September 17, 2024 • 36 mins
Can the Kansas City Chiefs pull off a historic three-peat, or will the Eagles soar to victory with their star-studded roster? Join us as we dive into bold NFL season predictions, where I forecast a Chiefs vs. Detroit Super Bowl showdown with Kansas City coming out on top. Donnie, on the other hand, predicts a thrilling Chiefs-Eagles final, giving the edge to Philadelphia thanks to their new powerhouse, Saquon Barkley. We also chat about the Baltimore Ravens' boosted offense, featuring Derrick Henry, and our heightened excitement for the Carolina Panthers under the guidance of new head coach Dave Canales.
As autumn sets in, we shift gears to practical home maintenance tips that will keep your house in top shape for the colder months. We kick things off with a shout-out to our dedicated listener Joshua Webb, before discussing the benefits of airing out your home and turning off the HVAC to save on electricity. Learn how to take advantage of the mild fall weather to refresh your living space and prepare for the winter ahead. We'll also share insights on essential HVAC and roof maintenance, from regular diagnostics to selecting the right sealants for your home's needs.
In our final segment, we zero in on crucial autumn maintenance for roofs and gutters. Discover the importance of inspecting and cleaning gutters to prevent damage, and learn practical advice on using gutter clips and ensuring proper yard drainage. We'll also delve into deck maintenance, discussing the benefits of composite decks and offering tips for lawn care and mower upkeep. Plus, find out creative solutions for protecting outdoor faucets during the cold weather. This episode is packed with expert advice and lively discussion to keep your home and football season running smoothly!
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Transcript
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.
Oh, and you know what thatmusic means.
(00:22):
Holidays, christmas, no, themost wonderful time of year is
football season.
The NFL is back in action foranother season.
The 24-25 season is gettingunderway, and before we get
started with the CarolinaContractor Show, I'm just going
to go ahead and tell you, donnie, we need to make our picks of
who we think are going to winthe Super Bowl, because we ain't
no babies, this is big boyschool.
(00:43):
I want to know what your pickis to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I can go first if you would like me to, either way
you take it or I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All right, let's see what you got All right, I'll go.
I say it's going to be in theSuper Bowl Kansas City against
Detroit and I say Kansas Citywins the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
So what do they win it Two years in a row.
Maybe they're going for athree-peat.
So that's not likely in a lotof situations.
But you know, studying all thechanges that Kansas City made in
the offseason, they have one ofthe stronger teams that they've
had in recent years.
And Patrick Mahomes, you knowobviously the best quarterback
out there.
He has more weapons this yearthan I've ever seen him have.
(01:26):
So they're going to be scary.
I think they'll still take afew L's through the year, but I
think that's a good pick.
And the AFC?
I know that it'll either bethem and if anybody has a chance
to knock off the Chiefs, Iwould say it'd be the Baltimore
Ravens.
They added Derrick Henry fromTennessee and you know His
nickname is the King and that'sfor a reason.
He's a mountain of a man and hejust got traded to one of the
most run-heavy offenses in theNFL.
(01:47):
So someone who is going toprotect him a lot better, with a
better offensive line and justgive him more opportunity than
he had in Tennessee.
I think the Ravens are going tobe good.
I'd say, on the other side, nfcprediction would probably be
the Eagles and the 49ers.
There's some disarray with the49ers and some of their
contracts that are fringe.
And then, you know, with theEagles they added Saquon Barkley
(02:09):
from the New York Giants andhe's just a marquee running back
and he's got a fresh start inan offense that turned Miles
Sanders into a superstar acouple years ago in Philadelphia
.
So if I had to pick, I'll goChiefs-Eagles.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And so if I had to pick, I'll go Chiefs-Eagles, and
I will probably well just to bethe antagonist, I'll say Eagles
, since you said the Chiefs, andthat's all fine and dandy, but
Hertz is going to choke again,so that's not going to happen.
But you did make a goodstatement.
The Chiefs will lose a fewgames, everybody does.
I mean it was the Dolphins whoare the only undefeated team Now
(02:45):
technically.
Was the Dolphins who are theonly undefeated team Now
technically?
The Patriots had the longestwin streak, but that crossed
over two seasons.
But nobody's had an undefeatedseason except the Dolphins that
one year.
But losses during the seasonaren't a big deal.
People can't panic about that.
You mentioned Kansas City.
You mentioned Baltimore.
That was the Thursday game, thefirst game of the season.
That score doesn't matter.
(03:06):
I don't care about past scores,and who won there we're going
to see at the end of the seasonwhen it matters.
I do think Philly's a reallygood team though, and I know
they are favored to go deepagain.
It just seems they have alittle choke problem, and so
does I mean Dallas won't be init.
We know that They've alreadybeen mathematically eliminated
(03:27):
from playoff contention justbecause the regular season is
underway.
All right.
So I say Kansas City threepeats.
You're saying they'll make it,but Philly for the win.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, and either way it goes, man, I don't think I've
been this excited about afootball season in a long time.
There's been a lot of shakeupin the offseason and a lot of
major moves and of course I'm ahuge Carolina Panther fan and
they made it really hard to be afan last year.
But I'm excited about their newhead coach, dave Canales.
He's a quarterback whisperer.
You know, in Seattle he madeGeno Smith into an all-star and
(03:57):
then he goes and makes BakerMayfield, who we dropped in
Carolina, into a playoffcontender.
He actually won a playoff game.
So Dave Canales is thequarterback whisperer and I
think he's going to give BryceYoung a really good situation.
We added some studs on theoffensive line, so our run game
is going to be better and I'mnot going to say that we're
going to, you know, be inplayoff contention.
(04:18):
But compared to last year Ithink we're going to show a lot
of improvement.
And side note there I don'twant to talk too much about
football, but I can't helpmyself.
You know, you look at theopportunity last year.
David Tepper, you know he's therichest owner in the NFL.
He's got more money than JerryJones over in Dallas and it's
just like he keeps screwingthings up.
So he needs to let somebodyelse take the wheel and make
(04:39):
some of these decisions.
Because you know a couple ofthings from last year.
They just put Bryce Young.
He's an undersized quarterbackfrom Alabama, but they put him
in a position where he wasrunning for his life every
single game and I don't blamehim for that.
But the alternative to that isthe situation you've got going
on with the Chicago Bears.
They drafted Caleb Williams outof USC.
Well, caleb Williams all of asudden gets the next pick, who
(05:01):
is Roma Dunze, the best collegereceiver last year.
He gets Keenan Allen from theSan Diego Chargers and he
already had DJ Moore, who wetraded them for the first pick a
couple of years ago, who had agreat season.
So this guy comes into the NFLwith three stud receivers.
They get the running back fromPhiladelphia, deandre Swift he's
got a good run game KhalilHerbert's his backup.
(05:22):
So you know this guy issurrounded with options and
weapons.
And then you go down south toTexas and you got the Texans
with CJ Stroud who is arguably Ithink he's going to be top
three quarterback this year.
I agree we took Bryce Young inCarolina instead of CJ Stroud
last year and CJ Stroud, youknow, mvp caliber season last
(05:44):
year because he's just such astud and you know those two guys
grew up playing ball againsteach other and Bryce Young even
admitted and he made a jokeabout CJ Stroud being a better
basketball player and he was asharpshooter.
But CJ Stroud's got a lot ofsize and you know he's, he's a
man of faith.
I think that has a lot to dowith it.
But he already had two studreceivers in Nico Collins and
(06:05):
Tank Dale, and then they addedStephon Diggs out of Buffalo.
So his receiver room is goingto be exciting.
They have Joe Mixon, the studrunning back that came from the
Bengals.
So, similar to Chicago, theHouston Texans are going to be a
lot of fun to watch this yearand, man, I think it's going to
be a very exciting footballseason.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, and I didn't mean to put a key in you and
turn you on there, but I dounderstand.
One thing about you mentioned.
Tepperson is my problem is he'sa very hands-on GM.
He gets into arguments withfans, stupid stuff, sit back and
watch the team.
So even though I think they putin some good players, good
management, what Dan Morgan'sthere now former Carolina
(06:46):
Panther If the owner of the teamcomes in and starts fiddling or
saying I think you should dothis, or causes that, it's toxic
.
Let's just call it it's toxic,it's poisonous.
When they do it, dallas doesn'twin anymore and we know one of
the main reasons is because ofJerry Jones.
Don't be that.
Let the people you hired do thejob you hired them to do and
(07:09):
you'll guarantee have success.
If Teppers gets all in the mix,it'll be a repeat of last year,
I'm afraid.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, I need a reason to wear those Carolina Panther
shirts again, and last year washit or miss, mostly miss, mostly
miss.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, All right, this is the Carolina Contractor Show
and we always end up talkingsports and I'm sorry for the
next 17, 18, 20 weeks we'llprobably talk a lot of football
before a show, but that isn'twhat the Carolina Contractor
Show is about.
