of gives us a little hand up
on the competition when it comes tolocating leaks. And uh, and it's
definitely interesting to use. I'm excitedabout the expansion and to offer more services

(01:57):
to our customers. So beautiful.Well, before we get into that,
let's talk about the way it hadto be done in the past. And
I guess depending on whether your homewas built on a yet a crawl space
or built on a slab. Thatwas a very different different process. Well
for us, it was because wewould just refer that work out, wait
for the leak detection company to comeout ten point where the leak was,

(02:19):
and then do the repair. Butnow we're kind of like able to expedite
that process, and the technology thatwe have is kind of cool. So
it's mostly sound, and we havelistening plates almost like what a doctor would
have that intensifies the sound, sowe can listen to where the leak is

(02:40):
in the line and kind of isolatethe area of the of where the water's
coming from. The cool thing aboutthis equipment is it allows us to introduce
air into the equation, so weget almost like his boiling sound, so
you know, sound's going to travelpretty good and a pipe, especially if

(03:01):
it's metal, so you know youcan get the general area, but you
want to be within a two footsquare space when you're doing leak detection.
You don't want to have to takeout more concrete than anticipated because that just
adds to the work sure. Soby introducing the air, we're able to
create that boiling sound and that kindof pinpoints because that's not going to travel

(03:22):
as far as the actual leak soundgoing through the pipe. So by introducing
that air, it gives us moreof an accurate location of the leak.
So I was gonna you know,as a as a lay person when it
comes to plumb and stuff, Imean, I know very little. I've
learned a lot from you over theyears, but I'll attempt very little on
my own. Let's put it thatway. I'm smart enough to know you

(03:43):
don't want to open up that big, old fuzzy cant of arms right there.
But so a home built on acrawl space, all right, if
as long as those lines are runningunderneath the home, it's just that,
you know, a lot easier todetect leaks obviously, but you can do
it visually, I guess. Butbut even in those homes you've got,
you've got pipes that a run upin such I mean, well, this
is still you know, this isa major advancement there too, right,

(04:04):
Well, not only for that,but when you have the line going from
the meter to the house could alsopotentially fail, and we have the equipment
to locate those out in the yardby using the same technology um and sound
to pinpoint where exactly that leak isin the yard. Because I've had situations
where water is just coming up outof the yard and and you're like,

(04:26):
yeah, let's dig right there.It's got to be there, and it
you know, leak detection came outafterwards and it was fifteen feet away from
the spot we were digging. Howdoes that have just because water just takes
the path police resistance, so itfinds a yeah, yeah, you know,
a sandy area, it's going togo through that and that you know,
that could take it in a tenfifteen feet away. Same with the

(04:47):
if it's going underneath the driveway,Um, you just don't know where it
might be under that driveway. Youmight have water coming out on one side
of the driveway, but the leakfee in the middle of the driveway because
of eventually that water's going to findits way out. So and obviously that
would have applied to any kind ofwater pipe running up and down inside a
wall too, because obvious that's goingto run down to the all the way

(05:09):
down correct, yep, right,And we can we got a special plate
that's used that doesn't damage walls.It's a soft rubber plate that intensifies the
sound, and we can go throughand and really pinpoint where that leak is
in a wall and cut the rightarea, because typically what you would do
is you would cut at the lowestpoint where you see the water, and
then you would have to kind oftrace that to the highest point of where

(05:31):
the water's coming from. So this, uh, you know, gets rid
of some unnecessary sheet rock removal,although in some cases the sheet rock gets
wet, you want to remove itanyway if there's enough water. So it
just just depends on the situation,but it definitely helps us pinpoint things.
So yeah, in the old days, it was just you just had to

(05:54):
keep digging or busting up concrete orwhatever until you've got to it. Uh
So, yeah, okay, that'sthat's a problem. That could be an
expensive problem. But but again,as you mentioned, I mean in the
past you had to kind of formthis out, and a lot of companies
still do. But now you guyswere able to get to it quicker because

(06:14):
you've got it right there in thehouse. So that's correct. So um,
we actually did our first one afew days ago on an apartment complex
is which is one of the harderones to do because you've got so many
units and so many things that couldbe going on. Yeah, and we
successfully located that week on our firstattempt. So excited. It's it's fun
to use the technology and to beable to provide that service. We're excited

(06:40):
since we're on the topic of that. And again, this obviously is helpful
in all situations, but in particular, if you've got a home that's built
on a slab, the last thingyou want to be doing us busting up
a bunch of a slab to tryto track something down here. So this
allows you to pendpoint it, whichis great, but still there's the issue
that at some point that's part partof slab is gonna have to come out

(07:01):
in order to get to it andfix it correct. Yeah, anytime you
got a slab lea, you gotto take the floor out, whether it
be carpet, lambing it hardwood.Um, then you got to take the
concrete out. Then you have totake dirt out and then make that by
per pair and then put everything back. So uh, you know, it's
it's not a fun process for thehomeowner, but we try to make it

(07:23):
as easy as possible on them withthe as limited interruption as we can we
can give them on their on theirplumbing system and when when when it does
come to that, and obviously withthis technology now you'll be able to pinpoint
it much quicker and much more precisely. But you still got to bring in,
you know, outside because you guysare plumbers, you know, I
mean, you're you don't pour concreteand stuff, right, so you bring

