Home Improvement Show 09-09-23

.

Episode Transcript

(00:17):
Good morning and welcome. It's timeagain, my friends for the Home Improvement
Show of the Midlands on one hthree point five FM and five sixty am
w v o C. I doappreciate you joining us this morning's game day.
Our best game cock coverage underway fourthirty this afternoon with Christopher Thompson and
the team from over at Bluff Roadand the shadows of Williams. Brice Stadium

(00:37):
getting ready for the game Cocks andthe Paladins. Four thirty today for our
best game cock coverage here on wVOC full hour. This hour, we
talk on a Terry Nation from NationBuilders. As a consumer, the things
you need to know and need todo to protect yourself. Unfortunately, there's
some shady contractors out there. We'lldiscuss that. With terry courts prices and

(00:58):
Level one prices coming down, quickturnarounds are still in play at lifetime cabinets
and countertops. Casey and Markets willbe about to talk about that, and
we'll sit down with John Figner fromRock the Top presurfacing and resurfacing bathrooms kitchens,
saving a lot of money doing that. First up, though, it's
our friend James car Well from FreedomPlumbing Good morning sir. How you doing

(01:18):
morning, Gary? How are you? I'm doing well. I hope you
are too. Buddy Fixes d Iwhy fixes? Do it yourself fixes?
We want to talk about today onthe Home Improvement Show of the Midlands.
Great stuff that well. I guessthis depends on your level of expertise as
far as to do it yourself thing, But let's talk about some of the
some of the simple things that youdon't necessarily need to call it. Plumber

(01:38):
four. Where should we start,mister car Well, out of the most
common thing I would say that's aneasy do it yourself fix would be a
toilet that's leaking, and it's thewater's leaking out of the tank into the
bowl, yes, and the toiletoccasionally fills back up, you know,
periodically. All that a ghost flush. Yeah, so it's almost like somebody

(02:02):
flush the toilet because there's no waterin the tank, but it doesn't ever
actually flush. Very familiar with thatghost flush? Yes, oh yeah,
I think we all are what causesthat and how can we fix it?
So typically it's just the flapper insidethe tank that when you push the handle
down, it raises that flapper upand it allows the water to go from

(02:24):
the tank to the bowl. Though, the one thing I would make sure
of is that's something that you're lookingto replace yourself, is to match the
flapper this in the toilet or theflapper that should be in the toilet.
I say that because I've seen inpast jobs we go out and like American
standard toilets, for example, theyrequire a certain type of flapper, and

(02:49):
if you don't use that flapper,then you're most likely going to double flush
the toilet. So the flapper staysopen too long and allowing more than the
one point six gallons to go down, so it'll flush, and then it'll
stay open and it'll continue to kindof flush one more time. So you
want to make sure you get theproper flapper for the toolet just they're not

(03:09):
all created equal and what they shouldbe, shouldn't they? But nothing nothing
universal, I guess as it comesto that. Now, to be specific,
when we talk about the flapper,we're just talking about that a little
rubber kind of piece or whatever thatcovers the hole in the bottom of the
tank, right or are we talkingabout the entire assembly. Nope, just
that rubber piece. It's get thechain on it that connects to the handle.

(03:32):
That that's the flapper that we're talkingabout. And what what will happen
over time is the coordinated water,will you know, eventually start to make
that thing sometimes shrink and then theflapper won't be covering a hole all the
way right, so you'll get aseepage of that water. And a good
way to test to see if thatis what's happening. Take a couple of

(03:52):
drops of food color and drop itinto the tank. And if you notice
that food color and making its waydown to the bowl, and you know
that you have a leak from thetank to the bowl as far as past
getting past that flapper. So don'tflush anything. Just put the food coloring
of the tank and then wait alittle while and I'll see if your bowl
there And a lot of times youcan see a stream of color coming down

(04:14):
inside of the bowl if it's comingthrough, so you should you know,
sometimes you can notice pretty quickly.Other times, you know, let it
sit, go back, check checkthe bowls, see if you got any
color in it. Now I'll letyou know if that flapper needs to be
replaced, it's good too. Soyour best bet is then to of course
go ahead and remove the flapper that'sthere just in case. Well, if

(04:34):
it's an American standard, you prettymuch know you're gonna have to, I
guess, take maybe a picture thatflapper. Take it all. Take a
picture before you hit down to thebig hardware store. A couple of things
you can do. Can shut thewater off to the toilet, then remove
that flapper, take it with youa lot of times. The picture will
do. Or you can just pullup the toilet making model that you have

(04:57):
and it should have the schematics onthe parts that are u in that toilet
and you could just make sure you'regetting the right one. It's a little
bit more complicated way of doing it, but that would guarantee that the one
that's in the toilet is the properone, because I've had in the past
they call another plumber in the past, a plumber put the wrong flapper in

(05:17):
and yeah, so you can't replaceit with what's in there because at that
point it's not the correct one,right Yeah, Okay, So that's a
pretty easy fix for most of us, right there. And a good tip
on the food coloring. Well played, well played, mister Carway. All
right, So replacing the flapper.That's something we can pretty much all do

(05:38):
without too much of a hassle.What's next, I would say some basic
faucet rebuilds. You know, ifyou have a dripping faucet, that that's
a depending on your mechanical ability,that that would be one that could be
done. And that's just mainly youknow, if it's a single handle faucet,

(05:58):
take the handle off, remove thecartridge after you shut the water off
off now and you can a lotof times, what I'll do is I'll
shut the water off to the wholehouse, even when just rebuilding a single
faucet. And the reason I dothat is, you know, we go
to older homes and the shut offvalves may not work all the way.

(06:20):
You know, they might just leta little bit of water continue to go
through. And you can also byshutting off those old shutoff valves as you
can create damage to the washers,and little pieces of that washer can break
off and go up into the faucet. So just to prevent all that,
I typically just shut the water offto the house and then do the rebuild.

