Home Improvement Show 07-12-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Good morning and welcome in now the Home Improvement Show
of the Midlands on one of the three point five
FM and five sixty amwvoc Hey, it's good to have
you joining us this morning. We always appreciate that. And
coming up we're going to enlighten you with some terrific
information for folks like Summer over at Beaver Roofing and Gutters.
We'll talk to Summer Marcus Greenwell. Lifetime Cabinets Encountertops. Our

(00:38):
focus today is going to be on exotic stuff of
exotic countertops. What makes them exotic or just exotic installations.
They can handle it all in Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops.
Getting underway though with your friend of mine is James Carwell,
the owner of Freedom Plumbing, who joins us to get
things kicked off on The Home Improvement Show the Midlands.

(00:59):
James Goo morning, my.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Friend, Good morning Gary, how are you well.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I'm always it's always great to talk to you here
on the program and other times because we and I
talk a lot. Actually, you guys, you now, you guys
seem to be you're always at my house. Man, I've
always got something going on with it. When it comes
to plumbing stuff. It seems like I always appreciate youall's
help with that. Uh, As I said before. You know,

(01:24):
all the folks on the program today I've worked with,
I've used their services, and continue to every day vouch
for each and every one of them, in particular this
guy right here, James today. Thank you. We want to
discuss maybe not necessarily you know, plumbing stuff and pipes
and that sort of thing, but plumbing stuff in fixtures

(01:44):
and had to had an upgrade. Let's say a bathroom
for example.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, So I mean, you don't necessarily have to remodel
a whole bathroom to give it a different look. And
there's there's subtle things that you can do, and some
of those has just changed out fixtures, maybe some paint
color stuff like that. But fixtures can make a huge
difference in the way the space looks and and what
kind of finish you pick out, and the functionality of
certain faucets and toilets and things of that nature. So

(02:14):
just just minor things like switching out a toilet or
switching out a faucet can really give that that bathroom
a different look.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Now, is it one size fits all? When it comes
to you know, you got a toilet you want to
rip out and put a new one in. Are there?
Are there? It depends was this kind of.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
It depends mainly they're they're typically all the same. But
you run into some smaller toilets like ten inch what
they call ten inch rough in which you're going to
be a little bit closer to the wall. But those
are typically special order toilets and and usually are designed
in a way where they had to put that sized
toilet in because of maybe the floor joises and where

(02:53):
they fell in the room. But typically most of them
are going to be what they call twelve inch rough
end toilets.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
The differences between those twelve intrufer toolets can be pretty
pretty big. They got new technology out now that you
just walk up to a toilet. They got some cohlers
out there now that you just walk up to it
and uh, lid opens up. You don't even have to
touch it. Wow, and a little light cuts on.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Okay, So so so the the long held thing of
the white playing my husband for not putting the toilet
seat down. You ain't gotta worry about that anymore.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yep, picks yourself up, puts yourself down.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Haven't I seen. I mean, they got smart toilets, now.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Don't they James, Yep, yeah, they got uh they got
toilets that do different lighting. I mean there there's all
kind of a seat warming, you know, the day features,
you name it. They've they've come up with it, and uh,
you know, some of those toilets can be several thousand
dollars just for the toilet I can imagine.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean, how smart does the joy I really need
to be? You know?

Speaker 3 (03:59):
That is the question?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Right?

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Did they flush for you too? I guess the smart Yes, well,
I guess I guess you weren't of that now. I
don't know about you ladies, but for guys, I mean,
and a lot of bathrooms and some places urinals, you know,
they got that sensor when you walk away, it flushes automatically.
So I guess that's that's not a new thing. But
I'm not sure how much I would pay for that
feature if they included it for free. Okay, but but

(04:22):
I'm cheap, So I guess the question is how smart
is too smart at this point?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
But would you get you know, they have fawcetts to
do similar things. Yeah, sure, they have some little poor
specific amounts of water. Yeah, you know, we we I'm
a big I like the touch faucets myself. You just
you know, touch them and they cut on. Yeah. Way,
you don't have to you got dirty hands or something

(04:50):
like that. You can just hit it with your elbow
and cut fosset on. Those are pretty neat. We just
put one in our new home that we're building.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well, you know, when when we that reminds me of
this because uh, about six seven years ago whatever when
we moved in the house prior to when we're in now,
you guys came out and put one of those touch
fasces in the kitchen and I loved it. Now, my wife,
it took her a while to get used to it.
She had a kind of love hate relationship with it.
But I loved it for one Well, now the home

(05:19):
we're in doesn't have one. But we've been to that
house now since the end of last August, so it's
been almost a year, and I'll to this day, well,
it doesn't happen every day and like it used to,
but I bet twice a week I'll reach over there
and touch that faucet to turn it on, and then
oh no, this is not touch faucet.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yep, I'd do it with other people's faucets.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Funny how you just get accustomed to do it.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I go to my sister's house and try to touch
your faucet to cut it on. So I've been there.
I know exactly what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's a hard habit to bring.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Man, once you get used to that, you know, simplicity
of just you know, touching something to make.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
It turn on.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
It's it's hard to get your mind over it when
you don't have it. But yeah, there's just different things
that they can do and in different ways that it
can kind of change the the way that that space looks.
So it's a it's a neat little way to upgrade
or update a space.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Now, going back to the toilets for a second, you
mentioned sometimes it's got to be a ten inch as
opposed to twelve inch of what have you listen for?
Somebody listening who is thinking, you know, I'm go'n go
out and buy a new toilet? How do you know
what one to buy? How do you know if yours
is one of those ten inch toilet? Is there a
way to know? Is just a regular consumer before you
go out and spend the money.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, the easiest way is to measure from your wall
to the bolts of the toilet where it anchors down
to the floor. Okay, so you want to look in
and look at the toilet that you're purchasing, and it'll
typically give you that measurement either online or a lot
of times on the on the back of the toilet
boxes at the stores, they'll have some measurements on those

