September 6, 2025 • 47 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, September 6th, 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improven show
on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donavin to Jorgensen, he didn't eat cooling studios.
It's comfortable in the studio today. They must have been
here this week. It feels good, my co host, he
is representing Creative Construction of Wisconsin's Ray Hoffman. You didn't
(00:21):
have to wear like three hoodies in a park. It
feels good in here.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I always have to represent Creative Construction though.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I get that. I get that, but it's not as
cold as it has been. Last time.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I made a mistake of wearing shorts and a T
shirt and that was not a good idea.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
No, no, and you never know. I get here before
Spencer because Spencer likes to play with that dial over there.
He likes a little bit cooler than I do.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, and he has to wash a practice racist.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, well, we don't talk race card without go here.
We're not talking about it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm the second biggest fan next to Bingo, though.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We're still not talking about it because Bingo's the owner
of Creative Construction Wisconsin. And when Dev wants us to
talk race car stuff we do. That's how that works.
Our special guest for the entire hour. He is one
of the co owners of the mud Jackers l l C.
He is Chris Wilson. Chris, how you been great?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you doing good?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What was Wakshaw South football back in the day, like
when you were there better than it is now?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
We were when I was senior, we almost made State.
I mean we had the year before we went to States.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Was that Jeff Tricky years? Yes? Yeah, and actually fanic
coach Tricky. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
And oh and I'm trying to think who runs the
quarterback camp with him? Oh, there's a number of people. Yeah,
but there's a guy that I graduated. He was still
really good too, and he's still doing it, yeah, which
is awesome. I see it on Facebook and I'm like,
that is really cool. That's a passion.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You know, real quick before we get into your company.
You know, I've done this high school show for a
long time, and I everybody kept talking about Jeff Tricky.
Jeff Tricky is this? And we did mcgonago against Waukshaw
West Camp and I was out on the sidelines because
I'm the sideline reporter. Hour before game time, and I
went over there. That's Jeff Tricky and he's walking right
(02:12):
at me. I'm like, Jeff Tricky's walking right at me,
and he goes Mike mcgerran man, I wanted to meet you.
I've heard a bunch of you. Yeah, go Coach Tricky.
I've heard so much about you. I did a Coach
his Wives show, and Ronda, his wife, came at my favorite.
I loved all they were all great. One woman said, look,
I know more about football than my husband does. Ronda
(02:33):
Tricky said, look, I've been around football for a really
long time. I'm still not sure what first and ten means,
but I throw a great post and pregame party, and
I just Jeff Tricky. I'll kick this coverage man. Ronda
Tricky is the best. So I'm glad that you had
a chance to play for him.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, and he actually the gentleman I had to think
about it is Craig Ahmet. Yes, and I was actually
the He was quarterback and I was center, so I
play either center or noseguard when I was so, I
was always always Everybody always used to laugh because I
would be on the side, are on the line, and
I'd be growling and they'd be like, what are you doing.
I'm like, I'm just getting ready ready.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
See now he looks like a center though I played
center and I was one hundred and five pounds.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, yeah, he looks more like a center for sure.
How is business for you?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's been good. You know, we're we're not a big company,
so we're how many employees we have. We run two crews.
We run our foundation crew, and then we also run
our mudjat crew, and each one's between three and four guys,
and then we have two in the office, and then
there's my partner and my brother Cameron, and we do
(03:43):
the sales. So we really try to strive on giving
people more of a I wouldn't even say we're not
salesman because we're more like information givers. We don't think
every job is a mud jacking job, because we go
in and we see a lot of jobs that people
(04:03):
are like, oh, yeah, we can do this, no problem.
But we look at it and go, Okay, if this
is my house, this is not going to last. This
is going to get tore out.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Hey, Chris, can I tell you I think the difference
between that is you're this company's been around seventy three years.
He's been family run for that long. Yes, there's the difference, right,
you live in the neighborhood. People know your dad, right,
they knew your father, who has since passed a few
years ago. Did your grandfather start the company?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, So my father bought it from a gentleman he
worked for back in seventy two. I believe his name
was Frank C. Sharky. He actually he bought it from
his wife because she passed away and my father was
working for and so for the longest time, my dad
even kept the name out there and people would like,
(04:51):
I mean maybe twenty years ago, and the company hadn't
been around for twenty years even before that, and I'm like,
they would look for Sharkis and so half the time
they would be trying to call the pool hall okay,
and they called us, and they're like, do you guys
even you know, use this name anymore. My father was
very nostalgic, so he never wanted to lose that. I
(05:11):
still even have. Our company used to be back when
I was younger, it was called Woodies mud Jacking was
Woody's development than Woody's mud Jacking, and it became Woodi's
mud jacking the mud jackers, and so he kind of
adapted it just into the mud jack the mud jackers.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Hey, how much? And you started working there at what age?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Fourteen? So well, I mean technically on the books fourteen?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, okay, I was gonna say, federal government. You didn't
hear that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
No, you can't work at fourteen? Yeah, but yeah, yeah
you can. How much did you learn about work ethic
from your father?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
My father was, well, everyone in our household. I'm the
youngest of nine. I have my partner, who's my brother.
My father and my mother had together. My mother had
my consider you know, my blood brother before she met
(06:12):
my father, and my father had six children prior to
meeting my mother, which I looked at her and said,
how well would you you meet a guy with six kids?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I'd been like, bye, man, that's love right there, baby.
But Thanksgiving must have been incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But I don't even you know. Those those are my
real brother brothers and sisters. They're they're great. I love them,
and uh, but my father he was not one to
just give you anything like you. I think he bred
kids for labor, you know, because he wanted some free labor.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I look, I got six McGivern kids, and my dad
was a bricklayer and a mason and uh yeah, you know,
Irish Catholic back then. And I don't think the rhythm
method worked much for him. That's what I don't think.
He loved kids all the but you know he had
six of them, and not four boys, not one of them. Did.
(07:07):
He had no patience, Chris to teach us anything with
that right. I knew how to get out of doing
a day's work with him when he would say, go
get me a Phillips screwdriver and I'd bring him a
regular one and he would yell at me and say,
just get out of here. And I knew how to
get out of it, and none of us. He made
me go to Tech as a freshman because I was
the youngest boy, and he said, one of my son's
(07:28):
going to get into what I do. I went to Tech.
It was I didn't like it. I was, you know,
going through shot classes. We'd go to wood shop and
I'd buy my knife holder from a guy who did
it prior, and so I'd sit for six weeks, said
pretend I was doing something, and at the end I'd
hand in the project for some reason, that kid got
an ay on his and I gotta beat it's the
same thing. But I couldn't tell anybody that, And then
(07:51):
ended up transferring to Mesmer and my dad would just
shake his head. And in fact he said, look, my
sisters a year older, and he paid for her tuition
at Mesvar and he said, you want to go to Mesvar,
I'm not paying for it. Get a job, go work. Hit.
The worst word in the English language to my father
was lazy. I don't care. Never let him say you're lazy.
(08:13):
So let's go get going. And I'm like, I'm sadden.
What do you want me to do? I have to
clean the screens. I don't even know what a screen is,
but that so I'm wondering the work ethic. And when
you said, look, we're not sales guys, we're more informational guys,
and we're going to tell you what's best for that
had to come from from your dad.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Oh yeah. It was always honesty. Wasn't trying to sell
you know, everybody, because you know you're gonna slit your
throat eventually people don't trust you and you get a
bad you know, you know your integrity is shot and
you know, I'm still kind of the old school guy.
You know, you can sign a contract with me, but
if for some reason you call and say, you know,
(08:53):
I just don't feel comfortable. I don't want to send
my guys to your house. I want. I mean to me,
a handshake means more. And as long as you're comfortable
for you know, and are allowing us to come into
your home and work on it, you know, that's where
I would rather be. I would rather have my clients
be happy with what we did. And I've actually had arguments,
(09:15):
not only arguments, but more like people questioning why I'm
telling them, no, you need to replace this. Well this
guy said he can do it, and I said, yeah,
I can too, but it's not going to last and
you're wasting your money. I go, and here's a guy
that's you know, technically I'm trying to sell you a job,
but I'm telling you no, think about it. And then
(09:37):
they go, oh, that does make sense. And because there's
you know, you get everything on the internet, and you
know they'll show this rope pretty picture of and I
laughed because there's one out there that shows a driveway
and they're using the newer materials. The eurothane stuff, which
I don't get into because I don't I can't touch
(09:58):
it anyways. We can get an to that later. But
it shows this little driveway and it's into like four
different pieces and they're small, and then they show it
all sank and then they raise it up and they
calk it every and everybody's like, oh, that looks really great.
But you're driving on it and it's like the same
(10:19):
size slabs as like your sidewalk on the side of
your house, and that's point pressure from your tires. You
think that's gonna last.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Hey, when you were fourteen, were you out there doing
like now you're selling, so you're not out there with
the crews doing the mud jacking anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
So I still do, actually no, because my foremans take
off and I have to run the crew. So like
last Friday, I was running a crew. Actually today I'm
swapping some work with a friend of mine. He works
on my boat and does a bunch of stuff. So
I'm going to his house. One of my guys is
meet me at the shop and we're going to do
some mud jacking today.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So it's called trade right there. Yeah, Yeah, we like that,
we like that. Hey, you had talked about the replacement
and where companies coming say no, we can mudjack that,
and you say, look, you really can. You probably concrete
replacement is what you have to do. What's the difference
money wise? Is it a big savings If people mud
(11:18):
jack comparative replace, you're about.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
A third of the cost of replacement. So I get that,
But if you're going to spend your money twice, then
it's not worth doing, you know. And so there's a
lot of jobs that I walk into and I'm like, yeah,
this is a beautiful candidate for because we'll actually raise
it back up, We'll put a solid base underneath it,
and you know, you'll have longevity. Some people think, well
(11:44):
if you rip it out, it'll last even longer. But technically,
what you're dealing with is sub surface ground that is compacting,
not what's on top, but actually what's below. So you
could rip all those labs, put them back in and
it'll sink the same.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You would do it. Before we went on the air,
you were talking about it at your house. You have
a tree that's an issue, and you're like, I'm not
taking the tree down. It's the only shade I have.
