Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is over Remodeling show brought to you by Edge
Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. Great website resource
learn more about edge construction. They've also got some great
photos on some recent projects they've done at edge Construction.
Again that website Edgeconstruction Company dot com, so we can
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(00:21):
in the Instagram and the big one is how is
houzz links right from Edgeconstruction Company dot com. Got a
full on portfolio there of some other projects. A lot
of projects up on that page as well. Think about
it some remodeling. The love to talk to the at
edge Construction tel for number six. So eight six three
six three three four to three. That number so easy
to remember. It's six three six Edge joining us since
(00:41):
studio this morning is the owner of Edge Construction. Mister
Mike two egg Mike. How you doing this morning, Sean.
It's good to see you. Do you typically wear your
glasses when you do the show? Am I just noticing
that because we're in a hold, they're on your head typically?
All right? Quick question. This is completely unrelated to the
program other than just little little Q and A with Mike.
Here are you reading glasses? Is that? Is that? How that? No?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I I'm kind of I really have one eye that's
near sight of Okay. They help on certain things, some
stuff I can.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
See, okay, because I was recently told I need to
get glasses from my optometrists, so I always wonder aout that.
I was like, what Mike's wearing glasses and now you
got them on your head. Okay, that's how we Well,
we've got an important conversation, a very timely seasonal conversation
with uh. Spring and summer in Wisconsin, we start to
get storms, we start to get storm damage, and trucks
(01:39):
start to roll in and I don't know what it
is too, By the way, what is contractors like Dodge Rams?
Do you see you're a ram guy. Yeah, they're awesome trucks.
They are. They're nice. We've had down by me, we
had hail damage a couple of months ago, and so
we've got contractors NonStop knocking on it, turn drive around
and I just observed them, like they all universally drive
(02:02):
the Yeah, the rams, they're beautiful trucks.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I just I don't know if there must be some
good carry I guess, yeah, I get it carrying stuff,
good at pulling things.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and that yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
They so in the industry we refer to them kind
of not some not always affectionately storm chasers. Right, and
so if you sort of did you have some people
in the neighborhood that need to do roofs.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Or every single house in Edgerton unless it had a recently,
they they're all getting right now what I what I
am on weekends? Uh, when I get home later today,
at what I will hear is hammers and nail guns
going and people do because it's just yeah and so
h we talk about like that term storm chaser. And
(02:47):
there are legitimately companies out there that are people that
will look on maps and just kind of show up,
aren't there.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
There are and you know the I'm sure the insurance
companies are out the word. Okay, we were you know,
obviously we need some resources over here. And I I
have a friend that actually works for insurance companies. He
is kind of a single guy that that is not
tied down anywhere. He goes and evaluates storm damage.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's it. That's his job.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
He's sort of a contractor to insurance companies. So he
you know, they send him you make a call, right, Uh,
they send him out or somebody like him, and he
climbs up, looks and says, yeah, your your roof needs
to be replaced, or you know, there's enough siding that
needs to be replaced that we gotta gotta do things.
And so there was a there's a whole structure here
to deal with this. And you know, as many roofs
(03:39):
as you're talking about, you know, the local, oh, the
normal gang that's there could never handle all this work.
So we do need how people like that, But it
is still a little bit of buyer beware because you're
gonna you're gonna get into roof, you're gonna assume everything's perfect,
and you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna want to you know,
think I'm off the hook for twenty years or so,
(04:01):
and and hopefully that's the case, and I think most
of the time it is, but there are there are
a few stories that I hear. Sometimes we're like, okay,
they it's you wouldn't expect this gang that we call
they were give them that nickname, to be the most
ethical crew. There's there's one in our neighborhood that is
going around and saying, okay, you definitely need a roof.
(04:23):
What did the insurance company say They they'd give you
to get into roof? Okay, seventeen thousand hours. Well magically
they're there a bid. Their price is going to be
sixteen ninety nine and throwing a bike and and yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Is it's funny. It's funny because it's true because there
they are out like that is like so.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And so I wanted to just so I got a
little more of that story. So yeah, we had a
couple of customers that past customers that called and said, hey,
you know my roof and and now it looks like
some setting and we're feeling siding off. Well what about windows?
I said, okay, do not trust those guys in the
windows like that. Let us help you there. And even
(05:09):
the siding part, you know, I don't know. You know,
you got a little time there. If the roof is bad,
you know, you want to get that done while they're
coming through. But surprisingly that so at that seventeen thousand
figure I just came up with. It was not out
of thin air. This is a real number and pretty
simple roof straight lines ranch house I'm like, you know what,
(05:31):
I'm I'm gonna make my kids go out there and
do it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And make the money, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
But we had our normal roofing contractor. He said, you know,
can you get one of your people out and look
at it. Yep, they came out and I think their
price was was eleven thousand, maybe twelve thousand, maybe nine thousand,
something like that. And I said, well, you know, they
were wondering what to do. I said, well, listen, you know,
(05:56):
insurance is going to pay for it either way. You're not.
You know, I would trust the local person that you
know is here and accountable a little more than than
somebody that just happens to be coming through knocking on
your door. And I don't know, have they do they
stopped your host? Do they? They stop your.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Place nearly every day. So what I've done is and
we just put a a We have a friend that
has a roofing company, put one of their signs out front.
That's that's that stopped them. And one of the things
you mentioned knowing a good a good con you know
for roofing, like a good contractor. And and of course
obviously there's going to be a lot of work. If
(06:32):
you got somebody that you trust that can look at
it and say, listen, yes there's damage, Yes you're going
to need a replaced roof, but it doesn't have to
happen today per se. Then then you can say, well,
let's let's worry about it at the end of the summer.
And and you know those type of things is like
the local guys will work with you on that, like
really give you that honest, straight, a trustworthy assessment.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It's a great point because you can get on the
list right you can say, hey, you know, I want
you to do it. When do you think you can
get out it? Okay, if it's September. Generally, I've always
kind of joked about hell damage because okay, there there's
there's times I look up and I go, yep, that's
I can definitely see hell damage and all the little,
uh you know, the.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Little gritty as.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
The granules start they're in the eaves troughs and you
can actually see where hits were and things like that.
But there's other times I look up there like, I
don't know, it doesn't looks fine to me, But yeah,
I don't think in either case, it's not like you
have to get it done tomorrow. It's just I think
for a lot of people they do use these out
of tongue contractors because it's kind of a peace of
mind thing. I want to just get it over with
(07:35):
as fast as I can get get not have to
worry about it, and get it done. But I I,
you know, there are options there as my point, and
you know, I don't love the kind of taking advantage
like uh, like I would say, uh, sorry, guys, you
(07:56):
don't get to see what the insurance company's gonna pay me,
you know, give me a legit bid here and tell
me what this is gonna cost and then uh, then
we make our own decision.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Doug, it's moorting like two wig of Edge Construction online,
Edgeconstruction Company dot com. The other thing that's happened uh
with us, uh since we've we've recently dealt with this
is so the door the knocks have stopped recently with
the sign, but the phone calls began and I don't know,
and I don't want to. I don't want to indict
my insurance company. But do they like share the list
of people on that because what's interesting is is my
(08:26):
wife handles all the interaction with our insurance company. She gets, Matt,
I've never gotten the call. She gets all the calls,
and I'm like, I'm trying to put two and two together.
I'm like, is that a case but kind of bigger
picture and less less about my conspiracy or belief. The
reality is they will cold call people as well, won't they?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, and you know if if if we're
gonna so there's there's in the contracting business, in their
modeling business, we have what we call replacement contractors. So
like rooffer siding windows. A lot of times fall in there,
and some of those trades can be you know, even
if it's not storm related, right, Like we hear lots
(09:08):
of stories from people about the window, but the winding
manufact you know, not the window manufacturers, about the windows
sales people, and you know they're working on commission and
there it's it's pretty profitable business. I kind of have
joke if I didn't have a conscience, I'd be selling
the windows because you know, there's I think there's a
lot of money in it. But it's not that we
(09:29):
don't do windows, it's that we we tend to do
them just in projects. But you know, they come around
and they're they're wanting to get business done, and sometimes
you know, you're you know, if one half the couple
is home with the kids or something and you have
this aggressive salesperson, that's uh. You know, I've heard stories
about trying to like forcet the way into your house
(09:50):
and really sits you down, like pin you down. It's like,
this is not really a great way to do business.
