Home Improvement Show 12-02-23

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Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Good morning and welcome in. It'sthe Home Improvement Show the Midlands on one
three point five FM and five sixtyam. WVOC morning to you. I'm
Gary David. Nice to have youwith us on this Saturday morning, the
second day of December. Wow,time is flying, isn't it? We
are what now? Three weeks awayand two days three weeks two days away

(00:30):
for Christmas Day. Unbelievable. Gota busy hour this hour coming up.
We'll talk to Casey and Marcus overat Lifetime, Cabus and countertops. What's
the question they get asked most whenfolks turn to them the five time in
a row state newspaper readers pull winnersfor countertops. What's the number one question
they get? Well, we'll divulgethat and tell you the answer to Johnny

(00:53):
Kathy Fikner is gonna join me inthe next half hour from Rock to Top
Resurfacing, stand by for that.We get things started with James carl Well
from Freedom Plumbing. Good morning,sir, Good morning Gary. How you
doing. I'm doing well, man, I hope you are too. We
want to talk about stoppages this morning, all sorts of that is a big
part of your business. How howhow many how many times you called out
on a weekly basis because something stucksomewhere Quite a few actually, may could

(01:19):
be as small as you know,lavatory blockage, which is typically right in
the pop up assembly, and that'sthe part that you know you stop to
sink up to fill the bowl upwith water. Usually it's right there.
We do have some cases where it'sfurther down the line on older systems.
You know, it could be anythingfrom a garbage disposal to the whole house
backing up. Oh yeah, theywe get we get called up quite a

(01:42):
bit for him. So and wehave equipment to deal with all kinds of
different types of stoppages. Right,So let's start simple here, James,
Uh, I don't know. Let'sstart with out of garbage disposals. Yeah,
so great devices, you know,put stuff down there, grind up
and send it on down the system. There's a few things I wouldn't recommend

(02:06):
putting down anything starchy, noodles,things of that nature kind of just get
ground up and turn into one bigglob of noodles rather than get chopped up
very well. Anything soft and mushylike that has the potential for hitting that
little tea there's a there's a teaunderneath the most sinks, unless it's a

(02:29):
single ball sink, there's a teathat kind of catches the other side of
the sink on a two ball system. And I guess when people think about
that tea they think of it beingas being a wide open there's actually a
baffle in it which kind of restrictshow much stuff can go from the disposal
side to the drain side, sothat the glob of stuff typically gets caught

(02:53):
right in there at the tee.And what you'll have is the disposal side
won't drain, but your other sinkwill, and that typically means that the
stoppages is right there, or thatalways means the stoppages right there underneath at
that tea. Most of the timethat makes sense. Never really thought about
that, Okay, so nothing.If both things are stopping up, then

(03:13):
we know we have a bigger issue. Hopefully at that point it's at the
pea trap, which is still underneathyour cabinet. But if it's past that
pea trap, that's that's the pointwhere we get to break out the machine
and run the cable down the drainline to try to get that that line
unstopped right, all right, Sonothing starching in a garbage supposed Well,
what else should you not be puttingdown that thing? Well, I went

(03:37):
to a call the other day wheresome chicken got put down the drain.
That's you know, cook chicken.Well, that's just a crime to begin
with. We have a chicken shortagein this country. We should not be
putting in the garbagexposal. I mean, come on for crying out loud,
but right anyway, Yeah, andagain, what it did is just shredded
it up and kind of turned itinto one big mushy glob of chopped up

(03:58):
chicken. And it luckily got caughtright in the pea trap, which we
can just take a part undereath thecabinet and clean it out and put it
back together and test everything out andmake sure it's flowing properly. So yeah,
potatoes, potato peels, stuff likethat. And if you have an
older system, I would be carefulwith quite a bit of things. Actually

(04:24):
on older systems. Let's see,you have galvanized drain line, it starts
to rust from the inside and crowefrom the inside, and that line can
close down almost like a bad arteryis I guess the best way to describe
it. And you start introducing morethan just water, which I mean,
you're going to get some stuff downyour kitchen sink is just gonna happen.

(04:45):
But when you start shoving plate fullof food and the disposal to try to
get rid of them, that couldpotentially create an issue as well. I
typically recommend just scrape it off intothe trash or you're compost and you know,
wash the plate off initially on thegarbage disposal side, and run that

(05:06):
to break up any large particles thatmight have still gotten into the sink.
Other than that, I wouldn't recommendputting a lot of leftovers down in there.
I was going to ask you thatbecause most plumbers agree, right if
the garbage disposal you probably really shouldn'tuse if you don't have to. I
don't, And a big reason Idon't even have one in my home really

(05:28):
because we built on a site witha subject tank and I just didn't want
to entice myself to use it whenI really don't have to. So we
scrape everything off from the trash canand just rinse the dishes off before we
put them in the dishwasher, andthose suckers are a pain to replace,
at least for the lay person likeme. I've I've replaced one or two
in my day, and that ain'ta lot of fun. Man, those

(05:50):
suckers are heavy. Yeah. Plumbing'salways in an awkward place too. It's
not usually in a place that's veryaccessible under sinks and under cabinets and stuff
like that, or interesting places tocontort and get inside of. I don't
know how y'all do that, man, I really don't. Oh my goodness,
get used to it after a while. While we're talking about garbage disposals,

(06:13):
what's the interconnection here between Okay,you got a two sink unit.
We talked about that that tea rightthere, But what's how does this all
work when you now you're talking abouta dishwasher involved, because it all drains
the same place, right typically,yes, sir, the the dishwasher usually
drains into the side of the garbagedisposal, so there's a there's a little

(06:38):
fitting. It's got a plug initiallyinside of it. So the customer does
not have a dishwasher. That meansthat that that plug remains in there so
you don't get any water coming outunder your sink. If they do have
a dishwasher, we knocked a plugout with a screwdriver and remove it from
the unit and then attach the drainof the dishwasher to the garbage disposal.

