July 12, 2025 • 48 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, July 12th, 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan to Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios.
Any problems with your HVAC or to join their maintenance program,
go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com. I cannot recommend that
enough I Mike be given alongside my co host. He's
(00:23):
Bingo Emmons. He's the owner of Creative Construction Wisconsin. Hey, Bingo.
I got to thank Janey by.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The way, were you, Oh yeah for your prizes?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Oh man, that jelly, the jam that's.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I don't know even she makes out. She makes out
of her roles. I don't know how you do that.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I really good. But I'll tell you what if she
if she opens up a store, I'm going to buy
some of that. Aaron's mom that it was so good
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches never tasted better. So, Jannie,
thank you so much for that gift. I appreciate it.
How you been bigel I'm doing good.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, we're doing good.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Busy.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I could do my public service announcements. We are booked, okay, man,
because every time I can look at some May making
squeeze in this year, May making squeeze out here.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, She's like, do not tell people that we are
wide open and just give us a call.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We're we're looking good for like December and January for
inside work. Okay, we got some openings for that. But
that's you know. The problem is I keep saying that
and then people get booked, and then you know, these
are all really good problems. We are working, we are hiring,
we are trying to expand the problems. You can't just
learn how to plaster overnight. That's not it's program in
front of me. I got yeah, I know a couple
(01:31):
of while I want to get a buyer with them,
because when you go out to Washington doodles chimneys, I
want to help with that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
We are talking to the boys from Royal Chimney Services.
We've got lead Mason Josh Foster and Josh and I
have known each other a long time, used to live
in the old neighborhood together. And Josh, you been good, good,
good family, everybody's good.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Yeah, everybody is good.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
You don't change. You looked exactly ten years ago. I
got to be honest.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Thanks I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, how is business?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Business is good. We're busy and moving along.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Also joined by sweep supervisor Jake Rowld. Jake Howard, your
dad too busy to come in today. How is he doing?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
He's doing well, he sends his Hello's good man. Yeah,
he's busy working on that team for that big East
coast project that's coming up. We coordinate the all the
technical aspects of it and getting a team together. We
put a team together from across the country. It's not
just the Royal Chimney show out there, so we get
(02:32):
a select group of sweeps and technicians from across the
country that are qualified.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Everybody gets a chimney, but there's a lot of chimneys.
How many chimneys?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
How about the White House by the way, thirty yes,
thirty five wood burning fireplaces? Yes, they are all woodburning.
They are all active. So if you ever see anything
on the news when they're sitting around talking, you know, presidents,
other dignitaries, things like that, you ever notice there's always a.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Fire in a CNN's on some of your point.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I did that exactly exactly. I know I know which
room that is, I know which fireplace.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That is Is that a yearly thing that you guys do. Yes,
so every year you go out.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
We've been part of that team for about thirty years now.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So it's it's an ongoing trust and comfort level between
them and us.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So when you coate and it's coordinated here, so you
guys book the people that how many how many different
guys and gals are out there working for that week.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
This year, we're going to have about a dozen and
it takes us all week, so a total of five days,
five days without interruptions, I should say. Sometimes there's some
interruptions where they say, all right, you get you'all got
to get out of here.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, you got to get out for it. But I
would assume that they do background checks and make sure
that everybody that's coming in is very very extensive.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh yeah, so you're out. You can't.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, I'm out. Very funny finger you're not in either,
So I don't want to hear about it.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Very expensive.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Maybe Sam and Zach could make it, but I assure
you and I would, Well maybe you, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, yeah, nobody knows my real name anyways.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
They don't, I think. I yeah, al right.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, I'm al junior. That might help.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, I'll just start calling because dad.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Al senior, you must have figured it out.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I know, yeah, I get I have a pretty smart
guy when it comes to that. Hey, Jake, when when
people when people I got two questions, people hear the
promos that you guys are coming in and both people
ask me the same questions. So I'm going to lead
with that. This time of year, what are people calling
a royal chimney? Like I had a guy go, I
(04:43):
don't use my fireplace right now. Why are you talking
to these guys? But this time of year, you guys
are busy. Talk to me about some of the things
that you guys. The calls that you're getting nowadays.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
The most common calls this time of year are either
water leaks looking outside, they're seeing decay on their chimney
because they're out enjoying the weather and enjoying their yard
barbecue and they're looking up they're seeing, oh yeah, I
never noticed that there's bricks laying all over my roof.
Or they're just getting a stink out of their fireplace.
And that is a telltale sign that hey, it needs attention.
(05:17):
It's always good to get that removed as soon as possible,
avoiding the hot, muggy winter summer days, just because when
that kreosote that's in there that we remove and maintain,
when that mixes with condensation in the air, it gets
very moist inside that chimney and then it can create
almost an acid that can start deteriorating mortar and things
(05:38):
like that. Plus you don't want to be breathing all
that carcin engen's in and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm just saying about the storm damage too. Do you
have lightning strikes and trees?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Not too many lightning strikes every now and then we
get that down trees. Yeah, we get a fair amount
of that. But yeah, I think it's more just the weather.
It's I've seen a lot more vegetation growing on chimneys
this year. We've had some pretty good rains in the
last few months, so I'm seeing a little bit more
like moss and vines and stuff like that, and that
(06:07):
is just going to kill that chimney, mortar, masonry, concrete
up there. So we do a lot of We've been
doing a lot of preventative maintenance weather ceilings this year
also that are just your chimney's up there. It's not
protected by the sides of your house and your eaves
and your overhangs. It takes the brunt of everything. So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Another question that I got, and they both asked the
same Why would you be having somebody in now? And
this is now it's starting to make a lot of
sense because right now there's a lot going on. People
aren't building fires in their house as much, right But
one of the guys said, look, I have a fireplace upstairs,
and when I build a fire upstairs, we start getting
(06:51):
smoke in the basement fireplace. Yes, And he's like, look,
I need either do I need to call them to
come out and take a look at it, or can
you ask the question, what's going on with me that
I'm getting smoke from the basement fireplace when I build
one up Scarce.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, it's it's going to be one of two things.
Either there's internal damage inside that chimney which is causing
the smoke to cross over and travel down, or there
may be nothing wrong with the chimney system itself and
it's actually a house pressure issue. We've becoming we've been
becoming house pressure specialists over the last five years. Like
you wouldn't believe because everybody wants the most insulated, tight
(07:30):
efficient home out there. Well, guess what. All your appliances
need house air to operate properly.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
What he's talking about, too, is because people buy these
big Viking stoles, right you know, oh yes, yeah, right,
and he turned these things on in our kitchen. The
air's got to come from somewhere right here, comes from
hot water. Friends of chimneys, it comes on how water
or fireplace chimney, but it's got to it's got to
come from somewhere. So they got to make it do
makeup air.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
And everybody's you know, you want the best of both
worlds because I already wants a very insulated house, nice
tight windows, everything like that. And like you said, new
new stove fans, things like that. But at the end
of the day, you could just really be causing I'm
not saying don't do any of that stuff. It's just, yeah,
you need to have us out so we can diagnose
(08:16):
it and then offer solutions.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You got to correct, Yeah, be a fireplace. And he's
talking about how they get that smell into him, right,
You got to be cautious or conscious of what you're doing.
You can't open up all the second floorst story windows,
not open the bottom because you know, he rises, it's
going to come from somewhere, so you got to open
up bottom windows.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Both guys are laughing when you said that, because they're like, oh.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, well, say my chimney's backing up. I said, you
have like no windows open downstairs. None.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
You're all positive and negative pressures are our key to this.
And yeah, it wasn't a problem thirty forty fifty years
ago because we all know how well those homes are sealed, right,
not very well, and nowadays they are very tight, and
it's just it's becoming a problem. So we we've become
very proficient in diagnosing house pressure issues along with not
(09:05):
just looking at your fireplace. So very proud of our sweeps.
We got ten certified sweeps on a national standard that
can come out help diagnose what's going on. Because there
may be absolutely nothing wrong with your fireplace. It's actually
a house pressure issue that we can help diagnose and figure.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Out for four one four seven seven two eighty two
seven seven eighty two if you give them a call
on on on Monday. And my friend Allen, who asked
me that question. Call them and they can come out.
Though they put you on the calendar, and I know
that that he hasn't He has not fired up his
(09:44):
fireplace in the summer, but he did in the spring
and again the smoke that he was getting in the basement.
You guys can can get him on the calendar, probably
prior to you going to the White House and take
a look at at what the pbsolute is and just
be able to have them come out and say, look,
here's what the issue is and here's how to fix it.
(10:04):
And again four one four seven seven one two two
eight two and give these guys a call. Hey, Josh
has the lead mason for these guys. This time of year,
I would assume more than in the winter time, this
has got to be a busy time.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Yeah, a lot of masonry repairs. Uh this summer especially,
been doing a lot of concrete, like concrete crowns on
top of chimneys. But yeah, this time of year, we're
trying to get the exterior work done before the cold
weather comes.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, are you got help far? How long are you
guys booked for? If somebody needs you guys and they're
hoping to get it done yet this summer. Is that
Is that doable?
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Yeah, that would probably be doable. It depends on the
scope of the job. It just if it's a big
masonry repair. Sometimes it might we might be you know,
somewhere between a month or two out. But it all
depends on the scope of the job.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
But you would highly recommend at least having you guys
come look at it before the fall.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, definitely sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
If you wait till the fall, then you guys might
not be ready to the winter income winter time.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
And we run into that every year, as much as
we try stressing that and not waiting till fall to
call us because everybody wants their fireplaces.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I was gonna say it too, especially if we got
a mas street chimneys like the sixties, seventies or eighties,
they didn't have they didn't do drip edges. You put
like a stonewash on top, which is not allowed. They're
not allowed supposed to have a supposed to be a
solid one piece is either pre cast or it's gotta
be a solid one piece. But the other ones there
you get who bunch of bricks all around it and
you feel the center up with cement and everything. You
(11:41):
can't you can't have those anymore well.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
And unfortunately, I mean even we're seeing new houses that
are being built that way with a with a crown wash.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And that's it's not allowed exactly, it's not allowed. So
but the secret that making the chimney last longer because
I because I do as repair, I do have all
repairs are stuckle all the time. And what they do
is they don't have a cap with the drip edge.
