Home Improvement Show 11-22-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning and welcome in. It's the home and proven
show of the Midlands on one of three point five
FM and five sixty AMWVOC. It is wonderful to have
you with us on board on this Saturday morning, the
twenty second of November. We are just days away from Thanksgiving,
hard to believe. Coming up, we'll talk about all things
electric with Jeremy Holliday, the owner of Mister Electric here

(00:39):
in Columbia. It's that time of year when Trey Powell,
the good folks of Mosquito Joe are starting to ram
things down. We had our last treatment just this past week. Thanksgiving,
normally the cutoff time for Mosquito season around here, but
they'll be back before you know it. We'll talk about
that and the other things they offer you over the holidays,
including those holiday lights. Right now, though, Russ Marcaesy, the

(01:01):
owner of Finishing Touch Team, joins us to get the
get the ball rolling on this uh game Cock Saturday morning.
Our best game Cock coverage begins a little bit later
on this afternoon here on WVOC, ahead of that matchup
with the Chanta Clears of Coastal Carolina.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Russ, good morning, sir, Good morning Gary, It's great to
be here. How you doing, bro doing well?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Doing well this morning?

Speaker 1 (01:19):
This time of year is uh, I don't know. Your
business is the peyton business. Uh well, you guys stay
busy year round. I know we did talking a few
episodes ago about you know, when it gets to a
point where it's a certain temperature outside you have to
kind of put outdoor projects on hold for a bit.
But yeah, we kind of have we gotten to that
point yet, I mean not quite cold morning.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, we had a freezing, freezing night already. Uh yeah,
in shape it anyway, I couldn't believe it. But yeah,
we had a freeze already. But uh but then again
then it jumps right back up to you know, mid seventies,
garys as you've seen you know, eighty almost eighty degrees
over the past weekend. Yeah, beautiful weekend, right, Yeah, but
uh but yeah, we you know, look as it gets colder,

(02:02):
you know, it's not necessarily a matter of you can't
do anything outside, right, You just have to manage it,
and you know, plan ahead a bit, Gary, just like anything,
and just you know, keep your eye on the weather
and just plan accordingly basically is what what you do
most part.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
We would think that in your business. People that aren't
in your business professional painting sure would think that, well, okay, yeah,
if you're doing something outdoors and it's rain, that's a problem.
But you got to think about more than just rain.
You got to think about too cold, too hot.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Too windy. Sometimes when wind plays a huge factor absolutely,
Like you know, if we're doing a especially on the lake,
you get a lot of a lot of that wind,
you know, coming off the lake pretty heavily. And if
we're doing something outside exterior wise, and let's say, uh,
you know, the method of application that day is spraying. Okay,

(02:49):
let's say we have to spray something, right, we have
to really keep our eye on that and make sure
that you know, it's not blown everywhere. Putting over spray
on something that you want painted docks are a huge,
uh you know, a huge paint job that we've got
to really really look at the weather and the wind. Now,

(03:10):
we don't spray docks necessarily, okay, because if you spray
a dock, you're gonna have over spray going into the lake.
That's not that's that's not good.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So we brush and roll most of the docks that
we do. But still if there's wind, it can it
can absolutely pick that paint up from even off your
roller and put it into the lake or or again
things that you don't want painted possibly a boat, right.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
You name it.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
But but yeah, yeah, we we've you have to plan accordingly,
you do.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
You know, I know that when you do interior painting,
and we've talked about this before with like your cabinet refinishing,
you do. Uh, it's very important for you guys to
try to you know, get the environment as sterile as possible,
because sure you don't want particles getting into that paint job.
And you know that's right poorly And I know at
my house right now, for example, in the backyard picking

(04:00):
up leaves again the other day again again again, right,
and I don't know what it is, something about the
trees of this house. In addition to leaves, there's this
really fine somethings that come out of the trees. Yeah,
they get in the pool and everything else. And yeah,
if we were to to do an outside paint job
at our house this time of the year, uh, that
would be a problem because you're gonna want to be
a sorts of particles and stuff.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
You're right now. You're absolutely right. Yeah, especially the last
you know, a couple of weeks here it's been there's
been wind almost every day, it seems. Yeah, it really has.
And it's funny you say about the leaves. I did
the same thing. I blew all my leaves. The next
day they were back.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, what like, isid why are you doing that? I'm
saying because I remember last year when we didn't and
then when we finally did, it was like a whole
weekends they're trying to get leaves.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
At that was my mind set to It was Gary
trying to stay on top of it.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
This year. Yeah again, yeah, uh we we we talk
a lot about the business and you guys, what twenty
three plus years in business now.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Right, Yeah, this past summer is twenty three years.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah wow. And certainly you do a lot of work
for homeowners, but you do a lot of business work too,
A lot of we do. Yeah. Is I mean the
actual painting itself doesn't matter whether you're painting a house
or a school building. Out really is the painting itself,
But let's talk about the process. When it comes to

(05:20):
doing commercial jobs, does that differ at all from doing
residential work?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
So it doesn't. It doesn't, right. So the biggest difference
for commercial versus residential, Gary is that there's other trades
happening with commercial work usually, right. So if we're let's
say we're doing let's say it's during the summertime, for example,
and we are repainting a school for example, okay, you

(05:45):
do a lot of a lot of this past summer.
We did I think five different schools this past summer
real alone. So it's a very short period of time
to be able to get these done as well, because
the day the kids get out of school is the
day we start, and about yeah, two days before they
go back to schools or is when we have to finish.
So it's not not a whole lot of time at all.