It's about your house, buildingand construction, sometimes
blowing things up and tearingthings down, demo renovations,
all sorts of stuff.
(07:43):
Whether you're a builder likeDonnie, who's a general
contractor, also owner ofSureTop Roofing, or, in my part
of the business which is sellingbuilding supplies to people
like Donnie, we like to talkabout your house and projects
you might have in mind or thingsyou can do.
Speaking of the business atHome Builders, a couple of weeks
(08:05):
ago, Donnie guy walks in and hesays, hey, do you have LVLs 11,
seven, eights?
And I said, yeah, how long?
And he says, like I need themat 20 feet.
And I said, yeah, we can getthose for you today.
And he says, are you Eric Smith?
And I no way.
And I said, yes, may I ask why?
And he goes.
I listened to the Carolinacontractor show every weekend
have been for over a year and Isaid, well then, I need your
(08:25):
card.
And so his name was Joshua.
He had his little girl with him.
I'm not going to give her namebecause he didn't give me
permission, but she had herstuffed animal, bun Bun, and I
think it's okay to give Bun Bunname, but his name's Joshua Webb
.
He owns Black Creek BuildingCompany and he's come in a
couple more times.
But it reminded me we take forgranted people we might run into
(08:46):
every day at job sites or atwork who listen to the show,
that don't say anything.
But there are people likeJoshua who just came and said
hey, man, I've listened to yourshow and he's a builder too, so
he gets it.
So I just want to point outthank you, joshua.
Thank you to everybody wholistens to the show, interacts
with us.
Yeah, if you see us somewhereat a site or at the store or
(09:09):
whatever, be sure to say hi, butit was very cool to have
coworkers sitting around and go.
Did they just really mentionyour show?
That's why they're coming inthe store and I was like I
didn't say anything.
He started it, right.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I second that we appreciate the support that
means everything, yeah, allright.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So let's jump into our subject for today.
Football season also meanswe're entering fall and we get
ideas of what we want to do, andme and Donnie are no different
than anybody listening to theshow of stuff.
You want to prep for fall and Idecided, kind of on my own, we
should talk about things you cando, but you don't have to do it
(09:48):
all in one weekend because it'soverwhelming.
So, donnie, you really kind oftook over and bullet pointed a
good list on fall prep.
So that's what our subject isgoing to be today Fall prep for
your house.
First, hit the websitethecarolinacontractorcom.
You can also find us on YouTube.
We put our shows up there.
You can download past shows inthe podcast form.
(10:10):
If you have a question like whatare the differences in LVLs
Maybe that's your question orwhat do you think about Jalen
Hurts?
You can email by clicking onthe Ask the Contractor button.
They go to Donnie.
So if it's a real questionabout building or codes or
something, he's going to answerit.
If it's something you just wanta smart ass remark for, those
automatically get filtered to me.
(10:32):
But you'll find all thatinformation at
thecarolinacontractorcom.
You ready for?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
the show.
I think we just dive right in.
Yes, sir, that was a heck of anintro, by the way.
Love it.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, I think we should do this maybe more often.
I can't take credit for thefirst point, donnie, and it's
something we recommend in thespring and we think spring clean
, why can't we have a fall clean?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So hit us with the first thing you should do this
time of year when the weather'snice this might be the best tip
I've given for any kind of fallhome maintenance, but air out
your stinking house.
You know we've had the doorsand windows closed all summer
long.
It's been a hot summer and youknow no secret that we just got
some relief recently with a weekactually in the seventies and,
it's funny, everybody's in agood mood on the job site Things
(11:17):
.
People just work a longer dayand you just get a lot more
production.
So there's a few rare weekswhere this happens and people
appreciate the change and themoderate weather.
So I think it's a perfect timeto open your doors, open your
windows.
If you're going to do that.
I think on average the statsare people only open their
windows twice a year and I don'teven do that, to be honest.
(11:39):
So I do think it's a goodstrategy.
You know, get some fresh airinto your house and if you, if
you basically been running theAC with the windows and doors
closed and you're going to havea cleaning day, you know, let
let the windows and doors juststay open for that cleaning day
and I think that the house willhave a more of a fresh, better
feel and definitely improve theindoor air quality.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
All right.
I have two things tying to that.
One this is the time of yearwhere I try to turn off the HVAC
and see how long I can keep itoff before we have to turn it on
for winter.
So when I don't need the ACanymore, I turn it to heat and
make sure one the heat's workingand it burns off that first
smell, and then I turn theentire HVAC system off and see
(12:23):
how far we can go without usingit and see what it does to your
electric bill.
Number two you mentioned windowsand how most people don't open
them, but a couple of times ayear.
It's amazing the number ofpeople that come into our store
to buy windows and I know yousee it too, and they was well.
I want double hung and I wantwindows that open this and open
that and I want screens and I'mlike thinking you'll probably
(12:47):
open your windows three times inan entire year.
Don't spend all your timeworrying about if they'll open
the top and bottom or havingscreens, cause you want to open
them all spring and the don'twant the bugs getting in.
Um, you're probably not goingto do that, and I don't like
screens on windows, to beginwith because I think they make
your windows look dingy.
Drive around a neighborhood andlook at houses that don't have
(13:11):
any screens and their windows,even if they haven't been
recently cleaned, will look 10times cleaner than a house that
has screens up, because themetal or the netting of a screen
just takes away the gloss andthe shine.
So if you really aren't goingto open your windows often,
don't sweat the details ofhaving them open 10 different
ways, but open them this time ofyear because there's also no
(13:33):
pollen to worry about.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, and that's a great point.
And the reason I don't open mywindows is is I have casement
windows.
So most people have double hung, where you have a top and
bottom sash and they, you know,both operate, slide up and down.
But my casement windows arebasically the rollout windows,
so the whole window itself opensup and there's a crank at the
bottom.
I'm sure most folks have seenthose.
But the thing with casementwindows is the screens go on the
(13:57):
inside, so it just.
I've never put my screens onthe inside because I hate the
way it looks sort of like whatyou said from the outside and,
um, you know, with no screens,that's just um asking for a more
of a mess If you do leave thoseopen all day.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
All right, I mentioned HVAC and turning it
off.
Please don't wait to see ifyour heat works until the
coldest day of the year.
Um, we've talked about gettingservice contracts.
I have one.
I don't know if you do, Donnie,it's an annual.
I play, pay a flat rate and myguy comes out and checks my
machines twice a year.
He'll even clean the outsideunits twice a year.
(14:32):
Um runs diagnostic testing,puts me first on emergency call
list.
I get a discount on materialsor parts.
I get a discount on materialsor parts.
I get a discount on labor.
I get a discount if I have toever get a system brand new
system and he can make thesystem last longer because he's
the only one taking care of it.
(14:52):
I highly recommend you get that, but have a service tech check
your system this time of year.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I agree with that.
The two things that really jumpout when you said HVAC are the
fact that if something's goingto go wrong and it can be
prevented, they're going to seewhen they do their diagnostics
what needs to be repaired orchanged ahead of time, because
when your system goes out it'susually at the worst moment, so
it's going to be freezing coldthat night and you're not going
to have heat for the remainderof the night.
But sort of like what you said,the next big thing is that it
(15:22):
extends the life of the system,and we always talk about roofing
and HVAC being the two mostexpensive things on your home
that are guaranteed to wear out.
So if you get an extra fiveyears out of your heating and
air system just by having itserviced semi-annually, then
that pays for itself times 10probably, the heating and air
system anywhere from $10,000 to$30,000 and the price is only
(15:43):
going to go up.
So that's a great point.
While we're talking about that,since I mentioned roofs, I want
to throw in there thatinspecting your attic and your
roof this time of year isabsolutely mandatory.
Sun exposure is whatdeteriorates just about
everything on the house, and sono secret that the roof gets the
most sun exposure and anywherethere's a roof penetration.
So you got a plumbing vent thatgoes through there.
(16:04):
Anything that services thoseareas are prone to leak and the
flashing or the pipe boots thatgo around all those roof
penetrations will wear out,especially the pipe boots they
used to use 20 years ago.
They were rubber, we use aneoprene version now.
So and a side note, a littlesecret I do with pipe boots for
the builder listeners out therewhen I install a roof, and of
(16:26):
course my guys do this, but Iinstall a pipe boot the absolute
regular way, and then I'll takea second pipe boot because
they're so cheap.
I say that they went up to $10,uh, just a couple of weeks ago
at the big box store, but, uh,still pretty cheap.
And so you cut the flat flangeoff of the pipe boot and slide
the boot itself over the pipeboot under and that, basically,
(16:49):
that seal never sees the lightof day.
So when sun is, what wears thatpipe boot out and pipe boots
are 70% of my leak calls I'd I'dsay that's probably the
cheapest insurance that you canget on the house.