(07:45):
other people and to take care ofthat. Uh. If the if the
space is small enough, we'll actuallydo the concrete repair. What we don't
do is going to put any flooringback. But in larger situations where you
know, a large chunk concrete hasto come out and you know that to
make the repair, we do outsourcethat because we want to make sure that

(08:05):
you know, it's done properly andthey can do it a little bit quicker
on those larger jobs to save thecustomers some money. Sure, smaller stuff's
not too hard. A two footby two foot area, we can mix
some concrete up in a bucket anduh and get that finished out and put
four back in. But anything largerthan that we're probably outsourcing it. I
guess my question was going to be, yeah, if that has to be

(08:26):
the case, if it's going tobe a much bigger job. You guys
will take care of handling all ofthat with outsourcing as opposed to the customer
having it. Well, let mecall this guy or that guy or this
gal of that company. We havecontact that we use and make referrals to
the customer. We typically like thecustomer to make that contact just to you

(08:48):
know, make sure that schedulings lineup and everything like that. But yeah,
we definitely have that information readily availableto make it easier on the customer
to know who to call. Well, that's so important, I mean,
getting getting things lined up because youwant to make this happen as quickly as
possible. But I mean it couldturn into a week's long thing if a
you know, contractor can't get outthere at a certain time or what have

(09:09):
you. I mean, that couldbe a disaster. Yeah, we've had
some of them take a while.Um, you know, just based on
flooring contractors and accessibility of materials andthings of that nature. The important thing
is getting the customer back up andrunning. When it comes to their plumbing
systems, there may be a littleinconvenience about having a section you know,

(09:30):
taped off and plasticked off that theycan't access, but at least they have
you know, running water, runa sewer so they can use their facilities.
Now if I recall, but you'vetold us in the past that a
lot of times these days on slabbuild homes, the builders are not so
much running the water lines underneath thatslab. They're not like they used to

(09:50):
correct. Yeah, what we're typicallyseeing now is they'll come up in a
garage wall and install a shutoff,a halve, and a pressure regulator in
the rage, so the only sectionthat you have is really underneath the house
is coming from the outside going tothat interior wall, and then they'll run
all the waterlines, you know inthe floor if it's a two story house,

(10:11):
and the floor of the second storyor the ceiling of the first story,
and then go up and down toeach fixture of the first and second
floor. We're not seeing the CPVCand things of that nature being put underneath
the slab where issues can come up. Now for someone who's bought a home
that was not newly built and maybeit's all a slab, as the homeowners

(10:33):
or any way of knowing where thosewaterlines are, I mean, maybe the
best thing to do would probably becontacted plumber or hopefully have the plans,
because even coming out as a plumber, you would assume certain things were done
in a certain way just based onthe layout, and they can be done
completely opposite. That was my nextquestion. How do you know it's a

(10:56):
plumber, Well, if it's inthe wall or under the ground. Um,
you know, this technology does allowus to hook some equipment up that
will send a pulse um of soundthrough the waterline so we can we can
trace it with that that pulse detectionequipment that we have with our league detection
stuff, so we can actually tracelines out by sending pulses of sound through.

(11:18):
So it's all about getting to theproblem quicker, um, all about
minimizing the the inconvenience for the homeowneror the business owner and uh and in
the long run again, all thatleads to you know, being able to
save the customer money right that andtime and be able to use their facilities

(11:39):
quicker and less downtown. UM.More more convenient for the customer for sure.
Um. You know, as muchservice as we can provide and as
easy as we can make the process, the better. You know, people
aren't typically calling you for a plumbingsituation, in the greatest mood or in
the greatest situation. So we tryto, you know, understand in that

(12:00):
that's a difficult time for them andtry to make it as easy as possible.
Absolutely, all right, my friend, it's Freedom Plumbing. The guys
right around town this July fourth weekend, the big red, white and blue
trucks. How to folks reach Jamesand give us call at eight O three
four four seven zero four seven oneor visit our website at Freedom dashplumb and
dot com. And I'd like towish everybody happy fourth And do you too,
my friend, Yes, sir.Rock the Top Resurfacing transforms outdated tubs,

(12:24):
tile walls, tile floors, countertopsand more without replacements, seed money,
time and the environment, free estimatesthat Rock Thetop Resurfacing dot com or
eight O three nine two O eighta fists. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops is
your locally owned source for countertops,great selection, great prices, and they
pride themselves on superior installation and customerservice. The owner, Marcus will even

(12:48):
personally come out to do all yourmeasurements. Seed the selection online at Lifetime
Cabinets sc dot com or stop byone of Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops two conveniently
located show rooms on Fernandina Road inColumbia or Chapin Road in Chapin, and
check out the hundreds of slabs instock, granite, marble, quartz,
quartzite. They've got it all.And if you can't find exactly what you

(13:11):
were looking for when you're there,and that's rare, they will find it.
And it's not just kitchens and bats. Lifetime Cabinets Encountertops does outdoor patios,
vanities, bars, man caves,you name it. Lifetime Cabinets Encountertops
Fernandina Road in Columbia, Chapin Roadin Chapin and online at Lifetime Cabinets sc

(13:31):
dot com. Hey, welcome backto the Home and Proven Show of the
Midlands and good to have you withus on this July fourth weekend. I'm
Gary David, now joined by TerryNation Nation's Builders. Good morning, my

(13:52):
friend, How are you brother?Good morning Gary? How are you sir?
I am well man, great tobe here. Big plans for this
weekend. Oh just got at youup on a little work so no big
yeah yeah, Oh goodness. Wewhen you first joined the program and thank
you for doing that. By theway, a lot of great information you

