Home Improvement Show 12-27-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning and welcome in. It's The Homan Proven Show
of the Midlands on one O three point five FM
and five sixty AMWVOC. It's wonderful to have you with
us at this most wonderful time of the year post Christmas,
Christmas weekend and we hope you had a terrific one.
Coming up, we'll be talking to Marcus Greenwell over at
Lifetime Cabine's Encountertops. He'll be joining us this morning. We'll

(00:37):
also chat with James Carwell, the owner of Freedom Plumbing.
He's on the program this morning. But we get this
edition of The Homan Proven Show of the Midlands cranked
up with Summer from Beaver Roof again. Gutters summer. Good morning.
Let's talk a little bit about gutters this morning, shall we.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
We'll do it.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm down, okay, cool, And we talked to I guess
a couple of weeks ago. Heath was on with me
and he's he's the guy in charge all your gutter stuff.
That is right, And we had Heath outs of the
houses past summer and installed those six in seamless gutters.
As I was telling he, it's not like we didn't
have gutting our house we had gutters. They were there

(01:14):
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 is that so?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
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 gutterings,
so they would steam those together. So with that being said,

(01:58):
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 guttering system,
and more opportunities for failure. So, yes, our gutters are
six inch seamless, seamless gutters, and they are metal like

(02:21):
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 guys come out,
they have a big gutter machine in the back of

(02:43):
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 how long it is. When that flat metal
comes out, it's a K style shaped gutter and that's

(03:05):
what we install, and you know it 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 (03:16):
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 (03:28):
But I know bigger is better. Yeah, 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

(03:49):
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

(04:11):
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 really
be making making a note of and doing when you're

(04:35):
doing your checklist of monthly or yearly things to do
for your home.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
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,

(05:01):
So yeah, I was, you know, I was a little warreous. Okay,
when you guys come out of boy, I hope I
gotta pull those old gutters down and find this damage
of the facia behind it, because that can happen.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
It happens a lot. It happens often because you know,
it's just you know, gutters. They they are kind of
like the unsung hero I can 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

(05:31):
whole bunch about 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,

(05:54):
the gutter system rate 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 insects or even

(06:14):
like uh, squirrels and things of 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,
take cautions that take time for these little things.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Since you brought this up plain to us. When you
talk about properly maintaining your goods, what does that involve?
How do you properly maintain a go system that's already
on your home?

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Sure, so 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

(07:02):
to get to those down spouts and away 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 right
over the top behind the back. So whenever we come
out when we clean these, we're actually looking to make
sure that we get all of the goop, all of
the gunks, all of the granules that come off of
your roof. And you know, it's not just things that

(07:24):
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

(07:45):
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 caught correctly. Everything is water when we
come out there to clean and maintain these gutters, so
you want to make sure they're fastened nicely into.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
That the face.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Everything is sound, and water is going happily away from
the home as it should be.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
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,

(08:34):
it gets nasty, and that weight, I guess could could
potentially start to pull that gutter away from the hole.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Away 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 are doing this, you know,
right before the fall or right after. You know, you

(09:02):
have all the leaves and stuff falling, cacorns, whatnots that
you're calling this out there, making sure that your gutters
are cleaned. We clean those out, We get you ready
for the winter, because we want to make sure that
everything is nice, clean, all of that debris is out
and ready for any you know, water or freezing and whatnot.

(09:23):
They're ready, they're ready to do what they need to
do and protect your home.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
So if you have got a protection, which we opted
to do because we had a lot of trees around
the house. Absolutely as heath of your guys know. So
if you if you've got gutter protection on there, I mean,
are you out of the woods here? 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 hunky dory.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
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 them or suggests 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

(10:08):
of that nature. The other is a mesh and that's
really good for pine needles and smaller 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 give them something

(10:29):
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. It's still they're doing

(10:50):
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 with us 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,

(11:14):
and no, you know 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 (11:21):
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. They look to be bigger,
that's correct.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
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 in. So a lot of times that
is a concern of customers and where down spouts are

(11:55):
going to be placed, and I don't want them in
front of the columns, and and and I totally get it.
That was a concern of mine whenever I got you know,
when we were installing betters. We don't want to mess
up the pretty aesthetics and that 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

(12:18):
you said, we have we can now offer fewer. We
don't need 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 (12:30):
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 top of the on top of the
yard moving I mean, how how far away do you
need to get that water moved?

