Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you need wisdom and advice. Seek out a guru.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
When you need wisdom and advice about remodeling and design.
Lock on and listen right now to Nick the Construction Guru.
Here is award winning remodeling expert Nick Kerzner.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
New Talk eleven thirty wisn Nick the Construction Guru. I
just want to make an announcement again this week. If
you don't get a chance to listen to the show
at nine on Sundays because of church or because you're
going out with the family, we are now on the
iHeart app. We have a podcast there and you can
listen to all the shows on there as well as
this one. You all know this guy. He's been on
(00:43):
the show many times. We talk about him. Actually, we've
talked about you in the last two shows. Just right, Greg,
we talked about Tom Eliota from Lake Country Concrete is
now back in our presence after a long hiatus in
Arizona and ready to go back to work. Tommy has
always welcome to the show. Love to have you here.
Let's talk.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Thanks Nick, I appreciate you having me back as a guest. Absolutely. Yeah.
Just got back from Arizona and we got the trucks
all loaded up and ready to go back to work.
Here just waiting for the weather to cooperate a little bit.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Yeah, it looks like we're gonna be okay though, huh.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We should be. Yeah, I mean we started today and
it's uh, you know, we're definitely excavating and getting things
set up, and then we just got to watch the weather.
Make sure you know the rain.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Hole that's always touching this time of year. How's your backlog?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
My backlog isn't bad. We're we're only a couple of
weeks out, so if somebody needs some you know, patio driveway, walkway.
But we're pretty efficient, so we we pull in there
with a pretty big crew and equipment and we can
get back back in and out within a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, yeah, you do, you do.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Let's let's talk about Lake Country concrete a little bit.
Tell us, because it's not just slabs. You do all
kinds of stuff. Let's talk about that and give out
some information in case people are thinking about getting an estimate.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Or or want to get something done right away.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Absolutely, we do seat walls nick as you well know,
seat walls or little walls with columns around the fire
pit area patios. It kind of gives you a little
slash privacy wall. We also do retaining walls, dry stack
or mortared walls, so we you know, we do standard
concrete decorative stamp concrete. So if you need a driveway
(02:23):
and then you might have a patio where you like
to do a little entertaining or something like that, and
you just want to spruce it up a little bit,
then we can give you a custom stamp decorative patio
in the back or a walkway going up to the
entrance to your home. So people like to dress up there,
you know, the front entrance for curb appeal and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So and I just want to mention this. If you're
many people sit around with their iPads and laptops while
we're talking, go to Lakecountryconcrete dot com and take a
look at some of the work that Tommy and the
crew does. Because I think that you probably, at least
in Wisconsin, you were one of the pioneers in a
stamp concrete.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We we've been doing it for years. It's over thirty
years now for sure. I mean, like I said, Nick,
we still I mean, by all means, we don't want
to turn down any work. We still do standard concrete.
So if someone is not looking for any you know,
higher end type concrete, we still do the standard driveway
asphalt replacements type of deal.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
You know, I am laughing, Tommy. It is because it's
not really fair. Again, if you go to Lake Countryconcrete
dot Com, look at some of these pictures. To be fair,
Tommy has put a couple standard concrete patios in there,
But when you look at him next to this stamp stuff,
you're just you know, it really does pale in comparison.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
It does. I mean it's a night and day difference.
But you know it adds huge curb appeal to your
house and value as well.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So you know, strategically you put a picture in here
of all standard concrete on one job. Then the other
picture you showed standard concrete with stamped concrete border, and
then you get to the gray stamped concrete, and then
you have the colored stamped this one in the middle
on the picture here. I'll hold it up to the
mics so people can see it. But I love, I
(04:06):
love the colors you put in here, you know, I
mean it really looks like real stone.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean sometimes people have veneer or stone on
their house, and they have you know, multiple colors like
gray's dark gray as some tan, some rust colors. We're
able to actually burn acid stain into the concrete squares
and kind of simulate the veneer on the home.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Which is nice. Absolutely. And then you have different coatings.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You have some high gloss, you have some matte finish,
and you have some flat. So I mean you can
really get whatever look you want from these guys. And
what I love about it is, you know, stamp concrete
is not as much as real stone, and you don't
have to reset it every couple of years.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Absolutely, yeah, years ago. We haven't done, Nick, over thirty
years actual, you know, lay paver brick stone or something
like that, not in Wisconsin, just because of the frost
and thaw cycles of the grounds constantly moving. And as
you well know, Nick, you see it in your line
of work too. You go, you go walk some of
your job sites and you look at an old paver
(05:03):
patio sometimes not even that old four or five years,
you see the weeds growing through it. So not only
do you maintain your lawn, but you have to maintain
your patio. Yeah, you know what the weeds and then
things just kind of moved through the frost and thaw.
And with the concrete you can give you the same
look that you're looking for. And it's five inches of
solid concrete reinforced with steel and fiber, and you.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Can't actually if it moves at all, it's moving as
one piece.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Absolutely. Yeah, you're not getting you know, you're not getting
that individual movement where you know, you have, like I said,
quite a bit of settling in one area and none
in the other.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And you know, on several jobs we partnered with you
to do different stamp concrete and stuff like that. And
I've watched the guys work. What I love about it
is you put enough guys on the job that it's
not a six month project.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Oh no, how many guys you typically put.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
On the job, seven to eight depending on you know,
we got usually a dump truck or two and some equipment,
and for sure we have seven to eight guys on
a job and then myself as well, that's helping out
on pores.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And you know, I'm thinking back to I'm sure some
of the listeners saw us on Contact six when the
guy out in Gray Scene County took a young couple
of homeowners for a ride and sold them a patio
in the back and then never showed up, just took
the down payment and ran.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
What was his name, what did they call him? Bam bam?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, bam bam. Yeah, I remember that. That was on
on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah. And and and you know, so you went out
and made her hole. That did the project for free
for her to make her hole, which was a huge
undertaking money wise for you. And the reason I bring
this up is you guys had that slab all straightened out,
all the forms were put up, and it was poored
(06:45):
the same day, smoothed out and ready to go. And
even she was freaking out because she was waiting six
eight months to get her patio went from the other guy,
and she because it was a day's work. I said,
that wasn't a day's work for them, It was a
day's work for a lake country because you do send
a lot of guys out there.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Well for sure, yeah, we we were in and out
and we were able to take care of her. It's
just it's one of those things, Nick, you and I
were talking and I seen it on the news, and
it's like, man, my wife just looked at me and said,
let's go get that taken care of. And that's what
we did to get together. We were out there, yeah,
and we made it happen and it was a good thing.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
It was and and you know, I think that went
a long way with with with a lot of the
Narry people too, thought that was a really nice thing
that you did and straightened it out. But the thing
was is that and I think Contact six did a
nice job because they filmed a lot of the work
going on and kind of showing you guys were like
ants on an ant hill man.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It was like, well, you can still pull that up.