(06:41):
That way, I'm not causing additionalissues for the customer to have to
resolve that day, whether it behaving a replace emergency shut off valves,
or try to figure out where thatpiece of rubber got stopped in a supply
line or something if it breaks off, because that's that's something that can definitely
happened, as does washers get corrodedand brittle, and you'll have a piece

(07:03):
of break off and it'll go upin either into your faucet or you can
get stuck on a supply line andthen you have a reduction of flow through
that particular you know, whether itbe the hot side of the cold side.
So try to avoid all that,shut the whole house off and and
rebuild the faucet and cut it backon. Okay, well, this begs
the question for folks who've never shutthe water off to the house. I

(07:24):
mean, where do you go todo that? Typically most homes have a
shut off out near the foundation ofthe home, which a lot of times
is in a little round pipe fullof leaves and spiders. Yeah, so
I try to avoid that one,and I typically go to the meter itself.
Okay, that's usually about ten tofifteen feet from the road in a

(07:48):
metal box or a plastic plastic fittedbox, and you will I would suggest
to go out to you know,your loads, your home depot and and
acquire one of the meter keys whichallows you to put it onto the meter,
shut off and turn it easily.You could do it with a crescent
wrench or a pair of channel lotsor something like that. It's a lot

(08:11):
easier if you got that little tool. And I think they're only about ten
dollars, okay, and not aboutI didn't have one. You know what,
do you know where it is?Anyway? Just just just in case
you have for hav an emergency,right, Oh yeah, that's a definitely
a good thing knows how to shutyour water off at the water meter,
because the last thing you want todo is have an emergency situation going on
and not know how to shut thewater off and have to call the city

(08:31):
and it takes, however long forthe city to get it out. I've
had customers called a fire department tocome out and shut the water off.
Oh wow, the fire department.They do just about everything, don't they,
mantle Man, Yea, all right, so we dealt with the flapper,
we've dealt with and you know,you talk about a rebuild, an't
tell me to the word out rebuild. That scares me, But apparently it's

(08:54):
not as complicated as it maybe sounds. With a fauss no, you know,
some of them can get. Theolder the faucet is, the more
corrosion that are around the handles,they can get quite difficult to get apart
to begin with. And then ifyou don't know the brand, that would
be something I would kind of cautionpeople about attempting if if you don't know

(09:16):
what brand it is, you haveto put that specific brand and that model.
So it might be a price feature, but if it's you know,
a different type of price feature,is still not gonna work properly. So
that's the one thing to make sureof is is knowing the brand and to
make to make a model of thatfaucet all right, to make sure that
you're getting the right parts, andyou know, you can contact if you

(09:37):
know the manufacturer, you can contactthem, possibly send them an email with
a picture. So it can geta little bit in the weeds as far
as making sure you're you're putting theright stuff back in what's what it needs
all right. There's some quick DIYfixes for you, and if you don't
feel like taking on yourself or theproblem is bigger you want call our buddy

(10:00):
here, James Carwell, Freedom Plumber. How can folks reach James and give
us call at eight O three fourfour seven zero four seven one or visit
our website at Freedom dash Plumb dotcom. Rock the Top Resurfacing transforms outdated
tubs, towlewalls, towle floors,countertops and more without replacements, seed,
money, time and the environment,free estimates at Rock Thetop Resurfacing dot com

(10:20):
or eight O three nine nine eighttwo o eight a fiss. Lifetime Cabinets
and Countertops is your locally owned sourcefor countertops. Great selection, great prices,
and they pride themselves on superior installationand customer service. The owner,
Marcus will even personally come out todo all your measurements. See the selection
online at Lifetime Cabinets sc dot comor stop by one of Lifetime Cabinets and

(10:46):
Countertops two conveniently located showrooms on FernandinaRoad and Columbia or Chapin Road. In
Chapin and check out the hundreds ofslabs in stock, granite, marble,
quartz, quartzite. They've got itall and if you can't find exactly what
you were looking for when you're there, and that's rare. They will find
it. And it's not just kitchensand bats. Lifetime Cabinets Encountertops does outdoor

(11:09):
patios, vanities, bars, mancaves, you name it. Lifetime Cabinets
Encountertops Fernandina Road in Columbia, ChapinRoad in Chapin and online at Lifetime Cabinets
sc dot com. This is theHome Improvement Show of the Midlands on one

(11:37):
h three point five FM and fivesixty am w v oc as. We
now welcome in Terry Nation from NationBuilders of the program, Terry, Good
morning, my friend, Good morningman. How are you brother doing great?
Great to be here. Summers behindus, now, well there's summer
temperatures aren't but that's right, summersbehind us and give us something to look
forward to. Yeah, is thisyour business? It's I don't know,

(12:01):
it depends on the business. Imean, it's summertime kind of a law
when people are on vacation and maybespending money of other stuff and you get
back in back to school and allthat back in the regular routines that things
kind of pick up or is itkind of steady all along? We haven't
seen any drop on. Yeah,maybe a dropping phone calls, but we've
been booked out for so long thatwe don't you know, we kind of

(12:24):
look forward to the phone calls droppingoff a little bit, but we don't
want them to drop all the wayoff. But no, no, no
law on this end. Now,you've been in this business for a long
time. Has that always been thecase, or since say the pandemic?
And now with home prices being whatthey are, interest rates being what they

(12:45):
are, that you know, there'sjust more and more people are just like,
you know what, I'll stay righthere, I'll make it the home
I want. It seems to bethat way now, and I would Yeah,
I could probably back that up tothe pandemic because that's when we just
started getting overwhelmed with work. Yeah, and it hadn't went away at this
point. But yeah, now whatinterest rates the way they are and home

(13:09):
prices absolutely, yeah, people arejust kind of staying put and fixing up
what they have. And I wasthe last month, I think the medium
price of a home in our state, our state now was three hundred and
thirty three thousand dollars. Yeah,which is which is And I've talked to
realtors who said that this has beenfor years and undervalued real estate marketing around

(13:30):
here, and that these these pricesare probably about right, and you're probably
gonna stick probably what it is.Yeah, I'm with I guess we were
just so used to it for solong. But I couldn't disagree with that.
You know what you used to pickingup a one hundred and fifty two
hundred thousand dollars house five or sixyears ago was yeah, you don't.

