June 22, 2025 • 45 mins
Your calls, tips and questions with the guy who is all about easy!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Well the weekends upon us. Welcome, you're at home with
Gary Salvin. By the way, this hours brought to you
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let's get back to the phone calls again. It's Donna.
(01:11):
You're up first. Welcome, Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
My question is this. You were talking about the seiler
for the concrete. I have some old sealer it's like
ten years old. Can I still use that?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'd say there's a good chance. It depends where it's
been stored. You know. If it's outside in the shed
and it's been real cold, probably not. But if it's
in the garage or a basement, you're probably good.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh Okay, it's been in the shed all the time,
so I better.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Get some new Yeah, so what what kind of sealer
is it? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, not really because the label has sort of deteriorated
over the years.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, probably not it let's not. Yeah, it's it's it's
an important project. I don't want it to be cloudy.
I want to make sure it penetrates. I want to
make sure it's the right kind of sealer. So that
brings the next question. Are you sealing the driveway sidewalk
or what are you ceiling?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, I'd like to seal both. Okay, driveway now probably
about twelve seat from the road to into the driveway.
The original driveway it's about three years old, and that
(02:46):
that I do believe was sealed when that was put in,
But the rest hasn't been sealed.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well good, I'm glad it was sealed. If it's three years,
it's probably ready for some more anyway. So when you're
doing a driveway or sidewalk, what you want is you
want something that is breathable. So I like to explain
it as the sealer you want to use is like
gortex fabric. It allows moisture to go up through it
(03:18):
because the concrete sitting on the earth right there's moisture
in here all the time, and when it's cold, you
want that moisture to exhaust through the concrete. But you
want to minimize how much concrete or how much moisture
penetrates into the concrete. So you want so it's breathable.
You want a breathable sealer. And that's number one. Number
(03:42):
two is you got to decide whether you want to
have a breathable sealer that when you apply it you
can't tell anything's been applied to it, or you want
it to have a little bit of achine.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh no, okay, all right, So I'm gonna give you
a website to take a look at.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's called Masonry Defender.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Masonry Defender okay, So.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
It's Masonrydefender dot com. And what they have is they
have projects specific sealers and the very first project specific
sealer they have is driveway and sidewalk seiler, which is
a breathable sealer. It can be applied by a brush
or a roller or a tank sprayer and just missed
it across the concrete. Make sure it's good and clean.
(04:37):
But all you do is use a tank spray and
you just spray it on it soaks into the concrete.
You can't even see it. It dries and you no shiny,
no nothing. It just looks just like it, just like
it did, looks like regular concrete with no sheene. And
that'll give you the protection you're looking for and the
lifespan on that's about three to four years, depending on
(04:58):
how sunny of a location it is.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Okay, asked my next question. Then a person should apply
sailor probably every three or four years. Correct, right, yes, okay, okay,
that's very good, Thank you, thank you. I think my
question sir, and I love your program.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Thank you. Have a great weekend. Take care. All right,
let's go to Jeff. Jeff, welcome, good morning. How are
you today? Moving today?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Great? So I have a I'm in a eighty home
built in the eighty nine. We moved in in two
thousand and six, and I'm not sure if our roof
has been replaced. I've had you know, I don't see
any signs of you know, damage, but I was wondering
about the roof mac Max extend or service where they
(05:52):
put some type of seiler on the roof to help
extend it. I wonder what your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well. First of all, if that roof has never been
the never been replaced, that roof is thirty five years
old plus.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Right, Yeah, you would you would assume.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, so, um, I don't know what kind of has
been replaced.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, traditional traditional shingles. I mean I don't think it's yeah,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well, let's say a normal roof, and this kind of
all kind of fits together with the whole Roof Max story.
Let's say a normal guaranteed shingle top quality right now
is a thirty year shingle, and maybe you'll get twenty
five years out of it. So I'm guessing that roof
(06:48):
has been replaced before you bought it. But even if
you bought it, it's still twenty twenty one years old
if they put it on before they sold you the house. Right. So,
the what roof Max does is the way a roof
fails is the granular part of that shingle, say, the
(07:12):
sand on the surface of the shingle that protects the
shingle from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. As that
shingle becomes brittle, it sheds that sand. The sun then
starts baking the innards of the shingle and it begins
(07:33):
to crack and roof needs to be replaced. What Roofmax
does is they inspect the roof and you know, they go, well,
you know, Jeff, it's lost some granular protection. It's in
the process of getting old, and we can apply this
(07:55):
Roofmax over the entire roof and it will it's some
flexibility to the shingles, and it'll also make it will
help adhere that granular protection to the shingle to minimize
or to minimize the aging process of the shingle. And
(08:17):
it'll last five years and it'll cost you probably twenty
percent to thirty percent of a new roof. And then
Jeff says, wow, that's perfect, that's what I want to do,
or you say I think I'll wait a couple of
years and I think I'll replace the roof, or they'll say, eh,
you've already lost too much granular protection. We really probably
(08:41):
can't help you. So it starts with a phone call.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, yeah, so it sounds so it sounds like it
still won't hard to get a consult from that, right.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It starts with the fun and they're going to inspect.
They're going to tell you about where you are in
the aging process. So if you had like a thirty
year shingle and that thing's I'm gonna take best case scenario.
Let's say it's twenty years old. It's probably got another
five years worth of life. But if you want to
get that protection put on there to minimize that aging process,
(09:15):
and they give you the cost, then you determine whether
that's worth it for you or not.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, it's the juice worth the squeeze. Yep, okay, alrighty,
all right, thank you, Garret, you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Thank you, You do the same, Take care all right.
Time for a break and then we come back. We
got Betty and Sharon at the bottom of the hour.
We're going to talk about wildlife in your house. And
Ron Krueger, I've had on probably ten times over the
course of ten years, maybe even more, very knowledgeable, and
(09:47):
I got to thinking this week, boy, we've had some
coolish weather for spring, We've had a lot of rain,
and it looks like maybe the coolishness will slow down,
but the rain won't. And I started thinking, is that
is that make wildlife calm down? Are they already in
(10:08):
the house? You know, how does that affect wildlife busting
into your home? Because that's an expensive proposition if they
get inside your house. So anyway, Ron' would agreed to
come on and he'll do that at the bottom of
the hour. So Betty and Sharon sit tight. We'll take
a break and then your calls. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
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(13:19):
the top of the are at home with Gerry Selvan
taking your calls, we go to your home project's maintenance
of repair and let's get back at it. Betty, welcome,
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I'm getting ready to sell my house and downside last
fall I had a new deck built or actually replaced. Okay,
so the guy is going to do it stain it.