(06:59):
So what's going on where you know, I've it's been a long time.
We actually have a dishwasher. Wealmost never use we do no, we
I take that back, we dome. Uh, but it seems like
I recall every now and then somethingwill back up into the dishwasher. Yeah,
So there's always the potential for ifif you have a sink stoppage because

(07:21):
of that connection between your garbage disposaland the drain of the dishwasher, you
can get water from the kitchen sinkbacking up into the dishwasher. That's that's
the possibility. Okay, that justhappens when your sink can't drain the whole.
You know, if you allow thesink to fill up high enough,

(07:41):
it could potentially spill over into thedishwashers through that connection. All right,
gotcha. Now, if you ifyou have put something down that garbage disposal
and you back things up, Imean it is without having to you know,
call you to come out. Imean, is there anything you can
do as the as the homeowner.If you feel comfortable with removing the undersync
piping, which is called tubular pipingand it's typically done with compression nuts,

(08:07):
then yeah, you can remove thatpiping starting at that at that p trap
and then the T and kind ofwork your way through the system. See
if the clog is underneath the sync. If it's further than that, you
know, again, depends on howhandy you're feeling. If you want to
go try to get your hands onsome equipment to run down the drain line,

(08:28):
that's always a possibility as well.Okay, I might could do that,
but you know my rule of thumbhere. Hey, listen, I'll
play around to a degree with electricalstuff. Maybe not a good idea,
but I ain't touching plumbing. Man. She makes youself a big old mess
in her in a hurry and ruina lot of stuff. So I just
kind of stay away from mass.But I just called James Carlot freedom plumbing

(08:50):
that you're happy to take care allright, Grease? Grease? Yeah,
So is there any truth to thefact that if you run hot water down
the drain then you're okay to puta little bit of grease in there or
should you never do that period.I'm not big on putting grease down any

(09:13):
kind of drain to be honest withyou. Hot water, cold water,
Yeah, it doesn't. I mean, there's a couple of different theories.
One being used cold water helps solidifythe grease quickly and helps go down the
draining chunks. If you use hotwater and that grease remains liquefied as it

(09:35):
travels down the drain, let's justsay some settles and doesn't make it all
the way out, and you're gonnahave a dried puddle of grease at some
point. So yeah, I'd justrather not introduce grease into the drain system
at all if avoidable. You're gonnaget some down there. Being off a
plate, you're gonna get grease downthe drain. So definitely good idea of

(09:58):
the on the line for a littlebit, allow that to make it all
the way through the system. Butyeah, grease is one of the harder
things to get out as far aswhen there is a stoppage really, So
what typically happens is your cable willrun through the grease blockage, make it
through the other side, and thenas you're pulling the cable back, it
just kind of closes back in onitself. There's been cases where I've had

(10:22):
to run a kitchen sink drain tentimes before the line drain, just because
you're only getting very little bits outat a time as you go through that
grease blockage and you have to continuallyrun it back and forth. You can
always tell when you pull the cableback and then you've got a grease blockage.

(10:43):
It's typically all over the cable onceyou pull it out. Oh yeah,
let's get out of the kits.You get into the bathroom. A
couple of opportunities here for blockages.Yeah, So again, the lavatory sink
will be in one of the mostcommon that we find, and usually what

(11:03):
happens is there's a lot of buildup in the initial part of your drain,
which is the pop up assembly.There's a rod you know, that
you can typically pull up behind thefaucet that makes the pop up drop down
and stop the sink up so youcan fill it up with water. Well,
the rod that's used to raise andlower that pop up typically tends to

(11:26):
catch things as it goes down thedrain. Hair being the biggest one that
it catches, but then you alsoget that build up right there, of
course, toothpaste, all kinds ofstuff, face washed and soaps, and
you just start getting built up rightright there underneath where the sink the stopper
is. And the easiest way thatI've taken care of those, even on

(11:52):
my own things, is just byusing one of those small little handheld devices
that you can get from your boxstore called the drain weasel. They're very
good. Yeah, I had touse it a lot. Yeah, and
that's the easiest way to get youknow, to see if if that's what's
going to back up. Of course, you've got two sinks, you know,

(12:13):
like a double lavatory in that bathroom. If you're only having issues with
one, again, more likely you'redealing with the stoppage right underneath that pop
up stopper. So the easiest wayto do that, I think they're like
four dollars at your local box store, you know, give that a shot,
before you know, you spend themoney to get a plumber out.
That's always the easiest route to take. What about could save you some money?

(12:37):
What about the you know, Iwant to mention names here, but
you know, the liquids that aresupposed to bust that stuff up. Do
they work? Yes, some ofthem are pretty good with you know,
breaking down by it aggredibles. Wewe carry a product called Thrift and it

(12:58):
does a good job. It's supposedto be a nine talks the type of
drain cleaner, and it's activated bywarm water. So basically what you do
is, if if you don't haveany drainage at all, the liquids,
the you know, the dissolvable draincleaners really not going to help you much
because you've got to be able toget that product to where the blockage is.