What what what's the future on that? How can you stop?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
I have to make a decision. I have to make
a decision if I want to take out the tree
and get rid of the roots.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Let's call it Mary and see what she thinks.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well, I know what she thinks. She doesn't want the
tree out. She was really it's her favorite tree.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And sometimes you can come if it's as long as
it's not the main route, but sometimes you can.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And unfortunately it is the main root, is it? I
had a tree guy come out and take a look in,
and I'd have to take down the tree, and then
I creep. I can get it mud jacked because the
roots will be out. We get to cut out the roots,
but most likely it will probably have to be replaced.
But the mud jacker guy that came out, which I
believe was Chris's company, I can't remember. This was five
or six years ago. He came out and told me
(12:51):
that he said, if I do anything with this, it's
actually going to bring the water into your house, and
it's not going to last very long because the root's
going to take it out again. Kind of sounds like
I like be honest, right, I'd.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Like when people are honest that's that's you know, with
our industry, with you know, our mud jacking, our foundation repair,
our piling stuff, because we do a lot of piling
work and raising homes, and so you get a diverse
of the traditional hardcore salesperson and you walk in and
(13:24):
people are thinking they got to spend forty fifty thousand
dollars and I'm like, no.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You know when when when anytime were my wife and
I lived on eighty eighth in Townshend for thirty some years,
and anytime there'd be a crack in the basement. I mean,
the biggest, the worst night, Mary, The thing that keeps
people up at night is what you do, right, I mean,
can we just put some beams up and are we
okay there? And when they come over, what you don't
(13:51):
want to hear is and now we're gonna have to mudget.
We're gonna have to do this. And to have somebody
walk in and be honest about it and say maybe
you don't need that. Let's look at this again. I
think is it makes people take it breath and go
thank you, Like I don't use the worst case scenario
is what you guys do most of the time, right.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean we like with our from back
in the day when my father we actually used to
mudjack foundations. It was already rare, rare occurrence, but we
would actually use our mudjacking method to lift a home.
And it was only if it if it had a
four foot foundation wall that had ground on both sides,
(14:35):
because you couldn't do it with a basement, because you
would lift.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
The That's how you get a mud jack that we would.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Actually dig down and we would undermine underneath the footing
and a couple of locations, and then he would put
a pipe underneath with a little bit of mud like
a mudball underneath, and then we would pour a concrete
pad underneath the footing with rebar and then we would
backfill it and compact it and compact it, and then
we would let it sit for a day and then
(15:04):
we come back and we would inject it and it
would cause the building to lift. They used to do
that with soil. They still do that. It's called benife,
and it was a soil injection. They'll drill way down
and they inject the soil, and the soil it'll basically
like bond the soil together and it can cause it
to lift, but we didn't know that. It's yeah, but
(15:30):
they do soil injections and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
As we're talking to Chris Wilson, he's one of the founders.
In fact, it family owned, a co owner I'm sorry,
not one of the founders, one of the co owners
of the mud Jackers LLC. You could go to mud
Jackers one word mudjackers dot com to learn more. You
guys do a lot of different things, right, waterproofing, foundation work, hearing,
mud jacking. What's the what takes up most of your time?
(15:55):
Is there one part of what you do that keeps
you guys the busiest.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, I mean our foundation work we do year round,
but our mud jacking so once we can't do any
more external mud jacking for the season than that cru
swhich is over to foundation repairs. So I mean it's
pretty fifty to fifty until we get into winter, which
is just a couple of months that But sometimes we
have because we do a lot of commercial work, so
(16:21):
sometimes we're doing factory floors, we'll do like floor stabilization
between joints when they're especially in warehouses, forklifts are going
over it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So no job's too big for you guys. No, no, yeah,
how much commercial? Is it fifty to fifty is it
seventy to thirty residentials?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
I would think seventy percent residential, thirty percent maybe even
twenty percent commercial.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Hey, this this the flood that we had a couple
of weeks ago. Hi, what did that do to your business?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
I think it made people look at how for a
mud jacking part of it, looking at where their pitch
is coming to the house, because but I mean, when
you're in a flood, I mean you could pitch, you know,
a couple inches away from the house, but if you
got eighteen inches of rain, and really, it's not going
to stop it. And that's where I know. Even some
other basement companies that I know that I know very well,
(17:12):
and they're great guys, and we're all talking and we're like,
this is crazy because there's other companies out there that
are just trying to take advantage of these people and saying, oh, yeah,
you need to do drain tile, you need this that,
and it's not going to change anything. When it's a flood,
you can't it's black. He can't do anything with it.
So we go out and we you know, sometimes it's
(17:33):
just let's calm them down, you know, and make sure
people aren't you know, spending money where they need to,
you know. Some of them they had problems with foundation
walls cracking. I had one client that we're going to
be supporting his walls eventually. Here they're not terrible, but
he was in his basement and he had I think
about six or eight inches of rain up alongside the
(17:55):
foundation while on the outside, and he could hear his
wall creeping, and so he actually ran the home depot
and got studs and started putting up a stud frame
and anchoring it into the floor just to hold the
wall because he was freaking out. And I'm like, you
know that that didn't hurt anything. I said of anything
that might have helped.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But my wife would say, let's go to a hotel.
If she starts hearing the car, I'll just.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Make noises like, did you guys get hit? You know,
kind of walk with that.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, we got hit pretty heavy, actually, And luckily the
only thing I realized is my basement window needs to
be replaced because it's got a leak in it. And
luckily I know a few people in the industry.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You know what you got off easy, pal, you got it.
If all you have to do is replace one of
the basement windows, Hey, Chris, do you know and we'll
get you a break. After this question, you realize when
you walk into somebody's house that they probably had a
sleepless night with with what what they are expecting, because
we always expect the worst, right you expect the worst.
(18:55):
And then when you come in and go, hey, hold on,
you know we there's ways that we can take carry
this without it being the worst case scenario. And you
know when you're walking in that the husband, the wife,
the family have all walked and talked through this is
not good. This thing could get really bad. And I
(19:16):
like the fact that you know that you're walking in
to a place where these people are probably expecting the worst,
and if you can give them an alternative that's not
the worst, you're like a hero.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Right Well, I mean, I just I there's so many
in our industry. There's so many I don't want to
call it crooks, but just people that they're trying to
take advantage of the elderly. I mean, we had one
where it was a little old lady and the salesman
from this company literally said, if you don't fix your walls. Now,
I didn't expect this, but it was a friend of
(19:47):
mine is in the business too, and he said that
if you don't fix this wall and sign on this
dotted line, you're gonna get arrested. They're gonna put handcuffs
on you.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
What.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
And she was a little lady, scared out of her mind.
And he to her house and he was just like,
have you ever And she's telling him this, and he goes,
have you ever heard on the news somebody getting arrested
for not fixing their basement? And she's like, no, nos, okay,
there you are, but no, yeah, but that's what we
deal with. And that's how our industry for years has been.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Your industry and home improvement. I have a really good
friend of my wife who bingo was sitting right here,
and she had called me on a Thursday at like
five point thirty and she was crying and she said, look,
we just want a couple of We had a home
improvement guy come in. He wouldn't leave my kitchen until
(20:38):
I signed. And he said, look, if you don't like
why wouldn't she sign with us. We're a sponsor of
the brewers. She's like, I didn't even like baseball, but
she to get him out and she had twenty four
hours to cancel the contract. He wasn't out of her
driveway and she called and she was crying and she said,
I couldn't get him out of my house. I don't
know what to do. And I said, give me the
name of number, I'll call and cancel. And you're I'm
(21:00):
going to send a guy named Bingo Lemmon's over to
you from Creative Construction, Wisconsin. This is a year ago.
My wife had breakfast with her two weeks and she's
still raving about Bingo and the people from Creative Construction
of Wisconsin. She's still showing pictures of what she said. Look,
this guy had been doing things and they were like,
(21:20):
you don't need any you don't need that, but you
might need this, but don't do it now. We'll come back.
And Bingo took such good care of her. And she's
somebody that talks to people in the neighborhood and she's like,
you have to use Oh you need what do you
need called creative? You need a new sink, they'll do it.
You need a new focid. Well, they're not going to
come out put a new facet in they probably would,
(21:42):
but because that's Bingo and Sam would say we don't
have time to do that, and Big would say, no, no,
we'll help them. We're good and and the woman just raves.
So when you talk about those people that won't don't
tell the truth, when you tell an older woman if
you don't fix your basement while you're going to be arrested,
I'd like to meet that guy.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
One. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And that's why we have this show, because the show
is the show. Everybody that comes on the show gets
vetted by myself or Mike or Bingo or Sam or
and we know that the reputation is good. We know
that they're honest people, and that's why they're on the show.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I'll tell you this, he's Chris Waller.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
People on the show.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
If you can't If you can't trust a guy who
played center for the Black Shirts, out and Walk shuts out.
Look on their website here's my favorite line, exceeding the
expectations of Wisconsin residents for over seventy three years with
service services that are superior in quality and competitive in price. Look,
(22:42):
you don't say we're the lowest, We're gonna be the highest.