Whenever I keep wondering when he's going to call me
to do it, I want to know how long it
should be dry before he does any work on that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Well, it really depends on the type of sealer he's
going to use, Betty, because if he used in one
of the things we're seeing is more and more latex
and acrylic and acrylic modified deck sealers. You almost got
to read the labels those. It only has to be
dry for two hours. If you have a solvent base
(14:17):
or an oil base. Uh, deck sealer, you've got to
wait two days. So big difference between two acts and
two days for sure.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Right right, I was thinking about talking with the Sharon
Williams company. Do you think that's a good brand or
do you have another suggestion or no.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Sherwin Williams makes a very good deck sealer. Uh, they've
got one called Super Deck. They've got their own Sherwan
Williams brand. Both of them, I would feel would be
very good. They do have an acrylic deck sealer with
a two hour you know time you know between washing
it and sealing it. They also have an acrylic alcid,
(15:03):
which is a combination of a solvent and the water base.
I don't know what the dry time is on that.
So if you talk to him, ask them what that
would be. That offers a couple advantages. It has deeper
penetration into the wood because of the alcid, and it
has good resistance the sunshine because of the acrylic. So yeah,
(15:26):
that'd be a good place to talk to him about it.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
Okay, now it's been years ago. I've been listening to
you for years, But years ago, one time you said
you've got basically a year for every ten bucks you
spent on the product. So what is the right now?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, prices have gone up, so much of it also
depends on how much sun hits that deck. But you know,
if I moved it up a little bit, I'd probably say,
you know, for every fourteen bucks, you get a year's
worth of value out of it. But you know, if
you've got some shade and some sun, I would say
(16:07):
the average lifespan's probably three years. If you get a clear.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
To the house.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, so you know, three four years you should get
out of there. And you know, if you get a
good eh, forty dollars deck sealer, thirty dollars deck sealer,
you'd be good. You'd be good. And I think that
falls in about where the Sherman Williams product is and
where the super deck product is.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
So yeah, now when he comes to do this, I
just want to be prepared. How much preparation should he
do on that? The thing was built last fall? So
what should he do?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Well?
Speaker 6 (16:46):
Before he got.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know, number one is why do you need it?
Has it been sealed before or not?
Speaker 6 (16:53):
No? It's brand new, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
All right, So what he would do is. He would
clean it use a deck cleaner, and I would also
use a deck brightener. And a deck cleaner will get
the surface cleaned and the deck brightener will open up
the fibers. If you use a straight water based deck sealer,
it's important to use the deck brightener because it opens
(17:16):
up the fibers and allows the seiler to soak in deeper.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
Okay, I'm just trying to get prepared.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So I wait for you. Yep, very good.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
I have two Porsch swings out there that have been painted,
so they're going to need standard or something before we repaint.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Right, are they? Are they peeling?
Speaker 6 (17:43):
One of them? Is? One of them is not?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah? So yeah, I would one this peeling. You definitely
got a sand The one that is not peeling, You're
probably going to be able to just wash it off
real good and maybe just lightly scratch it up a
little bit.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Okay, doth need a little something?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, they need a little little sanding.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Yeah. Okay, thank you so much for your help.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
You're quite welcome.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
Thank you, Sharon, welcome, Hello, Gary, thank you for taking
my call. First of all, I have a foundation problem
around the house. The coating that they put on the
cement bricks I think is peeling off. What would be
(18:30):
a good product, and how would.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I do that?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Is it the brick or is it the you know,
like blocks.
Speaker 7 (18:38):
It's probably a block in the back of it. But
if they coated it with something like a cement, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And that's yea, it's a it's a it's a stucco.
So what I would do is I would get a
little you know, like a wire brush, knock off any
loose coating and I don't know if you want to
restuck let the stuck of it. There is a cementatious
waterproof coating called dry lock, and dry lock has a
(19:08):
little bit of a texture and you could coat the
coating that's on there along with the block, which should
make it, uh, you know, revitalize. There's also people that
come out and they spray those textures onto the blocks,
which might be an option for you also. So there's
a lot you can use. But if you're just looking
(19:30):
to kind of perk it up a little bit, I
would take a look at some of your dry lock
masonry coatings. All right, sorry, I got a scoot ron
Kruger will be up next. We're gonna talk about wildlife.
Controlling your home at home with Gary Sullivan.
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(22:44):
of the day where I like to bring in experts
in individual fields in the uh home improvement industry. And
one of the things that occurred to me yesterday, Uh well,
it's been on my mind is we've had some pretty
lousy weather this year, coolish, rainish, cloudy, and I was
(23:05):
wondering how does that affect wildlife that has a tendency
to get into our attics and cause havoc. And my
expert is Ron Krueger, and he is with A plus
wildlife Control now just so you know, he's in kind
of the northeastern part of Ohio, Canton Acron Cleveland area,
(23:26):
and but he's my go to person that has been
to for a good ten years. And Ron, welcome again
at home with Gary Sullivan. How you doing.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Good morning, Gary, Happy fifty three degree day and wind
and forty mile parl wind day in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Good lordy. I'm telling you what so that that's kind
of my question, is you and I are always chatting
about the soup de joy. In other words, what wildlife
is trying to get into my attic to have their
babies and create a nice little snow And I was thinking,
wonder how much movement there's been this year or does
(24:05):
weather affect them. I guess they're still gonna have their
babies and they're still gonna try and get into your house.
So is it just status quo? Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
You know, they don't like it much better than we do.
But they're they're built for it. They've got you know,
they got their fur coats and stuff like that. But
when it comes to springtime, in my opinion that the
animals are kind of an autopilot. You know, they breed,
they have babies, and the kind of you know, wildlife
and nature keeps marching on, right, so everything has a season.
(24:39):
You know, we started what in February with skunk breeding season,
and shortly thereafter, you know, groundhogs woke up in March
and they breed immediately, and you know, we're starting to
get baby groundhogs already emerging from the bend from the
early births. And we're now tackling raccoon that have broken
(25:01):
into houses and tore up soffits that have gotten through
some bad wood on houses where they're you know, they've
had their raccoon kits, their babies up in the attic
and so we're dealing with that also. And so yeah,
it's you know, we may not like it as humans
because it's unusual for us, but I think animals keep
marching on. You know, they just power through.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So not every animal has a nest in somebody's home,
is that fair? I mean where else do they nest?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Well, you got to realize we deal with a lot
of urban areas, right, so we're dealing with with habitat
that has a lot of human structures. Raccoons have adapted,
but they've lived in nature forever so that you know,
they'll burrow under logs and brush piles or into an
old not big old knot in a tree. You know,
we've had raccoon kits, you know where they've had hollow
centers and these big stumps of a tree where groundhogs.
