March 5, 2025 • 31 mins
Choosing between DIY projects and hiring professionals can feel overwhelming. This episode grapples with crucial considerations for homeowners looking to tackle improvement projects, unearthing valuable insights and practical advice. We explore how to assess personal skills and tools, the importance of safety, and when it makes sense to call in a professional. The discussion also emphasizes understanding potential costs and effort, creating balance within home improvements. Whether you're a seasoned DIY enthusiast or just starting to consider home repairs, this episode aims to provide clarity in your decision-making process. Dive in as we break it down and help you discover the right path for your home projects. Make sure to subscribe, share your thoughts, and leave us a review!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, General ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
I'm bored Football's over.
I don't know what to do anymore.
Donnie, yeah, I know thefeeling.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I mean we got a little bit of basketball left,
but you know, after that it'sjust baseball for several months
.
And I like baseball.
I just don't like to watch iton TV.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Same here, and I also don't like going to a baseball
game to have social time andtalk.
I actually get involved in thegames, even if it's not teams, I
like.
Even if it's college ball.
I like to watch the game, notjust chit chat.
Yep, agreed, and and maybedrink a beer right behind you on
that one?
Yep, all right.
This is Carolina contractorshow.
(00:38):
My name is Eric Smith.
I do inside sales for homebuilders and Wilson Greenville,
across from me, donnie Blanchard, general contractor.
Owner of Sure Top Roofing.
Owner of Blanchard BuildingCompany.
Also, he's the guy that put thehip in Hip and Ridge and our
show is again.
We sometimes start off withsports, but our show is actually
about building and constructionand house and boy.
(00:59):
Today the show's title isreally going to work into the
subject we're going to talkabout.
We'll get to that in a sec.
We have a website, which iskind of awesome.
Does everybody have a website?
Now?
Pretty much, yeah.
Yeah, it's not that big of adeal.
Marowint, used to be a big dealto have your own website.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I bought donnyblanchardcom, I just never
did anything with it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I didn't want anybody else to have yourself.
Our website isthecarolinacontractorcom and
there you can find links to ourpast shows that we have in
podcast form.
They're listed by subject title, so if there's something
specific you want to learn aboutyour house or about the show or
something we talked about, youcan do it that way, and we like
to talk again about all parts ofyour house the inside, the
outside, roofs and basements and, like today's subject, diy
projects.
I think one time we referred tothe show as the port center of
(01:49):
DIYers.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, that's about right man, and we just don't
have that kind of audience.
I wish we did.
If you go to the website.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
you'll also find our YouTube page where you can watch
the show and you can also findlinks to things we've talked
about.
If you have a question aboutyour house, or after today's
show you have a question, youcan click on the Ask the
Contractor button.
That goes straight to DonnieBlanchard, again a general
contractor.
So if he can't answer it, heknows people who can.
And then again, if you justhang out at that site, you can
(02:16):
find stuff.
But the YouTube site is a lotmore interactive.
So we recommend checking outthe Carolina Contractor on the
YouTube site.
Now I said, donnie, today showis really going to be talking
about something that the show'swhole premise is almost about,
and that is DIY.
But the curve ball is DIY, or PR O.
(02:36):
In other words, if you have aproject coming out you're
thinking about doing, when doyou know you should have a a do
it yourself thing or maybe calla pro?
We've all come across thosemoments.
I'm sure you have too, eventhough you're a general
contractor.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, and I'm not too proud to say certain
things might whip me around thehouse, but there are a lot of
things that are totally DIY andif you don't at least attempt to
tackle it, that's just plainold lazy.
Because YouTube is basically atutorial for every subject you
can think of and most people arepretty smart and if you've been
a homeowner for a while,especially you guys, probably
pretty handy around the house.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
It's funny because back when we were growing up,
there was nothing like YouTubeor just grabbing your smartphone
, scanning something, and itinstantly comes back and tells
you what it is.
So, to be quite honest, if youhave a project at your house,
you have no excuse to not atleast have working knowledge of
what it is, just based onYouTube, diy videos, scanning
(03:33):
things.
Man, we had to learn the hardway and read books Some of you
books are those well nevermind.
So it really is a lot easierand you will save yourself a lot
of money, because there aretimes you will need to call a
pro.
Pros are expensive and servicecalls are expensive.
So if you can fix a smallproblem at your house, go ahead
(03:56):
and do it.
Some of these aren't problemsor maintenance related.
They're just upgrades orsomething you want to do.
But before we start in andDonnie's got a lot of experience
on some of these projects Ithink the first thing you have
to do before you tackle a DIYproject say, you're going to fix
a leaky faucet or you want todo some painting is one do you
have the tools that are neededto take care of it?
(04:18):
Do you have the skill level?
Are you handy with basic toolsA saw.
Do you know how to correctlyread a tape measure?
A lot of people don't know that.
Another thing risk you got tothink about the safety.
If you're not comfortableworking with electricity, don't
work with electricity.
If you're not comfortableholding up an LVL, maybe you
should have a pro.
(04:39):
Put that extension in.
And also the amount of time,the hours you're going to spend
doing it.
Your time is worth money.
You might not be getting paidfor it, but your time is still
worth something.
So is that a worthwhileendeavor?
And finally, the whole point ofa DIY is to save money versus
hiring a professional to come in.
So if you can do it foryourself, some people I'm this
(05:01):
way.
I like doing a DIY because whenit's done I kind of sit back
and I do two things I go, I didit and then I nitpick my own
work.
But do you take a littlesatisfaction when you do a?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
DIY project.
Oh yeah, and I just want to sayto all my handy homeowners out
there I think one thing that youshould consider is if you nice,
if you see a project that youcan do in another room or say
it's outside, it's not going toimpact the house or the flow of
traffic through the house, thenit's probably okay to take it on
.
I get called into situationsall the time where the husband
(05:31):
or the wife's taking on aproject and basically they have
the whole house in shambles andthey're just in a pickle.
They got in over their headsand they finally called a pro in
and of course we usually go in,tidy that up up and we got them
back to their normal life inabout a week or so.
But that would be mydelineation on whether or not
you take it on.
Are you going to mess upeverything?
Are you going to end up introuble with your wife and and
you know is your house justgoing to be a mess for the whole
(05:54):
duration of the project?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Also, if you have a buddy who redid the tile in his
floor or remodeled hisdownstairs bathroom and made it
look easy, pick his brain andask him first have you done this
before?
How did you do it so easily?
Your buddies and neighbors canmake a project look easy, but
they might just have maybe nottraining, but just a natural
ability to do stuff that youmight not have the ability to do
(06:18):
.
I'm not going to take out mykitchen and do anything because,
like you said, workflow, familyflow.
You start working on thekitchen, everything stops and
now you're stepping over boardsand tile and you're doing demo
and it can get nasty real quick.
So that's a DIY project I can'tdo.
But I know some people who havedemoed their kitchen and redone
(06:39):
it and I'm amazed at how wellit came out.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, the things I was talking about or referring
to earlier more, more or lessjust one-off projects.
So we'll get into severalexamples in the show.
But if it's an addition or aremodel, we preach all the time
that a contractor has a lot ofvalue.
Because if you're going to buy,if you have multiple trades
involved say there's seven,eight people that have to come
in there and you have to findall those people.
Number one.
(07:07):
That's a lot of work but thosepeople aren't going to give you
a contractor price.
They know it's a one-time deal,they're going to be in and out
and you're never going to callthem again.
So a contractor is going to geta 20, 30% better price.
And if that contractor chargesyou 20 or 30% to do your remodel
, you're basically letting himdo all the legwork with people
he has a really goodrelationship with.
They've all been vetted,they're all insured.
So you're cutting a lot of redtape and risk out if you go that
route.
And I'm not encouraging hiringa contractor for everything.