I mean, I I don't think my wife or I
would be comfortable with this, and I know you we've
probably had these experiences as a homeowner.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Also, Well, the worst part is if they walk away
and you don't feel good about it. Like That's the
other thing too, is like you hear these stories of
people that have been like high pressured and like their
feeling is like I'm gonna sign something and then when
they walk away, I'll get a sense of relief. You're
not gonna get relief. You're gonna feel terrible, because I
think a lot of us really quickly realize as probably
wasn't those type of things. So we talked to about,
(10:25):
you know, and one of the great things about getting
a chance to meet with you each and every week
on this program, like is getting a little insight into
the industry. And I know obviously with Edge construction, you
guys do when you guys are doing bigger projects, you
do you know, I think about adding like a like
an addition or a petty at that point, you guys
are doing rough, but you're not. That's not your your
call for.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I mean, we have had you know, homes that we've
worked on several times and people trust you and they
you know, listen, we're not riffers. Our guys do really
great work in there, but it's just not our day
and day out job. They still want us to do
it and we we have done that. But yeah, generally,
like I said, the replacement contractors are totally different. It
(11:04):
seems like we're all on the same team that we're
sort of not you know, the window people are used
to coming in and just doing that and refer a
cider obviously that that's kind of their miliu.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Two, would you guys get calls for flood I know,
you like after a basement, for example, has been flooded
and people are saying, you know what this is. You know,
we talk on the program regularly about the great work
you guys do at EDGE. I'm guessing you get quite
a few calls on that type of product you do.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
We have, you know, the basement waterproofing people. Since when
was the big flood thing? Was that twenty seventeen or so? Yeah,
right right, yep, yeah, you know they've been very busy
since then, adding drain tile and stopping leaks and things,
and so there's I think less now. But you know
(11:52):
that thing with insurance where they're on the outside of
the house, it seems like they're going to pay whatever
it takes to fix it. When you get damaged on
the inside of your house. I mean it's sort of
the reverse. We had one last years for a past
customer and it was a bad valve in an upstairs
(12:13):
main bath kind of kids bath, and that velvel at loose.
They were gone for the weekend, rained down on the
kitchen and dining room and a bunch of other things,
and it led to a lot of other remodeling. But
you know, I would say they paid insurance wanted to
pay something like fifteen percent of that bill out this
is this is messed up, like you need to even
this thing out here.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
A little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
So, yeah, we do get those calls. It's just unfortunately,
I don't know if there's a different kind of policy.
It did make me reevaluate our policy. I think we
have a replacement policy now or or if damage does happen. Okay,
it's just going to cost what it costs. It's not
like you sent out an adjustering. Oh you need a kitchen,
we'll give you five thousand dollars. Spend it how you
(12:56):
at the end.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, it's not gonna work with Like I'll ask a
question more. But one of the things you mentioned too
is like the valve. I don't think people realize how
much water can come out of one single valve, especially
if you're not around for a day, that can fill out,
like literally can start to pool in basements and things can't. Yeah,
(13:19):
it's really bad.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And there was a time about maybe fifteen years ago
where there was a popular plumbing valve. Now that's like
in the weeds here. But if you look under your
kitchen or bathroom sink, you'll see a shut off the hot.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And cold water looks like a jelly bean.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah. Turn that thing. Yeah, and then you're able to
replace a fixture, do whatever. That's what it's theirs to
do that stuff. And so whenever we get a chance,
when we're in a house and we're working on a room,
I don't care if those valves are one year old,
We're going to replace them. But there was a time,
like I said, maybe fifteen years ago, I think that
(13:58):
there was a bad valved set of valves that got
popular in town and went through Dane County, and it
was like a year's worth putting the valves in it.
It was unbelievable how many failures there were. They would
just start leaking, so it led to a lot of
remodeling and not good things.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Actually, is that it's interesting you mentioned that because I've
seen those. The ones that you're talking I think we've
still got a couple in are like on the in
the back of the toilet, for example, are kind of
oval shape. Yeah, but like the ones under our sink
are like this. It's like a handle that you lift
up or pushed down. Are those better? Are they? Are? Those?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I like because it's it's just to me a little
bit simpler system. Whereas you know, some the the ones
you turn sometimes those will leak on. Every home owner
has been through this. I'm sure if you spend them
all the way out they'll stop leaking. If you spend
them all the way in, they'll stop leaking. But it's like, okay,
you're on borrow time. If that's happening, if you're in
(14:52):
between there and it's and it's dripping, it is probably
a good idea to replace that.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Creaking noise gives me anxiety too, And which is you know,
maybe I think I kind.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Of lined up right, Yeah, just getting there. There's no
way to really clean them out.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
We're talking too about about we're talking this week about
about some home improvements things, scams, things to be looking
out for. And of course seasonally it's definitely a thing
stormtree chasers. They are out there. And uh, and I
think sometimes too, Mike, one of the mistakes people will
make is well, because the insurance company is involved, they're
going to be making they're going to be like an
(15:23):
advocate and the reality is for them, they're they're you know,
they do their due diligence. Okay, this is what what
the what we are obligated to. We're obligated to what
we ensured. We will cut to you the check. The
rest is really on you warrant. Yeah, exactly right, Yeah,
I mean, and and you.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Like I said, the outside seems to be different than
the inside. Like I'm hearing numbers that insurance is paying
for for new rops, I'm like, wow, that's some really
good numbers. That has not been my experience in the past.
Usually it's like the adjusters are trying to get off
as cheaply as possible. They're just not They're not willing
to to meet you halfway on things, and so yeah,
(16:04):
I would definitely not consider them an advocate the adjuster,
because I don't met You know, a lot of people
know their agents and are sometimes friends with their agents,
but they're not the ones necessarily right in the check
They will advocate for you, I hope with their company,
but you know, the adjusters kind of run stuff and
they're the ones that decide so where that money gets spent.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Did I tell you about our adjuster at all? No,
I don't think I told you. Sorry, So I'm guessing
he was not only was he super through with the roof.
This guy went around and like credited us. So I
have my grill and I've got of course, I want
to keep my grill nice and pretty, so I've got
a really nice custom cover for it, and well the
hail damage, said cover, and he gave us credit for that.
(16:45):
He went out to my chicken coop and I've got
like a plastic bin that I keep feeding stuff in
that had I did notice this. He noticed there was damage,
gave me like two hundred bucks to buy a new band.
I thought, oh, that's very nice. If you're with my
insurance agency, they're going to go out of business soon
because they're right. But yeah, it's it's again. There's great experiences,
(17:07):
there's there are some things you want to watch out for.
We're going to talk a little bit more about some
some of those home improving contractor scams. Talk a little
bit more too about storm chasers and some of the
some of the things you want to be watching out for,
some red flags as well. S talk this morning with
my two wig of Edge Construction. It's a great day
to think about doing some modeling on your home. You
think about too, about some of the great space around
(17:28):
your home, the kitchen, the basements, the bedrooms, the trim,
all that great stuff. My team love talk to you.
I got to pick up phone gamacall six o eight
six three six three three four three that number six
three six Edge the website Edge Construction Company dot com.
Of course, Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show
right here thirteen ten WIBA. This is the Homer Modeling
Show brought you by Edge Construction online, Edge Construction Company
(17:51):
dot com. It's all one word Edge Construction Company dot com.
They're telling number six O eight six three six three
three four three that number six three six edge hanging
out this morning with Mike two. And one of the
great things about getting a chance to hang out with
Mike each and every week is get a chance kind
of pick his brain. He gets to see the industry
up close and personal. Uh, sees what's done right, what's
done wrong, what's done mediocre, what's done u spectacularly and glowing?
(18:14):
And as we talk about this stuff, oftentimes it is
buyer buyer beware. And you want to be very very cautious.
You work hard for mind, you know, we work very
very hard to earn earn money, and uh, you want
to make sure you're you're working and spending that stuff wisely.
And one of the areas and it is.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Kind of easy to get drawn in ye vaulting anybody
for that?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, And and with that too, is you know,
you think of things like upfront payments, and I know
that whether it's a storm chaser, and we even have
heard I you know, I think we've shared some stories
over the years of even just for remodeling projects, something
that's it's this is not an urgent nine one one thing.
We want to remodel the kitchen. And we've heard from
(18:56):
folks that have experienced working with with contractors, whether they're
out of town stormchaser type or if they're even even local,
that you know, take money up front and they start
a project. And I know you've come in on a
few of these where the project fell apart and the
contractor kind of gone, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Just happened. And you know, unfortunately, like you know, when
you hear news about their modeling industry, that's the kind
of things you hear. I mean, you don't hear about
all the great contractors that follow up process and it's
a very repeatable thing and they're they're there till the
till the the last the last of it. Everything's done, everything,
(19:33):
everything's great, and then and not only that will stand
behind that work or for the future, and you know
that's who you want to work with, but that that
is boring, it's not sexy, it's not cool. We want
to talk about the problems. We want to talk about.
