Home Improvement Show 08-26-23

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Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Good morning and welcome in. It'stime for the Home Improvement Show of the
Midlands. It's so wonderful to haveyou here on this Saturday morning. It's
the twenty sixth of August. Ohmy goodness, we're a week away from
college football. What yes, nextSaturday Gamecocks up in Charlotte, the best
game cock coverage. We'll crank upit for thirty next Saturday afternoon of course

(00:31):
for our Tiger friends. Got yougot another couple of days to wait for
that Monday night match up. Buthere we go. So the last see,
the last weekend for getting things done, and we appreciate you joining us
this morning. Coming up, we'lltalk to Marcus and Casey from Lifetime cab
miss and Countertops. They have takenon a few projects over the years that

(00:52):
we're a bit challenging, and we'lltalk about one of them and how they
came with both a solution and it'sa fabulous one. John and Kathy Pickner
from Rock the Top Prey Service aregonna join us and we'll talk all about
plumbering with James car Well, theowner of Freedom Plumbing. But getting things
started this morning with us. Hey, it's Terry nation Nation Builders. Good
morning, my friend, Good morning, sir, nice to be here again.
Always good to see you, brother. Help you doing well, doing

(01:14):
well? Thank you very much,very good. Now, we have over
the months talked a lot about howyou do things different in Nation Builders.
Yes, okay, in other words, and we've we've mentioned this before.
You know, when you call Terry, y'all gonna show up with just a
little little pad in his hand andsay jot down some figures and some numbers
and say, okay, here's whatit is. It's it's it's a little

(01:38):
more in depth with what y'all do. It's a little more in depth than
it starts with that initial phone callwith us, first phone call. Yeah,
so we're gonna doce you to Candicethis morning. Who is Who's who?
Y'all don't know because it's radio.Who's actually been here on a number
of occasions, but is We've neverput her in front of the microphone until
now. Hi Candice? Hi?How you doing ahead? How are you?

(02:00):
I'm good? Now I hear thatactually the power behind the almighty ods,
behind the curtain, the Nation Buildersis you. I'm the best kept
secret. So we talk about process. You're a good person to talk about

(02:21):
or talk with about it. Iguess right, yes, okay, so
Terry, we'll get some coffee.Brother, all right, we'll see y'all
later. All right, So thefirst phone call first comes in, talk
us through how this works, Candice. So generally, whenever a call comes
in, regardless of where it comesfrom, I like to start getting to

(02:46):
know the client pretty immediate. Youknow, build a repport, tell me
about your project, tell me whatyou're wanting to have done. Of course,
I introduce our process and the waythat we work, and then we
move into setting them up with theconsultation. But yes, I like to

(03:06):
talk with them first, So thiscould be a lengthy conversation sometimes it is,
yes, depending on their needs.Yeah, and how often do you
get a phone call with somebody whosays, you know, I have this
idea, right, you got alittle I've got this idea, and then
it's up to you to kind ofsift through, Okay, what do you

(03:27):
really what does it you really want? Yeah, so we've kind of built
our process to where we really wantthe client to come to us whenever they're
ready. We are great if youare planning a big project and things like
that, but yeah, so yeah, it can be okay. And of

(03:50):
course a couple of weeks ago wehad Paige welt Wren on the program,
and y'all work a lot with Paigewhen absolutely and this been I guess a
lot of times for those folks hadthat general ballpark idea of what I want
to do. Well, i'll tellyou what. Let's bring page into this
process. Yes, correct, andbringing a professional interior designer what kind of
gives the client a feel of allright, let's go, let's do this

(04:14):
project. We can make it happen. So this process thing that Terry has
been talking about all these months,you kind of make this thing happen on
your end. Yes, So let'stalk about that. Let's talk what makes
nation Builders different. I think sometimesyou can go to you could find a
random contractor at Lows. But we'rea contractor. But we're also a family

(04:40):
business. We have employees that havefamilies that depend on us. We are
a big company and whenever we goin, we like to brag on ourselves
for being the best home remodelers fortwenty twenty two or for twenty three.

(05:01):
So we try to go in andshow that we are a big reputable company,
not just somebody that you would hirefrom loads. I shouldn't say loads
though, that's okay. I meanin any big box store or but this
is one of the this is oneof the challenges you have as a homeowner
or a business owner, and youwill you want to get something done.

(05:21):
Let's face it. I mean,as they say, you know, it's
a dime a dozen. Yes,Terry has a really great eye. Whenever
we set up consultations, it's amazing. We go in and we look at
the space, and we look atthe home and we listen to what the
clients want, and he's able toreally put that together. So a lot

(05:42):
of making the project what a clientwants. Terry's really got the eye for
that one. So, Terry,I mean, it's your name on the
business and you're the guy you're you'rethe guy who who who's it's your reputation
on the lot. Yes, absolutelyso. Anybody who's in that position will
always strive to surround themselves with thebest people possible and put them in a

(06:04):
position and let them do their thingright. Sure, absolutely so. How
much do you depend on on Canvasover here? Well, I highly depend
on her. You know some thingsshe hadn't talked about. You know,
that initial phone call. She's gonnabe too humble to talk about it.
Yeah, secret, Right, shedid tell us she was on the brains

