March 15, 2025 • 40 mins
Gary wraps up Saturday with your calls and questions. We also hear from Slats Blinds.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, best part of the day. I got to say,
good afternoon, Welcome to our number four at home with
Gary Salvin. Good afternoon. I love that sound. I'm getting
a little windy out there now and more ring coming
looks like around three o'clock or so, and then heavy
stuff around five. So we're gonna have some storms, no
doubt about it. All Right, to our phone number is
(00:20):
five one, three, seven, four nine fifty five hundred. We'll
talk to you till about twelve thirty or so, and
then we're going to talk about some window coverings with
our friends from Slats. So let's get back to the
phone calls. And we got Dan Dan welcome and Gary Litir.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I go oble home. She's got a.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Fireplace and she hasn't used it. I guess about two
years now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
She's afraid to use it because.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
All I guess the kree of soap.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Whatever, burning wood.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Uh. Is there any way anything I can do to.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Kind of combat there?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Or do I need to call a professional Jimy.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Sweet Well too late to combat it because we're just
to assume it's dirty. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Okay, So what I would do is I would have
it professionally inspected and cleaned, and I'll tell you why
here in a minute. But if you can get it
cleaned professionally and then inspected professionally, we'll know if it's
a safe mechanical device, and then we can institute what
(01:34):
you said, is there any prevention I can do? And
yes there is, Yes there is, So at first blush,
I would have it professionally inspected and clean. Then after that.
You've seen these advertisements about the fire clean or fireplace
cleaning logs. You just put them in there and use
them once or two a season and it removes koreasod.
(01:57):
Those do work. They may not be as good as
having a professionally clean but they will definitely diminish the
amount of creosote billup along with burning the proper woods.
So if you burn wood that's not really totally seasoned
(02:19):
or dried, which means it's cut and split and stacked
and it's a year before you use it. Otherwise you
can have hardwood that just kind of burns slow and lazy,
and you get an accumulation of kreosote and a chimney. Also,
(02:39):
if you burn real soft wood, say like pine, you're
gonna get a kreosote collection. Plus it burns hot, and
you could have a chimney fire. So to summarize, you
get it cleaned professionally, you get it inspected professionally. Then
you get good hardwood that's been seasoned for a year,
(03:03):
and that's what you burn. And once or twice a
year you get one of those chimney logs for cleaning.
And I think you're you know, you can buy yourself
an extra couple of years. All right.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Well, the other one is lives in an old house
and he lives close to a choir and they buy
assed all the time, and he's frayed his gym.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Got cracks in it, so he won't use it anymore.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
But that's that's ain't got to answer that one.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That's well, I'm just saying, you know, if you get
if you've got cracks in the chimney, the question, the
big question then becomes aware of the cracks. You know,
if there's cracked brick, cracked mortar, that's one thing. If
it's a cracked liner inside the chimney, that's another thing.
And there there are certainly ways without replacing the whole liner.
(03:54):
In Europe they've been using let's see, it's kind of
like almost like a mold that they put down the
chimney and then they'll put a ceilant on top of
that and they'll pull it up, and you're basically coding
the existing liner and making it safe again, which is
less expensive than tearing it all out. But the real
(04:16):
question is where are the cracks? And again a professional inspection,
you know, to make sure you can go from there.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
But yeah, he don't use it, especially his WAF.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, you shouldn't use it till it's inspected. And you know,
if it's the brick or just the mortar, maybe that's
something that can be taken care of on the outside.
If it's a liner, that's a different ballgame. You don't
want to be using it. Then Okay, well all right,
you bet, thank you, take care and let's go to
(04:52):
Ben Ben welcome.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, don't find that you bett situation where we're
trying to figure out whereas these horns is coming in
and the second floor plant type type house or the house,
what can I do to catch them until I can
figure out where they are coming in?
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So have you just seen them in the last week? Yeah,
warmed up?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Yeah, they got wear coming through a crash. So I
didn't know if someone to put a jar or something
out there, and when they go in and they don't
know they way back out or something.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah, there's there's all kinds of traps and things.
But yeah, you've got to find out where that nest is,
uh for sure, and what kind of hornet it is?
For sure? So dark do what.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Dark ones? Kind of like a hornet like a there's one.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
There's like hundreds of them, different speeds right so here here,
I'm gonna give you a website. It's rescue dot com. Okay,
rescue dot com. That company makes traps, period, they make traps,
and what that's going to do is it's going to
(06:10):
catch some of these hornets. You can probably get on
the website then and identify what what kind of hornets
and what their lifestyle is. My guess is the second
floor is you got a hornet's nest in your attic?
(06:33):
That would be that would be my guess. Okay, it
got warm, that attic warmed up, they started moving. They
they're probably juveniles, are small and are they big okay?
And are they very active?
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Well? They were about on one do by daylight we
don't go up there much, but half of them has
died off by the self. They're just laying there dead.
But there was a lot of ones active as flying,
not aggressive, but I'm pretty sure the stingers pretty big.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, yeah. One Another thing you know is getting if
it's something you want to do yourself. I mean, you
already know you have them, right, so you're gonna have
to eliminate that nest and you know enough of what
(07:32):
you're doing to do that.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
In the dry wall. I could drill a hole and
bog them. Maybe with that penetrate the nest where it
may be in different parts of the drywall and smoke them.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You know what I would do first, I would if
you know you you know you got them, I'd get
up in the attic with a flesh light and I
would get in there. You can't.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
This is just the second floor eve, so there's no
access behind this drywall that wants to you tear the
drywall down there. You're looking at the board or the roof.
It's one of them slant type of floors up there.
That okay, So you have no access to the eave
to the eve other than drilling holes in the drywall.
(08:24):
And sending some kind of immigation or something in there.
But if it's a big if they didn't build a
big one, I don't even know if it would penetrate there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, And and I don't think of take care of it.
I don't think if farger is going to take care
of it. They're very protected inside that nests. What I
would do, seriously, I mean this too. There's a few
things that I don't think are do it yourself projects.
At the very least, I would get, you know, coming
(08:54):
in like one stop pest control. Let them get out
there and let them assess it, all right, They don't
have to do anything. Let them assess it and see
where it is or approximately where it is, and what
it would take to eliminate the problem. And then you
can decide at that point whether you want to go
(09:16):
forward with them or you want to go forward with you.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Right now, like I said, but they could be traveling
anywhere in that wall. I could probably sit up there
with a chair and watch where they're going to come
in and out. At some point.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Well, that's true, and they're probably not traveling as far
as you think, especially this time of year, they're going
to be pretty sluggish.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Okay, okay, all right, well I appreciate it very good.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You either watch and go in yourself or get them
out there and you know, maybe take pictures and you
can still kind of assess where they are. They might
have a little better not of the hornet itself, identifying
the hornet and the mannerisms the way it lives. That's
a big thing in pest control. And they got probably
(10:08):
a little bitter juice to eliminate them. But right, yeah,
so well you got some facts, so yeah, you can
get to work on that.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Okay, all right, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Gary, all right, you bet, take care. Bye bye. All right,
let's take a break. We'll come back. We got John
and Mike. As we continue, you're at home with Gary
Sullivan right here in fifty five care see the talk station.
All right, uh yeah, twelve twenty. Let's get back to
the phone calls and then we're going to talk a
little window treatments after we talk with John and Mike.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
John, welcome, Thank you for taking my call. Gary.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
My question is about a hot water heater. So I
replaced mine in twenty thirteen and I got a twelve
year warranty. Water heater a ge. And my question to
you is you know, from your experience, should I be
replacing that proactively it's twelve years old now it's twelve
year hot water here? And or should I wait to
(11:10):
see signs?