(06:56):
boxes and dimensions.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Of that toilet.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
So you just want to make sure you match shows up.
You don't want to put a ten in truff in
a twelve inch spot because you're going to be so
far off the wall, it's going to look a little
strange and you won't be able to fit a twelve inch.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
In a ten inch truugh space.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
So well, I got I definitely measure beforehand, but I
would say ninety percent of what we run into, if
not higher than that, are going to be your twelve
inch ruugh toilets.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, I guess I just got.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Typically the tens you got to order.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
I guess I got lucky last year because I know
why my son's condo, he need a new toilet in there,
and we went out and picked one up and I
didn't know anything about the ten or twelve inch thing,
and y'all put it in, so apparently it worked.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, and typically you it's not something you're going to
run into, but you know, it's good to check beforehand
rather than after the fact. And it's you know, quick
little measuremental do the trick for you, just to make
sure that you don't need a ten inch trust, but
normally you're it's going to be twelve inch.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
So okay, Now we've talked about this before, James, because
some times you wint up with horror stories when you
decide to replace something like a toilet and you don't
use a plumber to do it.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Or Yeah, it can be a little tricky to know
what you're looking for and make sure that it's being
done the right way. The last thing you want to
do is not have a proper seal on that on
the wax ring or whatever neoprem gasket that you're using.
They have some alternate methods now of installation when it

(08:31):
comes to that seal between the toilet and the flange,
which is the drain line that the pullet drains into.
So you want to make sure that the height is
correct on the flags, so you get that proper seal
because in some cases it'll leak and you'll you won't
know it until it's too late and you got to
rip a whole bathroom.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Out, replace the floor and everything.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Right, Yeah, it happened to me years ago, and in
our first house that we ever bought. It was leaking
at the flange, and I didn't know until the tiles
started popping off the floor, and then it was too
late at that point had the whole bathroom mount.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Really, there really is no way to know, is there
unless you let me one of the one out of
the house and a cross space up underneath that toilet
and noticed it. That way, I'd be the only way
to know, wouldn't it.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
You know, sometimes it'll sometimes it will come out around
the toilet base, but you know, some people calk the
entire entire toilet base, so there's nowhere for that water
to go at that point. So that's why we typically
when we install a toilet, will leave a little bit
of a gap at the back of the toilet just
in case anything happens. At least that water will hopefully

(09:40):
make its way out of the back of that toilet
and you'll notice that something's going on before it does,
you know, some major damage. But yeah, in some cases
the water is going to take the path of least resistance.
And sure, you know some cases, some cases really hard
to tell unless somebody goes under there and pulls the
insulation back and looks at that. Uh, the sub floor,
if you've got a cross space on a slab, sometimes

(10:03):
can be even harder to tell if that water's making
its way somewhere else. The good thing about a slab
is you don't have the wood that will ride out,
but you know, it can still damage flooring material, walls, mold, mildew,
things of that nature that you definitely don't want to
want to encounter.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Let's talk about shower fixtures for a second, because they
got all you got all kind of options these days
when it comes to that.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Oh absolutely, and just changing the color of your shower
fixture sometimes can make a big difference in how the
space looks. And you know, going from a let's see,
you got the old gold or chrome, you can change
the brush nickel or rub bronze and give that space
a different look without making major changes in overhaul in

(10:51):
the whole bathroom.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
You see more and more of the uh what do
they call them the rain shower things these days?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Oh yeah, let's call them yep. And you know you
can if they installed it properly. I'll say that up front.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
You can.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
You can use a retrofit shower arm which kind of
turns your regular shower head into a rain head. It
kind of goes out and then up and then down,
so it'll kind of give you that direct down instead
of shooting across the shower right water trajectory.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
So I mean, so you can do like an add
on to what you've currently got.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Is that what you're saying, correct? So that typical six
cent shower arm that comes out and just has kind
of a downward angle to it, you just screw your
shower head on it. You can change that out to
a rain head shower arm in a little you know,
come out up and around and then point straight down

(11:52):
rather than pointing at an angle and then just get
right under it. We did that with our last at
our last home. It just kind of give you some
space in the shower where you can step out of
the water when you don't want to be in the water.
It just helps with that give you a little bit
more space inside that shower where you got some where

(12:14):
you don't have water sprighting on you.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
I think that that's for me and my personal experience
when it comes to anything with fixtures. That's probably the
only one I trust myself to do. James, is you know,
change out a shower head. That's pretty easy.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. I would just say, if you're doing the shower arm,
make sure you're using the proper things to create that
good seal on the threads. Piped dope tape, you know,
thread tape because that cone action is inside the wall.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
What does that stuff do that that? You know, that
little it looks like it wouldn't do anything, but obviously
it does. Have a little little pipe tape.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, you just put that around in that that actually
seals threads. I personally was trained like this. The technician
that I recently rode with when I was a helper,
who was twenty something years ago at this point, he
would put both of them on. So he would do
four wraps of tape and then put some pipe dope
over the tape and just as a reassurance. And I've

(13:14):
done it ever since, and I've never had a problem
with the threads leaking. So that's typically what I recommend.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, I'll do a shower head. I don't think I'm
would do the whole shower on though that I'm leaving
that to the pros like you. I don't think I'm
going there. And when it comes to to sink fixtures,
that again is something that and now some of you
listening may be pretty handy and I could pull this
off yourself. That's something else I'm not going to attempt
to touch. Well you can what was there of problems
can you run into if you try to diy that

(13:44):
sort of thing?

