Home Improvement Show 09-06-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning and welcome in. It's time again my friends,
the Home improvement show of the Midlands on one of
three point five FM five sixty am WVOC. They are
on the planet a totally free iHeart radio. App Hey,
it's good to have you with us this morning. We
appreciate it. My name is Gary David. A quick reminder,
our best Gamecock coverage kicks off at four o'clock this afternoon.

(00:32):
The pregame starts then before the game between the number
ten ranked game Cocks and the Bulldogs of SC State,
and of course once the final whistle blows, postgame calling
show we'llill here right here tonight. Coming up, we'll be
talking to James Carwell, our buddy from Freedom Plumbing. We'll
chat with Summer from Beaver roof agin Getters. First up there,
he is Marcus Greenwell, the owner time Encounter Time better

(00:56):
than ever who I understand. People just walk up to
the street now, I say, aren't you Marcus Greenway?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, yeah, you're on the radio with Gary David. And
you know what, I'm used to seeing you over there
with those big old headsets on and everything, and always
wondering what you're hearing in those headsets.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Sometimes more than I want to.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Do you hear Do you hear yourself talk when you
go on there?

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, okay, I didn't know if it was kind of
like muffled.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
I've been hearing myself talk since I started talking more
what sixty four years ago? Oh, I heard enough of
be talking to I think.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I love it. I love it. I feel so privileged
to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh, thank you? Well, yeah, I love it. You know listen,
you guys have been on since the start of this show.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, this segment.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
How many years?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Hold?

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Eight years at least? Yes, yeah, no longer, so hundreds
of shows. Oh yeah, I love it so so thanks
thanks to you guys for supporting the program.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Everybody is just so nice that I have multiple people
this past week have come in. Marcus, Hey, how's it going?
I reckon as your voice. You know, it's so good
to see you finally, and you know we've been listening
to you for so many years and and uh now
we're coming in to do business. Yes, family, family, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
We just you know we're here and you're there, but
you know we're so Yeah, you want to meet this guy.
Where were you be today?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
By the way, I will be out in Chapin today,
one three Chapin Road. Yeah, I've got all the slabs
of granted out there. I've got court site, I've got
marble slabs. I've got court slabs to look at. If
you can't find it at my one fifty three Chapin
Road location, chances are you're going to have, you know,

(02:38):
to go look in Charlotte. Actually, I do have a
couple of local distributors. I could sit archy with slab distributors.
I almost called the fabricator, So so we'll take it
and fashion it to your kitchen. Are your a bathroom?

Speaker 1 (02:52):
And this is how the business started originally. Right is
you got a fabricator?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Correct?

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay? And and you know that term the fabrication process
involves a lot of stuff. Yeah yeah, what what on
in compass? What on you said about fabrication? What are
we talking about?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Here we go, we do all the measuring. I'm the owner.
I go out and measure every single job. And it's
it's kind of comical. I met I take every single
phone call and uhs. Matter of fact, I'm pretty busy.
So if I don't catch a call, I will call
you back, even if I miss the number and don't
leave a message. I'll be like, hey, this is Marcus.
Did you call me?

Speaker 3 (03:30):
You'll be.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
That's a good point. And uh, I got two locations. Uh, David,
my brother is gonna be at Piney Grove. What I
call pine Grove is forty twenty Fernandina Road. Uh, my
brother is going to be out there today from ten
to six, and then I'm going to be at Chapin
from ten to six.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
And we talk so much about the remnants. Let's be
very uh clear here. If you want to see the remnants,
selection take the trick. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Are that's where the big stuff is, all the all
the pieces. I've got thousands of pieces, is what I
like to say, because I always say I'm granite rich
and cash poor. So y'all I need to get rid
of some of these. Please, I'll retire if I sold
them all.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
You're still selling these remits at your costs, right at
my cost.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah. So if you come in, we'll we'll take some measurements.
So bring me the measurements and we'll take some measurements
of the remnant piece, and if it's big enough, we'll
give you a special deal on it and uh put
you on the schedule. We are pretty busy right now. Uh,
four to six weeks, uh is the average turnaround. I
am bumping people up there ahead of schedule. Matter of fact,

(04:43):
Raymond Stingray Fowler, he's the he's the champion boxer that
was out of White Rock Boxing, a good friend of mine.
He's uh, he's been bumped up a week on his
install so we're starting. We're installing him Monday, as a
matter of fact. Okay, Yeah, he's battle cancer and boxers
and all kinds of different things in his life. He's
a real champion.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
It's a great story.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, even giving back to the community. Acknowledged
that state capital up there on the floor. That's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I've never been up there.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, they don't want me up there. I'm talking about
to say about it.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah. So so then so the fabrication part. You you
bring me to measurement. I'll come up take the measurements
of the remnants with you and go find help find
your peace. Depending on what the wife or you know,
significant other, is that that what they want? You know,
because us guys, we don't really care typically and I

(05:45):
can help with that process. Make it easy as a
matter of fact, I'll spend a couple of minutes in
the showroom just talking first, just to see what you know,
what you guys or you want, and I'll i'll take
you by the last what two weeks ago, we were
talking about the customer that walked in in ten minutes,
they walked out, they already had their selection made signed up. Yeah,