(07:28):
We encourage the DIY part, butI'd say things that have more
than five, six, seven tradesprobably qualify for a
contractor.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, straight up Plus the amount of money you're
going to spend.
You'll need permits pulled.
You don't want to get involvedin the paperwork also that can
come involved with a big project.
So let's stick to smaller stuff.
I like the idea of painting aroom.
I have this fantasy that I wakeup on a Saturday morning at six
, have a cup of coffee and I'mjust going to paint one room,
(07:56):
and the night before I may haveeven moved the furniture to the
center, put down drop cloths,maybe even taped some, but I
never pull the trigger becauseI've never had good luck with
doing it.
Now there's some stuff you cando for painting.
That's DIY.
One room a day.
Don't try to do you know fouror five rooms.
Um debux for paint, maybe abrush or a roller.
(08:18):
Uh, change a room instantly andbe happy with it.
There's time when it comes to apro which would drywall repair
before you paint.
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I'm no good at it.
It's not rocket science, but ittakes a lot of patience and, um
, you know, that's one of thosethings where you don't really
need a lot of prep work for thedrywall portion of that project,
so you can go a couple of daysin advance, you want to let it
dry, you want to take the timeto sand and if you really
feeling frisky and you want totake that paint on.
Just remember, the painter'stape is your friend.
And, side note there, the bluepainter's tape works fine.
(08:47):
If you have any kind ofcabinets or anything with a wood
finish, they recommend thegreen frog tape for that because
it's a lot better than the blue.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, it won't pull off that finish or cause damage
to it.
The other advantage of a pro,though, is you could get up
early on Saturday and do prepwork and paint your room and get
a high off the fumes, get abuzz, or for a few hundred bucks
, three, four, maybe 500 bucksyou could have a pro come in and
they're going to knock it out.
So quick Talk about time andmoney you can have a brand new
(09:17):
looking room with drywall dentsor stuff replaced and patched in
advance, and just have abeautiful room and basically, a
few hours.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I have a great painter I mean just very
conscientious dude, and when hecomes into a house, or if I send
him into a house, rather, he'sjust very, very cautious about
anything that can go wrong.
So his preparation isunparalleled and everybody just
loves that.
If you're doing it for yourself, maybe you're.
You know, take a shortcut here,take a shortcut there, and I
think what you said I'm inagreement with, because you know
(09:47):
painters gonna they're gonnacross their T's and dot their
I's and get get out of your hairfaster than you will.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And I do want to back up a little bit.
When I talk about a pro, I'mnot saying like you, donnie,
being in the business, and me alittle bit in the we know pros
who we're friends with.
But be careful hiring yourbuddy or somebody your spouse
(10:13):
recommended at work who does iton the side, because I like to
be able to not literally butfiguratively yell if they botch
the job or don't do somethingright.
And if it's your pastor fromchurch who did it and he didn't
do it well or didn't do it right, it's hard for you to go dude.
This is incorrect.
This is no way.
I'm not going to stand for it.
It puts you in a position.
That's the other reason I liketo call a pro for any project.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, full agreement there.
Yeah, definitely want todisconnect from that friendship
in case anything goes wrong.
All right, Water.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I don't like dealing with pressurized lines, but if
you notice you've got a leakunder your sink, something small
or a faucet head won't stopdripping odors from your sink
that's usually fixed withcleaning out the P-trap and that
sounds naughty.
It's not that hard to do.
You have a plastic bin.
You can drain the water andtake care of that.
But there are some times youdon't want to mess with water
lines or leaks and have you everhad a bad leak where you've had
(11:07):
to call pro Donnie?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And I live in an older home and we were building
our current house, and so it was.
It was a constant not aconstant nightmare, but
something we had to deal withall the time.
And it had copper pipes and, ofcourse, cast iron drains.
So if you had lived in an olderhome with the copper, course,
cast iron drains, so, uh, if youhad lived in an older home with
the copper, those connectionsare usually soldered, so you're
at the mercy of, uh, the thesoldering skill of that plumber
(11:29):
back 40, 50 years ago, and mostof them did a great job.
You know, they people seem tobe really good craftsmen from
that era.
But now you know, everything'schanged over to plastic and, um,
basically it's called PEX forthe supply lines and then PVC
for the drain lines.
And we did a show a while backwhere we talked about all those
older homes with the copper andthe cast iron.
They're huge conductors.
(11:49):
So if you get a lightningstrike on your house and it's
not grounded properly, thatelectricity is going to run
through the copper lines and,heaven forbid, you'd be in a
shower.
But, to answer your question,the only thing I've really ever
had a problem with is a housethat had copper, because if
you're on, what is it?
Well water?
That well water has minerals init that will corrode those
(12:09):
copper pipes from the inside out.
So you know it's an accidentwaiting to happen.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I've not had any major leaks, but what I found
out is one time an upperbathroom showerhead, behind the
actual wall, had a small leakand it was dripping down and it
just follows the path of leastresistance so it put a stain in
the kitchen ceiling.
The reason it was great to callthe pro was he found a second
(12:34):
one.
So if I'd gone up and said, oh,I found it, I can fix this,
tighten it down, cut out thedrywall patch, put new in, tape
it, mud it, paint it, within afew months it would have started
a second time.
So a pro can find stuff when itcomes to water leaks that you
might, as a DIYer, miss, andyou're right back to square one.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
You know I stand corrected.
I do remember I did have amajor leak in my existing house
now, but it was only because myex-wife turned the sink on to
fill it up and just walked awayand forgot about it.
You know, not really a productof bad workmanship, it was just
maybe some ADD going on there.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, Now how do you go about finding the right
plumber?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Oh, don't shop at the ABC store.
Oh, don't shop at the ABC store.
Oh, you said plumber, notpainter.
Sorry, say she rocker.
Exactly no, the plumbing supplyhouse is a great place to start
, because the plumbing supplyhouse is, you know, they're tied
into whoever buys from them andthey know who would be a good
fit for you.
If you just need some fixtureschanged out, then that's one
(13:31):
thing.
But if you need, you know, fullblown remodel and you need
things disconnected so you cangut a bathroom and then
reconnected new fixtures put in.
Probably somebody, a plumber,with a little bit of help.
Some plumbers roll solo, sothey're perfect for smaller jobs
.
Some plumbers have two or threehelpers and then if you just
cold call a plumbing company,you're probably going to get a
newbie who's been out of schoolfor a few years, and not to say
(13:52):
that there's anything wrong withthat, but it's hit or miss.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, and that's why it is always good to call a pro.
I I have a couple on call and Ihave an electrician that I like
, that I also do the plumbingand it's those HVAC.
Electric plumbing guys areusually really good to have
around.
Speaking of electrical, I'm not.
I respect electricity.
I'll make small electricrepairs.
I put in light switchesdefinitely a DIY project Ceiling
(14:18):
fans I probably put in five orsix over my lifetime.
Those are pretty easy to do.
Some loose wiring that you cankind of understand what's
causing it and it's just goingto be something you need to
tighten up.
That's pretty easy.
But if you're not comfortablearound electricity, quickly make
the decision to call a pro,because electricity don't play
(14:38):
around and if you don't knowwhat you're doing, you might not
hurt yourself, but you couldshort something out and cause an
expensive problem where, likewe talked with water, you end up
having to call a pro to come inand fix what you did wrong.
Oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And something to remember with electricity is if
you're changing out a lightfixture overhead or a ceiling
fan, you know it's always deadat the switch.
So, um, if you turn that switchoff, there's no electricity
going to that fixture.
But, even safer, if you'rechanging out, you know that
switch or outlets in a room,then finding the breaker is a
really big deal.
So if your breaker box isn'tlabeled correctly, you know that
(15:13):
could be a shocker and uh, it's.
Uh, it's one of those dealswhere, uh, most people, most
fans, they take a lot of time,but that's definitely a DIY
project.