(13:20):
So if you just absolutely have nodrainage or very little at all,
this products really aren't going to helpyou. You're gonna need something mechanical to
remove that blockage. So, Imean we've all used those things all the
time. Of course, if youhave you got a slow drain okay,
but if it's if water's is notgonna anywhere, you're gonna need to do
something other than that then. Inother words, yeah, because you could
be creating more issues, especially foryour plumber if they come out and you've

(13:41):
got to sink full of drain overwhatever product you put down there. You
know those those are pretty corrossive materialsor crossive products. And I've gotten some
splashback from removing fee traps and stufflike that underneath sinks. Product like that
has been used, and you knowcan definitely cause some irritation and almost I

(14:07):
guess chemical burns. Maybe I won'tstay with Matt. Got about two minutes
left here, James, for we'reout of time. But you mentioned that
the onset of the segment full housestoppages. Now that sounds bad. Yeah,
so yeah, Typically when you're dealingwith the whole house stoppage, my
recommendation would be the first off,called the municipality that you pay your sewer

(14:31):
bill to have them come out anddetermine whether it's on their end of the
system and they have to take careof it at no cost to you,
or if it's on your end ofthe system. And at that point I
would recommend calling a plumber nine timesout of ten, if not more.
You're dealing with the roots situation.If the stoppage is outside of the home,

(14:54):
that's the number one thing we runinto is roots getting into the train
lines. They're using this thinin wallPVC drain line pipe to go from the
house to your city tap, andthat typically just kind of goes into that
pipe. It's not very structurally sound. Okay, why not? Do you
think they'd have thought about that aheadof time? Yeah, we going all

(15:16):
schedule forty PVC. I'm not surewhy they allow the thin wall to be
used outdoors. They required the thickstuff to be used under the house.
But as soon as you leave thehouse you can use a thin wall pipe.
And I to mean, honestly,doesn't make much sense because that's where
you're gonna encounter most of your issues. Okay, you're right, it makes
absolutely no sense at all. Andof course you'll know if you gotta gotta

(15:37):
got a whole house stoppage because thingsare backing up everywhere. I guess,
huh, that's right. You'll typicallyget you'll notice in the toilet's gurgling,
bubbling the lower fixtures, toilet,showers, tubs, You make flush toilet
and it come up in your tub. Not a good day, no,
especially if you're in the tub somebodyelse plushes all right, James Carwell,

(16:03):
our guy from Freedom Plumbing. Theguys ride around town of the big red,
white and blue patriotic trucks can miss. I'm James, how to folks
get a hold of you. I'llgive us call at eight oh three four
four seven four seven one or visitorwebsite at Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.
Hi buddy, have us up greatweek? Will you you do? Sing?
Rock Thetop Resurfacing transforms outdated tubs,tile walls, tile floors, countertops

(16:23):
and more without replacements, save money, time and the environment. Free estimates
at Rockdtopresurfacing dot com or eight ohthree nine nine eight two eight a fists.
Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops is your locallyowned source for countertops. Great selection,
great prices, and they pride themselveson superior installation and customer service.

(16:45):
The owner, Marcus will even personallycome out to do all your measurements.
See the selection online at Lifetimecabinets scdot com or stop by one of Lifetime
Cabinets and Countertops two conveniently located showroomson Fernandina Road and Columbia or Chapin Road.
In Chapin and check out the hundredsof slabs in stock granite, marble,

(17:06):
quartz court site. They've got itall and if you can't find exactly
what you were looking for when you'rethere, and that's rare. They will
find it. And it's not justkitchens and bats. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops,
does outdoor patios, vanities, bars, man caves, you name it.
Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops. Fernandina Roadin Columbia, Chapin Road in Chapin

(17:27):
and online at Lifetime Cabinets sc dotcom. Welcome back to the Home Improveing
Show the Midlands. Good to haveyou along. As always, we appreciate

(17:48):
you tuning in here on one Othree point five FM and five sixty amwvoc
as. Welcome into the studio now, Marcus Greenwell, Casey, Alexander,
it's Lifetime Acount of times. Goodmorning, thank you, thank you,
goodness. I'm gonna get meeting thismorning. Yeah, everybody else, is

(18:10):
there a particular reason, Well,you're always in a good movie. Yeah,
yeah, it's just because of Saturday. I'm still full from last week,
right U. This week's happening.You know, it's been chili and
yeah, I got you know,rain and this and that and yeah,
you're telling me you ate too muchof Thanksgiving? Okay, see I had

(18:33):
plenty of Yeah, I can't complainon that front. We had so much
we almost will thought about you.I tell you what. Let's go ahead
and skip straight to the Thanksgiving dinnernow because we have enough left over.
Let's just get together tomorrow and haveour mean a Christmas dinner, right,
Yeah, because there's so much leftover from things. Yeah, we could
have killed two birds with or thatbird. Yeah, one bird with stuff.

(19:00):
They figured it out either. Yeah, I guess wherever that goes to.
Speaking of stones, that's where it'sgoing. We sell stones granted marble.
Wow, look at this guy overhere like that. That's a nice
segue. Yeah, it's okay.See what do you say about that?
Well, you know, the thequestion we keep getting and getting and getting
getting the big ques over the bigquestion. And we've seen our Facebook lately,

(19:25):
you know, Margus keeps asking itover and over again. Is granted
or courts? Granted or courts?My first reaction to that is, let's
not leave out marble and quartzite andthese other options, especially the marble option,
because it's well, let me starthere, why why limited to granted

(19:47):
and courts? That's what everybody asks, everybody question, that's the main question.
Granted and then so that's why Ialways open it up. Hey,
you know, let's let's back up. There as other options. You know,
you know, I'm not even goingto get into the other options that
we don't know mess with, butlet's let's talk about the stone options.
And that's you know, we dohave marble and quartzite that you know,

(20:11):
probably quartzite. Whether the quartzite's gotto be in your budget, I mean,
you've got to want quartzite and beable to avoid I will say that
quartzite is on the upper end ofthe threshold of things, okay, But
but marble's right there in the middle. Lot lots of times can be even
less expensive than some of these Courtzproducts, or they're equal. And really,

(20:32):
I mean there's a depth and beautyto it that you can't get in
the man made stuff. You know. I was telling my wife pass the
other day because the last time wetalked, I asked you that question,
because again you're the traditionalist, andyou know, for years on this program
you always said, uh, naturalstone, but you know, the courts
has become extremely popular, it has, and it's a man made product.