(06:08):
in ten minutes. So I mean, now you and Anne
were a little different story.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
It was a little We're two and a half hours
on a hot August afternoon out there.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Man.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, she's a little picky, which is.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Me too, me too, I get it, I know, right,
but yeah, she's awesome.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
And again we talk about remnants. Yeah, I like to
say these aren't used, they're unused.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
That is correct. We're not allowed to sell used pieces.
So actually we take out a lot right now, we
just crush it and run, you know, crush and run
or whatever, put it in the.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
You're not allowed to sell anything.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I don't know if I am or not, but
I don't know. I don't allow it. Okay, Well just
let my mom when I said that.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
I'm the boss, and I say this is the way
it goes.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, yeah, we may maybe we could, but it's just
too I got enough to do to try to sell
some new new stuff and it's not so anyway. So
what you're saying is this, if somebody comes in and
does a kitchen, then I have the left over piece
from that kitchen, which is a brand new piece. It
might have some age on it from sitting outside because

(07:17):
I got so many of them. So that's why I'm like,
I'll selling it costs. Come on down, let's talk, you know,
let's get rid of this mess. Matter of fact, if
you mentioned Gary, I'll even give you a special deal.
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I love it today. I am worth something.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Special deal for you.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, Gary, Harry, get the special deal from Marcus.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah. All kind aside, though, regardless of who's coming in
the door, I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna
give you a good price on it. You send your mom, dad, brother, sister,
you know, I'm gonna treat them like family too.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
So so we're talking about the fabrication process. So you
you know, somebody comes out in your selection, whether it's
you know, a big slab or a couple of slabs,
or a remnant or whatever it is, whether it's a
grantity or courts or a court site.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Right, or a marble or a marble.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
And then the next step in the process is the
fabrication stage. What all happens.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
There, Yeah, So what they do is they'll take my
measurements after I come out and take the measurements of
the house, and I'll get the center line of the sink,
backsplash height, go over any special details, and then I'll
take that to the shop in the back. They will
then pull the piece out, put it onto the cutting table,
cut it to your specific area, and then cut the

(08:35):
holes in it. We'll polish the inside of the sink holes.
We actually include sinks in our pricings, regardless if you
use our sink or not. It's already it's already included
in the price. Because I'd rather use my sink, trust me.
It's just a little more detailed on some of these
other sinks, you know, as far as getting the holes
exactly right and all that, so it takes a little
extra work. So I'll provide for the sink, I'll drill

(08:57):
the holes for the faucet and I'll install it. We'll
remove whatever you have on the tops, so all you
have to do after I leave is put the plumbing
back in. We don't do any we're not licensed plumbers,
so we're not allowed to do that in your house.
I could do it in my house, but I can't
do it in yours. But but you can hire a plumber.

(09:18):
I do have a James car well, James, yeah, freedom plumbing.
Y'all might have heard him here before.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
You may have it if I tell you'll be hearing
here in just a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
All right, he's coming up soon. I did a huge
job for James, and recently too, so he's building a
big old house.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
I did all this granted, and I think I think
that's what we I'm pretty sure all we did was granted.
We did granite kitchen, bathrooms. Like, he's got a brand
new house, so he's got granted all over the place.
The only thing he didn't do was the tree cut
down with the stump and make a table out of it.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
You couldn't talk about that one, huh.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
I did that at my house, But matter of fact,
I could do that at your So we can make
you cut a tree down, make a stump and put
the table right on top of it. Yeah, I got
thousands of remnants. We could do it perfect.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, so once you get through the fabrication process, let's
talk about We haven't really spend any time talking about this.
I happen to know because y'all have done several install
jobs for my family over the years. But the installation
process itself.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
One to two hours. My guys there are boom boom
in and out. They don't go they don't they don't
go in there. And I always say this, they don't
stand out in the yard, smoke cigarettes and talk on the.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Phone all day.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
They going there and there. It's like a well machine.
They're like boom, boom boom. And my head, my lead guy,
he runs them like he I mean, he tells them.
It's like like one guy knows what the other guy's doing.
The other guys, I mean like I'll have a big crew.
It's clockwork out, yeah, and they're like boom boom. One
guy I'll be in there taking off the countertop. The
other guy I'll be up there setting up the cutting station.

(10:55):
Because we cut, we cut. Only only things we tip
typically cut at the house are the backs pieces because
we cut everything off of my measurement. So if it's
not right, I know who to talk to, right, you
and I also, So what they do is they'll do
the whole job boom boom boom, quick in and out

(11:17):
one to two hours. There are some jobs that take longer,
like full back splash jobs where we have to cut
outlet holes there on site. We do cut those on
site because it's it's so job specific. If it was
if I was a little half inch off or something
like that, or a quarter inch off, it could show
on the outlets. So it's better to make those cuts outside,

(11:37):
not inside, of course. But yeah, so and then uh,
and then you wait twenty four hours before you get
your plumbing in. That's pretty important. Yeah, let all those
silicons and stuff set up that way, and you don't
get dirt in a silicon. You don't jimmy to sink around.
And even though we clip them, that's one thing not
everybody does, Garry, is we'll lip the stone off over