(25:56):
Obviously they're the soup desuur right now lately because everything ever,
but it's get their gardens out and well they build
their own homes. They just dig a hole and they
go down you know, six eight feet and cause a
lot of havoc that way, it' skunk same thing they borrow.
They have their natural areas, but they have adapted to
human structures like decks and sheds and front porches. They
(26:19):
go underneath those. What a better roof than a human
structure over the top of their head.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's what I was going to say. That's high class
living if they can find a house that is not
maintained well. Do you see that when you have calls
from people, is it from homes that just weren't maintained
well or is it that the animals are just going
to get in there.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Well, we do get the houses that are not not
maintained well, where the wood is rotted or punky, and
the houses are very old. Yeah, they can get into
those fairly easier because it's just easier structure to get into.
But the newer houses. I've had houses that were two
years old, brand new construction, and a raccoon will just
(27:03):
out of brute force, rip open a softa or a
ridge event and decide it wants in, and so it
can happen either way. But maintaining the home is always
obviously the main main thing you want to do to
your home and always look up when you walk around
your house, Look up around your house, check it out
once at least once a once a week or two,
(27:24):
walk around and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
And as I drive around, some of your older urban
areas are probably less maintained. And that is a wonderful place,
I guess if your wildlife, to make your nest and
have your your kits and happy happily ever after. So
so what's going on now? I mean you say it's
(27:49):
a status quo. So they've been doing the breeding and
they're about ready to have some babies now, aren't they.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
They have been having babies. So yeah, the baby an
squirrels they bred in like December January. Those babies are
actually basically leaving the house now. They're already three quarters
the size of adult. And actually squirrels in a few
months are going to have their second breeding. They have
two litters a year and or how typically, and so
(28:17):
we're going to have our summer late summer, you know
young for squirrels. Groundhogs breed once typically, and raccoons and
skunks just breed once a year. So we're basically having
the rash of spring just marching forward, you know. So
we're just we're right now. The calls I've been getting
this morning, it's groundhogs and uh and raccoons getting there.
(28:41):
They're hearing the raccoons moving around more so the raccoon
babies or kits are growing larger, and now they're hearing
a lot more thumping and bumping around the attics and
moving around. They're hearing vocalizations from from the young in
the attic, and they're hearing creaking and you know, creaking
and metal metal moving like on a metal soft or
something like that. As the female raccoon comes and goes
(29:02):
multiple times a night, she'll go out and forge a while,
but her young needs to be fed quite often, so
she is really active, coming and going on and off
the top of the roof quite often. And that's where
people usually hear them, is climbing up the gutter or
down the gutter or down the corner vinyl caps of
the siding, you know, this metal siding. They'll hear the
scratching and they'll look out the window and see this
(29:24):
critter climbing their home.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
So that brings up a really good point. All businesses
have its peak. I guess. Once they got into the
house and are just nesting. There's maybe a good chance
you're you're unaware that they're even in your home. But
now with the babies being born and mom out forging
and coming and going, don't ignore the sounds you hear
(29:51):
in your attic or in your walls.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah, yes, well, I get calls all the time, daily,
almost multiple times a day. I'm hearing stuff in the
it it sounds larger than a mouse, and it could
be and I and they always what I asked, folks
is that I said, did you go outside and walk
around your house? Did you look at it? And I'd
say fifty percent of the time people said, well, no,
(30:13):
I haven't you. I said, well, that's your first stop,
to get outside and go around and just look off
and look around. Is there anything damnas different? You know,
we can still come out and do an inspection and
figure out what the noise is, but it sure helps.
Just a quick observation, take a picture, send it to me.
Is what usually to have people do, you know, if
they see something funky on their house, and I'll you know,
(30:36):
usually can initially diagnose and then set up the appointment
to confirm.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, you know, one of the things I've tried to
do over the thirty nine years run is uh talk
to people about where their talents are and where they're not.
And when I met you, I used to get a
lot of calls that people are like, Oh, I got
something in my attic, I've got this, have a hard
train happen. I'm going to go up and get them.
(31:02):
And the more I talk to you, the more I
realized that if I was to have a wild animal
in my attic, I would probably call you and maybe
if you could just spend a little time really and
tell people why that's such a good idea, because there's
a real talent to removing wildlife from your from your home.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Well dealing with wildlife professionals like wildlife control operators across
the nation. These guys and gals are out there that
have knowledge and skills to know the animals. We need
to know their behavior. We're kind of like wildlife detectives.
You come out to a house, we're I was looking
for damage, but we're looking for my minute things like hey,
why is there a muddy Paul print ten feet off
(31:43):
the ground up on the gutter or down spout that
you know? These are clues, they're saying, okay, this is
the travel pathway, this is what we're seeing, you know
sec you know, setting traps and addicts. I've had people
do that, but then they realize they actually caught something.
What are you going to do with it? Now? You've
got to grab this trap, like with an angry female
(32:03):
raccoon inside of it, inside of its tight space, somehow
get it down a hatch and then out the door.
You know, it's all the whole time. It's when they
animals get upset, they kind of urinate and defecate, and
that's not pleasant either, and you're traveling that through the house.
So there are certain ways that you can do things
to lessen that type of impact, and and that you
(32:27):
know that stress and hassle is just to hire somebody.
Plus most of the time we're up on ladders and
on roofs, and most residents are not going to want
to do that. It's unsafe. You've got to have the
protective gear and and then you still got to make
the repairs when you're done. You don't leave an open
hole once you get animals out, you got to you
got to know how to seal it, you know, correctly.
So so the house is kind of bulletproof, right, kind
(32:49):
of what you want.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
So let's draw a little comparison here. When wildlife gets
in your home, makes a mess, has their young, and
you discovered as a homeowner or you suspect something's going on.
This is an expensive proposition. This isn't This isn't just
(33:14):
about getting rid of the animal, correct. I mean, I'm
going to show how important it is to work on
the maintenance of the home and not let it get
to this point.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
So, once animals get into attics, they do a couple
of things besides having babies. But they'll disrupt your insulation,
not only moving it around. Squirrels and raccoons will push
it all around to make whatever betting they want to
make up there, but they'll also compact the insulation. You
can get a twenty pound raccoon walking all around your attic.