Speaker 3 (12:46):
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 pipe and let.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Me we we bury the pipe, okay.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
And it can take it as long as you need
to get it completely away from your home.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
All right. So summer is Beaver Roofing and Gutter.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Call us at eight zero three nine nine one roof
can't forget it. And then we also have our new
website at beaver Roofing dot com.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Terrific. All right, Summer always a pleasure to have yourself a.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Good weekend, you too, take care.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops is your locally owned sourced 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

(13:56):
Fernandina Road in Columbia or Chapin Road in Chapin and
check out the hundreds of slabs in stock, granite, marble, courts,
court site. They've got it all 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,

(14:18):
man caves, you name it. Lifetime Cabinets and Countertops Fernandina
Road in Columbia, Chapin Road and Chapin and online at
Lifetime Cabinets sc dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
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
are reasons why they've been so successful doing business now
in Columbia for twenty two years. Their service and quality
stands out in the painting industry and speaks for itself.
Don't hire just another painter, Hire the Finishing Touch Team

(14:51):
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 Finishingtouch Team dot com.

(15:15):
Welcome back to the Home Improvement Show of the Midlands
on one of three point five FM and five sixty AM.
Wc here to spread some holiday cheer. It is Marcus
Greenwell for Blacktime cabins and count of times.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
We got the cheer.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Baby, Yes, sir, he'll be light Christmas.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
Oh I did. That's amazing. Oh my gosh. I got
to see mom brother brother as we call him, and
my mom's cat we call him brother to brother brother
mother brother was his name? Smoky.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
New Year's right around the corner.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Got a new baby
coming for my grandchild. Yeah, in case y'all want to
hear some grand baby stories.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
And new new and full of they're coming.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
Yeah, they're coming this week first one. Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely,
I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
We're not there yet.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Yeah, yeah, I was. I was kind of shocked to say,
you know, but anyway, it's it happens.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
You think we'd have a house full of grand babies
and we've had them for years. We're not there quite yet. Wow.
So you guys, have you've had a really busy twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
Oh we did, and we finished up strong here at
the end. I've moved some slabs. This is exciting news
for the viewers or listeners. I guess you're not viewing.
Thank god, I got a face for radio. What can
I tell you? So exciting news. We've got some slabs

(16:42):
at my pine Grove Road store now, so if you
go view that slab, we'll cut the same block at
my shop and chapin so you say, oh, yeah, that's
the color I want right there. Now, we'll still get
you to come and you know, look at the slab
and chapin and all that. But you can pick and
do your ol right there at the piney Grove Road
store and see the actual block that you're getting. What

(17:04):
I relate it to is the like a loaf of bread.
The loaf of bread, it has the same little holes
in it. They just get bigger or smaller as they
go to the next slab. So it's going to be
very very very similar in color. Uh, there's not going
to be any real color changes. Just the lines on
that slab compared to the ones beside it are gonna
get a little bigger, a little smaller, depend on which

(17:25):
way it's going.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
And this is this is I'm glad you brought that up.
Because we've talked about this off and on for years, Marcus.
Then you don't want to ever buy a countertop off
a sample, right right?

Speaker 5 (17:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, it's just a little snapshot, yeah, you know, on
a small piece. And you know, I'm sure people have
done this in the past that other places they've they've
seen the samples. Oh yeah, I like that.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
And then when somebody comes out to and song like
what is this?