You know, if you if you watch the TV shows, yeah,
they they other than the the this old heuse guys
like they they show you know, good technique and they
(19:56):
things going the way they they're supposed to do. There's
an occasional little bit. I don't want to call it
even drama because I don't feel like they do that
and they don't make their living there. But you know
the flip shows, if you watch those when they were on,
I don't know if they're still on, but you know
they always found something right. Yeah, and most contracting shows,
well we've found something that's going to cost you more
money is create some drama. And really that that doesn't
(20:18):
happen as much as you think with good contractors because
there it's not that they can see the future. But
you have all this experience and you know, I always say,
if you shine the light enough, you know you do
have a really good feel for what's going to what's
going to happen.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
You know, we talked to about you know, working hard
for the money and that goes both ways. And obviously
if you're any credible contractor of course wants to make
sure they're getting paid as well, so there is obviously
legitimate pay you know, we can talk about this. Yeah,
this is what I want to I want to ask
you about kind of like a payment schedule, and I know,
in talking with you over the years, very clear about
about what's what's due when in project those type points.
(20:56):
Let's talk a little bit about that, like financing a project.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Right, So there's kind of a sliding scale of how
this should work in my mind. So if you're if
you pick a contractor that has no reputation, maybe maybe
just word of mouth, but it hasn't done much work,
maybe it's small starting out, I'd be probably more reluctant
to give money down for things there because you're really
(21:23):
it's sort of a shot in the dark. There's just
not this track record that you can rely on. If
you've got somebody that's been around, I mean, we've been
around more than thirty years. If we were having that
kind of trouble, there would definitely be evidence and it
wouldn't be hard to find it. Yeah, on there, and
so like how do we do it? Okay, if if
it's a basement finish, and when we sign a contract,
(21:44):
we get money down right, because if you don't exchange
any money at sign a contract, a lot of people say, well,
it's not really much of a contract. Plus you are
going to have some expense there at first. Anyways, you've
got to pull permits, you might have to order some things.
We are order heavy at contract stage, so we certainly
are ordering all the cabinets, we're orning, we're we're having
(22:08):
our supplier order slabs for slabs for courts over granted.
It sort of secures our product and all those companies
now they're not gonna put out you know, they're not
going to float the four or five grand until you're
ready to have that granted counter shop show up or
that court's kind of top show up. So so that
that part of the business has changed, and it does
(22:29):
take more money down on like a kitchener model than
where you've got cabinets and and tops and maybe flooring choices.
Like if you go back in our backshop, you're going
to find flooring for houses that were probably not starting
those jobs for maybe sometimes even a couple of months.
Because what if in my mind, what if what if
it goes out of production or what if you know,
what if you play this what if game of what
(22:52):
if there's a problem, And so I'd rather have it
in my hands. So we want to recover some of
those things on our on our on our down payment,
on our upfront money. But again, who do you trust
with that? How do you how do you how do
you deal with that? I know some really established contractors
that that want a lot more down than we do,
and I we just don't do that. I want it
(23:14):
to kind of be fair and sort of if you're
giving money down, it's accounted for because you're you're ordering
something windows, windows, doors, those kinds of things, all those
all those things you order at contract time. Generally contractors
have to pay for those pretty quickly, so that that's
usually covered in a down payment.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So and and one thing too is we talk about
kind of home improvement contractor scams and some of the
stormitages of Not all failed projects are necessarily scams. Sometimes
it's it's you know, ran out of money, ran out
of time. Uh, just a contractor that that was ill
prepared for the job. And that's something too. And I
know we talk about about references and resources and those
(23:54):
type of things. That's something you want to be checking
out and vetting as well, isn't it? It is?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And I think think probably the biggest, uh, the biggest,
the biggest problem that leads to the from what I
hear and through my career, what I've heard that's led
to projects not getting finished is really when an inexperienced
contractor bids a project too low to get the work.
So you think about like, you know, as a homeowner,
(24:19):
you're going, well, everybody else bid forty thousand, and this
guy says you can do it for twenty and he
sounds really convincing and AND's been doing this kind of work.
But you know, like when when you knew her at
it and I always gills you this too, there's not
you don't know what you don't know, and you start
getting in there, you're like, oh no, no, I've got
to make up for this shortcoming with my labor basically right,
(24:40):
and and so uh, that can be that can tank
a new person in this business, That can tank a
contractor that I don't think you want to be the
homeowner where this project got under bid because okay, what
if they can't pay their suppliers? Right, We've talked about
(25:01):
this on shows in the past, where if a homeowner
gets a bill for you know, like a progress payment
maybe at mechanicals or or later drywall, or we do
them at contact Template or some of these milestones, and
you pay them because they're going to use this money
in theory to pay their their suppliers. And if they
(25:21):
do not pay their spuyers or maybe they you know
they're there, there's something nefarious going on there, like they
are going to go, I'm taking the money and going
to Mexico or something someplace where the dollar is worth
the money, or or maybe they just they ran out
and like now they're now they're robbing one side to
(25:42):
pay the other. Right, maybe they're maybe they're paying the
bills from the last job with your money, which is all.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Illegal by the way.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It's like you know, now, it doesn't get prosecuted much
unless it's really blatant. But uh, people in our business,
we are not supposed to take money from this pile
over here and pay bills for this job we're here.
Like that is that's bad, bad, bad, and so But
like I said, you don't know what's going on there always,
(26:09):
so if you if you as a homer. If you
give money to that contractor and you think he's paying
off those bills but he doesn't or they don't, that
supplier uh is still going to have the view that
you owe that money. So they can come back on you, sean.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
And could they put a leg yes, oh really.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Wow they can. They can, you know, and they can
sue you. They can. And so like there's this this
underbidding thing.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is a big problem.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Uh there's also uh when times get a little tougher,
I hear even friends of mine in this business going, well,
I've got to keep my people busy. You know, we're
gonna come in a little lower just uh, maybe we
won't make money on a couple of jobs too. But
I really think that's dangerous territory because, like I said,
at some point, this whole thing could the host of
(27:01):
cards could fall in on a on a contractor, and
you really don't want that. You don't want to be
on that job. You don't want to mind your job
when that happened.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
When this morning with Mike two Eg, owner of Edge Construction,
A lot of great information about Edge Construction on the
website edge Construction company dot com. That's all one word
Edge Construction Company dot com. They're top number six, so
eight six three six three three four three that numbers
so easy to remember at six three six edge Well
continue our conversation with Mike. We will do that next.
It's the Homer Modeling Show with Edge Construction continues right
(27:27):
here on thirteen ten dol wuibi. This is the Homer
Modeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction Online. Edge
Construction Company dot com. That's all one word Edge Construction
Company dot com. Great website resource to learn more about
(27:50):
edge construction and of course see some of the great
projects that they do. They've got links also on Facebook,
Pinterest and howse as well house is a great one
too quick. We're going to talk about that, the free
home and the free inspections and those other things that
you hear about. I'm gonna get into that in just
a moment, but I'm mentioning hows uh we talk about
a great resource to find out about like about like
(28:12):
history and track record and completed projects. That's a that's
a pretty good one to see the work in real time.
It is.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Uh, it's my favorite spot to go. I mean, it's
a real resource for me and it's become this during
house for kind of everything about remodeling and owning a house.
And you know, there's advice on there on maintenance, there's
there's talks about the process, there's I don't know how
many billions of pictures around there.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
There's a lot of pictures.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I think we have close to two hundred projects now
on house Wow. So you can look back and go,
I wonder how their designers are holding up here. Maybe
they what's the work looked like they were doing a
while back, but ah would u z Z dot com.
So it's well worth especially if you're if if if
we come to your house the first time and you
you want to do a project, I'm going to ask
you if you done any homework. And what I'm what
(29:02):
I'm wondering is if you've been on something like houser
Pinterest or you know, poking around and identifying your style, at.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Least is that something to to and obviously not the
only tool, but you can at least see that that
projects that have been done. I mean we think about
as we're talking about, you know, some of the contractor
scams and some of the things that can go on.
Got a good solid portfolio and obviously talk about with
edge construction, with thirty year history in this area. I
(29:27):
mean you've got that there's what they alsocial line proof
is in the pudding. I mean it's it's it's hard
to ignore that there's a that there's a successful track record.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, I think it's it's it's just you know, and
and you know, when you're looking at these track records,
it you know, you're you shouldn't really see all cake
and cookies, right, Yeah, Like it's not that there's never
been a problem, but you know, like if you're if
you're here for the long haul, you're gonna you're gonna
build up that. You know, if I would, in fact,
if I was starting over, i was younger, wouldn't that
(29:58):
be fun?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And those are the places I would showcase my work
because I'd i'd want to give you know, you want
to give your the homeowners, yet you worked for a
chance to give some feedback. You want to you want
to show off the project. You want to you want
to identify the quality of work you've been doing. The
one issue with Hell is when it when it was
pretty young, maybe fifteen years ago, was that it sort
(30:24):
of showed everybody's just only very top of the heat
work and there wasn't much normal on there. And uh,
I you know you need some of that too, because
like you're always think like, okay, if you're going to
do a project and you kind of have an idea
what you want to look like, you want you want,
it's helpful to find, you know, the picture in your
head somewhere. And house now I think is getting better
(30:44):
at doing that.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
By the way, you mentioned uh uh be young again.