Speaker 2 (13:47):
So with you know, kitchen faucets are going to be
a little bit easier because you're just doing the fawcet.
You don't have to worry about the pop up assembly,
which is that little piece that holds the water.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
In the sceink.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
So on a kitchen you're quickly got your basket trainers.
When you replace a lavatory faucet, that typically comes with
a new pop up assembly, and that pop up either
has the little pool bar that pulls the pop up
down to hold the water in the sink, or that
now they come with a push buttons pop ups, so
you just kind of push it down and holds the

(14:19):
water in. You push it again and it lets it out.
You know, people prefer different ones for different reasons. But
the tricky part can be that the insallation of that
pop up. If you don't have experience with installing them,
you can run into issues with leaks and things of
that nature. So it's a little trick here when you're

(14:40):
talking about doing a lavatory faucet rather than a kitchen
sink fawcet.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I had tap. For the life of me, I don't
recall the last time I have used a sink to
fill up in a kitchen a bathroom rather to fill
up the water.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, thought about that the other day. I can't remember
the last time I filled up a lavatory sink for
any reason.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Isn't that weird?

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I guess they used to do it when they shave. Yeah, yeah,
that's washed the razor off.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
It's a pretty gross looking though. I mean you anyway,
I got a way around that. I just don't shave.
My wife will tell you that.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, that's that's that's my way too.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah right, two or three times a week tops for me.
That's that's all. That's the best you'll get from me.
All right, So we covered the toilets, and probably that's
that's the one where you get yourself in the most
trouble if you don't know what you're doing right there,
I'm guessing. I know you told horror stories of remodelers
who come in and change out flooring, let's say in
the bathroom, and they say, oh, I can handle that,
and they you know, they pop a twil off, pop
it back on again, and next thing you know, you've

(15:43):
got a whole host of problems.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, especially if that plan is isn't it right high?
You wanted that plane sitting about a quarter inch above
the finished floor, So if they come in and put
a thicker floor in, or they they put floor over floor,
then you're definitely going to change the height of that
flange and that could create issues for you. So there's
some ways around that, but you got to know what
you're looking for. So I would definitely recommend if you're

(16:06):
having anything like that done, rather than letting the flooring
do the plumbing, I would call a professional plumber out
to make sure it's being done properly.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, it's like Marcus who at Lifetime will do with
us later on in the hour by the way, that's
what they do business. I mean they'll they'll do the countertops,
but they say, hey, you know, call James, you get
them to reinstall the fixtures because you know, we don't
do plumbing and you don't care.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Working with them, especially to see them before and after
type of situations with when it comes to countertops and
bathrooms that they do. They do some amazing work. Yeah,
so definitely a good referral partner for us, and love
love working with the dis guys over at Lifetime.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
All right, so if you look at upgrade that kitchen,
there's some good thoughts for you right there, and you
need some help doing it, and I would suggest you
do get professional help. These are the guys to call
Freedom Plumbing. James always going to chat with the Hocke folks.
Best reach you, my friend.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
They can just give us call at a three four
four seven zero four seven one or visit a website
at Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Bud have you self a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Ma'am you did the same, Gary, Thank you gott it.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
We'll do back with more on The Home Improvement Show
of the Midlands on one oh three point five FM
and five sixty am WVOC.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops is your locally owned source for countertops,
great selection, great prices, and they pride themselves on superior
installation and customer service. The owner, Marcus will even personally
come out to do all your measurements. See the selection
online at Lifetimecabinets SC dot com or stop buy one
of Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops two conveniently located showrooms on

(17:43):
Fernandina Road in Columbia or Chapin Road in Chapin and
check out the hundreds of slabs in stock, granite, marble,
quartz court site. They've got it all and if you
can't find exactly what you are looking for when you're there,
and that's rare, they will find it. And it's not
just kitchen and bats. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops does outdoor patios, vanities, bars,

(18:05):
man caves, you name it. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops Fernandina
Road in Columbia, Chapin Road in Chapin and online at
Lifetime Cabinets SC dot com.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
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(18:38):
perfection with unwavering commitment to superior craftsmanship and customer service,
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and nurses. Find out more at Finishingtouchteam dot com. He's

(19:13):
joining us now from Beaver Roofing in Gutters. He's good morning, my.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Friend, Good morning. How we're doing today?

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Doing good? Man pump excited? Ready to go man, ready
to rock and roll. Uh we uh. We talked a
while back earlier this summer. You guys came out so
explain to me what was wrong with the gutters I
have on my home. We bought that home about four
years ago and it had gutters on it, and you know,
I thought, okay, we're good, but there were issues right.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
There was you had You had the smaller five inch gutter,
which most builders did put up. You know, we get
a pretty heavy rain here. When it rains, it tends
to come in waves and pretty heavy, and there's just
just not enough capacity in those five inch gutters. So
unless we are matching and existing or doing a repair,

(20:05):
we're going to put up a six inch seamless gutter.
It does a couple of things. One, obviously it's a
higher capacity gutter, but two, it allows for less down spouts,
so there's less areas where the water is actually coming
to the ground, less areas free to control the water.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
And the downspouts you put up at our home, did
they look they're bigger than the ones we had up there?
Aren't they?