(06:05):
It's it's less than two months to be totally honest
with you, to do a complete school. But a lot
of times Gary, they are updating mechanical work, HVAC work. Sure,
sometimes it's uh, they have to update their fire system.
So there's a lot of other trades and projects happening
at the same time. So or let's say it's a

(06:26):
brand new built for example, okay, and they just pour
the foundation, they get their walls up. Well, you know,
we're not going in there anywhere's near until they start
hanging sheet rock in the into the building, okay. And
what we'll do is we'll come in and generally prime
all of that sheet rock once it's done up and finished,
and sometimes put a first code of finished paint on,

(06:48):
sometimes not. But then we pull back off the job,
Gary and we let those guys come back in and
do what they need to do, and then we come
back in. So it's all about scheduling around other trades,
is really what it is. But when it comes down
to the actual process of what we're doing, it's not
it's not much different. We're still constantly we're doing all

(07:09):
the preparation work that we need to. It just really
comes down to the different surfaces, right, the different substrates
that we are painting commercial wise versus residential wise. Okay,
commercial wise, you're gonna have a lot of CMU blocking,
right like you see in schools all the time or hospitals.
It's the you know the eight inch CMU blocks. Okay,

(07:31):
what is it?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
CMU? What is that?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Ah?

Speaker 2 (07:34):
You put me in this spot that I'm nots sure
what semitations? Something units? I believe something like that. But
but you know, you can't sand concrete, right, so there's
a different system with that.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
We we will put block filler on those wall, those
raw block walls first versus regular sheet rock primer, okay,
and then instead of sanding, we come straight in with
our with our finished paint and go right over the
top of that.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
We always spray it, but we backroll it in with
with big you know, eighteen inch roller covers to really
push it into the pores of the of the block. Right.
So there's just different ways, different systems for just different
surfaces substrates, you know, is what it comes down to.
But but it's all relative, and it's you know, we
we we constantly always do our due diligence. Like I'll

(08:27):
give you an example on a repaint with a school.
Let's say it's a CMU uh, you know, blocking hallway.
Before we paint it. Seeing how you can't really sand CMU,
we put a product on called no rints cleaner.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
A lot of a lot of guys don't use it,
a lot of guys don't even know about it. But uh,
it's a it's a degreaser, a cleaner, and it helps
your new code of paint adhere to the existing code
of paint, okay, which is what essentially sanding does. When
you sand on a you know, it gets rid of
all the little imperfections, of course, but it's also braiding
that surface so that your next coat of paint will

(09:06):
adhere to that surface a lot better. Okay, Well, seeing
how you can't do that with block, we code it
with a product called no Rits Cleaner, And it's essentially
that you put it on and you let it. Sometimes
you got to move it around a little bit on
the wall, but you don't have to rinse it off.
It just stays right on, just like that, and you
go right over it, right over that surface, and it

(09:27):
works really well.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
I'm going to guess, And like you were describing your
example of is a school building and a lot of
stuff being done, or a new bill or whatever. You
guys almost say, gals almost have to be the last
ones in though.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Right we are. Yeah, a lot of times we are.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
You can do all the what you want to do,
but somebody's going to mess up something after you're in there.
The first time you get it back a dud up
and finish, yes, sir, and no, sure is I mean
even to the point where the building's completely done. And
let's say the new tenants, new owners are moving in now,
and they're moving furniture in. Yeah, well I guess.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
What they're they're bumping the walls and scuffing things. So
a lot of times we'll come in and just do
a small little punch list for the owner at no charge,
to just you know, touch things up and just put
a finishing touch on it, if you will, at the
very end. That's what we do. So we do it
all the time.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Now, you may be wondering why I'm even bringing this
up this morning. Uh. And when you're working in especially
again a school building, you're working through a school district,
there's got a lot of a lot of paperwork, a
lot of procedures, a lot of rules and regulations you
got to follow. Oh sure, purchase orders, all this kind
of stuff. You expect that when you're working with you know,

(10:35):
a business or stainly certainly a governmental type entity. Okay, sure,
But here's what you may not realize as a homeowner
that when you call these folks, they.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Treat you, treat it the same way, same exact way, Gary, Absolutely,
every every bit of attention is on it, Every bit
of due diligence is on it, from the start to
the finish. Uh, you know, even just the scheduling part,
the contacting the Uh. We don't like gray areas. Okay.
I've said this for years and years. There's nothing worse

(11:10):
than a gray area with something where you don't quite understand,
I don't quite understand. We eliminate every bit of that
through just simply explaining and making sure that the homeowners
or contractors, whoever it is, right understands exactly the process
and exactly what they're getting, okay, of what they signed
up for. And we couple that through our proposals. We

(11:34):
spell everything out verbatim, down to the amount of coats
of paint we're putting on, down to the type of
material we're using, okay, because anybody can just say, uh, yeah,
we're gonna paint your walls.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Okay. See you had this image right of you call
somebody and they come in and they stand in the
middle room and they got there, you know, they got
their hand in their mouths, you know, looking around, and
you could tell that that thinking thing and they're going
hmm hmm, Yeah, I can do it for so and so.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
I mean you see that way too often you.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Talk about leaving gray areas right exactly, or a price
on a napkin piece of paper. Here you go, I
can do it for this and that, you know, so
on and so forth. Yeah, you got to run from that.
I mean, you know, you're gonna get what you pay for.
And there's nothing worse than getting something that you didn't
want right, or that you weren't expecting, or that you
expected something more of. There's nothing worse. We've all felt