Because we're the best. We're competitive in price and the
fact they've been doing it for seventy three years. Look,
if you need to talk to Chris Wilson or his
brother co owners of the Mudjackers LLC, go to Mudjackers
dot com Mudjackers. I have a number of questions to
(23:02):
ask Chris about that part of their business. They do
seventy percent or so residential. They do a lot of
commercial work as well, So go to that website if
you have any questions. It answers a lot of the
questions you have. If not, you can request a free
estimate or give them a call. The phone number is
right on that website Mudjackers dot com. This is the
(23:23):
Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeartRadio App. Welcome back to the Creative
Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports nine twenty
and your iHeartRadio App. Coming live from the Donovan and
Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios. You're going to turn your
furnace on soon. It's coming. Make sure that that's ready
(23:44):
to go. Go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. They are
the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin,
three locations. Mcgwanago, New Berlin, and West Dallas. Donovan Jorgenson
dot com. I'm Mike mcgiven alongside I co host this week,
he's Ray Hoffman representing Creative Construction Wisconsin and our special
(24:05):
in studio guest. He is Chris Wilson, the co owner
of the mud Jackers LLC. Basement Solutions Correct Basement Solutions,
because people weren't sure exactly if you guys did base
and you do basements right, Yeah, a lot of works. Hey,
can we talk about waterproofing a basement a little bit?
(24:27):
People think that is when when they say, look, if
I get my basement waterproof, it's going to take care
of all the problems we have? Did they think it's
a magic pill.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
It can sometimes you know, they'll be like, oh, it'll
never flood again, And I'm like, when it's a flood,
it's a flood.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Again because every basement's different. And so I I just
find that that term basement waterproofing, that's going to take
care of all the issues. Look, we had where we
were again on eighty other times we had backup sewer
wire that camp. That's the waterproof in my basement is
not going to fix that?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Was it? No?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
No, we explain what that means waterproof and the basement
and how you guys go about doing that.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
So there's a couple of different things we do. You know,
the standard one would be, you know, if your walls
are if you have moisture within the first like two
to three courses from the floor up the cove joint
right there, that typically you can do an interior drain
tile system that allow that to take care of that issue.
(25:30):
If it's higher up on the wall, now we have
to look at what the cause is. You know, I've
gone into basements that it's only happening in the corners,
and so we go outside and nope, guess what you
have really bad down spouts. Your your your down spouts
are blown out, your gutters are rotted. You know, let's
take care of that first. Let you know, get your
(25:52):
dehumidifier going. Let's reevaluate this and once you get all
those things done and wait a couple months, and then
we can remoisture test and see where your moisture levels
are at if your walls have a lot of moisture
and there it's all over the place. Well, then you
got to start looking at excavation and and we also
look at the walls to see if there's any movement.
(26:15):
And so there's typically the way we want to do
that is you laser your corners UH to see how
the home was built, because not every home is built
perfectly plump and straight. So and so if you're if
your corners are in a half inch, you got to
minus that off your measurements to make sure that you're
looking at these basements correctly. But the process basically is
(26:39):
you excavate the ground away all the way down to
the footings. You take out the old drain tile, you
pressure wash the walls down, you fix all the cracks
that need to be done. We use a true waterproofing material.
We used to use a product called Marflex, but we
use mel Roll and it's a rubberized UH that goes
(27:00):
on the wall once everything is clean. We don't try
to waterproof and backfill the same day because there's VOCs
that could get into your basement. So we always make sure.
Sometimes our jobs take longer than some companies just because
we're not gonna do it the fastest. Because we believe
that people are paying and should get what they pay for.
(27:21):
So we'll waterproof the walls. We let them sit so
they dry correctly. A lot of companies, I don't know
if our competitors still do this. We don't put plastic
over our walls because we want our material to dry
and become rubber. Then the stone can grow right in
because it won't peel it off. It literally turns to
a rubber membrane on the wall. So back in the day,
(27:44):
they used to tar the wall and put plastic over it,
and then they'd backfill it tar, hardens and cracks and
then you're basically back to square one. So we try
to find that better products. We're always going to you know,
trade shows and stuff like that, or looking at vendors
and seeing what they have out there. What's a better
product for our customers.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Hey, you are the president of the w A f RP.
And wait when you had talked about that, and now
I went on the website. We have board of directors,
committee chairs, high how many people are part of that organization.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
We're not, I mean we're a smaller group, but we're growing.
It used to be just mostly basement wall repair guys,
and we're trying to more bring it into a networking
group of a lot of other contractors, because when we
get into a basement, there can be carpentry, there's there's
heating and cooling issues that have to be dealt with
(28:39):
for us to do our job, and why not work
together with these people. So when we go into a home,
we're like, you know, here's here's some vetted people that
we know that are you.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Know, And that's the word you used, vetted, And I
think that's that's important. If look, if you're looking to
get some of this work done, that would be a
great place to start, right. So so to be able
to say, look, I need to I need a member
directory of people that have been vetted, so you're not
you're not getting somebody who, you know, after a flood
(29:11):
drove in from Iowa and said hey, we can get
this done for you half the cost, will be in
and out in two days, and you know, all of
a sudden they're back in Iowa and you have a
problem and now you can't get them to come back.
So to be able to go to w A f
RP w A f RP dot com. On that website,
(29:32):
there's a member directory there's the officers. You're the president.
By the way, where's your security people? If you're the president, right,
I don't have to like, we don't have to play Spencer. Yeah,
Spencer's and you need more security than talent.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
The group is, it's a great group of people, and
we really come a long way. It used to be
everybody hated each other and and our meetings would take
for everybody would just fight, and now it's you're coming
in half the time. These you know, we got guys
talking about different projects, and you know, if you're part
of that association, sometimes you're looking for unique block or
(30:09):
something like that, the old style true aids. And we
have one guy that gets paletts of him and he's like, yeah,
just give me a call. I'll help you out. And
that's where I see this going and where we have
come a long way where it's it's more of a
networking thing. And I like to see that because I
with the work that we do, especially our pilings and
(30:30):
lifting homes that have settled, we work with other basement
companies and that's where I kind of ended up becoming
president because I get along with everybody. I don't care.
There's plenty of work out there for everybody, and if
we all get along, I'd rather show up, you know,
drive by a job site and see one of the
guys that I know and stop in and be like, hey,
how you guys doing, and not you know, trying to
cut each other's throats. And that's where it's really come to.
(30:51):
And it's a great organization and Bingo joined it and
we're actually using his training center for our meetings and
he's been really gracious and just and that's where I
like meeting great people and to because if you look
at them, like Milwaukee Builders Association, you have a lot
(31:11):
of other builders and they don't all come into a
room and want to go to a fistfight and hate
each other. You know, They're they're going, hey, you know,
we do this, we do this, and you know sometimes
like we don't rebuild walls. And so if I get
a call that's, you know, oh we need this wall rebuilt,
I just go on my memory directory and guys that
I know call them. They can they can help you.
And at least I'm sending them in the right direction
(31:33):
and not just to the wolves.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
One of the things I like about the w A
f R W A f RP. So I just learned
about this morning, so I'm kind of struggling with the
letter acronym right now. But right on the front page
it talks about their codes and standards and at Michael,
you and I have talked about it many times. When
you're hiring a company, make sure they're part of an
association that has standards, has ethics, and has a group
(31:58):
like you were talking about, because I found it amazing.
I'm me in a couple of associations. Mike's mending quite
a few too, and you would. The first time I
walk in there, I'm like, Oh, these builders are going
to fight. These people are gonna fight. These people are
gonna argue. They don't they help each other. That's the
great thing about organizations like this group.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, that's that's where I've I've really I used to
hate when I when I was younger, we were part
of it. I'd go to it and I'm like, Okay,
this is gonna suck. Yeah, it's just a waste of
my night and it takes forever. Our meetings aren't three
hours anymore, you know, we're maybe an hour and a
half with dinner and we're out, you know, but we
we actually accomplished something, you know, where before it was
(32:36):
never we weren't accomplishing anything. And so it's growing and
we're really.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Pushing it to how fund you guys meet every other.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Month with the association and then we have a steering
committee every every other month that's in between that, just
to be able to get all everything.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And you know, as were talked about it on that website,
why choose a W A f R PEK contractor? And
you've got a list and right in the middle it
says members must follow a strict code of ethics in
order to maintain their affiliation. And I think again as
Raya talked about that part of it, like it's kind
(33:15):
of like Nary or the NBA. Right. If you you
can't just cut me a check and be part of us,
we're gonna do We're gonna vet your company a little bit.
We're going to find out, you know, are you treating
people honestly and with respect and doing it at a
fair price and doing good work? Like you can't just
cut a check for you and say, look, I want
(33:36):
to be.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Part of this, correct, Yeah, yeah, you have to fill
some paperwork. I mean, it's it's not like we're calling
the FBI. But you know, we most of the companies know,
especially with our border directors, we know who these companies are,
and you know, we make some phone calls and just
want to make sure that everything is what it is.
But most of the guys that want to join the
association are joining it because of that reason. They see
(34:00):
value in it, and you know, and they value their company.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
He is Chris Wilson, co owner of the mud Jackers LLC.
You go to Mudjackers dot com. The Basement Solutions is
what they do. When we were talking about waterproofing on
your website, you guys, you have a patent pending, is
that right water grabber? So both that'll.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Probably water grabber. So I, oh, gosh, ten twelve years ago,
maybe longer, I bought into a company out of Boston
called Basement Technologies, okay, and I liked their some of
their materials that they sold, not everything, because some of
it was a gimmick, but they had some really good
(34:48):
sub pump CROCS systems that were unique because you could
actually pourm flush with the floor. But within the last
year they sold out to a big company and no, no,
I'm so we're actually in the process of redoing our website,
but similar products. I'm still trying to figure out if
they're still going to sell materials, but most of that
(35:11):
is just The water grabber was really the thing that
I liked because it was a sealed system. For Radon.