(06:26):
behind the operator. So what shedon't tell you is, you know a
lot of those initial phone calls shefigures out, you know, this isn't
a job for us, you know, or you know we're not a good
match, and so she has thatconversation with that homeowner. Listen, this
isn't something that we really do aspart of our daily process. So maybe

(06:46):
we could refer you somewhere else?When when do? I'm curious? So
what are some of those things thatmaybe you know it's a better fit with
someone else or whatever. You Usually, if you are a budget shopper,
we probably will not be the bestfit for you. We also take time

(07:10):
on our projects. We like tomake sure that it's done and done well
and right the first time. Exteriorprojects we don't really you know, we
will do some exterior work if we'rethere working on you know, our you
know, a kitchen's baths, interiortype things. So you know, if

(07:31):
somebody calls and well, just lastweek somebody just needed a floor done.
Somebody just wants sighting done or justonce windows done. You know we don't
take those on right, and we'repretty booked out, so you know that
helps. Well, that's always insideof a good business, right you are.

(07:54):
Yeah, so you talk about thetime frame here, to me,
it's a no brainer. Okay,do what we all want it done as
soon as possible. Sure, youknow, nobody's gonna be grudge you for
that, but it's it's that,I mean, you gotta get away.
I mean, all right, youwant somebody's gonna run an air and do

(08:16):
a quick job, and you know, banm there out. You're probably unless
you're doing a flip. Yeah right, okay, if you're doing a flip,
all right, Yeah, you wantto get it done as quick as
possible. But but aside from that, I mean, you're probably gonna be
there for a while. Yes,So you know we're not talking about it's
going to be a year before wecan get it done. No. We
definitely try to build relationships with ourclients because depending on the job, it

(08:41):
can be a very lengthy process andthat's a part of the phone call.
Also is building that report, becomingtheir friends, knowing what they want and
knowing what they see in their home. And then you know, I also
throw in the mix. Will yourspouse be there also, so I go
ahead and get their name, doyou have pets? Things like that.

(09:03):
That helps us build a relationship withour clients, so they're not just a
piece of paper that we're writing thedate on and color in this spot.
We really try to build relationships.Well, that's that's part of the things
that you do, and this sortof business is well in the process,
let's face it, I mean it, people are displaced. You know,

(09:28):
the normal flow of operations was interrupted, yes, most of the time yet
and that's a big conversation we havewith them early on. And then another
you know, part of our process, and we encourage people to go to
our website and read it. Wetalk about the amount of time where in
somebody's houses, what we call thenation way is uh set up like a

(09:50):
marriage and you can see it onour website. We're gonna meet, we're
gonna date, we're gonna get engaged, and then we'll get it make so
there's multiple stay up before we actuallyever enter into that marriage and go into
that home and spend that type oftime together. That's of a process.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, fascinating. So because again you may listening you've

(10:16):
had worked like this done before andyou're thinking, wow, this is different.
It's different for a reason. Yes, it's different for a reason.
You know, our initial our consultation, me and Candice both go on to
calls. We want to be youknow, in today's world. I think
about a lady who's a lot oftimes we meet with just the lady of
the house, and for me toshow up as a guy and walk into

(10:37):
their house that makes some people uncomfortable. So we've said we've made a big
decision to have two people go onour appointments, a man and a woman,
and everybody's comfortable all the time.If there's a couple there, Hey,
there's a man and a woman meetingwith a couple. So that that
really works for us going into thesetimes maybe the wife wants something and she

(11:03):
kind of wants to squirrel it innot but it really works whenever we go
on these console appointments and we're ableto do the entire appointment together, but
we're also able to break free andhim get to know one of the clients.
Nine times out of ten we're kindof parting. You know, I'm
talking with the husband, she's talkingwith the wife and getting all these ideas.

(11:26):
So it works really great. Andthen you come back to get wait
now, wait a minute, yea. We bring what one wants and what
the other wants, and then wemake sure they're both happy, so they
all become the arbitrators. We're talkingabout kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, I

(11:48):
mean, anywhere on the interior ofa home. It all starts with that
conversation. You'll talk to Candice whenyou call. Yeah, and uh yeah,
so so be ready for it,make that phone call. This is
not what you expect. That's correct, It's gonna be a lot different.
It's a lot different, a lotof questions correcting, all right, Nation

(12:09):
Builders. You mentioned the website earlier. It's a lot of great information there,
a lot about that process. Yes, please visit it, check out
the jobs we've done, Miss nationBuilders LC dot com. Okay, and
you can also find us on Instagramand Facebook. Okay, So you got
it all covered right there. Andso folks who want to call and taught
you Candice, how did they reachyou? It is eight zero three eight

(12:33):
zero seven eight one four zero.All right, Candice, Well, I
already met you before, but everybodyelse say hi to Candice. Here you
go, thank you, thank You'llhave a great weekend. Thank you you
two. Rock the Top Resurfacing transformsoutdated tubs, tile walls, tile floors,
countertops and more without replacements, savemoney, time and the environment.
Free estimates at Rock Thetop Resurfacing dotcom or eight oh three nine nine eight

(12:56):
two o eight a fist. LifetimeCabinets and Countertops is your locally owned source
for countertops, great selection, greatprices, and they pride themselves on superior
installation and customer service. The owner, Marcus will even personally come out to
do all your measurements. See theselection online at Lifetime Cabinets sc dot com