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It is a million dollar questions. It's a million dollar question.
Is this gas there? Electric?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Gas? If you were to replace that today, what would
you replace it with? Same thing?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I would do the same thing, the same thing, a
gas fifty gallon yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Okay, okay. So my answer is this. I I could
go down look at the date on mine, but I
think I just replaced mine last year, and I think
it was thirteen years old, and I was starting to
have a little bit of leak, a little bit of
water accumulating in a pan. I think it was more
(11:54):
of the pressure relief out discharging a little bit. But
at thirteen years I chose to replace it. Okay, So
I had a sign. I knew it was gosh, it
looked good, it was working well. I had nothing other sign,
no other sign except for the time frame and the
(12:16):
first hot water here. I replaced it thirteen years and
I was being proactive on that. There was no signs
and I replaced it so I've done it both ways. Okay. Now,
if you had said, you know what, I'm really interested
in those tankless ones, and you know i'd like to
(12:37):
explore that, I would say start exploring it, because what
will happen is when you start hearing seeing signs or
there's no hot water either one, you'll replace exactly what
you have because you haven't got any time to score
around with it, right, I mean, I gotta have a
(12:58):
way that's right, right, So that might be, uh, that
might be a pretty good way to look at it,
to be honest with you. I mean, on the other
you can be proactive or you cannot be proactive. That's
up to you. But the lifespan on that thing is, uh,
you know, it's getting near the time. However, I'll talk
(13:19):
to somebody, you'll call and say, by water here is
twenty two years old, and they're sure ready something out there.
But the average span of the light of a water
here is you know, ten to fifteen years. So that's
kind of your call. If you're going tankless, you'd start
looking into it.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And when I read about these, you know reports of saying,
you know, drain off, connect the hose and drain off
the hot water tank. Ye, do you do that? Is
that something you recommend doing you?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, I wouldn't empty that tank at this point if
you've never done it in twelve years. But if you
want to put a hose on there and take out
five six ounce to that water ran clear, that would
be beneficial. That would be beneficial.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Do you have to shut off the hot water tank
when you get no?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You can just screw up.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
You just screw a hose on the bottom of that thing,
turn it on, and you know, put it right into
a five gallon bucket and it'll probably run a little
muddy color for a couple of two three gallons, so
you know that'll help. Usually people will replace the water
here when it's leaking. Or I used to be able
(14:35):
to take a twenty minute shower, but now I can
only take a seven minute shower because the water goes cold.
And what that is it's the hard water deposits that
have literally accumulated in the tank and it can't hold
as much water.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I see.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So that's another sign.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
All right, all right, And one last question, is tankless
worth the investment? In your opinion?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It can be. I think it's for each person they uh,
I guess. I used to always ask, what's it gonna
save me if I put in a tankless and twenty
years ago people used to say, oh, you're gonna save
twenty five percent. And the last time I started talking
to people, how much is it going to save me?
And they've gotten so much better. They used to only
(15:25):
produce like, you know, five, you know, three gowns a minute.
Now they're up to like ten and eleven gowns a minute.
I mean, you'll have plenty of hot water. Uh, but
now they say what happens is when you have tankless,
people take long showers, so you use more hot water.
There's a savings there, there is, but I wouldn't want
(15:46):
to guess how much. It just depends. If you know,
you could maybe get twenty percent if everybody keeps their
old habits. But maybe, you know, maybe the showers get longer,
and maybe that savings isn't as great. But uh, yeah,
I think it has some advantages. There's a lot of
track cooms now that are even being built with tankless
you know, water heaters. I wouldn't do an electric.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
But I do gas, okay, all right, all right, and they.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Last much longer. You get twenty five years twenty twenty
five years out of those.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Okay, all right, so almost do well maybe.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, almost double?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
All right, all right, hope that helps well, thank you
very much for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Thanks for quite welcome. John, thanks all right, and Mike welcome.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yes, sir, Yeah, I was wanting to talk to you
a little bit about vance and ventning. I hear all
the time people trying to tell other people what advance
for on the plumbing system, and actually, the only thing
the van does is protected, sir. It protects the trap
to keep sair guys from coming in the house. It
keeps it from side to it out and that's the
(16:54):
only thing that event actually does.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
It doesn't make your drain drain any faster, any smooth
or anything like that. It just when you get to
the end of whatever you're doing, if you don't have
a vent, it'll sipen it out, just like if you're
soifing in a gas tank, it'll sipen the hose out dry. Okay.
That's the same thing with your vent on your on
your bum and that's that's all it's for, is to
protect that trap seal.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Okay. So when your toilet is not flushing, it's usually
lack of water going from the closet to the bowl.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Correct, excuse me.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I said. If the toilet isn't flushing properly, it's usually
because of the lack of water going from the closet
into the bowl.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's not really the well typically. I mean that could
be some different things, but it's never It's never the
vent because you can cap the vent off and the
toilet will still blash as long as there's enough water
coming out of the tank and through the bow, or
there's no obstruction in your line like roots or you know,
accessing something that's got you plugged up. So yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Right, I appreciate it, Mike, thank you. And coming up,
we're going to talk about window treatments, and you've heard
me talk about a company called Slats right on Montgomery Road,
and we're going to have their expert in. We're going
to have Rudy on and it's the son of Rudy
(18:21):
the Sun of Rudy is making his debut today, so
I'm looking forward to talking with him. All Right, Well,
take a break, we'll come back and we're going to
talk a little bit about blinds and shades and a
company called Slats. As we continue, you're at home with
Gary Salvin right here on fifty five krc DE talk station. Well,
the weekend it is and always a great time to
(18:42):
work on our homes, learn a little bit about what's
available for our homes. And I guess one of the
big part of our homes, quite honestly, is our windows
and our window treatments. And joining me from Slats, Blind
and Shutter is our expert Rudy. Rudy welcome.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
How you doing Gary?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So On my notes, Rudy, it says Rudy son of
Rudy So.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Congratulations, whatever you want to call.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Me, Congratulations, it's official. Rudy son of Rudy So. Rudy Singer,
I've talked to about a thousand times, probably over the
last of five to eight years, and I do remember
the last time I chatted that. I don't know if
(19:32):
you had worked with your dad before out in the
field or you were coming on board. Tell me a
little bit about your relationship with the company and your father.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, Well, it's it's weird for me to be on
this side because I'm used to listening to him. Talk
to you on the show. So thank you. But yeah,
I helped him out a lot in high school, you know,
working home rama in little events like that. And then
I went to Miami worked corporate for seven and a
half years, and then finally my dad was ready to
(20:03):
have me join, and uh, it's been awesome. I joined
about a year and a half ago, and there's a
lot to learn about the industry, but it's been it's
been great. And you know, my dad's been uh, somebody
who I've always looked up to my entire life. So
it's really special for me to be able to do this.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
And well, he's an easy guy to look up to.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
He's he's a pretty cool guy. He's my best friend.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So yeah, he's a dynamo. And you got a great
business out there on Montgomery Road slats. I've done business
with you, as you know, and it's you work with
a lot of homebuilders too, right, I mean, tell me
a little bit about the business. Overall, people aren't familiar here.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah. Well, it's important for us to cultivate those relationships
with the custom home builders in Cincinnati. So we do
a lot of work with like Rednot Homes and am
I Homes. Last year for home ern while we're in
the Gorman House and the Wheelent Home. And I'm really
a builder that's been instrumental to my dad's successes in Zika.