(20:53):
And you said, I said,well, why, you said, because
of the depth of the real stone. Yeah, and you know, over
the holiday break, I'm looking downat the beautiful marble countertops y'all put in
our home and we just put courtscountertops y'all did to my parents' home,
right, and it hit me.I looked at that. I said,
Okay, I see it. Isee the difference. You can see down

(21:15):
into that marble and the grantite thatwe're on about the invanities y'all put in
a couple of years ago. Youlook at that, you can see into
it and there is a depth thingthere with a natural stone that you get
with the man made and that meanthat comes with time. I mean,
just let's let's think of like cooking, you know, when you want when

(21:36):
you're like that Thanksgiving dinner that wehad last week, you know who has
you know, who does that turkeythe best? The one that takes the
time and slowly if you try torush it, and you try to rush
it like and that's what's basically theman made process is doing, is introducing
other catalysts such as dies in residentsto rush the process of nature to create,

(21:59):
you know, just like marble andquurt site were formed. That's what
they're trying to mimic when they makecourts, but they have to introduce these
other agents and and and Russia,so you don't get that that slow roll.
And that's that's where you yeah,the time it is taken earth and
when you when you over thousands ofthousands of thousands and thousands of thousands of

(22:22):
viewers. Yeah, there's a lotof different stone types into the stones too,
the natural stones. There's you know, different types of rock minerals content.
Right, let me ask this dumbquestion. I mean, let's take
for example, I don't just becauseit's what I have before a reference for

(22:42):
me and not helping y'all listening,I know. But the marble, uh
that y'all put in our home,I'm trying to get the name of it
right now. Monk mont blank,monk blank. Like the pen yep,
yeah, yeah, when that cameout of the ground, it didn't look

(23:02):
like what it looks like on mycountertop. It requires the polishing, mechanical
polishing, yep. Okay, Butbut that that beauty is there, yeah,
yeah, it was just just gotto be refined, you know,
and brushed and brushed and brushed,just like you know, the experiments you
did, don't your school. Withthe tumbeling of the river rock, you
got a whole bunch of rocks.You thumb a little tumbler and then you

(23:23):
throw the different grits in there withit. And we went down and throw
the different you know. And Inever found gold when I did that,
but you would get some pretty colored, different colored rocks, yeah, yeah,
and they would polish up. Imean it looked a lot different than
the rough you know what that youput in there. But yeah, so
when it comes off the earth outof the earth, when you know,

(23:45):
when they blow these blocks out theside of these mountains, yeah, they're
rough, but then they slice themup and dice them up and them you
have these big octopus look at harmthings that go and have a few different
grits and polish it all up.I think it's a fifteen step process they
use on that with lots of water. Yeah, oh you can't. Yeah,

(24:06):
if you if you look at aat a at a cornch product versus
in the natural products, you cansee the difference. Yes. Having said
that, though course is incredibly popularright now, it is, and that's
because of a lot of the practicalityis that the agents such as resin plastic
or whatnot they add in there.Not only do you create a very consistent
product that you can make very whiteand crisp and clean. Yeah, sterile

(24:32):
to me looking, but that's it'staste. So it's good to be in
certain locations. Oh but oh boy, we'll yeah, okay, all right,
so back here only no, butit is you know what I'm saying,

(24:52):
like it just has that that's justthe real clean look and the whites
whites that everybody want. And it'svery consistent, but also of the non
poorest nature of it, very difficultto stain. You know, the residents
do potentially make it copable to scorchingpotentially. Now, as we've mentioned before,

(25:15):
and you know, I will saythis, in the last twenty years,
in my personal experience, I've foundit that you're three times more likely
to get struck by lightning than tosee a hot pot scorch courts. Okay,
And if you want those stories,you can come into the store and
I'll tell you the stories. Sowe've discussed in the past. But yes,

(25:41):
I in the past twenty years,I have been struck by lighting three
different times. But what we've talkedabout it you're gonna start doing the show
remotely, right, Well, youcan be on the phone markets and come
to the studio. Yeah, whatthree three times total? Going back to
my last I don't want to comehere during my last in between my junior

(26:03):
and senior year of college, andthen uh once in my mustang when I
had a little convertible mustane and thenonce it was back when I you know
a few years back, when Iin June, I'm middle of June,
when right beginning of covid U whenuh, when I ended up to the
hospital for that week. I guessI really did. I was on the

(26:26):
hospital for that week, so Ireally didn't miss any recording or anything.
Well, yeah, three times you'vebeen hit, you must be electrically charged
or something. But anyway, that'sit was the joke is that. Yeah,
so my experience, you know,you're three times more likely it's struck
by lighting. But but what Isay, overall, the answers to the
question is this, come in andtalk to us, let us figure out

(26:49):
your specific needs. You know,talk to and if not us educated professional,
you know, go somewhere like Arcadieuh uh you know where it might
be that would shop, you know, where you have somebody with education on
the different stones that can listen toyour needs and what you want to.

