Home Improvement Show 12-13-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Good morning and welcome in. It's time for the Home
Improving Show of the Midlands, and thank you for joining
us this morning on one O three point five FM
and five sixty AMWVOC and worldwide on the totally free
iHeartRadio app. Give it as a Christmas gift. Don't tell
them it was free, just let them know where to
download it. I'm Gary David. Good to have you here.

(00:38):
Coming up, we're talking to James Carwell, our friend over
at Freedom Plumbing this summer from beaver Rufigan Gutters. First
up though, it is Marcus Greenwell Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops.
Good morning to you, sir, We are here from Lifetime.
Good morning, morning man again. Best to open the state
reader's poll.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Heck yeah, twelve I was about to say twelve days
until Christmas day?

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Still Christmas?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, seven years in a row top top top tops
above the rest top dog countertops. Okay, so twelve days.
Back to my point where I was saying twelve twelve
days still Christmas. Guys. Yeah, I'm excited. You want to
make your wife happy, give her some golden countertop twelve

(01:22):
golden count tops.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, okay, I know.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I know you do have me on your ear ear
head piece there. You're probably like, old lord, we have.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Turned it down a little bit over here, okay, but
you could. Yeah, you can go ahead and make that selection.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Now make that selection. Make her smile, man. I tell
you what, I really enjoy my job. I love my job.
And there's nothing more satisfying to make somebody's wife happy.
Thank yours, thank you. We did that last week. She
was smiling and hugging and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
It's like, no, actually you get that. Ye, time and
times compressing here on us right this time, there's a
couple because we had it done in time for Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, and.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
While the new courts countertop of the guest bathroom was
a hit, the sushi bar, the extension of the kitchen
countertop in the kitchen came in extremely handy.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, because there was.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Food all over that countertoime nice and we've yeah, we've
made real good use of that.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
That was awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
That was a terrific edition, you know, did for us.
And I think I mentioned at the time, you know, Enrique,
the folks. Matter of fact, you came by the house
and you and Rique are looking at that thing and
how you're going to go about attacking this issue and
then uh, you know, I gotta I gotta tell you all.
Marcus just kind of looked at it Enrique and and

(02:51):
winked and said, well, I'm out of here.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
You got it, yes, sir, and Rique gave it that
looked like, oh yeah, thanks. Buddy is the star of
the show. I say that all the time. He's amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
He figured it out, man.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
And then it happened he went in there and attached
those supports to that wall that you that you and
Anne bought. Y'all bought the supports for us because that
was a specialty like L shaped bracket. Yeah, we do
provide and install the flat brackets typically, so those were
perfect size brackets. Y'all got and held the weight up there,

(03:26):
and he attached them in there real securely. I mean,
I don't want to say you could dance on him,
but you could almost dance on him almost.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Who knows, you know, he might wind up just doing
just trying you out on that point. Recommended point being
Now you can go let's be honest here, right, Marcus.
You can go to a number of places and by countertops,
that's right. You can go to a big box store
and by account.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, yeah, sure can.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Problem is is that, well, they're going to wind up
farming off anything that doesn't have to do with the
selling of the countertop somebody else.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah. Yeah, they'll sell it to you, and then they'll
hire a guy to go measure it, and they'll hi
hit that guy. I'll hire another guy to cut it.
Actually they cut it, probably cut it there at their shop,
and then they'll hire another guy to come out and
install it. So there's actually two or three different vendors
between the granted company that comes out from the box

(04:20):
stores and even sometimes some of the other guys around town.
And I'm not gonna mention any names, but they use
subcontractors for their installation as well. So we're in house.
I come measure. I look at every job a matter
of fact, on that sushi bar. If if I would
have measured it originally whenever you bought the house before,
because it already had granted, y'all, but I would have recommended.

(04:41):
I said, Gary, hey, let's do a little overhang on
this backside of this bar, and we'd already had it
in there. But see, we had to retrofit yours because
you bought the house. It already had the granted. Yeah,
so I retrofitted it and then we put the new
courts in the bathroom. So yeah, we love making people happy.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Y'all provide solutions, that's right. And again, if if you
could have seen the amount of brain power and fisical
that the guys who were doing the install, I bet
they grabbed that thing that that that extension. They went

(05:22):
out and cut it outside the driveway, then up the
stairway through the garage into the kitchen, put it up
there and I could see Enrique look at that and
he shake his head. Nope. They take it back down
the stairway back outside, And this happened five or six times.
Easy because he's a perfectionist. So we bring this up
because this is what you guys do.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's it, but we do. We love it. That's why
we were about at best up so many times in
a run, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
So hearing this. My point being that if all you
need is for to buy a countertop to slap on
top of a cabinet in the kitchen, mm hmm, yeah,
I think Lifetime can handle that.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Oh yeah, we can definitely handle that. Matter of fact,
we can.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
We can.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
We've got a couple little spots if you want to,
you do not. Don't tell anybody. I've been running so fast, uh,
these last couple of weeks here that uh, I've actually
run ahead of schedule a little bit. We're actually booked
up through the middle of January, but we can work
some in because I've got extra time in the schedule.
And what I'm doing is I'm the people that are

(06:32):
available up through January. I'm bumping them up as well.
So if you want to, if you want to try
to get it in there pretty quickly, just come see
me and see what we can work out.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
But there's possibly, like before Christmas.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Quick maybe even able to work something. I had one
a friend of mine the other day.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
He came in.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I shouldn't even say this. He came in on Saturday.
Excuse me, cause came in on Saturday and I put
it on Monday. Oh wow. You know, so all are
friends of mine. So you'll come see me and see
what I can do. I can't guarantee that result, but
you know, he just happened to have the measurements for me.
I mean, you know I did trust him on that
because he is a contractor and he is a friend

(07:11):
of mine. So you know, so that's you know, so
I did really brush it through and we had the
material in stock. You know, I do have it one
fifty three chapin road. I have what I call the boneyard.
I have a lot of pieces. I probably have a thousand,
maybe two thousand in that range, at least a thousand.
I know that for a fact, you tymnet Yeah, yeah.