(12:28):
that before, and it's a terrible feeling. And that is
the last thing that we ever want anyone to feel,
you know, when when we finish, when we're done with
their project, right, we want them to have a smile
on their face and feel that they they got a
lot of bang for their buck and in a very
you know, well done quality job. I mean it's very

(12:48):
very important to me.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
You've done a couple jobs for us, and again each
and every time it's been like that. You I got
to tell you. It's the proposal that you give us
is so detailed, almost like do I alreally need all
this yeah, sometimes it's a lot, but it is, there's
a there's a there's again that's that's the point. You
don't want anything left unsaid.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
I don't, and you know, certain not so much in
the residential world, but in the commercial world. You know,
I've I've heard comments before like, wow, this is almost
too much information in a way, right, But it's not
because look, and a lot of times they don't read it, Garrey,
I gotta be honest, like in the commercial world, they're
just not reading every basically, right. But it's also for us, Okay,

(13:33):
it's there's a whole system that we have so all
the way down to the guys in the field, right,
they have something to operate off of. Now, they have
a schedule of value, they have a scope of work
that they can follow to a t. So there's a
there's there's a real method to the madness. There's a
lot of different reasons that that we use that all
the way from the guys in the field, uh, all

(13:54):
the way back to in the office.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Right.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
So uh, it's it's I've done it this way for forever,
for years, and it's worked really well, and I just
we just don't like those gray areas. We really want
customers to know exactly what they're getting, uh for what
they're paying for.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
You know, we got a couple of minutes left. I
don't want to let it expire without talking about which
you the amazing things you guys do when it comes
to cabinet work, yeah man, And people may not realize that. Okay,
well yeah, you guys do painting, yes you do. But
when we talk about cabinets, it can just be a
simple refinishing which can can make them look brand new,

(14:35):
or you guys have relationships and work with people all
one stop shopping to actually change the look of them totally.
We do. It's a physical structure.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Right now, We sure do. Gary, It's uh, we love
doing cabinetry. It's just it makes such a difference in
somebody's home. It changes the look drastically without spending thousands
upon thousands of dollars, right It's it's literally, it's just

(15:04):
such a it's just such a a cool thing. So
we I don't know if I mentioned it last time,
but we had a customer and they we worked with
another cabinet guy basically is what you know. We worked
with several the like you just mentioned and you know,
she had the basic, you know, starter home type looking
cabinets in her house, right, you know. But but it

(15:26):
was a good structure, a good layout. She had no
issues with it. Uh So we worked with her, between
you know, the homeowner, myself and the cabinet guy, and
she she added a pantry to the side of it,
and then she lifted her cabinets up. As what she
did Gary, she added trim so that instead of having
the gap between the top of her cabinets and the ceiling,

(15:47):
she brought it all the way up to the ceiling, okay,
and then she added some crown molding around it. She
actually swapped two doors out for glass doors to showcase
a corner cabinet that she had, and they just came
out spectacular. They just the kitchen looked night and day.
You wouldn't even recognize it. For a fraction of the cost.

(16:08):
I mean, if she would have went through and tore
those cabinets out and remodeled and did everything like you said,
you know, tens of thousands of dollars possibly, right, So
we really really enjoyed doing that. It's it's very gratifying.
But you know, I want to mention too, last week,
we had a customer call us and she had a
bed frame okay that was in her family forever that

(16:30):
her I believe her brother had built for her at
some point and so it was very special to her.
And her kids had used the bed and now she
wanted to pass it down to her her grandson. Okay,
but they wanted to change the color. So she called
me up and asked me, and of course absolutely, I
told her to bring it on down and we painted
it for her right there in our shop, in our
spray booth, and came our strike. No, not a bed frame,

(16:53):
not necessarily. We do patio furniture a lot of times
for folks, all sorts of stuff. Because we got such
a large shop in the back with our spray booth,
we can really accommodate a lot of different things back there.
So we've done. We've had people bring bookshelves to us,
gary tables, like I said, you know, lawn chairs, lawn equipment,

(17:14):
things like that, bedframes, all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
How about it?

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, Yeah, we enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Finishing touch team. Folks want to get an estimate. You're
the guy's going to answer the phone, that's me, And
if you're tied up at the time. I know you
pride yourself on I'll call you right back, right back,
Yeah right, yeah, sure, well, which you don't expect anymore,
quite honestly, Unfortunately in these days and times, that's right. Unfortunately, Gary,

(17:40):
you may never get a call back from some folks. Yeah,
stand by your phone if you leave a message for
that's right, Russ Haddock. Folks reach in and get that
free estimate at a Finishing Touch Team.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Well, you can always call me at eight zero three
four six seven six seven five nine, or you can
always go to the website or russif Finishing Touch Team
dot com.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
All right, Russ, good to see it, my friend, Thanks Garry,
appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
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(18:24):
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(18:46):
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Speaker 1 (18:58):
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(19:19):
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(19:41):
my friends, we thank you so much for joining us
for the Home Improvement Show the Midlands. Sam. We appreciate
you tuning in here on one of three point five
FM at five sixty AMWVOC, or listening on the iHeartRadio app.
And hey, if you ever miss an episode, don't forget.
You can go on the app. You can search us
out WVOC Home Improvement Show of the Midlands, you can
catch up. We're all right there, all right. Jeremy, how

(20:03):
today mister Electric who joins us in studio, Jeremy morning
to you, my friend.