We did a side discharge and we can still do that.
I still have materials left. But so you didn't have
that crock with a big pipe sticking out the center.
It was actually flush with the floor. It came out
and went up the side of the wall. You could
(35:33):
put carpeting over this thing. It was had a sealable gasket,
so you didn't have to Like with Radon when they
put all these Radon systems in, they're like calking the
some pump crock shut and if you need to get
that pump out, now you've got to break things to
get it out. Where this is just eight screws and
you can pull that thing out. I can change one
out in five minutes.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Wow. So well, when you're talking about the waterproofing part event,
I find it really interesting because the foundation crack repair right,
exterior waterproof and then the interior drain tile system and
early on in our conversation, you said, look, there's sometimes
that we get called out and people say, well, the
(36:17):
other companies said we need a whole new dry drain
tile system, and you just kind of shake your head
and go, ah, is when people actually need that? Is
that the worst case scenario for people?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I mean interior, Yes, you know, I mean if you're
sometimes the drain tile systems are failing, and sometimes it's
not even the drain tile itself, it's water getting inside
the block and it can't escape and so it ends
up coming in onto the floor. And so like lately
with all the flooding rains and stuff like that, we've
(36:50):
had it where people are like, oh, I need a
new draintile system because my basement flooded. We're like, well, no,
you probably don't, but if you want, you could get
a drain tile test done, which is a couple of
hundred bucks. Uh, you know, maybe I think five hundred
bucks or something like that. But then you can see
what your system's like. But we always suggest our company,
(37:12):
and I know a couple of other companies suggest getting
somebody independent so it's not somebody like me coming out
there and doing a drain tile test. Because you know,
ultimately we would like to sell you a job. But
I mean, we're honest. I've done plenty of them where
I'm like, no, you don't need this, but we always
try to. In our association, we do have companies that
just do drain tile testing, so you know, and they're smaller,
(37:34):
you know, smaller father and son.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But but that that you know, what that does is
it takes the pressure off trikes one takes the pressure off, right.
So when they tell the people, look, you you are
going to need this, and then they call you, they
they know they are charity, and I think that's that's
really good. We're gonna get to a break. I'm gonna
(37:57):
ask you on the other side of the break, how
much is chain in this business over the years as
far as material how to do things? And it is
there things coming in the next couple of years that's
going to make people's lives easier. And I guess normally
when we have somebody in where you're sitting, if they're
(38:18):
involved in in in you know, redoing somebody's kitchen, well,
what are the trends? You know, what are the color
trends nowadays? That kind of stuff. And I'm wondering in
your business if there's much of that or are you
guys still utilizing the same type of materials that you
did in the past, And we'll get to that. On
the other side, he's Chris Wilson. He's the co owner
of the Mudjackers LLC. Go to Mudjackers dot com. They're
(38:42):
located in Waukeshaw. Timeframe real quick. Somebody calls you on
Monday and says, look, I heard you on the show.
When can I get you to come out and tell
me what's going on with my basement? Can you see
him next week? Oh?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, yeah, I'm typically maybe at the most five seven
days out looking at stuff. Okay, because I I'll I
just run like a madman. I'm never in my office.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
You're a Packer fan. I am so am I that's two.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Of us well Spencer pack Spencer Huge Packers. Yeah, they're
my second favorite.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Who's your first?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Detroit Lions?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah? Ray will no longer be in the studio.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
On the other side, actually be back October fourth.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Anyway, Roe Pacoh, that's all I'm saying that hopefully, hopefully
the Packers get to start the season. Want to know
this is the creative construction Wisconsin home improvement show on
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App. Well,
welcome back to the Creative Construction Wisconsin Homie Proove. But
you're on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
(39:45):
Coming live from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Coolian Studios.
I'm Mike McGivern alongside Ray Hoffman, representing Creative Construction of Wisconsin.
Our special guest, he's a good one. Chris Wilson, co
owner of the mud Jackers. LLS go to Mudjackers dot
Com their offices in Wakashell, what is the territory you guys?
Is there.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Like for residentially, for like our mud jacking, it's probably
the southeastern part of Wisconsin. And then our foundation with
our pilings and stuff like that. We it all kind
of depends on the projects. We've gone all the way
to have even gone to Ohio to put in new
construction piles for like a tackle bell, and we've done
board walks up in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Okay, so hey, we during the break we talked about peering,
and and I don't know a lot about peering, and
you said, look, that's a big part of what we do.
Can you talk a little bit about what that what
that entails.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
So basically we do two different types of peering slash
piling systems. One is a heelical. It's a torque pile.
It almost looks like one revolution of an augur and
they vary in size. But say you have a home
that you've lived in and all of a sudden you
(41:05):
start noticing by the windows it's cracking, doors aren't opening correctly,
they're sticking. You start noticing weird things and cracks in
the ceiling. People will call us. We go out and
we'll evaluate the home to see where if it's moving.
If it is, then we basically will suggest an engineer.
(41:26):
We work with quite a few of them that are
part of our association that are very versed in this issue.
They'll come out and they'll design the repair for your home.
And the heelicals we actually can lift homes with them
and are push piles. Basically, entails is either if we're
(41:47):
stabilizing it. Sometimes we can do it from the inside,
but a lot of times it's excavating out the foundation
wall wherever the engineer designs where these piles would have
to go. We have to cut the footings and then
what right next to the foundation while we drive this
piling into the ground to a load capacity that basically
(42:08):
is twice what the engineer they call it an ultimate load.
We'll put all these piles in and they can range
anywhere from fourteen to I've gone one hundred feet in
the ground.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
And once they're in, we have a bracket that slides
over the top of that pile. Slip, it'll actually slide
right underneath the footings of the house. We build a bracket,
we put these huge hydraulic rams that we have on
that has a capability of lifting sixteen inches, and we'll
pick the whole house right out of the ground and
bring it back to where it originally was.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Hey, when I at the end of that last break,
I said, look, we're going to talk about things that
have changed in your industry. Is it more not the materials,
but is it more some of the equipment that that
has has gotten better over the years.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Oh? Yes, even in our mudjackam I mean we used
to I used to shovel out of the back of
a truck and we would I mean I would shovel
out eight yards in a day. Those days are over,
and we had a two man crew we did, I mean,
and then I'd go to the gym afterwards. And now
it's a self feeding truck, which saved the guy's backs.
You know. Our pumps used to be on two wheels
(43:14):
and it was like a wheelbarrow and you'd have to
wheel it through the backyard and I mean it was
it was like pushing a leg sled, you know, on
the football field. And now it's hydraulically movable. But we
do more work, so I mean it's a different it's easier,
but it's still hard.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
You know, Hey, what keeps you up at night? Like
what being part of you know, the president that association,
being co owner of the mud Jackers? What what what
keeps you up at night?
Speaker 3 (43:45):
I think any project that we have going on, because
I take everything very personally, every project I've ever done.
My clients aren't just my client there. They've become like
a friend and the last thing we want to do
is have them, you know, be upset about something. We
always go above and beyond, and that's where most of
(44:06):
our clients just love our guys. Because my guys don't
just try to do the bare minimum. They go out
of their way and they really take care of our clients.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Well, I read a bunch of the on your website
and then other places on what people wrote, and I'm
telling you, almost eighty percent of the ones that I
read talked about the people that have come to work
and from your company and how honest they were, how
on time they were, how reliable, how they answered their
(44:34):
phone if their issues. And this is just from people
right saying, look, and they can write anything. They can say,
these guys are a bunch of jerks, and they and
the ones that I read, and I probably read fifteen
of them, the common thread was the employees that were
very responsible and really polite and did great work and
(44:56):
an industry that doesn't have the best reputation. And I
love the fact that you kept talking this whole hour
about that part of how proud you are of what
your reputation is out there. And if you've been your
company's been doing it seventy three years, you're doing something right.
You just you just start.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
Our guys are great. I mean, they're they're they're basically family.
And so when it when we when we most of
my guys, both my foremans have been with me since
they've been eighteen years old, and they started as laborers
and now they're foremans and they're the backbone of our company.
And when they show up to a job site, you
know it's I don't have to worry if I go
(45:35):
on vacation. I typically don't have to worry unless it's
a giant project and I know more about the project
than they do. But you know it that I are.
Our company's reputation probably is one thing that keeps me
up at night, just because I want I don't want
to be that guy that just wants to be, you know,
sell somebody a job. I want somebody to go they're awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yeah, and and tell their front and they verse. He
is Chris Wilson. Hey, first of all, rate's good to
see you. Good to see you. Give me one go Paco. No, no,
he's not doing that all co owner of the mud
Jackers LLC. Go to Mudjackers dot com, Peering, mud Jacking Foundation,
(46:20):
Waterproofing Basement Solutions, and look, you if you're going to
bring a couple of people out to get an estimate,
I have Chris Wilson be one of them. And if
nothing else, you're gonna he's gonna set you straight. One
way or the other, good or bad. He's going to
tell you the truth. And I like that. I think
that comes from Jeff Tricky. That's where I think that
comes from, because he, you know what, everything that he
(46:42):
talks about is all about leadership and and taking control
of of what you can take control of, and being
honest and work hard and all the things that he believes.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
I don't have to say my father though, my father.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Father for sure. Yeah. But you know, when if I
get a chance to say Jeff Tricky's name on a
home improvement show, I go ahead and do it. It's
nice to meet you, pleasure. Yeah, keep up the good
work again. Go to their website Mudjackers dot com. Basement
Solutions is what they do, and give Chris Wilson a call.