(33:47):
After a short period of time, that attic insulation is
not fluffy anymore. And that fluff in the insulations what
makes insulation work. You want that air fluff in there,
and if you compress it, your our value gets completely
messed up and doesn't work right. And the third thing
that happens is that raccoons no they and squirrels and
anything else is up there. They'll use your attic as
(34:08):
a restroom, as a bathroom, as a toiletry area, and
they will make some bad message up there. They can
be quite stinky and smelly. You know, you might get
the animals out, you might see the hole, but then
if you don't fix that, that scent and odor stays
and animals outside. Because houses breathe, the airflow goes through them,
(34:30):
they will pick up on this, and raccoons particularly and
squirrels will pick up on that. They're hey, I smell
that house from a distance. There's been animals in the
house before. Let's go check it out. And they will
investigate and potentially reoffend a house because there's been animals
in the past.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So the next question, because you know it again, I
emphasize this is an issue. This is obviously an issue,
but it's also an expense. Oh you got removal, you
got repair, you got sanitation, you got all kinds of
things going on here. Is this in the insurance industry,
(35:10):
is just changing daily hourly covered event or a non
cover event, or sometimes it isn't Sometimes it isn't right.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
So the biggest expense obviously is repair. If you had
roof damage, oh my gosh, you know you could have
a new roof, what ten twenty thousand dollars you could?
Insulation replacement at attic restoration can run anywhere from a
few thousand up to we've had some that run fifteen
thousand dollars just because of the size of the square
footage of the insulation that needs to be removed and
(35:43):
replaced insulation. When it comes to insurance companies, they used
to cover a lot of this stuff, but more and more,
you are correct, they are not being it's forthcoming with
that anymore. They're not covering that there a lot of
times they're using words like we are excluding damas from vermin,
which is a catch all phrase for just about anything
(36:04):
you don't want you're at it. And so a lot
of this expense falls upon the homeowner, and so that's
why it's important. Yeah, keep your house maintained on the
outside so you don't have to worry about making repairs
on the inside.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Ron, can you spend about ten more minutes with me,
We'll take a break and come back. No problem, all right,
Ron Krueger. He is with A plus wildlife control in
the northeast part of Ohio. He is my guest as
we talk about wildlife that has invaded your home and
will continue to do that. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This he's at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
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tear mender dot com. For more make do in men's
solutions and ideas. Ron Krueger's my guess from A plus
(39:33):
Wildlife Control in Northeast Ohio. Now, I know you're awesome, Ron,
because I could keep calling you. You're one of the best.
Maybe you are the best. But if people listening to
us in Boston right now, or in Louisville, Kentucky, or
in California and they're like, how do I find a
ron Krueger in other parts of the country. Is there
(39:55):
an association with listings and reading? Is there anything like that?
Speaker 4 (40:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
There is.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
We have We have an association called new CoA, which
is an acronym. It's it's n w c o A
dot com. You probably can go to that n w
c o A dot com. It stands for National Wildlife
Control Operators Association and they've got you know, members that
that are in there that are basically all fifty states.
You can go to that website. Be a good consumer,
(40:25):
ask questions to whoever you you know, question about how
their fee structure is and what's going on and just
and yeah, but everybody on there has got a lot
of training and does does a really good job. And
in each one of those in each state knows their
own state ordinances, laws and rules because every state's different.
And what I can do in Ohio, somebody Wisconsin may
(40:48):
not be able to do.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
So. So is that New n E w CoA c
O A. Is that dot com or dot org or.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
I think it's dot com?
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Okay, all right, New cot Co? All right, what's the
most popular animal you remove from a home? Uh?
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Probably two is probably be the raccoon and squirrel. Yeah, yeah,
those are the two primary ones. Those are the ones
that break in and do a lot of damage to
gutters and soffets and insulation and stuff. And it depends
and certain times a year. Right now, like I said,
we're getting a slew of calls in the last four
or five days for groundhogs. But that that damage is
(41:28):
important because they burrow along foundations and I know you
talk about a lot of water and basements and stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
You're controlizes.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, as soon as you have a hole right along
the foundation. That's just nothing but a like a rains
real hard or the gutters pour over right, it's a
water right along the footers of your house.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Sure is. And that's only going to get worse.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
It will, so so you gotta you gotta get them
out and then get those get that, get that repaired.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Is your business three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Well, yes, we obviously have our because we're in the
Northern States, part of the state's northern tier. We call
it the North Coast up here in Ohio that we
slow down obviously after Thanksgiving Christmas time, just because a
lot of the animals slow down the weather gets cold.
But you know, you get to Kentucky and South and
you know Tennessee and Georgia and Florida, you know they're
(42:23):
they're going there. Those animals don't hibernate as much as
they do they're there, they've got shorter winters and so
they stay busy. So wildlife doesn't stop. Some of it hibernates.
So we don't touch ground hogs in the wintertime because
they're asleep in their dens. But raccoons they're active, they're
out forging. So are squirrels, and uh, yeah, they sure are.
(42:44):
They stay. They keep us not as busy, but they keep,
they keep, they keep us hopping.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Well, I heard a news story today and I wasn't
really paying much attention. It was in the background, but
somebody's home got a bear in the attic and fell
through the ceiling.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Can you imagine the hole on the outside of the
house that left that?
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Oh my gosh. I was thinking, how in the world
did that happen? Before I let you go? What's you
know the season of June, July, August in the summertime,
is it still raccoons and squirrels or we get into
bats and other things?
Speaker 4 (43:21):
Great question. So bats, we just finished our spring bat
season where we're allowed to kick bats out. Now we're
in the middle of birthing season for bats, which we're
not allowed to touch them in our state and actually
mostly nationwide it's about the same policy. But in Ohio,
starting August, all the baby bats are flight capable and
we can start. Yeah, I'll get to start getting calls
(43:42):
probably July all the way through August and September for bats, bats, bats,
and we'll do almost eight weeks to ten weeks worth
of bat work, and we'll do quite a few home
as many homes a we can squeeze in in that
period of time. Bats will come in and that's a
lot of work. That's a lot of every gap on house.
That's a third of an integrator eats sealed. I mean
(44:03):
it's that's Hawking is your friend.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Cawking is your friend?
Speaker 4 (44:09):
Hawking? And cock. Yeah, we go through cases and cases
and cases and cases of cock.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do well. Ron Again,
thank you very much for joining us today. I had
a good conversation with you yesterday. I appreciate your friendship.
You run a great business. It's a plus Wildlife Control.
Are you officially in Canton, Akron Canton area?