Speaker 5 (20:08):
Good morning Gary. I gotta tell you I've.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Been I've been challenging. I've been channeling my inner mister
Electric last week week or so. And you have to
be careful your diy Electricity. I mean, I know enough
to be able to hang a light fixture. Yeah, okay,
I always wind up doing something wrong and some wire
pops off or whatever, and I gotta take it all.
This happened to me just the other day. I take
it all back down again. And anyway, there's this this stuff. Listen.

(20:36):
I know enough to know when to stop, and that's
what we're here for again.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yeah, exactly. You can always call.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Us exactly what I'm going to know. I was before
we came on the air here during the break we
were talking and you know, we moved into a new
house and I know there's a lot of outdoor lighting,
but I don't heck, I don't know if it's just
not working, or if I'm not sure if I'm doing
something wrong or whatever. So you know, we've talked about
this before. This is listen. Electricity doesn't have to be boring, right, No,

(21:05):
absolutely no. You guys do a lot of that sort
of thing, the outdoor lighting and the and all that though.
Those enhancements, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Home enhancements fun things, fun projects that you get to
enjoy after we're finished. You know, it's not all all
the hidden stuff that you don't really get to see.
But we can do landscape lighting.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
We do.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
We actually use a product that is brass, comes in
different finishes and lifetime warranty on the fixtures their self,
So we use a quality, real quality product LED.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know LED. Everything's LED these days. Yeah, it'd be
strange if it wasn't.

Speaker 5 (21:42):
Yeah, but sometimes we run into it where it is
still some type of halogen or something like that and
it's on a medium voltage system. The systems we install
would be a low voltage.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Well, what's what's the difference there between those two, I mean,
what's the advantage.

Speaker 5 (21:56):
Well, the advantages of the low voltage is obviously you're
saving inn Uh makes sense, Yeah, yep, it's a lot
uh safer as far as being out in the yard,
in the ground, running from light to light, uh tends
to last longer.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Uh. The LED Uh, the voltage.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
Definitely lasts longer than the halogen halogens can be problematic.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
LED's I mean those things are supposed to last like
almost forever, aren't they. I mean, yeah, yeah, they last
a long time.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
I mean you're talking thousands of hours, thousands and eighty thousand,
fifty thousand hour bulbs, you know, so if you uh, yeah,
they last a lot longer, so a lot less maintenance,
you know. Right, Yeah, there's a lot of you don't
you know, there's a lot of different You can place
them anywhere, Uh you don't you know, you don't have
to trench super deep for the wiring because it's low

(22:51):
voltage wiring, So it's really you're really able to put
them anywhere you want.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
I mean it would look bad, but I mean you could, basically,
Lady Soon's just on the front on the grass, you could.
I wouldn't recommend that.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
We normally, you know, get it covered up an inch
deep or two inches you know underneath everything doesn't need
to be you know, eighteen inches like medium wearing.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Oh okay, that's a big difference right there. Yeah, so
this sounds like you probably come out and lay these
things and lay the saw back over to whatever and
you never know you were there. That's right.

Speaker 5 (23:23):
Yeah, very cool and some pretty cool fixtures they have.
I mean, we have a whole catalog. Bring bring a
book with us, an iPad. We call that our book,
but it's an iPad and it has a catalog on
it and you can see all the different fixtures, pick
them out in the style you like. We can go
over all that with you the placement and.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Or repair what you have. You know, a typical and
I always ask this question on this show, and I
know there's no typical anything, but you know, more than
likely when you guys go out and do one of
these jobs like this, I mean, what kind of timeframe
we are we talking about from somebody that has nothing
and you want to, you know, go the whole night.

(24:07):
You want to get it. You got to get the
maybe I guess, maybe the controller or whatever, or cook
to the app or however it's done. Is this a
one day kind of job typically or.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
It can be, and a lot of times it probably is. Yeah,
depending on the guys you got, how many fixtures you
got install right, how big the project is. There's some
houses it might take two or three days, depending on.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Some people get pretty extravagant.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah, you can. And you know, if it's all yeh,
you know, earth fixtures, I guess I could say not
implanted into the walls or ran up on posts and
stuff like that. You know, it should typical installs should
be probably about a day. It should be able to
get in and out of there.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
But it's more than just lights. We come to home enhancements. Yeah,
this is a wide variety of things, and I'm not
sure that we quite understand, you know, what all is
possible in our homes these days. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
So ah, man, you're talking smart switches, you know, where
you can program your lights to come on at a
certain time, turn them off from different locations.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
And we're not talking about smart plugging now, we're talking
about the actual switch.

Speaker 5 (25:15):
The switch in the wall for your lights. That's right.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
You can get smart.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
Receptacles also, you know, we put in a Okay, with
Christmas coming up, there's actually one that we like to install,
which is a plug in play, but just so people
know it's out there, you can buy.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
It's a really cool module.

Speaker 5 (25:31):
You can plug into your wall and then you can
control it on an app on your phone right where
you don't have to unplug that Christmas tree. You can
just turn it off with your phone, you know.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, now I have done that with just a regular
smart switch and Alexa before, and that's cool. Yeah, that's a.