So what happens It just runs down there for years
and years and years and soaks in and the leaks
they cause the problems, and they'll say chimney leaks. Then
the roofer comes out there and said, oh it's a
(12:11):
stucckle guy, and it's just it's a mess. But you
got to have a cap of the drip edge.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Think think about it this way. A standard brick and
mortar chimney, each brick can hold a cup and a
half of water over the duration of her rain. So
do a quick brick out on your chimney and then
I don't have my calculator.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Right right now.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
But that's the importance of these weather repellents that we're
putting on along with these concrete crowns.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So well it was I got two bricks, I got
three cups as far as I can calculator.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
There you go. Yeah, there's your math. That's your master
the day Bengo. You know, years ago when we were
off of eighty eighth and Townsend, we had squirrels. I
had a squirrel twice in my house and we finally
had a captain that that was I mean, we should
have done that early on. It didn't know any better.
And I can tell you that I was on the
(13:01):
side on a phone call, on a business call, and
my son came walking out with our dog and he's
like knocking on the window. I'm like, I'm on the phone.
He's like, he goes, we gotta squirrel in the house.
I go, what. And so we called this guy and
he sent his teenage son out. He's like seventeen years old,
and we're looking the dogs going nuts trying to look
(13:23):
for this this squirrel. And we're in the basement and
my son goes upstairs and go to the bathroom and
he comes running down and he's like something was moving
and my son's like all freaked out. And he was
home for college right so this young kid goes get
out of the way, and he goes up and he
closes the bathroom door, and you hear these sounds and
(13:46):
he's like, all right, got it. And my son's like,
look at me, man, I'm a big game hunter. And
I go. You were scared like a four year old.
You were running downstairs screaming. He said, I found it.
I got it. And once we put the cap on,
do you guys did you do that work as well?
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Yes, we sell stainless steel rain caps with animal guard
on them. So yeah, if you're looking up at your
house and you don't see like a cage on top
of the flu, you should probably get one because it's
very common for us, even if it's not a living animal.
When we're doing repairs and you have the clean out
(14:23):
door in the basement or even in the fireplace.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I mean we pull out.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Dead squirrel carcasses all the time, dead bird carcasses on
a regular basis, like, and the customer had no idea
that anything was even in there.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Josh. Going back to that same house, we had a
new HVAC done right, we had a new furnace put in,
and we were up north on vacation when we had
this thing done, and on the way back, the guy
called and said, hey, I'm going to meet you at
your house because I have something to show you. And
like we are he goes, yeah, yeah, we're fine. And
(14:57):
he goes, I've never done this before. He said, I'm
going to clean it up. But you got to see
what was in your chimney. It was sticks and leaves
and a ton. He goes, I'm telling you, you guys
are lucky to be alive. Yeah, and I said, come on,
He goes, I'm serious. I've never seen it like this.
We didn't have a fireplace, so we never thought about it.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
And that's that's a big thing with you know, the
average homeowner is they think, oh, I don't have a fireplace,
so my chimney is not that important. Where that's where
your furnace, your water heater went through.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
It's very similar to the exhaust on your car. You
have to keep that free and clear and you're exhausting
dangerous byproducts of combustion from your house.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
If I remember correctly, three weeks four weeks after we
had that done, I met Howard for the first time.
Came in at the other radio station and I'm telling
that and can you imagine your dad's just shaking his
head at me, like you didn't know? And I said, no,
he should you do a home go? I didn't know.
I had no idea. And the guy who put it
(16:05):
in said, I've never I've never been the one to
meet with the owners. I mean, I install it and
then your sales up comes in and tells you all
that the bells and whistles and how to work it.
But I wanted to be here because I wanted to
show this to you and I'll clean it up. But
it was a huge mound then that you cleaned out.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
And that's why it's important.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Even if you don't have a fireplace, you most likely
still have a chimney.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
You still need to get that inspected.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Because, like you said, an animal can get in there,
build an as start backing up those gases and you
could have carbon monoxide coming back.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And yeah, I got it. I got a question here, Okay,
a lot of chimney. You know what the everybody's when
you buy a new new type of furnace, they're way
more efficient than the old furnaces. A lot of people
need liners. What kind of liner do you recommend.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
So if it's just like you said, if they put
in a new furnace and you just have the water
heater vent in an of that we use for just
a water heater, a double walled aluminum.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Liner even not that slinky corrugated thing yep.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Yeah, or stainless steel like stainless steel is good for
when you're hooking up a furnace or a furnace.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And what kind of metal do you recommend? What kind
of metal do you.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
If it's just a water heater, you can do it.
You can go with the double walled aluminum, Hey.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Jack, if if I can't ask you, if you move
the microphone over? Another question, how often do I need
my my chimney swept? And how do I know if
the chimney sweep really cleaned.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Even once a year? Because even.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Once a year, and we'll find out if a guy
and idios and talented should be doing it once a
year as well.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
On a national standard, it should be inspected annually and
service as needed, so not everybody needs a service call
like a sweep every year. Knowing that it's been service
proper is honestly just trusting the company that you're going
with we're part of Milwaukee Nary. They vet all the
(18:08):
contractors in the Milwaukee area for the homeowners so they
don't have to do it. And the good thing about
that is we all know each other as contractors now.
So if I go into a house, anything I need
stucco or backplaster or something, I think I know a
good guy that can help you out with that. So
it's very important. You know, if somebody brings up, how
(18:30):
do I know they're going to do a good job. Well,
they do a good job at vetting all these companies sports.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
They do a lot of things that people don't realize.
What they do is sometimes there's bricks in a fireplace
because you know, they came out and they cream mine
one and he said, you got problem with a brick.
I don't even see it, but they got you know, yeah,
no idea, I can't see it. But those guys look
right here. Then you know these NISSA and the guy out.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know, we have the internal video scanners. That's how
we diagnose everything, cameras that actually get sent out.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So just standing outside look in the yard. So yeah,
Jimmy standing and then in front of fire.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
You're standing good enough for mis saw smoke coming out
of it the other day. We should be good, Jake.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
One of the things that Howard used to talk a
lot about is don't get scammed. Right, So in the
fall you'll start hearing commercials and seeing stuff online and
through Google. Hey we're gonna do well, come clean your
chimney for twenty nine ninety five, and and.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh you can buy that log you just that's thing. Yeah,
you put that into you don't need any service.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Howard's so passionate about people not getting scammed. Some of
these companies that come in from states, from around and
they come in and you know they're not here. They
just come in. They send a crew in and they
do a bunch of advertisings and say, look for twenty
nine bucks or thirty nine bucks or whatever it is,
we'll get your fireplace ready for the fall. And he said, look,
(19:50):
we get so much business from people that first call
them and they pay for it and they don't show up,
or they show up and they're gone in fifteen minutes,
or they don't do a then we have to come out.
Just call us first. And how are you say, Look,
there's a number of good companies in this area. Goes,
I think we're the best, and you can trust us
(20:10):
because we've been doing this a really long time. But
just don't get caught. Make sure you ask what's your address?
Right were you execated?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Do they have a physical location, are they certified? Do
they have national credentials? Things like that we do have.
I've been seeing over the last year or two it's
actually becoming more prominent. We're getting called for second opinions
a lot now because they'll say, hey, this other company
came in. They're usually pretty shy. They don't want to
(20:40):
tell you who the other company was because they feel
like they're getting scammed. And they're saying, this whole thing's
got to there. Say it's going to cost me tons
of thousands of dollars to repair this. And I go
in there, give it a full video scan inspection. I'm
up on the roof, I'm looking this thing head to
toe trying to find something wrong with it, and at
the end of the day I give them a clean report,
saying I don't know where these guys were coming up
(21:02):
with any of this information, but there's absolutely nothing wrong
with if.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You're buying if you're buying a selling a holes, you should
always have them inspected.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Well, I'll tell the story on your times, but I'll
tell it again. My son, Matthew, was buying his first
house and literally we're in studio and Howard was there,
and I get a text from my son going, hey, look,
I guess there might be a problem with the chimney.
What do I do? And I said, well, first turn
on my show. You should be listening to your dad
(21:30):
once in a while. And during the break I talked
to Howard and Howard said, hey, listen, give me his
address and I'll head over there right after the show.
And because of your father, man, it worked out really
well because they were they were about to put an
offer on this house and clothes, and there was an
issue with the chimney and the homeowner then had to
(21:50):
They hired you guys to fix it, and then Matthew
bought the house. But if the timing on this thing
was perfect, because my son's like, I don't know what
to do. Who do I call? And I said, he's sitting.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
In the three with me. We do our best, you know,
especially with the housing market the way it is, a
lot of these houses are getting closed on within two
days or twenty four hours things like that, So we
try our best to scramble to get a technician out
there as soon as possible. So, yes, that's very important
when they're when they're calling for an inspector.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
For that guy Howard out there was not that. I
don't think there's anything he hasn't seen in that area.
And he my son was like, Okay, Howard's like my
new best friend. And I go, what about me? He goes, no, No,
Howard's my new best friend. We're going to get to
a break. Other side of the break will continue talking
with Lead Mason Josh Foster and sweep supervisor Jake Rowell
(22:42):
from Royal Chimney Services. Go to Royal Chimney dot com.
This is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back
to the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox
Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. As always, coming
live from the Donovan and Jordans and Heating and Cooling Studios.
(23:04):
I Mike mcgive her alongside Bengo Emmons. He is the
owner of Creative Construction.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Don't Like, Don't Light your fire until you get Kimney's
checked out first.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
And you know what, you can call Kim today till
eleven o'clock. She's in the office over at Royal Chimney Services.
How is Kim doing? We got to bring her in
one day.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
She gets a little shy sometimes, No, we'll bring her in.
We can. We can try and convince her to getting here.
But she is probably the friendliest person at our company.
She comes in every single morning, smile on her face.
She's never even if she's having a bad day or
feeling under the weather, She's the first one to greet
you with a smile. So very fun to talk to.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
She's nicer than Josh Foster.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I'm gonna go with yeah, I would not.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I don't know Kim guy.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
You just give Kim a call. You'll see it exactly
what we're talking about. She's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Give Kim a call right now four one four seven
seven one two two a two seven seven one two
two a two and tell Kim that you heard us talking.