(12:02):
and put and groove out the stone and put a
clip in there and clip the sink to the bottom.
So you always hear these these horror stories about people's
sinks dropping. It don't happen with us because we clip
on midsist. Every job gets clipped and the uh. And
we also put rebar in the front of the sink
and in the back of the sink as well as

(12:23):
the cook top areas. So that way if somebody does
make a little booboo and get their little you know,
sit up on the countertop, which we don't. We don't
want you dancing on the countertops, but.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Your house, you know.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Hey, if you do, you know, we do put rebar
in the front, so we are getting some added protection
in the bag.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Feel free to dance on the countertop as long as
it's one lifetime.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, we do. We do also support our our overhangs
and islands with some big heavy half inch steel, like
we'll put in long rods. One one i'll call a
teeter totter and that's like that if you don't have
a wall on the back, and it'll be like literally
a teeter totter, so if you push down on it,

(13:11):
it'll give it support in the back where and then
another one is the short supports. If you have a
wall built, we'll actually be able to drill the steel
and put We custom make these at the shop and
we drill the holes and steal and attach them to
the back wall. Two by four. So we'll we'll take
it up. We'll take it from start to finish at

(13:32):
the house a couple hours in out and you got
a brand new kitchen at first shot.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
We all do for us. I thought they must have
forgotten to do something, because they sure were it out
and hurry. But I mean, your guys are just say
good yeah, and it's they clean up afterwards. And the
only reason you know you were there because you've got
a brand new, beautiful counter.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Oh I love it. Yeah, thank you Gary. Yeah. So
so one time I was taking a picture of the
job and everything, and I was on the way out
the kitchen and I took a picture. I didn't even
realize that at the time, and one of my workers
were down there on the baseboard cleaning the baseboard with
a rag. I was like, how about that, you know,

(14:14):
I mean, who's going to go down there and clean
up that good whenever they're wiping down baseboards.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
You have mentioned, I think last time you were here,
that court site, yeah, which is the natural? The courts
is the man made which has been very hot. Yeah,
oh yeah, the court site, though the natural is seems
to be trending these days.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Uh yeah, yeah, for people that are wanting to stay
in their houses and remodel them and fix them up,
and they're actually taking out the Level one granted, and
I have I love Level one granted. I mean we
sell it a ton of it. But some people are
tired of Ubatuba and you know, the tan stuff and

(14:56):
all that is how they they're describing it to me.
I've got the gold stuff. Uh, They're like they want
to get you know, they've been in there for fifteen
years now and they're like, I just want to change.
I want the white and the gray, you know. And
the courtzight has a lot of those properties in it,
and it's got it's a natural stone, so it's beautiful,
you know. So it's got some beautiful marbling effect in it.

(15:19):
But it's harder than quartz. It's harder than granted, it's
harder than marble, really yeah, on the on the hardness scale.
So it's now you've got diamond, quartzite granted, Okay, quartz, marble,
you know, and on down's gold and a.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Lot of people like the marble for the look, cause
you're telling me you get a court site could give
you a similar a similar.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Similar look to marble. Yeah, it looks like marble. Yeah,
but it's hard and it'll dull your knife out just
like granted.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh okay, because that's I mean, it's interestingly enough, that's
one of the stones over the years that we talked
very little about.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
I know, it's just well, it is very expensive too.
So if you know, if you're wanting to spend, if
you're willing to spend some money, if you're not, I mean,
you know, you can't. You can't be budget minded and
and call the court sit out at the same time.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
For example, Yeah, I mean you're gonna be one hundred
dollars at least some of them. I have one I
quoted the other day was two hundred and fifty six dollars.
Most of them are in the one hundred dollars range. Yeah,
square foot, but I quoted one. Uh, we've got two
local suppliers and one of them's got one of them's
got some stuff. It's two hundred and fifty six dollars exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
You do a lot of those, you know, really really
really high end.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Oh yeah, a lot of decorators. We love decorators, I
mean we it takes a little bit more to take
care of them. But it's worth it because you know
they're they're nice, they know what they want, you know.
So it's not like, you know, it's good to have
a decorator in some cases because you know they can
tie everything in together and they're trained for it and

(17:04):
all that. So so yeah, a lot of the decorators
are pinning it toward pushing towards some court sites and
stuff like that. I've got Page Butler interior. She loves,
she loves court site.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's beautiful. Yeah, we're at a time, my friend no
starry man.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Come on, let's drink some more coffee and talk some.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
More Lifetime gabus and countertops today.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, we were voted best in lexingon County Now Lexing
and Life magazine or something like that. Lexand lexand Chronicle.
That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, by the way, so
well yeah, yeah, one fifty three Chaping Road. That's where
I'm going to be ten to six and I'm also
out there on Wednesdays. If you can't make it today,
my brother is going to be at forty twenty Fernandina

(17:49):
Road over by greens Costco Northern Toole. All that good stuff.
The golf cart guy. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, my buddy
and uh, I'll tell you more about that later. He's
a good friend mine like he takes care of us.
So and anyway, Ada, you can reach me on my
cell give me some measurements or some square footage of

(18:11):
your kitchen. Eight oh three seven seven two It comes
to my cell twenty two, twenty seven seven twenty two
twenty comes to my cell. And then I can give
you my number. If you want to text me a
picture of I'll give you my cell a number. Heck,
I don't want you call me up. I'll hook you
up for a good time. Yeah, Marcus Crech the best time.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
Lifetime Cabinets Encountertops 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