(07:33):
And I have a bunch of slight single slabs and
stuff like that as well. And we can get kitchens done,
you know, be a little more challenging to get a
kitchen done right now before Christmas twelve days still Christmas
a true logate to you. So but that being said,
never never say never. You know that means we got

(07:53):
an extra week in there before so I could get
material brought in if you had some specialty color, and
maybe even do it the week before if I have.
You know, let's saw a conversation until until we start
putting some stuff together.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Right, sure, let's talk about that because we have in
our numerous projects we've done with you, as I recall,
really only on one occasion did we have to go
did you have to go outside to one of your
vendors to get the still we were looking.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, I think that marble, Yeah, that white marble.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, which is beautiful. That was in our old house.
I missed that countertop to this day.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
But I probably shouldn't have put the sushi bar in.
You can probably got brost some more water, I mean
light marble in there. I'm sorry, but.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
So you guys have a really nice selection.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
We do.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
But if somebody comes to you.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
And we have two local local supply shops here right
in town.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Somebody comes to you they're looking for a specific thing
and it's not on the out in shaping or you
don't find it at the show them on Fernadina. Yeah,
you guys can typically get this in a matter of days.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
In some cases. Yeah, there's two local vendors here, which
would be blast slabs from they're big warehouses that you
can get that experience of walking around and looking at
the slabs. And then I have multiple Charlotte locations, and
then of course I have places in Charleston and up
in North Carolina as well. If you wanted to go

(09:28):
toward the Greenville area, I've got some suppliers up that way.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
But you don't have to actually physically go and you
know we picked that marble. We just looked at it
all online.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, and I brought it in and then and and
you came and put your blessing on it, right.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
And that's important. Yeah, because you're you're really not good.
I mean you're kind of a stickler for that. I mean, yeah,
you don't want people buying something sight unseen.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Right right.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Sometimes the granite and marbles are are their natural stone,
so they have natural inclusions in them, meaning that they
have might have a black spot, and some people say, hey,
I don't like that, and then I try to work
around it the best I can, of course, but I'll
try to make the layout, you know, where it's into
a sink area where we cut the hole out or

(10:11):
cut the black spot out or whatever. It doesn't have
to be black. It could be brown and gold. Some
people like sparkles, some people don't. You know, some of
it has sparkles in it, literally, So we try to
work around those kind of things. And that's what we're
good at. That's our that's our expertise, so to speak.
That's how we win the awards is taking the extra
time and care lining these veins up, going up the

(10:33):
wall a lot of times we'll do full backsplash, like
I recommend it. At your house, we didn't go with it,
but you always wished you did.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yes at the old house.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah yeah, we do the granite and marble up. The
full backsplash is what I'm talking about, instead of doing
tile backsplash or painting the wall or something like that.
You can run that stone all the way up. But
I always try to recommend what I think is going
to look the best with the type of stone you
have in the situation that you have at the house.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
And from time to time, I mean, depending on the job.
You all coordinate with interior design specialists.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, we'll we'll meet with them on on
site at our shop and go over the slab layouts there.
They're into it too. We'll spread the slabs apart and
I'll say, oh yeah, we want to put this area
right here on the island. We want to use this
one going up the wall.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
We did.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
We did several houses this past month on the on
beautiful Lake Murray, and they did full backsplashes, and we
did one that had a ledge if you've ever heard
of that, do it like a six inch backsplash and
then do a three inch ledge on top of it
where it has a little shelf going all the way around.

(11:44):
Oh okay, yeah, beautiful.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Oh I have not seen that.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's starting. They're starting to get kind of
hot with that.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, yeah, I mean we're almost at the end of
the year here. I mean, was it, Oh goodness last
year twenty twenty four and courtz was the hot.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, we need to talk about that, right, what's trending,
what's trending for next year coming and all that. Yeah,
I'm gonna have to almost hit the button of quartzite.
It's really been trending, especially with the decorators in the
higher end. You know, I'm gonna stay here the rest
of my life kind of jobs. Some of the people

(12:24):
that are trying to flip houses, they're even doing quartz
So qurtz is the man made product that looks like marble,
and the courtzite is the natural stone which is really
really resient to heat and stuff like that. It's even
more scratch resistant than granted. I think Granted is on

(12:47):
the Mowham scale of seven to eight. Courtzite is eight
to nine diamonds ten, so it's up there, you know,
it's up there on the higher end of the scale
as far as scratch. Where's marble's five, you know, in
that range, so it's a lot more resilient to scratching.
So on marble you got to take more care with
it than you know, you don't want to take a