(14:13):
impart to to all of us.I believe we started off talking about um
remodeling kitchens, because when it comeswhen it comes to remodeling, I mean,
we're talk about kitchens and bathrooms basically, right, that's right? Yeah,
okay, Um, I don't likemy living room painting painted and put

(14:35):
a floor down and the flooring,right, I mean, that's about it.
Maybe you take a walk out hereor there. We've done that in
the past. You're gone by,you know, get that open floor.
Do you get a lot of that? I mean, do you get a
lot of people I just want toopen the place up. We do a
decent amount of that, and oddlyenough here in the last year we've actually
added some walls. But there aresome folks that still like their little cozy

(14:56):
spaces. So yeah, you know, but the fun how that works though,
this becomes the trend and then suddenly, oh no, we don't want
to wallpaper. I think we've donetwo wallpaper jobs in ten years. Yeah.
But now my wife, who watchesa lot of based GTV, you
know, and if I'm walking byand I see it on, now I'm

(15:18):
glad someone I'm seeing, Are theyputting up wallpaper? Please, Lord,
don't let that come back. That'sright now again he may have you love
wallpaper have all over your playing.That's fine, but not for me because
I've taken it down too many times, that's right, and I don't want
to go through that part this problem, my goodness. So yeah, if

(15:39):
it's a living room or a bedroom, I mean, there's your limited as
to what you can do. Butnow kitchens and bathrooms a whole another ball
game here, Oh, another ballgame, and kitchens in particular. Is
that would that be fair to saythat's one of the most poper re model
jobs. I can say that's themost popular. Yeah, and sure the
most most expensive. Yeah? Andwhy is that? Well? You know,

(16:02):
I could sit here, I don'tknow, for ten straight minutes and
name all or start listing the partsand pieces in a kitchen that you just
don't think about when you're in there. But you know, something as simple
as a cabinet, you know,you gotta go find you know, people
don't know when they start talking abouta kitchen. Oh, I gotta pick
out what kind of hinge I won'tdo? I want it soft, closed,

(16:22):
do I won't you know all theseoptions and then you know drawer glides.
There are so many options there,so you know you got all these
little parts and pieces. You don'tsee all the hardware, the boxes themselves.
You know, then you're probably gonnado undercounter lighting. And yeah,
it's just it just as you startdigging deep into the parts and pieces.

(16:48):
It is a ton to do otherthan just walking in looking at a kitchen.
Right yeah, now for somebody,and I bring this up for a
reason because this is a question mywife has asked me before. Somebody who
as they're fine with their kitchen,okay, but yet they see now that
you mentioned cabinets, for example,there are a lot of options there these
days with you know, open upa door and pull out this. That's

(17:11):
correct. This sits on top ofthat. Do you do a lot of
how easy is it or is itto actually take existing cabinets and maybe modify
them or upgrade them with some ofthose sorts of features. We do that
a decent amount. And the biggestpart is what you said is open up
the doors and be able to pulla drawer out with your pots and pans.
Because most people that are doing thisnow we're kind of looking into the

(17:34):
future and say, look, I'myou know, I'm getting a little age
on me. I'm getting tired ofbending over. Um, we're doing a
full kitchen now, and I don'tknow, there's only a few doors on
it. Everything gets big drawers forthe whole kitchen. Great idea, I
mean, it looks good. They'rejust total drawers, dobinet doors. Yeah.

(17:55):
So there again, options are endless. And then you know, you
got the um spice racks and thehand dividers and all that. All that's
pretty easy to go in and addto an existing cabinet. Well, don't
be surprised if you don't get acall from my wife sometimes and hey,
Terry got an idea for you here. Yeah, but okay, So but

(18:18):
when it comes to you, Imean, and it depends on what you
want to do. I guess youcan just I mean, well, what's
the quickest, simplest remutal job youever did in the kitchen? Uh?
Simpler it changed the tops out andpaint the cabinets um. And normally if
you're gonna paint, we end upputting a new door on it. Um
doors and drawers, and then itlooks like a fully remodeled kitchen when all

(18:41):
we've done is replaced doors and drawers, put tops on it. It took
a little slap, little pint upon there. Yeah, and I could
go a long way doors change andlook at it for sure. Yeah,
especially you go in these houses withthere. Again, I have nothing to
gain stained, But you go ina house with stained cabinets, it's been
that way for years, and you'vethrow a light color and there, it
just changes the holes of the toneof the kitchen. Yeah. Yeah,

(19:04):
Which, what's the most extravagant remodeljob you've ever done? Oh? Wow,
Um, it's probably there's two.It was two full houses, not
a room. I mean, it'salmost just a full blown house. New
bedrooms, new bathrooms, add abathroom to start over and just get it

(19:27):
and get it and start over.So yeah, yeah, we've had a
couple of those. See I wasalways over there. When it comes to
kitchen remodels, I always just thought, well, gosh, they're expensive because
you typically typically, I guess,when you remodel the kitchen, you put
in new appliances, right, No, nobody wants to remodel the kitchen and
put the old refrigerator. It's it'srare. I mean, we've done it,
but it's rare. So I alwaysalways okay, well it's the appliances,

(19:51):
but it's not the appliances that getyou new. Now, depending you
you can go overboard there you go, depends on anything. But you know,
the first thing you gotta go dois pick that stone that's going to
be sitting on those counts those cabinets, and there's your first hit and then
you know they just kind of keepcoming after dance, and it's just the