Um, the overhead lights, nothingto it, you just take some
moment to figure it out.
Uh, I'd say one of the trickyones is recess cans in like a
bathroom area, cause they havean extra lens over there and
people try to unscrew those andeverything.
(15:34):
But it's usually just a quarterturn and it drops out of a uh,
of a groove.
So it's one of those dealswhere it's a little bit of an
extra step, but definitely notsomething you need to call in a
pro for.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Remember the old joke ?
Uh, my friends were shockedwhen they found out what a bad
electrician I was.
Yeah, there you go.
You've used that before.
All right, I've enjoyed thewell, occasionally warm weather.
The it's North Carolina isbeing North Carolina right now.
It's snowing.
One day it's 72 days later,it's back down to 33 days later,
but we are getting an idea ofspring is coming and warm
(16:05):
weather's here.
So we like to move outside and,of course, move out to the deck
.
If you have one, decks are aunique beast because there is a
general maintenance you need for, say, a wood deck.
You need to clean them andstain them and keep them sealed.
But sometimes you come across aboard that's bad and you have
to make a replacement.
That's not too difficult either.
(16:25):
If you know the size of yourboard if it's a 5-6, or if it's
an old 2x4 or whatever it is youcan go to the lumber store and
replace it.
You might be able to match thestain.
Pressure wash is not hard.
Staining is actually not veryhard.
If you do a little research,you know if you got a saw and
some lumber and some deck nailsor deck screws, you can do a lot
(16:49):
of repairs and get your deck upto shape.
If your deck bounces or you'renoticing a post doesn't look
correct.
If you've got a joist issue, ifyou don't know what a joist is,
definitely call a pro, becausethere's rules and regulations on
railings based on height.
People put oh my God, peopleput hot tubs on decks that are
(17:10):
not reinforced to hold hot tubs.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Water's what?
8.6 pounds per gallon, and Idon't know how many gallons of
water in a regular hot tub, butthat's a lot of weight dude.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Three, four people.
Let's just say they're 200pounds average.
Yeah, all that water plus thehot tub itself, and you got two
foot spans on the joist.
I mean that's crazy.
People have gotten hurt andthey just don't realize how much
weight.
You can't just set somethingheavy on a deck.
So if you notice problems thatare maybe out of your range,
call a pro, and it's notterribly expensive to rip off
(17:42):
the top of a deck and have itredone correctly.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
In the hot tub scenario, I recommend at least
having it reinforced and youprobably have to add something
that's going to go all the waydown to the ground and have to
sit on concrete.
But in that scenario it'sdefinitely worth checking that
out and hopefully you don't do aDIY hot tub and you have
somebody else involved with that.
But yeah, bouncy deck doesn'tmean anything's wrong with the
(18:04):
deck.
It probably means something'sbad with the construction.
Donnie, do you have a compositedecking?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yes, I do.
Okay, I changed everything outto that and I know you're a big
fan.
I still have lumber.
The other thing about some ofthe composite decking is, I
think, depending on themanufacturer, your joy space has
to be closer too.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
It depends, but composite decking is not as
rigid as a treated lumber deckboard.
So that is the explanationbehind the tighter spacing.
I didn't really have a choicewith ours, but we did something
where we kind of ran them on adiagonal and that made up for
the increased spacing betweenthe deck joists.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Well, it is a DIY project.
It can be.
It's not like an afternoon.
You can get it done.
What I do know on some of thecomposite decking is the joist
space has to be definitely undertwo feet.
Sometimes it's got to bedefinitely under two feet.
Sometimes it's got to be 16inches.
It depends on the manufacturer.
But mine is two feet joistspaces, which is fine for two by
(19:03):
fours and whatnot.
But a lot of people will takeoff the top of their deck and
say I'm going to put oncomposite and they'll put on the
lower end treks or somethingand it will really bounce and
you've got to take that inconsideration before you think
this spring I'm going to get acomposite deck.
You might have to put in doublethe joists just to make it sit
in place correctly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
And then the increased cost of the composite
deck itself.
And a lot of people don't takeinto account how hot that's
going to get and you can't walkon it barefooted.
That's a big complaint that Ihear about and I don't walk on
it barefooted.
That's a big complaint that Ihear about and I don't really go
around barefooted.
So I enjoy mine because itlooks great and is very durable.
And another misconception ispeople don't realize that
composite decking actually hasreal wood in it.
It's basically a mixture ofwood and plastic both, so it
(19:45):
still has a lot of natural woodproperties there.
And big thing I see with deckswhen I talked about the bad
construction a second ago is thedecks that have problems.
It usually comes down to theband flashing.
So the band is the member thatall the joists are tied into
that is bolted to the floor areaof your house.
I'm trying to simplify thishere, but the band is bolted
(20:07):
right against the house.
It's the very first piece ofwood that touches the actual
house itself.
And where people make a mistakeis they don't have that I'm
going to try to give a goodverbal description an S shaped
flashing, so it goes behind thesiding, If you have siding or or
brick.
It needs to be cut into thebrick, but that's a long
explanation.
Behind the siding, out over thedeck band, which is an inch and
a half thick, and then down Idon't know an inch and a half,
(20:29):
two inches, and what that doesis that keeps water from you,
get a hard rainstorm and you'reinside, you're not seeing what's
happening outside, so that rain, month after month, year after
year, gets down behind that deckband.
And if that deck band is thefirst member that's attached to
your actual house, if it failsthe whole deck fails.
And the second thing that wesee and a lot of inspectors call
this out is people don't putlag bolts through the band.
(20:53):
So definitely a lag bolt or alag screw should go all the way
through the band and you shouldhave a nut and a washer on the
inside of the crawl space.
So those two are really bigdeals.
And you mentioned joist spacingtwo foot.
I'm not a fan of.
But if you do a two foot joistspacing on your deck, then you
need a bigger member.
You can't pull off a two by sixin that scenario, but a lot of
(21:14):
people try it and you definitelyneed at least a two by eight,
two by 10.
So bigger spacing requiresbigger joist members.
And that's what she said Notgoing to go there, Eric.
What else?
Oh, I wanted to mention thetreated wood talk.
A lot of people think treatedwood's poisonous, you can't
touch it, and some of that'strue and some of it isn't,
(21:35):
because they treat it adifferent way than they did, you
know, 20, 30 years ago.
But they have ground and youprobably know more about this
than me with the buildingsupplies.
But they have three ratings,and one is ground contact, one
is above ground and the other isjust deck lumber.
And out of those three, youknow, I want to say they're
treated with some type of arsonArsenic, Carbon, copper, arsenic
yeah, arsenic, it's a funkyname but it's a form of arson
(21:59):
that you definitely don't needto come in contact with your
bare skin.
And the only one of those threethat you can is the deck lumber
, because it's mildly treated.
So just to throw that out there, it's not anywhere near what it
used to be and it is safe.
But if you're paranoid about it, just throw on a pair of gloves
.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Or again the point of the show DIY or pro.
You might want to call a proand let them take care of it.
If you are also putting up apost on top of your deck, or
maybe you have a porch out front, uh, put in a post base or a
spacer, because that helps a lotof water go around the base of
the post and not rot out thebottom, cause that's usually
where post and and uh similaritems rot out, because they're
literally ground contact or woodto wood contact.
(22:43):
Yep, agreed, good call, eric,let's move back inside.
Um, you look inside yourbathroom and you notice you got
a cracked tile.
This is where the people thatare good at this drive me nuts
because they go oh, we'll justtear up the whole floor and
replace it.
We can do it on a long weekendand I'm like no, how do you know
if you can replace a tileDepending on how it's in?
If it was put in as individualtiles, you might be able to
(23:04):
literally wedge it out.
If you have the replacement,that might be tougher to match
it, but might be tougher tomatch it.