(13:09):
skill it like an iron skillet and banging around on
the marble, you know, whereas the granite and the court
site will be a lot more durable and you don't
want to banging around on that either. But you know,
you just you got to be really careful with the
marble compared to the granite and the courtzite, sure, and
the courts is going to be equal, So somewhere in
that range of the granite hardness scale.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
So twenty six the year of court site, you think,
I think.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
So, you know, if you're wanting to put the money
into it. If you're not, then I would say it'd
be the year of the granite. But trending to me
on my clientele has been courtzite and upper scale granites,
And yeah, I mean you can get granites as expensive
as as the quartzite.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
In some cases that's always so confusing to me. It
just depends on the patter of the uniqueness pattern.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, it's no, there's no quality drop between a level
one grantite and a level five or or vice versa
or level four or whatever they call them. Some some
call it A through h and you know some one
through seven. So there's no quality difference between. As a
matter of fact, the quality difference really is that the
more exotic quote unquote the stone is the more expensive,

(14:24):
typically the less durability or not durability, but uh breakability,
Like it has more natural fissures, it has more quartz deposits,
so whenever sometimes when you cut through quartz deposits that
you have to put it back together literally, so it
takes a little more care and time for on ori
end to make it look you know, like it's original state.

(14:46):
But I mean literally we do have to come in
there in a lot of cases that are expensive exotic stones.
I just like saying that word come get your exotics
in So, uh, if you get that courts that deposit
in there and you cut it, then we have to
put it back together. I mean that says that couple.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, so more band power, mowers, more.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Time, yeah, care and all that, and we have you know,
more care to make sure it has transportation stuff like
we have sink savers is we attached to them and
stuff like that. While we're transporting the cutout areas where
the sinks are, you know, we put these long metal
bars that that have little attachments and you know, to

(15:30):
make it you know, kind of like a splint almost,
you know, for a broken bone.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Okay, so the road doctors out there rems uh still
dealer cost.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yes, yeah, come see me. I'll hook you up. I
mean I saw this lady was crying the other day.
Missus Jeff Coke if you're here, if you're listening, sorry
about the cry apart. But but but she called me
and said, you did my kitchen, and I want to
do the vanity in the bathroom. And I don't want
to spend a lot of money. I said, come on
down here and get it at my cost. I'll look

(16:00):
you up. We did Divanity five hundred bucks something like that.
I mean she was just, oh you made her cry
a good way. Yeah, yeah, okay, Yeah, she was so
happy that she got this taken care of all the above,
you know on that line. Yeah, it is a nice thing,
you know, meryor Christmas there you go all right? Uh
wife happy?

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yes, So you're at You're at the at the boneyard today.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Boneyard one fifty three Shaping Road and uh my brothers
David's going to be at forty twenty Fernandina Road. You
bring the measurements or call me on eight O three twenty.
You give me a call, I'll give you a price
on the phone. I just did that yesterday, mister Duncan.
I just did that for him on a on a

(16:44):
black pearl job that he know, he knew what color
he wanted and everything.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
So she brought a black prol you just put it
it is, yeah, exactly, you know that going well beautiful?

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
All right, So maybe maybe you can get it done
by Christmas.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, let's get a Christmas present. Hey, holler on an overpromist,
but come on and see me and let's work.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
On it all. Remarcus and get it done.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Hey, I'm g waiting on, oh baby go, let's go.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops is your locally owned source for countertops.
Great selection, great prices, and they pride themselves on superior
installation and customer service. The owner, Marcus will even personally
come out to do all your measurements. See the selection
online at Lifetimecabinets SC dot com or stop buy one
of Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops two conveniently located showrooms on

(17:35):
Fernandina Road in Columbia or Chapin Road in Chapin and
check out the hundreds of slabs in stocked granite, marble, quartz, quartzite.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
They've got it all.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
And if you can't find exactly what you were looking
for when you're there, and that's rare, they will find it.
And it's not just kitchens and bats. Lifetime Cabinets and
Countertops does outdoor patios, vanities, bars, man caves, you name it.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Time Cabinets and.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Countertops Fernandina Road in Columbia, Chapin Road in Chapin and
online at Lifetime Cabinets SC dot com.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Hi is Gary David looking to refresh your home or
business with a fresh code of paint. Call Finishing Touch Team.
Finishing Touch Team for outstanding service, quality and professionalism. There
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(18:30):
perfection with unwavering commitment to superior craftsmanship and customer service,
free estimates and ten percent off for first responders, vets
and nurses. Find out more at Finishingtouchteam dot com. We're

(18:51):
back on the Home Improvement Show of the Midlands and
thank you for joining us this morning here on one
O three point five FM and five sixty amwvoc Well
I had this guy so well. Actually James would have
come out, but he didn't have his truck a couple
about a week or so ago when I made the
call to Freedom Plumbing. Uh, but we did get a
rob out there to take care of an issue. We had.
James Carwell, the owner of Freedom Plumbing, now joining us

(19:13):
on the Home Improvement Show of the Buildings.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
Good morning sir, Good morning Gary har A well man.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Averted a catastrophe.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
Uh yeah, good thing home. I'll tell you.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh my goodness. So yeah, I was mentioning a little earlier.
We my wife's in there. We got a late dinner
one night and uh and suddenly she starts, you know,
yelling in the kitchen and I'm like, what's going on here?
I run there. Water is gushing out from under the sink,
the kitchen sink. I mean, like like a geyser, you know,

(19:46):
instant freak out time.