We recently celebrated one hundred years here at the radio station.
There was a there's an event with you know, all
those folks. So we had photos from the from just
different things over the years. And there was a picture
of you from about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, and you know you don't age because are one
of our One of our folks here at the station
said once it's from and I said, yeah, maybe fifteen
years ago. No, what, No, I don't think Mike. It's
a good living. Mike, you're doing something right. Yeah, Like, hey,
Mike doesn't doesn't age at all. Let's talk about those
free inspections because I think that that's uh, it's very
(31:24):
as a homeowner. It's a very alluring, prospective. Come on out,
take a look. Let me know how my house looks.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yes, and uh so it's a little bit of can
be fox in the headhouse, right, because okay, here's if
you went to the to get your car fixed. What
do they do now? Yeah, but I think they they
moved from free inspections, so now they charged most to
the reputable places. And uh, you're they want to get
(31:56):
paid for every minute basically af they're looking at your car,
which I get that. Uh, the construction is a little different.
We we have salespeople that come totch construction that are
I'll pick on insurance again because it's a good easy target.
But they're they're well enough for free just to evaluate
all your stuff, and yes, and and you just they'll
hold your check book for you while they're looking at it.
(32:18):
But uh, we see the free inspection thing with all
those outside trades for sure, windows siding. Uh it's a
it's it's high dollar return stuff, right, and so there's
a lot of incentive for those salespeople to sell things.
The bath in the day. Guys, I'm not picking out
all of you, but some of you you know who
you are. They literally will walk up and down the block,
(32:40):
knocking every door. I will do a free inspection of
your of your of your bath, of your plumbing, even
though we're not plumbers, and and and check this stuff out.
And yes, they're not gonna they're not really are the
honest I hope some of them are. All of them know,
because they're just seeing too many stories. So again it's
(33:01):
buyer beware. And you know, if you can get some
advice from friend, relative, neighbor, somebody that helps you, that
maybe has some more knowledge in this if you're feeling
like you're not sure what's going on, and I think
that's really worth it.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And that's a you mentioned some of those the bath
in to day thing. I don't know what it is.
They somehow get these like custom made post it notes.
And we have our main door, the door on that
is glass, like a lot of folks, and they stick
them right on there. Like literally every week somebody comes back.
I thankfully always miss somebody. Yeah, definitely definitely buyer beware
on that stuff. Well, cause you're our conversation with Mike,
(33:37):
Guy's got a couple more things to touch on. Ed
Edge construction of course, the Homer Modeling Show with Edge
Construction the website Edge Construction Company dot com. That's Edgeconstruction
Company dot com. Of course, they bring you the Homer
Modeling Show right here on thirteen ten WYBA. This is
the Homer Modeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction
right here thirteen ten WYBA, the website Edge Construction Company.
(34:00):
They're telling number six. So waight six three six three
three four three that number six three six Edge talking
this week. Of course, timely we think summer, we think
spring storms and there's no storm chasers out there. Protecting
yourself from contractor scams and making sure that that everybody
is happy at the end of a project. And Mike,
(34:20):
one of the areas that is important is permitting and
understanding permitting. And uh, it's not for a lot of folks.
They need to There's certain things they really need to
understand about about permits, don't they.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, So, like if you're worried about getting scammed, one
of the first clues is if your contractor says, hey,
would you mind pulling the permit? Because a homewner can
pull it. You can pull your own permits. You can
pull it for electrical plumbing, heating, it, whatever you want.
Construction building.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
By the way, I just said, sure, like I knew this.
Without you, I would have had any idea. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, I do know now, so yeah, so if so,
that is a way that sometimes some that doesn't have
the ability to pull the permit. So I just had
to do my continuing education. So I'm gonna wind about
that a little bit. It used to be great. I think,
you know, it's actually pretty easy and it's valuable info, right,
(35:15):
and so we got to do they're all online classes now,
but I used to be able to do the twelve
hours in about an hour and a half because I
would just take the test and because generally if you've
been at this long, yeah, and it's not like I
quit studying just because I don't, you know, have to
take the test and so try to stap on stuff.
But this time around, it took me probably sixteen hours
(35:38):
because you get asked a question and then you have
to take there's a you're on a clock, so it's
this question should take you four minutes to answer and
then so like sometimes you're pulling your thumbs in waiting,
but it forces you to really look at stuff. And
I noticed the tests are getting harder so they're making
you do a little more research to get through this stuff.
(36:00):
There's there's that component to get your license to pull permits,
and there's also a component of insurance, so you have
to prove that you have a certain level of liability
insurance to the state. You make them kind of an
also insurance, so they get a certificate insurance. And it
sounds complicated, it's really not. Just because you are able
(36:22):
to pull permits doesn't make you a great contractor about it.
But if you can't do that, and like, well, you
haven't even done the entry level stuff here to get
in there, like and so should a homeowner pull a
permit if you're doing your own electrical on a basement finish?
I mean, I would never recommend a work being done
(36:43):
without a permit, even if the homeowner is doing all
the work. The inspector will come in and check your work,
you know, if you're doing things, and they'll tell you
where you got wrong, and they probably get snappy if
they have to come back too many times to make
you fix things. So like, there's there is that part.
But one last thing, by the way, like I'll sneak
it in, is is when you talk about warranty warrantying
(37:07):
your work. Okay, the state kind of gives us all
a thing or around the hook for like a year.
By the way, there's a lot of builders out there.
When you buy your house, they're counting down the days somewhere.
They've got a slash in a wall, a number in
a wall, and you're once. If it's three hundred and
sixty six days, you are done. You don't get anything fixed.
(37:30):
I don't think that's really a great system. I think
like if like like with us, if if we've done
something that you know, I don't care if it's three
years out, five years out, you find something that we
made a mistake, we want to fix it. We don't
want somebody else to come in here and fix it.
We want to deal with our own issue. We have
(37:51):
occasionally had had had products that went haywire, maybe a
plumbing fixture or something, and we will help customers deal
with that stuff for a long time. And I can
say that we actually don't have a lot of warranty issues,
Thank goodness. You know, work pretty hard. I get it
right the first time. But I think that is a
good question for somebody and something to really think about. Okay,
(38:13):
if I if I'm using somebody that doesn't have a
track record, the underbid everybody else, no website, no reviews, no,
you know, I don't really know much about this person.
Can I really have great expectations on if I have
a problem in the future, are think canna help me
deal with it? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
One final thing before we wrap two. You mentioned permits,
and we also mentioned earlier like there's bathroom places that
will like do a shower, and how do you get
a permit? That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Shot, That is my question because if you're replacing any
of that stuff, yeah, you are supposed to have it
looked at. I don't know how that fits in in
the work and a day deal. I'm assuming that there's
a you know, on our jobs. If we're doing electrical work,
it's electrician doing it. If we're doing plumbing, there's a
(39:04):
plumber doing it. If it's heating, it's the same thing.
We're the master electrician, right we have we we're an
electrical contractors. We take care of that. We get our
own permits, we get our own inspections. Plumbers, there needs
to be a master plumber behind that. So I know
there's not master plumbers walking around selling bathrooms door to door.
It's just not ever going to happen. And so that's
(39:27):
a good point. And what how do you you know
a lot of bathrooms are going to there? There's things
that need to be updated, there's pipes that there's valves
that need to be replaced, there's there's work that needs
to be done, there's there's electrical that needs to be
updated and brought up to code. And I think there's
a lot of people doing this work that that probably
aren't qualified to do it.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
So really good, really good warnings. And of course there
are great contractors out there, there are also those out
there that you want to be leery of. And of
course be very very careful. If you listen to the
program today, thank you for doing that, and make sure
you share the information with your friends and family as well.
Of course to do the iHeart radio app and the
website speak of the website Edgeconstruction Company dot com great
(40:03):
place to get to know the team at Edge Construction
Companies see their projects. They're top number six so eight
six three six three three four three that number six
three six edge And of course Edge Construction brings you
the Homer Modeling Show right here on thirteen ten WIBA
This is over Remodeling show brought to you by Edge
Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. Great website resource
learn more about edge construction. They've also got some great
photos on some recent projects they've done at edge Construction.