(18:55):
Fernandina Road in Columbia or Chapin Road in Chapin and
check out the hunt of slabs in stock granite, marble,
courts court site.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
They've got it all. And if you can't find exactly
what you are looking for when you're.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
There, and that's rare, they will find it. And it's
not just kitchens and bats. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops does
outdoor patios, vanities, bars, man caves, you name it. Lifetime
Cabinets and Countertops, Fernandina Road in Columbia, Chapin Road and
Chapin and online at Lifetime Cabinets sc dot com.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
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(19:50):
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Yeah Dames, good morning to you. Thanks for getting up

(20:16):
early with man.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Good morning, Gary, How are you.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
I'm doing well. I'm doing well, man. Anytime it's the weekend,
I'm doing well. Uh we Uh. It's been a while
since we've talked about this, but we we talk about plumbing,
and you know, people think of the usual things. Yeah,
I gotta I got a leak, I gotta drip, I
gotta something backing up, I mean, you have a solution
for anything and everything when it comes to plumbing. And

(20:39):
I guess over the years your job has gotten a
bit easier with the advance of technology. Huh.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
That is true, absolutely, whether it's sewer cameras to help
us pinpoint exact UH issues and sewer lines and how
deep they are, and you know, to UH leak detection
equipment and UH and backflow testing. So yeah, it's it's
definitely made things easier.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Well back in the old days, I mean, how did
you go about doing some of these same things before
the advent of all this technology. Man, it had to
be a hit and miss. Try on air, How how
did it work?

Speaker 5 (21:13):
There were some technology out there, but it is definitely
improved over time, especially in the in the leak detection
industry and in the sewer line industry. You know, cameras
have been around since I've been plumbing, but you know,
it's got a lot easier to to locate lines and

(21:34):
where they're running through the yard. You know you used
to only be able to locate the end of the
camera head. Well, now you can. There's a line locate
we have on our new camera system where you can
actually trace the entire line and you don't have to
follow just ahead. You know, you can push it all
the way through and trace exactly where the thing runs
through the art or underneath the slab or or anything

(21:56):
like that.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
That has a couple of things right for the for
the homeowner business owner, makes the being able to track
it down a whole lot faster. So that's that's saving
your money right there. And then you're having to tear
up a lot less stuff.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Yeah, especially when the leak detection stuff, and you know,
when you got to bust the slab up, you want
to be pretty much right on the mark. You don't
want to have to bust out more than you need to.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I guess without getting too deep in the weeds here,
I mean, how does this work get Well, I guess
the camera on the end of this kind of sees that, right,
I mean, this is not It's a simple I guess,
isn't it.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Yeah. So the first thing we got to do on
a sewer system like that is if there's a blockag,
you got to clear the blockage because he really can't
see anything underwater. So once we get the water out
of the line, we send the camera down and find
out what is causing the issue. And on sewer lines,
you know, if it's an outside blockage is typically roote related. Yeah,
I would say the majority of them is route related.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
And probably that Craig Mard what you got in your
front yard.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
Yeah, those are one of the big offenders for sure.
But we get the camera to that area, we can
see what's going on, we turn on to locate, and
then we go out with our locator and pinpoint where
we're at in the yard. And you know, once we
get to that spot, we can tell exactly how deep
it is and be able to give an accurate quote

(23:21):
up front before we do any work. That way, there's
no surprises for the customer.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
You know.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
The last thing you want to do is say, hey,
is this much? And then well you've got to dig
out another five feet and got to go back to
the customer and say, hey, you know it's going to cost.
That's the last thing we want to do is go
back and say, hey, it's gonna going to be more
than we thought. So you know, we once we give
a prisis that's the price. So unless something drastically changes,

(23:48):
you know, with a repair, we don't go back and
make adjustments. Now, there are some things that are unpreseen
with remodels and things like that. I didn't know there
was a bent pipe running up a certain wall and
that's got to be relocated for them to take a
wall out. So things come up and definitely change where
you have to go back and say, hey, we're going
to need to make some adjustments to the cost here.

(24:09):
But you know, for the most part, we try to
get right on the estimate and as accurately as possible. Yeah,
all that definitely helps with that.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
There was the reason why they call them a good
faith estimate.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
Right, that's right, so upfront pricing.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, you told us a story years ago, and if
I recall correctly, James, it had to do something with
a camera and a cat.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
Yeah, yeah, that was that was a crazy one. I
just recently posted again on our Facebook page. But there
was a cat stuck down an old dry it out
well I would say about fifty feet down or so wow,
and some gentlemen flew in from California that does cat

(24:58):
rescues and dog rescues and things like that, and uh,
we helped him extract that cat and uh, you know
it healed up and was adopted out to a family.
And it's funny that that video actually made it all
the way to a news station in Lithuania, if I'm
not mistake. Yeah, so yeah, that was a cool experience.