And also, if you do have abuilder, uh, or if you are a
builder, uh, you're not supposedto face nail those pipe boots
because the caulk that goes ontop of those face nails, the
(17:09):
sun's going to wear that down injust a couple of years.
We use metal roofing screwsbecause they have a washer on
those.
So anytime you secure the flatflange of a pipe boot down, you
know metal roofing screws way togo and add the second pipe boot
over the seal, just for cheapinsurance.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Hey, Donnie, real quick, could you explain what
type of caulk people need to get?
Because you go to a store andyou're bombarded with dozens of
different choices.
What do people need to get?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
A big difference between caulk and silicone is
silicone is not temperaturesensitive.
And if I had to throw an easydelineation on what to use,
where caulk is basically usedinside the house or anywhere
that's not exposed to theweather and silicone is used
outside, so around windows youwant to use not exposed to the
weather and silicone is usedoutside, so around windows, you
want to use silicone.
On the roof, you want to usesilicone, and on the roof we use
a product called NP1, and it isreally strong, thick stuff and
(17:59):
it might be a dollar extra too,but it's well worth it.
So you know, caulk is paintable.
It may set up just a little bitfaster than silicone, but but
yeah, caulk interior siliconeexterior.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Second vote for NP1.
We sell a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
The contractors get that all the time.
It's a very popular choice, bythe way.
Hey, I'm going to throw onemore thing in there.
Np1, I know you guys probablycarry black, brown, maybe white
for TPO applications, but mostpaint stores carry NP1 as well,
and I didn't know that until Iwas a few years into the
business.
So if you have something that'san odd color, like a gray or
you know just any color that'snot black or brown, that's a
common roof color.
(18:36):
They normally have severaldifferent shades at the paint
store to accommodate what you'relooking for.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And we own a paint store also, so I'll have to
check in that.
But they'll probably carry thesame thing.
Since we buy it for the otherstores, it just makes sense Buy
in bulk and put it over there,because that's something that's
very common knowing if you canpaint over a caulk or a silicone
, because sometimes people putit up and then they think, well,
I'll just paint over it and youhave to look at the label to
know if it's paintable orstainable, and most of them will
(19:02):
list it clearly for that, realquick.
Also on HVAC, I completelyforgot Change the filters.
It's the easiest thing you cando to prolong the life of your
system.
The lower the MERV is actuallybetter.
Talk to your HVAC pro.
Most of them will say the samething.
It's better to change out anair filter in your HVAC unit
(19:23):
every month that's a low MERVrating than something that has a
higher MERV rating.
If you're not sure what yourmaximum MERV rating is, find out
because you might think well,my system says use a five.
That must mean that a 13 isreally going to work well.
It can choke your system andcause damage and cause it to
have to work harder.
But my tech said lower MERV.
Change them out every 30 days,maybe a little bit more often if
(19:46):
you have a pet, because of pethair or something like that, but
your mileage may vary, but it'scheap.
Buy them by the six pack or the10 pack and then you don't have
to go to a store on a Saturdayto get more of those things and
Amazon auto renew yeah, exactly,you used to do that.
Another thing you can do isswitch out your smoke detectors
if they're a few years fiveyears old, and they now have a
(20:07):
smoke detectors with CO monitorsbuilt into.
So you can get the combo 20, 30bucks all day on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yep, that's a great idea.
Um, since we're talking aboutthat, I guess one important
thing.
Um, if you have a CO monitor,you have gas appliances.
You know that's always a goodthing to know if you have a gas
leak in the house.
And and that led me to thinkabout sealing up gaps and cracks
, which I guess wouldn't, wouldnot be a good thing if you had a
gas leak.
But yeah, the crack kills.
(20:36):
Yes, the the thing that wepreach about all the time is the
convective and conductive heattransfer.
Heat transfer is everything.
That's the reason forinsulation, that's the reason
you've got, you know, a root, anattic space between your roof
and your living space, and it'sthe reason for insulation.
That's the reason you've got,you know, an attic space between
your roof and your living spaceand it's the reason that you
caulk around your windows,because you know you don't see
it, but there's always some sortof pressure on your house.
(20:57):
You know, whether the wind'sblowing moderately or you've got
a heavy wind, it's alwaysputting a pressure on your house
and that pressure is whatreally causes the heat transfer,
pushing cold inside or, youknow, pushing the hot air inside
in the summer.
So, having everything sealedaround your windows I can't
emphasize enough really reallyhelps with your utilities, the
(21:17):
comfort of your house.
I lived in an old house foryears and it'd be nothing to be
sitting beside a window and youcould almost feel like a cool
breeze there.
And you know, weatherization isprobably one of the cheapest
things that you can do to yourhouse in terms of a DIY project.
So I know we talked abouttaking it all the way.
You can seal around just thetrim work.
But if you really want to takeit all the way, I'd suggest
(21:38):
starting with the south facingelevation of your house.
You can pop off casing on thesides and the top of your
windows and doors and my guessis it's going to be about a one
inch gap all the way around,because the rough openings are
always larger and up until maybethe last 10 years people
weren't great about sealingaround those rough openings.
But that's just an area whereit's ripe for heat transfer to
(21:59):
take place in the wrongdirection.
So, um, sealing up gaps andcracks, you know, start with the
obvious things before you popoff trim.
But, um, that that is somethingthat you'll really see the
difference immediately.
I think it'll.
It'll definitely impact yourutility bills.
And if you're going to usespray foam, make sure you get
the right darn can, because youknow the, the low expansion
spray foam is what to use arounddoors and windows.
(22:19):
If you use the, the other stuff, the, the yellow great stuff in
the red, can you know that willliterally um crush the trim
against the windows and youwon't be able to operate the
windows or open the door.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, you stole that from me.
We sell both those, and I'mcareful to point out that that
great stuff is something thatcan actually push your casing
out of place.
Not only jam it, it can pop,start popping nails on if you
use it too much.
Hey, you got a generator,something that you can hook up
to your house.
You do any maintenance for?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
that.
Well, basically I just fired up, you know, before the winter
hits.
Real good, I just make surethat everything runs okay.
And it's one of those dealswhere you know lots of switches
and settings and you just wantto be familiar with it, because
when the power goes out youdon't want to go in there with
your phone flashlight justtrying to read a manual and
figuring out how the thing works.
And I just think that you knowthe standalone generators that
are fed by gas.
(23:10):
They start up once a week, Iwant to say just for maintenance
.
So anything like that that hasworking parts needs to be
started at least annually, ifnot a couple of times a year.
But yeah, all I do is just makesure that it's gassed up, ready
to go, and I just make surethat it cranks okay, but that's
about it.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
All right, this is the Carolina Contractor Show.
We're giving you some thingsyou can do to get ready for fall
.
You don't have to do them allin one weekend.
You can do them over the nextfew weeks and if you did most of
these you'd be done beforeThanksgiving.
You mentioned you don't want tobe searching in the dark with a
flashlight trying to figure outwhat's wrong with your
generator.
Go ahead, and candles if youwant to um salt.
(23:51):
You know we don't get a wholelot of snow in this state.
We do tend to get a mix ofsleet and ice.
It's good to have things forthe thawing.
It's really important to have aflashlight because when the
power goes out, you just it's anobvious thing you need.
So go ahead, make sure you gotbatteries.
You don't necessarily have tostore the batteries in with a
flashlight if you keep bothtogether, but you can do that to
make sure you have little kits.
I guess you could do a food kittoo if you wanted to.
(24:13):
But if you ever save up foodfor, like, a winter storm, you
know how you eat it, like withinsix hours after you get it, and
then the storm arrives two dayslater and you're out of snacks.
Yeah, Guilty, all right, you donot like fireplaces, donnie.
That is perfectly fine with me.
I love my fireplace.
You look at it as a big hole ina roof and that crushes your
soul.
(24:34):
But for those of us who haveespecially wood burning
fireplaces, like myself, callsomeone in to clean it, because
it's very important to build up.
That occurs on the inside, butalso something you taught me
years ago about the outside of afireplace If you see that white
, salty looking stuff sometimesit's dark and black and looks
(24:55):
mold Please quickly explain whatpeople are seeing on their
fireplace.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Efflorescence is it?
Efflorescence is basically abyproduct of moisture soaking
into a brick.
So where the brick takes inmoisture, it produces
efflorescence on the outside andit's really a pain because you
can't clean it off any way easy.
You know you have to call insomebody who's a professional
with the pressure washingcompany.
They have to use the rightchemicals.
But yeah, basically it meansthat your brick is taking on
(25:22):
water and so that's anotherproblem.
It doesn't look good and thefact that your brick's absorbing
moisture in that area issomething to address.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
But yeah, definitely need to need to handle it the
right way and it's not prettyand I used uh Thompson's masonry
water seal, sprayed it on witha hand sprayer and got.
I couldn't get the very top,but I got 90% of my fireplace
with it.
It worked like a charm.
You have a commercial productyou use, I assume.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, I just let the pressure washing guys handle it.