But in theory you can put itback in and seal it.
You know, chisel it out, addsome grout couple hours.
If you know what you're doingMultiple cracks or if you've got
floor damage, I would call apro.
The other reason I'd call a prois because if it's tile around
(23:24):
water, you want to make surethere's not water underneath it.
And a pro that's one of thethings they're supposed to do is
say, hey, the tile, I can fixit, but it got some water back
beneath it, so we need to kickup five more and make sure we
have this put in and waterproof,correct.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yep, agreed, yeah, that's.
That's something that we seeall the time.
We're about to dive into amaster bathroom remodel where
that happened and you canliterally um bounce the floor
right outside of the shower damright there and uh, it's um.
It's a scary situation and I'mreally surprised, with the
weight of the backer board andthe tile, that they haven't gone
through the floor already,because I think one of the only
things holding up that showerfloor area is the drain that's
(24:01):
connected right in the middle,and I'm thinking the drain may
be strapped to a good floor,joist, and they're at the mercy
of that, so we're going to fixthem right up.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Good.
Nothing feels better thanspending the money to get
somebody to fix it correctly.
I got to put pictures up ofthis stuff, man.
Oh yes, please do, cause peoplethink that they're all alone,
it's only me, it's only my house.
No, everybody has theseproblems.
This is Carolina contractor show.
The question is DIY or PRO.
Should you do it yourself tofix a problem or call a pro AC?
(24:31):
We'll be using it more as theweather warms up and you notice
it's blowing warm.
There's a couple of things youcan do.
We are big proponents ofchanging your filters.
It's easy to find the size,find where they are, take care
of it yourself.
You could put it on, donnie.
You used to do the auto send,where Amazon would send them
automatically and you knew whenyou got them in the mail.
You could take care of it.
But you can just go to thelocal big box store and get
(24:53):
filters.
Change those out.
Check your thermostat.
My upstairs thermostatmalfunctioned and died.
I put it in originally but Ididn't feel like doing it again
because it's kind of a spaghettimess and I just didn't have the
patience for it.
My guy put it in for 90 bucks,including the thermostat.
I got a basic replacementprogrammable digital thermostat.
(25:14):
But I didn't want to mess withthose wires, cause if I did
something wrong my fear was I'dsomehow shoot a current backup,
my AC motor and blow it out andI'd be out, you know, two, three
grand to fix it.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, now that's a good call.
That HVAC is one of thosethings where it takes a highly
skilled tech to do it and do itright the troubleshooting part
of it.
Even more importantly than that, I have a neighbor who is the
guru.
He knows more.
He forgot more about heatingand air than I'll ever know, and
it's.
It's really that kind ofsituation and he's one of the
smartest people I know period.
So when he comes in there he'sgot to know a little bit about
(25:46):
heating and air, he's got toknow about electrical and with
all the advancements in the HVACworld now he's got to stay on
top of all that.
So it's one of those deals where, if he had his way, everybody
would just sell a straight up 14sear heat pump because they're
easy to work on, you don't haveto deal with the multi-stage, no
zoning boards and the systemsjust aren't all that complicated
.
But now you've got geothermal,you've got solar tying into this
(26:08):
that you've got to account for.
It's just so many other factorsnow that heating and air tech
has to take into consideration.
But we're big proponents of atleast an annual service and at
least that, if not a biannual,by saying, when it turns hot to
cold, cold to hot.
There's so many heating and aircompanies out there that they
normally will work a good dealjust to get you on a service
(26:29):
contract and somehow they makemoney.
But a lot of those deals aresuper cheap.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that.
I have a service contract.
He comes in the spring and thefall and when my thermostat went
bad I gave him a call.
He came and looked at it, cameback the next day, replaced it.
A lot of those contracts alsoinclude counts on parts,
discounts on the service call,putting you first on a service
call or moving you up the ladder.
(26:52):
He quoted me a new system fordownstairs.
I don't need it yet, but hequoted me.
He said, if you want to beproactive and he came back at
just under seven grand withdiscounts, that's a steal.
And develop those relationshipsof having a guy come in and
look at your system and treat it, because they can literally get
three, four, five years moreout of your system if you let
(27:14):
them check it every year.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I want to add one quick thing to that is saying
that if you build a house andit's fairly new say five to
seven years old and you have anykind of a problem with the HVAC
unit, it's probably still underwarranty.
With mine I was pretty freshinto my house and I don't know
how many years it was, but mycompressor, which is the really
big ticket item on your heatingand air, change out.
The compressor was going outand so we looked at it.
It was failing.
We went ahead and filed awarranty claim and I got a new
(27:41):
compressor.
Well, that compressor ended upmaking it a couple more years
and it was just glitchy when welooked at it.
But catching something underyour warranty could save you
anywhere from a thousand bucksto $5,000.
So definitely one of thosedeals.
If you have a newer system,then get it checked out.
Don't sleep on it, because itcould cost you a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Let's go to something you might know a thing or two
about, donnie.
That is going to be roofs.
You might see a shingle turnedup or a couple of shingles that
look like they've done thatshift to the side, or maybe it's
even a gutter issue.
It's not flowing as well.
There's DIY projects that youcan do with your roof.
You have to consider you'regoing to have to get up on a
roof to do it, but I think whenwe see a couple shingles loose
(28:19):
and we think, yeah, yank themout, lift up the one above it,
slide the new one under, tack itin, I'm done.
And the more I think about that, though, you're going to have
to buy a whole bundle ofshingles to do it, even if you
only need two.
There's other things toconsider that you might visually
improve the look of that coupleshingles that are bad, but I'm
sure with your experience,donnie, it ain't that simple.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
No, if you're going to do it yourself on a shingle,
change out the number one thingyou've got to consider is time
of year and time of day.
So if it's the hot part ofsummer, then you better do it
early in the morning, becausethose things are already stuck
together from being on there foryears and if it's a scenario
where you've got to pry thoseapart, you want it to be when
it's not 90 degrees.
(29:03):
You want to catch it at 60 or70 first thing in the morning.
Another pro tip is check yourcrawl space.
There's a chance that whoeverput your roof on left you a half
a bundle of shingles or anextra bundle, and most people
just throw those right insidethe crawl space door.
So you may have a perfect matchwithout having to go to the
store to do that.
And there's a lot.
To piggyback on what I said orecho rather what I said about
(29:25):
the HVAC system.
It's good to have roofmaintenance because you may have
a 30-year shingle, but pipeboots and things that the pipe
boots we use now last a lotlonger than they used to.
But if you have rubber pipeboots they're exposed to the sun
, uh, at least half the day and,and you know they're going to
dry, rot.
So the lifespan of a rubberpipe boots about five years.
So that flashings, uh, caulkand indirect sunlight sorry,
(29:47):
phone calls galore.
That's my dad.
Anyway.
Anything exposed to the sun,especially if you, your house,
faces the south, you're going toget a lot of exposure that's
going to deteriorate and wearaway all your, all your
important parts of the roof.
So it's one of those thingswhere it's well worth calling
somebody in just to check it out.
We don't charge anything for anevaluation and when we do go
(30:08):
out to make a small repair, wewe just have a minimum charge
for that.
But that minimum charge alsoincludes everything else on the
roof, because we kind of look atit like when we come out it's
our baby beyond that point.
And and if we we come out for apipe boot and we see that your
flashing is is bad and that youhave several nails backed out of
the ridge cap ridge vent area,then we we put all those nails
(30:28):
back, we we do it the right wayand we try to make your roof
hold out for the lifespan of theshingle.
So minimum charge just doesn'tinclude the bare minimum repair.
There's a lot to that.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
If you have a question about a DIY project or
how to contact SureTopRoofingcom, that's the first way.
Go to TheCarolinaContractorcomand let Donnie check your roof
and other things that he can dowhile he's out at your house.