He'll come out and he will walk you through whatever
(47:15):
you need done and in your basement. This is the
Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeart Radio app
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improven show
on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donavin to Jorgensen, he didn't eat cooling studios.
It's comfortable in the studio today. They must have been
here this week. It feels good, my co host, he
is representing Creative Construction of Wisconsin's Ray Hoffman. You didn't
(00:21):
have to wear like three hoodies in a park. It
feels good in here.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I always have to represent Creative Construction though.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I get that. I get that, but it's not as
cold as it has been. Last time.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I made a mistake of wearing shorts and a T
shirt and that was not a good idea.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
No, no, and you never know. I get here before
Spencer because Spencer likes to play with that dial over there.
He likes a little bit cooler than I do.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, and he has to wash a practice racist.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, well, we don't talk race card without go here.
We're not talking about it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm the second biggest fan next to Bingo, though.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We're still not talking about it because Bingo's the owner
of Creative Construction Wisconsin. And when Dev wants us to
talk race car stuff we do. That's how that works.
Our special guest for the entire hour. He is one
of the co owners of the mud Jackers l l C.
He is Chris Wilson. Chris, how you been great?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you doing good?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What was Wakshaw South football back in the day, like
when you were there better than it is now?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
We were when I was senior, we almost made State.
I mean we had the year before we went to States.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Was that Jeff Tricky years? Yes? Yeah, and actually fanic
coach Tricky. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
And oh and I'm trying to think who runs the
quarterback camp with him? Oh, there's a number of people. Yeah,
but there's a guy that I graduated. He was still
really good too, and he's still doing it, yeah, which
is awesome. I see it on Facebook and I'm like,
that is really cool. That's a passion.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You know, real quick before we get into your company.
You know, I've done this high school show for a
long time, and I everybody kept talking about Jeff Tricky.
Jeff Tricky is this? And we did mcgonago against Waukshaw
West Camp and I was out on the sidelines because
I'm the sideline reporter. Hour before game time, and I
went over there. That's Jeff Tricky and he's walking right
(02:12):
at me. I'm like, Jeff Tricky's walking right at me,
and he goes Mike mcgerran man, I wanted to meet you.
I've heard a bunch of you. Yeah, go Coach Tricky.
I've heard so much about you. I did a Coach
his Wives show, and Ronda, his wife, came at my favorite.
I loved all they were all great. One woman said, look,
I know more about football than my husband does. Ronda
(02:33):
Tricky said, look, I've been around football for a really
long time. I'm still not sure what first and ten means,
but I throw a great post and pregame party, and
I just Jeff Tricky. I'll kick this coverage man. Ronda
Tricky is the best. So I'm glad that you had
a chance to play for him.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, and he actually the gentleman I had to think
about it is Craig Ahmet. Yes, and I was actually
the He was quarterback and I was center, so I
play either center or noseguard when I was so, I
was always always Everybody always used to laugh because I
would be on the side, are on the line, and
I'd be growling and they'd be like, what are you doing.
I'm like, I'm just getting ready ready.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
See now he looks like a center though I played
center and I was one hundred and five pounds.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, yeah, he looks more like a center for sure.
How is business for you?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's been good. You know, we're we're not a big company,
so we're how many employees we have. We run two crews.
We run our foundation crew, and then we also run
our mudjat crew, and each one's between three and four guys,
and then we have two in the office, and then
there's my partner and my brother Cameron, and we do
(03:43):
the sales. So we really try to strive on giving
people more of a I wouldn't even say we're not
salesman because we're more like information givers. We don't think
every job is a mud jacking job, because we go
in and we see a lot of jobs that people
(04:03):
are like, oh, yeah, we can do this, no problem.
But we look at it and go, Okay, if this
is my house, this is not going to last. This
is going to get tore out.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Hey, Chris, can I tell you I think the difference
between that is you're this company's been around seventy three years.
He's been family run for that long. Yes, there's the difference, right,
you live in the neighborhood. People know your dad, right,
they knew your father, who has since passed a few
years ago. Did your grandfather start the company?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, So my father bought it from a gentleman he
worked for back in seventy two. I believe his name
was Frank C. Sharky. He actually he bought it from
his wife because she passed away and my father was
working for and so for the longest time, my dad
even kept the name out there and people would like,
(04:51):
I mean maybe twenty years ago, and the company hadn't
been around for twenty years even before that, and I'm like,
they would look for Sharkis and so half the time
they would be trying to call the pool hall okay,
and they called us, and they're like, do you guys
even you know, use this name anymore. My father was
very nostalgic, so he never wanted to lose that. I
(05:11):
still even have. Our company used to be back when
I was younger, it was called Woodies mud Jacking was
Woody's development than Woody's mud Jacking, and it became Woodi's
mud jacking the mud jackers, and so he kind of
adapted it just into the mud jack the mud jackers.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Hey, how much? And you started working there at what age?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Fourteen? So well, I mean technically on the books fourteen?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, okay, I was gonna say, federal government. You didn't
hear that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
No, you can't work at fourteen? Yeah, but yeah, yeah
you can. How much did you learn about work ethic
from your father?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
My father was, well, everyone in our household. I'm the
youngest of nine. I have my partner, who's my brother.
My father and my mother had together. My mother had
my consider you know, my blood brother before she met
(06:12):
my father, and my father had six children prior to
meeting my mother, which I looked at her and said,
how well would you you meet a guy with six kids?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I'd been like, bye, man, that's love right there, baby.
But Thanksgiving must have been incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But I don't even you know. Those those are my
real brother brothers and sisters. They're they're great. I love them,
and uh, but my father he was not one to
just give you anything like you. I think he bred
kids for labor, you know, because he wanted some free labor.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I look, I got six McGivern kids, and my dad
was a bricklayer and a mason and uh yeah, you know,
Irish Catholic back then. And I don't think the rhythm
method worked much for him. That's what I don't think.
He loved kids all the but you know he had
six of them, and not four boys, not one of them. Did.
(07:07):
He had no patience, Chris to teach us anything with
that right. I knew how to get out of doing
a day's work with him when he would say, go
get me a Phillips screwdriver and I'd bring him a
regular one and he would yell at me and say,
just get out of here. And I knew how to
get out of it, and none of us. He made
me go to Tech as a freshman because I was
the youngest boy, and he said, one of my son's
(07:28):
going to get into what I do. I went to Tech.
It was I didn't like it. I was, you know,
going through shot classes. We'd go to wood shop and
I'd buy my knife holder from a guy who did
it prior, and so I'd sit for six weeks, said
pretend I was doing something, and at the end I'd
hand in the project for some reason, that kid got
an ay on his and I gotta beat it's the
same thing. But I couldn't tell anybody that, And then
(07:51):
ended up transferring to Mesmer and my dad would just
shake his head. And in fact he said, look, my
sisters a year older, and he paid for her tuition
at Mesvar and he said, you want to go to Mesvar,
I'm not paying for it. Get a job, go work. Hit.
The worst word in the English language to my father
was lazy. I don't care. Never let him say you're lazy.
(08:13):
So let's go get going. And I'm like, I'm sadden.
What do you want me to do? I have to
clean the screens. I don't even know what a screen is,
but that so I'm wondering the work ethic. And when
you said, look, we're not sales guys, we're more informational guys,
and we're going to tell you what's best for that
had to come from from your dad.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Oh yeah. It was always honesty. Wasn't trying to sell
you know, everybody, because you know you're gonna slit your
throat eventually people don't trust you and you get a
bad you know, you know your integrity is shot and
you know, I'm still kind of the old school guy.
You know, you can sign a contract with me, but
if for some reason you call and say, you know,
(08:53):
I just don't feel comfortable. I don't want to send
my guys to your house. I want. I mean to me,
a handshake means more. And as long as you're comfortable
for you know, and are allowing us to come into
your home and work on it, you know, that's where
I would rather be. I would rather have my clients
be happy with what we did. And I've actually had arguments,
(09:15):
not only arguments, but more like people questioning why I'm
telling them, no, you need to replace this. Well this
guy said he can do it, and I said, yeah,
I can too, but it's not going to last and
you're wasting your money. I go, and here's a guy
that's you know, technically I'm trying to sell you a job,
but I'm telling you no, think about it. And then
(09:37):
they go, oh, that does make sense. And because there's
you know, you get everything on the internet, and you
know they'll show this rope pretty picture of and I
laughed because there's one out there that shows a driveway
and they're using the newer materials. The eurothane stuff, which
I don't get into because I don't I can't touch
(09:58):
it anyways. We can get an to that later. But
it shows this little driveway and it's into like four
different pieces and they're small, and then they show it
all sank and then they raise it up and they
calk it every and everybody's like, oh, that looks really great.
But you're driving on it and it's like the same
(10:19):
size slabs as like your sidewalk on the side of
your house, and that's point pressure from your tires. You
think that's gonna last.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Hey, when you were fourteen, were you out there doing
like now you're selling, so you're not out there with
the crews doing the mud jacking anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
So I still do, actually no, because my foremans take
off and I have to run the crew. So like
last Friday, I was running a crew. Actually today I'm
swapping some work with a friend of mine. He works
on my boat and does a bunch of stuff. So
I'm going to his house. One of my guys is
meet me at the shop and we're going to do
some mud jacking today.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So it's called trade right there. Yeah, Yeah, we like that,
we like that. Hey, you had talked about the replacement
and where companies coming say no, we can mudjack that,
and you say, look, you really can. You probably concrete
replacement is what you have to do. What's the difference
money wise? Is it a big savings If people mud
(11:18):
jack comparative replace, you're about.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
A third of the cost of replacement. So I get that,
But if you're going to spend your money twice, then
it's not worth doing, you know. And so there's a
lot of jobs that I walk into and I'm like, yeah,
this is a beautiful candidate for because we'll actually raise
it back up, We'll put a solid base underneath it,
and you know, you'll have longevity. Some people think, well
(11:44):
if you rip it out, it'll last even longer. But technically,
what you're dealing with is sub surface ground that is compacting,
not what's on top, but actually what's below. So you
could rip all those labs, put them back in and
it'll sink the same.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You would do it. Before we went on the air,
you were talking about it at your house. You have
a tree that's an issue, and you're like, I'm not
taking the tree down. It's the only shade I have.