(20:11):
things that those those countertops go ontype of that's right, I can let's
start ramping up the price, that'sright, yep. So you know you
can go to a big box storeand value some then put them in.
Um, you know, we wehave a cabinet shop, so we lean
toward the custom ones that's going tofit the space, whether than you trying
to make pre bought cabinets fit aspace. And then you just got to

(20:37):
do certain things to make them work. So you know, at that point
when you're gonna spend that kind ofmoney, UM, most people decide,
well, you know, maybe Iwill just throw a little bit more with
it and we can get everything wewant customer, Yeah, customer. Now,
cabinets made of wood, well,the good ones on wood or pressed

(20:59):
wood? One? Um what ingeneral, any remodeling project, any building
project, these ends because we wentthrough a time there where lumber oh my
goodness righteous, I was scared togive pricing in those days. Yeah,
how about now? Um, it'sso it's settled down, but I don't
think we'll ever get to the prepandemic pricing. Um, but it's at

(21:25):
well, it got so high thatit's at an acceptable level now kind of
it's still high, you know,and and not that OSB you know,
that's what everybody's used to as asheet apply wood. Pre pandemic was about
six or seven dollars. Yeah,pandemic got up to fifty crazy, So
now what said? You know tenand everybody's happy with ten, you know,

(21:47):
so um so yeah, we're happywith gas prices at three fifteen.
Yeah, however, that's just aterrible ain't it. Yeah, but you
can sing a lot of bank acapms. Yeah. So we you go in
and and again with with nation Builders. You guys, you've got a process.
We've got a process, that's right. Yeah, and it's this is,

(22:11):
here's what you're you're not getting.Somebody just walks in us IS with
pad and maybe a tape measure orsomething, spends about fifteen minutes if that,
and say, okay, this isnot the way you do business.
That's not the way we do business. How do you do Um? So
we're gonna set a consultation with youso we can go out and we book

(22:32):
out two hours. Um. Youknow, some folks only take thirty minutes,
some folks take two hours, andsome folks we go back and see,
um, because we want to hearyou know. The first thing we
want to hear is your dream andthen you know, if the dream is
not attainable at that point, thenwe start trying to step back, but
we want to hear it from topto bottom. Any projects you want to

(22:53):
you're thinking about in the future,Um, we're there to spend time and
see exactly what you want and thenwe can start designing around that. Right,
So you plenty of time to askall the questions you want, Oh
for sure? Yeah like saying that'sright. Yeah, We ask a lot
of questions too, and you knowwe get a lot of the why I

(23:15):
never thought about that? Wow,I never thought about that. UM.
And I'll tell you one thing that'sbeen more surprising here lately that I've never
heard of other than in the lastcouple of months, we've had three or
four customers in a row say,well, we've had some folks over here
pricing UM this job, but theyonly do certain things. So they told

(23:36):
me, I need to go outand find this and I need to go
find this person to do this.So when we come in, we take
it from the initial phone call towhen we're handing everything up your warranty package
over to you and UM planning forour one year return trip to come back.
Oh you do that too, huhoh, yes for sure, Yeah,

(23:56):
very nice. Yeah, you allstill work with UM design experts,
design experts. We've mentioned her quitea few times. UM Page Butler's interior
styling in design when Loge pass Rightwork a lot Page Yeah, so,
uh, you know Page of course, she's the really you know, once

(24:19):
we kind of get the goals ofthe homeowner pages next in the process,
you know, because at that point, no matter what if it's a kitchen
or a bath, Page walks inand until that top is selected, nothing
else happens as far as design,because that is the focal point when you

(24:40):
walk into room, and she buildseverything else around that. That's I have
never thought about that. I neverthought about it until I worked with her
and realized how genius that is.Wow. Um, so we tell all
of our homeowners now, you mightas well go ahead and start thinking about
you countertops, because that's gonna bethe first question you're hit with. So
I think maybe the point here is, Terry, is that, UM,

(25:00):
don't expect to call you guys todayand have you over there, you know,
putting stuff up, tearing stuff downnext week if you want to.
You're you're you're planning on being theremore than likely for a long time.
And so there's a process that youguys have perfected and it works, and

(25:22):
it may take a little extra time. Right. It's like when you go
to that that that restaurant that thatthat custom makes things for you and you
know you're gonna see you spend alittle more time at the table waiting to
get it because you're not getting thecookie cutter solution exactly right, Um,
so know that go on him?Yes, all right, Um, bathrooms
we'll talk about maybe next time.But kitchens kitchens. We love them.

(25:45):
Give us a call, but uhyeah, just put some plan in time
in there and plant. You knowyou're you're gonna be spending some money,
spend the time in planning and makingsure you get everything you want to get
absolutely now, all right, tellyou how to FoST get ahold of y'all
hi at. Our web site isnation Builders LLLC dot com. Our phone
number is eight O three eight Oseven eight one four zero. That's a

(26:08):
call, all right, brother,Good to see it, man, Thank
you, good to see you.I'm James Carwell, local owner and operator
of Freedom Plumbing right here in theMidlands. After working as a plumber for
nearly a decade, I decided toopen my own business, and Freedom Plumbing
was born because of my love forthis country and the great respect I have
for the men and women of ourarmed forces and our first responders. I

(26:30):
named my company Freedom Plumbing. Whatsets us apart from other companies is our
customer service. We have a fivestar rating on Google, a five star
rating on Facebook, an A plusrating on Angie's List, and an A
plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. I'm James Carwell, local owner of
Freedom Plumbing and We look forward toservicing you for all of your plumbing needs.