They have it, you know, if you can google it
and you can pull up the actual installation that we
were out there on an interview and all that.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, yeah, that really worked out well. So another thing
that I know about Lake countries, you guys do all
your own excavation. I know a lot of times that's
farmed out to other people, which and here's why I
bring it up. Doesn't mean you're going to get a
bad job. But if you have a driveway, especially out
where we are in Lake Lake Country, a lot of
those driveways are long to get to the front door.
You know, the guys tear out the driveway and then
(08:08):
don't come back for you know, three or four weeks.
Now in spring, you got mom trying to bring in
the groceries or the kids and all of that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Correct, absolutely, So you're parking on the street for you know,
three four weeks and then trying to walk through a
mud hole.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I don't think a lot of people think about that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
No, we don't start multiple jobs, Nick. We start one
job and we finish one job and then move on
to the next. So when we pull up with a
dumb truck and equipment and our guys, we usually will
remove an asphalt driveway or a concrete driveway. We try
to get everything removed, get everything set up and excavated
in one day, and then pour the next day. That's
our goal. Obviously mother nature has something to do with that,
(08:46):
so we have to monitor the weather and on occasions
it sits for a couple of days just because it's raining.
Otherwise we're on it.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
So, Tommy, one of the things I want to talk
about that would make a lot of guys in this
business is a lot of times when you look at
stamped concrete, the surfaces are breaking off, the colors are fading.
I want to talk about that because I had a
situation at my house that you guys took care of.
The front stoop was cracked and there was a seat
(09:17):
wall on the front that sat on top of that.
So it was a major undertaking for me to break
that out and replace it. You came with a solution
for that, and I wanted to talk a little bit
about that because I think it really demonstrates the difference
in the materials that you used on stamp concrete at
my house.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, for sure. I remember. I think I maybe had
fifteen guys on your job. Nick. You had a big driveway, yeah,
and we ripped the whole driveway out, and then we
took a look at the We got that port for it,
and then you had that issue up front by your stoop.
Now we had a wall on top and there's a
foundation underneath it. So we didn't want to disturb that
because structurally it looked like it was hanging in there.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So what we did was we we overlaid it with
a with a product you got to pick out your color,
and then we two toned it. And it's incredible because.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
I had no expectations for that to work. Man, I'm
just telling you.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That the final yields on that Nick were actually stronger
than what we just poured new okay, because you use
pure pigmented Portland cement and you mix it up overlay it. No,
I won't try. I don't want you to laugh at
me on the air. Here. So we got you squared
away and there's pictures of all that stuff on the website,
Nick that people can look at. So it's it's it's
(10:34):
a less expensive way, but yet doing it right and
something that's gonna have longevity, you know what I mean,
where it's not gonna break up, it's not gonna chip.
I mean you could take a sledgehammer to this stuff.
That's how you know solid.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
It is another thing before we go on break, I
want you to tell me because I think this is
so important and I think the listeners are going to
understand this.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
How long have you had the same crew?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Oh, I've only lost one guy and eighteen nineteen years. Yeah,
I've had the same crew forever. This is going on
my fortieth year, Nick. Yeah, I'm old. I'm getting up there.
I feel it every morning. But this is my fortieth year,
you know, installing driveways, patios, walkways and that type of deal.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And you have several family members working with you, and
soon you're going to be a second generation business, right correct.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, my son will be taking things over. It'll be
a transition here in the next two to three years.
I'll probably stay on and work for him, just reverse roles. Yeah,
and he'll be carrying it on.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Then you'll have to listen to him.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, I do now sometimes you know, I mean he's
trying to push me out, Nick.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, well, you know, I do have to say. Younger guys,
these guys, they have the same work ethic you do,
which freaks me out out. I mean, I work a lot,
but you guys are like, I mean, you're working four
or five months, but you're going almost twenty four to
seven during those four.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, it's seven months, Nick, It's from April, okay till
November fifth, and then we shut things up. And as
you well know, then, I I'm an official snowbird now,
so I leave for the winner because there's nothing for
me to do here as far as concrete. You know,
we don't do any plowing work or anything like that anymore.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
So looking at your trucks.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, for sure. So I lay you know, I just
lay low in Arizona, enjoy the winters out there and
the weather's nice, and then come back and like I say,
come back the first week in April. We load the
trucks up, so we're ready to go.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We can talk about a little of that after break,
because you're a completely different guy when you're in Arizona's
I know, we're going to take a short break time
and when we come back, we'll talk some more about
stamp concrete and seat walls and go from there. On
Newstalk eleven thirty WISN S Talk eleven thirty w ISN
returning from break, Nick the construction Guru, listen. If you're
(12:51):
thinking about a remodeling project, every show, I say you
should get a few estimates. Check us out on the
web at kurznerink dot com. You can see before and
afters of many of the projects we do. One of
the things that I always like to let people know
as well, is that there really is no job too
small for us. We do do repair work on on drywall,
we do all kinds of different things on the interior
of the house. We kind of feel like It gives
(13:11):
the homeowners an opportunity to take a look at our
work before they come in to a big project and
get a little bit of taste of how we service people.