Again that website Edgeconstruction Company dot com, so we can
have recent projects. There's a few links on Edgeconstruction Company
dot com that take places like Facebook and Pinterest. They're
(00:21):
in the Instagram and the big one is how is
houzz links right from Edgeconstruction Company dot com. Got a
full on portfolio there of some other projects. A lot
of projects up on that page as well. Think about
it some remodeling. The love to talk to the at
edge Construction tel for number six. So eight six three
six three three four to three. That number so easy
to remember. It's six three six Edge joining us since
(00:41):
studio this morning is the owner of Edge Construction. Mister
Mike two egg Mike. How you doing this morning, Sean.
It's good to see you. Do you typically wear your
glasses when you do the show? Am I just noticing
that because we're in a hold, they're on your head typically?
All right? Quick question. This is completely unrelated to the
program other than just little little Q and A with Mike.
Here are you reading glasses? Is that? Is that? How that? No?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I I'm kind of I really have one eye that's
near sight of Okay. They help on certain things, some
stuff I can.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
See, okay, because I was recently told I need to
get glasses from my optometrists, so I always wonder aout that.
I was like, what Mike's wearing glasses and now you
got them on your head. Okay, that's how we Well,
we've got an important conversation, a very timely seasonal conversation
with uh. Spring and summer in Wisconsin, we start to
get storms, we start to get storm damage, and trucks
(01:39):
start to roll in and I don't know what it
is too, By the way, what is contractors like Dodge Rams?
Do you see you're a ram guy. Yeah, they're awesome trucks.
They are. They're nice. We've had down by me, we
had hail damage a couple of months ago, and so
we've got contractors NonStop knocking on it, turn drive around
and I just observed them, like they all universally drive
(02:02):
the Yeah, the rams, they're beautiful trucks.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I just I don't know if there must be some
good carry I guess, yeah, I get it carrying stuff,
good at pulling things.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and that yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
They so in the industry we refer to them kind
of not some not always affectionately storm chasers. Right, and
so if you sort of did you have some people
in the neighborhood that need to do roofs.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Or every single house in Edgerton unless it had a recently,
they they're all getting right now what I what I
am on weekends? Uh, when I get home later today,
at what I will hear is hammers and nail guns
going and people do because it's just yeah and so
h we talk about like that term storm chaser. And
(02:47):
there are legitimately companies out there that are people that
will look on maps and just kind of show up,
aren't there.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
There are and you know the I'm sure the insurance
companies are out the word. Okay, we were you know,
obviously we need some resources over here. And I I
have a friend that actually works for insurance companies. He
is kind of a single guy that that is not
tied down anywhere. He goes and evaluates storm damage.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's it. That's his job.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
He's sort of a contractor to insurance companies. So he
you know, they send him you make a call, right, Uh,
they send him out or somebody like him, and he
climbs up, looks and says, yeah, your your roof needs
to be replaced, or you know, there's enough siding that
needs to be replaced that we gotta gotta do things.
And so there was a there's a whole structure here
to deal with this. And you know, as many roofs
(03:39):
as you're talking about, you know, the local, oh, the
normal gang that's there could never handle all this work.
So we do need how people like that, But it
is still a little bit of buyer beware because you're
gonna you're gonna get into roof, you're gonna assume everything's perfect,
and you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna want to you know,
think I'm off the hook for twenty years or so,
(04:01):
and and hopefully that's the case, and I think most
of the time it is, but there are there are
a few stories that I hear. Sometimes we're like, okay,
they it's you wouldn't expect this gang that we call
they were give them that nickname, to be the most
ethical crew. There's there's one in our neighborhood that is
going around and saying, okay, you definitely need a roof.
(04:23):
What did the insurance company say They they'd give you
to get into roof? Okay, seventeen thousand hours. Well magically
they're there a bid. Their price is going to be
sixteen ninety nine and throwing a bike and and yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Is it's funny. It's funny because it's true because there
they are out like that is like so.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And so I wanted to just so I got a
little more of that story. So yeah, we had a
couple of customers that past customers that called and said, hey,
you know my roof and and now it looks like
some setting and we're feeling siding off. Well what about windows?
I said, okay, do not trust those guys in the
windows like that. Let us help you there. And even
(05:09):
the siding part, you know, I don't know. You know,
you got a little time there. If the roof is bad,
you know, you want to get that done while they're
coming through. But surprisingly that so at that seventeen thousand
figure I just came up with. It was not out
of thin air. This is a real number and pretty
simple roof straight lines ranch house I'm like, you know what,
(05:31):
I'm I'm gonna make my kids go out there and
do it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And make the money, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
But we had our normal roofing contractor. He said, you know,
can you get one of your people out and look
at it. Yep, they came out and I think their
price was was eleven thousand, maybe twelve thousand, maybe nine thousand,
something like that. And I said, well, you know, they
were wondering what to do. I said, well, listen, you know,
(05:56):
insurance is going to pay for it either way. You're not.
You know, I would trust the local person that you
know is here and accountable a little more than than
somebody that just happens to be coming through knocking on
your door. And I don't know, have they do they
stopped your host? Do they? They stop your.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Place nearly every day. So what I've done is and
we just put a a We have a friend that
has a roofing company, put one of their signs out front.
That's that's that stopped them. And one of the things
you mentioned knowing a good a good con you know
for roofing, like a good contractor. And and of course
obviously there's going to be a lot of work. If
(06:32):
you got somebody that you trust that can look at
it and say, listen, yes there's damage, Yes you're going
to need a replaced roof, but it doesn't have to
happen today per se. Then then you can say, well,
let's let's worry about it at the end of the summer.
And and you know those type of things is like
the local guys will work with you on that, like
really give you that honest, straight, a trustworthy assessment.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It's a great point because you can get on the
list right you can say, hey, you know, I want
you to do it. When do you think you can
get out it? Okay, if it's September. Generally, I've always
kind of joked about hell damage because okay, there there's
there's times I look up and I go, yep, that's
I can definitely see hell damage and all the little,
uh you know, the.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Little gritty as.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
The granules start they're in the eaves troughs and you
can actually see where hits were and things like that.
But there's other times I look up there like, I
don't know, it doesn't looks fine to me, But yeah,
I don't think in either case, it's not like you
have to get it done tomorrow. It's just I think
for a lot of people they do use these out
of tongue contractors because it's kind of a peace of
mind thing. I want to just get it over with
(07:35):
as fast as I can get get not have to
worry about it, and get it done. But I I,
you know, there are options there as my point, and
you know, I don't love the kind of taking advantage
like uh, like I would say, uh, sorry, guys, you
(07:56):
don't get to see what the insurance company's gonna pay me,
you know, give me a legit bid here and tell
me what this is gonna cost and then uh, then
we make our own decision.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Doug, it's moorting like two wig of Edge Construction online,
Edgeconstruction Company dot com. The other thing that's happened uh
with us, uh since we've we've recently dealt with this
is so the door the knocks have stopped recently with
the sign, but the phone calls began and I don't know,
and I don't want to. I don't want to indict
my insurance company. But do they like share the list
of people on that because what's interesting is is my
(08:26):
wife handles all the interaction with our insurance company. She gets, Matt,
I've never gotten the call. She gets all the calls,
and I'm like, I'm trying to put two and two together.
I'm like, is that a case but kind of bigger
picture and less less about my conspiracy or belief. The
reality is they will cold call people as well, won't they?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, and you know if if if we're
gonna so there's there's in the contracting business, in their
modeling business, we have what we call replacement contractors. So
like rooffer siding windows. A lot of times fall in there,
and some of those trades can be you know, even
if it's not storm related, right, Like we hear lots
(09:08):
of stories from people about the window, but the winding
manufact you know, not the window manufacturers, about the windows
sales people, and you know they're working on commission and
there it's it's pretty profitable business. I kind of have
joke if I didn't have a conscience, I'd be selling
the windows because you know, there's I think there's a
lot of money in it. But it's not that we
(09:29):
don't do windows, it's that we we tend to do
them just in projects. But you know, they come around
and they're they're wanting to get business done, and sometimes
you know, you're you know, if one half the couple
is home with the kids or something and you have
this aggressive salesperson, that's uh. You know, I've heard stories
about trying to like forcet the way into your house
(09:50):
and really sits you down, like pin you down. It's like,
this is not really a great way to do business.