(27:14):
Let me as far as just tastewise or get somebody like Page involved,
you know, when you're picking outthe color, and then we can kind
of explain it. Once you knowwhat you want to look at, we
can you know, pivot one wayor another as far as picking out the
stone that's going to be best foryour use. Yeah, practically, this

(27:34):
is something we talk about from timeto time. I mean, you could
go to a big box store andbuy a countertop right now, wouldn't suggest
it, and police just don't justdon't google and expect to get the right
answer. I mean, you knowwe were talking about I'm still you know,

(27:55):
waiting on the doctor tell me,you know, hey, where I
go with my knee right now?Hopping around on a crutch. But I'm
not gonna go look a replace tohappen. Man, I'm always it's always
something I don't know. But anyway, but I'm not gonna go to web
MD. I'm not going to justgo to Google and say, Okay,
you know this is what someone saysmust be wrong because it matches up the
symptoms no, I'm gonna I'm goingto go to a professional, you know,

(28:19):
car mechanic if my car is brokendown. I'm not just you know,
you know I've learned that lesson inthe past. It happens when Gooper's
working on your car. Yeah,I've got a call from him before a
Marcus. Yeah, I mean itwas just me. I thought, simple
tune up, right when I hadthe Jetta, simple tune up and for

(28:40):
you know, thirty minutes in,get everything a our is, go and
crack regnitionion cop off the top ofthe Wait. Wait, I'm pretty sure
this is the most hard luck personI've ever met. I am unlucky it
was that happened. I can't helpyou think out. He's good picking out,

(29:00):
that's for sure. His redeeming qualityright there. Okay, now,
now he always makes it the storetoo. On the time. Let's let's
reset this here for a second.This is this is vital information for you.
If you go visit Lifetime Cabins andCountertops. Uh, you're you're only

(29:21):
at the at the Fernandina Road Saturday. Yeah, Saturday. If you go
out during the week and you wantto peruse the lot out there in shape
and and Casey's out there and theclouds are building in get indoors or don't
get where you're just let Casey stayinside through the lot. You know,

(29:44):
he does have a bum knee,so that might work out. I just
hold the crowdch straight up and we'reall see there you go? All right?
Now, okay, so what doyou Yeah, you just kind of
addressed this. But when the peoplecome in and say, yeah, it's
if nothing else exists, you know, granite re cords, and you tell
them, well, let's look atsomething, I mean, what the reaction

(30:06):
do you get there? Huh?Duh? Well I try to be like,
what, let's let's back I tryto back them out of that question
and say, well, first ofall, before we even get there,
what do you like the look ofbecause the main thing is you're gonna have
to look at this every day.We can put a ceilant on the granite.
We can put a ceilant on themarble that even protects against etching.
We can put a ceilant on thecourt site, you know, the you

(30:30):
can use a trivet or whatnot onthe courts. We can we can direct
you in your usage or whatnot tomake any of these services practical for you.
But what ultimately do you want tosee every day when you walk in
that kitchen. What's going to bebeautiful to you, not your neighbor or
not. What what suits your taste? What's going to make you smile every

(30:53):
time you see it in that room? Although having said that, I know
you have talked to or your wifepast, well yeah, your wife don't
matter. What if a guy don'tmatter what you want to look at.
But Marcus, we've talked about thisbefore. Now, if you're in a
situation where you're thinking, okay,you know next year or two maybe three

(31:15):
tops, ye know, we're thinkingabout putting this house on the market and
hitting something else. Now that comesinto play too. Just do what you
want to put in there. Don'tput the pink granted in there. Well
yeah, and we do have andwe do have, you know, the
stuff that has universal appill and youknow, so whether it be a level

(31:37):
one granted that's just going to beinexpensive and get you that surface in there,
or whether it be recently like wedid, uh you know for you
with with the courts is hey,you know, let's get an inexpensive courts
as the prices come back down andget something that's going to have a pill
on the market right now. Right, But we were we're in tune with

(31:59):
that well. You know, wewe have you know, flippers and real
estate investors and anybody else that wework with all the time, so we
know what's going on out there,and uh we we do keep our finger
on that pulse so that we cananswer that question effectively, right right,
okay. And not only do youget that expertise going in, but I

(32:22):
mean once you made your selection,then it doesn't stop there. Now the
guy, our guys are I mean, I never cease to hear comments back
from you know, customers once afterthe install. Oh yeah, I got
effects late last night thanking me sayinghow beautiful this marble was they put in
the bathroom. She loved. It'samazing. I mean that's I never get

(32:44):
tired of hearing it because those guyswork so hard, you know, and
if you're not aware, because youknow, once the sale is made,
the fabrication process begins at our shop, at your shop, and then I
come out and measure you get tomeet Marcus come out there. I mean,
that's that's that's worth a couple bucksright there. This guy. I
got to meet all the kids andthe dogs, and the wives and the

(33:07):
husbands and whoever else cousins are overthere. I love it. Yeah.
I don't get there, I don'trush. I'll go in there and take
my time, point out any extrathings that I might come to my mind
and say, oh man, Ithank you, ought to do this here
or whatever. And that experience isinvaluable with him being in the home as
the inner as. I've seen everyone of these jobs that we've done,

(33:29):
whether it be for a builder,a flipper, or a residential customer.
He's seen every job that we've doneover the fifteen sixteen years we've been in
business, and so he can youknow, he's noticed, Okay, well
this is what this customer would havewanted after, you know, and we've
heard hed he's heard the complaints,he's heard the you know what's going into

(33:50):
the comments, and so he knowswhen he's there on site what to recommend.
And then when that kind of theirgets done with you and when he
install rolls around. I mean,it's still people that work for you guys,
yeah right, yeah, absolutely,they care about it. Yeah,
and that's the biggest thing is theywanted to bug the most beautiful job they

(34:12):
had, that marble job. Shecalled me on last night. The guys
brought that backsplash piece down four differenttimes to get it cut right because it
was one of those drop down tothe vanity ones. So it had like
a like a little U shape atthe bottom or whatever you want to call
it. Let's they had a littlebump down on them, so it was
like eight inches in the middle andthen four inches on each side and it