What what what's the future on that? How can you stop?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
I have to make a decision. I have to make
a decision if I want to take out the tree
and get rid of the roots.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Let's call it Mary and see what she thinks.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well, I know what she thinks. She doesn't want the
tree out. She was really it's her favorite tree.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And sometimes you can come if it's as long as
it's not the main route, but sometimes you can.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And unfortunately it is the main root, is it? I
had a tree guy come out and take a look in,
and I'd have to take down the tree, and then
I creep. I can get it mud jacked because the
roots will be out. We get to cut out the roots,
but most likely it will probably have to be replaced.
But the mud jacker guy that came out, which I
believe was Chris's company, I can't remember. This was five
or six years ago. He came out and told me
(12:51):
that he said, if I do anything with this, it's
actually going to bring the water into your house, and
it's not going to last very long because the root's
going to take it out again. Kind of sounds like
I like be honest, right, I'd.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Like when people are honest that's that's you know, with
our industry, with you know, our mud jacking, our foundation repair,
our piling stuff, because we do a lot of piling
work and raising homes, and so you get a diverse
of the traditional hardcore salesperson and you walk in and
(13:24):
people are thinking they got to spend forty fifty thousand
dollars and I'm like, no.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You know when when when anytime were my wife and
I lived on eighty eighth in Townshend for thirty some years,
and anytime there'd be a crack in the basement. I mean,
the biggest, the worst night, Mary, The thing that keeps
people up at night is what you do, right, I mean,
can we just put some beams up and are we
okay there? And when they come over, what you don't
(13:51):
want to hear is and now we're gonna have to mudget.
We're gonna have to do this. And to have somebody
walk in and be honest about it and say maybe
you don't need that. Let's look at this again. I
think is it makes people take it breath and go
thank you, Like I don't use the worst case scenario
is what you guys do most of the time, right.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean we like with our from back
in the day when my father we actually used to
mudjack foundations. It was already rare, rare occurrence, but we
would actually use our mudjacking method to lift a home.
And it was only if it if it had a
four foot foundation wall that had ground on both sides,
(14:35):
because you couldn't do it with a basement, because you
would lift.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
The That's how you get a mud jack that we would.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Actually dig down and we would undermine underneath the footing
and a couple of locations, and then he would put
a pipe underneath with a little bit of mud like
a mudball underneath, and then we would pour a concrete
pad underneath the footing with rebar and then we would
backfill it and compact it and compact it, and then
we would let it sit for a day and then
(15:04):
we come back and we would inject it and it
would cause the building to lift. They used to do
that with soil. They still do that. It's called benife,
and it was a soil injection. They'll drill way down
and they inject the soil, and the soil it'll basically
like bond the soil together and it can cause it
to lift, but we didn't know that. It's yeah, but
(15:30):
they do soil injections and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
As we're talking to Chris Wilson, he's one of the founders.
In fact, it family owned, a co owner I'm sorry,
not one of the founders, one of the co owners
of the mud Jackers LLC. You could go to mud
Jackers one word mudjackers dot com to learn more. You
guys do a lot of different things, right, waterproofing, foundation work, hearing,
mud jacking. What's the what takes up most of your time?
(15:55):
Is there one part of what you do that keeps
you guys the busiest.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, I mean our foundation work we do year round,
but our mud jacking so once we can't do any
more external mud jacking for the season than that cru
swhich is over to foundation repairs. So I mean it's
pretty fifty to fifty until we get into winter, which
is just a couple of months that But sometimes we
have because we do a lot of commercial work, so
(16:21):
sometimes we're doing factory floors, we'll do like floor stabilization
between joints when they're especially in warehouses, forklifts are going
over it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So no job's too big for you guys. No, no, yeah,
how much commercial? Is it fifty to fifty is it
seventy to thirty residentials?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
I would think seventy percent residential, thirty percent maybe even
twenty percent commercial.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Hey, this this the flood that we had a couple
of weeks ago. Hi, what did that do to your business?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
I think it made people look at how for a
mud jacking part of it, looking at where their pitch
is coming to the house, because but I mean, when
you're in a flood, I mean you could pitch, you know,
a couple inches away from the house, but if you
got eighteen inches of rain, and really, it's not going
to stop it. And that's where I know. Even some
other basement companies that I know that I know very well,
(17:12):
and they're great guys, and we're all talking and we're like,
this is crazy because there's other companies out there that
are just trying to take advantage of these people and saying, oh, yeah,
you need to do drain tile, you need this that,
and it's not going to change anything. When it's a flood,
you can't it's black. He can't do anything with it.
So we go out and we you know, sometimes it's
(17:33):
just let's calm them down, you know, and make sure
people aren't you know, spending money where they need to,
you know. Some of them they had problems with foundation
walls cracking. I had one client that we're going to
be supporting his walls eventually. Here they're not terrible, but
he was in his basement and he had I think
about six or eight inches of rain up alongside the
(17:55):
foundation while on the outside, and he could hear his
wall creeping, and so he actually ran the home depot
and got studs and started putting up a stud frame
and anchoring it into the floor just to hold the
wall because he was freaking out. And I'm like, you
know that that didn't hurt anything. I said of anything
that might have helped.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But my wife would say, let's go to a hotel.
If she starts hearing the car, I'll just.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Make noises like, did you guys get hit? You know,
kind of walk with that.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, we got hit pretty heavy, actually, And luckily the
only thing I realized is my basement window needs to
be replaced because it's got a leak in it. And
luckily I know a few people in the industry.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You know what you got off easy, pal, you got it.
If all you have to do is replace one of
the basement windows, Hey, Chris, do you know and we'll
get you a break. After this question, you realize when
you walk into somebody's house that they probably had a
sleepless night with with what what they are expecting, because
we always expect the worst, right you expect the worst.
(18:55):
And then when you come in and go, hey, hold on,
you know we there's ways that we can take carry
this without it being the worst case scenario. And you
know when you're walking in that the husband, the wife,
the family have all walked and talked through this is
not good. This thing could get really bad. And I
(19:16):
like the fact that you know that you're walking in
to a place where these people are probably expecting the worst,
and if you can give them an alternative that's not
the worst, you're like a hero.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Right Well, I mean, I just I there's so many
in our industry. There's so many I don't want to
call it crooks, but just people that they're trying to
take advantage of the elderly. I mean, we had one
where it was a little old lady and the salesman
from this company literally said, if you don't fix your walls. Now,
I didn't expect this, but it was a friend of
(19:47):
mine is in the business too, and he said that
if you don't fix this wall and sign on this
dotted line, you're gonna get arrested. They're gonna put handcuffs
on you.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
What.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
And she was a little lady, scared out of her mind.
And he to her house and he was just like,
have you ever And she's telling him this, and he goes,
have you ever heard on the news somebody getting arrested
for not fixing their basement? And she's like, no, nos, okay,
there you are, but no, yeah, but that's what we
deal with. And that's how our industry for years has been.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Your industry and home improvement. I have a really good
friend of my wife who bingo was sitting right here,
and she had called me on a Thursday at like
five point thirty and she was crying and she said, look,
we just want a couple of We had a home
improvement guy come in. He wouldn't leave my kitchen until
(20:38):
I signed. And he said, look, if you don't like
why wouldn't she sign with us. We're a sponsor of
the brewers. She's like, I didn't even like baseball, but
she to get him out and she had twenty four
hours to cancel the contract. He wasn't out of her
driveway and she called and she was crying and she said,
I couldn't get him out of my house. I don't
know what to do. And I said, give me the
name of number, I'll call and cancel. And you're I'm
(21:00):
going to send a guy named Bingo Lemmon's over to
you from Creative Construction, Wisconsin. This is a year ago.
My wife had breakfast with her two weeks and she's
still raving about Bingo and the people from Creative Construction
of Wisconsin. She's still showing pictures of what she said. Look,
this guy had been doing things and they were like,
(21:20):
you don't need any you don't need that, but you
might need this, but don't do it now. We'll come back.
And Bingo took such good care of her. And she's
somebody that talks to people in the neighborhood and she's like,
you have to use Oh you need what do you
need called creative? You need a new sink, they'll do it.
You need a new focid. Well, they're not going to
come out put a new facet in they probably would,
(21:42):
but because that's Bingo and Sam would say we don't
have time to do that, and Big would say, no, no,
we'll help them. We're good and and the woman just raves.
So when you talk about those people that won't don't
tell the truth, when you tell an older woman if
you don't fix your basement while you're going to be arrested,
I'd like to meet that guy.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
One. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And that's why we have this show, because the show
is the show. Everybody that comes on the show gets
vetted by myself or Mike or Bingo or Sam or
and we know that the reputation is good. We know
that they're honest people, and that's why they're on the show.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I'll tell you this, he's Chris Waller.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
People on the show.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
If you can't If you can't trust a guy who
played center for the Black Shirts, out and Walk shuts out.
Look on their website here's my favorite line, exceeding the
expectations of Wisconsin residents for over seventy three years with
service services that are superior in quality and competitive in price. Look,
(22:42):
you don't say we're the lowest, We're gonna be the highest.