Another thing I just want to mention before we get
started back with Tommy Eliota from Lake Country Concrete. The
Construction Girl now has a podcast on the iHeart app,
so you can certainly get down there and listen to
some of the shows that you might have missed and
get some of that information coming from the experts. Tommy,
(13:33):
thanks for coming in before we went on break. I
kind of wanted to give you an opportunity to give
out your information because you know, now's the time for concrete,
patio seat walls, all that kind of stuff. Can you
give out the information so if people are looking for
you there.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, absolutely, it's Late Country Concrete Specialists. But you can
go to Lakecountryconcrete dot com and you could also call
the office at two six two five, three eight, one
seven nine seven. Also, I have my cell phone that
people are more than welcome to call me on if
you want to bypass the office, we can get something
scheduled to come out and give you an estimate. That's
(14:07):
two six two two zero six twenty four ninety And you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Know, I want to say that you probably should call
the office because then you get to talk to Tom's
lovely wife, Linda, who is We've had the opportunity to
stay with them out in Arizona, and she's she's probably
the well she really makes up for Tommy.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
She's one of the best hostesses I've ever I've ever
stayed with.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So it's it's great in between you keeping me working
out there when I'm out.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
There, right, Oh for sure, Yeah, absolutely, We've always got
something to do.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So Tommy, let's talk about one of the things that
I don't think people realize, and honestly, I never thought
about until we started having you on the show several
years ago. When you look at different bids. One of
the things I noticed that's different about Lake Country is
you guys do a five inch poor rather than a
four Why is that important?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Well, the thinker of the concrete, you know, your final
PSI pouince per scranches is stronger. It's just stronger, Nick,
That's why you go into airports and it's two feet deep.
You know, Okay, planes constantly landing on them and taking off.
But so you know there's there's a little bit of
a difference between the four inch and five inch. Five
inches is going to give you a little bit more strength.
(15:16):
We make all our concrete, our patios, our driveways, and
our walkways all five inches thick. It just makes it easy,
you know, it'll minimize cracking, and then we reinforce it
with steel rods and fiber and it just keeps callbacks
down and happy customers and happy customers are good for business.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Now, another thing I know about you guys. Every now
and then something will happen, and like us, you take
service very seriously. So you've done and you've even done
some work for some of my friends and peers where
you've repaired things, recoded things, all of that kind of stuff.
So yeah, absolutely, service is a big part of your business,
even if it's somebody else, is right, it is.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, once you do the job, you're a customer for life.
It's just not the it's just not the time that
we're working on your job. Nick, If you ever have
a problem, you call back and it gets handled. I
mean that's just the way we that's just the way
we work. We've been working like that for forty years.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Well, like us.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You're you're a BBB accredited business and that makes a
difference too.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. We we have a great impeccable record
with the BBB. We like to keep it that way,
and we take care of our we take care of
our customers.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Let's run through the boring stuff real quick so people understand,
and then we'll talk about some design and stuff.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
So some of the.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Things that you do differently and in your recipe, let's
just talk about real quick. You know it's the six
bag mix. What does that mean? Wire match? We kind
of get that compact. What preparation so important?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Right, You're only as good as as your prep work
and your bas nick. I mean, we get in there,
we remove a driveway. There's a reason why this driveway
is separated. All the asphalts cracked up. You got all
these little potholes, little duck ponds all over. You got
to deal with the base. So you take the you
take the driveway out, whether it be asphalt or concrete,
and then you look at the base. Your next thing
is look at the base and make sure that you
(17:06):
know that you were able to address that. We want
to know.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
I am laughing.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
I know you're trying to so that I don't get
you laughing. I remember, I remember when when you came
over to my house. You're talking about asphalt all cracked up,
and I said, yeah, it's time to replace, and you
said something like yeah, about ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah, oh I remember, I remember. Yeah. And finally you
did it, and now you got a nice you know,
you got a nice concrete driveway and it looks nice.
But getting back to the prep work on the base, Nick,
you had mentioned you're only as good as your your base.
You got to prep that base. You got to make
sure you got a good three quarter inch TV in there,
(17:43):
five six inches compacted. The whole thing is you want
to get that base half the strength of your concrete.
So you want to be so.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
If a guy comes in with a lower bid, where's
he going to shortcut you?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
You know, it could be anywhere, Nick, it could be
you know, they're just going to slap the forms and
pour it back on on the base they had. They
don't compact properly. You know, you pour three inches instead
of four or five. I mean there's a lot of
you don't use. Well, absolutely, uh, there's there's there's I mean,
you can get someone that you know. Now I'm not
(18:15):
talking about legitimate businesses, but i'm talking about you know,
side job type deals, and we've gone up to jobs
that were an inch and a half thick, two inches thick,
and they they failed, No, no, they failed. So again,
you want to make sure the contractor is putting a
good gravel base in there. It's compacted, and number number
(18:36):
one concern is it's a reputable contract, like you said,
a better BBB accredited business. They've got a good reputation.
And you've got to do your homework.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, I know that one of the things that you
do on your contract, which I think is important, and
then we'll get to the fun stuff. You basically just
check everything off that you're going to do. I mean,
there's no questions when you here. That's what I'm gonna say.
And let me explain myself before you strangle me your contract.
(19:05):
A fifth grader can understand there's not a lot of
technical jargon in there. You know exactly what you're gonna get.
You can watch the guy's port you're seeing what you
what you see is what you.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Get, right right, absolutely, yep, everything's right there, it's all
spelled out. It's all checked off. Everything you're getting. I
don't know. If I have one on me, i'd show you,
but you're gonna kind of you've already seen.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I've seen it, but I just, you know, I'm just
thinking that, but I do see he's going through his paperwork.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Another thing that you guys provide is a waiver of
lian Oh absolutely, well, that's that's not common anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, you know, well, yeah, people, people should really request
that because you don't know that the contractor is paying
for materials, and all of a sudden, the six months
down the road, you're getting a lean slapped on your
house because the contractor never paid.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Yeah, you paid him, but they didn't pay for the
material I didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Pay for materials, so they put a lien on your house.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And people say, how can that happen? Well, typically you
get thirty to sixty days to pay your supplier. Well,
if guy pours a couple driveways and doesn't pay a supplier,
supplier cuts them off. Now he can't make any money
to keep paying Robin Peter to pay Paul.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
And yeah, and it's not just concrete, it's any materials.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
It's our construction too, correct, So you got checkboxes here
six bag mix excavating hauling compacts sealed with a CS
three H nine curing compound.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That's basically nick. After you pour a driveway, we usually
seal it with the seiler, which is a CUS three
or nine. And what it does is that it locks
the moisture in the concrete. So with concrete, the slower
it cures, your final yields are stronger. Years ago, you know,
we used to see burlap sacks nice and wet on
concrete on bridges and stuff like that. Well now they
(20:40):
have chemicals for that, you know, the sealers for that.