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
I don't want to mention any names, but the big
box stores, y'all know who they are. That's how they
do it. You don't go get to look at your
slab for sure.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
No, no, because whatever is hanging on the rack right
there you're looking at you, it could be years old,
right exactly exactly.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
So of the samples they got walking in the store.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Matter of fact, see how much justice on it first? Yeah, yeah,
and then make a pee line out of there had
to lifetime cabins and countertops.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
But I could get it from week to week almost sometimes,
and they'll be slightly different from slab to slab, so
bundle the bundle will be different. So this these will
come out of the same bundle, right, okay, so it'll
be good. You go in there and make an order.
Just bring your measurements, okay. Uh, take a rough sketch
of your kitchen just like it is, just some rectangles.

(18:36):
It's easy. Maybe a picture of two to complement it,
and we can give you a real good easy price
on it like that within a hundred bunths.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well, trust me, if Marcus and David the folks can
can can figure it out off of my rudimentary drawings,
they can figure off anybody's.

Speaker 5 (18:50):
I think you did it off a napkin. I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
No no, no, no, no no, no, let's record straight here.
Last time we came in, I did not do it
on a napkin. You did yours on a napkin. I
definitely did that. I designed the set of room off
the napkin up there, and amazingly, when they showed up
and it all was perfect, it looked great.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
Uh, we had you mean at the house, I did it. Yeah, yeah,
because I didn't have my iPad right, yeah, uh that's funny.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
And yeah, ironically enough, while the extension you did in
our kitchen came in very handy. On Thanksgiving Day, oh nice,
we had my my sister and her family upper in Charlotte,
and they were going to come down for Christmas, but
my sister a couple of weeks ago fell and broke
her kneecap, so we didn't actually need that extension. The

(19:41):
other day for Christmas, it was just the four of us,
but boy, it sure didn't come in handy and it
looks fantastic.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
Oh yeah, passing food through and all that stuff. And
have the grandchildren who I don't know, you don't have
them yet. Have the kids don't that I met him
last time when I measured his moth.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
You're bet our oldest. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing about measuring it myself. I
get to meet all the family members a lot of times. Dogs, cats.
I met both of your dog and cat. And I
love this job.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Now, so you've correct me if I'm wrong. But you
have had some slabs at the Fernandina Road store before,
but you got more.

Speaker 5 (20:22):
Yeah yeah, I've had them for years now, probably a
decade or more, different colors over time. But it really
is just an extended had been an extended version of
a sample, because you know, unless it's enough for your
kitchen where we could bring it back to my shop
and cut it with that, then we're we're going to
you know, use a different slab, you know, like a

(20:44):
different block, a different loaf of bread.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
You know. So now this time of year, I mean
because because typically now we get into springtime, it's going
to probably be a little different. I mean typically you
guys run about five six weeks something like that.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yeah, that's the easy button, five six weeks, and then
we could get it done sooner. If you got some
special needs friends, families, radio listeners, y'all, just let me know,
you know, and I'll push it through. You know, I
did in the last couple of weeks. I've did one,
one and two of them in one week, and one
and one I did in one day. Help it. And

(21:22):
as a matter of fact, I just had another guy
over here on the lake. He wanted a piece for
his mom for Christmas, and I got it to him
like two or three days. I think it was.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Okay caveaut here though, is that's an unusual circumstance.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
Yeah, yeah, it was just a small piece too, and
he gave me the measurements to cut by. So there
are certain occasions, well I will cut from what you
give me. If you take responsibility for it, you know
that is the reason why I measure for free and
come out and measures to make sure you know the
cuts are right and everything else.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Let's let's talk about that, Marcus, because I know it
with working with you guys for years now on multiple projects,
I know how this works. I know what's included. Let's
talk about the things though that when you look at
that price, when folks bring their measurements out to see you,

(22:17):
and you sit down and you sketch it out, and
again that's going to be dependent upon you getting the
first drawing pretty close to being right, assuming it is
you're gonna be in a couple of bucks one way
or the other.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
Yeah, i'd say fifty two hundred bucks, you're you know,
within easily within the brange.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
But so with that, probably when you get they get
that price, let's talk about the things that are included
in that versus and I want to pick on the
big box stores, but let's go ahead and pick on
the big box stores.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah, for now.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Versus the price you see on that slab at a
big box store. And I would kind of refer to
it as the old days where you get that lost
leader at and they're advertising a car for this price.
And oh, by the time you get to where you
can actually drive it off a lot, it's really miss brains.
So what things are included with Lifetime that aren't included
with say a big box store.