(13:52):
You don't stand a chance of gettingthat these days. So yeah, you're
probably correct. Okay, So yeah, I do believe. I think more
and more people say, you know, what the heck with it? I
got got good bones here, I'mgonna I'm gonna, i'mna make it the
place I want to best, right, that's right. And of course,
you know what most of your stuffis doing kitchens and bathrooms, right right?
I mean, yeah, what doyou do when you're a model of

(14:13):
bedroom? Yeah right, you know, maybe it's maybe it's a closet or
whatever. Put on an addition hereand there, you know, to really
make it somebody's you know, towhere they're they're gonna stay, they need
an extra bedroom or they want towant to add a bathroom on rather than
just remodeling one. So yeah,but it's kitch kitchens and bathrooms. I

(14:33):
mean, that's that's that's that's wheremost of that work is. That's right.
Yeah. I want to spend sometime today, Terry and talk with
you about from a consumer standpoint becauseand this isn't every business is this way
to some degree, but unfortunately,you know, doesn't do any good to
shy away from it that they're unfortunatelypeople in their modeling business that don't have

(14:56):
the consumer's best interest at heart.Oh my goodness, man, they're horror
stories. I know they're horror stories. And I just shake my head.
You know, we were talking witha guy last week that he had a
contractor come in and get started.The contractor started trying to get some more
money out of the job, anduh finally just walked out and you and

(15:20):
I'm just shaking my head because hehadn't hardly done anything to begin with,
but it was already after more money. And uh, and I told the
homeowner, I said, it embarrassesme. You know, the contracting business
gets a bad rap as it is, and that's that's the main reason right
there is there. You know,any guy I can pick up a saw

(15:43):
and a truck and call himself acontractor. And with the folks out there
who are price shopping, that tendsto be it tends to fall more in
that line. You got a guythat's going to come over there and give
you a real good deal on job, and he's losing money from the day
he starts, and he can't squeezeanymore out of if you said, they

(16:07):
end up walking off the job.A lot of folks, man, we
just hear it every week. Everyweek we go out, there's there's horror
stories of folks taking deposits and younever hear from him again. Oh and
then I asked the homeowner, whatwhere's their office? You know, do
you have their do you have theiraddress? And they have none of these

(16:30):
things. One man in a truckas one man in a truck. His
contracts don't have anything on it thatwhere you could chase him down. You
can't go to the LLLR and complainabout him because he don't have a license.
You know, you can go tothe magistrate and try to get your
money back, but you know themagistrate's got to find him. So these
guys have made a profession out ofgoing out and stealing people's money and running

(16:55):
around and acting like a contractor hereand there, and you even know it's
a good naming. Guy gave hishe's even his name exactly right. Yeah.
Anything, Yeah, you just don'tknow. But it's kind of like
the stories you hear about roofs,when you know, a hurricane comes through
and suddenly you know, somebody's knockon your front door saying there a roof.
You don't replace a roof, right, and then that's the last you
see them again, that's right.Yeah. So from a consumer standpoint,

(17:18):
I mean, what are before youhire anybody? I'm sure there are certain
things that you want to know forsure. Yeah, And it's so much
easier these days to look somebody upand to do a little research on them,
to find a website, to getsome reviews. I mean it's they
don't exist online. There's a problem. There is a problem. Yeah,

(17:40):
And I mean some of these guys, I mean I got a friend that
don't have a website. I didn'tunderstand that. So you can survive that
way. But the consumer who wasreally warning to to find somebody that they
can trust that they can lean onthat that's gonna do what they say they're
gonna do. You have to beable to find them and do a little

(18:02):
research on them. And you know, from time to time I'll hear,
well, these people come recommended tome. Even if even if you come
recommended, you still kind of probablyneed to do a little uh search on
these folks and and see if youcan't find out something about them. Yeah.
Uh, you mentioned, well youcan't go to l R because these

(18:26):
people aren't licensed. I mean,this is this is a bit as that
way you were supposed to hold alicense, isn't it. Well, you
don't necessarily have to have a licenseto remodel a bathroom or to remodel the
kitchen. You know, many yearsago I was that guy. But you
know, uh, in this dayand time, I would be searching for
somebody who has some sort of atleast paperwork behind them. But I you

(18:55):
know, I encouraged to hire alicense contractor. Isn't that who you want?
This is going to tear your bathroomor your kitchen apart and put it
back together, somebody that if somethinggoes wrong, you at least have an
entity you can call to help youout on that end, because if you
hire Bubba in a truck, whowould I like to call? Yeah,

(19:17):
they could be gone the next dayand there's nothing you can do about it.
There's folks out here doing jobs withno contract in place. It was
all a handshake agreement and they canjust walk and with no paper trail of
any sort. The homeowners just stuckthere with holding the bag and now they
got to go try to find somebodylegitimate to come finish this job when they've

(19:42):
already spent. I've never talked toanybody who has underspent on a contractor who's
walked out on him. Well,we just gave him an extra you know,
we gave him some extra money todo this, or he had just
got his next draw to get startedon this. So they've all ways one
hundred percent of the time that I'vetalked to somebody, they've overpaid and now

(20:04):
they got to bring somebody in.You'll never bring them in and get on
your budget because you've overspent with somebodywho's missed your house up. You probably
got to go back and fix something. You've got to go back and fix
some things because these guys that arewalking off ain't you know, the cream
of the crop. They're not everything'snot great when they leave. I mean