Speaker 5 (25:47):
Cool little feature. So there's little things like that. We
can put a three way switch anywhere you want to.
If you have a situation where you wish you could
turn a light off at a point that you don't
have a switch there with with smart switches where you
don't even have to do any wiring, you know, we
can put like a remote switch with a ten year

(26:08):
battery and put a master switch if you will, where
the where the switch location is for that fixture, and
then you have two locations where you can turn it
on and off without a lot of sheet rock damage
or crawling through the attic and things like that. So
there's there's a lot of little things like that.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Lighting.

Speaker 5 (26:30):
Obviously they've got lighting now that's r G b W
where it'll do a million plus colors.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I love those. My wife is like, no, we're going
with white. I'm like, oh, that's boring.

Speaker 5 (26:42):
Yeah, well it's fun on the holidays.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Well that's what I told her. How cool would it
be to have you know, red and green lights on
Christmas or you know, orange for Halloween coming up here
in a couple of days or whatever. And she's she's
very traditionalist when it comes to that sort of thing,
So that's wrong with that. When she's not there, I
turn on right.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yeah, we'll put them and she won't ever know.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
There you go, perfect, perfect, You can keep them on white.
But you know we do.

Speaker 5 (27:09):
So light under cabinet lights that's another one. That's another
great to your home. You know, accent lighting, toky lighting,
stair lighting.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Oh okay, stairsteps, yeah, that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah,
I don't know I'm familiar with because like in the
house we have now there's a space over the cabinets
and I want to run some LEDs up there or whatever.
But I didn't think about that in the cabinet lighting. Well,
that's a that's a that's an ideas. Time has come,
hasn't it.

Speaker 5 (27:37):
Oh yeah, Yeah, they make so much great products out
there that you can that aren't that hard to install anymore. Really,
you know, puck lights you can put in your cabinets
level and those would be all lo vltage. Also, yeah,
we fabricate lights on the scene.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Really. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (27:53):
We build strip lighting at your location and install it
sor for under cabinet lighting.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Very cool, very cool. Are there any things that maybe
we as homeowners and consumers haven't really thought of that
is that you can do these days? Well?

Speaker 5 (28:13):
Yeah, you know, like I'm saying, the three way switches,
the you know, all the stuff we've talked about, you
can do.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Drawing a blank now, Gary, trust me, I draw a
blank probably four or five times already the last hour.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
You know, anything you can think, I would say, anything
you could think of, it's worth calling and asking, getting in,
getting us to come out and look at it. Because
there's a lot of stuff we can do in set
lighting in the walls, different different pathway lighting. If you
you know, you can put track in the floors, you

(28:53):
can put track on the walls and have your you know,
different diferent types of lighting can be put in for it.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Sounds like if if you can can dream it up,
but you guys can find a way to make it happen.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
Basically, Yeah, most of the time, there's there's a way.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, so very cool. And you know, this is not
really related to this discussion, but I know it's one
we've had in the past. Something else you guys do,
and and that is when it comes to things like
smoke detectors, you know, two detectors and such. And I
didn't realize it. Again, we were this new home and

(29:31):
we'd had this discussion before, so I wasn't shocked to
discover how many smoke detectors are in this house I'm
in right now. I think a lot of us always thought, oh,
you need water, maybe two or whatever. But I think
we've talked about this before. Yeah, that's really not enough.
And this is something you guys do as well.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
Yes, and we do smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, fire alarms,
all of that, and yeah, they're very They're an essential
part of your home because they if you ever read
the statistics, which I'm not going to go over. But
you can read the statistic about home fires and people
to get harmed. Most of the time they don't have
smoke detectors, or they have smoke detectors that they've uh disengaged,

(30:11):
you know, uh and and and so they're very important.
And I imagine being that you just got into your home,
those are all probably new.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yes, certainly that we've all been put up. It's not
a new home, but they all look to be very new.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
And they're they're everywhere, yeah, everywhere, like wow, in every
bedroom outside the vicinity of every bedroom.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Is that and this is not a new building moved
into but a new build homes these days?

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Is that a code now or that standard? Yes?

Speaker 5 (30:37):
Okay, yeah, so that's something that has to happen. And
for the reason for that is just to forget.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
We're not talking about one or two. We're talking about yeah,
a lot of them.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
I mean you're talking on a on an average home,
you're probably looking at six to eight in there.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, you know, yeah, and certainly older homes. You're probably
thinking saying, what, I don't have that many? Yeah, they
used to.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
I think the code was uh back in the seventies
was just one, yeah, and maybe one on each floor.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
It was like, wow, we got a lot. But now
they're everywhere, Yeah, they really are. And that's again something
else that mister electric is going to help you with
that and the yeah, of course the safety checks you
do with every visit, that's right.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
We do safety check on every call new customers. We
can go over your system and just let you know
of anything that can they can make that system safer,
any items that need to be addressed, you.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Know, absolutely absolutely, all right, Well I gotta get you
and look at these other outdoor lighting at my place.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
I got to figure this thing out, man, Yeah, give
us a call.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Funs up again. Electricity doesn't have to be boring, No,
not with mister elect Jeremy. Always good to see you,
my friend. So how's the best what's the best place
for lupstill reach you and get you out there to
their place.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
So you can reach us by phone eight zero three
eight six eight four to two four three, or you
can reach us at our website mister electric dot com,
forward slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Okay, and then numbrato three eight two eight eight six
eight eight six eight.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
Zero three disinformation eight six eight four to two, four
to three, and we always have a live person answering,
so you know you always get a hold of somebody.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
All right, Jeremy, have a good weekend, buddy. Yes, sir,
there was a farm.