(25:23):
Uh that our better camera definitely helped in the recovery
of that cat.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
So it's the same cameras you used today to the
day leaks, the same one.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
Now the newer one we have again it has a
little bit more capability, but we still have that original camera.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
That so the new one extracted the cat all by itself.
In other words, you didn't need to go to Countifore.
The new one could do everything. I guess located. It
was just.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
Visual is basically all we needed for the gentleman that
flew in from California to help him do what he does.
And you know what he does, he's good at it,
and I guess that's why he flew in from California
to help save the kid.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
That's an expensive cat rescue right there. Man, it's astrophe.
So so let me ask you this, James on the
on the the customer end, Okay, Yeah, if if you've
got a leak in a toilet or a sink, I
mean that's obvious, But you have a leak in a
line somewhere, it's not always as obvious. How do you know,
aside from saying I guess they're saying a water bill

(26:26):
that's like outrageous.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
So luckily with these newer meters, the digital meters that
that a lot of these municipalities are installing, they can
contact you, whether it be a door hanger or by
phone and let you know, hey, we've we've noticed that
you have a steady water flow through your meter and

(26:49):
kind of alert you to it before you get that
astronomical bill. So that's that's kind of a neat development
on their end to be able to kind of give
you a heads up that day you got something going
on that's that's out of the ordinary, which would be
like a just a constant water flow twenty four hours
a day going through your meter. So once we see

(27:11):
that and we go to the home, you know, we
know at that point that they got water running somewhere.
So we go through the process of checking toilets, you know,
because a lot of times a toilet can run and
that the phill valve and the toilet might not be
shutting off all the way, and sometimes you can't hear
it unless you take the lid off and actually put
your ear up to that phill valve to figure out

(27:34):
if it's a if that's the problem, if that's not
the problem, and it's nothing obvious, then you know, we
if there's a cross space, we go under the house
and check that, and if it's not in the cross space,
we try to isolate the line outside, and if it's outside,
then we need to do an actual leak search with

(27:54):
our leak detection equipment, which you know is basically like
a supersized that the scope, and it allows us to
hear what's going on underneath the ground, underneath the slabs
and things like that help us pinpoint where the problem is.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
So it's not just visual, it's it's it's audio. Two.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
Yeah, the audio is definitely helps location of the leaks.
Now we do have some you know, infrared camera stuff
that we can use to see temperature changes, you know,
so a lot of times the hot line and you know,
if it's under a slab, the hotline tends to go
bad quicker and will fail earlier than the cold line.

(28:37):
So we can take the infrared camera and kind of
use that to see any temper differentials in the concrete
and a lot of times that can tell us give
us a general idea of where that leak is originating from.
If it's on the hot side, you'll see that glowing

(28:58):
red in that infrared camera, so that helps us. And
then you know, we try to pinpoint it even more
with the with the steposcope, I guess you could call it.
And we can also introduce air into the system, so
that air, if the water's traveling to that spot, will

(29:18):
come out of that hole in the pipe and it'll
almost sound like a boiling sound, and that kind of
even more pinpoints where that leak is coming from. You're
only going to hear that sound wherever the leak is
because that's where the air is bubbling up.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
But again, back in the old days, before all this technology,
and especially again as you say, if you've got a
line or a slab you get just gotta start somewhere
and start start busting up concrete.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
I guess that's either that or just abandon what's in
the ground and go run overhead with it, either in
the attic or you know, in between floors, whatever you
have to do. The cut the main coming in, you
take it into a different area of the house where
it can be accessed accessed in the future, and then

(30:09):
you know, you run the lines above ground, either in
the ceiling or in the attic, and just abandon the
whole system that's in the ground.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I think you've told us before that typically these days
homes built on slab, they're not running a new construction,
not really running these water lines underneath that slab anymore.
Is that right?

Speaker 5 (30:29):
I would hope not right. It's really is really not necessary.
You can you know, we're building a home right now,
and I put a piece of conduit in there. They
should be porn the slab next week, and I'm just
going to run my water service into that conduit and
into the wall of the garage, and then from there

(30:51):
you can just install your system in between the floors
or in the attic or you know, whatever the best
method is at that point, and if anything, wherever happened
to that one piece of pipe that's under the concrete.
Because the cond of it's there, you can cut each
side of the line, pull that pipe out, and insert
a new one without messing with the the concrete. You

(31:13):
don't have to cut some dry wall out, of course,
but that's a lot easier to do than and rip
out a floor and bust up concrete. So yeah, hope
hopefully they're not putting in the slab anymore because you know,
it's just to me, it's unnecessary and eventually a pipe
is going to fail, and when it does, you know,
that's a lot more work to go through a slab

(31:35):
than it is to cut a wall and make a.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Re bear, and then you got to repour the slab afterwards.