(21:09):
My dad and Mike have become friends throughout you know,
the past probably twenty thirty years and Zicca Walker Room,
they've been great. Sure.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what. The homer ramas and
stuff really do showcase a lot of great suppliers but
also revolutionary type products. I know when I first kind
of became involved with the Loaffiat interior shades, your dad
was telling me, so, you got to get these for
(21:40):
your house. And I'm going like, yeah, yeah, but I'll
tell you what. The shades I've got they were silhouettes.
They're not that bad. I'll put them in on the
backside because I got some that are kind of you know,
they got some smudges and gunk, and yeah, why don't
you come on out? And he said, you're going to
(22:02):
want to do the whole house. No I'm not. No,
I'm not at the whole house.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Once you do one window, they kind of grow throughout
the house.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh my gosh, yep.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
And my wife's a tough cell and it was one
of the few times and all of our ears together.
He lays out this book. She picks out a color,
and she just looks at him and says, we're going
to do the whole house. That's the way you went.
There was no pressure. They sell themselves. He goes, that's
(22:35):
the way it works. That's that's the way it is
supposed to work. That's the way we like to do business.
We don't want pressure anybody. We just want to educate
them exactly.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That's what I do is, you know, when I walk
into a house, they tell them what I would do personally,
you know, because you know it's different than you know.
We're not trying to make a sale. We're trying to
make friends and make your house beautiful. And I have
the lower shade, which I think you have in your
house too, right. I have them throughout my house and
they're they're great and uh, super low maintenance. Like you
said you had the silhouettes. Stuff gets stuck in the
(23:08):
middle of silhouettes. They're really hard to clean, my father
and get inside of them.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
But with the.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Allures, because they're just two piece of fabric, basically they
don't gather any dust. They're super easy so, and I'm
not a big cleaner myself in my house, but I
haven't really had to touch mine, so four years right.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, the next funny part of this story was after
we said yeah, we'll do them, he goes, uh, well,
when can I get in here and do them? And
I don't know, No, hurry, you know, he was it
was like in December. It's like the first week of
December is no, I want to get them up like tomorrow.
I said, why, and he goes, people are gonna notice
(23:48):
that you've got new shades, and I'm like, no, they're not.
And honest to goodness, this is an absolute truth and
it's so true. He got out in there and he
put them all up. The next day, a person up
the street, a friend of mine, says, did you get
new shades in your house? His saw from the street,
(24:11):
And I swear he paid him because it's exactly what
he said would happen.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
And I'm like, no way, talking about he's been in
the business for thirty years. Yeah, and they did think
about Yeah. Lords looked so cool from the outside. That's
my favorite part about him. Like you said, the neighbors
thought from the outside, they looked they looked really awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
So so yeah, it's two panels kind of describe him
because you can have you know, full sun, you can
pull him up. Or we just came back from a
trip and I had closed them all and you know,
darkened the windows and everything, but when I came home
it's still kind of a crummy looking day. I just
opened them where the shade was still down, but let
(24:56):
all this light in, and I think that that's that's
really cool. I like that.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
They're great, man. I always tell people they're a lot
more versatile than your normal like Roman shade, you know,
so you can have them open at any point in
your window. Basically how they look it's like alternating veanes
of sheer and then light filtering pieces of fabric. And
then we have like the room dimming version for like
a bedroom where it's completely opaque and it blocks out light.
(25:26):
But they're great. Yeah, They're super easy to use, and
you know, they look really cool and we can motorize them.
There's a lot of different options, and then we also
have like, you know, hundreds of different fabrics you can
choose from. So a lot of people think, you know,
they might only look good in modern homes. But I
put them in traditional style houses all the time. Sure,
(25:46):
because there's so many different colors and like widths of
the fabric that you can do, so they really can
they can work in any style of home.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, well we're kind of like a conservative two story
home and Cincinnati, Ohio. So you've got that picture and
they go great. In fact, that was a couple of
the questions I had was I don't think a lot
of people realize the offerings you have in colors. I mean,
they're every color in the rainbow.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, I have the book in front of you right now.
It's it's a pretty heavy book. There's there's hundreds of
different you know, and then also the texture of the
fabric there's different, Like it gives you a lot of depth.
So when the when you have the light filtering ones,
there's different designs and the fabric and colors, and there's
a ton of different options you can choose from. And
then the head rail you can get a modern headrail
(26:40):
or traditional style, so there's a lot of different options
you can choose from it. Like you kind of personalize
the shade that figure home.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
So tell me about this motorized shade, because like if
you have a big great room and a twenty foot
ceiling and you've got those higher windows. Uh, that can
be very valuable. But I'm sure people are even motorizing
them for you know, first floor windows too.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yeah, we always motorize the ones that are high up
and hard to reach. But also, like you said, it's
kind of cool to put them like so, if you
have a great room with a ton of windows, if
you motorize them, you can control them all individually. But
also we install a channel that allows you to put
them all up and down at once. It's great, especially
like on a big window. Sometimes with the chain, the
(27:28):
fabric can get kind of heavy, so that's why we
offer that motorized motorization option. And then you can also
sink it up to your cell phone, so if you're
out of town, you can control your shades from you know,
anywhere in the country. And then you can also like
time it up so you know, when the sun comes
up they can open or whatever. They're close and it's
(27:49):
it's really cool. And they're super easy to charge, so
you only i mean, depending on how often you use them,
you only have to charge them like once a year
and plug it in overnight and they're good for a whole.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Year, easier than getting up and changing batteries exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
That's the old days you had to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I still got those for a while then, yeah, yeah, gosh,
it probably has been a while, but I'm scared to
even guess anymore, but it is. It is better. We
got higher windows and we've got batteries on those, and yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I have mine in my bedroom or motor It's kind
of cool. But that was very house warming gift when
I bought my house and new shades. And at the
time I didn't realize how big of a present that
was because I didn't worked for the company. I'm like, wow,
my dad really stepped it up for me.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, that's a good boy. He's a good boy. So hey,
let's take a break, and we got Rudy well son
of Son of Rudy. That's the way I'm going to
introduce you. Sorry, uh, We're going to talk about your
showroom and how people get started with this project, because
you guys sure make it easy. So let's take that break.
You're at home with Garry Selvin right here on fifty
(29:00):
five care see the talk station. All right back at it.
We go talking about window shades, and that doesn't even
sound right because these are spectacular. We're talking about the
allures from Lafayette Interior Fashions. My guest is Rudy, and
Rudy we we talked about, you know, the allures, but
(29:23):
I'm sure it's slats. You guys got all kinds of
different window treatments and you got a showroom. Tell me
about your showroom, Yes, sir.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
So we're open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then Saturday. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
our front desk called Jasmine's in from ten thirty to
three thirty and then on Saturdays she's in at eleven.
She leaves at three. But you can also schedule complication
on the website or call. But yeah, we have all
(29:56):
of our products or you know, we have a huge showroom.
We have a kind of a different kind of blinds company.
We have a beer tap at the store. And uh so,
you know, like you said, when the when the wives
are looking at the colors and the shades and all
the different options we have, you know, a guy like
you can offer you a beer get through the day.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
But but it's great, you know, so we have son
like you said, a lot more than just the allures.
You have screen shades with you know, varying opacities, so
we we put those on businesses a lot so you
can kind of see out of them, a lot of
Roman shades, roller shades, and you can hobble them or
have a flat contemporary look. And then also we sell
(30:37):
shutters from Normans, which they're really gorgeous too, and you
can motorize those. Now really, it's really you know, I
never knew that you could motorize shutters either, and it's, uh, yeah,
it's been. It's really cool. So you can those, you
can time those up. You have a little like home
(30:58):
thing rather than a remote. But yeah, it's really cool.