And it's interesting because if you just joined us that
first segment, I've gotten a couple of questions from people going,
why would I need why are you having a mon now,
wouldn't you have a mon in the fall and winter
(24:21):
when everybody's building fires in their home.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
But I can tell you it's too late.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, it's too late. You're a man, and I think
it's important right now. Get it done now and have
them come out take a look at at at all
of it and make sure. If you need masonry work,
this would be the time to have it done before fall.
And and look, Josh Foster said, get you get on
her calendar now.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Fall because you never know you might have a raccoon
in your chick I'm looking at that, and we've been
asked by a listener, come we here to raccoon story.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yes, the raccoon story. Uh me. And I was working
with him at the time. This was probably about five
years ago. We're on the top doing a masonry repair.
There's concrete on top of the chimney. He's got his
little jackhammer getting away the concrete and I'm kind of
holding the corner section so it just doesn't fall on
the roof damage as the homeowner's roof things like that.
(25:18):
So I'm just I'm just kind of hanging out and
my head's kind of hanging over the chimney and I
see from the darkness a little masked face coming up
at it, and I knew exactly what was going on here.
And it wasn't slowing down. It was because it's making
a lot of noise. They don't like that vibration and
all that noise in there. And Josh is going with
(25:38):
this jackhammer, and I just look up at him and
I go, we got a raccoon coming up. And he
stops it and he goes, what And I go, A
raccoon is coming up at us. And before I could
turn around, Josh is already at the gutter line, probably fireman,
sliding down the ladder. And I'm like, hey man, I'm
up here too, Like, by bye, no man behind, what
(26:01):
happened to this?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Come on, that's your US Marine background right there.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I was a little like, come on, man, you have together, Foster.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
You're not as tough as I thought you were.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
I've had lots of encounters with different animals, and I
do not play when it comes to an animal. Because
you're on a roof, you're a very vulnerable situation. You
don't have anywhere to run.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So it's like way I was in Florida, a couple
of years ago, playing golf with my brother and they
put us with two other guys, and these young guys.
We were drinking and there was a baby alligator on
the course and this kid, I'll show you the video.
The kid went and caught it, and where he threw
it in the water was the big mama alligator. And
I looked at my brother and I said, hey, look,
(26:44):
if that moment comes running, I go, I don't have
to outrun the alligator.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
I just got outrun. And he had a bad hip.
I said, I'm a punch in the hip and take
off run. So, Josh, you and Hire kind of twins
with this stuff. And he was like, well, don't climb
a tree. And I go what He goes, Oh, alligators
can get up trees quick. I go, no, they can't.
He goes, I live in Florida, pal, I'm telling you
they do not. And I go, okay, I'm just gonna
(27:11):
punch you in the hip and take off running.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
He said, man, you're not. We're not as tight as
I thought. We were kind of similar to you guys.
I would assume you've got to be really safe with
that kind of stuff. Do you get a lot of
calls when it comes to animal squirrels and raccoon stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeahmount fair amount.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Yeah, I wouldn't say it like a ton of calls,
but I mean back in the day, we used to
attempt removing live animals. At this point, you know, we've
kind of evolved to where you know, we'll call animal control, yeah,
to come deal with them, because I mean, they do
carry disease.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
The second time we got a squirrel, before we were
smart enough to put a cap on it, we couldn't
catch that thing. And it was I sat down there
with a pellet gun and that was like Elmer Fudd,
Come on, Sammy, the squirrel, where are you? And they
put a trap and couldn't didn't have it, didn't get it.
And the guy said, look, we're gonna put a trap
(28:06):
that isn't exactly like the code, but is it okay?
And I go, yeah, I just want to get this
thing out. He said, you're going to hear some sounds.
Don't worry about it, just call me after you hear it. Well,
they got it. I had asked the guy what do
you do when you catch him? And he goes, we
you don't want to know, and I said okay, he said,
(28:27):
I'll tell you a story. We caught a squirrel and
the woman said, I don't want you, just let it go.
Just let it go. And he goes, look, it's going
to come back, and she said, we'll take it like
a mile to this park. And he took a pink
paint and he put it on the squirrel, right on
the back, and he let it go. And the next
day that squirrels back home again.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, we spray painted and it does. We did him
as far as five miles away and come back.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
And they still and then you know what, the second time,
the woman said, OK care what you do with it.
Don't you just take care of that thing?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
It got Yeah, you got them ways away and across
a big river or something.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I just think me and Josh learned a valuable lesson
after that experience, because we both got down to the
ground and we were both little winded.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I thought I was going to lose you.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That it dawned on me. I looked at Josh and
I said, did any of us see that thing come
out of the chimney? So now we had no idea
if it was out or in. So it added to
the adventure of the day to try and then figure
out is that raccoon still.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
In So anybody who thinks they wanted to try this
on their own right speaking of that, Speaking of that, Jake,
do you your position on after market hearts, right after
market products? When when Bingo talked about, look, you can
just burn this thing that you see on at the
big box store and it's going to clean everything you're
feeling on some of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I would go with a professional. It says right on
the side of there, it says used once every sixty fires.
In my opinion, that's when you should be having it
swept out. And there's no inspection. I don't know if
anybody ever noticed, but if you're burning that log, it
does not come with a written safety report inspection meaning
(30:12):
that's kind of a joke. It doesn't have anybody looking
at the chimney. You're still burning something inside the chimney.
Don't rely on something like that with something this serious.
It's kind of the moral of the story. You know.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I'm sure someone on the label because even like those
people with the special mold paints, they say this does
not remove mold. Get a professional to do this.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yes, yeah, that's exactly what they're kind of kind of
going after, So have a professional out so they can
take a look at it. Not only are we looking
at the internals, we're also looking at the outside, making
sure everything's water tight.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Then you don't have a broken brick on the inside.
At firebrick, you get to meet Josh.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
You get to meet Josh.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You get to meet Josh. Even if there's outside stuff too.
Sometimes a lot of homes out there, you'll look up
and oh, it's just siding and everything like that. I
don't need to worry about that. But there's a lot
of these they call chase covers. It's the roof to
your chimney. You see that little two inch skirt that
hangs over the edge of the chimney, that's called your
chase cover. It's like I said, it's the roof to
(31:08):
your chimney.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yell.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Lot of roofers come in there and you keep playing
with that flashing around them.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
They keep playing with flashing, and.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You start and then he starts leaking, and then you
blame it on something else.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yes, So even today's they build these big beautiful homes,
million dollar homes, and they just put galvanized bent metal
up there. It'll start sagging, it'll start rusting, leaving rush
streaks down. So we do replace those custom made stainless
steel lifetime warranties on those, So that's a big part
of it too.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Hey, how long does it take to clean a chimney?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Normally one to two hours, depending on how tall or
extensive it may be.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
And does that include, like if somebody has not had
you or anybody else out for a number of years,
does that one or two hours include the inspection and everything.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yes. Yeah, So we're gonna lay runner and tarp out
all the way to the fireplace. We're gonna have a
big vacuum. It's a hypavac that we bring in for
dust control. We guarantee no dust back in the home.
So typically about half hour to forty five minutes to
actually get the system cleaned out, another half hour to
forty five minutes for the full twenty point written safety
(32:14):
report inspection, and then if there are repairs needed, we'll
be able to you know, price quote you on site
right away, tell you timelines, what we're looking at options.
If there is extensive damage inside the chimney, you know
a lot of people are converting the inserts nowadays, wood
burning inserts, gas inserts. We do have a showroom. You
can come take a look at them if you're not
(32:35):
familiar with what they are or how they operate, if
you're looking to get more heat out of the fireplace,
or let's say you're just your fireplace is one hundred
years old or fifty years old and it's just time
for a replacement and you want something more efficient.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I'm just wondering, did you ever like go to a
chimney sweep and the people said a fire going?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Oh yeah, usually run into it once or twice a year.
You get there and they got a fire going, and
you're like, what, what do you think I was coming
on here to do?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
That's what you're thinking, But you're much nicer.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
What was the thought process behind this one?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Do you know? We had you guys out last year
and my wife spring fall, winter, not so much in
the summer. But her her routine is to wake up early,
grab her King James version Bible, get a cup of coffee,
and turn the fireplace time. And for a couple of
weeks it wasn't working, and she was, you know what,
(33:32):
she was different.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
It can be dramatic. It was thank you, and I
was like, that's your morning routine and when when that
gets disturbed, it's your whole day is so on.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
She likes the fireplace on. She likes to to study
and read and have her cup of coffee in the morning.
And for those two weeks because the parts it's an
older fireplace, and we get the parts ordered and they
were like, look, it's probably not going to be able
to get back out here for another ten days or so.
And my wife looked at me, like, you know, somebody
(34:03):
stole the dog or something, and I go, look, this
is the They're the best and the best, So we're
going to wait the ten days. What we don't want
to do is call one of these companies that said, oh,
we'll get a fixed in twenty four hours, because it's
just not going to be done right, and we're going
to end up calling Howard and we're going to end
up calling Royal Chimney again. And guys, if we've got
Kim at their office today till eleven o'clock, and I
(34:24):
thank her for being there with these guys on the show.
Any questions you have, and I would highly recommend if
you think, look, I'm not going to turn my fireplace
on till fall, so I don't need to worry about it.
When when you talk to Josh Foster, he just starts laughing.
He's like, look, we get so busy in the fall
that if you call and wait for is still fall,
We're not going to get out there maybe till winter.
(34:46):
So do it now, and Kim is there, give her
a call at four one four seven seven one two
two eight two seven seven two eighty two and let
him know that you know, yeah, you think that that
Josh Jake doing a pretty good job. If they're not
doing a great job, you could tell Kim that she'll
pass along that information.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
You would have no problem.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
With forty five year anniversary.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Huh forty fifth man, that's awesome. Congratulations, it's been a
wild ride and it's it's going nice. Yeah, Howard, my
dad and he started at out of his pickup truck,
just put non rain caps forty five years ago. Unbelievable
snowballed from there.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You you you were a US Marine Corps. Uh, you're
you certainly are a guy that spent how many years?
In six years? Six years the US Marine Corps? And
I told this story a couple of months ago. I
did this US Marine boot camp and I can tell
you that camp penalty is way bigger than I thought.