I'm not sure exactly what theyuse, but I know that I've tried
to pressure wash it off myselfand I had no success with that,
so I had to call the big guns in.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Hey, it's the key to being a man is knowing your
limitations.
All right, Kind of stickingwith roof and places water.
You don't want it sittingaround.
That's the gutters.
Could you go into detail whatwe need to do in the fall with
our gutters?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously the leaves fall
and that's more of a winterproblem.
But if you have to prepare forthat, now is the time to look at
your gutters, because they'renot they're not full of leaves
before uh, they all fall off thetree.
So if you need to get anythingelse out of the gutter, you know
one thing I always look for is,uh, asphalt granules from the
(26:34):
roof.
So if your roof's lost, um, anabnormal amount of asphalt
granules and you can stick yourfinger down in there about an
inch into that, that means thatyou know you've lost 10 years of
your roof right there in yourgutter.
So all that needs to be cleanedout, because when you pile the
leaves on top of that, it's justthat much more of a mess and,
um, a lot of times with guttersand with asphalt in there, that
extra weight will pull thegutters away from the fascia
(26:56):
board.
So you can go to the big boxstore, get a bag of gutter clips
for less than $10.
And if you're okay, being on aladder, you know you can install
those gutter clips and justscrew those back into the fascia
just to shore up those gutters.
You know another thing, and itdoesn't happen commonly in this
part of the country, but icedams form at the bottom of
valleys and usually the culpritthere is, you know, just not
(27:18):
cleaning the gutters out andthat accumulation of leaves
there will hold water and thatwater freezes and those ice dams
usually find their way into thehouse.
So, yeah, it's worth it.
Like you mentioned, if you takeall these in small bites, you
can finish by Thanksgiving, andthat's definitely something I
would add to the list.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And that's something you recommend.
If somebody contacts SureTopRoofing and they're getting a
new roof put on, it's not verymuch more to go ahead and get
the gutters done correctly.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
We actually include that in the price.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh, you do.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
When we strip the old shingles, there's no way around
getting debris in those gutters, and so at the end of the
process we clean everything onthe ground first, and then, of
course, we clean out the gutters, just to make sure everything
functions properly when we leave.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Sure, top roofingcom.
Now something else I didn'trealize you did as a courtesy.
Very good, all right, a coupleother things you can do.
In the fall, can you explainthe proper slope of your yard?
How to know that you've got adrainage issue on your property?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah Well, common sense.
You can look at your house andif you're downhill from a slope
you need at least some sort ofswell cut in there.
So uh, I want to say the.
The code is that you shouldhave six inches in 10 feet of
positive drainage away from thehouse.
So even if there's a side yardthat dumps water down towards
(28:38):
your property, you know youshould still have a lower ditch
where that water can catch andrun away from the house.
And so if you've got asituation where water's running
directly at your foundation sayit's an older home and you've
been dealing with it for years,you probably have a big problem.
But you know, having the properdrainage and then having the
downspouts from the guttersystem piped underground or at
(28:58):
least piped away from the houseare two big things that make a
difference.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And make sure if you're going to have a pro come
in and do it this is not aslight against landscapers Make
sure they're professionals whowork with irrigation and slope
and drainage.
There is a difference.
It's not necessarily simplyre-raking or modifying your yard
.
Make sure there's somebody whoworks specifically in drainage
and it's done right, becausegetting your gutter drains tied
(29:23):
in and the slope corrected orany low spots done, so
everything drains away from yourhouse.
It's kind of an important thing.
If you have a wood deck, I do Gothrough and look for screws.
Stuff backs out, boards startturning.
You don't necessarily have toreplace boards.
You could wait till the spring,but well, I guess this time of
year it really doesn't matter.
You might have to match somestain, but go back and check for
(29:45):
any screws that have backed outa little bit so you don't catch
your foot on them or justtighten things down.
If the weather's good, put downa little bit of sealant if you
haven't already.
If the test is sprinkle wateron your wood and if it's beating
water, it's doing fine.
If it soaks in, then it's okayto spray something as simple as
(30:07):
Thompson's on it in.
Then it's okay to spraysomething as simple as
Thompson's on it.
There's a gambit of totallyeffective ways to stain and put
on sealant on your deck, but youcan lengthen the life of it If
you take care of it every yeareasily an extra 10 years of life
to a wood deck.
You don't have a wood deck, doyou?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I have the, the composite.
I went all in and I basicallyconnected my front porch and
back porch real redneck like andum, I uh threw a uh covered
porch in between the two.
And it's really nice, man.
When I get home and I know thatI've had I have two or three
hours worth of computer work todo.
I call it second shift on theporch.
I go sit out there and watchthe sunset, kick my feet up and,
(30:46):
uh man, that was money wellspent.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Good for you.
I think that's a fine idea anda great reason to get one of
those composite decks and theylook nice and just about any
color.
We sell those things too, andwhen they're done and installed
correctly, man, they sure dolook nice.
I have to say I envy you inthat regard.
A couple more things, don, justto wrap up the show.
(31:10):
I'm going to tie this to theyard.
Learn what your plants andbushes are and which ones you
can cut down, how far when.
I've got a variety of stuffthat I prune at different times
of year, including some that Ican't prune until January
Fertilizing your lawn,maintaining your lawnmower we
(31:31):
use it in the fall.
You'll get that dead spotbetween like December and
February.
You don't mow very often.
You might store your mower.
I have to give Donnie kudosbecause I was this many years
old when he pointed out puttingnon-ethanol gas.
Usually it's the mid-grade atthe gas station.
It'll'll be marked in yourmower it's a little more
expensive.
But my mower I was using thelow grade, what, the 87, I can't
(31:55):
remember and my mower wouldn'tstart.
And I did research andeverybody said the same thing
it's the ethanol, it's gummingup your line.
So I disconnected everything,cleaned it all out, switched to
your recommendation ofnon-ethanol.
My mower starts first pullevery time now.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, before I started doing that, you know,
every year, I mean I just kindof felt like it was good
practice to take my mower in andlet my guy service it.
He's wonderful, you know, he,and he's just a such a whiz with
everything, but it sure enoughwould not start every every
single year.
And you know he charged me ahundred $200, but now it's as
(32:34):
simple as just using non-ethanolgas.
And when you compare, I think Ihave a separate non-ethanol
pump at the local gas stationthat I use.
So it's not.
It's not with the 87, 89, 93.
Uh, they have a separate uh pumpfor the non-ethanol, so uh, but
but that non-ethanol may costme I don't know, less than that
$100 all summer, and I put it inall summer now just because it
keeps my side-by-sidefour-wheeler and lawnmower
working flawlessly.
(32:55):
It seems like I don't haveproblems out of anything anymore
.
And just not to have to haulthose 20 minutes to a repair
mechanic and then you're withoutit for a week while he works on
it and then you've got to payhim when you get it back.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I mean, I just think it's a no brainer.
For non-ethanol?
Well, we're not as bougie asyou guys are on the West side of
95 and have dedicatednon-ethanol pumps.
But good for you.
You can also take leftover gasin your mower and put it in a
gas tank, pour that in your car.
Your car's going to have noproblem burning that off.
If you want to empty out yourgas tank, it's not necessarily a
bad thing to do if you knowyou're not going to use your
mower for a while.
One other thing, donnie, weforget about but disconnect your
hoses because you don't wantthe lines to freeze up.
(33:36):
So unless you're going to needit to water, hook it up at that
time.
Then disconnect it because of ahard freeze.
If you forget about that hosein the backyard that's connected
to the house, about that hosein the backyard that's connected
to the house, you could causeall sorts of problems and
there's a couple of things youcan do to prevent it.
Additional freezing pipes froma hose, right.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, I mean they sell the styrofoam covers at
Lowe's and of course that'scheap, easy.
A lot of my houses that I buildI do a hot and cold faucet both
, and so those are eitherstacked linear or horizontal,
but either way those, thosegeneric styrofoam covers, don't
work on those.
So I really just I get savageand I'll take an old towel or a
t-shirt and tie it around it.
(34:13):
I've got my double my hot andcold outside of my house and I
basically just tie somethingaround it and then put a grocery
bag around that so it doesn'tget wet, and I slide the.
On the really cold nights I'llslide my trash can in front of
it so it can't get direct wind,and that seems to do the trick.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
And then he builds little bonfires around it and
has his heat gun on it.
Again, it's a differentlifestyle, west of I-95,
evidently.
But we're going to put thisstuff up on the Facebook site.
On the website We'll get thevideo uploaded.
But there's a lot of things youcan do.
But if you just do these thingsone a weekend, you can knock
(34:53):
out 10 of these things and someof them take less than 10
minutes.
Some of them don't take but anhour total time to do it, and
Thanksgiving comes and you canreally enjoy going into fall
before you hang up Christmaslights and things like that and
get your house ready for colderweather.