But yeah, it's all set up in the showroom and
you can come check it out to see it in person.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah. So all these different window treatments do do maybe
the lure does, but do any of them come with
warranties or anything like that? And something tells me the
lure is like a lifetime or something.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
So everything we sell and that's kind of what sets
us apart as a company. We offer a lifetime warranties
anything goes wrong, you know, as long as you know
the chain break as long as you know your dog
doesn't attack it or something. But functionality wise, if something
goes wrong, we fix it as long as you're in
the home. So my dad always tells stories like, you know,
(31:39):
some old lady calls them got the line thirty years ago,
We'll go out and fix it.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
For free, and that rude never had a problem yet.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Well good. Yeah, if you do have a problem, will
be out there. But now that's really been huge for us.
It's a really big selling point we have. And you
know we don't again, we don't outside contract anybody. So
it's my cousin Justin or our other installer, Bill will
come out and fix it for free. And they're both
great guys. They've been doing it for forever. We've never
(32:14):
fired a single person. We've we're very close company. We're
like a family.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So yeah, you guys, are you'd like to.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Take care of our company, our customers.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Well, I'll tell you what. That's why you've been in
business for a long time. That's why you're successful because
you do take care of people in your services off
the charts. So you've got to do a homer on
this year.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yes, we are, Like I said last year we were
in the Wheeland and Gorman. We're not sure which houses
we're going to be in this year yet, but last
year we're we It was a huge event for us.
It's really fun. I encourage everyone to come out and
meet with me. I'm there most nights and you can
kind of show you the house of whatever house we're in,
but we'll we'll update.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
You on that once that time comes down in the
Oakley area, isn't it this year?
Speaker 4 (33:03):
I think so? Yeah. I mean I live in Mount
lookout right now in Oakley, So yeah, down this way,
so we're looking near Brookwood.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I've passed it the other day. And I'm sure all
you know. And that's a great thing. I mean, when
you start using names like Ziica and Wheeling and your
your friendship and your business, you know, working with them
all the time, those are top shelf folks, and uh,
you guys have a top shelf window treatments and good
(33:35):
service and no, that's how business is built, you know that.
And boy, you got a showroom and people can come
and look what's available because you know it's an investment
in your home and it might be cosmetic, but like
you said, there's things to consider with you know, motorized
shades and non motorized shades, different colors, different textures, different styles,
(33:57):
and somebody that's been in that business us and you
know those builders too, and those builders and decorators and architects,
they know what they're looking for and you've got to
make that dream come true.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Exactly. It's a it's a big investment, you know, especially
if you're doing your whole house. It's it's a lot
of money. But you know, you you really do get
what you pay for because we use really good stuff.
But yeah, that's why it's not always easy and not
it's not always as quick of a decision as you said.
Your wife made so a lot of times.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
But I get it.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
It's a huge, it's big, and it really does change
the way your house looks in a great way. But yeah,
it is. I never thought I would be this passionate
about blinds, but I am. And it's it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You've been hanging around with your dad too much.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
I know, that's that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Here's nobody more passionate than him.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Oh my god, yeah he tracks me up, but uh
that he's Uh, he's a good dude. We love we
love my.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Dad, So he brings you on. Now he's got to
have something else come on, is you know, is he
like on to the Bahamas or Florida, opened somewhere, what's
going on.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
He likes to travel just a little bit, so just
I think he wanted to spend a little more time
in the Bahamas. So that's why I got the job.
So but you know, it's it's funny. When I joined,
you know, he wanted me to you know, make it,
you know, into the digital era. And you know, my
computer was the first computer ever at Flat and so
(35:27):
when I revamped our you know, I've got an Instagram
page and a Facebook page for us. But at the
same time, you know, I want to keep what makes
Flats flats. You know, we write out paper invoices still,
and I was gonna, you know, digitize it. But at
the same time, like I've been at the lady's house
for she'll whip out an invoice from twenty five years
ago with my dad's handwriting on it, and I I
(35:49):
think it's really special. There's certain things that you know,
I think we keep and it's just really cool for
me to be able to, you know, be part of
this company.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Sure, So if anybody has a second home, do you guys, Ever,
since your dad likes to travel, you ever do road
trip jobs?
Speaker 4 (36:06):
We do, so as long as the job's digging up,
we'll go anywhere. We've done business in the Bahamas, We've
had projects out in California, in Arizona, and then we
do a lot of work in Jupiter. Actually, I got
a back cover of a magazine in Admiral's Cove, which
(36:28):
is a pretty affluent area in Jupiter. So yeah, I've
gone down there a few times. And that's where Mike
Zika lives, so we did his home down there. It's beautiful.
He's got the same alloy shades that you have. But uh, yeah,
well we'll go anywhere, and we both like to travel,
so the cooler the destination is the better for us.
So if we have one in like the middle of
(36:48):
nowhere Cleveland, and it's got to be a good house,
but it's in Florida, we'll go for whatever.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Oh you going to ourbeat? I hear you all right?
Slats blind and then shut her. Located on Montgomery Road
just in Montgomery, basically right Deerfield, Montgomery area, right on
Montgomery Road, right on like.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
The corner of Union Cemetery in Montgomery Road.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
All right, and the website.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
People can check that out, yep, flats blind dot com
and you can schedule consultation right on there or you
can call the office. You can call it any time,
leave a message five one three six one six three five.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Rudy, you did great and it was my pleasure. Thanks
for joining us. I appreciate it there.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. Looking forward to meeting
you one day.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Tell tell Dad it was an a plus, will you
all right?
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Yeah, yeah, hopefully he's listening.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
All right, all right, thanks about you really appreciate Take care, Thanky,
all right, you bet, bye bye. Yeah. I can't say
enough about those blinds. Like I said, I wish I
knew how many years we've had them, not but it's
been eight years. Time flies maybe longer that, but it
(38:05):
made and we still get compliments on those blinds. In fact,
the story I was talking about when I said a
person came walking down the street and said they had
seen the blinds, we put it. Well. They actually moved
about I don't know about two years after that. Year
and a half after that, and they were downsizing in
(38:28):
a little townhouse they had and guess what they put
in the house. Yeah, Lure blinds. So it can really
fit any type of home without a problem. And they
do more than any other shade and certainly can't compare
them to the you know, the big box mini blinds
(38:48):
or anything like that. So it is a huge upgrade.
Not cheap, but sure makes a big, big difference. So
we thanked them for joining us today. A lot to
check out. We were talking about a lot of things today,
for sure, and one of the things was roofing, but
(39:11):
I don't want to really concentrate on that. Usually about
this time before we depart, I talk about, you know,
walking around the home and seeing what's going on. And
we had the little story of hornets or wasp or something,
and we're trying to talk about where the problem was.
And quite honestly, it surprised me that people were finding
(39:35):
them in the house last week when it got warm,
but it does make sense. I know, some wasps they
die out in kind of a band in that nest.
Other hornets, and I'm not an expert in hornets and
wasp they winter over and that attic got warm and
you started seeing them move around. I don't know, if
(39:56):
anybody saw any stink bugs, same, the same thing happens
with them about this time of year. Elder bugs, they
start happening, especially if you got a white door, white siding.
On a real warm day about this time of year,
you'll see them gathering as they crawl out of you know,
I'm gonna say hibernation. I don't think they go into hibernation,
(40:18):
but to a degree they do. They shut down for
a while. And you know that's also a sign that
there's probably some penetrations that aren't sealed to your own.
That's why I always encourage you to take that walk
around the home and well after we get by the
storms today, that might be something you want to do.
All right, Danny boy, A big happy forty eighth birthday
(40:39):
to you tomorrow. I hope you have a great time
and thank you. Yeah, yeah, mission tomorrow, good Lord willing.