The depot was unbelievable, so big base, and we we
(35:46):
got to see graduation, very emotional and I didn't I
didn't go in thinking this this trip would be emotional
for me. But I'll tell you what it was after
And look when when you when you cry at one
of these nobody talks about it. And I thank God
for that, because you know that the drill instructors did
not break character at all. It was you get off
(36:07):
that bus and they're yelling at me, and I'm starting
to giggle a little bit, and this.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
This guy get up in your face.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Oh the gal thinks. Gal was like, you think this
is funny. I said, no, I giggle when I get nervous.
She was, well, you should be nervous, and I thought, man,
oh man, what was it this? This might have been
a bad idea, but I can tell you that week
was incredible, and thank you for your service. By the way,
the fact, did you if I asked you back then
and I said, Hey, one day you're going to be
(36:34):
in You're going to be running this this company. You're
going to be part of Royal Chimney Services with Howard.
Would you have said, no chance, that's not in my future.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I had no intention of working in the family business.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
And now I can't picture myself anywhere.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Else to me yeaheen eighty six. My dad's like Meilbiell
for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And here we are still here and Sam went away
to school act same thing in their back. Yeah. I
love that. I love stories like that. And now with
you saying, look, I can't imagine being anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Okay, what about great great employees?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Josh, get start, Josh, He's been there a long time.
Josh one of the first, other than Howard, one of
the first guys I talked ten years ago.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
I started pretty much right out of high school. The
other lead Mason Kevin, who was with us.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
He actually started working here a year before I started
and hired me on as his labor and then I
just grew from there.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And you know this better than most what not only
have they been around forty five years, but it's so
how many years have you been there?
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Twenty five and the other Kevin's been there twenty six yep.
What does that tell you, Bengo about this company, that
these guys have been there.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
For them, They must like work in there.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
They must treat them pretty good. You must treat them
pretty good. Plus eight, do you go to the You
don't go to the White House, do you?
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I do? Yep, I've gone a couple times past.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Would I were to invite up us, yeah, yeah, it
took a lot of year. We could do a live
show if we went right on.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
The roof, right on the roof, yeah, maybe No, I
think we'll stand around if that's okay, I'm not going
up there. Guys, we are talking with the with a
couple of guys from Royal Chimney Services. Go to Royal
Chimney dot com or like we had talked about Kim
Is at the office. What's Kim's last name? Lewis, Kim Lewis.
We'll get her in studio. Well, we're gonna bring her
(38:28):
in next time, Yeah, we will. You tell her she
has no choice, she's coming in.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
That Like, we'll talk on the phone all day to
customers and everything like that, but we'll have to do
a little convincing.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
All right, Kim Lewis, you're coming in next time, come
the fall, we'll get you here. You give her a
call at four one four seven seven one two two two,
and you let her know that you're looking forward to
having listening to her talk about Royal Chimney Services next
time we do this and we'll invite her to come
in studio. This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home
(39:01):
Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart
Radio app. Yeah that was my song, boys, I wanted
that play today. Welcome back to the Creative Construction Wisconsin
Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty in your
iHeartRadio app. Coming from the Donovan to Jorganson Hitting and
Cooling Studios. We've got to lead Mason, Josh Foster and
(39:24):
sweep supervisor Jake Rowell from Royal Chimney Services in studio.
And if you just joined us. I asked them right
off the jump because I've gotten a couple of questions,
why this time of year, this is a perfect time
year to have these guys in. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Well, they also you know, they also got something that
you got to get in by this year. Right those
inserts the insert.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
It's a really good point. Text credit for that is
coming to an end at.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
The coming to an end December thirty first, So on
select wood burning inserts and stoves, there is a up
to two thousand dollars tax credit, but it must be
installed by December thirty first, not just signed up for
or on your wish lists. So that text credit has
been around for quite a while now, but it is
(40:10):
coming to an end at the end of this year
and that must be installed. So we do both. We
do gas inserts. Tax credit not available for gas inserts,
it's only the solid fuel wood burners. But we do
have a showroom. Give Kim a call, she'll set up
an appointment with you. We don't have any salespeople at
our location. We are in the Milwaukee area building. We're
(40:31):
on the lower level of that right, so they'll set
up an appointment. You come in, we'll talk about inserts
for a while and then it's a in home consult.
After that we come out to your house. We measure
up the fireplace, look at the flu system, you know,
kind of see what are you looking to get out
of this? At the end of the day, you folks
(40:52):
are the ones that have to stare at this thing,
not me. Yes, we'll give our input and we've been
doing this many years and we think this is the true,
you know, the scheme that I would go with given
the outlay of your house and how your fireplace looks.
So we do offer suggestions if you want to say
the decorators you will.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Do you do you do more work with gas? Uh?
Do you see more gas fireplaces are wood burning?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
I would say it is pretty split if you go
by the general populous homes styles and things like that.
But if what do we get the most service calls
for is wood burning because a lot of people don't
realize that gas fireplaces need to be service and inspected
as well. They don't think, oh, it's just gas, set
(41:38):
it and forget it. It's like, no, you're still burning emissions.
You're still having an actual fire inside of there. There
are bad things cancers.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's like your furnace. I mean, people, you know, just
because you have it?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, do you never call your furnace company out.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
To most of late? And that's when we got.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
To the problem. Now did you see.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Him point most it is? It is? It is a
common trend though, because a lot of people with gas
fireplaces typically do not typically do not call until there
is a problem and then we have to go out, diagnosed, educate. Hey,
you got to be doing this more than once every
eight ten years. You know this isn't just a set
(42:20):
it and forget it thing.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Royalchimney dot com, Royalchimney dot com. And again, Kim is
at the office today till eleven o'clock if you want
to get on their calendar. And look, I'm a big
fan of Josh Foster's. He's not gonna he will not
lead you wrong. And when he says, look, if you
want to get this thing done before the fall, do
it now because come fall we get really busy and
(42:44):
we might not be able to get out to see
you guys till winter. So make the appointment now. Give
Kim a call at four one four seven seven one
two two eight two and get on their calendar.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Also, if you're watching the news, he happens to even
doing a fireplace chat from the White House. Yeah, you
know what cleaned it.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
You know exactly who who cleaned.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Look, I asked you you want to hear about it
if your background checking your company, Well there's a good
example for you right there.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
And I said Jake, when are you going out to
the to the White House? He said, yeah, sometime in
the fall. Can't give you that information. And I'm like, man,
come on, he knows better than to tell me, because
I'll go right on in the air and go, hey,
they're going out at this time.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Social media can get a little dangerous sometimes.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Hey, and I got this text a while ago in
the beginning of the first segment, and I didn't get
to it. Somebody just asked very quickly, the difference between
kreosot and.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Soot it's the same, it's the same thing. Yeah, it's
the same thing. It's the byproducts of combustion. So that's
all the black stuff that you know gets accumulated on
the walls that we brushed out.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Actually a flat what part of that burns? Just the
actual it just burns because it's unburns off hanging on
a chimney. Why is a burn?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah, that's exactly correct. It's just a byproduct of combustion
that hasn't gone through its complete combustion stage yet.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Hey, Josh, real quick, When when you go out and
see a fireplace, how do you make the decision whether
you can just use some tuck pointing or whether they
need a whole new brick fireplace.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
So tuck pointing is removing the mortar in between the
brick and refilling it with mortar. When you which mortar
is meant to wear. You know, as far as masonry
is concerned. If the brick are starting to spawl, which
means the face of the brick is popping off, then
(44:44):
at that point that is no longer tuck pointable. You
either have to replace that brick or rebuild the structure.
We get calls all the time. I think I just
need my chimney tuck pointed. And we come out there
and we see spawling brick crack brick bricks sitting on
the roof and they're.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Like, yeah, just need some exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, And you do both.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Yes, we do. I mean we virtually do everything and
anything with masonry.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Prefabricated, right down to the roof if you have to, yes.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Right down to the roof, sometimes inside of the roof,
and do new flashings.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Most of I would think most of your business is residential.
Do you also do any commercial business?
Speaker 3 (45:27):
We do no commercial.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
It's all resident residential. And you're and the territory, do
you guys go down as far as routine or do.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
You our cutoff is about Oak Creek, go as far
north as Grafton and out west were about Dlsman Economy.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Walk okay Man and how many employees.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Twelve employees all certified national standards.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
So that's the other part and we didn't get to it.
You want to ask that question if you're not calling
kim at Royal Chimney Services, because you can ask KRK.
You can say, look, is everybody certified? But make sure
that that the company that you're working with has has
your building in this area.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Well, they're not just certified. You're doing continuous education too.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
And a lot of whether it's a chimney company or
just a masonry company. The Masons won't be certified in
as a chimney suite, whereas myself and the other Masons
were actually certified chimney sweeps. So we know the masonry.
We know how because chimney masonry is a lot different
(46:36):
and a lot more goes into it than just general
masonry like building, you know, a building or a wall
or something.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
There's stuff like that, you know. I mean, they have
like you have like a smoke chamber with a shelf
with it has to flow right. There's all kinds of
stuff that has to be.
Speaker 5 (46:49):
A lot of heat, hot, cold, expansion contraction where your
general mason might not know how a chimney actually functions.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
It's not just a brick thing with the straight shot
up to that right.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Royal Chimney Services forty fifth anniversary and that tells you something.
They've been around for forty five years. Give Kim a
call if you want to get on their calendar at
four one four seven seven one two two two. To
learn more about this company, you can go to Royal
Chimney dot com and uh, you know, say, look, I'd
love to have Josh Foster. I'd like to have Jake
(47:22):
rawl come out and take a look at what we're doing.
It's a great company. And I can tell you this
that they they worked in my house and they got
my wife happy again because when that when that fireplace
was was fixed and working again, it worked out really
really well. Josh, good to see you again, Jake. It's
great to see you guys. You bet Howard for me?
Speaker 3 (47:44):
Will do you?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Got it? Then we'll have a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, I'm good and I'm as well. Just so I
know you're excited. But I'm also a race director at
a Badger tomorrow, so you know you can watch it online.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, I will give that a shout. In fact, the
ten o'clock hour on my high school sports show today,
Royal Henry Roy Hennings.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Come in, you can watch. You can watch those drag
races last like three four seconds. You can have enough attentions.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
I do not. I actually do not. Hey, Bengo, it's
good to see you have a great weekend. This is
the Creative Construction, Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports
ninety twenty in your iHeartRadio app.