(13:18):
or stop by one of Lifetime Cabinetsand Countertops two conveniently located showrooms on Fernandeina
Road and Columbia or Chapin Road inChapin and check out the hundreds of slabs
in stock, granite, marble,quartz, quartzite. They've got it all.
And if you can't find exactly whatyou were looking for when you're there,
and that's rare, they will findit and it's not just kitchens and

(13:39):
baths. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops doesoutdoor patios, vanities, bars, man
caves, you name it. LifetimeCabinets and Countertops. Fernandeina Road in Columbia,
Chapin Road in Chapin and online atLifetime Cabinets sc dot com. And

(14:05):
we're back on the Home improvement Showthe Midlands. Good to have you along
this Saturday morning here on one ofthree point five FM and five sixty A
m w v O C. Thesetwo don't need any introduction at all.
Back in better than ever. It'sMarcus Greenwell in case you know, today's
my birthday to you. Yeah,so Marcus, if you want to say

(14:30):
ahead an yeah, I was Ineed that was gonna happen. You know
what happens. So the show isover, don't you Marcus runs out and
get you a gift card or somethingright right? Who knows be prepared for
that. Okay, how y'all doit? Good? Good well, Happy

(14:54):
birthday mister Alexander. Appreciate it.It's good to see they comes in day.
You know wishes you know, wishme happy birthday and I'll hook you
up on your purchase and that's agood day. Good birthday for me is
come in and buy some courts.Yeah, there you go. It's easy.

(15:15):
You have to look for anything tojust go out there and buy some
stuff right there, perfect beautiful.Uh. You know we've talked before,
gentlemen about again lifetime, cabust andcountertops. You guys sell the countertops.
You guys fabricate the countertops. Youguys, it's all the countertops. This
is all you do. Yeah,yeah, right, ye, only countertops.
So when you're you know, whensomebody sees something you know on HGTV

(15:39):
or Pinterest or you know, onyour Facebook page, which you can see
a lot, they're like, wow, that's cool, I'd like to have
that done. You guys find away to make things happen. Yeah.
Yeah. In in fact, recentlywe encountered a a new issue where somebody
wanted something done that we had tackledin the past, round about the whether

(16:07):
we involved a contractor to create somethingfor us to build off of or whatnot.
We had done floating vanities in thepast, where when I say a
floating vanity, I mean there's nocabinet underneath to place the rock on.
So what this customer wanted was atwenty three foot long straight desk. A

(16:33):
desk, okay, but nothing underneath, so coming straight out the wall,
so no support structure underneath at all. Right, yeah, and so it
looked like it was just floating.So you've seen the floating shelves, the
wooden shelves on the walls and stuff. People do the floating shelves. It's
pretty popular these days, I think. But to do it with something that

(16:56):
is heavy, oh yeah, asMarvel in this case, how how heavy
would be your typical twenty three footlong slab of mar Yeah, I'm not
gonna do that math in my head. I should have had that a couple
of thousand pounds probably, Yeah,I mean, so you used to get
there's a challenge here. So thestones that we use range from about uh,

(17:18):
if you do it, you know, convert the cubic down to the
square the three centimeter inchered a quarterit basically seven Yeah, anyway, about
seventeen to twenty two pounds per squarefoot. This is about just over two
feet, so whatever forty six timestwenty would be still two hundred nine hundred

(17:40):
probably right not wait, no,no, I think it can't be nine
thousand yeah, because there's two zeros, Theresa. Yeah, so I always
say it's a bad idea to domath on the radio, regardless. It
weighs a lot. Yeah, yeah, we're talking about a couple of tons
probably. Uh yeah, okay.And and you were gonna put this,

(18:00):
it's probably a thousand pounds twenty timesokay, yeah, still a lot of
pounds. Still it's still Yeah,so you're gonna walk in, you're gonna
see this long, beautiful slab ofmarble just somehow magically suspended from a wall.
Yea, with nothing under either tosupport it. Ye can't see it

(18:22):
and you figured it out. Yeah, so what we what we were able
to do is go in and uhand well the bracket that attached directly to
the stud comes through, and sothen you put back over. Yeah okay,
so it's it sets in the wallabout three inches then comes out.
Uh. And then so that leavesit. Uh you know it's it's flat,

(18:45):
so it sits underneath the stone flushuh and uh. And you really
don't see the bracket. It's actuallya half inch thick, so you're not
gonna see it unless you were layin on the floor. Yeah, it's
and and so when you look atit, especially because you know this particular
desk is is I mean, eventhough the bracket, the color of the

(19:08):
bracket doesn't match. So we canspray the you know, r to match
kind of the back of the stoneand color wise and kind but in this
situation, it was a thirty inchhigh you know desktop, and so when
anybody's standing up is just you know, looking down on it. So there
there was no reason to really youknow, change the color to hide that.