(34:34):
had to go wrap around the marble. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
they brought it down, you know, time after time until they got it
right. It was my parent's house, Yeah, working around that that stove
on the island there. Yeah yeah, yeah, they actually cut a little
more ouse we could push it furtherback in there and yeah oh yeah yeah
yeah. I mean it's not justbecause they're here to install, it doesn't
mean okay, this is the finalthat they can make the modifications right there

(34:57):
on site, right there on site. Yeah, very cool, all right,
lifetime cabs and countertop So the besttoday? Yes today, you I
don't think we're thinking we're not lookingfor thunderstorms today, are We can be
in Fernandina yeah, okay, you'llbe insight win to scrutch almostly, you
know, y'all come on back tothe desk and talk to me. I
know, you know, especially whenyou come in that front door. You

(35:20):
know your back lit and I can'treally see lot of times even if I
know you who you are. Socome on back to the desk, come
see me. We can go fromthere and if you need to go out
and see David and Chapin, he'llbe there at one three Chapin room.
We've got a lot of smaller piecesout and Chapin if you need some of
the smaller pieces. We still havethat sale going on the no cut feet

(35:42):
yes, yeah, so we don'thave Normally we have to charge extra for
that, so we're waiving that rightnow, trying to get rid of some
of these pieces so you can buyyou know, a small amount of square
footage. You don't have to buya minimum amount as long as you pick
it off with the pieces we have, and you know, we can go
from there and kind of give youa price on how much it is installed

(36:04):
if you wanted some sink cutouts oranything like that. Good. So we
got a sale going on there atone fifty three Chapin Road and then at
forty twenty Kase and also got somecourt special sealk. We got some slabs
out there and that KSE can showyou. And we've got some marble.
We've got graned out there, andwe got what else. We got the

(36:25):
court florts around. We got courtsout there. Yeah, we don't have
any court site at that store.But then we just have samples. We
do have a lot of samples outand we got tons of samples all right,
run times my last time cabins andcountertops. Well, we want you
all to concess there. You haveso good we can go call me eight
three. I'm James Carwell, localowner and operator of Freedom Plumbing right here

(36:51):
in the Midlands. After working asa 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 greatrespect I have for the men and women
of our armed forces and our firstresponders. I named my company Freedom Plumbing.
What sets us apart from other companiesis our customer service. We have
a five star rating on Google,a five star rating on Facebook, an

(37:15):
a plus rating on Angislist and anA plus rating with a Better Business Bureau.
I'm James Carwell, local owner ofFreedom Plumbing, and we look forward
to servicing you for all of yourplumbing needs. Get fifty percent off your
next service call when you mentioned youheard us on WVOC. Learn more at
Freedom dash Plumbing dot com. That'sFreedom dash Plumbing dot com. Homeowners,

(37:38):
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(38:00):
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(38:21):
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(38:49):
Hey, we're back on the HomeImprovement show the Midlands. Good morning again.
Good to have you listen this morninghere on one of three point five
FM and five sixty AMWVOC and wewell come into the studio now the rock
that Top reservice and folks, Hey, it's John and Kathy Fakner. How
y'all doing great? Gary? Howare you doing good? All ready for

(39:09):
this? I mean this like acouple of weeks from now this, I
can really go for a turkey sandwitchright about now, could you really?
I think I know where you mightcan find one. Yeah, although I
guess by now they you shouldn't beeating it still right, they shouldn't be.
I don't know. I think Iwould like some more cranberries. We
made enough turkey Thanksgiving to where Ithreatened the whole family down. I said,

(39:36):
you know what, why don't wejust reconvene tomorrow and will act like
it's Christmas dinner and we can finishthe rest. We had so much food,
it was just ridiculous. But youknow I've stopped eating it now when
I ate it, well, well, in the last week's great leftover.
Oh absolutely, absolutely. Well,it's always good to see y'all. And

(39:59):
I know this is a that thatweird time of the year now when all
of our attention gets onto other things. However, my understanding is you guys
are are rocking it over the rockand copper surface right now, staying busy.
There's a good reason for that,by the way, which is what
we want to talk about today.And again it is the last time we

(40:19):
convened together, we talked about howI for the first time got the witness
how this works when you all resurfacedsome of the flooring. That's all right,
it's business man, you need totake the bits money. Go ahead
and take the call. I forgotsile a few minutes here. Mine is
probably not silence, but nobody's callingme for business, so the probably won't

(40:44):
ring. Uh. Oh, yes, you did one, two, three
different surfaces in my parents' house.And I had to tell you. I
was talking to the realtor just thispast week, Charles Manley, and he
said he looked at that that wehad a little four year there. He
already did, and he looked atI just I'm just blown away by this.

(41:06):
Yeah, because you got what yougot to understand if if you had
seen this before, and you know, thirty years ago in this house was
built. Okay, this was thestyle, but you got this, like,
I don't know, it was onehundred green what do you call that
green? That man, it waspopular, big, it was big,
and one of the bathroom sings hadjust a little little hint of your favorite

(41:28):
color, John, think pink ofit and uh to see but to see
uh a surface it was this deep, deep green turn into a kind of
a white with the what do youcall that? The flaking multi stone flat
stone pluguff. Yeah, it's justit just really incredible. I mean,
the rills was blown away. Yeah, as we talked about a couple of

(41:50):
weeks ago, the painters were inthere while you were in there finishing things
up, and they were like,wow, yeah, your painter was very
in fact, I think I'm gonnabe working at his house. So yeah,
being from the paint world, hecould really appreciate what this is glorified
because really this is real high end. But yeah, but it's different,
Yeah, totally totally different. Andhow is it different. Let's talk about