(20:25):
they leave stuff to be done,and you look at it and you wonder,
why in the world did you paythese guys a penny to begin with.
So not just licensed, but licensed, bonded and ensured. Absolutely right,
absolutely, yes, you want toknow something. You're letting somebody come
into your home. You might evenbe that person who says, hey,
I'll leave a keen under the frontdoor. That's exactly right. Yes,

(20:49):
yeah. So now somebody who youdon't know from Adam's housecat it's got a
free room of your place. Yeah, you want to know somebody who one
of their bonded, right, yes. And and if something happens to them
while in your home on the jobsite and they're not insured, well then
that's that's your Homer's insurance. It'slike, that's exactly right. Yeah,

(21:10):
okay, so uh and it's notlike there's not a lot of license wandered
insurance contract contractors. You're right there, You're right. I mean, you
know there are some very legitimate contractorsout there. There are tons of them,
folks who are just getting by doingsubpower work. It still just blows

(21:30):
my mind when I go in behindand look at what some of these guys
have done. But I would justencourage I know, everybody has a budget,
and you should try to stick withina budget, but don't accept less
than right in order to get somethingdone. If you have to throw a
little more money at it, youknow, this is quite an investment,

(21:52):
especially if you're talking about a kitchenor bath. So with that investment,
you know there are are there arethings you can do to help with a
budget, but don't don't back outof it if it's just gonna be a
few hundred more dollars, maybe athousand dollars something along that line, to
where you're going to get everything youwanted and be prouded when that job is

(22:18):
done. And particularly if if youare planning to stay there, yes,
no, if you're if you're tryingto just fix it up some to sell
it or to flip it or whathave you, you know, that's okay,
I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna. I didn't see that. The
next person deal with it. That'sright. Yeah, But but but too
many times I would I would thinkterry that we who don't feel like me,

(22:41):
and you don't it looks good.There's a lot of things that you
don't see that can turn out tobe big problems saying oh for sure.
I mean we were in a houselast week that these folks had just bought
two weeks ago. Well, nowthey're finding things because in the process of
anything, if you walk in andit's pretty, it all looks good,

(23:03):
and then you get to where you'reliving there and you realize, boy,
that ain't right, and then thatain't right and why is this this way?
And that's what these folks are runninginto. Now they're looking at redoing
a kitchen, and they had noplans at redoing a kitchen. It was
just something somebody put in to getthrough sale day. And now they're finding
it all. So your process isand we talked about this a couple of

(23:25):
months ago, because you've actually whenyou come out to do an estimate,
there's a charge for that. Andthat's for a reason. There's a charge
for that. And we have afolder we give you that has all of
our information in it. It hasour insurance certificate in it, it has
our builder's license in it, ithas our processes in it, it has
our website and our address and everythingthat has to do with us is part

(23:49):
of our sales process to let youknow we are a legitimate contractor. We're
not going anywhere. We want tobe here with you. We want to
do your job, but we're onlygonna do it if we're gonna do it
right. We're not gonna cut corners. If you come to us and say
I need to save some money,can you do this this way? And
if it's a corner cut, we'renot gonna do it that way because we're

(24:12):
gonna warrantee it. And that's themost important thing is to stay if you
have a contractor just going to standbehind what he does no matter what.
You don't want corners to be cut. So we have a process behind all
of that. Yeah, Terry,nation nation Builders. How to folks reach
Terry? They can reach reach usat our office at eight O three eight

(24:33):
seven eight one four zero or findus online at nation Builders LC dot com.
A right, good to see youman, You see you two.
I'm James Carwell, local owner andoperator of Freedom Plumbing right here in the
Midlands. After working as a plumberfor nearly a decade, I decided to
open my own business and Freedom Plumbing. It was born because of my love
for this country and the great respectI have for the men and women of

(24:56):
our armed forces and our first responders. I named my company Freedom Plumbing.
What sets us apart from other companiesis our customer service. We have a
five star rating on Google, afive star rating on Facebook, and a
plus rating on Angie's List, andan a plus rating with a Better Business
Bureau. I'm James Carwell, localowner of Freedom Plumbing, and we look

(25:17):
forward to servicing you for all ofyour plumbing needs. Get fifty percent off
your next service call. When youmentioned you heard us on w VOC.
Learn more at Freedom dash Plumbing dotcom. That's Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.
Hi, this is Gary David.You've heard me talk for years about
Anthony John Construction and the wonderful jobsthey do for folks all across the Midlands.

(25:37):
When it comes to roofing and guttering, well it's the same people doing
the job, but the name haschanged. That's right now it's Beaver Roofing
and Beaver Gutters. Leave it toBeaver for all your roofing and gutter needs.
The same great service on the samegreat folks behind Anthony John Construction just
with a new name eight oh threenine nine one roof and Beaver Roofing dot
com be Gutter Roofing work. Leaveit to Beaver, Beaver Roofing and Beaver

(26:00):
Gutters. Welcome back to the HomeImprovement Show in the Midlands and thank you
for joining us this morning on oneof three point five FM and five sixty
a m w BOC heard all aroundthe Planets on the iHeart Radio app and
well all around the planets in acouple of places in particulars where you find

(26:22):
the supply of what these two guyswere here to talk about this morning.
Marcus Greenwell and Casey Alexandra's Lifetime Kevin'sGood Morning Columbia. In the world,
if the if the Earth is roundand not flat, how come these slabs
are flat because we make them flat? Well, yeah, I don't know.

(26:45):
I guess you could make them round. I don't know. Are you
around Earth than I are, misterAlexon, No, I'm not. I
have delved into the depths of theflat society just on a whim one time,
and it is it's pretty entertaining.It's an entertaining place. I mean
the slabs are flat most of thetime. Yeah, that's they're flat.