Speaker 5 (19:47):
Right, absolutely, So.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
I reached underneath the sink and I just start cutting
off every valve I can find, right, and then there's
one agains, so you know, I get two shut off.
It's still coming out, and I'm reaching around behind the
garbage dispose and I find another one and that's where
it's coming from. And I and I as I grab
the valve or go to cut it off, the whole
thing comes off in my hand.

Speaker 5 (20:14):
The first time I've heard that happen.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, So luckily, luckily, I knew two things. I knew
where my uh my, my water shut off out of
the house was. Yeah, although I knew where it was,
hadn't hadn't lifted up the thing before and uh and
I also knew roughly where the what do you call
it the key or whatever the handle that you put

(20:39):
on it to turn it off with whatever you call
that thing key, Yeah, the meter key, which took me
about thirty seconds to locate, thankfully. And so there I am.
It's like a thirty at night, it's cold, I got
no shoes on, it's dark outside. Luckily, I got my
cell phone in my pocket to turn the flashlight on.
And I go out there and pull up that cover
and then i'm you know, and I see the meter

(20:59):
and that I don't see the little cutoff thing. It's
bared under a little bit of dirt. I'm digging around.
I didn't care what was down there, you know, Tarantula's
bowel constrictors didn't matter, right, didn't matter. And and luckily
got to cut off in time to where we did.
We avert a disaster, you know, about about eight or nine,
you know, big beach towels kind of mopped up everything.
But yeah, it can happen at any time. It's happened

(21:23):
to you. It happened to you with a busted washer hose,
a couple of years.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
Old washing machine. It was actually the appliants itself. The
one load of laundry flooded the upstairs and downstairs of
our house in the hotel for a month.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, I'm taught to Rob about that. After he got
finished doing air And it's his assumption is that the.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Pull out spray, Yes, that's exactly.

Speaker 5 (21:51):
What ially grabbed onto one of the you know valves
coming out, so valves on the water line.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
So so two lessons here. Yeah, you got one of
those you know those nozzles, those spray nozzles. Look under
the sink and make sure that core is not wrap
around of pipe somewhere.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yeah, and make sure there's no way for it to
potentially grab a hold before you pull it out, especially
if you have CPVC pipe problem. Copper and PEX not
not as big of a deal because they got some
you know, of course, coppers is a lot more rigid,
harder to do anything with, but PEX has some plexibility
that you really don't have to worry about it snapping off.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Well that's what we got now, certainly and less than
Number two is know where your shut off valve is
of the house and then have one of those those
shut off keys and.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
Know where it is absolutely wow, and make sure you know,
you know where that the piece that it fits.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Onto is exactly.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
Yeah, you have to dig it out for that's the
way that can happen. Uh, you know, with CPVC gets
brittle over time, it can happen, you know, sometimes it
cracks and just goes Usually it starts small with the
dripper a leak or something like that. But I'm I've
seen them crack and start spraying. So luckily you were
home and you were able to Thank goodness, and we've

(23:05):
talked about where your meter is before, and you were
prepared and ready.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
For the situation.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
So that's a good thing because it could have been
a whole lot worse.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, I got to tell you this, if it hadn't
been for our years of discussions in this program, I'd
have had no clue what to do. I really wouldn't have.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
So well, I'm glad it helped them. Yeah, that means
we're doing something right.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yes, sir, all right, since we're on the topic of water,
because you know, plumbing typically involves that although you know
what I say that, but you guys do I mean
gas lines and all sorts of things. It's not just water,
but still the main focus on water and plumbing and
something we haven't talked about in a while water heaters
in particular, something maybe most of us be included, don't

(23:46):
really know anything about, not necessarily a water heater, but
but something to do with a water heater. So what
have we got on the atend of today, mister Carwell.

Speaker 5 (23:54):
So thermal expansion has not really talked about very much
when it comes to water heaters multipan and if everybody
thinks back to their physics class that they took, anytime
something needs up, the molecules are going to start to
spread out. The same thing happens with water. You start

(24:16):
heating water up, you get what's called thermal expansion because
the molecules of the water start to spread out. So
you actually increase your pressure on the system and it's
going to start pushing back, typically on the cold side.
So what we do, and if let's get a little
bit further in here and see if we cant explain

(24:37):
it better. So if your system is open system, meaning
if if that pressure increases and it was able to
push back into the city, it would, But most municipalities
require what they call it a double a dual check
valve on the meter, which basically creates a closed system

(24:58):
for your home, meaning that water can only go one
direction and that's into your house. So when that thermal
expansion occurs, there's nowhere for it to go. So basically
what you're doing is just to increase in the pressure
on the system of your home. So anytime by code
if you have a closed system, you're supposed to have

(25:19):
a thermal expansion tank on your water here and that
absorbs it's got a little bladder in there and absorbs
that additional pressure, so you're not putting unnecessary pressure on
the rest of your plumbing system and you know, causing
premature failure on fixtures and pipes and things of that nature.
So every municipality that I dealt with requires those check valves,