Speaker 6 (32:21):
When your power goes out, there's not a lot to do,
but you can call mister Electric with priority dispatching. One
of our electricians will be at your door ready to
safely restore your power fast. Because not having electricity is annoying.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
It's very annoying.

Speaker 6 (32:39):
So next time you need an electrician, call mister Electric
because life is better with electricity services provided by locally
owned and operated franchisees. Products and services may vary by location.

Speaker 5 (32:49):
Hi there, 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 upfront pricing. Schedule your free safety check with
Mister Electric of Columbia and receive fifty dollars off any
work over three hundred dollars. Call eight oh three eight
six eight four two four three or visit my website

(33:12):
mister Electric dot com.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Forward slash Columbia. 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 gutttering, well it's the
same people doing the job, but the name has changed.
That's right now, it's Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Leave
it to Beaver for all your roofing and gutter needs.
The same great service and the same great folks behind

(33:35):
Anthony John Construction, just with a new name. Eight oh
three nine nine to one roof and Beaverroofing dot com
the gutter roofing work. Leave it to Beaver Beaver Roofing
and Beaver Gutters. We're back on the home improvement show
of the Midlands. Think for a second. It's early Saturday morning.

(33:58):
It's good to have you here. I'm Gary David, now
joined by Trey Powell from Mosquito Joe. Good morning to you, sir,
Good morning. How are you Apparently I need another cup
of coffee, I guess, or two or maybe three, I
don't know. I'm doing well, but doing doing well before
I want to mention this up front here because I
know there are limited spots available. Before we talk about

(34:22):
you know, bugs and creepy critters and such, right the
holiday lights that you guys do every season, the spectacular looking,
professionally done holiday lights. At last I heard there are
just a few slots still open for this is what.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Yeah, we have right around five spots left in the
beginning of December right now to fill, and so they
are filling up fast. If somebody is interested in having
their home or their office decorated for Christmas, Christmas lights, greenery,
we can still get them in if they reach out

(35:00):
to us right now.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
How does this work?

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Man, So it's we're a professional lighting company and we
do not put up other people's lights. I mean, we
bring the light. They're all commercial grade. Every bulb screws
in individually, and we put them on the house. They
just they're perfectly spaced, they're all sitting the exact same way,

(35:22):
and so it just looks like a just a very
professional job. We make all of our own extension cords.
We cut everything exactly to links. We tuck everything behind
the gutters and down spouts, so you're not seeing, you know,
extension cords running across the yard or hanging off the
side of the house or anything like that. It's a
very professional, very clean look, and you know, we design it,

(35:47):
we put it up, we maintain it for the season,
if anything, if a bulb were to go out or
anything like that, and then in January we come and
we pack it all up and we take it away
and store it in our own climate controlled facility.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Now, somebody uses you this this Christmas season for the
first time and they really love the display. Can they
get that same display down the road.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, in fact, we we take you down, we map
it for them. But we do not require any contracts
at all. So if they decide to go out of
the country next year or something like that, they don't,
they're not required to come back and do it again.
It's really a lease program and it's on an annual basis.
So if they want us to come back and do it,
we can. If they want to change colors, we can

(36:29):
do that. We can, you know, do something different the
following year. A lot of times people will you know,
do white the first year. In the second year, they
want a little popa color, and so we can we
can do that. We can do something really extravagant. If
they're having a big Christmas party and then simplify it
the following year if they just want, you know, something basic.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Have you noticed trayors that just me that it seems
like a lot of people are decorating a lot earlier
this year for Christmas.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
You know, we always get started early. You know, all
of our lights are low ed led. They you know,
if you left them on twenty four hours a day,
they're not going to make a difference on your utility bill.
But the entire system goes into one plug and it's
on a timer, and that timer has a ninety day
battery backup, and so we start installing in October. Yeah,

(37:18):
and some of those folks that are like, hey, I
pay for it, I want to see it, and they
they they'll cut it on right away, and others will,
you know, just leave it unplugged until whenever they want
to start, you know, the Christmas holiday, and then all
they have to do is just plug it in the
wall and they just work there.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
You go about a bing bout a boom. Yeah, I'm
seeing I'm seeing houses with Christmas trees up inside and
and and Halloween decorations that we're still outside.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
We've got our all of ours up. So uh, you know,
my wife got busy early, but you know, we usually
are traveling for the holidays, and so she wants them
up earlier so she can enjoy them for longer because
we're not going to be there on the on Christmas Day, I.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Understand, all right, So, uh, five slots left. That's that.
Then that's gonna wrap it up for you guys this
time around.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Huh. Yeah, there's a there's a finite number of spots
that we have and when they're filled, uh, that we're
we're pretty much done for the season. And you know,
I think any any outdoor lighting company or holiday lighting
company is facing the same thing right now. So if
somebody get well to getting.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Good there you go. Now, if somebody calls you Monday,
for example, how quickly could they expect to have the
What does that process look like? I mean the do
you sit down and kind of get an idea I
guess she's done a good idea of what is they
want exactly before? Do you design it up there? Or
how does how does that happen? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (38:40):
I mean we chat with them for a minute over
the phone, make sure that we're all on the same page.
And then you know, if they if it's what they
want to do, then we'll create some designs and we
can do everything, you know, right over the phone and
over a computer. We can create some designs and actually
take pictures of their house and uh and simulate lights
on their house so they'll see exactly what it's going