(19:30):
But it looks like it's floating inthe air. Well this begs the
question how all right, so sothis is how you did it, but
I mean the actual installation itself,well, I guess you could have for
that. You could you could propit up on some something, right,
so you don't have all your GUIDsdifferent pieces, different pieces, so yeah,

(19:52):
three pieces, but still there's stilla lot of weight. And it
was so this is the any bracketsseventeen or twenty or uh well there's fifteen
in the one section seven and theother. So yeah, they you know,
we were able to spread the bracketsout and you're found a way to

(20:12):
do it. Yeah at the pointright, Yeah, so so you can
do that now let's talk about well, because it's it's hot in bathrooms right
now. You know, now Idon't get it personally, because where you
gonna put all your junk right still? Yeah, you know that the floating
vanities are you know a hot eyemin bathroom, so you can do those

(20:32):
two right, Yeah, absolutely,And we use this procedure. And I
mean if you really wanted to getfancy and you think these plumbers can do
the inset, you know, plumbingin the wall and then just have a
vessel sink or something, and Imean it would be very very simplistic.
I mean there's a lot of thingsyou know that they can do now just

(20:52):
make it look sharp and very smooth. And uh, it's it's cool.
I mean I was when I wassearching how we're gonna get it done,
and it was you know, talkingto the foreman and trying to plan it
all out. Uh, it wasyou know a unique experiences, you know,
come across what we need and uhand be able to put everything together

(21:14):
and uh and then you know itdid take two trips. We had to
go out there and put the sports, then their guys had to come back
put the you know, sheet rockup and everything, and then we have
to come back and you know,do that. But it's so it's a
little bit extra probably could have inthe future, you know, after you
know, having done this way withthis product one time, I think next

(21:36):
time, you know, we canplan having you know, guys there to
you know, uh, even ifthey're not finishing you know, the sheet
rock, at least get it upand so we can put the in and
cover up the the marble so theycan finish their job. But I'm painting
everything but problem solver, okay,see Alexander, well, I mean I

(21:56):
have help with uh. Enrique isalways you know, he's the mastermind.
So we got to bring in Rickyon one day. He's always so busy,
Enrique. If you've ever been outto the shop out in one fifty
chape and row, you may havemet Enrique's amazing. I mean you might
not consider the fact that what theydo is there's a whole lot of art

(22:21):
to it. It didn't say theyare definitely artisan craftsman. I mean it's
it's it's a craft, it's athere's there's definitely I mean, there's math
and science to it, but itis an absolute art to what they're able
to craft and put together. Isit true or not? I have to
check that that Enrique actually signs thebomb every slab. Oh yeah, we

(22:45):
need to get him a little seeand C signature was many C and C
is on Amazon or something slaking toa signature just right more or underneath the
overhang on an island. Might haveto look for it, but it's there
somewhere. Uh. But again,I mean, let me ask you this,
would you consider that particular job tobe the most challenging you've come across

(23:08):
and all your yours doing this eitherone of you, I don't know.
There's some of these full backsplash jobsand we run into and things like that
where you know, we're just gettingaround windows and trim and fitting things in
perfectly. And I mean there's there'sthere's been some challenge there. I didn't
one last week of the full backsplash and the windows and you know all

(23:29):
that. Yeah, So again,I mean, and then some people just
want weird stuff, right, what'sthe weirdest you've ever seen? Oh?
Well, I was just thinking,like you know, like little drip trays
that you know and like are justattached to the bottom of the stone and
come out. I mean, andthat that that just I mean, it
seems simplistic in nature, but ityou know, your you're basically laminating the

(23:52):
stone underneath to the stone and that'sall it's supporting it. So then we
thought these little push button things.You can put a piece of grant and
on top of it push, youknow, they come up out of the
Very cool. Yeah, very cool. Now. A couple of weeks ago
we were talking, uh, andcarpenters are in high demand right now apparently

(24:15):
and running behind on jobs, whichwhich is especially for some of the new
bills, I guess, is kindof holding you guys up, and which
is good news for those of youwho wanted the job done. Now,
yeah, that's still the case.Uh, people are catching up. I
mean yeah, I think I think, you know, as we get through
Labor Day, I think everybody willyou know, be getting back in down

(24:36):
getting back to work. I thinkit's just you know, summers off is
I mean, this summer, especiallyas everything kind of got more and more
normalized. I saw a lot morepeople at least my friends, traveling and
stuff this year than in the pastfew. Hey, carpenters are people,
So yeah, everybody needs a break. And that's I mean, everybody needs
a break. And uh but youknow, so, yeah, we were

(24:59):
these ifs are catching up pretty quick. Uh, and we're getting them back
in the schedule. But that's notto say that we don't have room for
anybody that comes in. Uh,you know, her family office. I've
already got a leddy texted me thismorning. As soon as I get the
office, I got to call her. And you know she wants to get
on the book. She's ready togo. Now can you come measure today?

(25:21):
I'm like, well, it's Saturday. Well you know what Casey Alexander
problems this make so go by goby to that you were were you're gonna
be in shaping. You'll be atFernandina, all right, so you I'll
be sure to stop by Fernandina.And uh and we shouldn't call me on
the phone if you want to talkabout some projects too. I didn't answer

(25:44):
the phone. Still you're you're theonly you are the guy. Yes,
I am on all the phone calls. Yes, sir, So so don't
call on Saturday morning at this time, because you know you'll get me things
going on. You know. Well, let's put it this way, if
you've just called and you didn't getan answer, well you know why because

(26:04):
we're here on the air, right. But call here in a few minutes.
He'll be happy to talk to you. Take that phone call. We'll
buy in wish casey a happy birthdaytoday. Yeah, buy some stuff,
not some granted and courts court sight. All right, your wife wants some
marble, mar marble, yes shedoes. We'll attack that later. All