I appreciate the endorsement.
My man, not a problem and weappreciate you for tuning in and
checking out the show.
Again, you can find us onYouTube and check all the other
(31:00):
social media sites.
Just search for the CarolinaContractor and we will see you
next week on the CarolinaContractor Show.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, General ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
I'm bored Football's over.
I don't know what to do anymore.
Donnie, yeah, I know thefeeling.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I mean we got a little bit of basketball left,
but you know, after that it'sjust baseball for several months
.
And I like baseball.
I just don't like to watch iton TV.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Same here, and I also don't like going to a baseball
game to have social time andtalk.
I actually get involved in thegames, even if it's not teams, I
like.
Even if it's college ball.
I like to watch the game, notjust chit chat.
Yep, agreed, and and maybedrink a beer right behind you on
that one?
Yep, all right.
This is Carolina contractorshow.
(00:38):
My name is Eric Smith.
I do inside sales for homebuilders and Wilson Greenville,
across from me, donnie Blanchard, general contractor.
Owner of Sure Top Roofing.
Owner of Blanchard BuildingCompany.
Also, he's the guy that put thehip in Hip and Ridge and our
show is again.
We sometimes start off withsports, but our show is actually
about building and constructionand house and boy.
(00:59):
Today the show's title isreally going to work into the
subject we're going to talkabout.
We'll get to that in a sec.
We have a website, which iskind of awesome.
Does everybody have a website?
Now?
Pretty much, yeah.
Yeah, it's not that big of adeal.
Marowint, used to be a big dealto have your own website.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I bought donnyblanchardcom, I just never
did anything with it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I didn't want anybody else to have yourself.
Our website isthecarolinacontractorcom and
there you can find links to ourpast shows that we have in
podcast form.
They're listed by subject title, so if there's something
specific you want to learn aboutyour house or about the show or
something we talked about, youcan do it that way, and we like
to talk again about all parts ofyour house the inside, the
outside, roofs and basements and, like today's subject, diy
projects.
I think one time we referred tothe show as the port center of
(01:49):
DIYers.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, that's about right man, and we just don't
have that kind of audience.
I wish we did.
If you go to the website.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
you'll also find our YouTube page where you can watch
the show and you can also findlinks to things we've talked
about.
If you have a question aboutyour house, or after today's
show you have a question, youcan click on the Ask the
Contractor button.
That goes straight to DonnieBlanchard, again a general
contractor.
So if he can't answer it, heknows people who can.
And then again, if you justhang out at that site, you can
(02:16):
find stuff.
But the YouTube site is a lotmore interactive.
So we recommend checking outthe Carolina Contractor on the
YouTube site.
Now I said, donnie, today showis really going to be talking
about something that the show'swhole premise is almost about,
and that is DIY.
But the curve ball is DIY, or PR O.
(02:36):
In other words, if you have aproject coming out you're
thinking about doing, when doyou know you should have a a do
it yourself thing or maybe calla pro?
We've all come across thosemoments.
I'm sure you have too, eventhough you're a general
contractor.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, and I'm not too proud to say certain
things might whip me around thehouse, but there are a lot of
things that are totally DIY andif you don't at least attempt to
tackle it, that's just plainold lazy.
Because YouTube is basically atutorial for every subject you
can think of and most people arepretty smart and if you've been
a homeowner for a while,especially you guys, probably
pretty handy around the house.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
It's funny because back when we were growing up,
there was nothing like YouTubeor just grabbing your smartphone
, scanning something, and itinstantly comes back and tells
you what it is.
So, to be quite honest, if youhave a project at your house,
you have no excuse to not atleast have working knowledge of
what it is, just based onYouTube, diy videos, scanning
(03:33):
things.
Man, we had to learn the hardway and read books Some of you
books are those well nevermind.
So it really is a lot easierand you will save yourself a lot
of money, because there aretimes you will need to call a
pro.
Pros are expensive and servicecalls are expensive.
So if you can fix a smallproblem at your house, go ahead
(03:56):
and do it.
Some of these aren't problemsor maintenance related.
They're just upgrades orsomething you want to do.
But before we start in andDonnie's got a lot of experience
on some of these projects Ithink the first thing you have
to do before you tackle a DIYproject say, you're going to fix
a leaky faucet or you want todo some painting is one do you
have the tools that are neededto take care of it?
(04:18):
Do you have the skill level?
Are you handy with basic toolsA saw.
Do you know how to correctlyread a tape measure?
A lot of people don't know that.
Another thing risk you got tothink about the safety.
If you're not comfortableworking with electricity, don't
work with electricity.
If you're not comfortableholding up an LVL, maybe you
should have a pro.
(04:39):
Put that extension in.
And also the amount of time,the hours you're going to spend
doing it.
Your time is worth money.
You might not be getting paidfor it, but your time is still
worth something.
So is that a worthwhileendeavor?
And finally, the whole point ofa DIY is to save money versus
hiring a professional to come in.
So if you can do it foryourself, some people I'm this
(05:01):
way.
I like doing a DIY because whenit's done I kind of sit back
and I do two things I go, I didit and then I nitpick my own
work.
But do you take a littlesatisfaction when you do a?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
DIY project.
Oh yeah, and I just want to sayto all my handy homeowners out
there I think one thing that youshould consider is if you nice,
if you see a project that youcan do in another room or say
it's outside, it's not going toimpact the house or the flow of
traffic through the house, thenit's probably okay to take it on
.
I get called into situationsall the time where the husband
(05:31):
or the wife's taking on aproject and basically they have
the whole house in shambles andthey're just in a pickle.
They got in over their headsand they finally called a pro in
and of course we usually go in,tidy that up up and we got them
back to their normal life inabout a week or so.
But that would be mydelineation on whether or not
you take it on.
Are you going to mess upeverything?
Are you going to end up introuble with your wife and and
you know is your house justgoing to be a mess for the whole
(05:54):
duration of the project?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Also, if you have a buddy who redid the tile in his
floor or remodeled hisdownstairs bathroom and made it
look easy, pick his brain andask him first have you done this
before?
How did you do it so easily?
Your buddies and neighbors canmake a project look easy, but
they might just have maybe nottraining, but just a natural
ability to do stuff that youmight not have the ability to do
(06:18):
.
I'm not going to take out mykitchen and do anything because,
like you said, workflow, familyflow.
You start working on thekitchen, everything stops and
now you're stepping over boardsand tile and you're doing demo
and it can get nasty real quick.
So that's a DIY project I can'tdo.
But I know some people who havedemoed their kitchen and redone
(06:39):
it and I'm amazed at how wellit came out.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, the things I was talking about or referring
to earlier more, more or lessjust one-off projects.
So we'll get into severalexamples in the show.
But if it's an addition or aremodel, we preach all the time
that a contractor has a lot ofvalue.
Because if you're going to buy,if you have multiple trades
involved say there's seven,eight people that have to come
in there and you have to findall those people.
Number one.
(07:07):
That's a lot of work but thosepeople aren't going to give you
a contractor price.
They know it's a one-time deal,they're going to be in and out
and you're never going to callthem again.
So a contractor is going to geta 20, 30% better price.
And if that contractor chargesyou 20 or 30% to do your remodel
, you're basically letting himdo all the legwork with people
he has a really goodrelationship with.
They've all been vetted,they're all insured.
So you're cutting a lot of redtape and risk out if you go that
route.
And I'm not encouraging hiringa contractor for everything.
(07:28):
We encourage the DIY part, butI'd say things that have more
than five, six, seven tradesprobably qualify for a
contractor.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, straight up Plus the amount of money you're
going to spend.
You'll need permits pulled.
You don't want to get involvedin the paperwork also that can
come involved with a big project.
So let's stick to smaller stuff.
I like the idea of painting aroom.