Speaker 4 (44:31):
Yes, Acron Canton's mostly our primary er Gary.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
All right, And the national association is new CoA n E,
w co.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
A no no no and and w CoA A and.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
W CoA dot com. Very good, my friend. Thank you so.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
Much, God blessed.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Take care all right, take care? Thanks all right, there
you go. A great guy, very knowledgeable too. And uh well,
we'll follow up on some of that conversation when we
get on the other side of the news. You're at
Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (45:16):
Weekends mean a never ending list of things to do
around your home. Get help at one eight hundred and
eighty two three Talk You're at Home with Gary Sullivan
Well the weekends upon us. Welcome, you're at home with
Gary Salvin. By the way, this hours brought to you
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off now through Tuesday, so check that out. All right. Uh,
let's get back to the phone calls again. It's Donna.
(01:11):
You're up first. Welcome, Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
My question is this. You were talking about the seiler
for the concrete. I have some old sealer it's like
ten years old. Can I still use that?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'd say there's a good chance. It depends where it's
been stored. You know. If it's outside in the shed
and it's been real cold, probably not. But if it's
in the garage or a basement, you're probably good.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh Okay, it's been in the shed all the time,
so I better.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Get some new Yeah, so what what kind of sealer
is it? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, not really because the label has sort of deteriorated
over the years.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, probably not it let's not. Yeah, it's it's it's
an important project. I don't want it to be cloudy.
I want to make sure it penetrates. I want to
make sure it's the right kind of sealer. So that
brings the next question. Are you sealing the driveway sidewalk
or what are you ceiling?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, I'd like to seal both. Okay, driveway now probably
about twelve seat from the road to into the driveway.
The original driveway it's about three years old, and that
(02:46):
that I do believe was sealed when that was put in,
But the rest hasn't been sealed.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well good, I'm glad it was sealed. If it's three years,
it's probably ready for some more anyway. So when you're
doing a driveway or sidewalk, what you want is you
want something that is breathable. So I like to explain
it as the sealer you want to use is like
gortex fabric. It allows moisture to go up through it
(03:18):
because the concrete sitting on the earth right there's moisture
in here all the time, and when it's cold, you
want that moisture to exhaust through the concrete. But you
want to minimize how much concrete or how much moisture
penetrates into the concrete. So you want so it's breathable.
You want a breathable sealer. And that's number one. Number
(03:42):
two is you got to decide whether you want to
have a breathable sealer that when you apply it you
can't tell anything's been applied to it, or you want
it to have a little bit of achine.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh no, okay, all right, So I'm gonna give you
a website to take a look at.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's called Masonry Defender.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Masonry Defender okay, So.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
It's Masonrydefender dot com. And what they have is they
have projects specific sealers and the very first project specific
sealer they have is driveway and sidewalk seiler, which is
a breathable sealer. It can be applied by a brush
or a roller or a tank sprayer and just missed
it across the concrete. Make sure it's good and clean.
(04:37):
But all you do is use a tank spray and
you just spray it on it soaks into the concrete.
You can't even see it. It dries and you no shiny,
no nothing. It just looks just like it, just like
it did, looks like regular concrete with no sheene. And
that'll give you the protection you're looking for and the
lifespan on that's about three to four years, depending on
(04:58):
how sunny of a location it is.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Okay, asked my next question. Then a person should apply
sailor probably every three or four years. Correct, right, yes, okay, okay,
that's very good, Thank you, thank you. I think my
question sir, and I love your program.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Thank you. Have a great weekend. Take care. All right,
let's go to Jeff. Jeff, welcome, good morning. How are
you today? Moving today?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Great? So I have a I'm in a eighty home
built in the eighty nine. We moved in in two
thousand and six, and I'm not sure if our roof
has been replaced. I've had you know, I don't see
any signs of you know, damage, but I was wondering
about the roof mac Max extend or service where they
(05:52):
put some type of seiler on the roof to help
extend it. I wonder what your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well. First of all, if that roof has never been
the never been replaced, that roof is thirty five years
old plus.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Right, Yeah, you would you would assume.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, so, um, I don't know what kind of has
been replaced.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, traditional traditional shingles. I mean I don't think it's yeah,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well, let's say a normal roof, and this kind of
all kind of fits together with the whole Roof Max story.
Let's say a normal guaranteed shingle top quality right now
is a thirty year shingle, and maybe you'll get twenty
five years out of it. So I'm guessing that roof
(06:48):
has been replaced before you bought it. But even if
you bought it, it's still twenty twenty one years old
if they put it on before they sold you the house. Right. So,
the what roof Max does is the way a roof
fails is the granular part of that shingle, say, the
(07:12):
sand on the surface of the shingle that protects the
shingle from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. As that
shingle becomes brittle, it sheds that sand. The sun then
starts baking the innards of the shingle and it begins
(07:33):
to crack and roof needs to be replaced. What Roofmax
does is they inspect the roof and you know, they go, well,
you know, Jeff, it's lost some granular protection. It's in
the process of getting old, and we can apply this
(07:55):
Roofmax over the entire roof and it will it's some
flexibility to the shingles, and it'll also make it will
help adhere that granular protection to the shingle to minimize
or to minimize the aging process of the shingle. And
(08:17):
it'll last five years and it'll cost you probably twenty
percent to thirty percent of a new roof. And then
Jeff says, wow, that's perfect, that's what I want to do,
or you say I think I'll wait a couple of
years and I think I'll replace the roof, or they'll say, eh,
you've already lost too much granular protection. We really probably
(08:41):
can't help you. So it starts with a phone call.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, yeah, so it sounds so it sounds like it
still won't hard to get a consult from that, right.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It starts with the fun and they're going to inspect.
They're going to tell you about where you are in
the aging process. So if you had like a thirty
year shingle and that thing's I'm gonna take best case scenario.
Let's say it's twenty years old. It's probably got another
five years worth of life. But if you want to
get that protection put on there to minimize that aging process,
(09:15):
and they give you the cost, then you determine whether
that's worth it for you or not.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, it's the juice worth the squeeze. Yep, okay, alrighty,
all right, thank you, Garret, you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Thank you, You do the same, Take care all right.
Time for a break and then we come back. We
got Betty and Sharon at the bottom of the hour.