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan to Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios.
Any problems with your HVAC or to join their maintenance program,
go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com. I cannot recommend that
enough I Mike be given alongside my co host. He's
(00:23):
Bingo Emmons. He's the owner of Creative Construction Wisconsin. Hey, Bingo.
I got to thank Janey by.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The way, were you, Oh yeah for your prizes?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Oh man, that jelly, the jam that's.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I don't know even she makes out. She makes out
of her roles. I don't know how you do that.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I really good. But I'll tell you what if she
if she opens up a store, I'm going to buy
some of that. Aaron's mom that it was so good
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches never tasted better. So, Jannie,
thank you so much for that gift. I appreciate it.
How you been bigel I'm doing good.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, we're doing good.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Busy.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I could do my public service announcements. We are booked, okay, man,
because every time I can look at some May making
squeeze in this year, May making squeeze out here.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, She's like, do not tell people that we are
wide open and just give us a call.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We're we're looking good for like December and January for
inside work. Okay, we got some openings for that. But
that's you know. The problem is I keep saying that
and then people get booked, and then you know, these
are all really good problems. We are working, we are hiring,
we are trying to expand the problems. You can't just
learn how to plaster overnight. That's not it's program in
front of me. I got yeah, I know a couple
(01:31):
of while I want to get a buyer with them,
because when you go out to Washington doodles chimneys, I
want to help with that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
We are talking to the boys from Royal Chimney Services.
We've got lead Mason Josh Foster and Josh and I
have known each other a long time, used to live
in the old neighborhood together. And Josh, you been good, good,
good family, everybody's good.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Yeah, everybody is good.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
You don't change. You looked exactly ten years ago. I
got to be honest.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Thanks I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, how is business?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Business is good. We're busy and moving along.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Also joined by sweep supervisor Jake Rowld. Jake Howard, your
dad too busy to come in today. How is he doing?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
He's doing well, he sends his Hello's good man. Yeah,
he's busy working on that team for that big East
coast project that's coming up. We coordinate the all the
technical aspects of it and getting a team together. We
put a team together from across the country. It's not
just the Royal Chimney show out there, so we get
(02:32):
a select group of sweeps and technicians from across the
country that are qualified.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Everybody gets a chimney, but there's a lot of chimneys.
How many chimneys?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
How about the White House by the way, thirty yes,
thirty five wood burning fireplaces? Yes, they are all woodburning.
They are all active. So if you ever see anything
on the news when they're sitting around talking, you know, presidents,
other dignitaries, things like that, you ever notice there's always a.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Fire in a CNN's on some of your point.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I did that exactly exactly. I know I know which
room that is, I know which fireplace.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That is Is that a yearly thing that you guys do. Yes,
so every year you go out.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
We've been part of that team for about thirty years now.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So it's it's an ongoing trust and comfort level between
them and us.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So when you coate and it's coordinated here, so you
guys book the people that how many how many different
guys and gals are out there working for that week.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
This year, we're going to have about a dozen and
it takes us all week, so a total of five days,
five days without interruptions, I should say. Sometimes there's some
interruptions where they say, all right, you get you'all got
to get out of here.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, you got to get out for it. But I
would assume that they do background checks and make sure
that everybody that's coming in is very very extensive.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh yeah, so you're out. You can't.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, I'm out. Very funny finger you're not in either,
So I don't want to hear about it.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Very expensive.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Maybe Sam and Zach could make it, but I assure
you and I would, Well maybe you, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, yeah, nobody knows my real name anyways.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
They don't, I think. I yeah, al right.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, I'm al junior. That might help.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, I'll just start calling because dad.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Al senior, you must have figured it out.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I know, yeah, I get I have a pretty smart
guy when it comes to that. Hey, Jake, when when
people when people I got two questions, people hear the
promos that you guys are coming in and both people
ask me the same questions. So I'm going to lead
with that. This time of year, what are people calling
a royal chimney? Like I had a guy go, I
(04:43):
don't use my fireplace right now. Why are you talking
to these guys? But this time of year, you guys
are busy. Talk to me about some of the things
that you guys. The calls that you're getting nowadays.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
The most common calls this time of year are either
water leaks looking outside, they're seeing decay on their chimney
because they're out enjoying the weather and enjoying their yard
barbecue and they're looking up they're seeing, oh yeah, I
never noticed that there's bricks laying all over my roof.
Or they're just getting a stink out of their fireplace.
And that is a telltale sign that hey, it needs attention.
(05:17):
It's always good to get that removed as soon as possible,
avoiding the hot, muggy winter summer days, just because when
that kreosote that's in there that we remove and maintain,
when that mixes with condensation in the air, it gets
very moist inside that chimney and then it can create
almost an acid that can start deteriorating mortar and things
(05:38):
like that. Plus you don't want to be breathing all
that carcin engen's in and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm just saying about the storm damage too. Do you
have lightning strikes and trees?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Not too many lightning strikes every now and then we
get that down trees. Yeah, we get a fair amount
of that. But yeah, I think it's more just the weather.
It's I've seen a lot more vegetation growing on chimneys
this year. We've had some pretty good rains in the
last few months, so I'm seeing a little bit more
like moss and vines and stuff like that, and that
(06:07):
is just going to kill that chimney, mortar, masonry, concrete
up there. So we do a lot of We've been
doing a lot of preventative maintenance weather ceilings this year
also that are just your chimney's up there. It's not
protected by the sides of your house and your eaves
and your overhangs. It takes the brunt of everything. So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Another question that I got, and they both asked the
same Why would you be having somebody in now? And
this is now it's starting to make a lot of
sense because right now there's a lot going on. People
aren't building fires in their house as much, right But
one of the guys said, look, I have a fireplace upstairs,
and when I build a fire upstairs, we start getting
(06:51):
smoke in the basement fireplace. Yes, And he's like, look,
I need either do I need to call them to
come out and take a look at it, or can
you ask the question, what's going on with me that
I'm getting smoke from the basement fireplace when I build
one up Scarce.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, it's it's going to be one of two things.
Either there's internal damage inside that chimney which is causing
the smoke to cross over and travel down, or there
may be nothing wrong with the chimney system itself and
it's actually a house pressure issue. We've becoming we've been
becoming house pressure specialists over the last five years. Like
you wouldn't believe because everybody wants the most insulated, tight
(07:30):
efficient home out there. Well, guess what. All your appliances
need house air to operate properly.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
What he's talking about, too, is because people buy these
big Viking stoles, right you know, oh yes, yeah, right,
and he turned these things on in our kitchen. The
air's got to come from somewhere right here, comes from
hot water. Friends of chimneys, it comes on how water
or fireplace chimney, but it's got to it's got to
come from somewhere. So they got to make it do
makeup air.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
And everybody's you know, you want the best of both
worlds because I already wants a very insulated house, nice
tight windows, everything like that. And like you said, new
new stove fans, things like that. But at the end
of the day, you could just really be causing I'm
not saying don't do any of that stuff. It's just, yeah,
you need to have us out so we can diagnose
(08:16):
it and then offer solutions.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You got to correct, Yeah, be a fireplace. And he's
talking about how they get that smell into him, right,
You got to be cautious or conscious of what you're doing.
You can't open up all the second floorst story windows,
not open the bottom because you know, he rises, it's
going to come from somewhere, so you got to open
up bottom windows.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Both guys are laughing when you said that, because they're like, oh.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, well, say my chimney's backing up. I said, you
have like no windows open downstairs. None.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
You're all positive and negative pressures are our key to this.
And yeah, it wasn't a problem thirty forty fifty years
ago because we all know how well those homes are sealed, right,
not very well, and nowadays they are very tight, and
it's just it's becoming a problem. So we we've become
very proficient in diagnosing house pressure issues along with not
(09:05):
just looking at your fireplace. So very proud of our sweeps.
We got ten certified sweeps on a national standard that
can come out help diagnose what's going on. Because there
may be absolutely nothing wrong with your fireplace. It's actually
a house pressure issue that we can help diagnose and figure.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Out for four one four seven seven two eighty two
seven seven eighty two if you give them a call
on on on Monday. And my friend Allen, who asked
me that question. Call them and they can come out.
Though they put you on the calendar, and I know
that that he hasn't He has not fired up his
(09:44):
fireplace in the summer, but he did in the spring
and again the smoke that he was getting in the basement.
You guys can can get him on the calendar, probably
prior to you going to the White House and take
a look at at what the pbsolute is and just
be able to have them come out and say, look,
here's what the issue is and here's how to fix it.
(10:04):
And again four one four seven seven one two two
eight two and give these guys a call. Hey, Josh
has the lead mason for these guys. This time of year,
I would assume more than in the winter time, this
has got to be a busy time.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Yeah, a lot of masonry repairs. Uh this summer especially,
been doing a lot of concrete, like concrete crowns on
top of chimneys. But yeah, this time of year, we're
trying to get the exterior work done before the cold
weather comes.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, are you got help far? How long are you
guys booked for? If somebody needs you guys and they're
hoping to get it done yet this summer. Is that
Is that doable?
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Yeah, that would probably be doable. It depends on the
scope of the job. It just if it's a big
masonry repair. Sometimes it might we might be you know,
somewhere between a month or two out. But it all
depends on the scope of the job.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
But you would highly recommend at least having you guys
come look at it before the fall.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, definitely sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
If you wait till the fall, then you guys might
not be ready to the winter income winter time.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
And we run into that every year, as much as
we try stressing that and not waiting till fall to
call us because everybody wants their fireplaces.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I was gonna say it too, especially if we got
a mas street chimneys like the sixties, seventies or eighties,
they didn't have they didn't do drip edges. You put
like a stonewash on top, which is not allowed. They're
not allowed supposed to have a supposed to be a
solid one piece is either pre cast or it's gotta
be a solid one piece. But the other ones there
you get who bunch of bricks all around it and
you feel the center up with cement and everything. You
(11:41):
can't you can't have those anymore well.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
And unfortunately, I mean even we're seeing new houses that
are being built that way with a with a crown wash.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And that's it's not allowed exactly, it's not allowed. So
but the secret that making the chimney last longer because
I because I do as repair, I do have all
repairs are stuckle all the time. And what they do
is they don't have a cap with the drip edge.