I have this fantasy that I wakeup on a Saturday morning at six
, have a cup of coffee and I'mjust going to paint one room,
(07:56):
and the night before I may haveeven moved the furniture to the
center, put down drop cloths,maybe even taped some, but I
never pull the trigger becauseI've never had good luck with
doing it.
Now there's some stuff you cando for painting.
That's DIY.
One room a day.
Don't try to do you know fouror five rooms.
Um debux for paint, maybe abrush or a roller.
(08:18):
Uh, change a room instantly andbe happy with it.
There's time when it comes to apro which would drywall repair
before you paint.
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I'm no good at it.
It's not rocket science, but ittakes a lot of patience and, um
, you know, that's one of thosethings where you don't really
need a lot of prep work for thedrywall portion of that project,
so you can go a couple of daysin advance, you want to let it
dry, you want to take the timeto sand and if you really
feeling frisky and you want totake that paint on.
Just remember, the painter'stape is your friend.
And, side note there, the bluepainter's tape works fine.
(08:47):
If you have any kind ofcabinets or anything with a wood
finish, they recommend thegreen frog tape for that because
it's a lot better than the blue.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, it won't pull off that finish or cause damage
to it.
The other advantage of a pro,though, is you could get up
early on Saturday and do prepwork and paint your room and get
a high off the fumes, get abuzz, or for a few hundred bucks
, three, four, maybe 500 bucksyou could have a pro come in and
they're going to knock it out.
So quick Talk about time andmoney you can have a brand new
(09:17):
looking room with drywall dentsor stuff replaced and patched in
advance, and just have abeautiful room and basically, a
few hours.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I have a great painter I mean just very
conscientious dude, and when hecomes into a house, or if I send
him into a house, rather, he'sjust very, very cautious about
anything that can go wrong.
So his preparation isunparalleled and everybody just
loves that.
If you're doing it for yourself, maybe you're.
You know, take a shortcut here,take a shortcut there, and I
think what you said I'm inagreement with, because you know
(09:47):
painters gonna they're gonnacross their T's and dot their
I's and get get out of your hairfaster than you will.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And I do want to back up a little bit.
When I talk about a pro, I'mnot saying like you, donnie,
being in the business, and me alittle bit in the we know pros
who we're friends with.
But be careful hiring yourbuddy or somebody your spouse
(10:13):
recommended at work who does iton the side, because I like to
be able to not literally butfiguratively yell if they botch
the job or don't do somethingright.
And if it's your pastor fromchurch who did it and he didn't
do it well or didn't do it right, it's hard for you to go dude.
This is incorrect.
This is no way.
I'm not going to stand for it.
It puts you in a position.
That's the other reason I liketo call a pro for any project.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, full agreement there.
Yeah, definitely want todisconnect from that friendship
in case anything goes wrong.
All right, Water.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I don't like dealing with pressurized lines, but if
you notice you've got a leakunder your sink, something small
or a faucet head won't stopdripping odors from your sink
that's usually fixed withcleaning out the P-trap and that
sounds naughty.
It's not that hard to do.
You have a plastic bin.
You can drain the water andtake care of that.
But there are some times youdon't want to mess with water
lines or leaks and have you everhad a bad leak where you've had
(11:07):
to call pro Donnie?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And I live in an older home and we were building
our current house, and so it was.
It was a constant not aconstant nightmare, but
something we had to deal withall the time.
And it had copper pipes and, ofcourse, cast iron drains.
So if you had lived in an olderhome with the copper, course,
cast iron drains, so, uh, if youhad lived in an older home with
the copper, those connectionsare usually soldered, so you're
at the mercy of, uh, the thesoldering skill of that plumber
(11:29):
back 40, 50 years ago, and mostof them did a great job.
You know, they people seem tobe really good craftsmen from
that era.
But now you know, everything'schanged over to plastic and, um,
basically it's called PEX forthe supply lines and then PVC
for the drain lines.
And we did a show a while backwhere we talked about all those
older homes with the copper andthe cast iron.
They're huge conductors.
(11:49):
So if you get a lightningstrike on your house and it's
not grounded properly, thatelectricity is going to run
through the copper lines and,heaven forbid, you'd be in a
shower.
But, to answer your question,the only thing I've really ever
had a problem with is a housethat had copper, because if
you're on, what is it?
Well water?
That well water has minerals init that will corrode those
(12:09):
copper pipes from the inside out.
So you know it's an accidentwaiting to happen.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I've not had any major leaks, but what I found
out is one time an upperbathroom showerhead, behind the
actual wall, had a small leakand it was dripping down and it
just follows the path of leastresistance so it put a stain in
the kitchen ceiling.
The reason it was great to callthe pro was he found a second
(12:34):
one.
So if I'd gone up and said, oh,I found it, I can fix this,
tighten it down, cut out thedrywall patch, put new in, tape
it, mud it, paint it, within afew months it would have started
a second time.
So a pro can find stuff when itcomes to water leaks that you
might, as a DIYer, miss, andyou're right back to square one.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
You know I stand corrected.
I do remember I did have amajor leak in my existing house
now, but it was only because myex-wife turned the sink on to
fill it up and just walked awayand forgot about it.
You know, not really a productof bad workmanship, it was just
maybe some ADD going on there.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, Now how do you go about finding the right
plumber?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Oh, don't shop at the ABC store.
Oh, don't shop at the ABC store.
Oh, you said plumber, notpainter.
Sorry, say she rocker.
Exactly no, the plumbing supplyhouse is a great place to start
, because the plumbing supplyhouse is, you know, they're tied
into whoever buys from them andthey know who would be a good
fit for you.
If you just need some fixtureschanged out, then that's one
(13:31):
thing.
But if you need, you know, fullblown remodel and you need
things disconnected so you cangut a bathroom and then
reconnected new fixtures put in.
Probably somebody, a plumber,with a little bit of help.
Some plumbers roll solo, sothey're perfect for smaller jobs
.
Some plumbers have two or threehelpers and then if you just
cold call a plumbing company,you're probably going to get a
newbie who's been out of schoolfor a few years, and not to say
(13:52):
that there's anything wrong withthat, but it's hit or miss.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, and that's why it is always good to call a pro.
I I have a couple on call and Ihave an electrician that I like
, that I also do the plumbingand it's those HVAC.
Electric plumbing guys areusually really good to have
around.
Speaking of electrical, I'm not.
I respect electricity.
I'll make small electricrepairs.
I put in light switchesdefinitely a DIY project Ceiling
(14:18):
fans I probably put in five orsix over my lifetime.
Those are pretty easy to do.
Some loose wiring that you cankind of understand what's
causing it and it's just goingto be something you need to
tighten up.
That's pretty easy.
But if you're not comfortablearound electricity, quickly make
the decision to call a pro,because electricity don't play
(14:38):
around and if you don't knowwhat you're doing, you might not
hurt yourself, but you couldshort something out and cause an
expensive problem where, likewe talked with water, you end up
having to call a pro to come inand fix what you did wrong.
Oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And something to remember with electricity is if
you're changing out a lightfixture overhead or a ceiling
fan, you know it's always deadat the switch.
So, um, if you turn that switchoff, there's no electricity
going to that fixture.
But, even safer, if you'rechanging out, you know that
switch or outlets in a room,then finding the breaker is a
really big deal.
So if your breaker box isn'tlabeled correctly, you know that
(15:13):
could be a shocker and uh, it's.
Uh, it's one of those dealswhere, uh, most people, most
fans, they take a lot of time,but that's definitely a DIY
project.
Um, the overhead lights, nothingto it, you just take some
moment to figure it out.
Uh, I'd say one of the trickyones is recess cans in like a
bathroom area, cause they havean extra lens over there and
people try to unscrew those andeverything.