But it is falls, my favoritetime of year.
I don't know about you, evenwithout football.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh gosh, I've been in Thank you Lord for this amazing
weather mode all week and, um,you know, like I said, everybody
on the job site's in a bettermood and it just seems like
things when that, when that heatwave breaks, I think everybody,
just, whether you even realizewhat's happening or not, you
appreciate it everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Just whether you even realize what's happening or not
, you appreciate it definitely,and july was brutal, let's face
it, so it's nice to get a breakin the weather.
Website the carolinacontractorcom.
Go there to get all theinformation you need.
You can find us on social mediaalso instagram, facebook,
youtube.
Just search for the carolinacontractor and we thank you for
tuning in and we hope to uh hearfrom you next week on the
(35:50):
Carolina Contractor Show.
Have a good day everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
Oh, and you know what thatmusic means.
(00:22):
Holidays, christmas, no, themost wonderful time of year is
football season.
The NFL is back in action foranother season.
The 24-25 season is gettingunderway, and before we get
started with the CarolinaContractor Show, I'm just going
to go ahead and tell you, donnie, we need to make our picks of
who we think are going to winthe Super Bowl, because we ain't
no babies, this is big boyschool.
(00:43):
I want to know what your pickis to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I can go first if you would like me to, either way
you take it or I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All right, let's see what you got All right, I'll go.
I say it's going to be in theSuper Bowl Kansas City against
Detroit and I say Kansas Citywins the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
So what do they win it Two years in a row.
Maybe they're going for athree-peat.
So that's not likely in a lotof situations.
But you know, studying all thechanges that Kansas City made in
the offseason, they have one ofthe stronger teams that they've
had in recent years.
And Patrick Mahomes, you knowobviously the best quarterback
out there.
He has more weapons this yearthan I've ever seen him have.
(01:26):
So they're going to be scary.
I think they'll still take afew L's through the year, but I
think that's a good pick.
And the AFC?
I know that it'll either bethem and if anybody has a chance
to knock off the Chiefs, Iwould say it'd be the Baltimore
Ravens.
They added Derrick Henry fromTennessee and you know His
nickname is the King and that'sfor a reason.
He's a mountain of a man and hejust got traded to one of the
most run-heavy offenses in theNFL.
(01:47):
So someone who is going toprotect him a lot better, with a
better offensive line and justgive him more opportunity than
he had in Tennessee.
I think the Ravens are going tobe good.
I'd say, on the other side, nfcprediction would probably be
the Eagles and the 49ers.
There's some disarray with the49ers and some of their
contracts that are fringe.
And then, you know, with theEagles they added Saquon Barkley
(02:09):
from the New York Giants andhe's just a marquee running back
and he's got a fresh start inan offense that turned Miles
Sanders into a superstar acouple years ago in Philadelphia
.
So if I had to pick, I'll goChiefs-Eagles.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And so if I had to pick, I'll go Chiefs-Eagles, and
I will probably well just to bethe antagonist, I'll say Eagles
, since you said the Chiefs, andthat's all fine and dandy, but
Hertz is going to choke again,so that's not going to happen.
But you did make a goodstatement.
The Chiefs will lose a fewgames, everybody does.
I mean it was the Dolphins whoare the only undefeated team Now
(02:45):
technically.
Was the Dolphins who are theonly undefeated team Now
technically?
The Patriots had the longestwin streak, but that crossed
over two seasons.
But nobody's had an undefeatedseason except the Dolphins that
one year.
But losses during the seasonaren't a big deal.
People can't panic about that.
You mentioned Kansas City.
You mentioned Baltimore.
That was the Thursday game, thefirst game of the season.
That score doesn't matter.
(03:06):
I don't care about past scores,and who won there we're going
to see at the end of the seasonwhen it matters.
I do think Philly's a reallygood team though, and I know
they are favored to go deepagain.
It just seems they have alittle choke problem, and so
does I mean Dallas won't be init.
We know that They've alreadybeen mathematically eliminated
(03:27):
from playoff contention justbecause the regular season is
underway.
All right.
So I say Kansas City threepeats.
You're saying they'll make it,but Philly for the win.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, and either way it goes, man, I don't think I've
been this excited about afootball season in a long time.
There's been a lot of shakeupin the offseason and a lot of
major moves and of course I'm ahuge Carolina Panther fan and
they made it really hard to be afan last year.
But I'm excited about their newhead coach, dave Canales.
He's a quarterback whisperer.
You know, in Seattle he madeGeno Smith into an all-star and
(03:57):
then he goes and makes BakerMayfield, who we dropped in
Carolina, into a playoffcontender.
He actually won a playoff game.
So Dave Canales is thequarterback whisperer and I
think he's going to give BryceYoung a really good situation.
We added some studs on theoffensive line, so our run game
is going to be better and I'mnot going to say that we're
going to, you know, be inplayoff contention.
(04:18):
But compared to last year Ithink we're going to show a lot
of improvement.
And side note there I don'twant to talk too much about
football, but I can't helpmyself.
You know, you look at theopportunity last year.
David Tepper, you know he's therichest owner in the NFL.
He's got more money than JerryJones over in Dallas and it's
just like he keeps screwingthings up.
So he needs to let somebodyelse take the wheel and make
(04:39):
some of these decisions.
Because you know a couple ofthings from last year.
They just put Bryce Young.
He's an undersized quarterbackfrom Alabama, but they put him
in a position where he wasrunning for his life every
single game and I don't blamehim for that.
But the alternative to that isthe situation you've got going
on with the Chicago Bears.
They drafted Caleb Williams outof USC.
Well, caleb Williams all of asudden gets the next pick, who
(05:01):
is Roma Dunze, the best collegereceiver last year.
He gets Keenan Allen from theSan Diego Chargers and he
already had DJ Moore, who wetraded them for the first pick a
couple of years ago, who had agreat season.
So this guy comes into the NFLwith three stud receivers.
They get the running back fromPhiladelphia, deandre Swift he's
got a good run game KhalilHerbert's his backup.
(05:22):
So you know this guy issurrounded with options and
weapons.
And then you go down south toTexas and you got the Texans
with CJ Stroud who is arguably Ithink he's going to be top
three quarterback this year.
I agree we took Bryce Young inCarolina instead of CJ Stroud
last year and CJ Stroud, youknow, mvp caliber season last
(05:44):
year because he's just such astud and you know those two guys
grew up playing ball againsteach other and Bryce Young even
admitted and he made a jokeabout CJ Stroud being a better
basketball player and he was asharpshooter.
But CJ Stroud's got a lot ofsize and you know he's, he's a
man of faith.
I think that has a lot to dowith it.
But he already had two studreceivers in Nico Collins and
(06:05):
Tank Dale, and then they addedStephon Diggs out of Buffalo.
So his receiver room is goingto be exciting.
They have Joe Mixon, the studrunning back that came from the
Bengals.
So, similar to Chicago, theHouston Texans are going to be a
lot of fun to watch this yearand, man, I think it's going to
be a very exciting footballseason.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, and I didn't mean to put a key in you and
turn you on there, but I dounderstand.
One thing about you mentioned.
Tepperson is my problem is he'sa very hands-on GM.
He gets into arguments withfans, stupid stuff, sit back and
watch the team.
So even though I think they putin some good players, good
management, what Dan Morgan'sthere now former Carolina
(06:46):
Panther If the owner of the teamcomes in and starts fiddling or
saying I think you should dothis, or causes that, it's toxic
.
Let's just call it it's toxic,it's poisonous.
When they do it, dallas doesn'twin anymore and we know one of
the main reasons is because ofJerry Jones.
Don't be that.
Let the people you hired do thejob you hired them to do and
(07:09):
you'll guarantee have success.
If Teppers gets all in the mix,it'll be a repeat of last year,
I'm afraid.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, I need a reason to wear those Carolina Panther
shirts again, and last year washit or miss, mostly miss, mostly
miss.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, All right, this is the Carolina Contractor Show
and we always end up talkingsports and I'm sorry for the
next 17, 18, 20 weeks we'llprobably talk a lot of football
before a show, but that isn'twhat the Carolina Contractor
Show is about.
It's about your house, buildingand construction, sometimes
blowing things up and tearingthings down, demo renovations,
all sorts of stuff.
(07:43):
Whether you're a builder likeDonnie, who's a general
contractor, also owner ofSureTop Roofing, or, in my part
of the business which is sellingbuilding supplies to people
like Donnie, we like to talkabout your house and projects
you might have in mind or thingsyou can do.
Speaking of the business atHome Builders, a couple of weeks
(08:05):
ago, Donnie guy walks in and hesays, hey, do you have LVLs 11,
seven, eights?
And I said, yeah, how long?
And he says, like I need themat 20 feet.
And I said, yeah, we can getthose for you today.
And he says, are you Eric Smith?
And I no way.
And I said, yes, may I ask why?
And he goes.