Speaker 5 (23:07):
Yeah, we normally beat them by a thousand to fifteen
hundred dollars a kitchen. You know, especially when you get
to the exotic colors. They'll say it's this, and then
then and they'll add to it. They'll say, well, it's
it's twelve dollars an inch I believe for a beveled edge,
an inch around the perimeter of the cut. So if
you've got a table, yeah, yeah, an inch, so so

(23:28):
if you have a if you have a table, I
guess they don't want to do edgy. I'm not sure,
but well we we include that in the standard package.
That's a beveled edge, a demi bull edge, which is
the rounded the bevel is like a forty five off
the edge. You can do multiple sizes and you know
you view that at the store. The demi bowl, same thing.

(23:51):
We do multiple sizes. One's called a pencil edge included bebble,
I mean the what else? Oh yeah, the easy edge.
It's also included just which is slight slightly rounded on
the top and the bottom.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Okay, I'm just I'm getting my calculator here to doing
some quick math. Let's say you got a six foot
long countertip.

Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah, right, so that's twelve.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
That's three feet deep.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
That's another six that's eighteen feet times twelve inches. So
if you did a rectangular I'm talking about an island,
an island, okay, right, that's six by three island. Okay,
so that's eighteen millonear feet of edge times twelve inches.
Because it's twelve inches per foot.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
That's seven hundred and sixteen.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
That's it's times twelve. So time eighteen times twelve. It
might be thirteen. I'm not sure, but disco with twelve.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Wow, I got twenty five almost for six hundred dollars.
Does that sound right to you?

Speaker 5 (24:49):
Yeah, just to put the edge on. Yeah, yeah, exact,
you're kidding me. No, no, yeah, that's twelve dollars an inch.
Go up there, Look, wow, twelve twelve twelve four.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Partner's doing math live on radio here.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
But this one, no, no, no, no, right, I wanna be ac.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Make sure I got two thousand, five d ninety two dollars.

Speaker 5 (25:13):
Yeah yeah, and that's just for the edge. Yeah yeah,
they add it to the end. If you get a
special edge, you know you're gonna pay.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
And you guys include that in the price listed.

Speaker 5 (25:24):
Let's just say, let's just say it was eight dollars
an inch, because I don't know. I don't never shop them.
I mean, you know, well even let's just say if
it was eight, but it's it's between eight and twelve
dollars an inch, okay.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
So, and I'm just curious because I've obviously I've only
ever bought countertops from Lifetime cabins and countertop that's right.
But now I'm curious if I walked into a big
box store and made a purchase, I guess I hope,
I hope they divulged that to you up front.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
Oh no, no, no, no, I don't think so. I've
never shot them, so I don't know I should. I'd hope,
so I just stopped. But I don't even know about that. That
is a nasty it's a beautiful, beautiful Christmas. We had.
Let's move on past that one. I know, I don't
want to get myself in the foot. Shut the foot
over here.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Well, but but The point is this is that there's
a lot of stuff you guys, when when you walk
off a lot after you've made that purchase and you've
given them a price, you know, unless you show up
and the measurements were way off that customer brought you,
you're within fifty to one hundred bucks of that price

(26:30):
that you talked about when somebody left the store. That much,
we know. And the point is is that you know,
in other places, think it is donkey it out before
you know it that that price you saw on that
on that stone hanging up on a rack there, suddenly
it's exploded.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
On Yeah, exactly, especially with the big box stores, you know. Okay,
So anyway, we're you know, we're just grateful to be here,
you know, we're grateful to have lots of business and
and everything. But we'll get be a fair And it's
one of the things I say a lot is we're
fair and honest with our pricing. That way, if you
come into one store, it's gonna be the same price