(42:10):
well, the products you can't buyhim from, like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin
Williams. You just can't get thisstuff from those places. I get directly
from, you know, a chemist. In fact, I communicate with the
chemist a lot, and you know, I'll try a product out that they're
working on, and he'll send mea little bit and ask me how it's
performing, and I'll tell them whati'd like him to tweet. Because I'm
I'm not a chemist. I knowquite a bit about chemicals, but he

(42:34):
knows way more than I do.But I tell him how i'd like it
to maybe perform better. And he'sgot the government knocking on his door saying,
you know, we got health andthings up as well. So he's
got got it coming from both sidesto make the industry as a whole better.
And it just keeps getting better andbetter and better. I look forward
to next year and where it's gonnago. But yeah, you can't brush

(42:57):
and roll the stuff. It'll eatpaint brushes. But it's beautiful, it's
waterproof, it's inexpensive, it's fast, and we're saving the planet because nothing
ends up in a landfill except forpossibly a wasteful toilet and maybe some you
know, wrapping paper and tape.So this there is so much more to

(43:19):
it. And I don't want peopleto have the impression that you're coming out
and you're rolling so special paint onsomething. No, No, because that
that's actually the easy part, right, Yeah, that's the easy once you
get your techniques down, that's theeasy stuff to do. But there's so
much that go is at the prepto this before. Yeah, so what
exactly are you doing before? Ina nutshell, we like say, say

(43:40):
you got a pink ceramic tile,bathroom walls, floors, bathtub, vanity
top, everything, it's all justpink. The only thing that's not pink
in there is the mirror, andguess what that's reflecting? Pink. Yeah,
So we take these ceramic tiles andthe first thing we do is give
them an acid bath, and thatetches the aile, opens up the pores,

(44:00):
so it will you know, acceptour primers, which are epoxy and
UH. And then on top ofthe epoxy primer UH, we'll spray a
multi stone flecking typically on top ofthat, and then on top of that
and acrylic polyarthane, which could besemigloss, a satin or high gloss.
Uh. But but after we spraythis uh this hydrofluoric acid cleaner on there

(44:23):
to acid wash it and open upthose pores. After we do that,
we spray a alkaline based cleaner onthere to two times and rinse it all
off. And and now we gotall then we got to cut out all
the silicone cock because paint paint doesn'tstick the silicone and even my paint,
think about that. Yeah, wegot to cut all that out. So
we get all that out and weuse NAFTA. NAFTA helps us. It's

(44:44):
a hot, hot solvent that doesn'tevaporate super fast, but that actually works
really good on silicone. And oncewe got it all cleaned and ready to
accept paint, then we give ita final wipe with an acid tone or
dnatured alcohol and vacuum it all up. Make sure it's no dust, no
dirt, no debris, nut it'sgot to be perfect. Then we spray
them in a molecular binding agent ontop of that, which is clear,

(45:07):
and then our epoxy primers which canbe any color, and then the multi
stone and then the acrylic pile ofyour thing. So it's a we can
do a full bathroom now. I'mtalking floors, walls, bathtub, shower,
vanity top, and replace a toiletin three days flat, and we
can do it. I don't thinkwe've done one for more than four thousand

(45:30):
dollars yet, other than you know, a huge facility or something. But
so the I'm glad you went throughthe steps because while a lot of those
steps kathy to folks like us onthe you've understand it, but I don't.
I'm like, I kind of understand. Yeah, I have no idea
what you're talking about. But itproves the point that you're not walking in
here and just rolling some pain oversomething and say we resurfaced it now.

(45:52):
Well that's why we have a warrantytoo, and we want our customers to
be satisfied, and you know,you're making sure everything is done right right.
So, but the process for say, ceramic tile versus the floor versus
the bath of for example, theshower stall, is it the same the

(46:15):
different baths we're talking about here,Yeah, they're a little bit different,
and it depends on what the bathtub'smade out of. I mean sometimes they're
sometimes they're cast iron. I actuallylove those the last three hundred years.
Never going to rust through a castiron tub. I love them. Sometimes
they're just steel and you might havesome rust. In fact, I've had
several people that have called me andsaid, John, you know, I
don't know if you can. Idon't want to replace this tub because if

(46:37):
I do, when they tear thetub out, they're gonna have to replace
three rows of tile. They don'tmake those tiles anymore. So actually,
I got to tear out all thetile walls. And it's like seven thousand
dollars and I can stick my wholeentire finger all the way through a rust
hole wrapped around my drain. Isthere any possibility? Like absolutely, Go
to my Facebook wall. You'll seeI actually stick my finger in those holes

(46:59):
and take a picture so you cansee that it's reality. We can fix
that fiberglass at all, kill therust, insert a whole new drain,
and bam, resurface the whole bathtub. Might as well do all the walls
too, because your grout lines arelooking ugly, as you know, sin
and let's just make this beautiful andwaterproof. Get it done one day.
Charge you one thousand dollars fifteen hundredbucks rather than seven or eight thousand dollars.

(47:22):
That's just for a tubb. It'saround. Wow, and consider if
somebody that wanted to redo an entirebathroom. Yep, I mean thousands,
thousands, many many times. Peoplesay, now I got an estimate to
go to all this stuff, andit was twenty five thousand dollars. Yep,
and it was at least three weeks. Everything's going in times of landfill.

(47:45):
Your whole entire house is going tobe full of dust. And it's
not the contractor's fault. I meanthey can't. I can't really keep all
that out of there. It's justit's it's a big job. But I
mean, if you want to movethings around, let's see, you got
a big jetted soaker tub and it'sto you a waste of space, and
you want to throw a shower stallin there, call us anyway. I
know people that I can refer youto that I don't do that anymore.