(26:52):
Get fifty percent off your next servicecall. When you mentioned you heard
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(27:15):
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(27:44):
the Midlands on this July fourth weekend. So't bring on nation's independence and no
two better guys to do it with. And these two right here. It's
Marcus Greenwell and Casey Alexander from LifetimeCabinets and Countertops Lifetime Countertip. Yeah,
we have the fireworks over there.I'm more, I'm we're just one of
those little, uh, charcoal snakesthat you light and just kind of expands.

(28:08):
You know. He's over there withthe big boom and sparkling everywhere.
Hit grey smell, smelling napalm inthe morning. Yeah, all right,
those little tanks that just run aroundshoes, sparks. He's over there,
boom. Oh you're talking about thefireworks, although you're talking about the smoker

(28:30):
on the grill a snake Alexander.The Roman candle guy, Marcus Greenwell,
guy, I did love some RomanCandle Wars ninety what they call an allowed
to talk about that candle that too, back in the day, the Bottom

(28:52):
Rocket Wars. Yeah, nowadays thekids just hold those. Yeah, it's
funny. I was watching shows supposedto a movie, a real cute movie,
family movie called Chupa. It's aboutthe Chupa Capra on Netflix, and
uh yeah, it's got to sayit like that, right. It's really

(29:14):
it's a really cute movie. Butthey they're in Mexico and like it's ninety
six and they're showing the kid hadto shoot fire works out of his hands
before we proceed further further. Thisconversation, kids, you're not trying to
at home. Don't don't go there. We learned in the eighties, that
was the nineties. That was abad idea. That goes back to the

(29:36):
seventies. For me, it was, Yeah, it was not a good
scout is all? With my backpackcatches on fire? What was the what
was the defensive man from the giants? That? Uh? With the mit
not not Ina. We got aboutsixties. I can talk about counter talking.
Oh yeah, kittens, Did Imentioned that? Yeah? That was

(29:59):
a you're not going to get itinstall all by by tuesday, okay,
yeah, but you can buy footballseason. Here comes football. Yeah.
We're counting down the coming around thecountdown clocks already this year. Yeah.
So I'm looking forward to football.And this is a conversation I never want
to have with you guys, becauseyou know, I'm still pining for that
outdoor kitchen the days kind of I'sgot to figure out how with my topography

(30:19):
in my house to do it.They're making them easier and easier to build.
You know, they got these littlekids. You can go out there
and do it yourself, you know, and get them ready for us,
and we come out in there andboom boom boom. Now put the granted
on it. And yeah, andlet's be let's be precise here. You
guys don't build out the kitchens yourselves, correct, But we put the granted.

(30:40):
You can put the countertops on thetop, whatever type of stone you
want on it. Do you workhand in hand with with folks who do
this, right? I guess itdepends, right. So there's a lot
of people that do that. Yeah, in the area that we work in
the past with with Brian's and Isaid with Keenlon Landscape, Jared Fichi and
Jared there's there's been several guys thatare pretty adapt at these outdoor cherry nations

(31:04):
and nations building who just left.As a matter of fact, I missed
him. How'd y'all miss coming?What's doing out the back door? Yeah?
I was on the most side,well, spinning around in the parking
lot doing some practicing. Got mycones out there and everything figure eights.

(31:26):
Yeah, man, hey, Ineed all the practice I get. I
gotta dodge all these people out here, well, be careful on their phones.
I was passing a guy this morningon his phone. Oh yeah,
he's thinking about that. I wason the sidewalk. But yeah, so
sorry that was back down kitchen.Happy holiday weekend. Everybody know you you

(31:52):
guys, I'm sure that because youdo the counter. But you've been around
enough of these. Yeah, Imean, any any tips and tricks as
to what makes a good versus agood outdoor kitchen. Yeah, make sure
you give us all the appliants infobecause there's all kinds of neat stuff.
You can do these pizza boxes,and you can do these griddles and they

(32:12):
all get integrated. Yeah, thelittle cabinets on the bottom, and they
got sinks and they got sinks.I mean, trays that have the whole
condiments. I mean, just allkind of neat stuff. So so pretty
much it leads to be at leastdesigned, if not already built. Yeah,
where you guys get involved. Yeah, and we just got to be
built once we measure it. Imean, you know, cut start because

(32:36):
those go pretty quick. I meanthey put these things together real quick.
So go ahead to me when youget plane in phase, get us involved,
find the material that you want togo around it and put it deposit
down we'll hold it and then thatway because they get these things go up
way quicker than an insight kitchen andeverything else. So yeah, we need

(32:57):
to be involved in the plane.Those guys get in there and they don't
mass save the material and uh andthen we can come out of measure and
put it in. So on theschedule, who get you guys involved early
in the process. Yeah, becausewe can four to six weeks so we
can help playing overhangs like where youwant sitting areas to be and everything else?
Do you know? So you needto know that. Okay, yeah,

(33:20):
around, I'm on top, butyou said around or you were wearing
something else other than just on topand you say around or is that probably
talking about else? I'm just talkingabout around the appliances and out out for
seating areas. Seating you know,kind of like a tree. I want
to do, you know, aroundyour firepit or whatever if you got another
separate area or bitch that. Yeah, yeah, the tree stomps. Yeah,