(25:44):
or even if you have a pressure a reducing valve,
that also creates a closed system. And most houses have
those because most houses have pressure over ADPs I when
they're built, and you know, the builders require to put
on pressure regulator to regulate that pressure.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Down the back someone in most cases. Okay, well, I
was gonna ad that answers. One of the questions is
going to ask you is is what what roughly what
percentage of homes have closed systems versus open It sounds
like most most have closed systems these days.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
Yeah, and at this point, any any waters heater we installed,
we're installing the pressure thermal expansion tank with it.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
But if you got a home that's been built, you know,
a home built recently last decade or more than it.
It's on a closed system, then the builder's got to
put that in with the hot water heat. It's installed, right,
it should be taken care of already.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
I would say ninety percent of them aren't. Some of
them are.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
I don't think they really look that deeply into the
system when it's inspected, okay, all right, And I don't
think they're assuming that these municipalities are required and check
valves on their system, and the check valve is to
protect their system. That's kind of like we've talked about,

(27:08):
you know, the double check valve assemblies that are testable
that you have to have if you have an irrigation
system and the line breaks that can pull that city
line breaks, it can create enough back pressure to pull
water into the system from your system, which means if
your irrigation is on, it can pull that fertilized water

(27:30):
into the water system. So they always everyone I've dealt
with requires a bull check valve on the meter where
the connection is from your line to their.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Line as a homeowner or a business owner for that matter.
So let's say something like that happened, and you know
that your water gets done back in the municipal system.
Are there is there a liability on your part as
a homeowner to the municipality for that.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
It's the municipality's responsibility to really deal with arotecting your system.
So they're the ones that require the testing. They have
to keep up with the you know, if you have
those on the system. And again that's why they that's
why they require the check valves. Typically at the meter

(28:18):
where you're you're lying connects to the water meter, you
require a check valve be installed there and they usually
do the inspections on those when those water lines are
originally installed.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Well, since we started off talking about hot water heaters here,
this is the conversation we haven't had in a while.
Either you have options when it comes out water heaters.
Oh yeah, and I think you've told us before most
of Is it true that most of what gets installed
to atle said that you installed are the tankless hot
water heaters.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Yeah, it depends on the situation. Sometimes they can be
cost prohebitive. They based on the situation that you have
and where your water heater is currently located and what
you would have to do to get a tankless installed.
Because I'll say that a typical tankless water heater is
going to use forty to fifty thousand btes. A tankless

(29:16):
is going to use anywhere to two hundred thousand bts.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
So there's a.

Speaker 5 (29:19):
Large jump and fuel consumption there for the unit. And
if you're in a situation where you can't easily get
a new gas line to where that unit's located, then
it might be best to go back with a tank. So,
you know, that's the discussions we have with each homeowner
and weigh the options. Another thing some people don't think

(29:42):
about is the maintenance when it comes to tankless water heaters. Manufacturers,
most of them anyway, recommend a flush maintenance every year
and a burner cleaning every two years. That's additional costs
that people really don't, you know, calculate into the equation
when they're talking about the difference between the costs of

(30:04):
a tank and a tankless. I would say most people
are capable of doing a flush maintenance on a tank
style or a tankless heater. You know a couple of
YouTube videos and you probably get to go. But when
he comes doing a burner painting, there's parts that you
actually have to remove to get that burner out. And
there's different procedures for different manufacturers on how to clean them,

(30:26):
so you know, it just depends. I would say the
biggest reason to get a tankless is if you have
a need for large amounts of hot water, you know,
a soaking tub, large family situations like that. That's when
we would definitely lean towards recommending the tankless over the tank.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
And again just because that's the endless supply bot. How
does that work.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
It just heats the water up instantaneously. I say instantaneously.
There's a series of pipes that the water flows through
and a you know ignites and burns and heats that
that water up as it's moving through the unit. So
by the time it moves through those series of pipes
and comes out of the unit, it's one hundred and
twenty degrees or you know, sometimes you can go higher

(31:13):
than that, but that's typically what we said about is
one twenty. So it it regulates the heat and has
some cover needed and make sure it comes out of
that desired temperature.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
What's the difference in the say the utility expense between
the two because it is a tankless keeping this water
hot like all the time.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
No, So that's The big difference between a tank kind
of tankless is a tank is gonna eventually cool down.
You're going to heat it up, it's going to cool down.
Let's say you go on vacation for a month and
you don't put your your tank style heater on on
vacation mode. Well, what's going to happen is it's going

(31:59):
to heat up one and then click off. The thermostats
will be satisfied. It's gonna cool down. It's gonna have
to go through that cycle, and it'll just keep going
through that cycle of heating and cool and you're not
even there. You're not using that water.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay, So that's the tank okay.

Speaker 5 (32:14):
Has no pilot light. It's electric ignition. So what happens
is you turn that faucet on, it recognizes to flow
through the unit, and then the burner's cut on and
so that's the only time that it's going to be
actively burning fuel and heat waters when you have that
faucet on, and there's always that minimum typically around i'd

(32:38):
say a half a gallon of flow through that unit
is going to cause it to kick on.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
So if you're going on vacation and you don't want
your tank style water heater to keep working. How do
you put it in vacation mode.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
Typically there's a dial on the gas valve that'll set vacation.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Really okay, shows what I have.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
You just turn it there and it just keeps the pilots.
I mean, you could go as far as cutting the
gas off, but then when you get back, you're gonna
have to relight the pilot. That would save even more
money because you know, pilot light, even though it's a
small flame, you're still using fuel to keep it lit.
You know, there's still a constant flow of either propane