I'll be back tomorrow for more at Home with Garry Sullivan.
Well, best part of the day. I got to say,
good afternoon, Welcome to our number four at home with
Gary Salvin. Good afternoon. I love that sound. I'm getting
a little windy out there now and more ring coming
looks like around three o'clock or so, and then heavy
stuff around five. So we're gonna have some storms, no
doubt about it. All Right, to our phone number is
(00:20):
five one, three, seven, four nine fifty five hundred. We'll
talk to you till about twelve thirty or so, and
then we're going to talk about some window coverings with
our friends from Slats. So let's get back to the
phone calls. And we got Dan Dan welcome and Gary Litir.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I go oble home. She's got a.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Fireplace and she hasn't used it. I guess about two
years now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
She's afraid to use it because.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
All I guess the kree of soap.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Whatever, burning wood.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Uh. Is there any way anything I can do to.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Kind of combat there?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Or do I need to call a professional Jimy.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Sweet Well too late to combat it because we're just
to assume it's dirty. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Okay, So what I would do is I would have
it professionally inspected and cleaned, and I'll tell you why
here in a minute. But if you can get it
cleaned professionally and then inspected professionally, we'll know if it's
a safe mechanical device, and then we can institute what
(01:34):
you said, is there any prevention I can do? And
yes there is, Yes there is, So at first blush,
I would have it professionally inspected and clean. Then after that.
You've seen these advertisements about the fire clean or fireplace
cleaning logs. You just put them in there and use
them once or two a season and it removes koreasod.
(01:57):
Those do work. They may not be as good as
having a professionally clean but they will definitely diminish the
amount of creosote billup along with burning the proper woods.
So if you burn wood that's not really totally seasoned
(02:19):
or dried, which means it's cut and split and stacked
and it's a year before you use it. Otherwise you
can have hardwood that just kind of burns slow and lazy,
and you get an accumulation of kreosote and a chimney. Also,
(02:39):
if you burn real soft wood, say like pine, you're
gonna get a kreosote collection. Plus it burns hot, and
you could have a chimney fire. So to summarize, you
get it cleaned professionally, you get it inspected professionally. Then
you get good hardwood that's been seasoned for a year,
(03:03):
and that's what you burn. And once or twice a
year you get one of those chimney logs for cleaning.
And I think you're you know, you can buy yourself
an extra couple of years. All right.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Well, the other one is lives in an old house
and he lives close to a choir and they buy
assed all the time, and he's frayed his gym.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Got cracks in it, so he won't use it anymore.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
But that's that's ain't got to answer that one.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That's well, I'm just saying, you know, if you get
if you've got cracks in the chimney, the question, the
big question then becomes aware of the cracks. You know,
if there's cracked brick, cracked mortar, that's one thing. If
it's a cracked liner inside the chimney, that's another thing.
And there there are certainly ways without replacing the whole liner.
(03:54):
In Europe they've been using let's see, it's kind of
like almost like a mold that they put down the
chimney and then they'll put a ceilant on top of
that and they'll pull it up, and you're basically coding
the existing liner and making it safe again, which is
less expensive than tearing it all out. But the real
(04:16):
question is where are the cracks? And again a professional inspection,
you know, to make sure you can go from there.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
But yeah, he don't use it, especially his WAF.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, you shouldn't use it till it's inspected. And you know,
if it's the brick or just the mortar, maybe that's
something that can be taken care of on the outside.
If it's a liner, that's a different ballgame. You don't
want to be using it. Then Okay, well all right,
you bet, thank you, take care and let's go to
(04:52):
Ben Ben welcome.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, don't find that you bett situation where we're
trying to figure out whereas these horns is coming in
and the second floor plant type type house or the house,
what can I do to catch them until I can
figure out where they are coming in?
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So have you just seen them in the last week? Yeah,
warmed up?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Yeah, they got wear coming through a crash. So I
didn't know if someone to put a jar or something
out there, and when they go in and they don't
know they way back out or something.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah, there's there's all kinds of traps and things.
But yeah, you've got to find out where that nest is,
uh for sure, and what kind of hornet it is?
For sure? So dark do what.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Dark ones? Kind of like a hornet like a there's one.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
There's like hundreds of them, different speeds right so here here,
I'm gonna give you a website. It's rescue dot com. Okay,
rescue dot com. That company makes traps, period, they make traps,
and what that's going to do is it's going to
(06:10):
catch some of these hornets. You can probably get on
the website then and identify what what kind of hornets
and what their lifestyle is. My guess is the second
floor is you got a hornet's nest in your attic?
(06:33):
That would be that would be my guess. Okay, it
got warm, that attic warmed up, they started moving. They
they're probably juveniles, are small and are they big okay?
And are they very active?
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Well? They were about on one do by daylight we
don't go up there much, but half of them has
died off by the self. They're just laying there dead.
But there was a lot of ones active as flying,
not aggressive, but I'm pretty sure the stingers pretty big.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, yeah. One Another thing you know is getting if
it's something you want to do yourself. I mean, you
already know you have them, right, so you're gonna have
to eliminate that nest and you know enough of what
(07:32):
you're doing to do that.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
In the dry wall. I could drill a hole and
bog them. Maybe with that penetrate the nest where it
may be in different parts of the drywall and smoke them.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You know what I would do first, I would if
you know you you know you got them, I'd get
up in the attic with a flesh light and I
would get in there. You can't.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
This is just the second floor eve, so there's no
access behind this drywall that wants to you tear the
drywall down there. You're looking at the board or the roof.
It's one of them slant type of floors up there.
That okay, So you have no access to the eave
to the eve other than drilling holes in the drywall.
(08:24):
And sending some kind of immigation or something in there.
But if it's a big if they didn't build a
big one, I don't even know if it would penetrate there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, And and I don't think of take care of it.
I don't think if farger is going to take care
of it. They're very protected inside that nests. What I
would do, seriously, I mean this too. There's a few
things that I don't think are do it yourself projects.
At the very least, I would get, you know, coming
(08:54):
in like one stop pest control. Let them get out
there and let them assess it, all right, They don't
have to do anything. Let them assess it and see
where it is or approximately where it is, and what
it would take to eliminate the problem. And then you
can decide at that point whether you want to go
(09:16):
forward with them or you want to go forward with you.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Right now, like I said, but they could be traveling
anywhere in that wall. I could probably sit up there
with a chair and watch where they're going to come
in and out. At some point.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Well, that's true, and they're probably not traveling as far
as you think, especially this time of year, they're going
to be pretty sluggish.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Okay, okay, all right, well I appreciate it very good.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You either watch and go in yourself or get them
out there and you know, maybe take pictures and you
can still kind of assess where they are. They might
have a little better not of the hornet itself, identifying
the hornet and the mannerisms the way it lives. That's
a big thing in pest control. And they got probably
(10:08):
a little bitter juice to eliminate them. But right, yeah,
so well you got some facts, so yeah, you can
get to work on that.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Okay, all right, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Gary, all right, you bet, take care. Bye bye. All right,
let's take a break. We'll come back. We got John
and Mike. As we continue, you're at home with Gary
Sullivan right here in fifty five care see the talk station.
All right, uh yeah, twelve twenty. Let's get back to
the phone calls and then we're going to talk a
little window treatments after we talk with John and Mike.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
John, welcome, Thank you for taking my call. Gary.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
My question is about a hot water heater. So I
replaced mine in twenty thirteen and I got a twelve
year warranty. Water heater a ge. And my question to
you is you know, from your experience, should I be
replacing that proactively it's twelve years old now it's twelve
year hot water here? And or should I wait to
(11:10):
see signs?
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It is a million dollar questions. It's a million dollar question.