(27:11):
as the other store, you know, So you're not going
to get a bunch of confusion going on with with pricing.
Because I've done the same matrix since i've started, and
that's how we end up winning all these awards.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah once again best ok with the Save Reader's poll.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
Yeah, yeah, seven years in a row. You know we
got that.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Ain't nothing.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
Yeah, that's right, it ain't nothing. And we just got
another one. Best Google Reviews they said for twenty twenty five.
Oh really for the Yeah, for the granted in the Midlands,
And I.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Didn't even review it from our last job.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
I want it, right, I know, right, I don't know.
I'd never really ask anybody to do it. So it's
real nice to get that, even, you know, even though
I don't really push for it.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
So let's let's talk a bit about the pricing because obviously,
like everything else in life, that changes over time.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Mm hm.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
You know, we're we had boy a couple of years ago,
I mean, the supply chain crisis during the pandemic that
that through everybody for a loop, and then inflation afterwards.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
Griffs here at the beginning of the year last year.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
The price has stayed pretty much pretty level.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, they certainly have. In my in my on my matrix,
it has because basically, if it costs me more, it
just kind of goes into the price, and the prices
have not raised.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Oh yeah, our that's really nice. You marks right, So
you're taking one for the team there.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Yeah. I think some of the standard stuff kind of
went up in the costs and some of that more
exotic stuff really didn't get it as much of a
hit on it.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Well that that was just something we talked about in
this this past year. You were we were a price
point where yeah, some of the more exotic upper level stuff,
the at least the difference of the price gap between
the you know, level three's fours and such in level
ones was it had really shrunk.

Speaker 5 (29:03):
Yeah, yeah, in the case, yeah, absolutely, yeah, so, and
the prices of courts have come down, so that's really helped.
You know, I guess gous more competition stuff stuff like that.
Do you sause I was spading our Let's just say this,
it was the average nice looking courts before COVID was

(29:25):
one hundred and twenty five dollars of square foot. Now
I'm getting them as low as I don't want to
talk price too much, but you know, fitch five to
seventy five. Let's just say that that's a good range.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
That's a big difference.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
Yeah, yeah, there was before there was nothing at five.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
What do you attribute that to just the supply suppliers?

Speaker 5 (29:42):
Yeah, multiple suppliers.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
And that's the man made stuff.

Speaker 5 (29:46):
Right, the courts and the man made So.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
There's hypothetically an endless supply of that.

Speaker 5 (29:51):
Well yeah, you know, because they keep making it, right, Yeah. Yeah,
they grind up courts and put resident in it and
all this and they make it.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
What about the natural stuff court.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
Site, the nature the nature made stuff. Yeah, it's still
standing strong. You know, I sell probably more courtzite and granted,
you know, marbles have really risen this year too, as
far as price, I mean well priced and popularity.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, excellent.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
Yeah, so we've been having a great year. Marbles i'd
say probably has creeped up to you know, one third,
one third and one third or well, I guess we
should almost say a quarter of each different color of
the courts, courtzite, granite, and marble. I mean you're almost
at a quarter, you know, one quarter each.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Do you find that when most people come in for
the first time to look around, that they know exactly
what kind of stone they want or is it just.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
They know color? Yes, that's the first question I asked, Okay,
what color are you trying? To go for here, and
then I'll put them in the stone, you know, and
then if that stone doesn't work, then I'll say, well, okay,
if you don't like that stone. Like marble, some people
can't use marble because they're too rough. You know, you
got you know, I want to.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Tell you because because I went it was some trepidation
a couple of years ago, but we did marble on
a kitchen countertop. And I gotta tell you, unless you're
you know, unless you're going a slab by steak up
there and cutting it with a serrated edge, this stuff
is durable, man.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah. Yeah, It's not like uh, your lamb in it's
I mean, Lambit it is durable too, but if you
cut it with a knife, it's gonna scratch it. The
same thing with a with a marble, it's it's I
would put it on that same level. And well, Lamon
is actually deemed one of the most durable you know,
things that you can get, you know, granted, of course,
and court site would be stronger and harder than that,