Speaker 5 (31:42):
Oh yeah, you got to whatever kind of flooring you
got down has to come up. Then you gotta bust
the concrete up. Then there's a vapor barrier. You gotta
cut the vapor barrier. A lot of times there's you know,
welded wire mesh in the concrete that you got to
cut out, and then you got to put some type
of stuff back in there and fill it back in

(32:02):
with concrete, let it dry, and then the flooring guys
can come back in and put the flooring back in.
We've had somewhere, you know, the whole double vanities had
to be ripped out because the leak was right underneath
the vanity. So, you know, typically when you're dealing with
a slab leak, a lot of times insurance gets involved
because it can get quite costly depending on what needs

(32:25):
to come out and what needs to happen to get
the repair done.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
And not just the cost involve, which is substantial, but
the time involved, because you know, you can pour concrete
one day and start living on the next.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
Yeah, it's you know, especially when you know, let's say
it's in the middle of a kitchen, you've got to
create a containment area because you start jackhammering and you
got concrete dust and everything else, and you don't want
that going all over the kitchen and then having to
call in a cleaning company to take care of the cleanup.
So you create a containment area with plastic and you know,

(33:01):
try to minimize any kind of dust and keep it
as clean as possible. So that's added cost, but you know,
you have to keep the customers safe from that dust
because you know, not something you want to breathe in
and you don't want to make a mess. So yeah,
that's just another expense that you have to go through
when when doing a slab repair. Now, if it's in

(33:24):
a bathroom or something like that, you can typically just
close the door and tape it off if need be,
and do what you got to do, open a window
and keep that dust down and then do the clean
up afterwards. In that one bathroom.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
For someone listening today that it does live in a
home or has a business on us built on a
slab not a foundation, there is there any way to
know as the homeowner or business owner whether you've got
Lee's water lines in that slab or somewhere else. I mean,
is there a way to easily for the you know,
nobody some of that doesn't the money thing about plumbing
to be able to figure that.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
Out, it could be difficult, you know. I would hope
when purchased there would be that information, you know, during
the purchase of the property or the home or whatever
the case may be, that they can kind of tell
you what's going on with the system or a home
inspection I'd be able to tell you, but sometimes sometimes

(34:21):
it can be difficult to figure out where the lines
are one of them.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
I wanted to circle back around to something you mentioned
earlier that the has really nothing to do with our
conversation here, but you talked about running toilets and such,
if I recall correctly, a while back, we had a
conversation because a lot of us will do this. I mean,
I've done it many times. Yeah, you got to running
to there's something wrong with a flapper, for example, and
you just go out and the by a new one.
But you have to be kind of careful in what

(34:49):
you put in there, because you got to be sure
you've got a good seal. I want to say, you
give you some advice a while back on on how
to go about that properly.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
Yeah, So typically you want to put back what's in there.
The difficult thing with doing that is somebody might have
done something that toilet before you're messing with it, so
they may have put the wrong parts in. You know,
sometimes it can be hard to tell whether or not
that thing's been worked on before. So typically what you

(35:21):
can do is there's usually the brand on the bowl,
and then there's a model number stamped into the porcelain
inside the tank. So you take the tank off and
you look typically in the back right hand corner and
leave either be a stamped you know, model number or
embedded into the porcelain a model number of that specific brand,

(35:45):
so you can look up, you know, the internet nowadays
you can typically find what you need based off the
model number and the brand and make sure you're putting
the correct part in because again, as I said in
the past, not every flapper is created equally have floats.
Some are adjustable. Not a big fan of those. They

(36:05):
just don't seem to be as reliable. So I either
if it needs a float, go back with one with
a float instead of the adjustable. And you know, some
of them are flesh towers, so they just take a
like a washer almost. It's a big rubber ring, a
flat one that you replace on the on the base

(36:26):
of the flesh tower, and that's what seals. And the
easiest way you can tell if it's a bad flapper,
drip some food dye in the tank. Let it sit
for a while. If you see that food dye color
coming into the bowl, then you know that water is
escaping the tank. And going into the bowl. And of
course your ball is never going to overflow unless there's

(36:46):
a blockage, so it just runs down the down your
drain system because that that bowl is only going to
fill to a certain level.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
That's a great yet.

Speaker 5 (36:56):
When you flush and it refills. So yeah, you might
not notice water leaking into your bowl unless you add
that food color and that'll let you know they're not
that flappers holding the water in there and seal them properly.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
BINGO, James Carwell, Freedom Plumbing. The guys the red, big old, red,
white and blue trucks driving around all over town. How
can folks reach you if they need a little help
with their plumbing, James.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
They can give us a call at eight oh three
four four seven zero four seven to one, or visit
our website at Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
All right, thank you, my friend. We'll talk to you
next time.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
Thank you. Gary, have a good one far.

Speaker 6 (37:31):
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but you can call mister electric with priority dispatching. One
of our electricians will be at your door ready to
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(37:51):
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Speaker 2 (37:59):
Hi.

Speaker 7 (38:00):
I'm Jeremy Halliday, 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
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of Columbia and receive fifty dollars off any work over
three hundred dollars. Call eight oh three eight six eight
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(38:23):
dot com forward slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
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 on the same great folks behind Anthony John construction

(38:47):
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. Summer

(39:20):
from Beaver Roofing and gutters. We want to talk about
roofing today, but we want to kind of maybe go
a little bit of a different angle to start things with, uh,
with you summer and that is you know, the insurance
aspect of all of that, and and that that that
that whole angle, and let's talk about you know, how
all this works if you've had some roof damage. I
mean we you know, we we we we hope it

(39:42):
doesn't happen to you, but yeah, when it does, Like
I always say, because I talk about y'all all the
time during the week and you know, and just as
an assign here, uh, And we're not gonna name names, okay,
but there are roofing companies out there that don't do
roof for pairs, biggers flat don't do them. Then there
are I think I mentioned this to you a while back.