(33:24):
or natural gas going to that pilot keeping it on.
So if you really want to save I would say
turn the gas off. There's typically instructions on the front
of the heater on how to light your pilot light
if you're comfortable with it.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Oh, if you're comfortable with it, yeah, but it's not
Otherwise you have to look for a looking out there
and light it for you a little switches as vacation mode,
and then take it back off with you. Okay, all right, okay, good,
But now back to the tankless water heaters, because there's
I think some misunderstanding by some folks. A tankless water.
Heater does mean endless hot water, but it does not

(33:59):
mean instant hot water.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
Right correct, So you still have to wait. Let's say
you don't use your hot water for a while, the
hot water is going to cool off inside that hotline.
Let's say you got to fixture that is pretty far
away from a heater, you cut the hot water on,
you got a pipe full of cold water going all
the way back to that heater. That water's got to
come out before you get hot water, because the hot

(34:23):
water starts from the tankless and then has to run
all the way to that fixture that you're using. So
all that cold water has to be urged out of
the system before you're going to get hot water. Now,
there are which we typically recommend units with built in
or circulating systems. If the customer is already having an

(34:44):
issue with having to wait a long time for hot
water and that we just put a bypass underneath the
furthest fixture. It creates that loop where it can turn
on periodically run hot water through that line, and it'll
create a quicker response time for your hot water. When
you cut the faucet on, you're not having to wait

(35:06):
as long.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
What what.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
And I guess it's going to depend on the person.
Everybody's got a different opinion of this, James, But I mean, what,
what is I'm waiting too long for hot water? I mean,
how how quickly with any kind of tankless tank whatever?
I mean, how long should you be waiting for hot
water before you say there's there's something wrong here?

Speaker 5 (35:23):
Now, it doesn't matter between a tank or a tankless.
It matters on the location You're going to get hot
water in the same amount of time. If the tankless
is in the same position as the tank style heater,
you know, it's just it still has to move from
point A to point B, so that that's not going
to change. So yet, it really does depend on how

(35:45):
your system is piped in and how long you're willing
to wait for hot water. But our our our last house,
our shower was upstairs and it really took it longest
for our kitchen, but our shower took quite a bit
of time. So we would cut it on and you know,
go through the process of brush our teeth before we

(36:06):
not being in the shower.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
I learned that trick from you a couple of years ago,
and I do it every morning, every morning.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I do that.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
I cut it on first, brush my teeth, all that,
and then I hop in and it's ready to go. Yeah,
so I have to use a little more water, maybe
a little more you know, the energy build, but still
nothing worse getting a shower.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
You know, if you are concerned about the uh, the
weight time, the easiest way to reduce that without you know,
adding the recirculator is go all the way hot. That way,
you're not mixing cold water. You don't have cold water
coming out in the process of you waiting on the
hot water, right, because then you're just you're you're slowing

(36:44):
down your weight time. You're creating a longer wait time
to go all the way to the hot side. That way,
you only have water running through the hot line and
purging all that cold water that's in that hot water
line out.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, I do that too, thanks to your advice. It works.
It works very well. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
By the way, I'm glad, yes, get some good information
out there.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yes, And I gotta tell you, man, I did get
a text yesterday. I've had a chance to do the
survey yet, but uh, Rob, who is I don't know
how many times Rob's been out to our house or
my parents' house doing stuff. But uh uh yeah, what
a great guy.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Uh, we're lucky to have you guys.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yes, but but so I haven't filed the survey out yet,
but apparently the survey says, you know, if I say
something nice about him, then he gets a free lunch.
So go ahead and buy that man of free lunch,
will you, James, Oh, yeah, because he deserves maybe maybe
a free dinner too. Uh, he deserves it, that's for sure,
absolutely all right. So uh, if nothing else from from

(37:45):
from this edition and our segment today, know where your
water cut off valve is for the home and no,
or if you don't have one, go to a big
box store and get one of those those about keys
so you can cut that thing off if you have
to in a moment's notice.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
And if it's hot water and you know that it's
hot water coming out, there should be a show off
olve on the hot side or on the cold side
of your hot water here, whether it would be tank
or tankless. Okay, So that's an easy way to do
that too, without having to scramble around and find your
meter key and all that.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah, all right, Jams Carwell, he is the owner of
Freedom Plumbing. Always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend,
and how the folks reach you guys.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
Thank you it us. Call eight oh three four four
seven zero four seven one or visit our website at
Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Thank you buddy, Thank you Gary far.

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(38:53):
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(39:24):
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Speaker 1 (39:27):
Hi, this is Gary David. You've heard me talk for
years about Anthony John Construction and the wonderful jobs they
do for folks all across the Midlands. When it comes
to roofing and guttery, well it's the same people doing
the job, but the name has changed. That's right now
it's Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Leave it to Beaver
for all your roofing and gutter needs. The same great
service on the same great folks behind Anthony John Construction,

(39:49):
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. Back

(40:29):
on the Home Improvement show in the Midlands with Summer
from Beaver roof Again Gutters Summer. Good morning. Let's talk
a little bit about gutters this morning, shall we.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
We'll do it.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
I'm down, okay, cool? Uh And we talked. I guess
a couple of weeks ago Heath was on with me
and he's uh, he's the guy in charge all your
gutter stuff. That is right, And we had Heath out
of the house this past summer and installed those six
and seamless gutters. I was telling he, it's not like
we didn't have gutting our house. We had gutters. They

(41:00):
were there when we bought the house, and they're probably
all the house was built back in the eighties or
whenever it was the nineties, I guess it was. But
the gutters that y'all put up are a bit different
from the gutters that if your home is, you know,
fifteen twenty years old, or maybe even if you hadn't
gutters recently, your gutters are a little different from the
ones that may be on your house right now. How

(41:21):
is that so?