Speaker 3 (20:26):
They are? You had a two by three which is
paired with the five inch gutter. We put up a
three x four down spout. On most residential houses. You
pair the two of them together, roughly forty percent more
capacity to move the water, which is quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, because it doesn't even matter now, even a light rain.
I can walk outside and hear that that water coming
out of those downspouts. I mean it's moving it quick,
and it.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Moves it quick, and you know, you can put them
in in less areas. So your typical ranch style house
you can get by usually if it's a if it's
a regular you know, gable roof, you can get by
with four down spouts, whereas on the longer runs with
a five inch gutter you may have six down spots
and have to figure out what to do with the

(21:13):
water in the middle of your house. This way, you
can push everything to the ends, right, get it to
run away into the backyard, preferably not have any water
issues around your foundation.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
And that's that's that's the big problem right there, right.
I mean, not only can water running unimpeded off the
roof do damage to the exterior of your home, but
most costly, can do damage to the foundation of your home.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, the the things water does is you know, just amazing.
I've had I've had three foot trenches around people's houses
that I've come to one day, not too long ago,
I was at one of the newer neighborhoods and not
even sure how it happened, but they actually had a
hole in there that came up to my knee. Oh goodness,

(21:58):
and you I have met. That's a long way y
right there, pretty people. So you know, there's there's cosmetic issues,
there's water under your basement, there's foundational issues. Just you know,
water causes all sorts of issues. The best way to

(22:19):
control it's put it into a gutter, get it to
come down four or five spots around your house. Then
you can control where it goes.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Right, new home construction these days, heath, you know, there
is no and we've mentioned this before, there's in most
states in the country, with the exception of South Carolina
and just a couple of others, it's a requirement that
homes have gutters. Is that still act correct?

Speaker 3 (22:43):
And if that is correct here, there's still no requirement
for gutters. Most of the builders don't put them up.
If they will put them up, they'll be the smaller
five inch gutter, and then only in noticeable areas, you know,
over the front door, over the back door. A lot
of times they'll just put a diverter up on the

(23:03):
shingle to kind of push the water so you're not
getting wet when you come out of your back door.
But all that does is push a higher volume of
water to a couple other areas.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Oh right, So it's more of a matter of convenience.
Is what they're doing is you don't get wet entering
go leaving the home.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Correct, Yeah, you walk up, you walk up to look
at the house you're going to buy and it's raining
and there's a gutter over the front door, you may
not look everywhere else, so, you know, and typically, like
I say, it'll be a smaller gutter.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Right So, they're still to this day putting up the
five inch gutters typically on most new homes constructed, if
they put them up at all, because there's no recrrect
and that requirement is I guess, to really protect the homeowner.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Correct, Yes, it protects your homeowner, and in a lot
of cases it can protect the neighborhood because you know,
the neighborhoods are built with drainage between the houses. But
if you can't get the water to the drainage, it
doesn't do any good.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Right now, you mentioned a few minutes ago that you
use these six inch seamless gutters unless maybe you're going
in and adding on or doing some repair work. So
in other words, I guess, even if somebody hasn't used
Beef for roofing and gutters at their property, if there

(24:18):
are issues, you guys are more than happy to go
out and try to rectify the situation.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Right absolutely. You know, we're one of the few. We're
one of the few companies around based on what I've
found that can do a five inches six inch and
a seven inch gutter. Well seven inch has more commercial applications.
We can new box style gutters, we can do half
round gutters. We can do copper pretty much. If you

(24:44):
want it, my guys can do it.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Let's talk about the other You just mentioned a couple
of options there, half rounds, copper. Tell us about those heath.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Well, the half round gutter typically will only be used
if it's a requirement. There are a few hoas around
that require half round gutters. You know, it's it's the
oldest gutter technology. I mean, it's basically a pipe cut
in half. It's a shallow with low capacity. You pair
it with a a round down spout and it's it's

(25:15):
got a really nice look, but it's not your best
option to move the water.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
So it's.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, it's an aesthetic thing and it's a very minimal
amount of hoas that still require those. Copper gutters is
another one. It's a it like the half round comes
into sections. You can get them in ten twenty. We've
done a couple of thirty. It's a once again another

(25:46):
aesthetic look at a significant cost. Increase over a traditional
case style gutter. Most people, if they want a copper
copper gutter, we will do what's called a copper penny color,
and you can get that for the same price as
your other colors of gutter. It's still the aluminum. It

(26:06):
does not betina, but it gives you that copper look
and it's a clean copper look.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
For quite a while, what colors are available heat, because
you know, we typically see a white for the most part,
but I know you guys could do a variety of
different colors as I.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Still we can, and depending on you know, depending on
supply issues. You have four or five different kinds of
shades of brown, brown and tan. You have a couple
shades of gray green, the copper penny, four or five
shades of white. You know, we have quite a variety.

(26:41):
It's it's been been very rare over my very long
time doing this that I've not been able to match
something to wear it where it looks acceptable. I've run
into probably three over twenty years. I'm like, there's just
no match for that color.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
So let me ask heath for someone who has gutters
on their home right now, and let's say that the
five inch gutter number one. As you've established sort of
the six inches, much more capable of moving heavier amounts
of water. If it's a springtime, you know, light shower.
You may be okay, but you mentioned trenching. That's one

(27:22):
sure sign your gutters aren't doing what they're supposed to
be doing. Are there any other things that the homeowners
or businesses of that matter should be looking out for
when it comes to trying to determine maybe we need
to do an upgrade here.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
The biggest thing we get called for when people decide
they need gooters is on a home inspection, they find
there's a high level of moisture under the house. But
if you're not selling your home, some of the exterior
signs are like you said, it will make a very
distinctive line all the way around the permitter of your house.