Because we're the best. We're competitive in price and the
fact they've been doing it for seventy three years. Look,
if you need to talk to Chris Wilson or his
brother co owners of the Mudjackers LLC, go to Mudjackers
dot com Mudjackers. I have a number of questions to
(23:02):
ask Chris about that part of their business. They do
seventy percent or so residential. They do a lot of
commercial work as well, So go to that website if
you have any questions. It answers a lot of the
questions you have. If not, you can request a free
estimate or give them a call. The phone number is
right on that website Mudjackers dot com. This is the
(23:23):
Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeartRadio App. Welcome back to the Creative
Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports nine twenty
and your iHeartRadio App. Coming live from the Donovan and
Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios. You're going to turn your
furnace on soon. It's coming. Make sure that that's ready
(23:44):
to go. Go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. They are
the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin,
three locations. Mcgwanago, New Berlin, and West Dallas. Donovan Jorgenson
dot com. I'm Mike mcgiven alongside I co host this week,
he's Ray Hoffman representing Creative Construction Wisconsin and our special
(24:05):
in studio guest. He is Chris Wilson, the co owner
of the mud Jackers LLC. Basement Solutions Correct Basement Solutions,
because people weren't sure exactly if you guys did base
and you do basements right, Yeah, a lot of works. Hey,
can we talk about waterproofing a basement a little bit?
(24:27):
People think that is when when they say, look, if
I get my basement waterproof, it's going to take care
of all the problems we have? Did they think it's
a magic pill.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
It can sometimes you know, they'll be like, oh, it'll
never flood again, And I'm like, when it's a flood,
it's a flood.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Again because every basement's different. And so I I just
find that that term basement waterproofing, that's going to take
care of all the issues. Look, we had where we
were again on eighty other times we had backup sewer
wire that camp. That's the waterproof in my basement is
not going to fix that?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Was it? No?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
No, we explain what that means waterproof and the basement
and how you guys go about doing that.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
So there's a couple of different things we do. You know,
the standard one would be, you know, if your walls
are if you have moisture within the first like two
to three courses from the floor up the cove joint
right there, that typically you can do an interior drain
tile system that allow that to take care of that issue.
(25:30):
If it's higher up on the wall, now we have
to look at what the cause is. You know, I've
gone into basements that it's only happening in the corners,
and so we go outside and nope, guess what you
have really bad down spouts. Your your your down spouts
are blown out, your gutters are rotted. You know, let's
take care of that first. Let you know, get your
(25:52):
dehumidifier going. Let's reevaluate this and once you get all
those things done and wait a couple months, and then
we can remoisture test and see where your moisture levels
are at if your walls have a lot of moisture
and there it's all over the place. Well, then you
got to start looking at excavation and and we also
look at the walls to see if there's any movement.
(26:15):
And so there's typically the way we want to do
that is you laser your corners UH to see how
the home was built, because not every home is built
perfectly plump and straight. So and so if you're if
your corners are in a half inch, you got to
minus that off your measurements to make sure that you're
looking at these basements correctly. But the process basically is
(26:39):
you excavate the ground away all the way down to
the footings. You take out the old drain tile, you
pressure wash the walls down, you fix all the cracks
that need to be done. We use a true waterproofing material.
We used to use a product called Marflex, but we
use mel Roll and it's a rubberized UH that goes
(27:00):
on the wall once everything is clean. We don't try
to waterproof and backfill the same day because there's VOCs
that could get into your basement. So we always make sure.
Sometimes our jobs take longer than some companies just because
we're not gonna do it the fastest. Because we believe
that people are paying and should get what they pay for.
(27:21):
So we'll waterproof the walls. We let them sit so
they dry correctly. A lot of companies, I don't know
if our competitors still do this. We don't put plastic
over our walls because we want our material to dry
and become rubber. Then the stone can grow right in
because it won't peel it off. It literally turns to
a rubber membrane on the wall. So back in the day,
(27:44):
they used to tar the wall and put plastic over it,
and then they'd backfill it tar, hardens and cracks and
then you're basically back to square one. So we try
to find that better products. We're always going to you know,
trade shows and stuff like that, or looking at vendors
and seeing what they have out there. What's a better
product for our customers.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Hey, you are the president of the w A f RP.
And wait when you had talked about that, and now
I went on the website. We have board of directors,
committee chairs, high how many people are part of that organization.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
We're not, I mean we're a smaller group, but we're growing.
It used to be just mostly basement wall repair guys,
and we're trying to more bring it into a networking
group of a lot of other contractors, because when we
get into a basement, there can be carpentry, there's there's
heating and cooling issues that have to be dealt with
(28:39):
for us to do our job, and why not work
together with these people. So when we go into a home,
we're like, you know, here's here's some vetted people that
we know that are you.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Know, And that's the word you used, vetted, And I
think that's that's important. If look, if you're looking to
get some of this work done, that would be a
great place to start, right. So so to be able
to say, look, I need to I need a member
directory of people that have been vetted, so you're not
you're not getting somebody who, you know, after a flood
(29:11):
drove in from Iowa and said hey, we can get
this done for you half the cost, will be in
and out in two days, and you know, all of
a sudden they're back in Iowa and you have a
problem and now you can't get them to come back.
So to be able to go to w A f
RP w A f RP dot com. On that website,
(29:32):
there's a member directory there's the officers. You're the president.
By the way, where's your security people? If you're the president, right,
I don't have to like, we don't have to play Spencer. Yeah,
Spencer's and you need more security than talent.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
The group is, it's a great group of people, and
we really come a long way. It used to be
everybody hated each other and and our meetings would take
for everybody would just fight, and now it's you're coming
in half the time. These you know, we got guys
talking about different projects, and you know, if you're part
of that association, sometimes you're looking for unique block or
(30:09):
something like that, the old style true aids. And we
have one guy that gets paletts of him and he's like, yeah,
just give me a call. I'll help you out. And
that's where I see this going and where we have
come a long way where it's it's more of a
networking thing. And I like to see that because I
with the work that we do, especially our pilings and
(30:30):
lifting homes that have settled, we work with other basement
companies and that's where I kind of ended up becoming
president because I get along with everybody. I don't care.
There's plenty of work out there for everybody, and if
we all get along, I'd rather show up, you know,
drive by a job site and see one of the
guys that I know and stop in and be like, hey,
how you guys doing, and not you know, trying to
cut each other's throats. And that's where it's really come to.
(30:51):
And it's a great organization and Bingo joined it and
we're actually using his training center for our meetings and
he's been really gracious and just and that's where I
like meeting great people and to because if you look
at them, like Milwaukee Builders Association, you have a lot
(31:11):
of other builders and they don't all come into a
room and want to go to a fistfight and hate
each other. You know, They're they're going, hey, you know,
we do this, we do this, and you know sometimes
like we don't rebuild walls. And so if I get
a call that's, you know, oh we need this wall rebuilt,
I just go on my memory directory and guys that
I know call them. They can they can help you.
And at least I'm sending them in the right direction
(31:33):
and not just to the wolves.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
One of the things I like about the w A
f R W A f RP. So I just learned
about this morning, so I'm kind of struggling with the
letter acronym right now. But right on the front page
it talks about their codes and standards and at Michael,
you and I have talked about it many times. When
you're hiring a company, make sure they're part of an
association that has standards, has ethics, and has a group
(31:58):
like you were talking about, because I found it amazing.
I'm me in a couple of associations. Mike's mending quite
a few too, and you would. The first time I
walk in there, I'm like, Oh, these builders are going
to fight. These people are gonna fight. These people are
gonna argue. They don't they help each other. That's the
great thing about organizations like this group.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, that's that's where I've I've really I used to
hate when I when I was younger, we were part
of it. I'd go to it and I'm like, Okay,
this is gonna suck. Yeah, it's just a waste of
my night and it takes forever. Our meetings aren't three
hours anymore, you know, we're maybe an hour and a
half with dinner and we're out, you know, but we
we actually accomplished something, you know, where before it was
(32:36):
never we weren't accomplishing anything. And so it's growing and
we're really.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Pushing it to how fund you guys meet every other.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Month with the association and then we have a steering
committee every every other month that's in between that, just
to be able to get all everything.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And you know, as were talked about it on that website,
why choose a W A f R PEK contractor? And
you've got a list and right in the middle it
says members must follow a strict code of ethics in
order to maintain their affiliation. And I think again as
Raya talked about that part of it, like it's kind
(33:15):
of like Nary or the NBA. Right. If you you
can't just cut me a check and be part of us,
we're gonna do We're gonna vet your company a little bit.
We're going to find out, you know, are you treating
people honestly and with respect and doing it at a
fair price and doing good work? Like you can't just
cut a check for you and say, look, I want
(33:36):
to be.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Part of this, correct, Yeah, yeah, you have to fill
some paperwork. I mean, it's it's not like we're calling
the FBI. But you know, we most of the companies know,
especially with our border directors, we know who these companies are,
and you know, we make some phone calls and just
want to make sure that everything is what it is.
But most of the guys that want to join the
association are joining it because of that reason. They see
(34:00):
value in it, and you know, and they value their company.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
He is Chris Wilson, co owner of the mud Jackers LLC.
You go to Mudjackers dot com. The Basement Solutions is
what they do. When we were talking about waterproofing on
your website, you guys, you have a patent pending, is
that right water grabber? So both that'll.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Probably water grabber. So I, oh, gosh, ten twelve years ago,
maybe longer, I bought into a company out of Boston
called Basement Technologies, okay, and I liked their some of
their materials that they sold, not everything, because some of
it was a gimmick, but they had some really good
(34:48):
sub pump CROCS systems that were unique because you could
actually pourm flush with the floor. But within the last
year they sold out to a big company and no, no,
I'm so we're actually in the process of redoing our website,
but similar products. I'm still trying to figure out if
they're still going to sell materials, but most of that
(35:11):
is just The water grabber was really the thing that
I liked because it was a sealed system. For Radon.