(15:34):
But it's usually just a quarterturn and it drops out of a uh,
of a groove.
So it's one of those dealswhere it's a little bit of an
extra step, but definitely notsomething you need to call in a
pro for.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Remember the old joke ?
Uh, my friends were shockedwhen they found out what a bad
electrician I was.
Yeah, there you go.
You've used that before.
All right, I've enjoyed thewell, occasionally warm weather.
The it's North Carolina isbeing North Carolina right now.
It's snowing.
One day it's 72 days later,it's back down to 33 days later,
but we are getting an idea ofspring is coming and warm
(16:05):
weather's here.
So we like to move outside and,of course, move out to the deck
.
If you have one, decks are aunique beast because there is a
general maintenance you need for, say, a wood deck.
You need to clean them andstain them and keep them sealed.
But sometimes you come across aboard that's bad and you have
to make a replacement.
That's not too difficult either.
(16:25):
If you know the size of yourboard if it's a 5-6, or if it's
an old 2x4 or whatever it is youcan go to the lumber store and
replace it.
You might be able to match thestain.
Pressure wash is not hard.
Staining is actually not veryhard.
If you do a little research,you know if you got a saw and
some lumber and some deck nailsor deck screws, you can do a lot
(16:49):
of repairs and get your deck upto shape.
If your deck bounces or you'renoticing a post doesn't look
correct.
If you've got a joist issue, ifyou don't know what a joist is,
definitely call a pro, becausethere's rules and regulations on
railings based on height.
People put oh my God, peopleput hot tubs on decks that are
(17:10):
not reinforced to hold hot tubs.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Water's what?
8.6 pounds per gallon, and Idon't know how many gallons of
water in a regular hot tub, butthat's a lot of weight dude.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Three, four people.
Let's just say they're 200pounds average.
Yeah, all that water plus thehot tub itself, and you got two
foot spans on the joist.
I mean that's crazy.
People have gotten hurt andthey just don't realize how much
weight.
You can't just set somethingheavy on a deck.
So if you notice problems thatare maybe out of your range,
call a pro, and it's notterribly expensive to rip off
(17:42):
the top of a deck and have itredone correctly.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
In the hot tub scenario, I recommend at least
having it reinforced and youprobably have to add something
that's going to go all the waydown to the ground and have to
sit on concrete.
But in that scenario it'sdefinitely worth checking that
out and hopefully you don't do aDIY hot tub and you have
somebody else involved with that.
But yeah, bouncy deck doesn'tmean anything's wrong with the
(18:04):
deck.
It probably means something'sbad with the construction.
Donnie, do you have a compositedecking?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yes, I do.
Okay, I changed everything outto that and I know you're a big
fan.
I still have lumber.
The other thing about some ofthe composite decking is, I
think, depending on themanufacturer, your joy space has
to be closer too.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
It depends, but composite decking is not as
rigid as a treated lumber deckboard.
So that is the explanationbehind the tighter spacing.
I didn't really have a choicewith ours, but we did something
where we kind of ran them on adiagonal and that made up for
the increased spacing betweenthe deck joists.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Well, it is a DIY project.
It can be.
It's not like an afternoon.
You can get it done.
What I do know on some of thecomposite decking is the joist
space has to be definitely undertwo feet.
Sometimes it's got to bedefinitely under two feet.
Sometimes it's got to be 16inches.
It depends on the manufacturer.
But mine is two feet joistspaces, which is fine for two by
(19:03):
fours and whatnot.
But a lot of people will takeoff the top of their deck and
say I'm going to put oncomposite and they'll put on the
lower end treks or somethingand it will really bounce and
you've got to take that inconsideration before you think
this spring I'm going to get acomposite deck.
You might have to put in doublethe joists just to make it sit
in place correctly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
And then the increased cost of the composite
deck itself.
And a lot of people don't takeinto account how hot that's
going to get and you can't walkon it barefooted.
That's a big complaint that Ihear about and I don't walk on
it barefooted.
That's a big complaint that Ihear about and I don't really go
around barefooted.
So I enjoy mine because itlooks great and is very durable.
And another misconception ispeople don't realize that
composite decking actually hasreal wood in it.
It's basically a mixture ofwood and plastic both, so it
(19:45):
still has a lot of natural woodproperties there.
And big thing I see with deckswhen I talked about the bad
construction a second ago is thedecks that have problems.
It usually comes down to theband flashing.
So the band is the member thatall the joists are tied into
that is bolted to the floor areaof your house.
I'm trying to simplify thishere, but the band is bolted
(20:07):
right against the house.
It's the very first piece ofwood that touches the actual
house itself.
And where people make a mistakeis they don't have that I'm
going to try to give a goodverbal description an S shaped
flashing, so it goes behind thesiding, If you have siding or or
brick.
It needs to be cut into thebrick, but that's a long
explanation.
Behind the siding, out over thedeck band, which is an inch and
a half thick, and then down Idon't know an inch and a half,
(20:29):
two inches, and what that doesis that keeps water from you,
get a hard rainstorm and you'reinside, you're not seeing what's
happening outside, so that rain, month after month, year after
year, gets down behind that deckband.
And if that deck band is thefirst member that's attached to
your actual house, if it failsthe whole deck fails.
And the second thing that wesee and a lot of inspectors call
this out is people don't putlag bolts through the band.
(20:53):
So definitely a lag bolt or alag screw should go all the way
through the band and you shouldhave a nut and a washer on the
inside of the crawl space.
So those two are really bigdeals.
And you mentioned joist spacingtwo foot.
I'm not a fan of.
But if you do a two foot joistspacing on your deck, then you
need a bigger member.
You can't pull off a two by sixin that scenario, but a lot of
(21:14):
people try it and you definitelyneed at least a two by eight,
two by 10.
So bigger spacing requiresbigger joist members.
And that's what she said Notgoing to go there, Eric.
What else?
Oh, I wanted to mention thetreated wood talk.
A lot of people think treatedwood's poisonous, you can't
touch it, and some of that'strue and some of it isn't,
(21:35):
because they treat it adifferent way than they did, you
know, 20, 30 years ago.
But they have ground and youprobably know more about this
than me with the buildingsupplies.
But they have three ratings,and one is ground contact, one
is above ground and the other isjust deck lumber.
And out of those three, youknow, I want to say they're
treated with some type of arsonArsenic, Carbon, copper, arsenic
yeah, arsenic, it's a funkyname but it's a form of arson
(21:59):
that you definitely don't needto come in contact with your
bare skin.
And the only one of those threethat you can is the deck lumber
, because it's mildly treated.
So just to throw that out there, it's not anywhere near what it
used to be and it is safe.
But if you're paranoid about it, just throw on a pair of gloves
.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Or again the point of the show DIY or pro.
You might want to call a proand let them take care of it.
If you are also putting up apost on top of your deck, or
maybe you have a porch out front, uh, put in a post base or a
spacer, because that helps a lotof water go around the base of
the post and not rot out thebottom, cause that's usually
where post and and uh similaritems rot out, because they're
literally ground contact or woodto wood contact.
(22:43):
Yep, agreed, good call, eric,let's move back inside.
Um, you look inside yourbathroom and you notice you got
a cracked tile.
This is where the people thatare good at this drive me nuts
because they go oh, we'll justtear up the whole floor and
replace it.
We can do it on a long weekendand I'm like no, how do you know
if you can replace a tileDepending on how it's in?
If it was put in as individualtiles, you might be able to
(23:04):
literally wedge it out.
If you have the replacement,that might be tougher to match
it, but might be tougher tomatch it.
But in theory you can put itback in and seal it.
You know, chisel it out, addsome grout couple hours.
If you know what you're doingMultiple cracks or if you've got
floor damage, I would call apro.
The other reason I'd call a prois because if it's tile around
(23:24):
water, you want to make surethere's not water underneath it.