(33:50):
I'm a little slow this morning.I'm like, yeah, yeah I
did that. That's a good idea. At the table on the tree stump
maybe your carboard off and I'm well, so I started out good. All
right, So so what what kindof stone are we talking about now?
For anything outdoors? Is it?Does it matter whether it's an outdoor kitchen

(34:14):
or if it's something around the firepit or wherever. Does that make any
difference as to what sort of countertypeyou go with here? I would stick
with as much as possible, stickto the granite, especially open and air
outdoor kitchens. You know, somethingthat's direct sunlight and stuff like that,
it's going to perform better. Okay, because we talk about heat and if

(34:34):
it's covered all that, but goodto go with courts, you know,
we talked about a couple of weeksago. Courts. Yeah, very popular
for indoor stuff. So if it'scover, of course doesn't respond well to
being in this direct South Carolina's sunright just washes it out? Or does
it actually harm the actually good description. Yeah, I mean it'll last a
long, long, long time,but still it's just not you know,

(34:55):
ideal with My favorite of all theis the is the rugged concrete chords that
we have and it already has kindof faded kind of look to it.
Yeah, use it a little more, yeah, I mean you could use
it a little in areas that wereyou know, getting partial, I wouldn't

(35:15):
still put it in direct some light, but it's it's got enough of a
already pre fade look to it thatthat it wouldn't look bad out even in
direct some light for ten fifteen years. Is there anything you do differently when
it comes to preparing or treating thecountertop or that same sailor same nothing changes

(35:39):
there? Yeah, no, sir, Okay, yeah, I'm a guess,
correct me if I'm wrong, butthat most people want to come from
a door kitchen. They're they're they'renot getting too fancy, or they're sticking
level one, maybe level two,level three one this week coming up,

(36:01):
so you know he just measured.Yeah, that was the level three.
Um. I will say if youget into like, you know, the
white springs and the white ice,uh yeah, that's what we're gonna have
a little experience maybe because uh that'ssome light can bank down on those things.
And if you get you know,some of these darker colors, uh,

(36:22):
they can heat up pretty quick.So uh, if you're direct some
light the white ice, the whitesprings and stuff like that may be a
better option. I'm doing a measurementfor a white springs counter outdoor countertop this
week, okay, I think onThursday, if you're counting. So if
now, let me ask you,if somebody comes in the showroom to see

(36:42):
you, and you're over to thefern Dean Road show room right now,
right well today, today, joytoday and Tuesday, okay, then he's
at one fifty three Chapin Road therest of the week, okay, Monday
through Friday. But I mean ifthey come, if they if somebody walks
into the showroom or the shop outin Chaping, you know today and says,
uh heard time about outdoor kitchens.I'm interested. You guys can kind

(37:07):
of hook them up with you'll work, you'll work with with you, maybe
Terry or somebody else to kind ofput the package together to touch all the
right people. In other words,yeah, okay, most people have a
good idea of what they're gonna doin their backyard and their outdoor kitchen anyway,
So oh yeah, I want tosink here. I want it this
long, and they've got this amountof space at which they lay out and

(37:30):
as far as the granite or whateverstone, they pick out, fine one
that you like, and then wecan get all the particulars and measurements and
all that. Yeah, that's right, Okay, got you all right?
Well, yeah, football season won'tbe that far away. Yeah right,
I got my ticket, so I'mexcited. Imagine just you know, hanging
out and put up the big screenoutside and yeah it gets to like glacier

(37:52):
white or that very way that wegot right now, it's got the Garnet
in it. Oh see, Idon't know what we're gonna do, fans,
but dude, well it's a littleall shaped couches out there and fall
asleep after the game. Well,mother Nature did not design countertops in orange,
right, Actually we have some onea little bit. Yeah, we
love we love orange two. Garnet'sprevalent. You know, I drive a

(38:14):
harday that's a lot orange enough phoneall we got. We gotta get out
of here. Um yeah, yougotta get out of here. You have
all y'all, guys, Thank y'all. Well, by the way again,
Fernandina Road, Lifetime cabinets, countertopyGreen liquor Store, beverage center, and

(38:36):
then out by the Hot dog Manand Cash is Chicken right between Cash is
Chicken and highway, I mean higherground, all right, ground Andrew,
Yeah, chapin. If you callone seven them twenty twenty, who are
getting the phone? That's me,Marcus Greenwell answer all the phone calls that
way. I'm all on it.Dog gone it. Y'all have great weekend,

(38:57):
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(40:09):
the Home Improvement Show of the Midlandson one of three point five FMN five
sixty a m w VOC. Mytime is flying on by already to our
final segment on this first of Julymorning, July fourth weekend. I was
going to be a fabulous one foryou. Now, as we mentioned earlier
in the hour, we get tointroduce our two newest contributors to the program.

(40:30):
It's John and Cathy Pickner Rock theTop resurfacing. Good to see you
both, Good morning, Hey youtoo. Thanks for having us said who's
the boss here? She is agood answer. I tried to do what
I'm told and stay out of trouble. That you're you're a smart man,
a smart man. Well, it'swonderful to meet to both of you too.