We did a side discharge and we can still do that.
I still have materials left. But so you didn't have
that crock with a big pipe sticking out the center.
It was actually flush with the floor. It came out
and went up the side of the wall. You could
(35:33):
put carpeting over this thing. It was had a sealable gasket,
so you didn't have to Like with Radon when they
put all these Radon systems in, they're like calking the
some pump crock shut and if you need to get
that pump out, now you've got to break things to
get it out. Where this is just eight screws and
you can pull that thing out. I can change one
out in five minutes.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Wow. So well, when you're talking about the waterproofing part event,
I find it really interesting because the foundation crack repair right,
exterior waterproof and then the interior drain tile system and
early on in our conversation, you said, look, there's sometimes
that we get called out and people say, well, the
(36:17):
other companies said we need a whole new dry drain
tile system, and you just kind of shake your head
and go, ah, is when people actually need that? Is
that the worst case scenario for people?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I mean interior, Yes, you know, I mean if you're
sometimes the drain tile systems are failing, and sometimes it's
not even the drain tile itself, it's water getting inside
the block and it can't escape and so it ends
up coming in onto the floor. And so like lately
with all the flooding rains and stuff like that, we've
(36:50):
had it where people are like, oh, I need a
new draintile system because my basement flooded. We're like, well, no,
you probably don't, but if you want, you could get
a drain tile test done, which is a couple of
hundred bucks. Uh, you know, maybe I think five hundred
bucks or something like that. But then you can see
what your system's like. But we always suggest our company,
(37:12):
and I know a couple of other companies suggest getting
somebody independent so it's not somebody like me coming out
there and doing a drain tile test. Because you know,
ultimately we would like to sell you a job. But
I mean, we're honest. I've done plenty of them where
I'm like, no, you don't need this, but we always
try to. In our association, we do have companies that
just do drain tile testing, so you know, and they're smaller,
(37:34):
you know, smaller father and son.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But but that that you know, what that does is
it takes the pressure off trikes one takes the pressure off, right.
So when they tell the people, look, you you are
going to need this, and then they call you, they
they know they are charity, and I think that's that's
really good. We're gonna get to a break. I'm gonna
(37:57):
ask you on the other side of the break, how
much is chain in this business over the years as
far as material how to do things? And it is
there things coming in the next couple of years that's
going to make people's lives easier. And I guess normally
when we have somebody in where you're sitting, if they're
(38:18):
involved in in in you know, redoing somebody's kitchen, well,
what are the trends? You know, what are the color
trends nowadays? That kind of stuff. And I'm wondering in
your business if there's much of that or are you
guys still utilizing the same type of materials that you
did in the past, And we'll get to that. On
the other side, he's Chris Wilson. He's the co owner
of the Mudjackers LLC. Go to Mudjackers dot com. They're
(38:42):
located in Waukeshaw. Timeframe real quick. Somebody calls you on
Monday and says, look, I heard you on the show.
When can I get you to come out and tell
me what's going on with my basement? Can you see
him next week? Oh?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, yeah, I'm typically maybe at the most five seven
days out looking at stuff. Okay, because I I'll I
just run like a madman. I'm never in my office.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
You're a Packer fan. I am so am I that's two.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Of us well Spencer pack Spencer Huge Packers. Yeah, they're
my second favorite.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Who's your first?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Detroit Lions?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah? Ray will no longer be in the studio.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
On the other side, actually be back October fourth.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Anyway, Roe Pacoh, that's all I'm saying that hopefully, hopefully
the Packers get to start the season. Want to know
this is the creative construction Wisconsin home improvement show on
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App. Well,
welcome back to the Creative Construction Wisconsin Homie Proove. But
you're on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
(39:45):
Coming live from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Coolian Studios.
I'm Mike McGivern alongside Ray Hoffman, representing Creative Construction of Wisconsin.
Our special guest, he's a good one. Chris Wilson, co
owner of the mud Jackers. LLS go to Mudjackers dot
Com their offices in Wakashell, what is the territory you guys?
Is there.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Like for residentially, for like our mud jacking, it's probably
the southeastern part of Wisconsin. And then our foundation with
our pilings and stuff like that. We it all kind
of depends on the projects. We've gone all the way
to have even gone to Ohio to put in new
construction piles for like a tackle bell, and we've done
board walks up in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Okay, so hey, we during the break we talked about peering,
and and I don't know a lot about peering, and
you said, look, that's a big part of what we do.
Can you talk a little bit about what that what
that entails.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
So basically we do two different types of peering slash
piling systems. One is a heelical. It's a torque pile.
It almost looks like one revolution of an augur and
they vary in size. But say you have a home
that you've lived in and all of a sudden you
(41:05):
start noticing by the windows it's cracking, doors aren't opening correctly,
they're sticking. You start noticing weird things and cracks in
the ceiling. People will call us. We go out and
we'll evaluate the home to see where if it's moving.
If it is, then we basically will suggest an engineer.
(41:26):
We work with quite a few of them that are
part of our association that are very versed in this issue.
They'll come out and they'll design the repair for your home.
And the heelicals we actually can lift homes with them
and are push piles. Basically, entails is either if we're
(41:47):
stabilizing it. Sometimes we can do it from the inside,
but a lot of times it's excavating out the foundation
wall wherever the engineer designs where these piles would have
to go. We have to cut the footings and then
what right next to the foundation while we drive this
piling into the ground to a load capacity that basically
(42:08):
is twice what the engineer they call it an ultimate load.
We'll put all these piles in and they can range
anywhere from fourteen to I've gone one hundred feet in
the ground.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
And once they're in, we have a bracket that slides
over the top of that pile. Slip, it'll actually slide
right underneath the footings of the house. We build a bracket,
we put these huge hydraulic rams that we have on
that has a capability of lifting sixteen inches, and we'll
pick the whole house right out of the ground and
bring it back to where it originally was.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Hey, when I at the end of that last break,
I said, look, we're going to talk about things that
have changed in your industry. Is it more not the materials,
but is it more some of the equipment that that
has has gotten better over the years.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Oh? Yes, even in our mudjackam I mean we used
to I used to shovel out of the back of
a truck and we would I mean I would shovel
out eight yards in a day. Those days are over,
and we had a two man crew we did, I mean,
and then I'd go to the gym afterwards. And now
it's a self feeding truck, which saved the guy's backs.
You know. Our pumps used to be on two wheels
(43:14):
and it was like a wheelbarrow and you'd have to
wheel it through the backyard and I mean it was
it was like pushing a leg sled, you know, on
the football field. And now it's hydraulically movable. But we
do more work, so I mean it's a different it's easier,
but it's still hard.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
You know, Hey, what keeps you up at night? Like
what being part of you know, the president that association,
being co owner of the mud Jackers? What what what
keeps you up at night?
Speaker 3 (43:45):
I think any project that we have going on, because
I take everything very personally, every project I've ever done.
My clients aren't just my client there. They've become like
a friend and the last thing we want to do
is have them, you know, be upset about something. We
always go above and beyond, and that's where most of
(44:06):
our clients just love our guys. Because my guys don't
just try to do the bare minimum. They go out
of their way and they really take care of our clients.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Well, I read a bunch of the on your website
and then other places on what people wrote, and I'm
telling you, almost eighty percent of the ones that I
read talked about the people that have come to work
and from your company and how honest they were, how
on time they were, how reliable, how they answered their
(44:34):
phone if their issues. And this is just from people
right saying, look, and they can write anything. They can say,
these guys are a bunch of jerks, and they and
the ones that I read, and I probably read fifteen
of them, the common thread was the employees that were
very responsible and really polite and did great work and
(44:56):
an industry that doesn't have the best reputation. And I
love the fact that you kept talking this whole hour
about that part of how proud you are of what
your reputation is out there. And if you've been your
company's been doing it seventy three years, you're doing something right.
You just you just start.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
Our guys are great. I mean, they're they're they're basically family.
And so when it when we when we most of
my guys, both my foremans have been with me since
they've been eighteen years old, and they started as laborers
and now they're foremans and they're the backbone of our company.
And when they show up to a job site, you
know it's I don't have to worry if I go
(45:35):
on vacation. I typically don't have to worry unless it's
a giant project and I know more about the project
than they do. But you know it that I are.
Our company's reputation probably is one thing that keeps me
up at night, just because I want I don't want
to be that guy that just wants to be, you know,
sell somebody a job. I want somebody to go they're awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yeah, and and tell their front and they verse. He
is Chris Wilson. Hey, first of all, rate's good to
see you. Good to see you. Give me one go Paco. No, no,
he's not doing that all co owner of the mud
Jackers LLC. Go to Mudjackers dot com, Peering, mud Jacking Foundation,
(46:20):
Waterproofing Basement Solutions, and look, you if you're going to
bring a couple of people out to get an estimate,
I have Chris Wilson be one of them. And if
nothing else, you're gonna he's gonna set you straight. One
way or the other, good or bad. He's going to
tell you the truth. And I like that. I think
that comes from Jeff Tricky. That's where I think that
comes from, because he, you know what, everything that he
(46:42):
talks about is all about leadership and and taking control
of of what you can take control of, and being
honest and work hard and all the things that he believes.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
I don't have to say my father though, my father.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Father for sure. Yeah. But you know, when if I
get a chance to say Jeff Tricky's name on a
home improvement show, I go ahead and do it. It's
nice to meet you, pleasure. Yeah, keep up the good
work again. Go to their website Mudjackers dot com. Basement
Solutions is what they do, and give Chris Wilson a call.
He'll come out and he will walk you through whatever
(47:15):
you need done and in your basement. This is the
Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeart Radio app
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