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Like you said, six inch seamless metal gutters are so
before they were a little bit smaller. They were a
five inch gutter. Some may be metal, however, some actually
came in six excuse me, ten inch sticks of guttering,
so they would steam those together. So with that being said,

(41:44):
when there are seams, there are more opportunities for leaking,
more opportunities for damaging, collapse and that sort of thing
that's just a week a week spot in the in
the guttering system, and more opportunity for failure. So yes,
our gutters are six inch seamless, seamless gutters, and they

(42:05):
are metal like like you were saying, some could have
been made of like a thick plastic. They don't do
that often anymore, but like you said, if your home
is older, they could be made of plastic. So our
gutters are literally custom fit for your home. When our

(42:25):
guys come out, they have a big gutter machine in
the back of the truck. It's pretty cool to white.
So your gutters start as a flat piece of metal.
Then they process it and they run it through the
machine and it you know, they'll measure, They take all
of their measurements, and we actually dial it in and
they know exactly just how long it is. When that

(42:47):
flat metal comes out, it's a K style shaped gutter
and that's what we install, and you know it's fit
perfectly for you. They stop the machine, they chop it
right there and bam, it's perfectly made for your home,
custom fit.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
And yeah, you've been telling us for years how much
more water these gutters can move as opposed to a
five inch I get it because you think now, I said,
so an inch bigger, what's the big deal here?

Speaker 3 (43:14):
But I know bigger is better. Ye. No, but like
you said, the inch, it's it is. It's crazy to think. However,
from that five inch to the six inch gutter, the
six inch gutters hold forty percent more volume of water,
so it is able to accept that much more water

(43:35):
from your roof, take it and divert it away from
your home. You know, a lot of times when they
are not adequate enough, they'll fill up, they'll spill over.
You know, if they're five inches, they could spill over
the front. If your gutters are not in great condition,
you have not really maintained those gutters, that could actually

(43:57):
spill back into your home and it will appear to
be bleak, but it's not. So there is a number
of things that could happen when one your gutters are
not large enough, or two when they're not maintained properly.
So you know, that's another thing that you should.

Speaker 5 (44:15):
Really be.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Making making a note of and doing when you're doing
your checklist of monthly or yearly things to do for
your home.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, and you know that was and I knew this
because we talked about it for so long, but you
know it was earlier that I was past. This past spring,
we had just a heavy downpour one day and I
looked out there and sure enough there's watering over the
front of gutters. And I gotta tell you then my
next thought was, okay, boy, I sure hope it's not
running over the back of the gutter too. Uh right,

(44:47):
So yeah, I was, you know, I was a little warreos. Okay,
will you guys come out? Boy, I hope I got
to pull those old gutters down and find this damage
of the facer behind it, because that can happen.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
It happens a lot. It happens often because you know,
it's just you know, gutters. They are kind of like
the unsung hero. I guess if you will of your home,
you know they're there. They're great, they're doing their job. However,
if you forget about them, don't maintain them, or you know,
you don't have them, there is so much damage that
could be done. Obviously, we talk a whole bunch about

(45:19):
foundation problems. Yes, that is one thing that you know,
over time it can happen. Your foundation can become you know,
it can settle, crack, you know, and water intrusion. That
is a large, large problem. However, like you said, facia
soft it if you have wood facia or soffit, and
you're not caring correctly for one the gutter system rate

(45:42):
that you do have, or two the lack of gutters,
that wood can become damaged soft and that's just more
ways for water to get in through there or to critters, spiders,
other insight or even like uh, squirrels and things of

(46:03):
that nature. So it's just more ways for things that
should stay outside to come inside. So you got to
you gotta take you know, tu take cautions that take
time for these little things.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Since you brought this up play to us. When you
talk about properly maintaining your gods, what does that involve?
How do you properly maintain a go system that's already
on your home?

Speaker 5 (46:25):
Sure, so.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Cleaning them, they need to be cleaned, you know, we
we do have a bi annual and then we have
an annual cleaning service. It really depends on your area
that you live in and how much foliage is around
and and that sort of thing. You know, you want
to make sure that they're cleaned. If they're clean, the
water has a clearer channel, clear a clear way to

(46:48):
get to those downspouts in a way from your home.
If they're not clean, there's a lot of build up
that can happen, and that's when things start going around
over the top behind the back. So whenever we come
out when we clean the we're actually looking to make
sure that we get all of the goop, all of
the gunk, all of the granules that come off of
your roof. And you know, it's not just things that

(47:10):
are fallen from the sky like I just mentioned things
from your roof. You know, leaves get piled up on
your roof. They go into those gutters, so leaves and
granules and that kind of causes slimmy stuff to acclimate
and everything else. So we're coming out, we're cleaning your gutters.
We're making sure that they're pitched appropriately to make sure

(47:31):
that that water that falls in goes to those down spouts.
We're making sure that at our corners, because yes, at
the corners we do have seen but we're making sure
that they are caughked correctly. Everything is water tight when
we come out there to clean and maintain these gutters,
So you want to make sure they're fastened nicely into