(27:08):
Yeah, but marbles around marbles,marbles are marbles are around marbles, man
POGs and marbles over that. Ohman, we could get away from the
weeds here right about granted marble.So yeah, I know I'm not a
flat earthy but okay, here's whatwe do now. We don't know about

(27:29):
that. Here's what we do know. This stuff is hard. It is
durable, unbelievable, hard as myhead. You want to share your story,
so uh, you know, wewe recorded on you know, we
were whatever. Last time we werein here over on my birthday. And
so I was going over to mygirlfriend's house and I was in a car

(27:52):
accident and I did total the car, but I had three pieces of marble
that were designated for her coffee andend tables in my trunk at the time.
And even though the car was totaled, all the airbags deployed. My
body is sore still two weeks later, the marble was intact, all three

(28:19):
pieces, even though they were loosein my trunk, undamaged. I in
fact, you know, I hadtold to the body shop, and I
called the body shop and said,hey, you know, I couldn't get
the trunk open at the time.Can you open the trunk and check and
just to see the condition of thisstuff. And she's like it's fine.

(28:40):
She's like, you know, myson's pulling it out now. I said
to decide for you, and Igot out there. Shut up. It's
all I mean, intact like Iwas. So, you know, we
talked about the softness and brilliant.People get scared of marbles, Marble.
I totaled a Volkswagen Jetta with marblein the trunk and it is undamaged.

(29:03):
So the moral of the story,you just drive a marble car. Well,
that would be pretty heavy, Ithink, be pretty hot. Yeah,
it being pretty hot looking though.It's pretty cool. Yeah yeah,
not a break, not a scratch. It's that doll of my marble,
which is a little bit harder thantraditional marble. But it is, you

(29:26):
know, it was still this someof it, yeah, a lot of
it is is translucent. This thisis the one that was translucent. It's
the same material. I made hertable out of her dining room table,
using the rest of the pieces tomake some coffee and in tables and yeah,
they were so I had them readyto give to the guys to for

(29:47):
them to make the tables, andI still have them. They're in my
new car. We did the testonce. We're gonna try to try to
avoid doing that. Yeah, weonly do one test like that, So
the marbles aren't tough, like uh. That restaurant on Harveson Boulevard, Carrabas

(30:08):
was using the the marble. Itwas a Carrera marble as to pass through
for their food pass through. That'swhat that was. When that's when I
noticed. I was like, man, this stuff is good because if it
can take a tale in restaurant asa food passed through up there and slamming
yeah they have there in a hernyslamming plates, I was like, oh

(30:30):
whoa, and those are heavy pastas, you know, yeah, you know.
Okay, so marble is tough.There you have it. Let's talk
a little. Courts. Courts isgreat, right, Yeah, we actually
are getting great prices on some courtsright now, and I mean the best
prices I've seen on courts, uhin six years. Yeah. Is the

(30:52):
reason for that? I'm not abig question. Maybe supply everything is supplying
the man well more more suppliers now, I think probably I don't. I
don't know. It must be becausethat's the trip now, right. Yeah,
maybe there's more manufacturers, maybe there'sI'm not quite sure, but there's
a lot more of it coming incompetition. Yeah, and so it's just

(31:15):
driven the price down. And plusthe level ones they've dropped a little bit
down. Yeahs are dropping for granted, well for a while there it was
you could almost step up a couplelevels. Yeah, same p Yeah,
we have a level ones are kindof even and out and slowly coming back
down. Uh. So you know, we've got a little room there to
help out, especially with the flipsand stuff we've been doing a lot of

(31:40):
lately. Yeah, I don't know, everybody's like, oh, the real
estate markets, you know, toughright now, and most people, what's
the agents I see on my Facebookfeed and things like that, are like
markets still hot, guys, We'restill selling houses. Yeah, and they're
a lot of these they're selling houses, flip houses that they get those are
the ones that are selling right now. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's

(32:01):
usually a little bit less expensive.And yeah, I'm probably what's that we've
probably done ten of them in thelast two months, maybe that. Yeah,
I mean not just cracking them out. So it's if you So if
you're out there listening, uh andthink about doing it, you know,

(32:22):
doing yourself projects or our flip.But you need somebody to cut some granted
for you and had a good priceand install it. Give us a call
because we'll fit your schedule. Yeah, we're running fast too. I mean
we can get you. Yeah.Even a year ago this time we would
have to you know kind of Hey, it's not you know really at the
time was not a good fit forour structure. But now right now,

(32:45):
I mean everything's geared towards that andwe can really really help, uh,
these guys that are in a hurry. So yeah, fascinating. So rive
at homeowners too, Yeah, becauseI mean a lot of people, a
lot of people are staying put rightnow. Yeah yeah, I mean you
look at the prices of homes andthe mortgage rates being what they are,

(33:07):
you know, you you, Imean you could and I've said this before
and from the first hand experience,regardless of your floor plan, but boy,
if you have an open floor planand you put new countertops in your
kitchen, yeah bingo. Yeah,I mean the whole house looks Wow,

(33:29):
it makes such difference. And Imean, I say curb and hill.
But when when somebody's clicking through oneof the first things I know is I
c a listing on Facebook or linkedto Zilla. I'll click through the pictures
and it's I mean, maybe it'sjust you know, because it's my industry,
but I don't think so. Ithink it's a lot of people that
first wildfickers when you get to thekitchen pictures or get to the back and

(33:52):
see that stone and seeing it makesa big difference. And a lot of
the bedrooms just you know, it'snot staged and it's just empty. What
else are you gonna notice? MSo, Yeah, well, well we're
talking to Terry last summer from nationBuilders. We talked about that before.
I mean most of his businesses remodelingof kitchens and bathrooms. Yeah, we'll

(34:13):
can you do a bedroom, Yeah, put a coat of paint on the
wall, maybe change the pouring out. Yeah. Aside from these outlets,
Yeah, he just posted one yesterday. Things that we did with Terry.
It's just gorgeous. Another piece ofthat project for the lady. I think
she wants a tabletop. We're tryingto find the right color. But yeah,
it's uh, her kitchen is oneof the one of most beautiful kitchens