(31:45):
but Lambit it has been a durable I mean it's
not you know, it's functional, but not really pretty.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
Yeah, And you can't sell your house if you got
lamb in it. Nowadays you can't.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Right, everybody checks that box on Zillow or whatever. Right
they want, you know, stone countertops of some sort, whether
it's the natural or the man made stuff, they want it.

Speaker 5 (32:06):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
And news flash, if your box isn't checked on your.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
House, lifetime caverns centertops.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, here you go, Marcus, have a terrific new year,
my friend.

Speaker 5 (32:15):
Thank you y'all too.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
We look forward to seeing you a get in a
couple of weeks. And we had a last how did
folks get a hold.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
Of yea yea yeah, eight o three seven twenty on
my phone. Here, it'll come right to my telephone here,
and I can give you some pricing on that. You
can go to my fern Indina's Road store right by
Greens and Costco and Northern Tool right there on that corner.
We got some slabs there to look at. You can
go to my chaping store at one fifty three Chaping
Road out there by the Boho Golf Center now they

(32:44):
call it across the street. And we got Cash's Chicken
right there and uh and higher ground. I'm right. I
did both the granites and those I got. I'm right
between those two guys. So go see Steve the hot
dog man on the way. Tell them I sent you, Hey.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Steve, Steve, Hi brother, I love it. Happy New Year,
Happy New Year.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
There was a far.

Speaker 6 (33:07):
When your power goes out, there's not a lot to do,
but you can call mister Electric with priority dispatching. One
of our electricians will be at your door ready to
safely restore your power fast. Because not having electricity is annoying.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
It's very annoyer.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
So next time you need an electrician, call mister Electric
because life is better with electricity services provided by locally
owned and operated franchisees. Products and services may vary by location.

Speaker 7 (33:35):
Hi there, I'm Jeremy Halliday, local owner of mister Electric
of Columbia. I've been servicing the Midlands since twenty ten
and I'm happy to answer questions and give you free
estimates with upfront pricing. Schedule your free safety check with
Mister Electric of Columbia and receive fifty dollars off any
work over three hundred dollars. Call eight oh three eight
six eight four two four to three or visit my

(33:57):
website mister Electric dot com. Forward slash Columbia.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
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 gutting, well it's the same people doing
the job, but the name has changed. That's right now.
It's Beaver Roofing and Beaver Gutters. Leave it to Beaver
for all your roofing and gutter needs the same great
service and the same great folks behind Anthony John Construction,

(34:22):
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. Gary,

(34:44):
har are you I'm well? Man averted a catastrophe.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, good thing you were home.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
I'll tell you that my goodness. So yeah, I was
mentioning a little earlier. 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 in there. Water is gushing
out from under the sink, the kitchen sink. I mean,

(35:10):
like like a geyser, you know, instant freak out time.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Right as.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I reached underneath the sink, and I just start cutting
off every valve I can find, right, and then there's
one and again, so you know, I get two shut off.
It's still coming out, and I'm reaching around behind the
garbage's bows 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 2 (35:41):
The first time I've heard that happen.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
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,
I 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 little the handle

(36:05):
that you put on it to turn it off with
what if you call that thing y? 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

(36:26):
I see the meter, and 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 luckily got to cut off in time to where
we did. We averted 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.