So what happens It just runs down there for years
and years and years and soaks in and the leaks
they cause the problems, and they'll say chimney leaks. Then
the roofer comes out there and said, oh it's a
(12:11):
stucckle guy, and it's just it's a mess. But you
got to have a cap of the drip edge.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Think think about it this way. A standard brick and
mortar chimney, each brick can hold a cup and a
half of water over the duration of her rain. So
do a quick brick out on your chimney and then
I don't have my calculator.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Right right now.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
But that's the importance of these weather repellents that we're
putting on along with these concrete crowns.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So well it was I got two bricks, I got
three cups as far as I can calculator.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
There you go. Yeah, there's your math. That's your master
the day Bengo. You know, years ago when we were
off of eighty eighth and Townsend, we had squirrels. I
had a squirrel twice in my house and we finally
had a captain that that was I mean, we should
have done that early on. It didn't know any better.
And I can tell you that I was on the
(13:01):
side on a phone call, on a business call, and
my son came walking out with our dog and he's
like knocking on the window. I'm like, I'm on the phone.
He's like, he goes, we gotta squirrel in the house.
I go, what. And so we called this guy and
he sent his teenage son out. He's like seventeen years old,
and we're looking the dogs going nuts trying to look
(13:23):
for this this squirrel. And we're in the basement and
my son goes upstairs and go to the bathroom and
he comes running down and he's like something was moving
and my son's like all freaked out. And he was
home for college right so this young kid goes get
out of the way, and he goes up and he
closes the bathroom door, and you hear these sounds and
(13:46):
he's like, all right, got it. And my son's like,
look at me, man, I'm a big game hunter. And
I go. You were scared like a four year old.
You were running downstairs screaming. He said, I found it.
I got it. And once we put the cap on,
do you guys did you do that work as well?
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Yes, we sell stainless steel rain caps with animal guard
on them. So yeah, if you're looking up at your
house and you don't see like a cage on top
of the flu, you should probably get one because it's
very common for us, even if it's not a living animal.
When we're doing repairs and you have the clean out
(14:23):
door in the basement or even in the fireplace.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I mean we pull out.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Dead squirrel carcasses all the time, dead bird carcasses on
a regular basis, like, and the customer had no idea
that anything was even in there.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Josh. Going back to that same house, we had a
new HVAC done right, we had a new furnace put in,
and we were up north on vacation when we had
this thing done, and on the way back, the guy
called and said, hey, I'm going to meet you at
your house because I have something to show you. And
like we are he goes, yeah, yeah, we're fine. And
(14:57):
he goes, I've never done this before. He said, I'm
going to clean it up. But you got to see
what was in your chimney. It was sticks and leaves
and a ton. He goes, I'm telling you, you guys
are lucky to be alive. Yeah, and I said, come on,
He goes, I'm serious. I've never seen it like this.
We didn't have a fireplace, so we never thought about it.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
And that's that's a big thing with you know, the
average homeowner is they think, oh, I don't have a fireplace,
so my chimney is not that important. Where that's where
your furnace, your water heater went through.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
It's very similar to the exhaust on your car. You
have to keep that free and clear and you're exhausting
dangerous byproducts of combustion from your house.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
If I remember correctly, three weeks four weeks after we
had that done, I met Howard for the first time.
Came in at the other radio station and I'm telling
that and can you imagine your dad's just shaking his
head at me, like you didn't know? And I said, no,
he should you do a home go? I didn't know.
I had no idea. And the guy who put it
(16:05):
in said, I've never I've never been the one to
meet with the owners. I mean, I install it and
then your sales up comes in and tells you all
that the bells and whistles and how to work it.
But I wanted to be here because I wanted to
show this to you and I'll clean it up. But
it was a huge mound then that you cleaned out.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
And that's why it's important.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Even if you don't have a fireplace, you most likely
still have a chimney.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
You still need to get that inspected.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Because, like you said, an animal can get in there,
build an as start backing up those gases and you
could have carbon monoxide coming back.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And yeah, I got it. I got a question here, Okay,
a lot of chimney. You know what the everybody's when
you buy a new new type of furnace, they're way
more efficient than the old furnaces. A lot of people
need liners. What kind of liner do you recommend.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
So if it's just like you said, if they put
in a new furnace and you just have the water
heater vent in an of that we use for just
a water heater, a double walled aluminum.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Liner even not that slinky corrugated thing yep.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Yeah, or stainless steel like stainless steel is good for
when you're hooking up a furnace or a furnace.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And what kind of metal do you recommend? What kind
of metal do you.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
If it's just a water heater, you can do it.
You can go with the double walled aluminum, Hey.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Jack, if if I can't ask you, if you move
the microphone over? Another question, how often do I need
my my chimney swept? And how do I know if
the chimney sweep really cleaned.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Even once a year? Because even.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Once a year, and we'll find out if a guy
and idios and talented should be doing it once a
year as well.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
On a national standard, it should be inspected annually and
service as needed, so not everybody needs a service call
like a sweep every year. Knowing that it's been service
proper is honestly just trusting the company that you're going
with we're part of Milwaukee Nary. They vet all the
(18:08):
contractors in the Milwaukee area for the homeowners so they
don't have to do it. And the good thing about
that is we all know each other as contractors now.
So if I go into a house, anything I need
stucco or backplaster or something, I think I know a
good guy that can help you out with that. So
it's very important. You know, if somebody brings up, how
(18:30):
do I know they're going to do a good job. Well,
they do a good job at vetting all these companies sports.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
They do a lot of things that people don't realize.
What they do is sometimes there's bricks in a fireplace
because you know, they came out and they cream mine
one and he said, you got problem with a brick.
I don't even see it, but they got you know, yeah,
no idea, I can't see it. But those guys look
right here. Then you know these NISSA and the guy out.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know, we have the internal video scanners. That's how
we diagnose everything, cameras that actually get sent out.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So just standing outside look in the yard. So yeah,
Jimmy standing and then in front of fire.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
You're standing good enough for mis saw smoke coming out
of it the other day. We should be good, Jake.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
One of the things that Howard used to talk a
lot about is don't get scammed. Right, So in the
fall you'll start hearing commercials and seeing stuff online and
through Google. Hey we're gonna do well, come clean your
chimney for twenty nine ninety five, and and.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh you can buy that log you just that's thing. Yeah,
you put that into you don't need any service.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Howard's so passionate about people not getting scammed. Some of
these companies that come in from states, from around and
they come in and you know they're not here. They
just come in. They send a crew in and they
do a bunch of advertisings and say, look for twenty
nine bucks or thirty nine bucks or whatever it is,
we'll get your fireplace ready for the fall. And he said, look,
(19:50):
we get so much business from people that first call
them and they pay for it and they don't show up,
or they show up and they're gone in fifteen minutes,
or they don't do a then we have to come out.
Just call us first. And how are you say, Look,
there's a number of good companies in this area. Goes,
I think we're the best, and you can trust us
(20:10):
because we've been doing this a really long time. But
just don't get caught. Make sure you ask what's your address?
Right were you execated?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Do they have a physical location, are they certified? Do
they have national credentials? Things like that we do have.
I've been seeing over the last year or two it's
actually becoming more prominent. We're getting called for second opinions
a lot now because they'll say, hey, this other company
came in. They're usually pretty shy. They don't want to
(20:40):
tell you who the other company was because they feel
like they're getting scammed. And they're saying, this whole thing's
got to there. Say it's going to cost me tons
of thousands of dollars to repair this. And I go
in there, give it a full video scan inspection. I'm
up on the roof, I'm looking this thing head to
toe trying to find something wrong with it, and at
the end of the day I give them a clean report,
saying I don't know where these guys were coming up
(21:02):
with any of this information, but there's absolutely nothing wrong
with if.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You're buying if you're buying a selling a holes, you should
always have them inspected.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Well, I'll tell the story on your times, but I'll
tell it again. My son, Matthew, was buying his first
house and literally we're in studio and Howard was there,
and I get a text from my son going, hey, look,
I guess there might be a problem with the chimney.
What do I do? And I said, well, first turn
on my show. You should be listening to your dad
(21:30):
once in a while. And during the break I talked
to Howard and Howard said, hey, listen, give me his
address and I'll head over there right after the show.
And because of your father, man, it worked out really
well because they were they were about to put an
offer on this house and clothes, and there was an
issue with the chimney and the homeowner then had to
(21:50):
They hired you guys to fix it, and then Matthew
bought the house. But if the timing on this thing
was perfect, because my son's like, I don't know what
to do. Who do I call? And I said, he's sitting.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
In the three with me. We do our best, you know,
especially with the housing market the way it is, a
lot of these houses are getting closed on within two
days or twenty four hours things like that, So we
try our best to scramble to get a technician out
there as soon as possible. So, yes, that's very important
when they're when they're calling for an inspector.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
For that guy Howard out there was not that. I
don't think there's anything he hasn't seen in that area.
And he my son was like, Okay, Howard's like my
new best friend. And I go, what about me? He goes, no, No,
Howard's my new best friend. We're going to get to
a break. Other side of the break will continue talking
with Lead Mason Josh Foster and sweep supervisor Jake Rowell
(22:42):
from Royal Chimney Services. Go to Royal Chimney dot com.
This is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back
to the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox
Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. As always, coming
live from the Donovan and Jordans and Heating and Cooling Studios.
(23:04):
I Mike mcgive her alongside Bengo Emmons. He is the
owner of Creative Construction.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Don't Like, Don't Light your fire until you get Kimney's
checked out first.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
And you know what, you can call Kim today till
eleven o'clock. She's in the office over at Royal Chimney Services.
How is Kim doing? We got to bring her in
one day.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
She gets a little shy sometimes, No, we'll bring her in.
We can. We can try and convince her to getting here.
But she is probably the friendliest person at our company.
She comes in every single morning, smile on her face.
She's never even if she's having a bad day or
feeling under the weather, She's the first one to greet
you with a smile. So very fun to talk to.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
She's nicer than Josh Foster.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I'm gonna go with yeah, I would not.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I don't know Kim guy.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
You just give Kim a call. You'll see it exactly
what we're talking about. She's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Give Kim a call right now four one four seven
seven one two two a two seven seven one two
two a two and tell Kim that you heard us talking.