(27:54):
You have moss or mildew growth, especially on brick where
water splashes up. Yeah, if you have an older type
sighting like a T one eleven, you'll have rod at
the bottom. Mason I siding does the same thing from
too much water splashing on it. Some of the other

(28:18):
things that people will people will replace exterior doors typically
coming off of a onto a deck off the rear
of their house, and they say, no, this is the
second time I've had to repair replace this door in
ten years. Well, what that is is water falling off
the roof, hitting the deck and splashing back to the door.
It'll eat out the the brick molding around it, or

(28:41):
the bottom of the door itself. Those are some of
the signs that you know you really do need to
get your water under control.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
And then there's a question of do I go with
the gutter protection. The screens are not it's only an
additional cost to do it. But for our home, it
was really a no brainer. I mean, you came out there,
I saw the environment that we live in the ecosystem
around our home. I mean, we we have a lot
of trees. Uh, so be that the case, I guess, Well,

(29:12):
if you have just a few trees, I mean, it's uh,
it's it's a worthwhile investment. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
If if you're not someone who likes to spend their
saturdays cleaning out their gutters, which nobody is. That's why
they have people like us, it is a good investment. Now,
we typically will assess around your house and let you
know our opinion. You know, we're not in the uh,
we're not in the businesses. So any things you don't need.

(29:39):
If I don't feel you need covers, but you say
you want them, typically I'll tell someone, look, I would
let it, let it go through the first through, the
first fall, through the first dropping of the leaves, blowing
of the leaves, and see if see if you really
need them. If you do, don't go up and call.

(30:00):
Don't go up and clean them. Just give me a call.
My guys will come out. They'll clean them out, then
put the covers on. They can be added after.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Okay, And are there a variety of cover styles? I
mean somebody.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
We run two different kind We run a sureflow cover,
which is a heavy aluminum with just basically with drain
holes in it. It is a warrantyed not to clog
through the manufacture for I believe twenty years. We also
run a lifetime of your gutter cover, which is a
micromesh aluminum over a stainless steel frame. It will go

(30:37):
up under your shingles, kind of match the pitch your roof.
It has some water lines to catch the water and
it is guaranteed not to clog for the life of the.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Gutter and life of the gutter is how.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Long twenty thirty years well taken care of, maybe forty
with covers on them. The gutters themselves are warranted. The
material is warranted for twenty years.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Twenty years sometimes. And then there's those issues with pitch
and stuff over time. I mean, because you have to
put up a certain pitch right to move that water
to the downspout. Can that change over time? What are
some of the factors there?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Usually they will not unless you have wood rot or
you allow your gutters to get full to where the
weight will actually pull the gutter away. If they are
undamaged and kept clean, the pitch should never have to
be adjusted. Now we know high winds, tree limbs, pie

(31:37):
and straw, anything that gets in there, and then you
have the weight of the water, it will it can pull.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Away, and that creates a whole other problem in addition
to it not getting to the round spout. And then
you got to worry about I guess your facial.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Right, Yeah, that's one of our That's one of the
things I run into the most is people that they're
there gutters get full and it will actually not pull
the gutter away, but it will pull the gutter in
the face it together. Oh, face is not always secured
with long enough nails. And if they're not shot directly

(32:12):
into the roof choice, and you get a lot of
weight on there, it'll bring the whole whole run down.
That probably do three or four of those a month.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Oh really doesn't sound like a good a good problem
to have.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
No, No, your having your roof open with no faceboard
on it usually creates a whole other set of problems,
mostly squirreled around here.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yes, exactly. And you mentioned again, Heath that when we're
talking about, you know, adding the covers or not, that
if you choose not to and decide after the fact
that you do, you guys come out, clean it out,
install the covers. But you have a service that cleans
out gutters anyway for anybody. Is that right?

Speaker 3 (32:50):
That is correct. We do gutter cleaning. Typically people get
on an annual or a bi annual program. We'll do
them in annually. We usually spend about three weeks in January,
then we spent about another week in July. For the
people that are on the bi annual clean out. It's
pretty reasonable service. We'll also check things like your pitch.

(33:12):
The security is anything pulling away. Do any of your
corners needs sealed end caps outlets, If you have problems
with your down spouts, we can look at them there.
You know, there are different levels of the service. We
cleaned out one Friday that had a had vyans growing

(33:33):
up all the way into the down spout about six
feet up that it completely filled the down spot up
and the down spot was full of water.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
And when you hit the when you hit the down spout,
it actually rippled up with water.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Wow. And these have to be gutters that you all
have installed or were you there for anybody?

Speaker 3 (33:50):
No, this one was one we had not installed. It's
been up for quite a while. We'll do we can
do cleanings for anyone that terrific.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Heath always going to talk to you, my friend and
tell us how to get a hold of on it
Beaver Roofing and Gutnis because you got a brand new
number and brand new website right correct.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Our phone number is eight three nine nine one roof
and we can be reached at beaver Roofing dot com
or let you say, you can reach us reach us
through Facebook through our beaver Roofing or Anthony John page.
We have lots of different ways if you want us
to come give you one of the best gutter jobs

(34:29):
you've seen.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
There you go, Heath, good to talk to you, my friend.
Have yourself great weekend, buddy.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
All right, you too, Thanks sir.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
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of our electricians will be at your door ready to
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Annoying, very annoyer.