(40:04):
I got an email from a listener. Oh gosh, this
was Thanksgiving a year ago. Yeah, where we had had
a storm and it ripped his satellite dish off the roof,
which caused just it wasn't a lot of damage, but
just just a little bit, right. Unfortunately, he didn't call
you guys first. He called another local roofing company and

(40:25):
they told him that it would be three months before
they could get to him.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Right, what's that which is it's crazy. You know, when
they put a satellite dishes on the roofs, they're actually
they're taking screws, so they're going through deckings. So when
that comes off or it's ripped off, that's exposing the
inside of your home to water and put you know,
elements that can you know, harm the home, and if

(40:55):
it keeps getting water, getting water, it could cause rot
and more damage. Then you know what, just go in there,
make that little repair done right, so you know, that small,
you know damage could could potentially be devastating.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
So but but he called you guys then right away
told me in the email, you guys got out to
them within like twenty four hours. You had it fixed quickly,
and you never knew anything that ever happened.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
So that's exactly what we like to hear, and that's
you know, we like to handle business that way. You know,
we we wouldn't want our own to be like that.
So we do try to treat all of our customers
as you know, family and and friends. So and that's
exactly what you are after you deal with us. So
we you know, we like to provide get those types
of services to the to the community.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
So let's talk about the insurance angle here, because that
could be a little confusing for folks, you know, homeowtors
policies these days. I mean, when's the last time anybody
really read theirs? Right?

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah, exactly. There are all kinds of words and line
items and everything else that you know, u's people don't
are aren't very sure about. So you know, I'll tell
you a lot of times people don't even realize that, hey,
I have damage until we get a hard rain. And

(42:13):
like you said, we haven't had any you know, recent
wind or hail or anything along those lines that may
cause those types of damages to our roofs. However, we
notice that we have those damages when we get these
hard rains and things of that nature, so or you know,
you're seeing them in the on the ground and that
sort of thing. But you know, we get a hard

(42:34):
rain and you're like, oh my gosh, I've got to
stain in my on my feeling. So that's when you're like,
oh my goodness, maybe I should call somebody, so they
call us out. Whenever we come out for any type
of inspection, that sort of thing, we're gonna get up
on that roof. We're going to take a look at
your shingles. We're gonna look for those type of weather patterns, hail,

(42:57):
hail hits, hail impacts on your shingles. We're gonna look
for the wind folds in the shingles and that sort
of thing. And you know, I'll tell you one or
two here and there. Insurance is not going to say, oh,
you need a brand new roof. You know, it has
to be a significant amount of impact from the weather

(43:21):
for insurance to say yes, we'll go ahead and cover this.
We'll get you guys a new roof. So that's what
we're doing. When we're going up on your roof. We're evaluating,
we're taking a look. We're looking to see if yeah,
you probably do have a claim here or it's not
that significant. You know, we can do a small repair
and get you taken care of So you know, that's

(43:44):
the main thing that people tend to ask, well, what
do I do? How do I go about it? That
sort of thing. So the main thing is, let us
come out, let us take a look first, because you
don't want to call the insurance company and do all
of that type of thing before you know if you
have significant damage or there are you know, a claims
for them to come out to take a look at.

(44:05):
So step one, give us a call, we'll come out,
we'll evaluate.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
You talked a bit of a moment ago about maybe
you have damage that maybe you've had it for for
months and didn't know it until we got a hard
rain and sudden you notice that spot on the ceiling
and you got an issue. Okay, let's let's talk about
an insurance standpoint from turns from the standpoint of Okay,
you don't need a whole new roof, but you do

(44:33):
need some repair work done. Is that covered?

Speaker 3 (44:37):
It is covered? However, sometimes you have a deductible. Most
times we all have a deductible sure on our policies.
So a lot of times the adjuster will come out
and say, hey, we see you have damage. This is
what we'll cover, you know, and they'll cover, say, six

(44:59):
dollars of you know, a repair, damage, whatever have you,
and they have a say they have a deductible of
one thousand dollars. Yeah, so with that being said, they're
not going to cover that repair. But you know, with
your larger repairs, say it's a thirty five hundred dollars
repair and you have a deductible of a thousand, you know, yes,

(45:23):
they'll cover twenty five hundred dollars. You cover that deductible.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
And we've always heard that with insurance companies it's not
even so much about the size of the payout but
the frequency of the payout, and that they will cancel
people's policies just because they have too many claims. They're
claim happy, they think absolutely.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
So that's why we always like to say, hey, let
us come out first and let us take a look,
because like you said, there is not everybody is like this,
but there are some who are claim happy and and
they're just nope, nope, nope. You know, they're just they're
shutting them down left and right. So that we just

(46:04):
like to come out take a look. We're gonna we're
on your side. You know, we're not out there to
get every like you said, we do repairs. We don't
have to get a full roof every single time. We're
not out there to do that. We're out here, We're honest,
we're gonna let you know, yeah, you got some damage,
there's a there's a good cause for you to call
them out, have an adjuster come out. And you know,

(46:26):
with that being said, we're happy to come out and
kind of be your advocate because, like you said, they
don't always want to, you know, cover these repairs, cover
a roof replacement. But that's you know, that's why we
like to be out there with the adjuster. We're going
to bat for you. Hey, take a look at this,