(47:52):
that the facia and everything is sound and water is
going happily away from the home as it should be.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Right, and you talk about it, if anybody's ever cleaned
out gutters, you know, as you talk, that's slime, that
gunky stuff builds up in there, and yeah, it's it's
it's a nasty, nasty process. But that stuff not only
is it nasty, it gets heavy, yes, And I guess
there's a danger there that even if even even in
a drought situation, that stuff gets in there, it gets wet,

(48:20):
it gets nasty, and that weight, I guess could could
potentially start to pull that gutter away from the hole, away.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
From the home. You're exactly right, So you know, even
in like you said, the cold, you know, yes we
do get some rains and whatnot, but if that stuff
gets nasty cold and then freezes, that's even heavier. So
you know, that's why we like to really urge homeowners
to make sure that they.

Speaker 5 (48:43):
Are doing this.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
You know, right before the fall or right after. You know,
you have all the leaves and stuff falling, cacorns, whatnot,
that's your that's you're calling this out there, making sure
that your gutters are cleaned. We clean those out, we
get you ready for the one, because we want to
make sure that everything is nice clean, all of that
debris is out and ready for any you know, water

(49:07):
or freezing and whatnot.

Speaker 5 (49:09):
They're ready.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
They're ready to do what they need to do and
protect your home.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
So if you have got a protection, which we ought
to do because we had a lot of trees around
the house, absolutely as heath of your guys.

Speaker 7 (49:19):
Know.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
So if you if you've got gutter protection on there,
I mean, are you out of the woods here or
there's still things you need to be do you still
kind of need to get them checked out every now
and make sure things are honky dory.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
So that's a great question. Yes, So we do. We
have two types of gutter protection, gutter guards or covers.
There are a lot of different things that people call those,
but yes, we have two different types and when we
install those or suggest those for you, we often look
at the type of foliage that you have. So one
is better for like oak leaves and acorns and things

(49:54):
of that nature. The other is a mesh and it's
really good for pine needles and small all are things
that could possibly get lodged into the the shurflow which
has you know, holes in it, So you know, we
want to make sure that we are giving our customers
the appropriate protection that they need. We don't want to

(50:15):
give them something that's over costly for them, but we
need to make sure that we're evaluating and give them
what they need. So, yes, once we have these covers on,
it's really great to come we can come out. We
sweep them off because a lot of times it will
get on top of the gut, on top of the guards,
which is great. It's still doing it's it's still they're

(50:36):
doing the purpose. However, they just need to be swept
off and that doesn't say that sometimes they don't shift
here and there. So we can always come out and
just do a maintenance. That's what we call our our
gutter tune up, our gutter clean out. That's what we're doing.
We're coming making sure that they're all cleaned off, that
the pitch is correct, all the seams are you know,
they're watertight and things of that nature. So for yes,

(51:00):
and no, you know, you you're not completely out of
the woods because they're still just a little bit that
needs to be done with, you know, routine maintenance.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Now, I've noticed too, since y'all put those new gutters
in our home that there looks like there's fewer down
spouts than we had before.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
They look to be bigger, that's correct. So that's another
thing that comes with these larger, the larger gutters that
we install these six inches. So yes, the down spouts
are bigger, so they can take more water away than
the smaller down spouts that are installed with the five inch.

(51:35):
So a lot of times that is a concern of
customers and where down spouts are going to be placed,
and I don't want them in front of the columns
and listen.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
I totally get it.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
That was a concern of mine whenever I got you know,
when we were installing gutters. We don't want to mess
up the pretty esthetics and that sort of thing. I
get it. So we are very careful when we are
placing these down spouts and we're making sure that it
is aesthetically pleasing when we replacing them. And like you said,
we have we can now offer fewer. We don't need

(52:07):
as many down spouts because these down spouts that we
do install with the sixth inch are larger. You know,
to win win for everybody.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
And sometimes you'll see folks who, boy, it's like they
got this twenty thirty it's just sitting out in the yard,
you know, on the on top of the yard moving.
I mean, how how far away do you need to
get that water moved?

Speaker 3 (52:32):
You know, it really depends on the lay of the
land really and if you're if you are super super flat.
A lot of times what they will do is we'll
actually we can actually dig into the ground and place
you know that they go from the down spout into
the pipes and when we we bury the pipes. Okay,

(52:53):
and it can take it as long as you need
to to get it completely away from your home.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
All right. So summer is Beaver Roofing and guddters.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Call us at eight zero three nine nine one roof
can't forget it. And then we also have our new
website Atbeaverroofing dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Terrific. All right, Summer, always a pleasure to have yourself.

Speaker 5 (53:14):
A good weekend, you too, Take care. 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

(53:34):
of our armed forces and our first responders.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
I named my company Freedom Plumbing.

Speaker 5 (53:39):
What sets us apart from other companies is our customer service.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
We have a five star rating on Google, a five
star rating.

Speaker 5 (53:46):
On Facebook, and a plus rating on Angie's List, and
an a plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. I'm
James Carwell, local owner of Freedom Plumbing, and we look
forward to servicing you for all of your plumbing needs.
Get fifty percent off your new service call when you
mentioned you heard us on WVOC. Learn more at Freedom
dash Plumbing dot com.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
That's Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.