(48:07):
But uh, this for what wedo is an option for people that are
happy with where everything sits as itis, and yep, it's green or
it's just ugly. We love thosewhen we're done. They're beautiful and waterproof
fast and like I said, it'syou're saving the planet. I mean,
what's not the love. I don'tsee anything that maybe the client wants to,

(48:30):
you know, they want to gotthe master, but maybe the guests
and kids room, they don't wantto spend so much money. You can
come in and help with that.Oh sure, yeah, sure, And
Kathy, when when folks call you, guys, you're typically one answers the
phone and do most people come toyou with at least some idea of what

(48:51):
it is you do or you getsome pretty wacky questions from time to some
people are they do? Say?And I don't quite understand what you're all
do, but I'm trying to learn, so I just try to educate them.
We always encourage people to look atour website or Facebook and we have
several before and after videos and photosand then yeah, I just let them

(49:14):
know a little bit about our processand warranty and all that good stuff.
And John goes and gives an estimate, shows them samples, and we get
the ball rolling. You look aboutour five point oh Google rating? Yeah
important dimension, Yeah, good thing. We're humble, trying to get more
of those. We I sometimes forgetto ask. Yeah, we need more

(49:36):
testimonials from some Oh we had wehad a guy in here a month or
so ago. I mean you aren'there that day, Kathy, and I
can't think it was oh Rick,Rick. Yeah, I mean it's not
like I mean, Rick should belike you're you're a spokesperson. Man.
He's actually a little shy when itcomes to you know, he's like radio

(49:57):
interviews or whatever. He's like,I don't know if I can do that.
If you did a good job thatday, he's seen it firsthand,
so he knows and really like likewith me, I mean because we've been
talking for months before I actually sawit firsthand. Yeah. Yeah, when
you see it, it's way differentthan even even looking at pictures or videos.

(50:17):
Is not as great as seen inperson. Oh right, yeah exactly.
I think we'd mentioned that My wifewas blown because she was standing up
there while you were doing the countertop. Yeah, she wanted can I learn
how to do this? I wantto be your assistant. I want to
come work with you and learn thisstuff. This is cool, But what
was so cool about it? Becauseyou're putting that flight multi fla multi stuff

(50:38):
flack. Yes, I'll get itright, one of these years the flat.
And but even at the moment,you can, for lack of a
better word, change the design.Yeah, and they can be like she
was part of me. You wantsome more, just a little just a
little bit more, maybe a littlebit more, like a little bigger,
a little smaller. Yeah. Itmakes people, you know, part of
the part, the part of theprocess. And that's cool too. So

(50:58):
when you have your friends over,say we do your kitchen countertops or whatever,
and they have friends over for Christmasor whatever, and they checking out
the countertops, like, what isthis? They think it's real stone.
No, it's not. I camein here and had a guy in here
and I helped him tell him whatI was looking for. He put it
on there right in front of me, and bam, we cleared it and
look at that and they go up. You know you mentioned the holidays.

(51:22):
This is not the time of yearyou want to do a rip it out
of something right and replace it,right, unless you're going to someone else's
house. Right, Well, we'regoing to be away, come in and
do our bathroom in the kitchen,befo. We're taking a December sabbatical.
This is that. No, thisis not number one, and you know,
God bless them because you know,I mean, they do the best

(51:42):
they can do, but it neverfails. Right, You got folks,
you're contracting stuff out and something issomething's going to mess up with the schedule,
and it's supposed to be a twothree weeks job becomes a four or
five week job. And this isnot the time. Now that almost never.
Sometimes if I think something's gonna takeme three days I could make Maybe
I have a plumbing issue that Ididn't forecast or you know, I couldn't
see it during as Sometimes they needto get a plumber out there, or

(52:06):
if I can't fix it myself,which I normally can, but once in
a while we might have to adda half a day to something. But
it's pretty rare. Many times peopleare like John, I want to schedule
two bathrooms and my kitchen. I'mgoing to be gone for the whole week.
Do it while I'm gone. WhenI when they come back, it's
done, beautiful. That's a wonderfulthing. So uh, y'all are out

(52:28):
there. You just put it tothat santy project. I mean, how
was that man? You got tohang out for a week in Santea four
weeks. How many weeks? Fourfour? You did four four projects out
there yet not consecutive, not inoh okay, but yeah, because a
couple of weeks ago you're out thereliving large right there on the sand tya
and one of them, Yeah,they put us up in Kevin. You
treat us great and already had anotherpart call and say, hey, we
saw what you did out there.We want to do exactly the same.

(52:52):
And they can do it for youtoo, Rock the Top Resurfacing all right.
Uh again if they the Facebook usuallysearch on Facebook too at Rock the
Top. Yeah. Or our websiteis Rockthtopresurfacing dot com, or you can
call it eight o three nine nineeight two zero eight eight nine nine eight
two zero eight eight. Uh yeah, and I check out. I haven't

(53:13):
seen the video of you putting yourfinger in the whole, but I gotta
I gotta do that one right there. That's yeah, even real folks,
even there as a whole, youcan fix it. Yep. You can
drop a bowling ball through a kitchencountertop. I can still fix it.
In fact, my grandpa gave mea bowling ball and I'm gonna take it
to a presentation and you go.I'm gonna tell it all right. Job

(53:35):
Kathy. Always good to see theboth of you. You too, care
enjoy the rest of your weekend.We'll see us Soonah Hi, this is
Gary David. You've heard me talkfor years about Anthony John Construction and the
wonderful jobs they do for folks allacross the Midlands. When it comes to
roofing and guttering, well it's thesame 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 yourroofing and gutter needs. The same great

(53:58):
service and the same great folks behindAnthony John Construction, just with a new
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