Speaker 5 (34:55):
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Speaker 6 (35:05):
Hi there, I'm Jeremy Holliday, local owner of Mister Electric
of Columbia. I've been servicing the Midlands since twenty ten
and I'm happy to answer questions and give you free
estimates with upfront pricing. Schedule your free safety check with
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(35:28):
mister Electric dot com. Forward Slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hi, this is Gary David. You've heard me talk for
years about Anthony John Construction and the wonderful jobs they
do for folks all across the Midlands. When it comes
to roofing and guttery, well it's the same people doing
the job, but the name has changed. That's right now
it's Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Leave it to Beaver
for all your roofing and gutter needs. The same great
service and the same great folks behind Anthony John Construction,

(35:53):
just with a new name. Eight oh three nine nine
to one roof and Beaverroofing dot com the gutter roofing work.
Leave it to Beaver Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. We
are back on the home improvement showed the Midlands on
one O three point five FM and five sixty a

(36:14):
m WVOC And bringing up the rear, it's Marcus Greenwell
oft Lifetime Cabins encountertimes.

Speaker 7 (36:21):
I was gonna say and better than ever, But you
say bringing up the rear. I don't know about that one.
Take the two, saving the best for Las and better
than ever? Well, take three the best for Lass.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Who if it weren't for the name was already taken
and we don't want to, you know, draw any parallels
here between you know, Joe Exotic the Tiger King, but
we could call you Marcus exotic because exotics are you
at lifetime cabinets, encountertops.

Speaker 7 (36:46):
I didn't even think of that. That's that's brilliant. We
are why get.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Paid the big bucks Marcus around here?

Speaker 7 (36:53):
Exotic countertops.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
You guys do a lot of it. Now, Okay, you
want a basic granted?

Speaker 7 (37:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
I always say because of the of some of the
exotic work you do, I mean some of the really
specialty kind of installations you do. If you just want
a basic, you know, level one granted countertop slapped on
so on top of the cab in your kitchen, these
are folks who we didn't take care of that pretty easy.

Speaker 7 (37:18):
Yeah, yeah, we do that. As a matter of fact,
I did two flip houses this week along with our
custom homes that we do remodel. Our specialty is private homeowners. Uh,
we do flip houses for people, but but our niche
in our we're the go to guy for good quality material,
good quality workmanship. We go over the slabs with a

(37:42):
fine tooth comb when they come in and you know,
our our vendors know that this one's going to lifetime.
We need to make sure that this one's good. And
if they if there's anything on it. A lot of
times in advance, they'll call me and say, Marcus, uh,
you need to get your guys to look at this where.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
You're like my wife with Amazon, No it's going back.

Speaker 7 (38:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We we we want we want
to get the award. We want to be the best.
We want to do the best thing for me and
the customer, uh of me meaning lifetime us. If we
if we didn't take that extra time when it came in,
then then we would have a problem, you know at
the end with the end user, which I don't want.

(38:29):
So that's why we take the extra time and the
care to go over these exotic pieces and you know,
just make sure that that they're structurally good. And uh.
I even had Mayor Gibbons of Irmo when he was
the mayor. This has been a while and probably ten
years ago now or more. He's retired out on the lake.

(38:50):
I did his retirement home and he found this beautiful
exotic piece and he said, I want this on my island,
and I said, okay, Mayor, I said, there's a possibility
because there's a fissure in it, and that's what we
check it with a fine tooth. Come with four and
I said, this right here is a fisher and it
could crack. And what we would do in that case,

(39:12):
if you want it in there is we would put it.
If it cracked, we would put it back together. And
that's the only thing we can do. So we try
to avoid those areas if possible. But some some people
want that exotic vein going right through it that has
different you know colors that you know, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
We talk about what are we talking about and we
talk about exotic? What what? What? What is it going
to be to be labeled and exotic in your business?

Speaker 7 (39:38):
Expensive? Yeah, well there's seven six seven. They used to
only have levels one through four and now they have five,
six seven two. So it's is.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
That level thing based on the availability or those I.

Speaker 7 (39:54):
Think a little of both. Yeah, that's a good point.
Some of it's the look, some of it's just basically
it's to me, it's just how much it costs me.
So I've used the same formula on every single job,
the countertop job that we've ever done, so I know
it's a fair price. And and so it's basically as

(40:16):
they go higher, they get more expensive for my cost.
But then I say, my cost, we're only charging you
for what to use. But yeah, my cost is going
to determine the final pricing. So we use the same
labor price on every job. Same you know, everything else
is the same. It's just the cost of the material

(40:37):
that changes.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Well, I think we all know that no two countertops,
at least the natural stuff. Yeah, the no two countertops
are going to be the same effort.

Speaker 7 (40:45):
Right, That's very true. Even out of the same color,
you can have different different shades, we'll call it in
veins variations.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
But then you come across some that are just so
different from everything else.

Speaker 7 (40:59):
Very unique, come from different parts of the world. Yeah,
you know, we get some from Russia that's only mine
three months out of the year because they can't get
to it because the ice is frozen over. Yeah, they
have a river's frozen over something like that, or the
for river. Maybe the river has to freeze over for
them to get there. I'm not sure. I can't remember

(41:21):
the exact story, but no, I think It's what it
is is two thirds of the year is frozen over.
They can't get it. They can't get to it, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
But most of the stuff comes from lots of it
comes from South America.