And what it does is it locks the pores. It
closes the pores in the concrete, keeps that moisture in
the concrete, slows down the curing the drying process.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Does it help with staining in that too a little bit?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I mean, if you got a you know, if you
got a truck that that leaks like crazing, you'r alse
parking in the same spot. You know eventually it's gonna
work its way through and you're gonna end up on
an oil stain.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
But you see, you have low shirt.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You want to give us a quickmit yeah, yeah, we
have six bag load shirt cement. We pour everything with
the low Shirt, which is your concrete's made up of
your Portland cement, your sand, and your gravel. Okay, that's
in the mix, and then they add water to it. It
comes out in the big trucks. You see him going
down the road. Well, the shirt's important because people think
it's just a stone in the concrete. But you can
(21:28):
go with small stone air and tramment concrete. Well, you know,
it has a high moisture content in the aggregate. We
want to make sure we have a dry aggregate, so
we poured the low Shirt, which is ninety nine point
nine percent shirt free, meaning moisture free. Because in the winter,
when it's twenty degrees here, Nick, which I haven't seen
in a few years, you know, the concrete freezes and
(21:50):
that moisture will expand. So when you see concrete that's
you know, pitted or popped up on the surface, that's
what's happening. That moisture the stones that are closer to
the surface. After it's been finished, we'll expand and pop
the surface. No different than you're gonna listen to the
Burrors game. You pull out a Miller Light or something,
and you go into the you know it's not chilled enough,
(22:10):
so you put it in a freezer just for twenty minutes. Right,
you sit down in your favorite recliner and you fall asleep. Well,
mama wakes up and goes into defrigerator for something, and
there you go the freezer. The bottle imploded. Same with
the moisture outside when it's in the driveway.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
So people are, what kind of beer would it be.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
It'd be Miller Light for me.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, all right, just so we know, now, wire mesh,
that's kind of We get that gravel included if needed.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, he's building a base. There's there's absolutely there's every job.
You may need a load or two of three corner
inch TV, so yeah, it's all included in the base.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Once.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Once I quote you a price, Nick, that's the price.
If we need two loads, two truckloads, three truckloads. It's
not something like we're hitting you out up for extras
or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Okay, hand tool joints, I think people understand the control joints.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
So all concrete's gonna crack, you can we.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Control well, yeah, we we we hope that we can
minimize it. And we do so. But we put the
controllers in there to control the crack, and we want
to tell the concrete word to crack. You don't see them.
They're into control joints and that's that's that's they're important.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Expansion felt when you butt up to something else.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
When we butt up to something else, we got to
have expansion felt in there. That's a code. Okay, so
we have to follow code. You'll know that. In the
building trade, there's things you have to do and there's
things we have to do. Well, there you go, you
get down to that. You know, hiring a reputable contractor's
just going to follow the rules and put the permits
and all that.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, exactly, Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Pure footings that's something separate if if you're next to
the house or something you don't want.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, you pure footings for for decks and things like that.
We've done some of those for you. You've built nice
decks in the back of the house, and we've done
that for Kursioner.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
And then of course it lays out decorative and standard
concrete and then you have several different and several different
types of decorative concrete that you can use absolutely, I
mean color wise, how many colors you.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Got, Oh, we have over thirty forty colors. Yeah, you could,
you know, I lay a colored chart out for you.
We walk out and you can you know we got
just like when you're picking out paint or something.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
How many? How many different patterns?
Speaker 1 (24:18):
There's quite a few different I could even yeah, more
than I know.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
No, you're not relegated to one or two patterns.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
No, you can go at rough stone texture, you can
go to slate pattern, you can go running bond. Anything
that you can do with pavers, you can do it.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Stif I've talked to other guys at Stamp Concrete and
then I'll say, you know, how many do you have?
And they'll go three, And I'll go, how come we
only have three? And they go because you know how
expensive those stamps?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, Sono stamps are ten fifteen thousand dollars. We've got
a beautiful cobblestone stamp.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah. Like stone, Yeah, especially on borders on in that.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You do a great job with that. Tommy, give out
your info. We're running up against the clock here. Let
me just say this, if you want to see some
of this work, it's worth your time to go to
Lakecountryconcrete dot com. There's some beautiful before and after pictures
of paddy driveways, sidewalks, even some specialty stuff that that
Tommy's taking on and done. You can you can mix
standard concrete and UH stamped concrete if if if you know,
(25:11):
that keeps the price down a little bit, but it
beautifies the project absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah. And this time of year, Nick, you call, my
wife will send me out. I come out personally. I'll
see you within a day or two. And if it's
something you want to get done here in the spring
so you can enjoy it for June, July and winter,
you know, now's the time to get it done. We'd
be able to within the next couple of weeks get
you a you know, a full UH refurbished backyard with
(25:34):
a custom must stamp patio or standard patio or seat
walls or whatever you want. You can jump online and
take a look at Lake Countryconcrete dot com, or you
can call the office at two six two five three
eight one seven nine seven.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Or your cell phone if you want to get a
Tommy right away is two six two two o six.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
That's where I call it. Two six two two six
two four nine.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Absolutely, you can call me on that as well.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
All Right, hey tom thanks for coming in on a
Sunday morning spending some time with Guru. Remember that this
is going to be on the iHeart app for podcast.
If you don't have time to listen to it all,
it's worth listening to because Tommy goes through a lot
of the specifics that make the difference in good concrete
in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thank you, Nick, I appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
We'll return again next week on News Talk eleven thirty
WISN
When you need wisdom and advice. Seek out a guru.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
When you need wisdom and advice about remodeling and design.