I listened to the Carolinacontractor show every weekend
have been for over a year and Isaid, well then, I need your
(08:25):
card.
And so his name was Joshua.
He had his little girl with him.
I'm not going to give her namebecause he didn't give me
permission, but she had herstuffed animal, bun Bun, and I
think it's okay to give Bun Bunname, but his name's Joshua Webb
.
He owns Black Creek BuildingCompany and he's come in a
couple more times.
But it reminded me we take forgranted people we might run into
(08:46):
every day at job sites or atwork who listen to the show,
that don't say anything.
But there are people likeJoshua who just came and said
hey, man, I've listened to yourshow and he's a builder too, so
he gets it.
So I just want to point outthank you, joshua.
Thank you to everybody wholistens to the show, interacts
with us.
Yeah, if you see us somewhereat a site or at the store or
(09:09):
whatever, be sure to say hi, butit was very cool to have
coworkers sitting around and go.
Did they just really mentionyour show?
That's why they're coming inthe store and I was like I
didn't say anything.
He started it, right.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I second that we appreciate the support that
means everything, yeah, allright.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So let's jump into our subject for today.
Football season also meanswe're entering fall and we get
ideas of what we want to do, andme and Donnie are no different
than anybody listening to theshow of stuff.
You want to prep for fall and Idecided, kind of on my own, we
should talk about things you cando, but you don't have to do it
(09:48):
all in one weekend because it'soverwhelming.
So, donnie, you really kind oftook over and bullet pointed a
good list on fall prep.
So that's what our subject isgoing to be today Fall prep for
your house.
First, hit the websitethecarolinacontractorcom.
You can also find us on YouTube.
We put our shows up there.
You can download past shows inthe podcast form.
(10:10):
If you have a question like whatare the differences in LVLs
Maybe that's your question orwhat do you think about Jalen
Hurts?
You can email by clicking onthe Ask the Contractor button.
They go to Donnie.
So if it's a real questionabout building or codes or
something, he's going to answerit.
If it's something you just wanta smart ass remark for, those
automatically get filtered to me.
(10:32):
But you'll find all thatinformation at
thecarolinacontractorcom.
You ready for?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
the show.
I think we just dive right in.
Yes, sir, that was a heck of anintro, by the way.
Love it.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, I think we should do this maybe more often.
I can't take credit for thefirst point, donnie, and it's
something we recommend in thespring and we think spring clean
, why can't we have a fall clean?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So hit us with the first thing you should do this
time of year when the weather'snice this might be the best tip
I've given for any kind of fallhome maintenance, but air out
your stinking house.
You know we've had the doorsand windows closed all summer
long.
It's been a hot summer and youknow no secret that we just got
some relief recently with a weekactually in the seventies and,
it's funny, everybody's in agood mood on the job site Things
(11:17):
.
People just work a longer dayand you just get a lot more
production.
So there's a few rare weekswhere this happens and people
appreciate the change and themoderate weather.
So I think it's a perfect timeto open your doors, open your
windows.
If you're going to do that.
I think on average the statsare people only open their
windows twice a year and I don'teven do that, to be honest.
(11:39):
So I do think it's a goodstrategy.
You know, get some fresh airinto your house and if you, if
you basically been running theAC with the windows and doors
closed and you're going to havea cleaning day, you know, let
let the windows and doors juststay open for that cleaning day
and I think that the house willhave a more of a fresh, better
feel and definitely improve theindoor air quality.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
All right.
I have two things tying to that.
One this is the time of yearwhere I try to turn off the HVAC
and see how long I can keep itoff before we have to turn it on
for winter.
So when I don't need the ACanymore, I turn it to heat and
make sure one the heat's workingand it burns off that first
smell, and then I turn theentire HVAC system off and see
(12:23):
how far we can go without usingit and see what it does to your
electric bill.
Number two you mentioned windowsand how most people don't open
them, but a couple of times ayear.
It's amazing the number ofpeople that come into our store
to buy windows and I know yousee it too, and they was well.
I want double hung and I wantwindows that open this and open
that and I want screens and I'mlike thinking you'll probably
(12:47):
open your windows three times inan entire year.
Don't spend all your timeworrying about if they'll open
the top and bottom or havingscreens, cause you want to open
them all spring and the don'twant the bugs getting in.
Um, you're probably not goingto do that, and I don't like
screens on windows, to beginwith because I think they make
your windows look dingy.
Drive around a neighborhood andlook at houses that don't have
(13:11):
any screens and their windows,even if they haven't been
recently cleaned, will look 10times cleaner than a house that
has screens up, because themetal or the netting of a screen
just takes away the gloss andthe shine.
So if you really aren't goingto open your windows often,
don't sweat the details ofhaving them open 10 different
ways, but open them this time ofyear because there's also no
(13:33):
pollen to worry about.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, and that's a great point.
And the reason I don't open mywindows is is I have casement
windows.
So most people have double hung, where you have a top and
bottom sash and they, you know,both operate, slide up and down.
But my casement windows arebasically the rollout windows,
so the whole window itself opensup and there's a crank at the
bottom.
I'm sure most folks have seenthose.
But the thing with casementwindows is the screens go on the
(13:57):
inside, so it just.
I've never put my screens onthe inside because I hate the
way it looks sort of like whatyou said from the outside and,
um, you know, with no screens,that's just um asking for a more
of a mess If you do leave thoseopen all day.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
All right, I mentioned HVAC and turning it
off.
Please don't wait to see ifyour heat works until the
coldest day of the year.
Um, we've talked about gettingservice contracts.
I have one.
I don't know if you do, Donnie,it's an annual.
I play, pay a flat rate and myguy comes out and checks my
machines twice a year.
He'll even clean the outsideunits twice a year.
(14:32):
Um runs diagnostic testing,puts me first on emergency call
list.
I get a discount on materialsor parts.
I get a discount on materialsor parts.
I get a discount on labor.
I get a discount if I have toever get a system brand new
system and he can make thesystem last longer because he's
the only one taking care of it.
(14:52):
I highly recommend you get that, but have a service tech check
your system this time of year.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I agree with that.
The two things that really jumpout when you said HVAC are the
fact that if something's goingto go wrong and it can be
prevented, they're going to seewhen they do their diagnostics
what needs to be repaired orchanged ahead of time, because
when your system goes out it'susually at the worst moment, so
it's going to be freezing coldthat night and you're not going
to have heat for the remainderof the night.
But sort of like what you said,the next big thing is that it
(15:22):
extends the life of the system,and we always talk about roofing
and HVAC being the two mostexpensive things on your home
that are guaranteed to wear out.
So if you get an extra fiveyears out of your heating and
air system just by having itserviced semi-annually, then
that pays for itself times 10probably, the heating and air
system anywhere from $10,000 to$30,000 and the price is only
(15:43):
going to go up.
So that's a great point.
While we're talking about that,since I mentioned roofs, I want
to throw in there thatinspecting your attic and your
roof this time of year isabsolutely mandatory.
Sun exposure is whatdeteriorates just about
everything on the house, and sono secret that the roof gets the
most sun exposure and anywherethere's a roof penetration.
So you got a plumbing vent thatgoes through there.
(16:04):
Anything that services thoseareas are prone to leak and the
flashing or the pipe boots thatgo around all those roof
penetrations will wear out,especially the pipe boots they
used to use 20 years ago.
They were rubber, we use aneoprene version now.
So and a side note, a littlesecret I do with pipe boots for
the builder listeners out therewhen I install a roof, and of
(16:26):
course my guys do this, but Iinstall a pipe boot the absolute
regular way, and then I'll takea second pipe boot because
they're so cheap.
I say that they went up to $10,uh, just a couple of weeks ago
at the big box store, but, uh,still pretty cheap.
And so you cut the flat flangeoff of the pipe boot and slide
the boot itself over the pipeboot under and that, basically,
(16:49):
that seal never sees the lightof day.
So when sun is, what wears thatpipe boot out and pipe boots
are 70% of my leak calls I'd I'dsay that's probably the
cheapest insurance that you canget on the house.
And also, if you do have abuilder, uh, or if you are a
builder, uh, you're not supposedto face nail those pipe boots
because the caulk that goes ontop of those face nails, the
(17:09):
sun's going to wear that down injust a couple of years.
We use metal roofing screwsbecause they have a washer on
those.
So anytime you secure the flatflange of a pipe boot down, you
know metal roofing screws way togo and add the second pipe boot
over the seal, just for cheapinsurance.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Hey, Donnie, real quick, could you explain what
type of caulk people need to get?
Because you go to a store andyou're bombarded with dozens of
different choices.
What do people need to get?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
A big difference between caulk and silicone is
silicone is not temperaturesensitive.
And if I had to throw an easydelineation on what to use,
where caulk is basically usedinside the house or anywhere
that's not exposed to theweather and silicone is used
outside, so around windows youwant to use not exposed to the
weather and silicone is usedoutside, so around windows, you
want to use silicone.