I mean, I I don't think my wife or I
would be comfortable with this, and I know you we've
probably had these experiences as a homeowner.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Also, Well, the worst part is if they walk away
and you don't feel good about it. Like That's the
other thing too, is like you hear these stories of
people that have been like high pressured and like their
feeling is like I'm gonna sign something and then when
they walk away, I'll get a sense of relief. You're
not gonna get relief. You're gonna feel terrible, because I
think a lot of us really quickly realize as probably
wasn't those type of things. So we talked to about,
(10:25):
you know, and one of the great things about getting
a chance to meet with you each and every week
on this program, like is getting a little insight into
the industry. And I know obviously with Edge construction, you
guys do when you guys are doing bigger projects, you
do you know, I think about adding like a like
an addition or a petty at that point, you guys
are doing rough, but you're not. That's not your your
call for.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I mean, we have had you know, homes that we've
worked on several times and people trust you and they
you know, listen, we're not riffers. Our guys do really
great work in there, but it's just not our day
and day out job. They still want us to do
it and we we have done that. But yeah, generally,
like I said, the replacement contractors are totally different. It
(11:04):
seems like we're all on the same team that we're
sort of not you know, the window people are used
to coming in and just doing that and refer a
cider obviously that that's kind of their miliu.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Two, would you guys get calls for flood I know,
you like after a basement, for example, has been flooded
and people are saying, you know what this is. You know,
we talk on the program regularly about the great work
you guys do at EDGE. I'm guessing you get quite
a few calls on that type of product you do.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
We have, you know, the basement waterproofing people. Since when
was the big flood thing? Was that twenty seventeen or so? Yeah,
right right, yep, yeah, you know they've been very busy
since then, adding drain tile and stopping leaks and things,
and so there's I think less now. But you know
(11:52):
that thing with insurance where they're on the outside of
the house, it seems like they're going to pay whatever
it takes to fix it. When you get damaged on
the inside of your house. I mean it's sort of
the reverse. We had one last years for a past
customer and it was a bad valve in an upstairs
(12:13):
main bath kind of kids bath, and that velvel at loose.
They were gone for the weekend, rained down on the
kitchen and dining room and a bunch of other things,
and it led to a lot of other remodeling. But
you know, I would say they paid insurance wanted to
pay something like fifteen percent of that bill out this
is this is messed up, like you need to even
this thing out here.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
A little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
So, yeah, we do get those calls. It's just unfortunately,
I don't know if there's a different kind of policy.
It did make me reevaluate our policy. I think we
have a replacement policy now or or if damage does happen. Okay,
it's just going to cost what it costs. It's not
like you sent out an adjustering. Oh you need a kitchen,
we'll give you five thousand dollars. Spend it how you
(12:56):
at the end.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, it's not gonna work with Like I'll ask a
question more. But one of the things you mentioned too
is like the valve. I don't think people realize how
much water can come out of one single valve, especially
if you're not around for a day, that can fill out,
like literally can start to pool in basements and things can't. Yeah,
(13:19):
it's really bad.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And there was a time about maybe fifteen years ago
where there was a popular plumbing valve. Now that's like
in the weeds here. But if you look under your
kitchen or bathroom sink, you'll see a shut off the hot.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And cold water looks like a jelly bean.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah. Turn that thing. Yeah, and then you're able to
replace a fixture, do whatever. That's what it's theirs to
do that stuff. And so whenever we get a chance,
when we're in a house and we're working on a room,
I don't care if those valves are one year old,
We're going to replace them. But there was a time,
like I said, maybe fifteen years ago, I think that
(13:58):
there was a bad valved set of valves that got
popular in town and went through Dane County, and it
was like a year's worth putting the valves in it.
It was unbelievable how many failures there were. They would
just start leaking, so it led to a lot of
remodeling and not good things.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Actually, is that it's interesting you mentioned that because I've
seen those. The ones that you're talking I think we've
still got a couple in are like on the in
the back of the toilet, for example, are kind of
oval shape. Yeah, but like the ones under our sink
are like this. It's like a handle that you lift
up or pushed down. Are those better? Are they? Are? Those?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I like because it's it's just to me a little
bit simpler system. Whereas you know, some the the ones
you turn sometimes those will leak on. Every home owner
has been through this. I'm sure if you spend them
all the way out they'll stop leaking. If you spend
them all the way in, they'll stop leaking. But it's like, okay,
you're on borrow time. If that's happening, if you're in
(14:52):
between there and it's and it's dripping, it is probably
a good idea to replace that.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Creaking noise gives me anxiety too, And which is you know,
maybe I think I kind.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Of lined up right, Yeah, just getting there. There's no
way to really clean them out.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
We're talking too about about we're talking this week about
about some home improvements things, scams, things to be looking
out for. And of course seasonally it's definitely a thing
stormtree chasers. They are out there. And uh, and I
think sometimes too, Mike, one of the mistakes people will
make is well, because the insurance company is involved, they're
going to be making they're going to be like an
(15:23):
advocate and the reality is for them, they're they're you know,
they do their due diligence. Okay, this is what what
the what we are obligated to. We're obligated to what
we ensured. We will cut to you the check. The
rest is really on you warrant. Yeah, exactly right, Yeah,
I mean, and and you.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Like I said, the outside seems to be different than
the inside. Like I'm hearing numbers that insurance is paying
for for new rops, I'm like, wow, that's some really
good numbers. That has not been my experience in the past.
Usually it's like the adjusters are trying to get off
as cheaply as possible. They're just not They're not willing
to to meet you halfway on things, and so yeah,
(16:04):
I would definitely not consider them an advocate the adjuster,
because I don't met You know, a lot of people
know their agents and are sometimes friends with their agents,
but they're not the ones necessarily right in the check
They will advocate for you, I hope with their company,
but you know, the adjusters kind of run stuff and
they're the ones that decide so where that money gets spent.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Did I tell you about our adjuster at all? No,
I don't think I told you. Sorry, So I'm guessing
he was not only was he super through with the roof.
This guy went around and like credited us. So I
have my grill and I've got of course, I want
to keep my grill nice and pretty, so I've got
a really nice custom cover for it, and well the
hail damage, said cover, and he gave us credit for that.
(16:45):
He went out to my chicken coop and I've got
like a plastic bin that I keep feeding stuff in
that had I did notice this. He noticed there was damage,
gave me like two hundred bucks to buy a new band.
I thought, oh, that's very nice. If you're with my
insurance agency, they're going to go out of business soon
because they're right. But yeah, it's it's again. There's great experiences,
(17:07):
there's there are some things you want to watch out for.
We're going to talk a little bit more about some
some of those home improving contractor scams. Talk a little
bit more too about storm chasers and some of the
some of the things you want to be watching out for,
some red flags as well. S talk this morning with
my two wig of Edge Construction. It's a great day
to think about doing some modeling on your home. You
think about too, about some of the great space around
(17:28):
your home, the kitchen, the basements, the bedrooms, the trim,
all that great stuff. My team love talk to you.
I got to pick up phone gamacall six o eight
six three six three three four three that number six
three six Edge the website Edge Construction Company dot com.
Of course, Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show
right here thirteen ten WIBA. This is the Homer Modeling
Show brought you by Edge Construction online, Edge Construction Company
(17:51):
dot com. It's all one word Edge Construction Company dot com.
They're telling number six O eight six three six three
three four three that number six three six edge hanging
out this morning with Mike two. And one of the
great things about getting a chance to hang out with
Mike each and every week is get a chance kind
of pick his brain. He gets to see the industry
up close and personal. Uh, sees what's done right, what's
done wrong, what's done mediocre, what's done u spectacularly and glowing?
(18:14):
And as we talk about this stuff, oftentimes it is
buyer buyer beware. And you want to be very very cautious.
You work hard for mind, you know, we work very
very hard to earn earn money, and uh, you want
to make sure you're you're working and spending that stuff wisely.
And one of the areas and it is.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Kind of easy to get drawn in ye vaulting anybody
for that?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, And and with that too, is you know,
you think of things like upfront payments, and I know
that whether it's a storm chaser, and we even have
heard I you know, I think we've shared some stories
over the years of even just for remodeling projects, something
that's it's this is not an urgent nine one one thing.
We want to remodel the kitchen. And we've heard from
(18:56):
folks that have experienced working with with contractors, whether they're
out of town stormchaser type or if they're even even local,
that you know, take money up front and they start
a project. And I know you've come in on a
few of these where the project fell apart and the
contractor kind of gone, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Just happened. And you know, unfortunately, like you know, when
you hear news about their modeling industry, that's the kind
of things you hear. I mean, you don't hear about
all the great contractors that follow up process and it's
a very repeatable thing and they're they're there till the
till the the last the last of it. Everything's done, everything,
(19:33):
everything's great, and then and not only that will stand
behind that work or for the future, and you know
that's who you want to work with, but that that
is boring, it's not sexy, it's not cool. We want
to talk about the problems. We want to talk about.