Lock on and listen right now to Nick the Construction Guru.
Here is award winning remodeling expert Nick Kerzner.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
New Talk eleven thirty wisn Nick the Construction Guru. I
just want to make an announcement again this week. If
you don't get a chance to listen to the show
at nine on Sundays because of church or because you're
going out with the family, we are now on the
iHeart app. We have a podcast there and you can
listen to all the shows on there as well as
this one. You all know this guy. He's been on
(00:43):
the show many times. We talk about him. Actually, we've
talked about you in the last two shows. Just right, Greg,
we talked about Tom Eliota from Lake Country Concrete is
now back in our presence after a long hiatus in
Arizona and ready to go back to work. Tommy has
always welcome to the show. Love to have you here.
Let's talk.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Thanks Nick, I appreciate you having me back as a guest. Absolutely. Yeah.
Just got back from Arizona and we got the trucks
all loaded up and ready to go back to work.
Here just waiting for the weather to cooperate a little bit.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Yeah, it looks like we're gonna be okay though, huh.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We should be. Yeah, I mean we started today and
it's uh, you know, we're definitely excavating and getting things
set up, and then we just got to watch the weather.
Make sure you know the rain.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Hole that's always touching this time of year. How's your backlog?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
My backlog isn't bad. We're we're only a couple of
weeks out, so if somebody needs some you know, patio driveway, walkway.
But we're pretty efficient, so we we pull in there
with a pretty big crew and equipment and we can
get back back in and out within a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, yeah, you do, you do.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Let's let's talk about Lake Country concrete a little bit.
Tell us, because it's not just slabs. You do all
kinds of stuff. Let's talk about that and give out
some information in case people are thinking about getting an estimate.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Or or want to get something done right away.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Absolutely, we do seat walls nick as you well know,
seat walls or little walls with columns around the fire
pit area patios. It kind of gives you a little
slash privacy wall. We also do retaining walls, dry stack
or mortared walls, so we you know, we do standard
concrete decorative stamp concrete. So if you need a driveway
(02:23):
and then you might have a patio where you like
to do a little entertaining or something like that, and
you just want to spruce it up a little bit,
then we can give you a custom stamp decorative patio
in the back or a walkway going up to the
entrance to your home. So people like to dress up there,
you know, the front entrance for curb appeal and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So and I just want to mention this. If you're
many people sit around with their iPads and laptops while
we're talking, go to Lakecountryconcrete dot com and take a
look at some of the work that Tommy and the
crew does. Because I think that you probably, at least
in Wisconsin, you were one of the pioneers in a
stamp concrete.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We we've been doing it for years. It's over thirty
years now for sure. I mean, like I said, Nick,
we still I mean, by all means, we don't want
to turn down any work. We still do standard concrete.
So if someone is not looking for any you know,
higher end type concrete, we still do the standard driveway
asphalt replacements type of deal.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
You know, I am laughing, Tommy. It is because it's
not really fair. Again, if you go to Lake Countryconcrete
dot Com, look at some of these pictures. To be fair,
Tommy has put a couple standard concrete patios in there,
But when you look at him next to this stamp stuff,
you're just you know, it really does pale in comparison.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
It does. I mean it's a night and day difference.
But you know it adds huge curb appeal to your
house and value as well.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So you know, strategically you put a picture in here
of all standard concrete on one job. Then the other
picture you showed standard concrete with stamped concrete border, and
then you get to the gray stamped concrete, and then
you have the colored stamped this one in the middle
on the picture here. I'll hold it up to the
mics so people can see it. But I love, I
(04:06):
love the colors you put in here, you know, I
mean it really looks like real stone.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean sometimes people have veneer or stone on
their house, and they have you know, multiple colors like
gray's dark gray as some tan, some rust colors. We're
able to actually burn acid stain into the concrete squares
and kind of simulate the veneer on the home.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Which is nice. Absolutely. And then you have different coatings.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You have some high gloss, you have some matte finish,
and you have some flat. So I mean you can
really get whatever look you want from these guys. And
what I love about it is, you know, stamp concrete
is not as much as real stone, and you don't
have to reset it every couple of years.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Absolutely, yeah, years ago. We haven't done, Nick, over thirty
years actual, you know, lay paver brick stone or something
like that, not in Wisconsin, just because of the frost
and thaw cycles of the grounds constantly moving. And as
you well know, Nick, you see it in your line
of work too. You go, you go walk some of
your job sites and you look at an old paver
(05:03):
patio sometimes not even that old four or five years,
you see the weeds growing through it. So not only
do you maintain your lawn, but you have to maintain
your patio. Yeah, you know what the weeds and then
things just kind of moved through the frost and thaw.
And with the concrete you can give you the same
look that you're looking for. And it's five inches of
solid concrete reinforced with steel and fiber, and you.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Can't actually if it moves at all, it's moving as
one piece.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Absolutely. Yeah, you're not getting you know, you're not getting
that individual movement where you know, you have, like I said,
quite a bit of settling in one area and none
in the other.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And you know, on several jobs we partnered with you
to do different stamp concrete and stuff like that. And
I've watched the guys work. What I love about it
is you put enough guys on the job that it's
not a six month project.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Oh no, how many guys you typically put.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
On the job, seven to eight depending on you know,
we got usually a dump truck or two and some equipment,
and for sure we have seven to eight guys on
a job and then myself as well, that's helping out
on pores.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And you know, I'm thinking back to I'm sure some
of the listeners saw us on Contact six when the
guy out in Gray Scene County took a young couple
of homeowners for a ride and sold them a patio
in the back and then never showed up, just took
the down payment and ran.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
What was his name, what did they call him? Bam bam?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, bam bam. Yeah, I remember that. That was on
on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah. And and and you know, so you went out
and made her hole. That did the project for free
for her to make her hole, which was a huge
undertaking money wise for you. And the reason I bring
this up is you guys had that slab all straightened out,
all the forms were put up, and it was poored
(06:45):
the same day, smoothed out and ready to go. And
even she was freaking out because she was waiting six
eight months to get her patio went from the other guy,
and she because it was a day's work. I said,
that wasn't a day's work for them, It was a
day's work for a lake country because you do send
a lot of guys out there.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Well for sure, yeah, we we were in and out
and we were able to take care of her. It's
just it's one of those things, Nick, you and I
were talking and I seen it on the news, and
it's like, man, my wife just looked at me and said,
let's go get that taken care of. And that's what
we did to get together. We were out there, yeah,
and we made it happen and it was a good thing.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
It was and and you know, I think that went
a long way with with with a lot of the
Narry people too, thought that was a really nice thing
that you did and straightened it out. But the thing
was is that and I think Contact six did a
nice job because they filmed a lot of the work
going on and kind of showing you guys were like
ants on an ant hill man.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It was like, well, you can still pull that up.