We're going to talk about wildlife in your house. And
Ron Krueger, I've had on probably ten times over the
course of ten years, maybe even more, very knowledgeable, and
(09:47):
I got to thinking this week, boy, we've had some
coolish weather for spring, We've had a lot of rain,
and it looks like maybe the coolishness will slow down,
but the rain won't. And I started thinking, is that
is that make wildlife calm down? Are they already in
(10:08):
the house? You know, how does that affect wildlife busting
into your home? Because that's an expensive proposition if they
get inside your house. So anyway, Ron' would agreed to
come on and he'll do that at the bottom of
the hour. So Betty and Sharon sit tight. We'll take
a break and then your calls. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
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one eight hundred eight two three talk This is at
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(13:19):
the top of the are at home with Gerry Selvan
taking your calls, we go to your home project's maintenance
of repair and let's get back at it. Betty, welcome,
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I'm getting ready to sell my house and downside last
fall I had a new deck built or actually replaced. Okay,
so the guy is going to do it stain it.
Whenever I keep wondering when he's going to call me
to do it, I want to know how long it
should be dry before he does any work on that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Well, it really depends on the type of sealer he's
going to use, Betty, because if he used in one
of the things we're seeing is more and more latex
and acrylic and acrylic modified deck sealers. You almost got
to read the labels those. It only has to be
dry for two hours. If you have a solvent base
(14:17):
or an oil base. Uh, deck sealer, you've got to
wait two days. So big difference between two acts and
two days for sure.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Right right, I was thinking about talking with the Sharon
Williams company. Do you think that's a good brand or
do you have another suggestion or no.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Sherwin Williams makes a very good deck sealer. Uh, they've
got one called Super Deck. They've got their own Sherwan
Williams brand. Both of them, I would feel would be
very good. They do have an acrylic deck sealer with
a two hour you know time you know between washing
it and sealing it. They also have an acrylic alcid,
(15:03):
which is a combination of a solvent and the water base.
I don't know what the dry time is on that.
So if you talk to him, ask them what that
would be. That offers a couple advantages. It has deeper
penetration into the wood because of the alcid, and it
has good resistance the sunshine because of the acrylic. So yeah,
(15:26):
that'd be a good place to talk to him about it.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
Okay, now it's been years ago. I've been listening to
you for years, But years ago, one time you said
you've got basically a year for every ten bucks you
spent on the product. So what is the right now?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, prices have gone up, so much of it also
depends on how much sun hits that deck. But you know,
if I moved it up a little bit, I'd probably say,
you know, for every fourteen bucks, you get a year's
worth of value out of it. But you know, if
you've got some shade and some sun, I would say
(16:07):
the average lifespan's probably three years. If you get a clear.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
To the house.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, so you know, three four years you should get
out of there. And you know, if you get a
good eh, forty dollars deck sealer, thirty dollars deck sealer,
you'd be good. You'd be good. And I think that
falls in about where the Sherman Williams product is and
where the super deck product is.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
So yeah, now when he comes to do this, I
just want to be prepared. How much preparation should he
do on that? The thing was built last fall? So
what should he do?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Well?
Speaker 6 (16:46):
Before he got.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know, number one is why do you need it?
Has it been sealed before or not?
Speaker 6 (16:53):
No? It's brand new, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
All right, So what he would do is. He would
clean it use a deck cleaner, and I would also
use a deck brightener. And a deck cleaner will get
the surface cleaned and the deck brightener will open up
the fibers. If you use a straight water based deck sealer,
it's important to use the deck brightener because it opens
(17:16):
up the fibers and allows the seiler to soak in deeper.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
Okay, I'm just trying to get prepared.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So I wait for you. Yep, very good.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
I have two Porsch swings out there that have been painted,
so they're going to need standard or something before we repaint.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Right, are they? Are they peeling?
Speaker 6 (17:43):
One of them? Is? One of them is not?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah? So yeah, I would one this peeling. You definitely
got a sand The one that is not peeling, You're
probably going to be able to just wash it off
real good and maybe just lightly scratch it up a
little bit.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Okay, doth need a little something?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, they need a little little sanding.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Yeah. Okay, thank you so much for your help.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
You're quite welcome.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
Thank you, Sharon, welcome, Hello, Gary, thank you for taking
my call. First of all, I have a foundation problem
around the house. The coating that they put on the
cement bricks I think is peeling off. What would be
(18:30):
a good product, and how would.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I do that?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Is it the brick or is it the you know,
like blocks.
Speaker 7 (18:38):
It's probably a block in the back of it. But
if they coated it with something like a cement, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And that's yea, it's a it's a it's a stucco.
So what I would do is I would get a
little you know, like a wire brush, knock off any
loose coating and I don't know if you want to
restuck let the stuck of it. There is a cementatious
waterproof coating called dry lock, and dry lock has a
(19:08):
little bit of a texture and you could coat the
coating that's on there along with the block, which should
make it, uh, you know, revitalize. There's also people that
come out and they spray those textures onto the blocks,
which might be an option for you also. So there's
a lot you can use. But if you're just looking
(19:30):
to kind of perk it up a little bit, I
would take a look at some of your dry lock
masonry coatings. All right, sorry, I got a scoot ron
Kruger will be up next. We're gonna talk about wildlife.
Controlling your home at home with Gary Sullivan.
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(22:44):
of the day where I like to bring in experts
in individual fields in the uh home improvement industry. And
one of the things that occurred to me yesterday, Uh well,
it's been on my mind is we've had some pretty
lousy weather this year, coolish, rainish, cloudy, and I was
(23:05):
wondering how does that affect wildlife that has a tendency
to get into our attics and cause havoc. And my
expert is Ron Krueger, and he is with A plus
wildlife Control now just so you know, he's in kind
of the northeastern part of Ohio, Canton Acron Cleveland area,
(23:26):
and but he's my go to person that has been
to for a good ten years. And Ron, welcome again
at home with Gary Sullivan. How you doing.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Good morning, Gary, Happy fifty three degree day and wind
and forty mile parl wind day in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Good lordy. I'm telling you what so that that's kind
of my question, is you and I are always chatting
about the soup de joy. In other words, what wildlife
is trying to get into my attic to have their
babies and create a nice little snow And I was thinking,
wonder how much movement there's been this year or does
(24:05):
weather affect them. I guess they're still gonna have their
babies and they're still gonna try and get into your house.
So is it just status quo? Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
You know, they don't like it much better than we do.
But they're they're built for it. They've got you know,
they got their fur coats and stuff like that. But
when it comes to springtime, in my opinion that the
animals are kind of an autopilot. You know, they breed,
they have babies, and the kind of you know, wildlife
and nature keeps marching on, right, so everything has a season.