On the roof, you want to usesilicone, and on the roof we use
a product called NP1, and it isreally strong, thick stuff and
(17:59):
it might be a dollar extra too,but it's well worth it.
So you know, caulk is paintable.
It may set up just a little bitfaster than silicone, but but
yeah, caulk interior siliconeexterior.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Second vote for NP1.
We sell a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
The contractors get that all the time.
It's a very popular choice, bythe way.
Hey, I'm going to throw onemore thing in there.
Np1, I know you guys probablycarry black, brown, maybe white
for TPO applications, but mostpaint stores carry NP1 as well,
and I didn't know that until Iwas a few years into the
business.
So if you have something that'san odd color, like a gray or
you know just any color that'snot black or brown, that's a
common roof color.
(18:36):
They normally have severaldifferent shades at the paint
store to accommodate what you'relooking for.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And we own a paint store also, so I'll have to
check in that.
But they'll probably carry thesame thing.
Since we buy it for the otherstores, it just makes sense Buy
in bulk and put it over there,because that's something that's
very common knowing if you canpaint over a caulk or a silicone
, because sometimes people putit up and then they think, well,
I'll just paint over it and youhave to look at the label to
know if it's paintable orstainable, and most of them will
(19:02):
list it clearly for that, realquick.
Also on HVAC, I completelyforgot Change the filters.
It's the easiest thing you cando to prolong the life of your
system.
The lower the MERV is actuallybetter.
Talk to your HVAC pro.
Most of them will say the samething.
It's better to change out anair filter in your HVAC unit
(19:23):
every month that's a low MERVrating than something that has a
higher MERV rating.
If you're not sure what yourmaximum MERV rating is, find out
because you might think well,my system says use a five.
That must mean that a 13 isreally going to work well.
It can choke your system andcause damage and cause it to
have to work harder.
But my tech said lower MERV.
Change them out every 30 days,maybe a little bit more often if
(19:46):
you have a pet, because of pethair or something like that, but
your mileage may vary, but it'scheap.
Buy them by the six pack or the10 pack and then you don't have
to go to a store on a Saturdayto get more of those things and
Amazon auto renew yeah, exactly,you used to do that.
Another thing you can do isswitch out your smoke detectors
if they're a few years fiveyears old, and they now have a
(20:07):
smoke detectors with CO monitorsbuilt into.
So you can get the combo 20, 30bucks all day on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yep, that's a great idea.
Um, since we're talking aboutthat, I guess one important
thing.
Um, if you have a CO monitor,you have gas appliances.
You know that's always a goodthing to know if you have a gas
leak in the house.
And and that led me to thinkabout sealing up gaps and cracks
, which I guess wouldn't, wouldnot be a good thing if you had a
gas leak.
But yeah, the crack kills.
(20:36):
Yes, the the thing that wepreach about all the time is the
convective and conductive heattransfer.
Heat transfer is everything.
That's the reason forinsulation, that's the reason
you've got, you know, a root, anattic space between your roof
and your living space, and it'sthe reason for insulation.
That's the reason you've got,you know, an attic space between
your roof and your living spaceand it's the reason that you
caulk around your windows,because you know you don't see
it, but there's always some sortof pressure on your house.
(20:57):
You know, whether the wind'sblowing moderately or you've got
a heavy wind, it's alwaysputting a pressure on your house
and that pressure is whatreally causes the heat transfer,
pushing cold inside or, youknow, pushing the hot air inside
in the summer.
So, having everything sealedaround your windows I can't
emphasize enough really reallyhelps with your utilities, the
(21:17):
comfort of your house.
I lived in an old house foryears and it'd be nothing to be
sitting beside a window and youcould almost feel like a cool
breeze there.
And you know, weatherization isprobably one of the cheapest
things that you can do to yourhouse in terms of a DIY project.
So I know we talked abouttaking it all the way.
You can seal around just thetrim work.
But if you really want to takeit all the way, I'd suggest
(21:38):
starting with the south facingelevation of your house.
You can pop off casing on thesides and the top of your
windows and doors and my guessis it's going to be about a one
inch gap all the way around,because the rough openings are
always larger and up until maybethe last 10 years people
weren't great about sealingaround those rough openings.
But that's just an area whereit's ripe for heat transfer to
(21:59):
take place in the wrongdirection.
So, um, sealing up gaps andcracks, you know, start with the
obvious things before you popoff trim.
But, um, that that is somethingthat you'll really see the
difference immediately.
I think it'll.
It'll definitely impact yourutility bills.
And if you're going to usespray foam, make sure you get
the right darn can, because youknow the, the low expansion
spray foam is what to use arounddoors and windows.
(22:19):
If you use the, the other stuff, the, the yellow great stuff in
the red, can you know that willliterally um crush the trim
against the windows and youwon't be able to operate the
windows or open the door.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, you stole that from me.
We sell both those, and I'mcareful to point out that that
great stuff is something thatcan actually push your casing
out of place.
Not only jam it, it can pop,start popping nails on if you
use it too much.
Hey, you got a generator,something that you can hook up
to your house.
You do any maintenance for?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
that.
Well, basically I just fired up, you know, before the winter
hits.
Real good, I just make surethat everything runs okay.
And it's one of those dealswhere you know lots of switches
and settings and you just wantto be familiar with it, because
when the power goes out youdon't want to go in there with
your phone flashlight justtrying to read a manual and
figuring out how the thing works.
And I just think that you knowthe standalone generators that
are fed by gas.
(23:10):
They start up once a week, Iwant to say just for maintenance
.
So anything like that that hasworking parts needs to be
started at least annually, ifnot a couple of times a year.
But yeah, all I do is just makesure that it's gassed up, ready
to go, and I just make surethat it cranks okay, but that's
about it.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
All right, this is the Carolina Contractor Show.
We're giving you some thingsyou can do to get ready for fall
.
You don't have to do them allin one weekend.
You can do them over the nextfew weeks and if you did most of
these you'd be done beforeThanksgiving.
You mentioned you don't want tobe searching in the dark with a
flashlight trying to figure outwhat's wrong with your
generator.
Go ahead, and candles if youwant to um salt.
(23:51):
You know we don't get a wholelot of snow in this state.
We do tend to get a mix ofsleet and ice.
It's good to have things forthe thawing.
It's really important to have aflashlight because when the
power goes out, you just it's anobvious thing you need.
So go ahead, make sure you gotbatteries.
You don't necessarily have tostore the batteries in with a
flashlight if you keep bothtogether, but you can do that to
make sure you have little kits.
I guess you could do a food kittoo if you wanted to.
(24:13):
But if you ever save up foodfor, like, a winter storm, you
know how you eat it, like withinsix hours after you get it, and
then the storm arrives two dayslater and you're out of snacks.
Yeah, Guilty, all right, you donot like fireplaces, donnie.
That is perfectly fine with me.
I love my fireplace.
You look at it as a big hole ina roof and that crushes your
soul.
(24:34):
But for those of us who haveespecially wood burning
fireplaces, like myself, callsomeone in to clean it, because
it's very important to build up.
That occurs on the inside, butalso something you taught me
years ago about the outside of afireplace If you see that white
, salty looking stuff sometimesit's dark and black and looks
(24:55):
mold Please quickly explain whatpeople are seeing on their
fireplace.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Efflorescence is it?
Efflorescence is basically abyproduct of moisture soaking
into a brick.
So where the brick takes inmoisture, it produces
efflorescence on the outside andit's really a pain because you
can't clean it off any way easy.
You know you have to call insomebody who's a professional
with the pressure washingcompany.
They have to use the rightchemicals.
But yeah, basically it meansthat your brick is taking on
(25:22):
water and so that's anotherproblem.
It doesn't look good and thefact that your brick's absorbing
moisture in that area issomething to address.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
But yeah, definitely need to need to handle it the
right way and it's not prettyand I used uh Thompson's masonry
water seal, sprayed it on witha hand sprayer and got.
I couldn't get the very top,but I got 90% of my fireplace
with it.
It worked like a charm.
You have a commercial productyou use, I assume.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, I just let the pressure washing guys handle it.
I'm not sure exactly what theyuse, but I know that I've tried
to pressure wash it off myselfand I had no success with that,
so I had to call the big guns in.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Hey, it's the key to being a man is knowing your
limitations.
All right, Kind of stickingwith roof and places water.
You don't want it sittingaround.
That's the gutters.
Could you go into detail whatwe need to do in the fall with
our gutters?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously the leaves fall
and that's more of a winterproblem.
But if you have to prepare forthat, now is the time to look at
your gutters, because they'renot they're not full of leaves
before uh, they all fall off thetree.
So if you need to get anythingelse out of the gutter, you know
one thing I always look for is,uh, asphalt granules from the
(26:34):
roof.