You know, if you if you watch the TV shows, yeah,
they they other than the the this old heuse guys
like they they show you know, good technique and they
(19:56):
things going the way they they're supposed to do. There's
an occasional little bit. I don't want to call it
even drama because I don't feel like they do that
and they don't make their living there. But you know
the flip shows, if you watch those when they were on,
I don't know if they're still on, but you know
they always found something right. Yeah, and most contracting shows,
well we've found something that's going to cost you more
money is create some drama. And really that that doesn't
(20:18):
happen as much as you think with good contractors because
there it's not that they can see the future. But
you have all this experience and you know, I always say,
if you shine the light enough, you know you do
have a really good feel for what's going to what's
going to happen.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
You know, we talked to about you know, working hard
for the money and that goes both ways. And obviously
if you're any credible contractor of course wants to make
sure they're getting paid as well, so there is obviously
legitimate pay you know, we can talk about this. Yeah,
this is what I want to I want to ask
you about kind of like a payment schedule, and I know,
in talking with you over the years, very clear about
about what's what's due when in project those type points.
(20:56):
Let's talk a little bit about that, like financing a project.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Right, So there's kind of a sliding scale of how
this should work in my mind. So if you're if
you pick a contractor that has no reputation, maybe maybe
just word of mouth, but it hasn't done much work,
maybe it's small starting out, I'd be probably more reluctant
to give money down for things there because you're really
(21:23):
it's sort of a shot in the dark. There's just
not this track record that you can rely on. If
you've got somebody that's been around, I mean, we've been
around more than thirty years. If we were having that
kind of trouble, there would definitely be evidence and it
wouldn't be hard to find it. Yeah, on there, and
so like how do we do it? Okay, if if
it's a basement finish, and when we sign a contract,
(21:44):
we get money down right, because if you don't exchange
any money at sign a contract, a lot of people say, well,
it's not really much of a contract. Plus you are
going to have some expense there at first. Anyways, you've
got to pull permits, you might have to order some things.
We are order heavy at contract stage, so we certainly
are ordering all the cabinets, we're orning, we're we're having
(22:08):
our supplier order slabs for slabs for courts over granted.
It sort of secures our product and all those companies
now they're not gonna put out you know, they're not
going to float the four or five grand until you're
ready to have that granted counter shop show up or
that court's kind of top show up. So so that
that part of the business has changed, and it does
(22:29):
take more money down on like a kitchener model than
where you've got cabinets and and tops and maybe flooring choices.
Like if you go back in our backshop, you're going
to find flooring for houses that were probably not starting
those jobs for maybe sometimes even a couple of months.
Because what if in my mind, what if what if
it goes out of production or what if you know,
what if you play this what if game of what
(22:52):
if there's a problem, And so I'd rather have it
in my hands. So we want to recover some of
those things on our on our on our down payment,
on our upfront money. But again, who do you trust
with that? How do you how do you how do
you deal with that? I know some really established contractors
that that want a lot more down than we do,
and I we just don't do that. I want it
(23:14):
to kind of be fair and sort of if you're
giving money down, it's accounted for because you're you're ordering
something windows, windows, doors, those kinds of things, all those
all those things you order at contract time. Generally contractors
have to pay for those pretty quickly, so that that's
usually covered in a down payment.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So and and one thing too is we talk about
kind of home improvement contractor scams and some of the
stormitages of Not all failed projects are necessarily scams. Sometimes
it's it's you know, ran out of money, ran out
of time. Uh, just a contractor that that was ill
prepared for the job. And that's something too. And I
know we talk about about references and resources and those
(23:54):
type of things. That's something you want to be checking
out and vetting as well, isn't it? It is?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And I think think probably the biggest, uh, the biggest,
the biggest problem that leads to the from what I
hear and through my career, what I've heard that's led
to projects not getting finished is really when an inexperienced
contractor bids a project too low to get the work.
So you think about like, you know, as a homeowner,
(24:19):
you're going, well, everybody else bid forty thousand, and this
guy says you can do it for twenty and he
sounds really convincing and AND's been doing this kind of work.
But you know, like when when you knew her at
it and I always gills you this too, there's not
you don't know what you don't know, and you start
getting in there, you're like, oh no, no, I've got
to make up for this shortcoming with my labor basically right,
(24:40):
and and so uh, that can be that can tank
a new person in this business, That can tank a
contractor that I don't think you want to be the
homeowner where this project got under bid because okay, what
if they can't pay their suppliers? Right, We've talked about
(25:01):
this on shows in the past, where if a homeowner
gets a bill for you know, like a progress payment
maybe at mechanicals or or later drywall, or we do
them at contact Template or some of these milestones, and
you pay them because they're going to use this money
in theory to pay their their suppliers. And if they
(25:21):
do not pay their spuyers or maybe they you know
they're there, there's something nefarious going on there, like they
are going to go, I'm taking the money and going
to Mexico or something someplace where the dollar is worth
the money, or or maybe they just they ran out
and like now they're now they're robbing one side to
(25:42):
pay the other. Right, maybe they're maybe they're paying the
bills from the last job with your money, which is all.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Illegal by the way.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It's like you know, now, it doesn't get prosecuted much
unless it's really blatant. But uh, people in our business,
we are not supposed to take money from this pile
over here and pay bills for this job we're here.
Like that is that's bad, bad, bad, and so But
like I said, you don't know what's going on there always,
(26:09):
so if you if you as a homer. If you
give money to that contractor and you think he's paying
off those bills but he doesn't or they don't, that
supplier uh is still going to have the view that
you owe that money. So they can come back on you, sean.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
And could they put a leg yes, oh really.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Wow they can. They can, you know, and they can
sue you. They can. And so like there's this this
underbidding thing.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is a big problem.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Uh there's also uh when times get a little tougher,
I hear even friends of mine in this business going, well,
I've got to keep my people busy. You know, we're
gonna come in a little lower just uh, maybe we
won't make money on a couple of jobs too. But
I really think that's dangerous territory because, like I said,
at some point, this whole thing could the host of
(27:01):
cards could fall in on a on a contractor, and
you really don't want that. You don't want to be
on that job. You don't want to mind your job
when that happened.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
When this morning with Mike two Eg, owner of Edge Construction,
A lot of great information about Edge Construction on the
website edge Construction company dot com. That's all one word
Edge Construction Company dot com. They're top number six, so
eight six three six three three four three that numbers
so easy to remember at six three six edge Well
continue our conversation with Mike. We will do that next.
It's the Homer Modeling Show with Edge Construction continues right
(27:27):
here on thirteen ten dol wuibi. This is the Homer
Modeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction Online. Edge
Construction Company dot com. That's all one word Edge Construction
Company dot com. Great website resource to learn more about
(27:50):
edge construction and of course see some of the great
projects that they do. They've got links also on Facebook,
Pinterest and howse as well house is a great one
too quick. We're going to talk about that, the free
home and the free inspections and those other things that
you hear about. I'm gonna get into that in just
a moment, but I'm mentioning hows uh we talk about
a great resource to find out about like about like
(28:12):
history and track record and completed projects. That's a that's
a pretty good one to see the work in real time.
It is.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Uh, it's my favorite spot to go. I mean, it's
a real resource for me and it's become this during
house for kind of everything about remodeling and owning a house.
And you know, there's advice on there on maintenance, there's
there's talks about the process, there's I don't know how
many billions of pictures around there.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
There's a lot of pictures.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I think we have close to two hundred projects now
on house Wow. So you can look back and go,
I wonder how their designers are holding up here. Maybe
they what's the work looked like they were doing a
while back, but ah would u z Z dot com.
So it's well worth especially if you're if if if
we come to your house the first time and you
you want to do a project, I'm going to ask
you if you done any homework. And what I'm what
(29:02):
I'm wondering is if you've been on something like houser
Pinterest or you know, poking around and identifying your style, at.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Least is that something to to and obviously not the
only tool, but you can at least see that that
projects that have been done. I mean we think about
as we're talking about, you know, some of the contractor
scams and some of the things that can go on.