They have it, you know, if you can google it
and you can pull up the actual installation that we
were out there on an interview and all that.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, yeah, that really worked out well. So another thing
that I know about Lake countries, you guys do all
your own excavation. I know a lot of times that's
farmed out to other people, which and here's why I
bring it up. Doesn't mean you're going to get a
bad job. But if you have a driveway, especially out
where we are in Lake Lake Country, a lot of
those driveways are long to get to the front door.
You know, the guys tear out the driveway and then
(08:08):
don't come back for you know, three or four weeks.
Now in spring, you got mom trying to bring in
the groceries or the kids and all of that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Correct, absolutely, So you're parking on the street for you know,
three four weeks and then trying to walk through a
mud hole.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I don't think a lot of people think about that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
No, we don't start multiple jobs, Nick. We start one
job and we finish one job and then move on
to the next. So when we pull up with a
dumb truck and equipment and our guys, we usually will
remove an asphalt driveway or a concrete driveway. We try
to get everything removed, get everything set up and excavated
in one day, and then pour the next day. That's
our goal. Obviously mother nature has something to do with that,
(08:46):
so we have to monitor the weather and on occasions
it sits for a couple of days just because it's raining.
Otherwise we're on it.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
So, Tommy, one of the things I want to talk
about that would make a lot of guys in this
business is a lot of times when you look at
stamped concrete, the surfaces are breaking off, the colors are fading.
I want to talk about that because I had a
situation at my house that you guys took care of.
The front stoop was cracked and there was a seat
(09:17):
wall on the front that sat on top of that.
So it was a major undertaking for me to break
that out and replace it. You came with a solution
for that, and I wanted to talk a little bit
about that because I think it really demonstrates the difference
in the materials that you used on stamp concrete at
my house.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, for sure. I remember. I think I maybe had
fifteen guys on your job. Nick. You had a big driveway, yeah,
and we ripped the whole driveway out, and then we
took a look at the We got that port for it,
and then you had that issue up front by your stoop.
Now we had a wall on top and there's a
foundation underneath it. So we didn't want to disturb that
because structurally it looked like it was hanging in there.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So what we did was we we overlaid it with
a with a product you got to pick out your color,
and then we two toned it. And it's incredible because.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
I had no expectations for that to work. Man, I'm
just telling you.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That the final yields on that Nick were actually stronger
than what we just poured new okay, because you use
pure pigmented Portland cement and you mix it up overlay it. No,
I won't try. I don't want you to laugh at
me on the air. Here. So we got you squared
away and there's pictures of all that stuff on the website,
Nick that people can look at. So it's it's it's
(10:34):
a less expensive way, but yet doing it right and
something that's gonna have longevity, you know what I mean,
where it's not gonna break up, it's not gonna chip.
I mean you could take a sledgehammer to this stuff.
That's how you know solid.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
It is another thing before we go on break, I
want you to tell me because I think this is
so important and I think the listeners are going to
understand this.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
How long have you had the same crew?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Oh, I've only lost one guy and eighteen nineteen years. Yeah,
I've had the same crew forever. This is going on
my fortieth year, Nick. Yeah, I'm old. I'm getting up there.
I feel it every morning. But this is my fortieth year,
you know, installing driveways, patios, walkways and that type of deal.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And you have several family members working with you, and
soon you're going to be a second generation business, right correct.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, my son will be taking things over. It'll be
a transition here in the next two to three years.
I'll probably stay on and work for him, just reverse roles. Yeah,
and he'll be carrying it on.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Then you'll have to listen to him.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, I do now sometimes you know, I mean he's
trying to push me out, Nick.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, well, you know, I do have to say. Younger guys,
these guys, they have the same work ethic you do,
which freaks me out out. I mean, I work a lot,
but you guys are like, I mean, you're working four
or five months, but you're going almost twenty four to
seven during those four.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, it's seven months, Nick, It's from April, okay till
November fifth, and then we shut things up. And as
you well know, then, I I'm an official snowbird now,
so I leave for the winner because there's nothing for
me to do here as far as concrete. You know,
we don't do any plowing work or anything like that anymore.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
So looking at your trucks.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, for sure. So I lay you know, I just
lay low in Arizona, enjoy the winters out there and
the weather's nice, and then come back and like I say,
come back the first week in April. We load the
trucks up, so we're ready to go.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We can talk about a little of that after break,
because you're a completely different guy when you're in Arizona's
I know, we're going to take a short break time
and when we come back, we'll talk some more about
stamp concrete and seat walls and go from there. On
Newstalk eleven thirty WISN S Talk eleven thirty w ISN
returning from break, Nick the construction Guru, listen. If you're
(12:51):
thinking about a remodeling project, every show, I say you
should get a few estimates. Check us out on the
web at kurznerink dot com. You can see before and
afters of many of the projects we do. One of
the things that I always like to let people know
as well, is that there really is no job too
small for us. We do do repair work on on drywall,
we do all kinds of different things on the interior
of the house. We kind of feel like It gives
(13:11):
the homeowners an opportunity to take a look at our
work before they come in to a big project and
get a little bit of taste of how we service people.