(34:36):
we've I think we've done. Alsowas no, that's court sight. I
was about to say marbles court sitethat looks like marble, yeah, white
pearl is it? Yeah? Yeah, But back to the courts for a
minute, because that's the man madestop right, So so maybe it should.
You know, suppliers are starting torealize, well, this is hot,
this is what people want. Andthat's the great thing about courts is

(34:57):
you can make more of it.Yeah right, yeah, right, you
can make as much as you want. Yeah, yeah, unlike the other
you know, natural stones where andyou have control of This is easy to
maintained too. I've done jobs thatlook the same as I've done from day
one that I've gone back to theirhouse to go do bathrooms and stuff like
that, and it looks the exactsame as when I put it in fifteen

(35:17):
years ago. Literally, I mean, do you foresee a day when I
mean, this will be the dominantplayer in the in the countertop market is
creeping up there? I mean rightnow, it's it's probably probably up there
right now. I mean, uh, but you know, the natural stunt

(35:38):
and I think appeals to the higherend clientele more, whether it be the
marvels of the court sites, yeah, and some of the grants, but
also and then the level one stuffappeals more to the flippers. So you
kind of got the courts is rightthere in the middle. More utilitarian,
I mean just logistically just uh,you know, cut on it easy,

(36:04):
doesn't it doesn't have to be sealed. So yeah, there is there is
a really big appeal to get thecolor that you exactly want and a controlled
fire. But there are also otherproducts in the waiting and the wings to
come in to market that I reallyare structurally superior that have other benefits that

(36:28):
Course doesn't, but they're not readilyavailable yet in this market, and they
require a lot of retooling things toactually fabricate and install, so there's kind
of a delay in that hitting madeproducts. So I don't I don't know.
Yeah, these will be and andit's a more affordable process. So

(36:50):
I think here in a few yearswe'll see a turn to that. I
don't think Course is going to getthere before this actually hits, but it's
it's a few it's quite a fewyears off. It's more definitely, Yeah,
of course they're probably stock piling material, so it'll probably be cheap pretty
soon. But it's hard to cut, okay. So but the point is
is right now a couple of things. Level ones prices coming back down again.

(37:14):
Yeah, yes, sir, putyou in fast install fast if you
need a flip, good quick turnaroundright now. Yeah, terrific. So
especially if you call me. Yeah, because when you call the number,
you answer the phone. That's right, right. And I don't want to
thank Miss Bryant too from last weekgoing with us, She said, she

(37:34):
listens to us on the radio.She's eighty six, glorious years old.
Good morning, Miss Bryant. Heso much for that, Thank you,
Thank you. By the way,it's not that Marcus can't afford to hire
somebody to answer the phone. Thisis a business decision. Yeah. I
want to know what's going on.I know. I don't dodge questions.
You call me, I know theanswer because I measured Miss Bryant's house already.

(37:55):
She called last week. Boom,we're installing. We're stall the cut
here pretty soon, beautiful. Yeall right, lifetime cabins and countertops.
Where can they find you, guys? I'll be at forty twenty Road across
the northern tool Crosco in the Greenshopping center right by Starbucks. Yep.
And David Marcus brother will be atone fifty three Chaping Road, right past

(38:19):
us Chicken, right down the left. Don't turn down this way. Look
for our sign and in the grandslabs and follow that through the gate.
There you go. We got alot of slabs out there too. I'll
call it my bone yard, thebone yard. Yeah, I love it,
guys. Lifetime cabins and countertops fourstraight years, absolutely working on number
five State readers poll only because ofy'all have a Google kid. Thank you.

(38:44):
Homeowners, businesses, and industrial areasdepend on their quality expertise of Diamond
Concrete Solutions. As a local,family owned company, Diamond Concrete Solutions provides
cosmetic and functional improvements and solutions toexist in concrete surfaces. Whether it's interior
or exterior. You'll get top notchworkmanship or patios, porches, garages,

(39:05):
driveways, sidewalks, full decks,kitchen countertops and more. Diamond Concrete Solutions
is South Carolina's premier company for decorativeconcrete coatings and overlays, epoxy floors and
countertops metallic flooring, leveling, repairs, polishing, staining, ceiling washing,
seal, microtopping and more. Gowith the best mention this ad and take
advantage of their two hundred dollars offpromo minimums. Apply. Visit Diamond Concrete

(39:30):
Solutions dot com. That's Diamond ConcreteSolutions dot com or call eight O three
seven five nine eight two eight ninegive your property a new lease on life
with Diamond Concrete Solutions. Welcome backhead. It's already time for the final
segment of the Home Improvements Show theMidlands here on one oh three point five

(39:52):
FMN five sixty am v O.C remind again our best game cut coverage
starts to four thirty this afternoon.The Game Talks Welcome, They Fermin Paladins
to Owis Bryce. I hope yougot the wedding's rapping at the home own
there, all right. We've talkedto James, We've talked to Terry,
We've talked to Casey and Marcus.Now we don't talk to Kathy. We

(40:14):
do talk to John John Fichtner fromRock Top Resurface. Good morning, sir,
Good morning, Good morning. Iguess Kathy take care of business this
morning, right, he's always onit. Yea, how you doing,
buddy? Busy? Busy's good,right, that's a good thing. I'd
rather complain about being too busy.Well. And you know, considering what
it is, the service you offer, it's not a it's not a surprise.