Got a good solid portfolio and obviously talk about with
edge construction, with thirty year history in this area. I
(29:27):
mean you've got that there's what they alsocial line proof
is in the pudding. I mean it's it's it's hard
to ignore that there's a that there's a successful track record.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, I think it's it's it's just you know, and
and you know, when you're looking at these track records,
it you know, you're you shouldn't really see all cake
and cookies, right, Yeah, Like it's not that there's never
been a problem, but you know, like if you're if
you're here for the long haul, you're gonna you're gonna
build up that. You know, if I would, in fact,
if I was starting over, i was younger, wouldn't that
(29:58):
be fun?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And those are the places I would showcase my work
because I'd i'd want to give you know, you want
to give your the homeowners, yet you worked for a
chance to give some feedback. You want to you want
to show off the project. You want to you want
to identify the quality of work you've been doing. The
one issue with Hell is when it when it was
pretty young, maybe fifteen years ago, was that it sort
(30:24):
of showed everybody's just only very top of the heat
work and there wasn't much normal on there. And uh,
I you know you need some of that too, because
like you're always think like, okay, if you're going to
do a project and you kind of have an idea
what you want to look like, you want you want,
it's helpful to find, you know, the picture in your
head somewhere. And house now I think is getting better
(30:44):
at doing that.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
By the way, you mentioned uh uh be young again.
We recently celebrated one hundred years here at the radio station.
There was a there's an event with you know, all
those folks. So we had photos from the from just
different things over the years. And there was a picture
of you from about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, and you know you don't age because are one
of our One of our folks here at the station
said once it's from and I said, yeah, maybe fifteen
years ago. No, what, No, I don't think Mike. It's
a good living. Mike, you're doing something right. Yeah, Like, hey,
Mike doesn't doesn't age at all. Let's talk about those
free inspections because I think that that's uh, it's very
(31:24):
as a homeowner. It's a very alluring, prospective. Come on out,
take a look. Let me know how my house looks.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yes, and uh so it's a little bit of can
be fox in the headhouse, right, because okay, here's if
you went to the to get your car fixed. What
do they do now? Yeah, but I think they they
moved from free inspections, so now they charged most to
the reputable places. And uh, you're they want to get
(31:56):
paid for every minute basically af they're looking at your car,
which I get that. Uh, the construction is a little different.
We we have salespeople that come totch construction that are
I'll pick on insurance again because it's a good easy target.
But they're they're well enough for free just to evaluate
all your stuff, and yes, and and you just they'll
hold your check book for you while they're looking at it.
(32:18):
But uh, we see the free inspection thing with all
those outside trades for sure, windows siding. Uh it's a
it's it's high dollar return stuff, right, and so there's
a lot of incentive for those salespeople to sell things.
The bath in the day. Guys, I'm not picking out
all of you, but some of you you know who
you are. They literally will walk up and down the block,
(32:40):
knocking every door. I will do a free inspection of
your of your of your bath, of your plumbing, even
though we're not plumbers, and and and check this stuff out.
And yes, they're not gonna they're not really are the
honest I hope some of them are. All of them know,
because they're just seeing too many stories. So again it's
(33:01):
buyer beware. And you know, if you can get some
advice from friend, relative, neighbor, somebody that helps you, that
maybe has some more knowledge in this if you're feeling
like you're not sure what's going on, and I think
that's really worth it.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And that's a you mentioned some of those the bath
in to day thing. I don't know what it is.
They somehow get these like custom made post it notes.
And we have our main door, the door on that
is glass, like a lot of folks, and they stick
them right on there. Like literally every week somebody comes back.
I thankfully always miss somebody. Yeah, definitely definitely buyer beware
on that stuff. Well, cause you're our conversation with Mike,
(33:37):
Guy's got a couple more things to touch on. Ed
Edge construction of course, the Homer Modeling Show with Edge
Construction the website Edge Construction Company dot com. That's Edgeconstruction
Company dot com. Of course, they bring you the Homer
Modeling Show right here on thirteen ten WYBA. This is
the Homer Modeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction
right here thirteen ten WYBA, the website Edge Construction Company.
(34:00):
They're telling number six. So waight six three six three
three four three that number six three six Edge talking
this week. Of course, timely we think summer, we think
spring storms and there's no storm chasers out there. Protecting
yourself from contractor scams and making sure that that everybody
is happy at the end of a project. And Mike,
(34:20):
one of the areas that is important is permitting and
understanding permitting. And uh, it's not for a lot of folks.
They need to There's certain things they really need to
understand about about permits, don't they.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, So, like if you're worried about getting scammed, one
of the first clues is if your contractor says, hey,
would you mind pulling the permit? Because a homewner can
pull it. You can pull your own permits. You can
pull it for electrical plumbing, heating, it, whatever you want.
Construction building.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
By the way, I just said, sure, like I knew this.
Without you, I would have had any idea. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, I do know now, so yeah, so if so,
that is a way that sometimes some that doesn't have
the ability to pull the permit. So I just had
to do my continuing education. So I'm gonna wind about
that a little bit. It used to be great. I think,
you know, it's actually pretty easy and it's valuable info, right,
(35:15):
and so we got to do they're all online classes now,
but I used to be able to do the twelve
hours in about an hour and a half because I
would just take the test and because generally if you've
been at this long, yeah, and it's not like I
quit studying just because I don't, you know, have to
take the test and so try to stap on stuff.
But this time around, it took me probably sixteen hours
(35:38):
because you get asked a question and then you have
to take there's a you're on a clock, so it's
this question should take you four minutes to answer and
then so like sometimes you're pulling your thumbs in waiting,
but it forces you to really look at stuff. And
I noticed the tests are getting harder so they're making
you do a little more research to get through this stuff.
(36:00):
There's there's that component to get your license to pull permits,
and there's also a component of insurance, so you have
to prove that you have a certain level of liability
insurance to the state. You make them kind of an
also insurance, so they get a certificate insurance. And it
sounds complicated, it's really not. Just because you are able
(36:22):
to pull permits doesn't make you a great contractor about it.
But if you can't do that, and like, well, you
haven't even done the entry level stuff here to get
in there, like and so should a homeowner pull a
permit if you're doing your own electrical on a basement finish?
I mean, I would never recommend a work being done
(36:43):
without a permit, even if the homeowner is doing all
the work. The inspector will come in and check your work,
you know, if you're doing things, and they'll tell you
where you got wrong, and they probably get snappy if
they have to come back too many times to make
you fix things. So like, there's there is that part.
But one last thing, by the way, like I'll sneak
it in, is is when you talk about warranty warrantying
(37:07):
your work. Okay, the state kind of gives us all
a thing or around the hook for like a year.
By the way, there's a lot of builders out there.
When you buy your house, they're counting down the days somewhere.
They've got a slash in a wall, a number in
a wall, and you're once. If it's three hundred and
sixty six days, you are done. You don't get anything fixed.
(37:30):
I don't think that's really a great system. I think
like if like like with us, if if we've done
something that you know, I don't care if it's three
years out, five years out, you find something that we
made a mistake, we want to fix it. We don't
want somebody else to come in here and fix it.
We want to deal with our own issue. We have
(37:51):
occasionally had had had products that went haywire, maybe a
plumbing fixture or something, and we will help customers deal
with that stuff for a long time. And I can
say that we actually don't have a lot of warranty issues,
Thank goodness. You know, work pretty hard. I get it
right the first time. But I think that is a
good question for somebody and something to really think about. Okay,
(38:13):
if I if I'm using somebody that doesn't have a
track record, the underbid everybody else, no website, no reviews, no,
you know, I don't really know much about this person.
Can I really have great expectations on if I have
a problem in the future, are think canna help me
deal with it? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
One final thing before we wrap two. You mentioned permits,
and we also mentioned earlier like there's bathroom places that
will like do a shower, and how do you get
a permit? That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Shot, That is my question because if you're replacing any
of that stuff, yeah, you are supposed to have it
looked at. I don't know how that fits in in
the work and a day deal. I'm assuming that there's
a you know, on our jobs. If we're doing electrical work,
it's electrician doing it. If we're doing plumbing, there's a
(39:04):
plumber doing it. If it's heating, it's the same thing.
We're the master electrician, right we have we we're an
electrical contractors. We take care of that. We get our
own permits, we get our own inspections. Plumbers, there needs
to be a master plumber behind that. So I know
there's not master plumbers walking around selling bathrooms door to door.
It's just not ever going to happen. And so that's
(39:27):
a good point. And what how do you you know
a lot of bathrooms are going to there? There's things
that need to be updated, there's pipes that there's valves
that need to be replaced, there's there's work that needs
to be done, there's there's electrical that needs to be
updated and brought up to code. And I think there's
a lot of people doing this work that that probably
aren't qualified to do it.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
So really good, really good warnings. And of course there
are great contractors out there, there are also those out
there that you want to be leery of. And of
course be very very careful. If you listen to the
program today, thank you for doing that, and make sure
you share the information with your friends and family as well.
Of course to do the iHeart radio app and the
website speak of the website Edgeconstruction Company dot com great
(40:03):
place to get to know the team at Edge Construction
Companies see their projects. They're top number six so eight
six three six three three four three that number six
three six edge And of course Edge Construction brings you
the Homer Modeling Show right here on thirteen ten WIBA
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