(26:29):
right, all right, well let'sget out of here, guys. All
right, let's get yourself a greatweek, great one. Guys. We
love y'all. I'm James Carwell,local owner and operator Freedom Plumbing right here
in the Midlands. After working asa plumber for nearly a decade, I
decided to open my own business,and Freedom Plumbing. It was born because
of my love for this country andthe great respect I have for the men

(26:51):
and women of our armed forces andour first responders. I named my company
Freedom Plumbing. What sets us apartfrom other companies is our customer service.
We have a five star rating onGoogle, a five star rating on Facebook,
and a plus rating on Angie's List, and an A plus rating with
a Better Business Bureau. I'm JamesCarwell, local owner of Freedom Plumbing,
and we look forward to servicing youfor all of your plumbing needs. Get

(27:15):
fifty percent off your next service callwhen you mentioned you heard us on w
VOC. Learn more at Freedom dashPlumbing dot com. That's Freedom Dash Plumbing
dot com. Hi, this isGary David. You've heard me talk for
years about Anthony John Construction and thewonderful jobs they do for folks all across
the Midlands. When it comes toroofing and guttering, Well it's the same
people doing the job, but thename has changed. That's right now it's

(27:38):
Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Leaveit to Beaver for all your roofing and
gutter needs. The same great serviceon the same great folks behind Anthony John
Construction, just with a new name. Eight oh three nine nine one roof
and Beaver Roofing dot Com. Meetgutter roofing work, leave it to Beaver
Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Hey, look, it's John and Kathy Figner

(28:07):
Rock the Top morning. Do youboth back for another week? Great to
be nice to have you back.Yeah, we again. Since folks,
if you're listening to maybe a fewweeks ago might not have heard what it
is you do at Rock the Top. We're glad to have you on board
here on the Home improvement show ofthe Midlands. And you guys do a
very unique thing here that can oneof the things we just mentioned ye to

(28:33):
improve a look of your home,but to do it in a different way
and a way that can save you. Muccio de Leros, got it,
so rock the Top that name.Think about it for a second. You're
rocking the top of things that arealready there, got it, improving them,
making it look so much better.So so tell us, tell us

(28:55):
what this is all about. Doyou want to? Okay, she's the
boss, right, she's on thepants. Not really, but so,
as in John's words, we takeugly things and make them look pretty.
But on top of that, wedo it at a fraction of the cost
of replacement, so we save peoplea lot of money. So we're that

(29:19):
budget friendly company. When you wantto update your kitchen or bath maybe they
want to a client would want torip out the entire you know, bathroom,
in which there are some great contractorsand we know them that would do
that. But maybe the math orthe kid's room or the guest room bathroom.

(29:41):
They don't want to take it allout, so they want to save
money. That's where we can comein and resurface it, make it look
beautiful and new again. So we'veplat about resurfacing. John. We're resurfacing
like like, let's say you gotsamic tiles wrapped all the way around the
bathroom and they're yellow green paint,I mean burgundy. I mean I like

(30:03):
the redskins. But there's nothing wrongwith them. And the craftsmanship back then,
you know, it was great inthe sixties and seventies. It's just
that they're guilty of being hideous lookingand we can change it. Just leave
it right there. You don't haveto tear it all out throat in the
landfill. Leave it right there.We have lots of color options to choose
from. We could do ceramic tilefloors. There's a lot of chocolate floors

(30:23):
in West Columbia, Casey and Columbia, and there's nothing wrong with them.
They're just ugly and we can resurfacethem and we can give them an anti
skid coating, which is awesome.And when we do this process, the
groutlines are sealed so you never haveto worry about them. Again. Its
one hundred percent waterproof, it's faster, it's beautiful, it's waterproof, nothing

(30:47):
ends up in a landfill. Andit saves people, not just you know,
a couple many thousands of dollars.And we can do it three and
a half days, So I can'timagine much easier clean is. It's also
non sa if those grout lines aresealed up and you're not worrying about trying
to get down there with a toothbrush. You got it. Never again,

(31:07):
not that I ever have, ActuallyI have that right, yeah, he
mentioned and especially as people like meget older, you know, the non
skid surfaces, and yeah, wedon't get younger, No, we don't.
And bathtubs we can put an antiskid surface on the bottom of a

(31:29):
bathtub. Shower stalls too, thesame thing. And yeah, if you
got a rental unit, let's say, and you got a kitchen countertop,
we can put a real smooth,beautiful surface on there, and we can
also put an anti skid not thatyou would walk on it, but it's
a textured surface. We call itcross linking, and we add the multi
stone fleck to the clear coat,which is an acrylic polyurethane. And because

(31:52):
the fleck droplets, these paint dropletsare in the clear coat, it gives
it a texture. So if yougot a renter and he doesn't necess necessarily
treat your home as it was hishome, and he doesn't use a cutting
board, you know, and ithappens that drop a hammer on it or
whatever, because it's got a textureto it, it's forgiving. It's not

(32:12):
only forgiving for you know, peoplethat abuse it. It's also forgiving if
you have an old laminate countertop,let's say, and it's all chipped up
from former you know, renters,because I'm you know, putting this texture
surface. It's also forgiving for theold repairs. It's so I mean,
and it's so fast and inexpensive andbeautiful. I mean, why not right,

(32:35):
So again, you're not taking anythingout right, so we can repair
it though, So like let's saythere's missing tiles, or there's crack tiles
or chip tiles or scratches, andfor mica or missing laminate, we can
fiberglass those and make them look new. Agaan's horrific. You got toothbrush holders