Is this gas there? Electric?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Gas? If you were to replace that today, what would
you replace it with? Same thing?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I would do the same thing, the same thing, a
gas fifty gallon yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Okay, okay. So my answer is this. I I could
go down look at the date on mine, but I
think I just replaced mine last year, and I think
it was thirteen years old, and I was starting to
have a little bit of leak, a little bit of
water accumulating in a pan. I think it was more
(11:54):
of the pressure relief out discharging a little bit. But
at thirteen years I chose to replace it. Okay, So
I had a sign. I knew it was gosh, it
looked good, it was working well. I had nothing other sign,
no other sign except for the time frame and the
(12:16):
first hot water here. I replaced it thirteen years and
I was being proactive on that. There was no signs
and I replaced it so I've done it both ways. Okay. Now,
if you had said, you know what, I'm really interested
in those tankless ones, and you know i'd like to
(12:37):
explore that, I would say start exploring it, because what
will happen is when you start hearing seeing signs or
there's no hot water either one, you'll replace exactly what
you have because you haven't got any time to score
around with it, right, I mean, I gotta have a
(12:58):
way that's right, right, So that might be, uh, that
might be a pretty good way to look at it,
to be honest with you. I mean, on the other
you can be proactive or you cannot be proactive. That's
up to you. But the lifespan on that thing is, uh,
you know, it's getting near the time. However, I'll talk
(13:19):
to somebody, you'll call and say, by water here is
twenty two years old, and they're sure ready something out there.
But the average span of the light of a water
here is you know, ten to fifteen years. So that's
kind of your call. If you're going tankless, you'd start
looking into it.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And when I read about these, you know reports of saying,
you know, drain off, connect the hose and drain off
the hot water tank. Ye, do you do that? Is
that something you recommend doing you?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, I wouldn't empty that tank at this point if
you've never done it in twelve years. But if you
want to put a hose on there and take out
five six ounce to that water ran clear, that would
be beneficial. That would be beneficial.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Do you have to shut off the hot water tank
when you get no?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You can just screw up.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
You just screw a hose on the bottom of that thing,
turn it on, and you know, put it right into
a five gallon bucket and it'll probably run a little
muddy color for a couple of two three gallons, so
you know that'll help. Usually people will replace the water
here when it's leaking. Or I used to be able
(14:35):
to take a twenty minute shower, but now I can
only take a seven minute shower because the water goes cold.
And what that is it's the hard water deposits that
have literally accumulated in the tank and it can't hold
as much water.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I see.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So that's another sign.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
All right, all right, And one last question, is tankless
worth the investment? In your opinion?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It can be. I think it's for each person they uh,
I guess. I used to always ask, what's it gonna
save me if I put in a tankless and twenty
years ago people used to say, oh, you're gonna save
twenty five percent. And the last time I started talking
to people, how much is it going to save me?
And they've gotten so much better. They used to only
(15:25):
produce like, you know, five, you know, three gowns a minute.
Now they're up to like ten and eleven gowns a minute.
I mean, you'll have plenty of hot water. Uh, but
now they say what happens is when you have tankless,
people take long showers, so you use more hot water.
There's a savings there, there is, but I wouldn't want
(15:46):
to guess how much. It just depends. If you know,
you could maybe get twenty percent if everybody keeps their
old habits. But maybe, you know, maybe the showers get longer,
and maybe that savings isn't as great. But uh, yeah,
I think it has some advantages. There's a lot of
track cooms now that are even being built with tankless
you know, water heaters. I wouldn't do an electric.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
But I do gas, okay, all right, all right, and they.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Last much longer. You get twenty five years twenty twenty
five years out of those.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Okay, all right, so almost do well maybe.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, almost double?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
All right, all right, hope that helps well, thank you
very much for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Thanks for quite welcome. John, thanks all right, and Mike welcome.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yes, sir, Yeah, I was wanting to talk to you
a little bit about vance and ventning. I hear all
the time people trying to tell other people what advance
for on the plumbing system, and actually, the only thing
the van does is protected, sir. It protects the trap
to keep sair guys from coming in the house. It
keeps it from side to it out and that's the
(16:54):
only thing that event actually does.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
It doesn't make your drain drain any faster, any smooth
or anything like that. It just when you get to
the end of whatever you're doing, if you don't have
a vent, it'll sipen it out, just like if you're
soifing in a gas tank, it'll sipen the hose out dry. Okay.
That's the same thing with your vent on your on
your bum and that's that's all it's for, is to
protect that trap seal.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Okay. So when your toilet is not flushing, it's usually
lack of water going from the closet to the bowl.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Correct, excuse me.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I said. If the toilet isn't flushing properly, it's usually
because of the lack of water going from the closet
into the bowl.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's not really the well typically. I mean that could
be some different things, but it's never It's never the
vent because you can cap the vent off and the
toilet will still blash as long as there's enough water
coming out of the tank and through the bow, or
there's no obstruction in your line like roots or you know,
accessing something that's got you plugged up. So yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Right, I appreciate it, Mike, thank you. And coming up,
we're going to talk about window treatments, and you've heard
me talk about a company called Slats right on Montgomery Road,
and we're going to have their expert in. We're going
to have Rudy on and it's the son of Rudy
(18:21):
the Sun of Rudy is making his debut today, so
I'm looking forward to talking with him. All Right, Well,
take a break, we'll come back and we're going to
talk a little bit about blinds and shades and a
company called Slats. As we continue, you're at home with
Gary Salvin right here on fifty five krc DE talk station. Well,
the weekend it is and always a great time to
(18:42):
work on our homes, learn a little bit about what's
available for our homes. And I guess one of the
big part of our homes, quite honestly, is our windows
and our window treatments. And joining me from Slats, Blind
and Shutter is our expert Rudy. Rudy welcome.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
How you doing Gary?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So On my notes, Rudy, it says Rudy son of
Rudy So.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Congratulations, whatever you want to call.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Me, Congratulations, it's official. Rudy son of Rudy So. Rudy Singer,
I've talked to about a thousand times, probably over the
last of five to eight years, and I do remember
the last time I chatted that. I don't know if
(19:32):
you had worked with your dad before out in the
field or you were coming on board. Tell me a
little bit about your relationship with the company and your father.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, Well, it's it's weird for me to be on
this side because I'm used to listening to him. Talk
to you on the show. So thank you. But yeah,
I helped him out a lot in high school, you know,
working home rama in little events like that. And then
I went to Miami worked corporate for seven and a
half years, and then finally my dad was ready to
(20:03):
have me join, and uh, it's been awesome. I joined
about a year and a half ago, and there's a
lot to learn about the industry, but it's been it's
been great. And you know, my dad's been uh, somebody
who I've always looked up to my entire life. So
it's really special for me to be able to do this.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
And well, he's an easy guy to look up to.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
He's he's a pretty cool guy. He's my best friend.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So yeah, he's a dynamo. And you got a great
business out there on Montgomery Road slats. I've done business
with you, as you know, and it's you work with
a lot of homebuilders too, right, I mean, tell me
a little bit about the business. Overall, people aren't familiar here.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah. Well, it's important for us to cultivate those relationships
with the custom home builders in Cincinnati. So we do
a lot of work with like Rednot Homes and am
I Homes. Last year for home ern while we're in
the Gorman House and the Wheelent Home. And I'm really
a builder that's been instrumental to my dad's successes in Zika.
(21:09):
My dad and Mike have become friends throughout you know,
the past probably twenty thirty years and Zicca Walker Room,
they've been great. Sure.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what. The homer ramas and
stuff really do showcase a lot of great suppliers but
also revolutionary type products. I know when I first kind
of became involved with the Loaffiat interior shades, your dad
was telling me, so, you got to get these for
(21:40):
your house. And I'm going like, yeah, yeah, but I'll
tell you what. The shades I've got they were silhouettes.