And a pro that's one of thethings they're supposed to do is
say, hey, the tile, I can fixit, but it got some water back
beneath it, so we need to kickup five more and make sure we
have this put in and waterproof,correct.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yep, agreed, yeah, that's.
That's something that we seeall the time.
We're about to dive into amaster bathroom remodel where
that happened and you canliterally um bounce the floor
right outside of the shower damright there and uh, it's um.
It's a scary situation and I'mreally surprised, with the
weight of the backer board andthe tile, that they haven't gone
through the floor already,because I think one of the only
things holding up that showerfloor area is the drain that's
(24:01):
connected right in the middle,and I'm thinking the drain may
be strapped to a good floor,joist, and they're at the mercy
of that, so we're going to fixthem right up.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Good.
Nothing feels better thanspending the money to get
somebody to fix it correctly.
I got to put pictures up ofthis stuff, man.
Oh yes, please do, cause peoplethink that they're all alone,
it's only me, it's only my house.
No, everybody has theseproblems.
This is Carolina contractor show.
The question is DIY or PRO.
Should you do it yourself tofix a problem or call a pro AC?
(24:31):
We'll be using it more as theweather warms up and you notice
it's blowing warm.
There's a couple of things youcan do.
We are big proponents ofchanging your filters.
It's easy to find the size,find where they are, take care
of it yourself.
You could put it on, donnie.
You used to do the auto send,where Amazon would send them
automatically and you knew whenyou got them in the mail.
You could take care of it.
But you can just go to thelocal big box store and get
(24:53):
filters.
Change those out.
Check your thermostat.
My upstairs thermostatmalfunctioned and died.
I put it in originally but Ididn't feel like doing it again
because it's kind of a spaghettimess and I just didn't have the
patience for it.
My guy put it in for 90 bucks,including the thermostat.
I got a basic replacementprogrammable digital thermostat.
(25:14):
But I didn't want to mess withthose wires, cause if I did
something wrong my fear was I'dsomehow shoot a current backup,
my AC motor and blow it out andI'd be out, you know, two, three
grand to fix it.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, now that's a good call.
That HVAC is one of thosethings where it takes a highly
skilled tech to do it and do itright the troubleshooting part
of it.
Even more importantly than that, I have a neighbor who is the
guru.
He knows more.
He forgot more about heatingand air than I'll ever know, and
it's.
It's really that kind ofsituation and he's one of the
smartest people I know period.
So when he comes in there he'sgot to know a little bit about
(25:46):
heating and air, he's got toknow about electrical and with
all the advancements in the HVACworld now he's got to stay on
top of all that.
So it's one of those deals where, if he had his way, everybody
would just sell a straight up 14sear heat pump because they're
easy to work on, you don't haveto deal with the multi-stage, no
zoning boards and the systemsjust aren't all that complicated
.
But now you've got geothermal,you've got solar tying into this
(26:08):
that you've got to account for.
It's just so many other factorsnow that heating and air tech
has to take into consideration.
But we're big proponents of atleast an annual service and at
least that, if not a biannual,by saying, when it turns hot to
cold, cold to hot.
There's so many heating and aircompanies out there that they
normally will work a good dealjust to get you on a service
(26:29):
contract and somehow they makemoney.
But a lot of those deals aresuper cheap.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that.
I have a service contract.
He comes in the spring and thefall and when my thermostat went
bad I gave him a call.
He came and looked at it, cameback the next day, replaced it.
A lot of those contracts alsoinclude counts on parts,
discounts on the service call,putting you first on a service
call or moving you up the ladder.
(26:52):
He quoted me a new system fordownstairs.
I don't need it yet, but hequoted me.
He said, if you want to beproactive and he came back at
just under seven grand withdiscounts, that's a steal.
And develop those relationshipsof having a guy come in and
look at your system and treat it, because they can literally get
three, four, five years moreout of your system if you let
(27:14):
them check it every year.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I want to add one quick thing to that is saying
that if you build a house andit's fairly new say five to
seven years old and you have anykind of a problem with the HVAC
unit, it's probably still underwarranty.
With mine I was pretty freshinto my house and I don't know
how many years it was, but mycompressor, which is the really
big ticket item on your heatingand air, change out.
The compressor was going outand so we looked at it.
It was failing.
We went ahead and filed awarranty claim and I got a new
(27:41):
compressor.
Well, that compressor ended upmaking it a couple more years
and it was just glitchy when welooked at it.
But catching something underyour warranty could save you
anywhere from a thousand bucksto $5,000.
So definitely one of thosedeals.
If you have a newer system,then get it checked out.
Don't sleep on it, because itcould cost you a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Let's go to something you might know a thing or two
about, donnie.
That is going to be roofs.
You might see a shingle turnedup or a couple of shingles that
look like they've done thatshift to the side, or maybe it's
even a gutter issue.
It's not flowing as well.
There's DIY projects that youcan do with your roof.
You have to consider you'regoing to have to get up on a
roof to do it, but I think whenwe see a couple shingles loose
(28:19):
and we think, yeah, yank themout, lift up the one above it,
slide the new one under, tack itin, I'm done.
And the more I think about that, though, you're going to have
to buy a whole bundle ofshingles to do it, even if you
only need two.
There's other things toconsider that you might visually
improve the look of that coupleshingles that are bad, but I'm
sure with your experience,donnie, it ain't that simple.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
No, if you're going to do it yourself on a shingle,
change out the number one thingyou've got to consider is time
of year and time of day.
So if it's the hot part ofsummer, then you better do it
early in the morning, becausethose things are already stuck
together from being on there foryears and if it's a scenario
where you've got to pry thoseapart, you want it to be when
it's not 90 degrees.
(29:03):
You want to catch it at 60 or70 first thing in the morning.
Another pro tip is check yourcrawl space.
There's a chance that whoeverput your roof on left you a half
a bundle of shingles or anextra bundle, and most people
just throw those right insidethe crawl space door.
So you may have a perfect matchwithout having to go to the
store to do that.
And there's a lot.
To piggyback on what I said orecho rather what I said about
(29:25):
the HVAC system.
It's good to have roofmaintenance because you may have
a 30-year shingle, but pipeboots and things that the pipe
boots we use now last a lotlonger than they used to.
But if you have rubber pipeboots they're exposed to the sun
, uh, at least half the day and,and you know they're going to
dry, rot.
So the lifespan of a rubberpipe boots about five years.
So that flashings, uh, caulkand indirect sunlight sorry,
(29:47):
phone calls galore.
That's my dad.
Anyway.
Anything exposed to the sun,especially if you, your house,
faces the south, you're going toget a lot of exposure that's
going to deteriorate and wearaway all your, all your
important parts of the roof.
So it's one of those thingswhere it's well worth calling
somebody in just to check it out.
We don't charge anything for anevaluation and when we do go
(30:08):
out to make a small repair, wewe just have a minimum charge
for that.
But that minimum charge alsoincludes everything else on the
roof, because we kind of look atit like when we come out it's
our baby beyond that point.
And and if we we come out for apipe boot and we see that your
flashing is is bad and that youhave several nails backed out of
the ridge cap ridge vent area,then we we put all those nails
(30:28):
back, we we do it the right wayand we try to make your roof
hold out for the lifespan of theshingle.
So minimum charge just doesn'tinclude the bare minimum repair.
There's a lot to that.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
If you have a question about a DIY project or
how to contact SureTopRoofingcom, that's the first way.
Go to TheCarolinaContractorcomand let Donnie check your roof
and other things that he can dowhile he's out at your house.
I appreciate the endorsement.
My man, not a problem and weappreciate you for tuning in and
checking out the show.
Again, you can find us onYouTube and check all the other
(31:00):
social media sites.
Just search for the CarolinaContractor and we will see you
next week on the CarolinaContractor Show.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
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