(36:50):
It's happened to you. It happened to you with a
busted washer hose a couple of years washing machine.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
It was actually the appliants itself. Yeah, the load of
laundry flooded the upstairs and downstairs of our house in
the hotel for a month.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
Yeah. Taught to Rob about that after he got finished
doing there. And it's his assumption is that the pull
out spray, Yes, that's exactly what grabbed onto one of
the you know valves coming out valves on the water line.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
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 wrapped
around of pipe somewhere.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, and make sure there's no way for it to
potentially grab a hold before you pull it out, especially
if you have c PVC 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 tex has place ability
that you really don't have to worry about it snapping off.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Well, that's what we got now certainly. And and lesson
Number two is know where you're shut off valves of
the house and then have one of those those shut off.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Keys and know where it is absolutely wow, and make
sure you know, you know where that piece that it fits.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Onto is exactly. Yeah, you have to do that.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
That's way that can happen. Uh, you know with CPBC
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've
seen them crack and start spraying. So luckily you were
home and you were able to thank goodness, and we've
talked about where your meter is before, and you were

(38:36):
prepared and ready for the situation. So that's a good
thing because it could have been a whole lot worse.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Well, I got to tell you this, if it hadn't
been for our years of discussions of this program, I'd
have had no clue what to do. I really wouldn't have.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
So well, I'm glad it helped them. Yeah, that means
we're doing something.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Right, 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 the 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, Uh, in particular, something maybe most
of us be included, don't really know anything about, not

(39:16):
necessarily a water heater, but but something to do with
a water heater. So what's what have we got on
the agenda today, mister Carwell.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Thermal expansion has not really talked about very much when
it comes to water heaters expansion, And if everybody thinks
back to their physics class that they took.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, that one. Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Remember that anytime something needs up, the molecules are going
to start to spread out. The same thing happens with water.
You start 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.

(39:57):
So what we do, and if let's get a little
bit further in here and see if we can explain
it better. So, if your system is open system, meaning
if that pressure increases and it was able to push
back into the city, it would, But most municipalities require

(40:18):
what they call it a dual check valve on the meter,
which basically creates a closed system 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

(40:39):
your home. So anytime, by code, if you have a
closed system, you're supposed to have 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, you know, causing premature failure on fixtures and

(41:04):
pipes and things of that nature. So every municipality that
I dealt with requires those check valves, or even if
you have a pressure a reducing valve, that also create
creates a closed system, and most houses have those because
most houses have pressure over a d P s I

(41:24):
when they're built, and you know, the builders required to
put on pressure regulator to regulate that pressure.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Down the back someone in most cases. Okay, well I
was gonna end 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 2 (41:43):
Yeah, and at this point, any any waters here reinstall
we're installing the pressure thermal expansion tank with it.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
But if you've got a home that's been built, you know,
a home built recently, last decade or more than it
is on a closed system, then the builder's got to
put that in with the hot water into its installed right,
it should be taken care of already.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
I would say ninety percent of them aren't. Some of
them are.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
I don't think they really look that deeply into the
system when it's inspected, And I don't think they're assuming
that these municipalities are requiring check valves on their system,
and the check valve is to protect their system. That's

(42:34):
kind of like we've talked about, 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,

(42:54):
it can pull that fertilized water into the water system.
So they always everyone I've dealt with requires a build
check valve on the meter where the connection is from
your line to their line.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
As a homeowner or or a business owner for that matter.
And 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 2 (43:24):
It's the municipality's responsibility to really deal with protecting your system.
So they're the ones that require the testing. They have
to keep up with the of 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

(43:45):
meter where your line 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 (44:00):
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 to hot water heaters.
Oh yeah, and I think you've told us before most
of Is it true that most of what gets installed
to Alli said that you installed are the tankless hot
water heaters.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, it depends on the situation. Sometimes they can be
constrehebitive 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 bts. A tankless is going

(44:43):
to use anywhere up to two hundred thousand bts, so
there's a 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,
the it might be best to go back with a tank.
So you know, that's the discussions we have with each

(45:05):
homeowner and weigh the options. Another thing some people don't
think 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

(45:26):
into the equation when they're talking about the difference between
the costs of 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 it comes doing a burner cleaning, there's parts

(45:48):
that you actually have to remove to get that burner out,
and there's different procedures for different manufacturers on how to
clean them. 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,

(46:09):
that's when we would definitely lean towards recommending the tankless
over the tank.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
And again just because that's the endless supply bot. How
does that work?