(40:52):
And I always love the first episodesof Folks because I don't I don't
none more about maybe than you do, although I got a feeling. We
guess the folks listens more to knowall about what you guys are up to
over and we rock the tops.So gosh, let's just start number one.
What does he you do? Well, so we take old surfaces in

(41:13):
mostly in bathrooms and kitchen countertops andvanity tops, and rather than tearing them
all out and throwing it all ina landfill somewhere, we leave it right
where it's at and resurface it.And by doing so, we save people
a lot of time, yeah,a lot of money, and we're not
polluting the planet. So and there'smany other, you know, wonderful things

(41:34):
about it, but those are thebiggies right there. And it can be
waterproof and beautiful at the same time. So, you know, something we're
really proud of and we're laser focusedon it at this point. It's all
that we do and we're really happyto be involved in the industry. So
it's roving. So so, kathey, how long have you all been at
this thing? Well, we've beenin a home improvements business since nineteen ninety.

(41:57):
We've been around for a while andyeah, and then but we started
I'm resurfacing in the early two thousands. Um so, but we love it.
It's John's absolute passion and so that'sall we do now. So so
what would you give a narrowed yourfocus over the years, Yes, yes,
very much. You used to doan incredible, incredible amount of things
in the industry, and we justkind of put two and two together and

(42:20):
figured this is something that is It'sa unicorn in a way. There's not
a whole lot of people that doit, and the ones that do do
it aren't super super good at it. We want everybody that's in this industry
to be real successful and do reallyreally good but it's not an easy thing
to do. So we took thisball and we're running with it and uh
mahn, it's exploding. So thisis the new thing. Yeah, it's

(42:45):
just a way to save people money. Like if you're on a budget and
you want to update your kitchen orbath but you don't have a ton of
money to rip everything out and doa full remodel, then we come in
and leave it there. If there'seven if they're holes or chips in the
tile, we can repair those resurfacethat make it look brand new fraction of

(43:07):
the cost of replacing it. Yeah. So again, what surfaces are we
talking about here, mostly like bathtubs, shower stalls, ceramic tile walls,
And if we can do ceramic tilewalls, we can do ceramic tile floors.
So here in Colombia and Casey andWest Columbia, they've got a lot
of bathrooms that are pink, yellow, green, blue, and the tiles

(43:28):
are wrapped all the way around thesebathrooms and they're they're just not good to
look at there. They're very guiltyof being ugly. So we can go
in there and literally three days sometimesa fourth half of a fourth day and
leave everything right where it is andresurface it all. And we can tear
off all those soap dish and toothbrusholdersthat nobody wants hanging and in their face

(43:50):
all the time, and you know, fill it up back in with fiberglass
and a new tile here and there, and repair these hideous cracks that are
going all the way across the floor. When we're done, you can't even
see them. And now another beautifulthing about it is the grountlines are also
sealed, ah, so you don'tever have to worry about them, so
that they goes to having to cleanthe showers, right, it's so easy.

(44:12):
It's a non porous surface when we'redone, so dirt doesn't in a
stick to it. Chemical resistance isunbelievable, it's just incredible. So you
see. I know the companies outthere, the dow and I'm not going
to name names here, but youknow they'll come in and just do an
overlay. Yep, right, yep, take what you got in a bathtub
or a shower stall and just putsomething over top of it. Yeah,
this is not the same thing.No, it's not at all. This

(44:35):
is more like I hate to saythe word, but it's more like painting.
But these chemicals that we use,you can't get it at Surewen Williams
or Benjamin More. These are muchhigher end than that. So it's it's
a resurfacing process and there's a lotof prepping involved in ninety five percent of
it's prep Once we start spraying,we're out of there in an hour,
and then we'll spend six hours preppingsomething and then surface it. So there's

(45:00):
a huge process that goes on withit. And uh, I spend a
year training somebody had to do itbefore hoever let them actually go do it.
Oh, there's a lot, there'sa lot of chemicals and h but
we ventilate also so they don't smellgood. But we ventilate them. We
could make them smell good, butwe don't because then people don't mind smell

(45:21):
it. Gasoline doesn't smell good.Makes that that stuff smell great, But
no, that's not a good idea. I don't know if you make a
smell like roses and something bad's goingto happen, right right, So well,
it's it's a great option for people. This is fascinating. And again
this is not an overlay, it'sa coating like several layers of coding.
Yeah, there's a there's a molecularbonding agent that goes on first. Once

(45:45):
we get it all prepped and readyto accept paint, we actually act like
ceramic tile. Will etch that witha hydrofluoric acid and that opens up the
pores and then we throw them amolecular bonding agent on top of that.
You can't even see it, it'sclear. And then what that is it's
basically a primer for the primer.So then we'll put the primer on.
That's a two part epoxy primer andit can be any color. Typically we're

(46:07):
going with a lot of whites andlight grays or medium grays, stone gray.
On top of that, we'll spraymulti stone fleck, and there's many
colors that choose from but typically thoseare also grays, blacks, even some
blues are coming in now. Andthen we let that dry and then sand
it down smooth, and then blowit off and then clear coat it with

(46:29):
acrylic polyerethanes, and they end upwith an H five hardness, super hard.
They could make it an H sixhardness, but that becomes so hard
it could be brittle. So youdon't want something brittle. So it's bright
in the sweet spot. It's it'samazing, it's unbelievable, now, Kathy,
this so the process we're talking abouttile or tiles, countertops, tiles,

(46:53):
countertops. Is there any surface thatthat this can't be applied to vinyl
vinyl? Yeah, it's not goingto stick to a vinyl at all.
You don't want to anyway. Yeah, outside, okay, one thing inside,
Yeah, we've we've done even commercialthings. We've done elevator walls,