(40:36):
No people getting it you And youknow, for some folks you may
have never even thought this was eventhe possibility. Yeah, but people don't
know. They just don't have aclue. So for folks who maybe don't
have a clue, who are hearingyou talk about for the first time,
first time what you do at Rockthe Top Reservicing, let's kind of just
do a reset and let's start fromthe start. So what is it you

(40:58):
do, John, Yes, solike in a nutshell, rather than let's
say you want to renovate your bathroomin a nutshell, rather than tearing all
the ceramic tiles off the floor,tearing out the vanities, you know,
tearing out the bathtubs and the tilesurrounds and the shower stalls and and and
reinstalling all that stuff. Maybe it'syou know, just green, yellow,

(41:22):
pink or blue, and they're allover West Colombia, Colombia and case yet
they're just thousands of them, youknow. Rather it was the hot thing
at one time. It was itwas very popular, and the craftsmanship back
then was really great. I reallygot to commend those guys. They're very
skilled, but they're guilty of beingugly. And just because it happens to
be pink or green or whatever doesn'tmean that it can't just stay right where

(41:46):
it is and be resurfaced and begorgeous. And when we do this,
the grout lines are sealed and youdon't ever have to reseal grountlines, not
that many people do, but youdon't even have to worry about that.
So it's basically watertight and gorgeous.And you think of all the germs and
stuff that builds up on those grountlines over the years. Yeah, it's

(42:07):
pretty disgusting. Yeah, this isnonporous now, so that's never going to
happen. So it's it's it's tentimes faster than renovating the old way,
and people still do it. Imean, and there's a lot of times
when you you you don't want abathtub anymore, let's say, or you
want to convert something into a bathtubor into a shower, or you just
want to change, you know,the whole layout of the bathroom. We

(42:30):
can refer people left and right forthat, and I totally understand that.
But if everything is okay structurally,it's not in terrible shape, and you're
okay with it being a bathtub,you just don't want it to be pink.
We can fix that fast and savethousand, many thousands of dollars.
So if you're happy with the waythe space is laid out and what's in
there, yep, but you justdon't like the way it looks, right,

(42:53):
did you call rock the top?Absolutely? We can get in and
out of the bath We can getin and out of two baths in the
same home in literally three days.Really wow. And that gets you the
floors, That gets the vanity tops, the bathtubs, the tile surrounds,
or sometimes the tile goes all theway around the bathroom. It's just it

(43:14):
goes up like four or five feetin the air, and it's just all
that pink, green, yellow,and blue. It's just terrible. Some
people can't stand it, but theydon't want to spend twenty thirty thousand dollars
to tear it all apart and threeweeks to three months, who knows what
can happen and all that time,and we don't disrupt any plumbing. I
mean, anytime you touch plumbing,it's a potential can of worms that you're

(43:37):
open and then surprise. I'm reallysorry, sir, but this is gonna
unfortunately cost you more money. Yeah, we don't. We don't mess with
plumbing very often. So now again, because we've mentioned this before, John,
some people they may see, Iknow there's a there's a company out
there that's all time advertising on TV, you know, almost infomercial type things

(44:00):
about you know, renovating a showerstall or what have you. But that's
this is not the same thing,correct, right, They're they're coming in
and typically many times they're just takingsomething and just putting it on top of
what's already there. I don't wantto, you know, criticize other industries

(44:20):
and I think different. It's anoption, and you know, yes,
it is an option. But whatI will say, because it's true,
I cannot tell you how many timesI've torn those off the wall and underneath
there's these green tiles and there's nothingwrong with them other than they're guilty of
being ugly. That's the old Andnow they got all this black tar glue
all over them, and I gotto tear all that off, you know,

(44:42):
clean all that stuff off. Butthat's not a super big deal.
Even doing that is less expensive thanputting the sure putting it on there in
the first place. So yeah,And you can have a hole in your
tub, You can have rust inyour tub, you can have chips in
your anything. You can have missingtile. That doesn't matter. We can
still you know, replace it orresurface it, refinish it, saying it

(45:06):
all down and make it look originalagain and make it gorgeous. Rod the
top resurfacing. Y'all fix ugly?We do? We fix ugly? Should
we just look? We take upugly things and make pretty things. Well,
so how do you do this?I mean, what's the process?
Like? I mean, if youcome in, well, let me ask
you this, John, Will yousit down and talk to somebody? They
call you guys, and they're like, you know, what are the questions

(45:27):
you're most often asked? Well,so, if it's a kitchen countertop,
let's say, and maybe it's agreen for Micah countertop, or maybe it's
a green granite countertop. The first, One of the first things they want
to know is how does this stuffhandle heat? So I tested one of
my ceramic tile samples and I puta map torch on it for thirty seconds,
and when I pulled it away,I had a brown ring on there.
The first thing I thought was,oh, well, now I know
it burns. Then I took arag with acetone fingernail polish remover and wiped

(45:52):
it right off of there. Sothat I think was right about fifteen to
sixteen hundred degrees fahrenheit fahrenheit. Butnow if you take a red hot pan
and we resurfaced a Formca countertop whichis really just a piece of lamb,
and it glued to some particle board, sure you could still delaminate the particle
board, but they have a wonderful, wonderful product for that, and that's

(46:12):
called a heating pad. Same thingwith a knife, I mean. So
really, it's only weakness is probablylike sharp metal objects. So you're supposed
to use a cutting board on youknow, countertops of any kind. That's
why they make cutting boards. Soyes, you can, you can scratch
it if you drop a hammer onit, but you're gonna no matter what

(46:35):
it is you're gonna chip it orscratch it anyway. So it's really it's
really dropping hammers on things you're gonnamake a mess or something yep, yep.
So I mean I can't really faultit for that. It's just really
common sense. So just take careof your stuff people, and uh,
you know, and if we dohappen to have a somebody drop a pipe
wrench on something and it does chipit, simple fix repairs are simple.