(32:58):
over an old vanity or a soapdish you wish weren't there and then forgot
knock them off the wall and eitherput a new tile in there or put
a fiberglass repair around the top ofit, and you won't even know that
it was there. Who So,So the most of the work you do
that you do you wind up doing, is it, I guess, bathrooms,
kitchens, bathrooms and kitchens. Yeah, most mostly, But there are

(33:21):
other things that we do. Yeah, there's some commercial things we've done,
elevator walls, toilet partitions and restaurants. Or I got a yurnal once.
I didn't want to, but wedid. Somebody kicked the bottom of the
yurnal and broke it right off.It was a custom two thousand dollars yurnal.
Was that a government jurnal? No? The apartment community of way back

(33:44):
in northern Virginia, we used to. We worked there for twenty nine years
and yeah, we became good friendswith a lot of maintenance supervisors and they
asked me to please, John,just do it. So this is something
I'll be doing for a long time. Oh yeah, yeah, you know,
we've been. It's our passion.It's John John's major passion. He

(34:04):
just loves it. Because you lovethe reaction you get from clients, they're
like, wow, thank you somuch. It's and this is not because
you know, you'll see you know, commercials on TV about you know people
I'm gonna name names here, butthey come in and just they're they're they're
they're laying some big thing in oversomething or another. I mean, this
is this is this is more.It's like a whole lot more in depth
and detailed. They just putting somemold over something that already exists. Yeah,

(34:29):
it's it's more creative. Uh really, I mean those those lay INDs
or what do they call those likefitters, Yeah, I guess what we
call. Don't want to mention anynames, but you know a lot of
those surfaces they're putting over the topthe top of an existing tub just because
it might have a bunch of chipsin it or something, or some chip
tiles or whatever. So they justput this this thing they put on top

(34:51):
of that stuff. And I tearthem off all the time. Really.
Yeah. Some of them leak andthen you have a hotly and I got
a problem. Yeah, and sowe just tear them off and oh there's
your original tub again. Oh there'syour ceramic tile wall again. Yeah it
was pink. Yeah, I getthat. I can see why you would
want to do that makes total sense. I'm just gonna resurface it and stay

(35:12):
with the original. And yeah,I save them so much money. It's
ridiculous. And it's waterproof. Imean it's it's amazing. So can you
what choices do you have? Andwhat the I guess the finish of it
is. I guess it's on.Does that make sense? I mean you
want it to look like this orlike that, or let John take the

(35:35):
finish. We for the sheens,we have you know, gloss, semigloss
and set, and we can't wecan't get down to a flat. I
can get real low sheen, butI can't really get to a dead flat.
I just the acrylics in it justdon't allow that to happen. But
we also have many colors, andit starts off with an epoxy primer and
that that color can be any color. A lot of times it's white or

(35:58):
a light gray or a stone gray, sometimes black. And then on top
of that spray there's multi stone flex. There are little droplets of paint several
different colors within the same application,and those droplets are cut with by a
machine. I think there's only onemachine that can that does this. And

(36:19):
it's a little bit temperamental too.It's not an amazing, exact perfect cut,
but cuss these little droplets of paintand you mix them up and then
you spray them on there as aand it looks like a like a stone
of application when you do. Andwe dry that, we blow dry it
and then we sand it and thenblow the surface off and then put the
acrylic polyrethane on top of that,which is sealing. It cures, it

(36:42):
doesn't dry. It cures to aH five hardness. They can make an
H six hardness if they want itto, but it can become so hard
that it's brittle. So you don'twant brittle. So we want a h
H fives in the sweet spot asI like to call it. And uh,
it's literally pretty hard to believe.When we leave, people look at
it and they just can't believe howgreat it looks. And when we're done,

(37:06):
I tell him, you know,you could save that thirty thousand dollars
that I just saved you and golet your husband buy that hardly he's wanted
absolutely or whatever. Take that vacationaround the world. People don't mind saving
many thousands of dollars and a lotof time, especially these days. So
yeah, and again, I meanagain, you look at how many people

(37:28):
out there are thinking, you know, I would man if I could sell
the old place and give me somethingnew, you know, and up to
date and modernize and just what wewant. But then you're sitting there with
maybe your home is paid off,or maybe you're you know, you're walking
the three or four percent mortgage andyou're looking at seven point two two percent
or whatever it is today, andso more and more people are feeling if

(37:49):
they're stuck where they are. Butyou do have options. I mean you
can. We talked about it's alot on the show, a lot of
our folks that are here. Yeah, there are there are things that you
can do to upgrade the place,to get it to be the place you
want it to be. Yepp.And with you guys, I mean,
whether it's bathroom, kitchen, youname it, you can you can help
do that. Again, it soundslike to be a fracture of the cost
of a definitely total rip out andredo totally. And a lot of times,

(38:13):
you know, I'll go in andI'll give a price on one bathroom
and I'll peek in the other one. I'm like, you know, this
one you need to have done too, And they want to change that all
around. Like, you know,I don't want a bathtub in here.
I'm getting older. I want towalk, you know, a shower or
something. Sure. Sure, weknow great contractors like Terry Nation and those
guys that we refer all the time, and they refer us to actually make
a great referral partners. So it'sa really good, you know, relationship