And it's interesting because if you just joined us that
first segment, I've gotten a couple of questions from people going,
why would I need why are you having a mon now,
wouldn't you have a mon in the fall and winter
(24:21):
when everybody's building fires in their home.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
But I can tell you it's too late.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, it's too late. You're a man, and I think
it's important right now. Get it done now and have
them come out take a look at at at all
of it and make sure. If you need masonry work,
this would be the time to have it done before fall.
And and look, Josh Foster said, get you get on
her calendar now.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Fall because you never know you might have a raccoon
in your chick I'm looking at that, and we've been
asked by a listener, come we here to raccoon story.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yes, the raccoon story. Uh me. And I was working
with him at the time. This was probably about five
years ago. We're on the top doing a masonry repair.
There's concrete on top of the chimney. He's got his
little jackhammer getting away the concrete and I'm kind of
holding the corner section so it just doesn't fall on
the roof damage as the homeowner's roof things like that.
(25:18):
So I'm just I'm just kind of hanging out and
my head's kind of hanging over the chimney and I
see from the darkness a little masked face coming up
at it, and I knew exactly what was going on here.
And it wasn't slowing down. It was because it's making
a lot of noise. They don't like that vibration and
all that noise in there. And Josh is going with
(25:38):
this jackhammer, and I just look up at him and
I go, we got a raccoon coming up. And he
stops it and he goes, what And I go, A
raccoon is coming up at us. And before I could
turn around, Josh is already at the gutter line, probably fireman,
sliding down the ladder. And I'm like, hey man, I'm
up here too, Like, by bye, no man behind, what
(26:01):
happened to this?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Come on, that's your US Marine background right there.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I was a little like, come on, man, you have together, Foster.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
You're not as tough as I thought you were.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
I've had lots of encounters with different animals, and I
do not play when it comes to an animal. Because
you're on a roof, you're a very vulnerable situation. You
don't have anywhere to run.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So it's like way I was in Florida, a couple
of years ago, playing golf with my brother and they
put us with two other guys, and these young guys.
We were drinking and there was a baby alligator on
the course and this kid, I'll show you the video.
The kid went and caught it, and where he threw
it in the water was the big mama alligator. And
I looked at my brother and I said, hey, look,
(26:44):
if that moment comes running, I go, I don't have
to outrun the alligator.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
I just got outrun. And he had a bad hip.
I said, I'm a punch in the hip and take
off run. So, Josh, you and Hire kind of twins
with this stuff. And he was like, well, don't climb
a tree. And I go what He goes, Oh, alligators
can get up trees quick. I go, no, they can't.
He goes, I live in Florida, pal, I'm telling you
they do not. And I go, okay, I'm just gonna
(27:11):
punch you in the hip and take off running.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
He said, man, you're not. We're not as tight as
I thought. We were kind of similar to you guys.
I would assume you've got to be really safe with
that kind of stuff. Do you get a lot of
calls when it comes to animal squirrels and raccoon stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeahmount fair amount.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Yeah, I wouldn't say it like a ton of calls,
but I mean back in the day, we used to
attempt removing live animals. At this point, you know, we've
kind of evolved to where you know, we'll call animal control, yeah,
to come deal with them, because I mean, they do
carry disease.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
The second time we got a squirrel, before we were
smart enough to put a cap on it, we couldn't
catch that thing. And it was I sat down there
with a pellet gun and that was like Elmer Fudd,
Come on, Sammy, the squirrel, where are you? And they
put a trap and couldn't didn't have it, didn't get it.
And the guy said, look, we're gonna put a trap
(28:06):
that isn't exactly like the code, but is it okay?
And I go, yeah, I just want to get this
thing out. He said, you're going to hear some sounds.
Don't worry about it, just call me after you hear it. Well,
they got it. I had asked the guy what do
you do when you catch him? And he goes, we
you don't want to know, and I said okay, he said,
(28:27):
I'll tell you a story. We caught a squirrel and
the woman said, I don't want you, just let it go.
Just let it go. And he goes, look, it's going
to come back, and she said, we'll take it like
a mile to this park. And he took a pink
paint and he put it on the squirrel, right on
the back, and he let it go. And the next
day that squirrels back home again.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, we spray painted and it does. We did him
as far as five miles away and come back.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
And they still and then you know what, the second time,
the woman said, OK care what you do with it.
Don't you just take care of that thing?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
It got Yeah, you got them ways away and across
a big river or something.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I just think me and Josh learned a valuable lesson
after that experience, because we both got down to the
ground and we were both little winded.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I thought I was going to lose you.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That it dawned on me. I looked at Josh and
I said, did any of us see that thing come
out of the chimney? So now we had no idea
if it was out or in. So it added to
the adventure of the day to try and then figure
out is that raccoon still.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
In So anybody who thinks they wanted to try this
on their own right speaking of that, Speaking of that, Jake,
do you your position on after market hearts, right after
market products? When when Bingo talked about, look, you can
just burn this thing that you see on at the
big box store and it's going to clean everything you're
feeling on some of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I would go with a professional. It says right on
the side of there, it says used once every sixty fires.
In my opinion, that's when you should be having it
swept out. And there's no inspection. I don't know if
anybody ever noticed, but if you're burning that log, it
does not come with a written safety report inspection meaning
(30:12):
that's kind of a joke. It doesn't have anybody looking
at the chimney. You're still burning something inside the chimney.
Don't rely on something like that with something this serious.
It's kind of the moral of the story. You know.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I'm sure someone on the label because even like those
people with the special mold paints, they say this does
not remove mold. Get a professional to do this.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yes, yeah, that's exactly what they're kind of kind of
going after, So have a professional out so they can
take a look at it. Not only are we looking
at the internals, we're also looking at the outside, making
sure everything's water tight.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Then you don't have a broken brick on the inside.
At firebrick, you get to meet Josh.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
You get to meet Josh.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You get to meet Josh. Even if there's outside stuff too.
Sometimes a lot of homes out there, you'll look up
and oh, it's just siding and everything like that. I
don't need to worry about that. But there's a lot
of these they call chase covers. It's the roof to
your chimney. You see that little two inch skirt that
hangs over the edge of the chimney, that's called your
chase cover. It's like I said, it's the roof to
(31:08):
your chimney.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yell.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Lot of roofers come in there and you keep playing
with that flashing around them.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
They keep playing with flashing, and.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You start and then he starts leaking, and then you
blame it on something else.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yes, So even today's they build these big beautiful homes,
million dollar homes, and they just put galvanized bent metal
up there. It'll start sagging, it'll start rusting, leaving rush
streaks down. So we do replace those custom made stainless
steel lifetime warranties on those, So that's a big part
of it too.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Hey, how long does it take to clean a chimney?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Normally one to two hours, depending on how tall or
extensive it may be.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
And does that include, like if somebody has not had
you or anybody else out for a number of years,
does that one or two hours include the inspection and everything.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yes. Yeah, So we're gonna lay runner and tarp out
all the way to the fireplace. We're gonna have a
big vacuum. It's a hypavac that we bring in for
dust control. We guarantee no dust back in the home.
So typically about half hour to forty five minutes to
actually get the system cleaned out, another half hour to
forty five minutes for the full twenty point written safety
(32:14):
report inspection, and then if there are repairs needed, we'll
be able to you know, price quote you on site
right away, tell you timelines, what we're looking at options.
If there is extensive damage inside the chimney, you know
a lot of people are converting the inserts nowadays, wood
burning inserts, gas inserts. We do have a showroom. You
can come take a look at them if you're not
(32:35):
familiar with what they are or how they operate, if
you're looking to get more heat out of the fireplace,
or let's say you're just your fireplace is one hundred
years old or fifty years old and it's just time
for a replacement and you want something more efficient.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I'm just wondering, did you ever like go to a
chimney sweep and the people said a fire going?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Oh yeah, usually run into it once or twice a year.
You get there and they got a fire going, and
you're like, what, what do you think I was coming
on here to do?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
That's what you're thinking, But you're much nicer.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
What was the thought process behind this one?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Do you know? We had you guys out last year
and my wife spring fall, winter, not so much in
the summer. But her her routine is to wake up early,
grab her King James version Bible, get a cup of coffee,
and turn the fireplace time. And for a couple of
weeks it wasn't working, and she was, you know what,
(33:32):
she was different.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
It can be dramatic. It was thank you, and I
was like, that's your morning routine and when when that
gets disturbed, it's your whole day is so on.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
She likes the fireplace on. She likes to to study
and read and have her cup of coffee in the morning.
And for those two weeks because the parts it's an
older fireplace, and we get the parts ordered and they
were like, look, it's probably not going to be able
to get back out here for another ten days or so.
And my wife looked at me, like, you know, somebody
(34:03):
stole the dog or something, and I go, look, this
is the They're the best and the best, So we're
going to wait the ten days. What we don't want
to do is call one of these companies that said, oh,
we'll get a fixed in twenty four hours, because it's
just not going to be done right, and we're going
to end up calling Howard and we're going to end
up calling Royal Chimney again. And guys, if we've got
Kim at their office today till eleven o'clock, and I
(34:24):
thank her for being there with these guys on the show.
Any questions you have, and I would highly recommend if
you think, look, I'm not going to turn my fireplace
on till fall, so I don't need to worry about it.
When when you talk to Josh Foster, he just starts laughing.
He's like, look, we get so busy in the fall
that if you call and wait for is still fall,
We're not going to get out there maybe till winter.
(34:46):
So do it now, and Kim is there, give her
a call at four one four seven seven one two
two eight two seven seven two eighty two and let
him know that you know, yeah, you think that that
Josh Jake doing a pretty good job. If they're not
doing a great job, you could tell Kim that she'll
pass along that information.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
You would have no problem.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
With forty five year anniversary.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Huh forty fifth man, that's awesome. Congratulations, it's been a
wild ride and it's it's going nice. Yeah, Howard, my
dad and he started at out of his pickup truck,
just put non rain caps forty five years ago. Unbelievable
snowballed from there.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You you you were a US Marine Corps. Uh, you're
you certainly are a guy that spent how many years?
In six years? Six years the US Marine Corps? And
I told this story a couple of months ago. I
did this US Marine boot camp and I can tell
you that camp penalty is way bigger than I thought.