Speaker 7 (41:32):
The eighty five percent comes out of Brazil.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Brazil.

Speaker 7 (41:35):
Yeah, eighty five percent of the stones come out of Brazil.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
What about around here, I mean, do we have anybody?

Speaker 7 (41:42):
Yeah? Yeah, As a matter of fact, in Winnsboro, we
had that blue granted. Yeah. Now they've closed that plant
down in the last ten or fifteen years or so,
but I don't know exactly when, but they have closed
that one down. And they have some in the Tennessee
and some Alabama, some white marble out of there, and

(42:04):
Vermont up that way, there's some up there. And a
lot of courts comes out of North Carolina where they
make the courts count the man made courts. They take
the courts out of the ground and grind it up
and all that kind of stuff, and they make that
out of courts. Okay, so kind of close to where
they had all that flooding.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Right, yeah, still still recovering in some areas.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Some more.

Speaker 7 (42:27):
Yeah, Yeah, I was talking to some a couple of
this would past weekend and they were from that area
and they were saying, I forty just got hit again.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
HM. So let's talk a bit more about exotics here.
Number one, it's the uniqueness of the stone. I'm guess
it's got a lot to do with it. Yeah, And
you talk about pricing structure, I suppose again because it

(42:57):
is unique, it is almost one of them. Well, it
is one of a that you know, those wholesalers are
probably passing along at a higher price to you guys
at lifetime. But what about the work you do on
that I can you talk about exotic installations for example?
You know, regardless of what the stone, always on the

(43:17):
stone is. Sometimes you just have exotic installations, don't Yeah.

Speaker 7 (43:20):
Yeah, I would say vein matching is very important to us.
It's not really worried about for some other companies. I'm
not going to point out anybody in particular, but we
we had one project where we did a table that
had a four inch drop down miterd edge. So it

(43:42):
looked like a big thick piece actually it's a three inch,
but it looked like a big thick piece of granite.
But it was actually just it was miter together and
they couldn't well I don't know if they could do
it or not, but they wouldn't do it for the customers.
So they hired us to do the table in the
middle of the island where they did the perimeter with

(44:02):
their builder, because they already had a relationship with this
other guy for the builder. So that's why they did
the perimeter on the new cabinet part.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
But the specials turned to you guys for those guys.

Speaker 7 (44:15):
Yeah, well they the homeowner did not the fabricator.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (44:18):
Yeah. The builder knew me, so he was like, well,
call this guy, he'll probably do it. And I went
in there and saved the day for for him. He
couldn't because they wouldn't do it for him because they weren't.
They weren't. I don't know if they I don't want
to say they weren't qualified, but they weren't.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (44:33):
We are very detail oriented. Let's let's just go with that. Yeah,
so we're that's why we can get voted the best
a lot.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Yeah. Yeah, after after you after year after year.

Speaker 7 (44:43):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Now you mentioned about the courts coming out of North Carolina.
The courts site.

Speaker 7 (44:55):
Is Okay, that's a natural stone.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
That's a natural stone. What about the but the you say,
they mind the courts and then they tear it all
up and make it into a man made thing. But yeah,
they that is the original thing, the original courts. Course,
is that the same thing or is that two different
types of stone?

Speaker 7 (45:12):
The original court site is a different thing. It's uh core, Yeah,
it's it comes out of the ground and it's there
you're able to actually, you know, I don't know the
exact geological you know, composition of it and stuff like that.
I mean, I'm pretty smart, but not that smartologist.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (45:33):
Yeah, we did have one in the store the other
day and I didn't get a chance to talk to him.
I was like, next time one comes in, you letting
them know that I want to talk to them.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
I have questions.

Speaker 7 (45:43):
Yeah, And uh, I had a lady the other day.
You'll you'll like this. She wanted me to share it.
She's a school teacher and she calls in in the
morning times for your show sometimes and she she's doing
business with us because of you. Well, because of our
show is what she said, this show here and and
she said she's she said that she would know her

(46:05):
because she's the lady that calls in and makes comments
on fun things and stuff like that. Whenever you have
the call in.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, yeah, so that.

Speaker 7 (46:15):
Would have I'll pull up her name. But we just
were doing a house on the lake for uh. For
matter of fact, we've already done it, so I don't
even know she knows yet. It was it was a surprise.
I need surprise. I need to call her. She might
be finding out now that's already done. Oh I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
That breaking news for you right here.

Speaker 7 (46:36):
Yeah, she just gave us the key. So we went
in and did it.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
For nice yep. But back to the court site for
a second. You're doing a lot of that these That
was something that for the longest time was nobody was interested.

Speaker 7 (46:49):
Yeah, nobody did it. It was too expensive, as what
would always heard, and I never even sold it hardly.
In the last five years, it's kind of getting growing
and growing, and I'm doing it all the time. I mean,
we just did one. It was an hland. It was
ninety five square feet, yeah, forty five square feet each angle.

(47:10):
So I put the two pieces together and it was
exotic veining where the veins were coming this way and
that way, and we made it come to a diamond
in the middle and it's so beautiful, so beautiful, big
heavy pieces.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
I bet so. But yeah, quart site is a more
expensive stone.

Speaker 7 (47:29):
Yeah, it's heavy. Two, it's stronger. On the hardness scale,
you have marble is around four or five. Then you
have granted, which is around seven or eight, and then
you have quartzite, which is around eight or nine. And
then you have a diamond, which is ten. So the
mom hardness scale or whatever they call it, I might

(47:50):
be saying that wrong. I wouldn't know, so I went
to the College of hard Knock, so I'm gonna call
it MOM scale.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
I think you left there with those student debts.