(24:39):
You know, we started what in February with skunk breeding season,
and shortly thereafter, you know, groundhogs woke up in March
and they breed immediately, and you know, we're starting to
get baby groundhogs already emerging from the bend from the
early births. And we're now tackling raccoon that have broken
(25:01):
into houses and tore up soffits that have gotten through
some bad wood on houses where they're you know, they've
had their raccoon kits, their babies up in the attic
and so we're dealing with that also. And so yeah,
it's you know, we may not like it as humans
because it's unusual for us, but I think animals keep
marching on. You know, they just power through.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So not every animal has a nest in somebody's home,
is that fair? I mean where else do they nest?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Well, you got to realize we deal with a lot
of urban areas, right, so we're dealing with with habitat
that has a lot of human structures. Raccoons have adapted,
but they've lived in nature forever so that you know,
they'll burrow under logs and brush piles or into an
old not big old knot in a tree. You know,
we've had raccoon kits, you know where they've had hollow
centers and these big stumps of a tree where groundhogs.
(25:56):
Obviously they're the soup desuur right now lately because everything ever,
but it's get their gardens out and well they build
their own homes. They just dig a hole and they
go down you know, six eight feet and cause a
lot of havoc that way, it' skunk same thing they borrow.
They have their natural areas, but they have adapted to
human structures like decks and sheds and front porches. They
(26:19):
go underneath those. What a better roof than a human
structure over the top of their head.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's what I was going to say. That's high class
living if they can find a house that is not
maintained well. Do you see that when you have calls
from people, is it from homes that just weren't maintained
well or is it that the animals are just going
to get in there.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Well, we do get the houses that are not not
maintained well, where the wood is rotted or punky, and
the houses are very old. Yeah, they can get into
those fairly easier because it's just easier structure to get into.
But the newer houses. I've had houses that were two
years old, brand new construction, and a raccoon will just
(27:03):
out of brute force, rip open a softa or a
ridge event and decide it wants in, and so it
can happen either way. But maintaining the home is always
obviously the main main thing you want to do to
your home and always look up when you walk around
your house, Look up around your house, check it out
once at least once a once a week or two,
(27:24):
walk around and see if there's anything different.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
And as I drive around, some of your older urban
areas are probably less maintained. And that is a wonderful place,
I guess if your wildlife, to make your nest and
have your your kits and happy happily ever after. So
so what's going on now? I mean you say it's
(27:49):
a status quo. So they've been doing the breeding and
they're about ready to have some babies now, aren't they.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
They have been having babies. So yeah, the baby an
squirrels they bred in like December January. Those babies are
actually basically leaving the house now. They're already three quarters
the size of adult. And actually squirrels in a few
months are going to have their second breeding. They have
two litters a year and or how typically, and so
(28:17):
we're going to have our summer late summer, you know
young for squirrels. Groundhogs breed once typically, and raccoons and
skunks just breed once a year. So we're basically having
the rash of spring just marching forward, you know. So
we're just we're right now. The calls I've been getting
this morning, it's groundhogs and uh and raccoons getting there.
(28:41):
They're hearing the raccoons moving around more so the raccoon
babies or kits are growing larger, and now they're hearing
a lot more thumping and bumping around the attics and
moving around. They're hearing vocalizations from from the young in
the attic, and they're hearing creaking and you know, creaking
and metal metal moving like on a metal soft or
something like that. As the female raccoon comes and goes
(29:02):
multiple times a night, she'll go out and forge a while,
but her young needs to be fed quite often, so
she is really active, coming and going on and off
the top of the roof quite often. And that's where
people usually hear them, is climbing up the gutter or
down the gutter or down the corner vinyl caps of
the siding, you know, this metal siding. They'll hear the
scratching and they'll look out the window and see this
(29:24):
critter climbing their home.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
So that brings up a really good point. All businesses
have its peak. I guess. Once they got into the
house and are just nesting. There's maybe a good chance
you're you're unaware that they're even in your home. But
now with the babies being born and mom out forging
and coming and going, don't ignore the sounds you hear
(29:51):
in your attic or in your walls.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah, yes, well, I get calls all the time, daily,
almost multiple times a day. I'm hearing stuff in the
it it sounds larger than a mouse, and it could
be and I and they always what I asked, folks
is that I said, did you go outside and walk
around your house? Did you look at it? And I'd
say fifty percent of the time people said, well, no,
(30:13):
I haven't you. I said, well, that's your first stop,
to get outside and go around and just look off
and look around. Is there anything damnas different? You know,
we can still come out and do an inspection and
figure out what the noise is, but it sure helps.
Just a quick observation, take a picture, send it to me.
Is what usually to have people do, you know, if
they see something funky on their house, and I'll you know,
(30:36):
usually can initially diagnose and then set up the appointment
to confirm.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, you know, one of the things I've tried to
do over the thirty nine years run is uh talk
to people about where their talents are and where they're not.
And when I met you, I used to get a
lot of calls that people are like, Oh, I got
something in my attic, I've got this, have a hard
train happen. I'm going to go up and get them.
(31:02):
And the more I talk to you, the more I
realized that if I was to have a wild animal
in my attic, I would probably call you and maybe
if you could just spend a little time really and
tell people why that's such a good idea, because there's
a real talent to removing wildlife from your from your home.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Well dealing with wildlife professionals like wildlife control operators across
the nation. These guys and gals are out there that
have knowledge and skills to know the animals. We need
to know their behavior. We're kind of like wildlife detectives.
You come out to a house, we're I was looking
for damage, but we're looking for my minute things like hey,
why is there a muddy Paul print ten feet off
(31:43):
the ground up on the gutter or down spout that
you know? These are clues, they're saying, okay, this is
the travel pathway, this is what we're seeing, you know
sec you know, setting traps and addicts. I've had people
do that, but then they realize they actually caught something.
What are you going to do with it? Now? You've
got to grab this trap, like with an angry female
(32:03):
raccoon inside of it, inside of its tight space, somehow
get it down a hatch and then out the door.
You know, it's all the whole time. It's when they
animals get upset, they kind of urinate and defecate, and
that's not pleasant either, and you're traveling that through the house.
So there are certain ways that you can do things
to lessen that type of impact, and and that you
(32:27):
know that stress and hassle is just to hire somebody.
Plus most of the time we're up on ladders and
on roofs, and most residents are not going to want
to do that. It's unsafe. You've got to have the
protective gear and and then you still got to make
the repairs when you're done. You don't leave an open
hole once you get animals out, you got to you
got to know how to seal it, you know, correctly.
So so the house is kind of bulletproof, right, kind
(32:49):
of what you want.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
So let's draw a little comparison here. When wildlife gets
in your home, makes a mess, has their young, and
you discovered as a homeowner or you suspect something's going on.