(38:34):
we have with a lot of thesepeople. And Paige Butler, the interior
designer, I think she I thinkeverybody's his Page. She's got to be
busy sometimes, you know, Ican't help somebody make choices on colors and
stuff. And have you ever thoughtof talking to Page? I mean she's
she helps me sometimes death and Ibust my outdoor furniture and Page help us
pick that stuff out of colors toone of these days. Yeah, all

(38:58):
right, rock the Top Surfacing,Yes, sir, John and Kathy Thickner's
it's again good to have you backin. Let we didn't scare you off
the first couple of times, andso first steps, how the folks reacher.
They can go to Rock the TopResurfacing dot com or give us the
call at eight zero three nine nineeight two zero eight eight. Okay,

(39:22):
great, And what does the timeframe look like these days? I mean,
all are busy, but uh yeah, we're slamb two to three weeks.
We have a lot of our jobsare quick, right, so we
might have you know, thirty jobsso we can knock them out pretty quick.
Kath keeps you busy. I liketo be busy. Get round on
the house, go through some work, go do something absolutely all right,

(39:44):
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(40:53):
we're back with our final segment ofthe Home id Truittment Show the Midlands
here for this Saturday morning. ButSambi backout the top of the hour Fox
News Update with the Health and WellnessShow, and we've got a full program
there as well. But first thingsfirst, let's get this one in the
books and we join or join thatis by our buddy, James Carwell,
the owner of Freedom Plumbing. Howare you, buddy, Good Gary,

(41:16):
How are you doing this morning?Man? I'm doing great? All right?
We were. We thought about talkingabout five common plumbing problems this morning,
but I'm not sure we'll get tofive. We do want to start
here with maybe the most common plumbingissue, and that's uh that's steady drip,
drip drip. Yes, so dripand fawcetts can definitely be one of

(41:37):
the most common issues in plumbing,and it could could be an easy fix
for a homeowner. I think that'sone of the things we talked about in
our d D I Y fixes,D Y I fixes. I do that
too all the time. D Alittle difficult, Yeah, so why do

(42:01):
it yourself? Internal parts failing inthe faucet is what causes them to drip.
Washers possibly over any situations like that, but there could be a reason
why those failed if they failed prematurely, and that could be due to high
pressure. Okay, if that wasthe culprit high pressure, would you only

(42:24):
it seems to be you have maybemultiple faucets that are dripping, or maybe
it can happen, that's for sure. It depends on the brand and you
know how how long that high pressurehas been on that particular faucet. But
you can't have running faces and youknow running toilets as well. Dripping facets

(42:45):
and running toilets could be a underlyingissue due to high pressure. So that
high pressure is putting too much forceon those parts that hold that water back
and they that can cause them tofail prematurely, so a pressure reducing valve.

(43:06):
In that case, anything any waterpressure to a home over adpsi is
required to have a pressure reducing valveor also called a pressure regulating valve.
Now, when I think required,nobody's going out there and checking houses water
pressure and telling you you need toput a pressure docing valve on. When

(43:30):
I say that, if you wereto build a new home and the water
pressure going to that home from themunicipality was over adpsi, the contractor would
be required to install a regulator tobring that pressure down below adpsi. Is
it normally a question of the pressurebeing too I know for this particular issue

(43:52):
we're talking about, it's because yourpressure is too high. But I know
our home when we moved into acouple of years ago, we had have
you guys out because our water pressureof the house was too low. And
I believe that was a situation whereyou already had a pressure regulating valve on
the system and then it had sailed. And when those things fail, they

(44:13):
can do some strange, strange thingsto your system. I've seen it fail
and only provide fifteen PSI to ahouse. So it's just really reducing that
water pressure going into the home.I've seen it fail and give full city
pressure and low volumes so to haveone hundred and twenty PSI going through the

(44:34):
home. But when you cut thefaucet on, it does that high pressure
and then just kind of dwindles downto a trickle. And that that could
be due to a faulty pressure regulator. I've heard him make noises throughout the
whole home. You cut the wateron, there's strange hum. So,

(44:55):
yeah, they can. They cancause multiple issues when they go bad.
And you know, any mechanical thingeventually is going to go bad. Sure,
and to be specific here, ifit's high pressure, that's the issue
that's causing your faucet or faucets todrip. Now a regulator that that controls
the entire house, that's not justfor one particular faucet or toilet, right,

(45:17):
sure. Yeah, we typically installthat on the main coming into the
home, either right at the foundationwall of the home or underneath if you
have a good access in your inyour crawl space. Typically you make one
adjustment. Now it's the only timeit needs to be touched, all right,
So you mentioned running toilets can alsobe a culprit. Could be high

(45:40):
pressure too. If your toilet kindof just the ghost flush thing, I
guess, yeah, all of asudden, you're here and it starts running,
You're like, well, what's upwith that? Yeah, the ghost
flushing is typically an issue with theflapper. What's happening is, Okay,
water is slowly draining out of thetank, and then the fill valve reaches
a point where it has to refillthe tank to proper level. When you're

(46:02):
dealing with a running toilet and itbeing a pressure issue, typically you're dealing
with the problem with that fill valvewanting to shut off, but still just
slowly allowing a little bit of waterto pass by. Now, as the
consumer, how do you know ifyour problem is the flapper or the high
pressure? I mean it, Well, that will occur constantly, and sometimes