Another thing I just want to mention before we get
started back with Tommy Eliota from Lake Country Concrete. The
Construction Girl now has a podcast on the iHeart app,
so you can certainly get down there and listen to
some of the shows that you might have missed and
get some of that information coming from the experts. Tommy,
(13:33):
thanks for coming in before we went on break. I
kind of wanted to give you an opportunity to give
out your information because you know, now's the time for concrete,
patio seat walls, all that kind of stuff. Can you
give out the information so if people are looking for
you there.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, absolutely, it's Late Country Concrete Specialists. But you can
go to Lakecountryconcrete dot com and you could also call
the office at two six two five, three eight, one
seven nine seven. Also, I have my cell phone that
people are more than welcome to call me on if
you want to bypass the office, we can get something
scheduled to come out and give you an estimate. That's
(14:07):
two six two two zero six twenty four ninety And you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Know, I want to say that you probably should call
the office because then you get to talk to Tom's
lovely wife, Linda, who is We've had the opportunity to
stay with them out in Arizona, and she's she's probably
the well she really makes up for Tommy.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
She's one of the best hostesses I've ever I've ever
stayed with.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So it's it's great in between you keeping me working
out there when I'm out.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
There, right, Oh for sure, Yeah, absolutely, We've always got
something to do.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So Tommy, let's talk about one of the things that
I don't think people realize, and honestly, I never thought
about until we started having you on the show several
years ago. When you look at different bids. One of
the things I noticed that's different about Lake Country is
you guys do a five inch poor rather than a
four Why is that important?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Well, the thinker of the concrete, you know, your final
PSI pouince per scranches is stronger. It's just stronger, Nick,
That's why you go into airports and it's two feet deep.
You know, Okay, planes constantly landing on them and taking off.
But so you know there's there's a little bit of
a difference between the four inch and five inch. Five
inches is going to give you a little bit more strength.
(15:16):
We make all our concrete, our patios, our driveways, and
our walkways all five inches thick. It just makes it easy,
you know, it'll minimize cracking, and then we reinforce it
with steel rods and fiber and it just keeps callbacks
down and happy customers and happy customers are good for business.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Now, another thing I know about you guys. Every now
and then something will happen, and like us, you take
service very seriously. So you've done and you've even done
some work for some of my friends and peers where
you've repaired things, recoded things, all of that kind of stuff.
So yeah, absolutely, service is a big part of your business,
even if it's somebody else, is right, it is.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, once you do the job, you're a customer for life.
It's just not the it's just not the time that
we're working on your job. Nick, If you ever have
a problem, you call back and it gets handled. I
mean that's just the way we that's just the way
we work. We've been working like that for forty years.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Well, like us.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You're you're a BBB accredited business and that makes a
difference too.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. We we have a great impeccable record
with the BBB. We like to keep it that way,
and we take care of our we take care of
our customers.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Let's run through the boring stuff real quick so people understand,
and then we'll talk about some design and stuff.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
So some of the.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Things that you do differently and in your recipe, let's
just talk about real quick. You know it's the six
bag mix. What does that mean? Wire match? We kind
of get that compact. What preparation so important?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Right, You're only as good as as your prep work
and your bas nick. I mean, we get in there,
we remove a driveway. There's a reason why this driveway
is separated. All the asphalts cracked up. You got all
these little potholes, little duck ponds all over. You got
to deal with the base. So you take the you
take the driveway out, whether it be asphalt or concrete,
and then you look at the base. Your next thing
is look at the base and make sure that you
(17:06):
know that you were able to address that. We want
to know.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
I am laughing.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
I know you're trying to so that I don't get
you laughing. I remember, I remember when when you came
over to my house. You're talking about asphalt all cracked up,
and I said, yeah, it's time to replace, and you
said something like yeah, about ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah, oh I remember, I remember. Yeah. And finally you
did it, and now you got a nice you know,
you got a nice concrete driveway and it looks nice.
But getting back to the prep work on the base, Nick,
you had mentioned you're only as good as your your base.
You got to prep that base. You got to make
sure you got a good three quarter inch TV in there,
(17:43):
five six inches compacted. The whole thing is you want
to get that base half the strength of your concrete.
So you want to be so.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
If a guy comes in with a lower bid, where's
he going to shortcut you?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
You know, it could be anywhere, Nick, it could be
you know, they're just going to slap the forms and
pour it back on on the base they had. They
don't compact properly. You know, you pour three inches instead
of four or five. I mean there's a lot of
you don't use. Well, absolutely, uh, there's there's there's I mean,
you can get someone that you know. Now I'm not
(18:15):
talking about legitimate businesses, but i'm talking about you know,
side job type deals, and we've gone up to jobs
that were an inch and a half thick, two inches thick,
and they they failed, No, no, they failed. So again,
you want to make sure the contractor is putting a
good gravel base in there. It's compacted, and number number
(18:36):
one concern is it's a reputable contract, like you said,
a better BBB accredited business. They've got a good reputation.
And you've got to do your homework.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, I know that one of the things that you
do on your contract, which I think is important, and
then we'll get to the fun stuff. You basically just
check everything off that you're going to do. I mean,
there's no questions when you here. That's what I'm gonna say.
And let me explain myself before you strangle me your contract.
(19:05):
A fifth grader can understand there's not a lot of
technical jargon in there. You know exactly what you're gonna get.
You can watch the guy's port you're seeing what you
what you see is what you.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Get, right right, absolutely, yep, everything's right there, it's all
spelled out. It's all checked off. Everything you're getting. I
don't know. If I have one on me, i'd show you,
but you're gonna kind of you've already seen.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I've seen it, but I just, you know, I'm just
thinking that, but I do see he's going through his paperwork.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Another thing that you guys provide is a waiver of
lian Oh absolutely, well, that's that's not common anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, you know, well, yeah, people, people should really request
that because you don't know that the contractor is paying
for materials, and all of a sudden, the six months
down the road, you're getting a lean slapped on your
house because the contractor never paid.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Yeah, you paid him, but they didn't pay for the
material I didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Pay for materials, so they put a lien on your house.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And people say, how can that happen? Well, typically you
get thirty to sixty days to pay your supplier. Well,
if guy pours a couple driveways and doesn't pay a supplier,
supplier cuts them off. Now he can't make any money
to keep paying Robin Peter to pay Paul.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
And yeah, and it's not just concrete, it's any materials.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
It's our construction too, correct, So you got checkboxes here
six bag mix excavating hauling compacts sealed with a CS
three H nine curing compound.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That's basically nick. After you pour a driveway, we usually
seal it with the seiler, which is a CUS three
or nine. And what it does is that it locks
the moisture in the concrete. So with concrete, the slower
it cures, your final yields are stronger. Years ago, you know,
we used to see burlap sacks nice and wet on
concrete on bridges and stuff like that. Well now they
(20:40):
have chemicals for that, you know, the sealers for that.