They're not that bad. I'll put them in on the
backside because I got some that are kind of you know,
they got some smudges and gunk, and yeah, why don't
you come on out? And he said, you're going to
(22:02):
want to do the whole house. No I'm not. No,
I'm not at the whole house.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Once you do one window, they kind of grow throughout
the house.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh my gosh, yep.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
And my wife's a tough cell and it was one
of the few times and all of our ears together.
He lays out this book. She picks out a color,
and she just looks at him and says, we're going
to do the whole house. That's the way you went.
There was no pressure. They sell themselves. He goes, that's
(22:35):
the way it works. That's that's the way it is
supposed to work. That's the way we like to do business.
We don't want pressure anybody. We just want to educate
them exactly.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That's what I do is, you know, when I walk
into a house, they tell them what I would do personally,
you know, because you know it's different than you know.
We're not trying to make a sale. We're trying to
make friends and make your house beautiful. And I have
the lower shade, which I think you have in your
house too, right. I have them throughout my house and
they're they're great and uh, super low maintenance. Like you
said you had the silhouettes. Stuff gets stuck in the
(23:08):
middle of silhouettes. They're really hard to clean, my father
and get inside of them.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
But with the.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Allures, because they're just two piece of fabric, basically they
don't gather any dust. They're super easy so, and I'm
not a big cleaner myself in my house, but I
haven't really had to touch mine, so four years right.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, the next funny part of this story was after
we said yeah, we'll do them, he goes, uh, well,
when can I get in here and do them? And
I don't know, No, hurry, you know, he was it
was like in December. It's like the first week of
December is no, I want to get them up like tomorrow.
I said, why, and he goes, people are gonna notice
(23:48):
that you've got new shades, and I'm like, no, they're not.
And honest to goodness, this is an absolute truth and
it's so true. He got out in there and he
put them all up. The next day, a person up
the street, a friend of mine, says, did you get
new shades in your house? His saw from the street,
(24:11):
And I swear he paid him because it's exactly what
he said would happen.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
And I'm like, no way, talking about he's been in
the business for thirty years. Yeah, and they did think
about Yeah. Lords looked so cool from the outside. That's
my favorite part about him. Like you said, the neighbors
thought from the outside, they looked they looked really awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
So so yeah, it's two panels kind of describe him
because you can have you know, full sun, you can
pull him up. Or we just came back from a
trip and I had closed them all and you know,
darkened the windows and everything, but when I came home
it's still kind of a crummy looking day. I just
opened them where the shade was still down, but let
(24:56):
all this light in, and I think that that's that's
really cool. I like that.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
They're great, man. I always tell people they're a lot
more versatile than your normal like Roman shade, you know,
so you can have them open at any point in
your window. Basically how they look it's like alternating veanes
of sheer and then light filtering pieces of fabric. And
then we have like the room dimming version for like
a bedroom where it's completely opaque and it blocks out light.
(25:26):
But they're great. Yeah, They're super easy to use, and
you know, they look really cool and we can motorize them.
There's a lot of different options, and then we also
have like, you know, hundreds of different fabrics you can
choose from. So a lot of people think, you know,
they might only look good in modern homes. But I
put them in traditional style houses all the time. Sure,
(25:46):
because there's so many different colors and like widths of
the fabric that you can do, so they really can
they can work in any style of home.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, well we're kind of like a conservative two story
home and Cincinnati, Ohio. So you've got that picture and
they go great. In fact, that was a couple of
the questions I had was I don't think a lot
of people realize the offerings you have in colors. I mean,
they're every color in the rainbow.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, I have the book in front of you right now.
It's it's a pretty heavy book. There's there's hundreds of
different you know, and then also the texture of the
fabric there's different, Like it gives you a lot of depth.
So when the when you have the light filtering ones,
there's different designs and the fabric and colors, and there's
a ton of different options you can choose from. And
then the head rail you can get a modern headrail
(26:40):
or traditional style, so there's a lot of different options
you can choose from it. Like you kind of personalize
the shade that figure home.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
So tell me about this motorized shade, because like if
you have a big great room and a twenty foot
ceiling and you've got those higher windows. Uh, that can
be very valuable. But I'm sure people are even motorizing
them for you know, first floor windows too.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yeah, we always motorize the ones that are high up
and hard to reach. But also, like you said, it's
kind of cool to put them like so, if you
have a great room with a ton of windows, if
you motorize them, you can control them all individually. But
also we install a channel that allows you to put
them all up and down at once. It's great, especially
like on a big window. Sometimes with the chain, the
(27:28):
fabric can get kind of heavy, so that's why we
offer that motorized motorization option. And then you can also
sink it up to your cell phone, so if you're
out of town, you can control your shades from you know,
anywhere in the country. And then you can also like
time it up so you know, when the sun comes
up they can open or whatever. They're close and it's
(27:49):
it's really cool. And they're super easy to charge, so
you only i mean, depending on how often you use them,
you only have to charge them like once a year
and plug it in overnight and they're good for a whole.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Year, easier than getting up and changing batteries exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
That's the old days you had to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I still got those for a while then, yeah, yeah, gosh,
it probably has been a while, but I'm scared to
even guess anymore, but it is. It is better. We
got higher windows and we've got batteries on those, and yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I have mine in my bedroom or motor It's kind
of cool. But that was very house warming gift when
I bought my house and new shades. And at the
time I didn't realize how big of a present that
was because I didn't worked for the company. I'm like, wow,
my dad really stepped it up for me.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, that's a good boy. He's a good boy. So hey,
let's take a break, and we got Rudy well son
of Son of Rudy. That's the way I'm going to
introduce you. Sorry, uh, We're going to talk about your
showroom and how people get started with this project, because
you guys sure make it easy. So let's take that break.
You're at home with Garry Selvin right here on fifty
(29:00):
five care see the talk station. All right back at it.
We go talking about window shades, and that doesn't even
sound right because these are spectacular. We're talking about the
allures from Lafayette Interior Fashions. My guest is Rudy, and
Rudy we we talked about, you know, the allures, but
(29:23):
I'm sure it's slats. You guys got all kinds of
different window treatments and you got a showroom. Tell me
about your showroom, Yes, sir.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
So we're open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then Saturday. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
our front desk called Jasmine's in from ten thirty to
three thirty and then on Saturdays she's in at eleven.
She leaves at three. But you can also schedule complication
on the website or call. But yeah, we have all
(29:56):
of our products or you know, we have a huge showroom.
We have a kind of a different kind of blinds company.
We have a beer tap at the store. And uh so,
you know, like you said, when the when the wives
are looking at the colors and the shades and all
the different options we have, you know, a guy like
you can offer you a beer get through the day.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
But but it's great, you know, so we have son
like you said, a lot more than just the allures.
You have screen shades with you know, varying opacities, so
we we put those on businesses a lot so you
can kind of see out of them, a lot of
Roman shades, roller shades, and you can hobble them or
have a flat contemporary look. And then also we sell
(30:37):
shutters from Normans, which they're really gorgeous too, and you
can motorize those. Now really, it's really you know, I
never knew that you could motorize shutters either, and it's, uh, yeah,
it's been. It's really cool. So you can those, you
can time those up. You have a little like home
(30:58):
thing rather than a remote. But yeah, it's really cool.