(46:29):
it'll start with it just overfilling alittle bit higher than it typically should,
depending on what kind of fill valveis in there, or it can be
a situation where it just doesn't stopand it just keeps running and running until
the water in the tank reaches thefill tube and then starts straining into the
toilet. Okay, So typically whenthose parts go bad, you won't have

(46:52):
overflow a tank because that fill valveis in there and it allows somewhere for
that water to go. It goesinto the fill valve and down through the
flesh valve or excuse me, intothe filled tube and down to the flesh
valve. Talking to James carl lthe owner of Freedom Plumbing, one of
the most common plumbing issues fausts.That we're not about fausts. You just

(47:15):
can't shut it all the way off. This is a dripping faucet. And
we've been talking about how high pressure, high water pressure, these those problems.
But you started off by saying thatthere are you know, something,
if it's not high pressure then there'ssomething in the actual fixture itself that maybe
you, as a homewotter could fixyourself. So what are we looking for
here? Yeah, So, ifyou're comfortable with doing it, you would

(47:38):
typically start with shutting the water offto the faucet underneath please the emergency shut
off valves, and you want toremove the handles and then the stems,
which would be the part that thehandle turns to make that faust function.
Now, if you don't know thebrain to the faucet if it's not labeled
somewhere on there. Sometimes there's atag underneath on the hotter cold supply line

(48:02):
that will give you a model number. Now you can call these falset manufacturers
yourself. They typically have what's considereda limited lifetime warranty, which means you
call them say, hey, myfalse is dripping. You give them the
model number, they send you thepart. If you're handy enough put that

(48:22):
part in, it should resolve thatissue. And it just depends on the
type of faucet. There's so manydifferent types of faucets out there in models
that here's the key. You needto have that exact part and put that
part in. Delta parts aren't compatiblewith Moan parts. Moan parts aren't compatible

(48:45):
with pricesstor parts. They don't worktogether. Even different models within the same
brand don't necessarily work together. Sodefinitely make sure you got the right part
for that faucet. Are there certainmodels or or or those made by a
certain manufacturer that might be easier todo yourself than others. And this is

(49:09):
why I'm a big Santa Delta.I'm get paid to say that, but
neither. They're one of the easierfouces to work on for a couple of
reasons. The parts are easy tofind, and they just seem to care
a little bit more about the peoplethat have to come in after something's been

(49:30):
installed. As far as on theengineering side, it just seems like they've
done a little extra work to makeit easy to take things out put things
back in. Okay, any specialtools required to do this, James with
Moan, Yes, and you knowthere's a I think there's one tool out

(49:52):
there now that they've made the fitsof multiple Moan fausses. But you have
the old style Moan that used topull out and push, and Mowen's now
gone to like a a turn basedon shower valves. You know, if
your shower is dripping, if yourface is dripping, Mowen has different parts

(50:13):
for that too. But yeah,there are special tools for Mowen. But
Delta, you know, just asimple pair of channel locks and a six
one screw driver and maybe some Alankeys to take the handles off and stuff
that most people have laying around thehouse. Okay, if you can find
it, If you can find it, that is right. Some of the

(50:38):
better organizational skills than others. Iwanted to ask you, now, so
your your faucets dripping, as ahomeowner, is there a way to know
whether it's going to be just amechanical issue with that faucet or it's high
pressure? Are you going to knowas the homeowner away this time by going

(51:00):
and you know, ordering the partsand replacing all this and you still got
the problem. Well, you wouldn'tnecessarily still have the dripping problem because the
new parts would probably take care ofthat drip. But what you're doing is
you're putting brand new parts on thesystem with high pressure, and you're just
going to be going through that issueover and over. I had one customer

(51:22):
had high pressure on hundred I thinkit was one hundred and thirty psi.
I was in northeast Columbia. Theywere using another plumber at the time,
and they said they replaced this kitchenfaucet like three different times. So the
first thing I get I do isgo check the pressure one hundred and thirty
psi. So let's you need toaddress the pressure before we mess with that
faucet because you're just going to keephaving this problem. Sure enough, we

(51:44):
had just to pressure below eighty.We wound up. They've had another faucet
they wanted to put in when wedid the work that day and would put
that new faucet in. They haven'thaven't heard from himself. Boom, this
is this is years ago. SoI suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea
if you, as a homeowner,you can find where it is. If
you've got a regulator on your home, to go take a peek every now

(52:07):
and then and see what your waterpressure actually is coming into the house.
Well, the regulator is not goingto tell you. But what you can
do is you can go to yourlocal big box store, Lows home depot,
one of those, and get apressure gauge. And that pressure gauge
will just screw to the outside falsityyour home, the same place you would
connect your hose to. Okay,and just screw that on, cut the

(52:30):
water on. It'll tell you whatyou where your pressure is at. So
let's say you typically we'll see alot of systems at forty five psi because
that's where the pressure regulators come presetmost of them, and if you wanted
to, you could bump that up. We usually set them around sixty five
or seventy. How can folks reachyou guys over at Freedom Plumbing, My

(52:52):
friend, I find anything they cangive us? Call at eight O three
four four seven zero four seven oneor visit our website at Freedom and dash
plumb and dot com. Alright,but have a great weekend, man,
thanks so much. Same, allright, take a quick break here,
update you news the top of theair. Then back with the Health and
Wellness Show here on one h threepoint five FM and five sixty am.
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