So if your roof's lost, um, anabnormal amount of asphalt
granules and you can stick yourfinger down in there about an
inch into that, that means thatyou know you've lost 10 years of
your roof right there in yourgutter.
So all that needs to be cleanedout, because when you pile the
leaves on top of that, it's justthat much more of a mess and,
um, a lot of times with guttersand with asphalt in there, that
extra weight will pull thegutters away from the fascia
(26:56):
board.
So you can go to the big boxstore, get a bag of gutter clips
for less than $10.
And if you're okay, being on aladder, you know you can install
those gutter clips and justscrew those back into the fascia
just to shore up those gutters.
You know another thing, and itdoesn't happen commonly in this
part of the country, but icedams form at the bottom of
valleys and usually the culpritthere is, you know, just not
(27:18):
cleaning the gutters out andthat accumulation of leaves
there will hold water and thatwater freezes and those ice dams
usually find their way into thehouse.
So, yeah, it's worth it.
Like you mentioned, if you takeall these in small bites, you
can finish by Thanksgiving, andthat's definitely something I
would add to the list.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And that's something you recommend.
If somebody contacts SureTopRoofing and they're getting a
new roof put on, it's not verymuch more to go ahead and get
the gutters done correctly.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
We actually include that in the price.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh, you do.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
When we strip the old shingles, there's no way around
getting debris in those gutters, and so at the end of the
process we clean everything onthe ground first, and then, of
course, we clean out the gutters, just to make sure everything
functions properly when we leave.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Sure, top roofingcom.
Now something else I didn'trealize you did as a courtesy.
Very good, all right, a coupleother things you can do.
In the fall, can you explainthe proper slope of your yard?
How to know that you've got adrainage issue on your property?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah Well, common sense.
You can look at your house andif you're downhill from a slope
you need at least some sort ofswell cut in there.
So uh, I want to say the.
The code is that you shouldhave six inches in 10 feet of
positive drainage away from thehouse.
So even if there's a side yardthat dumps water down towards
(28:38):
your property, you know youshould still have a lower ditch
where that water can catch andrun away from the house.
And so if you've got asituation where water's running
directly at your foundation sayit's an older home and you've
been dealing with it for years,you probably have a big problem.
But you know, having the properdrainage and then having the
downspouts from the guttersystem piped underground or at
(28:58):
least piped away from the houseare two big things that make a
difference.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And make sure if you're going to have a pro come
in and do it this is not aslight against landscapers Make
sure they're professionals whowork with irrigation and slope
and drainage.
There is a difference.
It's not necessarily simplyre-raking or modifying your yard
.
Make sure there's somebody whoworks specifically in drainage
and it's done right, becausegetting your gutter drains tied
(29:23):
in and the slope corrected orany low spots done, so
everything drains away from yourhouse.
It's kind of an important thing.
If you have a wood deck, I do Gothrough and look for screws.
Stuff backs out, boards startturning.
You don't necessarily have toreplace boards.
You could wait till the spring,but well, I guess this time of
year it really doesn't matter.
You might have to match somestain, but go back and check for
(29:45):
any screws that have backed outa little bit so you don't catch
your foot on them or justtighten things down.
If the weather's good, put downa little bit of sealant if you
haven't already.
If the test is sprinkle wateron your wood and if it's beating
water, it's doing fine.
If it soaks in, then it's okayto spray something as simple as
(30:07):
Thompson's on it in.
Then it's okay to spraysomething as simple as
Thompson's on it.
There's a gambit of totallyeffective ways to stain and put
on sealant on your deck, but youcan lengthen the life of it If
you take care of it every yeareasily an extra 10 years of life
to a wood deck.
You don't have a wood deck, doyou?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I have the, the composite.
I went all in and I basicallyconnected my front porch and
back porch real redneck like andum, I uh threw a uh covered
porch in between the two.
And it's really nice, man.
When I get home and I know thatI've had I have two or three
hours worth of computer work todo.
I call it second shift on theporch.
I go sit out there and watchthe sunset, kick my feet up and,
(30:46):
uh man, that was money wellspent.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Good for you.
I think that's a fine idea anda great reason to get one of
those composite decks and theylook nice and just about any
color.
We sell those things too, andwhen they're done and installed
correctly, man, they sure dolook nice.
I have to say I envy you inthat regard.
A couple more things, don, justto wrap up the show.
(31:10):
I'm going to tie this to theyard.
Learn what your plants andbushes are and which ones you
can cut down, how far when.
I've got a variety of stuffthat I prune at different times
of year, including some that Ican't prune until January
Fertilizing your lawn,maintaining your lawnmower we
(31:31):
use it in the fall.
You'll get that dead spotbetween like December and
February.
You don't mow very often.
You might store your mower.
I have to give Donnie kudosbecause I was this many years
old when he pointed out puttingnon-ethanol gas.
Usually it's the mid-grade atthe gas station.
It'll'll be marked in yourmower it's a little more
expensive.
But my mower I was using thelow grade, what, the 87, I can't
(31:55):
remember and my mower wouldn'tstart.
And I did research andeverybody said the same thing
it's the ethanol, it's gummingup your line.
So I disconnected everything,cleaned it all out, switched to
your recommendation ofnon-ethanol.
My mower starts first pullevery time now.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, before I started doing that, you know,
every year, I mean I just kindof felt like it was good
practice to take my mower in andlet my guy service it.
He's wonderful, you know, he,and he's just a such a whiz with
everything, but it sure enoughwould not start every every
single year.
And you know he charged me ahundred $200, but now it's as
(32:34):
simple as just using non-ethanolgas.
And when you compare, I think Ihave a separate non-ethanol
pump at the local gas stationthat I use.
So it's not.
It's not with the 87, 89, 93.
Uh, they have a separate uh pumpfor the non-ethanol, so uh, but
but that non-ethanol may costme I don't know, less than that
$100 all summer, and I put it inall summer now just because it
keeps my side-by-sidefour-wheeler and lawnmower
working flawlessly.
(32:55):
It seems like I don't haveproblems out of anything anymore
.
And just not to have to haulthose 20 minutes to a repair
mechanic and then you're withoutit for a week while he works on
it and then you've got to payhim when you get it back.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I mean, I just think it's a no brainer.
For non-ethanol?
Well, we're not as bougie asyou guys are on the West side of
95 and have dedicatednon-ethanol pumps.
But good for you.
You can also take leftover gasin your mower and put it in a
gas tank, pour that in your car.
Your car's going to have noproblem burning that off.
If you want to empty out yourgas tank, it's not necessarily a
bad thing to do if you knowyou're not going to use your
mower for a while.
One other thing, donnie, weforget about but disconnect your
hoses because you don't wantthe lines to freeze up.
(33:36):
So unless you're going to needit to water, hook it up at that
time.
Then disconnect it because of ahard freeze.
If you forget about that hosein the backyard that's connected
to the house, about that hosein the backyard that's connected
to the house, you could causeall sorts of problems and
there's a couple of things youcan do to prevent it.
Additional freezing pipes froma hose, right.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, I mean they sell the styrofoam covers at
Lowe's and of course that'scheap, easy.
A lot of my houses that I buildI do a hot and cold faucet both
, and so those are eitherstacked linear or horizontal,
but either way those, thosegeneric styrofoam covers, don't
work on those.
So I really just I get savageand I'll take an old towel or a
t-shirt and tie it around it.
(34:13):
I've got my double my hot andcold outside of my house and I
basically just tie somethingaround it and then put a grocery
bag around that so it doesn'tget wet, and I slide the.
On the really cold nights I'llslide my trash can in front of
it so it can't get direct wind,and that seems to do the trick.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
And then he builds little bonfires around it and
has his heat gun on it.
Again, it's a differentlifestyle, west of I-95,
evidently.
But we're going to put thisstuff up on the Facebook site.
On the website We'll get thevideo uploaded.
But there's a lot of things youcan do.
But if you just do these thingsone a weekend, you can knock
(34:53):
out 10 of these things and someof them take less than 10
minutes.
Some of them don't take but anhour total time to do it, and
Thanksgiving comes and you canreally enjoy going into fall
before you hang up Christmaslights and things like that and
get your house ready for colderweather.
But it is falls, my favoritetime of year.
I don't know about you, evenwithout football.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh gosh, I've been in Thank you Lord for this amazing
weather mode all week and, um,you know, like I said, everybody
on the job site's in a bettermood and it just seems like
things when that, when that heatwave breaks, I think everybody,
just, whether you even realizewhat's happening or not, you
appreciate it everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Just whether you even realize what's happening or not
, you appreciate it definitely,and july was brutal, let's face
it, so it's nice to get a breakin the weather.
Website the carolinacontractorcom.
Go there to get all theinformation you need.
You can find us on social mediaalso instagram, facebook,
youtube.
Just search for the carolinacontractor and we thank you for
tuning in and we hope to uh hearfrom you next week on the
(35:50):
Carolina Contractor Show.
Have a good day everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
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