The depot was unbelievable, so big base, and we we
(35:46):
got to see graduation, very emotional and I didn't I
didn't go in thinking this this trip would be emotional
for me. But I'll tell you what it was after
And look when when you when you cry at one
of these nobody talks about it. And I thank God
for that, because you know that the drill instructors did
not break character at all. It was you get off
(36:07):
that bus and they're yelling at me, and I'm starting
to giggle a little bit, and this.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
This guy get up in your face.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Oh the gal thinks. Gal was like, you think this
is funny. I said, no, I giggle when I get nervous.
She was, well, you should be nervous, and I thought, man,
oh man, what was it this? This might have been
a bad idea, but I can tell you that week
was incredible, and thank you for your service. By the way,
the fact, did you if I asked you back then
and I said, Hey, one day you're going to be
(36:34):
in You're going to be running this this company. You're
going to be part of Royal Chimney Services with Howard.
Would you have said, no chance, that's not in my future.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I had no intention of working in the family business.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
And now I can't picture myself anywhere.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Else to me yeaheen eighty six. My dad's like Meilbiell
for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And here we are still here and Sam went away
to school act same thing in their back. Yeah. I
love that. I love stories like that. And now with
you saying, look, I can't imagine being anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Okay, what about great great employees?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Josh, get start, Josh, He's been there a long time.
Josh one of the first, other than Howard, one of
the first guys I talked ten years ago.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
I started pretty much right out of high school. The
other lead Mason Kevin, who was with us.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
He actually started working here a year before I started
and hired me on as his labor and then I
just grew from there.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And you know this better than most what not only
have they been around forty five years, but it's so
how many years have you been there?
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Twenty five and the other Kevin's been there twenty six yep.
What does that tell you, Bengo about this company, that
these guys have been there.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
For them, They must like work in there.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
They must treat them pretty good. You must treat them
pretty good. Plus eight, do you go to the You
don't go to the White House, do you?
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I do? Yep, I've gone a couple times past.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Would I were to invite up us, yeah, yeah, it
took a lot of year. We could do a live
show if we went right on.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
The roof, right on the roof, yeah, maybe No, I
think we'll stand around if that's okay, I'm not going
up there. Guys, we are talking with the with a
couple of guys from Royal Chimney Services. Go to Royal
Chimney dot com or like we had talked about Kim
Is at the office. What's Kim's last name? Lewis, Kim Lewis.
We'll get her in studio. Well, we're gonna bring her
(38:28):
in next time, Yeah, we will. You tell her she
has no choice, she's coming in.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
That Like, we'll talk on the phone all day to
customers and everything like that, but we'll have to do
a little convincing.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
All right, Kim Lewis, you're coming in next time, come
the fall, we'll get you here. You give her a
call at four one four seven seven one two two two,
and you let her know that you're looking forward to
having listening to her talk about Royal Chimney Services next
time we do this and we'll invite her to come
in studio. This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home
(39:01):
Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart
Radio app. Yeah that was my song, boys, I wanted
that play today. Welcome back to the Creative Construction Wisconsin
Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty in your
iHeartRadio app. Coming from the Donovan to Jorganson Hitting and
Cooling Studios. We've got to lead Mason, Josh Foster and
(39:24):
sweep supervisor Jake Rowell from Royal Chimney Services in studio.
And if you just joined us. I asked them right
off the jump because I've gotten a couple of questions,
why this time of year, this is a perfect time
year to have these guys in. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Well, they also you know, they also got something that
you got to get in by this year. Right those
inserts the insert.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
It's a really good point. Text credit for that is
coming to an end at.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
The coming to an end December thirty first, So on
select wood burning inserts and stoves, there is a up
to two thousand dollars tax credit, but it must be
installed by December thirty first, not just signed up for
or on your wish lists. So that text credit has
been around for quite a while now, but it is
(40:10):
coming to an end at the end of this year
and that must be installed. So we do both. We
do gas inserts. Tax credit not available for gas inserts,
it's only the solid fuel wood burners. But we do
have a showroom. Give Kim a call, she'll set up
an appointment with you. We don't have any salespeople at
our location. We are in the Milwaukee area building. We're
(40:31):
on the lower level of that right, so they'll set
up an appointment. You come in, we'll talk about inserts
for a while and then it's a in home consult.
After that we come out to your house. We measure
up the fireplace, look at the flu system, you know,
kind of see what are you looking to get out
of this? At the end of the day, you folks
(40:52):
are the ones that have to stare at this thing,
not me. Yes, we'll give our input and we've been
doing this many years and we think this is the true,
you know, the scheme that I would go with given
the outlay of your house and how your fireplace looks.
So we do offer suggestions if you want to say
the decorators you will.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Do you do you do more work with gas? Uh?
Do you see more gas fireplaces are wood burning?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
I would say it is pretty split if you go
by the general populous homes styles and things like that.
But if what do we get the most service calls
for is wood burning because a lot of people don't
realize that gas fireplaces need to be service and inspected
as well. They don't think, oh, it's just gas, set
(41:38):
it and forget it. It's like, no, you're still burning emissions.
You're still having an actual fire inside of there. There
are bad things cancers.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's like your furnace. I mean, people, you know, just
because you have it?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, do you never call your furnace company out.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
To most of late? And that's when we got.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
To the problem. Now did you see.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Him point most it is? It is? It is a
common trend though, because a lot of people with gas
fireplaces typically do not typically do not call until there
is a problem and then we have to go out, diagnosed, educate. Hey,
you got to be doing this more than once every
eight ten years. You know this isn't just a set
(42:20):
it and forget it thing.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Royalchimney dot com, Royalchimney dot com. And again, Kim is
at the office today till eleven o'clock if you want
to get on their calendar. And look, I'm a big
fan of Josh Foster's. He's not gonna he will not
lead you wrong. And when he says, look, if you
want to get this thing done before the fall, do
it now because come fall we get really busy and
(42:44):
we might not be able to get out to see
you guys till winter. So make the appointment now. Give
Kim a call at four one four seven seven one
two two eight two and get on their calendar.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Also, if you're watching the news, he happens to even
doing a fireplace chat from the White House. Yeah, you
know what cleaned it.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
You know exactly who who cleaned.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Look, I asked you you want to hear about it
if your background checking your company, Well there's a good
example for you right there.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
And I said Jake, when are you going out to
the to the White House? He said, yeah, sometime in
the fall. Can't give you that information. And I'm like, man,
come on, he knows better than to tell me, because
I'll go right on in the air and go, hey,
they're going out at this time.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Social media can get a little dangerous sometimes.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Hey, and I got this text a while ago in
the beginning of the first segment, and I didn't get
to it. Somebody just asked very quickly, the difference between
kreosot and.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Soot it's the same, it's the same thing. Yeah, it's
the same thing. It's the byproducts of combustion. So that's
all the black stuff that you know gets accumulated on
the walls that we brushed out.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Actually a flat what part of that burns? Just the
actual it just burns because it's unburns off hanging on
a chimney. Why is a burn?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah, that's exactly correct. It's just a byproduct of combustion
that hasn't gone through its complete combustion stage yet.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Hey, Josh, real quick, When when you go out and
see a fireplace, how do you make the decision whether
you can just use some tuck pointing or whether they
need a whole new brick fireplace.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
So tuck pointing is removing the mortar in between the
brick and refilling it with mortar. When you which mortar
is meant to wear. You know, as far as masonry
is concerned. If the brick are starting to spawl, which
means the face of the brick is popping off, then
(44:44):
at that point that is no longer tuck pointable. You
either have to replace that brick or rebuild the structure.
We get calls all the time. I think I just
need my chimney tuck pointed. And we come out there
and we see spawling brick crack brick bricks sitting on
the roof and they're.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Like, yeah, just need some exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, And you do both.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Yes, we do. I mean we virtually do everything and
anything with masonry.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Prefabricated, right down to the roof if you have to, yes.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Right down to the roof, sometimes inside of the roof,
and do new flashings.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Most of I would think most of your business is residential.
Do you also do any commercial business?
Speaker 3 (45:27):
We do no commercial.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
It's all resident residential. And you're and the territory, do
you guys go down as far as routine or do.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
You our cutoff is about Oak Creek, go as far
north as Grafton and out west were about Dlsman Economy.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Walk okay Man and how many employees.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Twelve employees all certified national standards.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
So that's the other part and we didn't get to it.
You want to ask that question if you're not calling
kim at Royal Chimney Services, because you can ask KRK.
You can say, look, is everybody certified? But make sure
that that the company that you're working with has has
your building in this area.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Well, they're not just certified. You're doing continuous education too.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
And a lot of whether it's a chimney company or
just a masonry company. The Masons won't be certified in
as a chimney suite, whereas myself and the other Masons
were actually certified chimney sweeps. So we know the masonry.
We know how because chimney masonry is a lot different
(46:36):
and a lot more goes into it than just general
masonry like building, you know, a building or a wall
or something.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
There's stuff like that, you know. I mean, they have
like you have like a smoke chamber with a shelf
with it has to flow right. There's all kinds of
stuff that has to be.
Speaker 5 (46:49):
A lot of heat, hot, cold, expansion contraction where your
general mason might not know how a chimney actually functions.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
It's not just a brick thing with the straight shot
up to that right.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Royal Chimney Services forty fifth anniversary and that tells you something.
They've been around for forty five years. Give Kim a
call if you want to get on their calendar at
four one four seven seven one two two two. To
learn more about this company, you can go to Royal
Chimney dot com and uh, you know, say, look, I'd
love to have Josh Foster. I'd like to have Jake
(47:22):
rawl come out and take a look at what we're doing.
It's a great company. And I can tell you this
that they they worked in my house and they got
my wife happy again because when that when that fireplace
was was fixed and working again, it worked out really
really well. Josh, good to see you again, Jake. It's
great to see you guys. You bet Howard for me?
Speaker 3 (47:44):
Will do you?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Got it? Then we'll have a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, I'm good and I'm as well. Just so I
know you're excited. But I'm also a race director at
a Badger tomorrow, so you know you can watch it online.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, I will give that a shout. In fact, the
ten o'clock hour on my high school sports show today,
Royal Henry Roy Hennings.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Come in, you can watch. You can watch those drag
races last like three four seconds. You can have enough attentions.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
I do not. I actually do not. Hey, Bengo, it's
good to see you have a great weekend. This is
the Creative Construction, Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox Sports
ninety twenty in your iHeartRadio app.
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