Speaker 7 (48:03):
All right, yeah, yeah, right, that's right. So it was
m O h m. I think it's how they spell it.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
But it does it take longer Marcus to when you're
doing fabrication work. What really determines how long it's gonna take?
I guess it is the veining, right, I mean.

Speaker 7 (48:21):
Yeah, well some of those veins have have Courtz deposits
in them, which is which is clear hard You know
what I'm saying, courts. So what we'll have its called
a blowout. So whenever you cut it the piece, well
that the little courts piece might blow out and drop
right out and just drop out, and we have to
put it back together like a puzzle. So I mean

(48:42):
that's that's how you win the awards, is being able
to do stuff like that and not be able to
tell what it looks like.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
But I mean the process is the same no matter
what sort of stone your bind. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (48:54):
Level one, Yeah, level one. There's no quality drop between
level or or between level seven and level one, And
there's no quality drop. Matter of fact, some of the exotics,
I would say are harder to work with because they
have different colors and different stones in them, So as
you're cutting them, you know, through different thickness hardness stone

(49:19):
if I said that right, But as you're cutting it,
then some of the pieces might be softer in like
if you could imagine limestone, which not a lot of
granite has limestone in it, but it's a soft stone.
And if you could imagine quartz is a very hard stone.
So if you have those two together, the limestone is
not going to hold on to the courts as good

(49:40):
when you're cutting through it, So some of the pieces
might come off like that. But that's why I guess
it costs more too. Yeah, of course I don't charge
anymore for the labor, so I guess you can't really
can't cage it by that.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
But and as when you do it, when you're and
again we talk about fabricating, we're talking about cutting it
to fit, you know, vein matching edges, see lots of
protectors on there, cutting out sinkholes, yeah, all of that.
So that's just based on the.

Speaker 7 (50:10):
Man you're hired. You got this stuff down.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
You can't do it. I know about it. I guess
I love it. I keep buying countertops from you.

Speaker 7 (50:21):
And listen up, and he needs a new outdoor kitchen.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
Listen to that one, any outdoor kitchen, outdoor kitchen, outdoor kitchen.
But your guys at the shop in Rik and his folks,
they moved here for a long time.

Speaker 7 (50:33):
Oh yeah from start, yeah day one, enery k there
was anyway, he was a very start. He was not
the top lead man until you know, a couple of
years went by and then I realized how talented he is,
and I was like, oh, yeah, he's got.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
To be my lead.

Speaker 7 (50:51):
So that's why he's he's like a little general out there.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Uh timelines right now, I mean we're getting I mentioned
the other day because you'll be everything. Spring times, everybody
wants to do stuff, and that's true, but we talk
about this a lot. We get, you know, into fall,
the people start thinking about the holidays, yeah, and getting
things wrapped up there. So we're this is probably a
pretty good time to get in right now.

Speaker 7 (51:17):
I'm thinking it is a lot of people are, you know,
cutting loose of some money right now, meaning they're spending
and buying and stuff like that. So we are starting
to get busy. I do have typically we're four to
six weeks, but I can work somebody in, especially if
you say, hey, I heard you on the radio, you know,
can you work me? And I think I've got a

(51:38):
spot that's already opened up for next week on Friday. Yeah,
So so what happens is I move faster than my
schedule so that I have spots come open because I'll
I'll like that, like that customer that doesn't know that
I've already installed her cameratops. That's hilarious. As a matter

(51:58):
of fact, I need to pop her name them ount don't.
But in the meantime, while you prat okay, okay, it
was yeah, so your countertops are done, but we do
have a spot where she was. Now we can do
it faster for somebody else.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Possibly there you go. Yeah, all right, where can folks
find you?

Speaker 7 (52:19):
My friend Fort Fernandina Road, right next to Greens across
from Costco and Northern Tool. Get your Starbucks. I think
I covered about everybody out there. You can go get
your taco or something like.

Speaker 8 (52:33):
That across the street. Okay, Well, of course was warehouse.
Come and get a San Jose over there too, okay.
And the Spink you can get some gas and in shaping. Yeah,
and oh yeah, I got a chapin store just called
the boneyard is what I call it.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (52:49):
If you come out to the boneyard, you can catch
a deal on some remnants. I've got a lot of
remnants out there. I'm gonna be out there today. You
come see me. I will take care of you. I'm
the I'm the owner. You can't get any better than that.
You come see me today, I'll get you pushed through.
I'll take care of you like family. Oh yeah, that's
the address is one fifty three Chapin, one fifty three

(53:13):
Chapin Road. Lifetime cabinets and countertops the best.

Speaker 9 (53:19):
I'm James Carwell, local owner and operator of Freedom Plumbing
right here in the Midlands. After working as a plumber
for nearly a decade, I decided to open my own business,
and Freedom Plumbing was born. Because of my love for
this country and the great respect I have for the
men and women of our armed forces and our first responders.
I named my company Freedom Plumbing. What sets us apart

(53:40):
from other companies is our customer service. We have a
five star rating on Google, a five star rating on Facebook,
an a plus rating on Angie's List and an eight
plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. I'm James Carwell,
local owner of Freedom Plumbing, and we look forward to
servicing you for all of your plumbing needs. Get fifty
percent off your new service call when you mentioned you

(54:01):
heard us on WVOC. Learn more at Freedom dash Plumbing
dot com. That's Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.