(46:47):
Take a look at this. This is what I'm seeing
because they they know the homeowner isn't going to get
on top of that roof with them or you know,
look at these photos or know even what they're looking
at exactly. So you know, we're we're there to help
help you, advocate for you, and you know, just to
be a good buffer between homeowner and adjuster. And and

(47:10):
we're here to help so you know, whenever we say, hey, yup,
give them a call. We always like to be there
to help advocate for you when that adjuster comes.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Okay, yeah, and I guess what it's all said and
done is up to the adjuster, right, but you can
put a little pressure on there and show the evidence.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
I guess exactly exactly, And that's that is exactly what
we will do. Like you said, we're going about. We're
going about for you. We take all kinds of photos.
We go inside the attics and show, hey, this is
where damage ros, this is where the leak is, all
sorts of things like that. You know, there are different
things that they're looking for in reports and things along

(47:50):
those lines. They're looking for impacts. They're looking for or
when I say impacts, how many times say hail hit
in a certain area of your they're counting those hits.
They're counting the times that shingles have folded back and
in that area as well. So we are we know
what they're looking for. And you know, if we think

(48:12):
it's just cause we're there for you to help you.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
So hypothetical scenario here, summer, we have a hailstorm, you
don't notice the media impacts of the damage. Maybe maybe
let's just say it's three months later, suddenly you see
that staying on the roof yep, and you guys go out,
you take a look, and you determine, yeah, wow, you

(48:37):
had some damage. And I guess you can kind of
get a feel for maybe how long ago that one. Well,
obviously it was a hail story. And you know we
haven't had one in three months. It's you know, you
got this damage at least three months ago. But exactly
so now you get the insurance company involved, is there
a scenario where they say, well, yeah, but that was
three months ago. You should have taken care of it. Generally, No, okay,

(49:02):
good because you know.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
Right exactly exactly because you don't. I mean, you don't
really know until you see it. And so we get
a super hard rain. Obviously when the hail, when it's
hailing it, we are generally having bad weather. But water doesn't,
you know, it just water travels in the wildest ways.
So yes, we're there for you. And no, the insurance

(49:29):
should not give you any pushbacks if it warrants, you know,
if there were enough impacts and things of that nature.
It can't just be one two hail hits and oh
yeah you need a brand new room. Say yeah, that
is when they would give us some pushback. No, it's

(49:49):
not warranted. We'll do a repair in this area, things
of that nature, and it may not even be from
the hail why it's leaking. So there's a there are
a multitude of their French scenarios and whatnot that could happen.
But time wise, no, it's you know, three months, six months.

(50:09):
They shouldn't give you any pushback on that.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
No, far, okay, good to know, and I listen. I'll
talk about insurance companies like they're had to rob you,
and many of them do very you know, good work
and they're upstanding, absolutely, but as a homeowner, you know,
it gets frustrating because you're paying those premiums every year
and you expect not to get any hashold right, but
the noise work that way.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Of course, you're exactly right, and you know, just navigating
an insurance claim or anything along those lines can be
really confusing if you've never done it before and you're like,
I don't know what to do. I'm not sure you know.
So that we do this often. We do it with
a multitude of different insurance carriers too, so we are

(50:52):
very familiar with the process and how each carrier kind
of handles different scenarios and documents and things of that nature.
So you know, we're very familiar with the process, even
though it can be so unfamiliar to homeowners. So that's
why we were here along the whole way.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
And I know, I'm sure it varies from from insurre
to ensure a summer, But do you find when you
work with these insurance companies that they pretty much they
have kind of an algorithm. I mean, Okay, we have
to have this much damage or this much of the
roof with an issue before we'll we'll say, yeah, we'll
we'll accept a claim for a roof replacement. Or is
that does that? Does that vary from situation to situation?

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Uh, not necessarily, You're you're right, you know, they are
looking for a certain amount of you know, impacts damage
in a in a I guess like a square okay
area ten by ten square area of your roof, you know,
and it's if they see, you know, more significant on

(51:57):
the front than on the back. You know, it really
just depends on the amount, you know, that's what it is.
And that square area on the front, on the back,
on the side, they look, they're evaluating the whole thing.
So but they're generally all the same.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Okay, uh, well, so again the point being you'll be
there to advocate for the homeowner with the adjust shows up,
so you don't have to feel like you're on your
own with this thing. And because again you don't have
the right questions to ask or if the answers you're
getting or are really straight answer it does. So that's
that's that's a piece of mind for you, right there,
Beaver Roofing in Gutters. And that the phone number again,

(52:37):
eight oh three nine nine one roof eight oh three
nine nine one Roof. That's eight oh three nine nine
one seven six sixty three. And of course folks can
always check out online summer at beaver Roofing dot com.
And by the way, before you call, there's, i know,
always something you tell us that you would like folks
to do before they pick up that phone and call

(52:58):
eight O three nine nine one.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
You know, check out our Google reviews, check out what
people are saying about us before you give us a call.
We think you will like what you share and what
you see. And you know, we're always happy to help.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Terrific summer. You have yourself, great weekend. We'll talk soon.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Take care you too.

Speaker 5 (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,
and a plus rating on Angie's List and an a
plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. I'm James Carwell,
local owner of Freedom Plumbing, and we look forward 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.