(39:01):
to look like. And you know, then we get back
to them with some different design ideas and then they
kind of pick what they want and then we put
them on the on the schedule.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Very cool.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
So right now we're booking for it's right in the
beginning of December.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Okay, so you've still got a good three three and
a half four weeks to enjoy them before and after that,
Chap me, you leave these up until into January, I realize.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Okay, yeah, it'll be probably mid January when they come down.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Okay. And uh, for folks who want to grab one
of those last five slots, who do they call you? Obviously,
I mean, how do they reach you?

Speaker 3 (39:33):
They call eight five to five, ask a Joe and
that will correct them to either our Columbia office or
our office out in Lexington.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Okay, gotcha, all right? Now, Uh, this is something y'all
started doing a number of years back because you get
to this time of the year and what was your
your your main focus mosquito keeping them out of your backyard,
make it outside fun again. Uh, this is kind of
the time of year when when that starts to really
really dial back for not as long as people might think,

(40:00):
just really a couple of months tops, right.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Yeah, it's all based on the weather. I mean, you know,
we have officially, you know, stopped at this point. We're
right close to Thanksgiving, about the time we stop every year,
but we do have clients that want us to continue going.
So we are here year round and if we will treat,
you know, if they have mosquitoes, we'll treat for mosquitos.
A lot of times people have spider issues, and you know,

(40:26):
we do a lot more than just mosquitoes. We can
take care of the home inside out. We do termites, now,
home pest defense, fire ants, I mean, any test that
they are having an issue with inside or outside of
the house, we we can address that.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
And that's the total pest control. That's like what once
a quarter I guess is that about right? You come
out for that.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Yeah, they can either do it quarterly or they can
do it by monthly. You know, it quarterly is a
little bit more expensive because you're using a lot more product.
Either way, it works. You know a lot of customers
prefer for us to be out there a little bit
more often just to ensure that, you know, they're not
having any breakthrough or anything like that. So you know,

(41:09):
we recommend bi monthly, but they can do it quarterly
as well.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
And then you just recently really ramped up the termite
side of the business as well, So now, yeah, that's right.
We do.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
We do basically two different things. We'll do brand new
construction where we're pre treating as that home is being built.
We're spraying the bottom three feet of all of the
wood with a product that's actually organic that is basically
makes the bottom of that house unedible. So if termites

(41:46):
were to ever to approach that house, you know, it
doesn't matter if it's five years, ten years, or twenty
years or thirty years. There's a thirty year manufacturer's warranty
on that product where the manufacturer will pay for any
damage because basically that product not basically but that that
product does not ever break down, it go it soaks

(42:08):
into the wood, and makes that wood unedible. If if
termites were trying to eat on that, they would die,
you know, pretty pretty quickly. And they're going to figure
out real quick this is this is not good. This
place did not pass the Health code inspection. You know,
let's go.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Find some thelon.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
They're going to go elsewhere. So that is our pre
construction treatment. You can only do that on a on
a house while it is being constructed and all that
wood is exposed. But for homes that are already due,
we do the baiting stations which go, you know, about
every fifteen feet around the house. It's a little bait
station that is a that is a bait that will

(42:49):
attract the termites and eliminate the entire colony. And you know,
you're you're in South Carolina. It's not a matter of if,
it's a matter of wind as far as having termites approach,
which is why most people have it tied in with
their mortgage. Mortgage companies require it because they don't want
your house to get eaten from the inside out.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yeah, right, right to check their investment. Right. How much
of the technology has evolved over the years when it
comes to treating the terminite sounds like it's light years
ahead of what it used to be.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Yeah, it's evolved quite a bit. I mean, the treatment
that we do on new construction has been around for
a very very long time. That with the advent of
chemicals and things like that, I think a lot of
pest control companies got away from it. But there really
isn't anything better because it doesn't break down. I mean

(43:40):
that when they do a termite pre treatment and they
spray chemicals on the ground, the most that that's really
going to last is about ten years, and then you're
really going to have to probably put in bait stations
or something to have some secondary coverage for that home
because what you've put down is going to be pretty
well gone at that point. So, uh, those baiting stations

(44:03):
are fantastic. They put them, you know, strategically all the
way around the foundation of the house. It is a
it is a attractant is something that is termites. When
termites get into it, Uh, they send those pheromones and
it tracks the entire colony. They start eating from it,
they all return back to the colony and it just

(44:24):
wipes out the entire colony, which is fantastic, but you know,
on a typical property, you'll you you know, over the
course of his lifetime, you'll develop you know, tens, you know,
you'll develop a bunch of quality you know colonies. And
so those bait stations, you know, don't quit, they keep working.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
You still do an annual inspection as you always would,
but you're checking base stations for activity, and you know,
just making sure that any any colonies that prop you know,
pop up are are being eliminated. And you know, with that,
you're eliminating the entire colony, not just turning them, you
know away and saying, hey, go elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yeah. Well, that's that that prospect of termites is is
terrifying for homeowners for good reason.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
They can cause a lot of damage and they're doing
it all behind the walls where you can't see it.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Right exactly. So now that that you get to the
total pest control, to get the termite treatments, and we'll
let's circle back around to the mosquito treatments again. As
we just talked about typically this is the time of
the year. It's all really based on the weather patterns.
But when you guys are I think you were out
to my house. I think last week, a week or
two back for the last treatment of the of the
of the season. But people might be surprised at how

(45:40):
soon you start treating again.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
Yeah, we're we're back up and at it. Around President's
Day mid February. We're getting out, getting the larva side
and you know, finding water sources and to make sure
that we're not that mosquito new mosquitoes are not being
born on that property. I mean, at this point, even
if the mosquitoes are not gone, the pressure is pretty low.