But yeah, it's all set up in the showroom and
you can come check it out to see it in person.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah. So all these different window treatments do do maybe
the lure does, but do any of them come with
warranties or anything like that? And something tells me the
lure is like a lifetime or something.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
So everything we sell and that's kind of what sets
us apart as a company. We offer a lifetime warranties
anything goes wrong, you know, as long as you know
the chain break as long as you know your dog
doesn't attack it or something. But functionality wise, if something
goes wrong, we fix it as long as you're in
the home. So my dad always tells stories like, you know,
(31:39):
some old lady calls them got the line thirty years ago,
We'll go out and fix it.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
For free, and that rude never had a problem yet.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Well good. Yeah, if you do have a problem, will
be out there. But now that's really been huge for us.
It's a really big selling point we have. And you
know we don't again, we don't outside contract anybody. So
it's my cousin Justin or our other installer, Bill will
come out and fix it for free. And they're both
great guys. They've been doing it for forever. We've never
(32:14):
fired a single person. We've we're very close company. We're
like a family.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So yeah, you guys, are you'd like to.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Take care of our company, our customers.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Well, I'll tell you what. That's why you've been in
business for a long time. That's why you're successful because
you do take care of people in your services off
the charts. So you've got to do a homer on
this year.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yes, we are, Like I said last year we were
in the Wheeland and Gorman. We're not sure which houses
we're going to be in this year yet, but last
year we're we It was a huge event for us.
It's really fun. I encourage everyone to come out and
meet with me. I'm there most nights and you can
kind of show you the house of whatever house we're in,
but we'll we'll update.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
You on that once that time comes down in the
Oakley area, isn't it this year?
Speaker 4 (33:03):
I think so? Yeah. I mean I live in Mount
lookout right now in Oakley, So yeah, down this way,
so we're looking near Brookwood.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I've passed it the other day. And I'm sure all
you know. And that's a great thing. I mean, when
you start using names like Ziica and Wheeling and your
your friendship and your business, you know, working with them
all the time, those are top shelf folks, and uh,
you guys have a top shelf window treatments and good
(33:35):
service and no, that's how business is built, you know that.
And boy, you got a showroom and people can come
and look what's available because you know it's an investment
in your home and it might be cosmetic, but like
you said, there's things to consider with you know, motorized
shades and non motorized shades, different colors, different textures, different styles,
(33:57):
and somebody that's been in that business us and you
know those builders too, and those builders and decorators and architects,
they know what they're looking for and you've got to
make that dream come true.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Exactly. It's a it's a big investment, you know, especially
if you're doing your whole house. It's it's a lot
of money. But you know, you you really do get
what you pay for because we use really good stuff.
But yeah, that's why it's not always easy and not
it's not always as quick of a decision as you said.
Your wife made so a lot of times.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
But I get it.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
It's a huge, it's big, and it really does change
the way your house looks in a great way. But yeah,
it is. I never thought I would be this passionate
about blinds, but I am. And it's it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You've been hanging around with your dad too much.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
I know, that's that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Here's nobody more passionate than him.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Oh my god, yeah he tracks me up, but uh
that he's Uh, he's a good dude. We love we
love my.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Dad, So he brings you on. Now he's got to
have something else come on, is you know, is he
like on to the Bahamas or Florida, opened somewhere, what's
going on.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
He likes to travel just a little bit, so just
I think he wanted to spend a little more time
in the Bahamas. So that's why I got the job.
So but you know, it's it's funny. When I joined,
you know, he wanted me to you know, make it,
you know, into the digital era. And you know, my
computer was the first computer ever at Flat and so
(35:27):
when I revamped our you know, I've got an Instagram
page and a Facebook page for us. But at the
same time, you know, I want to keep what makes
Flats flats. You know, we write out paper invoices still,
and I was gonna, you know, digitize it. But at
the same time, like I've been at the lady's house
for she'll whip out an invoice from twenty five years
ago with my dad's handwriting on it, and I I
(35:49):
think it's really special. There's certain things that you know,
I think we keep and it's just really cool for
me to be able to, you know, be part of
this company.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Sure, So if anybody has a second home, do you guys, Ever,
since your dad likes to travel, you ever do road
trip jobs?
Speaker 4 (36:06):
We do, so as long as the job's digging up,
we'll go anywhere. We've done business in the Bahamas, We've
had projects out in California, in Arizona, and then we
do a lot of work in Jupiter. Actually, I got
a back cover of a magazine in Admiral's Cove, which
(36:28):
is a pretty affluent area in Jupiter. So yeah, I've
gone down there a few times. And that's where Mike
Zika lives, so we did his home down there. It's beautiful.
He's got the same alloy shades that you have. But uh, yeah,
well we'll go anywhere, and we both like to travel,
so the cooler the destination is the better for us.
So if we have one in like the middle of
(36:48):
nowhere Cleveland, and it's got to be a good house,
but it's in Florida, we'll go for whatever.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Oh you going to ourbeat? I hear you all right?
Slats blind and then shut her. Located on Montgomery Road
just in Montgomery, basically right Deerfield, Montgomery area, right on
Montgomery Road, right on like.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
The corner of Union Cemetery in Montgomery Road.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
All right, and the website.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
People can check that out, yep, flats blind dot com
and you can schedule consultation right on there or you
can call the office. You can call it any time,
leave a message five one three six one six three five.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Rudy, you did great and it was my pleasure. Thanks
for joining us. I appreciate it there.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. Looking forward to meeting
you one day.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Tell tell Dad it was an a plus, will you
all right?
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Yeah, yeah, hopefully he's listening.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
All right, all right, thanks about you really appreciate Take care, Thanky,
all right, you bet, bye bye. Yeah. I can't say
enough about those blinds. Like I said, I wish I
knew how many years we've had them, not but it's
been eight years. Time flies maybe longer that, but it
(38:05):
made and we still get compliments on those blinds. In fact,
the story I was talking about when I said a
person came walking down the street and said they had
seen the blinds, we put it. Well. They actually moved
about I don't know about two years after that. Year
and a half after that, and they were downsizing in
(38:28):
a little townhouse they had and guess what they put
in the house. Yeah, Lure blinds. So it can really
fit any type of home without a problem. And they
do more than any other shade and certainly can't compare
them to the you know, the big box mini blinds
(38:48):
or anything like that. So it is a huge upgrade.
Not cheap, but sure makes a big, big difference. So
we thanked them for joining us today. A lot to
check out. We were talking about a lot of things today,
for sure, and one of the things was roofing, but
(39:11):
I don't want to really concentrate on that. Usually about
this time before we depart, I talk about, you know,
walking around the home and seeing what's going on. And
we had the little story of hornets or wasp or something,
and we're trying to talk about where the problem was.
And quite honestly, it surprised me that people were finding
(39:35):
them in the house last week when it got warm,
but it does make sense. I know, some wasps they
die out in kind of a band in that nest.
Other hornets, and I'm not an expert in hornets and
wasp they winter over and that attic got warm and
you started seeing them move around. I don't know, if
(39:56):
anybody saw any stink bugs, same, the same thing happens
with them about this time of year. Elder bugs, they
start happening, especially if you got a white door, white siding.
On a real warm day about this time of year,
you'll see them gathering as they crawl out of you know,
I'm gonna say hibernation. I don't think they go into hibernation,
(40:18):
but to a degree they do. They shut down for
a while. And you know that's also a sign that
there's probably some penetrations that aren't sealed to your own.
That's why I always encourage you to take that walk
around the home and well after we get by the
storms today, that might be something you want to do.
All right, Danny boy, A big happy forty eighth birthday
(40:39):
to you tomorrow. I hope you have a great time
and thank you. Yeah, yeah, mission tomorrow, good Lord willing.
I'll be back tomorrow for more at Home with Garry Sullivan.
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
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