Speaker 2 (46:19):
You know, it just heats the water up instantaneously. I
say instantaneously. There's a series of pipes that the water
flows through and a burner you know, ignites and burns
and heats that water up as it's moving through the unit,
so that 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

(46:40):
go higher than that, but that's typically what we said
about is one twenty. So it regulates the heat and
has some cover needed and make sure it comes out
at that desired temperature.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
What's the difference in the say, the utility expense between
the two, because is is a tankless keeping this water
hot like all the time? No?

Speaker 2 (47:05):
So that's the big difference between a tank and a
tankless is a tank is gonna eventually cool down. You're
gonna 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 to heat up

(47:27):
to one and then click off. The thermostats will be satisfied.
It's going to cool down. It's going to 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 (47:38):
Okay, So that's the tankless.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Okay, 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 in and heat waters when you
have that faucet on, And there's always that minimum typically

(48:05):
around i'd say a half a gallon of flow through
that unit is going to cause it to kick on.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
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 2 (48:23):
Typically there's a dial on the gas alve that'll save vacation. Really,
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.

(48:46):
You know, there's still a constant flow of either propane
or natural gas going to that pilot keeping it on.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
So if you.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
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 (49:05):
Oh, if you're comfortable with it, yeah, but it's not
otherwise you.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Look at come out there and light it for you a.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
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 mean instant
hot water.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
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 fixtures 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

(49:48):
before you get hot water, because the hot 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.

(50:10):
If the customer is already having an 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 it'll create a
quicker response time for your hot water. When you cut

(50:32):
the faucet on, you're not having no wait as long.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
What what? 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 2 (50:51):
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,
it just 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 your systems piped in

(51:15):
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 the longest for our kitchen. But
our shower took a quite a bit of time. So
we would cut it on and you know, go through
the process of brush our teeth before we have been
the shower.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
I learned that trick from you a couple of years ago,
and I do it every morning. Every morning. I do that.
I cut it on first, brush my teeth, well that
and then I hop in and it's ready. Yeah, you
have use a little more water, maybe a little more
you know the energy bill, but but.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Still, you know, if you are concerned about the uh
the waight 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

(52:10):
you're slowing 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 (52:24):
Yeah, I do that too, thanks to your advice. It works,
It works very well. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
By the way, I'm glad get some good information out there.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yes help. And I gotta tell you, man, I did
get a text yesterday. I've had a chance to do
the survey yet, but Rob, who is I don't know
how many times Rob has been out to our house
or my parents' house doing stuff. But yeah, what a
great guy. Uh uh oh, we're looking at you guys. Yes,
but so I haven't filled a survey out yet, but
apparently the survey says, you know, if I say something

(52:55):
nice about him. Then he gets a free lunch. So
go ahead and by that man of free lunch, will
you James, Oh yeah, because he deservely. Maybe a free
dinner too, 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, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Us call aight oh three four four seven zero four
seven one or visit our website at Freedom dash plumbing
dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Thank you buddy, Thank you Gary.

Speaker 5 (53:19):
I'm James Carwell, local owner and operator.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Of Freedom Plumbing right here in the Midlands.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
After working as a plumber for nearly a decade, I
decided to open my own business and Freedom Plumbing was
born because of my love for this country and the
great respect I have for the men and women of
our armed forces and our first responders.

Speaker 5 (53:37):
I named my company Freedom Plumbing.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
What sets us apart from other companies is our customer service.
We have a five star rating on Google, a five
star rating on Facebook and a plus rating on Angie's List,
and an A plus rating with a Better Business Bureau.
I'm James Carwell, local owner of Freedom Plumbing, and we
look forward to servicing you for all of your plumbing needs.
Get fifty percent off your new service call when you

(54:01):
mentioned you heard us on WVOC.

Speaker 5 (54:03):
Learn more at Freedom dash Plumbing dot com.

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