(47:14):
um partition partitions for yes, youknow parks or you know rest areas.
Those are all good, good,good things for us to work on.
So so the process itself, Um, as you mentioned, I mean,
it's it's it's very similar to uh, they're not on this weekend, on
the opposite weekend from you. Butthe folks a diamond concrete solutions with concreting

(47:37):
correct part internet, Yeah, theycome inside just what you The secret is
the prep? Yeah right, takingno shortcuts correct um. And again let's
let us walk through that process abit. And is that the same for
every surface or do you sometimes gointo a particular job and say, okay,
there may be something extra we needto do here or yeah. I

(47:58):
mean almost every project we do hassome imperfection of some kind that we actually
enjoy working on it because it's it'sa change challenge. You know. Anytime
you got a challenge, you're livingright, And we like to be creatives.
We want it beautiful. But yeah, there are lots of different you
know, imperfections that we get torepair cracks, holes, rust, You

(48:20):
know what chemical kills rust? Howdo you stop rust? And then then
what do you do with it?Once you stop it? You don't want
it to come back. I meanthere's a lot of chemicals. I talk
with a lot of chemists and uh, you know they're they're not out there
spraying and using the chemicals nearly asmuch as somebody like me or my fellas.
And they'll call me and say,hey, John, how does this
particular you know, paint spray.What do you like about it? What

(48:42):
do you what do you not likeabout it? How does it smell?
How's the over spray in there?Does does it drop to the floor?
Does it does it follow out inthe ventilators. They're always asking what can
we put in here to make ittweak it for your liking, and so
we'd like to be a part ofthat. Uh. It's it's a it's
a wonderful process and it's just gettingbetter and better and better. And every

(49:04):
every month or two if there's likea new I knew, something new that
somebody came up with and figured out. So we really enjoy that. Kathy,
it almost sounds like you guys willkind of like on the almost pioneers
of this on the front end.Yeah. You Yeah, we started quite
a while, quite a long timeago. Bathroom bathtub refinishing has been going
on for forty years. And Iremember way back when when that was going

(49:27):
on, and I was very intriguedbecause I was a paint contractor, started
out you know as a as apaint contractor, so I was always in
there looking at these guys like,man, this stuff is stinky, but
when they leave, it's like,dang it, that looks really good.
And it's amazing how much money theycan. Say. If somebody, you
know, we used to tear bathtubsout and replace them. And when you're
doing that, most of the timeyou got to take a few rows of
tiles out because it just come out, so you know, that's a whole

(49:52):
job, and it's like, wow, I really can't believe how much.
It's unbelievable how much money we cansave people the bathroom. So yeah,
let's talk about that, Kathy.I don't know what the typical if somebody
said, Okay, I just wantto redo this whole thing and rip it
out and install a new one.I mean, and it's gonna very much
job, I know, but bookboat on average, I mean as a

(50:15):
percentage basis, I mean, you'regonna pay how much for this versus for
that? Okay? Well, well, so for like a small bathroom one
of those ones that you see allin Colombian around the area that's the pink,
yellow, blue. Yeah. Umthose. Oh by the way,
if you've got one of those thatyou like, it, good for you.
Yeah, if you're gonna try toresell your house with it. Um.

(50:38):
Typically for a full tear out,you're looking between twenty to thirty thousand
wow for a complete for a completerip out, I mean because we start
taking those tiles off the wall,then now you're probably destroying the dry wall
or are you getting into redoing thatand then who knows what else? And
we're just talking about a bathroom showeringhere right, Well, I'm talking about

(50:59):
like this whole bath bathroom when youhave that tile all the way around the
law, it can get that um, it can get expensive, um and
then all right, average is probablythree to thirty five for the whole bathroom,
so somber as much as a ninetypercent saving could be, um,
yeah, can be. Yeah.Wow. We've had a lot of people

(51:21):
tell us you saved me fifteen thousanddollars on each bat and we'd do two
or three three bathrooms. So that'shappened many times. They sound average up
to seventy. But you know,sometimes it's even more just depend depending out
what the client wants, but notjust that, Yeah we're in and out
in three three and a half days, yeah, rather than three and a
half weeks or maybe months, youknow, because some bathrooms can be quite

(51:45):
nice. And we have no problemwith somebody. It's like I got a
nice, big fat budget. Iwant to just gut it. No problem.
We have a lot of friends,probably some people that you know that
we would refer them to. Sure. Yeah, but this is an option
for people that love to save iton the money and time. And once
you once this is done, Imean the uh, the the life of

(52:07):
this. Well, we might havetime until you get tired of the color
again. We do, we dowatch yet for the industry standard is five
years. Um, it's gonna lastfor you know, Pa, tell you're
tired of that color again. I'vehad people calling me that I did eighteen
years ago in Northern Virginia. Welived in Northern Virginia for thirty years and

(52:28):
did did this stuff, and they'llcall me up. So John, we
come back and redo my kitchen countertopand I'd be like, why why we
just want another color? We're justlike back then, Yeah, the transition
taste change over time, don't theyall right? So Rock the Top Resurfacing,
how can folks get a hold ofyou to get more information? Then

(52:51):
go to Rock the Top Resurfacing dotcom or they can call us at eight
zero three zero Transports Townwall's Town Well. We look forward to hearing more about
how this works and of these projects. John and Canthey fector wishes of each

(53:12):
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