And what it does is it locks the pores. It
closes the pores in the concrete, keeps that moisture in
the concrete, slows down the curing the drying process.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Does it help with staining in that too a little bit?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I mean, if you got a you know, if you
got a truck that that leaks like crazing, you'r alse
parking in the same spot. You know eventually it's gonna
work its way through and you're gonna end up on
an oil stain.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
But you see, you have low shirt.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You want to give us a quickmit yeah, yeah, we
have six bag load shirt cement. We pour everything with
the low Shirt, which is your concrete's made up of
your Portland cement, your sand, and your gravel. Okay, that's
in the mix, and then they add water to it. It
comes out in the big trucks. You see him going
down the road. Well, the shirt's important because people think
it's just a stone in the concrete. But you can
(21:28):
go with small stone air and tramment concrete. Well, you know,
it has a high moisture content in the aggregate. We
want to make sure we have a dry aggregate, so
we poured the low Shirt, which is ninety nine point
nine percent shirt free, meaning moisture free. Because in the winter,
when it's twenty degrees here, Nick, which I haven't seen
in a few years, you know, the concrete freezes and
(21:50):
that moisture will expand. So when you see concrete that's
you know, pitted or popped up on the surface, that's
what's happening. That moisture the stones that are closer to
the surface. After it's been finished, we'll expand and pop
the surface. No different than you're gonna listen to the
Burrors game. You pull out a Miller Light or something,
and you go into the you know it's not chilled enough,
(22:10):
so you put it in a freezer just for twenty minutes. Right,
you sit down in your favorite recliner and you fall asleep. Well,
mama wakes up and goes into defrigerator for something, and
there you go the freezer. The bottle imploded. Same with
the moisture outside when it's in the driveway.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
So people are, what kind of beer would it be.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
It'd be Miller Light for me.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, all right, just so we know, now, wire mesh,
that's kind of We get that gravel included if needed.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, he's building a base. There's there's absolutely there's every job.
You may need a load or two of three corner
inch TV, so yeah, it's all included in the base.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Once.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Once I quote you a price, Nick, that's the price.
If we need two loads, two truckloads, three truckloads. It's
not something like we're hitting you out up for extras
or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Okay, hand tool joints, I think people understand the control joints.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
So all concrete's gonna crack, you can we.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Control well, yeah, we we we hope that we can
minimize it. And we do so. But we put the
controllers in there to control the crack, and we want
to tell the concrete word to crack. You don't see them.
They're into control joints and that's that's that's they're important.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Expansion felt when you butt up to something else.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
When we butt up to something else, we got to
have expansion felt in there. That's a code. Okay, so
we have to follow code. You'll know that. In the
building trade, there's things you have to do and there's
things we have to do. Well, there you go, you
get down to that. You know, hiring a reputable contractor's
just going to follow the rules and put the permits
and all that.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, exactly, Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Pure footings that's something separate if if you're next to
the house or something you don't want.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, you pure footings for for decks and things like that.
We've done some of those for you. You've built nice
decks in the back of the house, and we've done
that for Kursioner.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
And then of course it lays out decorative and standard
concrete and then you have several different and several different
types of decorative concrete that you can use absolutely, I
mean color wise, how many colors you.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Got, Oh, we have over thirty forty colors. Yeah, you could,
you know, I lay a colored chart out for you.
We walk out and you can you know we got
just like when you're picking out paint or something.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
How many? How many different patterns?
Speaker 1 (24:18):
There's quite a few different I could even yeah, more
than I know.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
No, you're not relegated to one or two patterns.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
No, you can go at rough stone texture, you can
go to slate pattern, you can go running bond. Anything
that you can do with pavers, you can do it.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Stif I've talked to other guys at Stamp Concrete and
then I'll say, you know, how many do you have?
And they'll go three, And I'll go, how come we
only have three? And they go because you know how
expensive those stamps?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, Sono stamps are ten fifteen thousand dollars. We've got
a beautiful cobblestone stamp.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah. Like stone, Yeah, especially on borders on in that.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You do a great job with that. Tommy, give out
your info. We're running up against the clock here. Let
me just say this, if you want to see some
of this work, it's worth your time to go to
Lakecountryconcrete dot com. There's some beautiful before and after pictures
of paddy driveways, sidewalks, even some specialty stuff that that
Tommy's taking on and done. You can you can mix
standard concrete and UH stamped concrete if if if you know,
(25:11):
that keeps the price down a little bit, but it
beautifies the project absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah. And this time of year, Nick, you call, my
wife will send me out. I come out personally. I'll
see you within a day or two. And if it's
something you want to get done here in the spring
so you can enjoy it for June, July and winter,
you know, now's the time to get it done. We'd
be able to within the next couple of weeks get
you a you know, a full UH refurbished backyard with
(25:34):
a custom must stamp patio or standard patio or seat
walls or whatever you want. You can jump online and
take a look at Lake Countryconcrete dot com, or you
can call the office at two six two five three
eight one seven nine seven.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Or your cell phone if you want to get a
Tommy right away is two six two two o six.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
That's where I call it. Two six two two six
two four nine.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Absolutely, you can call me on that as well.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
All Right, hey tom thanks for coming in on a
Sunday morning spending some time with Guru. Remember that this
is going to be on the iHeart app for podcast.
If you don't have time to listen to it all,
it's worth listening to because Tommy goes through a lot
of the specifics that make the difference in good concrete
in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thank you, Nick, I appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
We'll return again next week on News Talk eleven thirty
WISN
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