(46:55):
You're not replacing a whole something oranother, right and once again I'm not
messing with the plumbing, so nosurprises, all right. So again the
process you'll come in, you're goingto first of I guess, is any
good service like yours does. Yougot to make sure what you're what you're
going over is super clean, cleansanded. Like any painting process or resurfacing

(47:21):
process, ninety percent of it isprep and getting it ready to accept our
primers. And our first application typicallyis like if it's a ceramic tile wall,
is a molecular bonding agent. Youcan't even see it's it's clear,
but it locks in mechanically and chemically. And on top of that is an
epoxy primer and that cures, itdoesn't dry, it cures, and it

(47:43):
can be any color, but we'reusing a lot of white and stone grays
for for a base coat. Andthen on top of that will spray multi
stone flat on there, which isa water borne pain. It's not really
you know, durable or anything likethat. It's got incredible adhesion but has
incredible beauty. So that's where we'regoing with that. And then on top
of that, after we blow thatdry and then sand it off and then

(48:07):
blow it all off there, andthen we put three coats of acrylic polyurethane,
which has an H five hardness.Now they can make that an H
six hardness, but that becomes sohard that it could be brittle, and
you don't want that. So it'sright right where we wanted spot. It
really is. It's it's just anamazing application. And I hate to even
call it a paint, but Imean it really does fall into that category.

(48:30):
I was I'm thinking that as you'retalking, and I probably shouldn't even
mention this because it's kind of embarrassing, But this goes decades ago. I
guess we lived at a home thathad a tile foreign to kitchen. Actually
no, I take that back.We wound up a til eventually after this
debacle. It was just an oldvinyl kind of foreign Yeah. And uh

(48:53):
at the time, it was prettyat the time. Yeah, well it's
still pretty pretty pretty ugly. Rightand again, as we know, rocket
top for everything you go fix ugly. But my wife saw somewhere at the
time, this was long before Pinterest, that you know, they made a
paint that you could paint this with. Right, And and she's she's big

(49:15):
into that sort of thing. Imean, she really enjoys it. And
so I'll go to bed one nightbecause I get up really early every morning
and three am and I get upand she has painted that floor. Wow.
Okay, And needless to say,it's no fault of her own.
It didn't look very good. Yeah. So yeah, if you're tempted to

(49:37):
say, uh, well I canjust buy some kind of a special paint
and do this myself, well goahead, but I can from personal experience
tell you it's probably not going toend well, Nope, it's not gonna
end well. In fact, whenit fails, and it will, then
you're gonna call somebody like me,and the price is gonna be double because
then we've got to strip it.However, if it was a no leum

(49:59):
floor, I wouldn't even wouldn't eventouch it, right. In fact,
my paints would probably melt linoleum.The linoleum's not even worthy. And I
don't mean to sound big headed,but I mean it's just a fact that
it's not even worthy of the productsthat we put on there. And you
can't buy these chemicals that Sherwin Williamsare Benjamin More. I mean they come
out of you know, a chemisthands that then I know them. It's

(50:22):
like, say, it sounds likepaint. It sounds like it, but
this is not paint. Right Well, it's a wonderful product. And I
work directly with and the industry haschanged all the time. They call me,
hey, John, how's this sprying? What do you like about it?
What do you think we can improvewith it? Can we add some
of this or some of that?And I'm not a chemist myself, although

(50:44):
I mean chemicals literally constantly. I'ma walking chemical. But we work together,
and you know, we want theindustry to do good. I want,
you know, my competition. Iknow a lot of my competition great
people. I want them to dowell and The reason is I don't want
the industry in any way to geta bad name. And it doesn't take

(51:05):
very many beginners to go out thereand just really make, you know,
some mistakes. You don't make amistake with products of this quality because it
doesn't come off. You know,if I get some black primer on a
white refrigerator, I'm going to buya refrigerator. So we don't let that
happen. And you know, thishas been around it. You've been at
this for a long time. Ohyeah, yeah, yeah, twenty some

(51:27):
years now we've been which is reallyamazing because somebody people are hearing about this
process for the first time. Butthis is not this is not something new
that's untested, that's never been triedbefore. That's experimental me. This is
sent around. I started with bathtubsactually, and bathtubs, I mean they're
underwater all the time, you know, a lot every day, and you

(51:47):
know, so they had to makethis stuff really really good and it is
really really good. So it startedwith that. But then you know,
people like me came along and you'relike, hey, if we can do
a bathtub, why can't we doa ceramic tile wall? And if we
can do a ceramic tile, Well, why can't we do a ceramic tile
floor? And if we can doa ceramic tile floor, why can't I
do kitchen countertops? And why can'tI do vanity time? And next thing

(52:08):
you know, my renovation company becamea resurfacing come because I always had a
painting company going out thirty four years. I think in business so in a
long long time. I think I'ma godfather at this point. But I
love being a part of it.I'm super excited every data. I can't
wait to get up and attack beautiful. I just really really like it.

(52:29):
And my customers, oh my gosh. Every day. If you go to
my Facebook wall, you can gothrough all the pictures in the videos,
he'll see testimonial. These are realtestimonials that people have no idea. I'm
running the camera and then I askthem. By the way, a lot
of them are good about it.John, how to folks reach you guys
at to Rock the Top p resurface. You can go to Rock the Top
Resurfacing dot com is our website.It's pretty nice. And Facebook Rock the

(52:52):
Top Resurfacing again, that's pretty active. We got a lot of people on
there almost every single day, andthere's buttons on there you can press get
through to Kathy. Kathy who's nothere today? Hello Kathy, wherever you
are? All right, Buddy,good to see Evanuel of a great weekend,
you too, Thanks a lot,Thank you, John. All right,
take care. Do you wish youcould wake up each day in a

(53:13):
home that feels like it was madejust for you. It's here With nation
Custom Builders. For over a decade, Nation Builders has been building dreams,
one house at a time as alocally owned and operated business. They're proud
of their reputation as a trustworthy businessand believe in placing customer satisfaction as the
top priority, even above profits.Voted best remodeling contractor in the state for

(53:37):
the last two years. Simply imaginewhat your house could look like and let
nation Builders do the rest. Createa kitchen that fits your lifestyle, transform
your bathroom into an oasis, orexpand your home to accommodate a growing household.
Call nation Builders at eight zero threeeight zero seven eight one four zero
or visit nation Builders LLC dot comto learn about their process and how they

(54:00):
work. That's nation Builders LLC dotcom. Nation Custom Builders. You can
find it cheaper, but you won'tfind it better.