(46:05):
But as long as there are mosquitoes alive, their sole
purpose in life is to you know, find a mate
and then start laying eggs. And they will lay up
to three hundred eggs every few days. They'll continue to
reproduce eggs and keep you know, laying those eggs. Those
eggs most likely are not hatching during you know, December

(46:25):
and January. It's usually mid February, you know, early March,
when basically those eggs will come out of incubation when
the conditions are right, when you have really nice weather
and that means just consistently above fifty degrees and so
you know, we do have customers that treat all the
way through the winter, just because our winters are so
mild that you know, you definitely can see mosquitos. I mean,

(46:49):
we've had a couple of cold days, but we still
have not had that week where it's where it's in
the thirties every single night for a full week. That
would pretty well take care of almost all mosquitoes unless
they were able to find a tree hole somewhere or
somewhere to insulate themselves from the cold. But when we're
up in the seventies every day, I mean, it's it's

(47:11):
really still they're still very can be very very active.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Oh yeah, we had some eighties this past week. I
mean it's it's been a very mild November for the
most part. We had one or two days there, but
for the most part it's been really really on the
warm side, I mean almost record breaking warmth. And so
that's the point. I mean, you come back out around
President's Day, give or take, it's it's not really then
so much about you know, killing off any mosquitoes that
might be flying around your back here are because there

(47:36):
basically won't be any, But it's about getting a head
start by keeping the new ones from showing up.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
I guess, right, Yeah, I mean, it's it's all part
of integrated pest management. I mean, Mosquito Joe was named
the most eco friendly pest control company in the country
because of all of our you know, innovative techniques and
eco friendly techniques, I mean, and we really when it
comes to mosquitos, we really want to get them before

(48:03):
they're born, meaning those eggs are there, and those eggs
are very resilient. There's really nothing legal or safe that's
going to eliminate mosquito eggs. But once those eggs hatch,
you want to make sure that there is larva side
in that water so that they're never born. Because they
when they hatch, they go through you know, through a

(48:23):
larva stage, pupa stage, and then they become an adult
and they can be in that larval and pupa stage
for anywhere from four days to a month and a half.
You know, so in the early spring, a lot of
times they're in that larval stage a lot longer because
the weather is not completely perfect. You know, the conditions

(48:46):
are not ideal. You know, in the midsummer, they're expanding
so quickly because they go through that larval stage and
pupa stage very very quickly in less than a week.
And so you have hundreds of new mosquitos being introduced
on a weekly basis.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
So it's all weather dependent as to how quickly they
develop and get out there and start buying.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
You say that again, it's all.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
It's all weather dependent as to how long they stay
in those stages and before they.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Get you know, eggs will not hatch once the temperatures
are consistently in the fifties or below fifty degrees, they'll
they'll go into incubation and then when the conditions are better.
But if they're if it's not warm and humid outside,
then they'll stay in that larval stage a little bit longer,

(49:34):
you know, before they fully develop. And who is weather dependent?

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Who knows right now in your backyard how many of
those eggs are sitting there waiting to hatch.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
So there's probably thousands in almost everyone's yard. I mean,
you know, it doesn't take long for mosquitoes, can They
only have to make one time? A female mosquito mates
one time, and then she takes what she was given
from that mail, and she reproduces eggs over and over
in her life, and she'll she'll only live four to
six weeks, but she'll lay thousands of eggs during that

(50:07):
time period. She can lay eggs every few days, up
to three hundred at a time.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Wow, and that's just one mosquito doing all that damage.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
That's just one female mosquito.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
All right. Tray So as folks start to think about
you know, it won't be long before you'll be back
out there again with those treatments. First treatment is still
just thirty nine bucks.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Right, yeah, our first treatment. If somebody has never used
this before and they're interested to try this out, there's
no contract. It is a reoccurring service. We come back
every three weeks automatically and and you know, find more
standing water, put down more the larva side, and spray
the yard. But there's no contract with Mosquito Joe ever.

(50:48):
The first treatment is only thirty nine dollars. It's below cost.
We you know, we went on earn their business the
right way, make a difference on their property, show them
that hey, wow, this really really works. This is this
can be a great thing. I can go outside anytime
day or night not have to spray myself down. And
so you know, we want to earn their business every time.
We every time we do it.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Trey as always, Thank you my friend, and Happy Thanksgiving.
We will talk to you soon.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
Thank you you too. You have a wonderful holiday.

Speaker 7 (51:19):
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

(51:40):
from other companies is our customer service. We have a
five star rating on Google, a five star rating on Facebook,
an A plus rating on Angie's List, and an 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 next service call when you mentioned you

(52:01):
heard us on WVOC. Learn more at Freedom dash Plumbing
dot com. That's Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.