This is an expensive proposition. This isn't This isn't just
(33:14):
about getting rid of the animal, correct. I mean, I'm
going to show how important it is to work on
the maintenance of the home and not let it get
to this point.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
So, once animals get into attics, they do a couple
of things besides having babies. But they'll disrupt your insulation,
not only moving it around. Squirrels and raccoons will push
it all around to make whatever betting they want to
make up there, but they'll also compact the insulation. You
can get a twenty pound raccoon walking all around your attic.
(33:47):
After a short period of time, that attic insulation is
not fluffy anymore. And that fluff in the insulations what
makes insulation work. You want that air fluff in there,
and if you compress it, your our value gets completely
messed up and doesn't work right. And the third thing
that happens is that raccoons no they and squirrels and
anything else is up there. They'll use your attic as
(34:08):
a restroom, as a bathroom, as a toiletry area, and
they will make some bad message up there. They can
be quite stinky and smelly. You know, you might get
the animals out, you might see the hole, but then
if you don't fix that, that scent and odor stays
and animals outside. Because houses breathe, the airflow goes through them,
(34:30):
they will pick up on this, and raccoons particularly and
squirrels will pick up on that. They're hey, I smell
that house from a distance. There's been animals in the
house before. Let's go check it out. And they will
investigate and potentially reoffend a house because there's been animals
in the past.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So the next question, because you know it again, I
emphasize this is an issue. This is obviously an issue,
but it's also an expense. Oh you got removal, you
got repair, you got sanitation, you got all kinds of
things going on here. Is this in the insurance industry,
(35:10):
is just changing daily hourly covered event or a non
cover event, or sometimes it isn't Sometimes it isn't right.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
So the biggest expense obviously is repair. If you had
roof damage, oh my gosh, you know you could have
a new roof, what ten twenty thousand dollars you could?
Insulation replacement at attic restoration can run anywhere from a
few thousand up to we've had some that run fifteen
thousand dollars just because of the size of the square
footage of the insulation that needs to be removed and
(35:43):
replaced insulation. When it comes to insurance companies, they used
to cover a lot of this stuff, but more and more,
you are correct, they are not being it's forthcoming with
that anymore. They're not covering that there a lot of
times they're using words like we are excluding damas from vermin,
which is a catch all phrase for just about anything
(36:04):
you don't want you're at it. And so a lot
of this expense falls upon the homeowner, and so that's
why it's important. Yeah, keep your house maintained on the
outside so you don't have to worry about making repairs
on the inside.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Ron, can you spend about ten more minutes with me,
We'll take a break and come back. No problem, all right,
Ron Krueger. He is with A plus wildlife control in
the northeast part of Ohio. He is my guest as
we talk about wildlife that has invaded your home and
will continue to do that. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This he's at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
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solutions and ideas. Ron Krueger's my guess from A plus
(39:33):
Wildlife Control in Northeast Ohio. Now, I know you're awesome, Ron,
because I could keep calling you. You're one of the best.
Maybe you are the best. But if people listening to
us in Boston right now, or in Louisville, Kentucky, or
in California and they're like, how do I find a
ron Krueger in other parts of the country. Is there
(39:55):
an association with listings and reading? Is there anything like that?
Speaker 4 (40:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
There is.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
We have We have an association called new CoA, which
is an acronym. It's it's n w c o A
dot com. You probably can go to that n w
c o A dot com. It stands for National Wildlife
Control Operators Association and they've got you know, members that
that are in there that are basically all fifty states.
You can go to that website. Be a good consumer,
(40:25):
ask questions to whoever you you know, question about how
their fee structure is and what's going on and just
and yeah, but everybody on there has got a lot
of training and does does a really good job. And
in each one of those in each state knows their
own state ordinances, laws and rules because every state's different.
And what I can do in Ohio, somebody Wisconsin may
(40:48):
not be able to do.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
So. So is that New n E w CoA c
O A. Is that dot com or dot org or.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
I think it's dot com?
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Okay, all right, New cot Co? All right, what's the
most popular animal you remove from a home? Uh?
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Probably two is probably be the raccoon and squirrel. Yeah, yeah,
those are the two primary ones. Those are the ones
that break in and do a lot of damage to
gutters and soffets and insulation and stuff. And it depends
and certain times a year. Right now, like I said,
we're getting a slew of calls in the last four
or five days for groundhogs. But that that damage is
(41:28):
important because they burrow along foundations and I know you
talk about a lot of water and basements and stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
You're controlizes.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, as soon as you have a hole right along
the foundation. That's just nothing but a like a rains
real hard or the gutters pour over right, it's a
water right along the footers of your house.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Sure is. And that's only going to get worse.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
It will, so so you gotta you gotta get them
out and then get those get that, get that repaired.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Is your business three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Well, yes, we obviously have our because we're in the
Northern States, part of the state's northern tier. We call
it the North Coast up here in Ohio that we
slow down obviously after Thanksgiving Christmas time, just because a
lot of the animals slow down the weather gets cold.
But you know, you get to Kentucky and South and
you know Tennessee and Georgia and Florida, you know they're
(42:23):
they're going there. Those animals don't hibernate as much as
they do they're there, they've got shorter winters and so
they stay busy. So wildlife doesn't stop. Some of it hibernates.
So we don't touch ground hogs in the wintertime because
they're asleep in their dens. But raccoons they're active, they're
out forging. So are squirrels, and uh, yeah, they sure are.
(42:44):
They stay. They keep us not as busy, but they keep,
they keep, they keep us hopping.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Well, I heard a news story today and I wasn't
really paying much attention. It was in the background, but
somebody's home got a bear in the attic and fell
through the ceiling.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Can you imagine the hole on the outside of the
house that left that?
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Oh my gosh. I was thinking, how in the world
did that happen? Before I let you go? What's you
know the season of June, July, August in the summertime,
is it still raccoons and squirrels or we get into
bats and other things?
Speaker 4 (43:21):
Great question. So bats, we just finished our spring bat
season where we're allowed to kick bats out. Now we're
in the middle of birthing season for bats, which we're
not allowed to touch them in our state and actually
mostly nationwide it's about the same policy. But in Ohio,
starting August, all the baby bats are flight capable and
we can start. Yeah, I'll get to start getting calls
(43:42):
probably July all the way through August and September for bats, bats, bats,
and we'll do almost eight weeks to ten weeks worth
of bat work, and we'll do quite a few home
as many homes a we can squeeze in in that
period of time. Bats will come in and that's a
lot of work. That's a lot of every gap on house.
That's a third of an integrator eats sealed. I mean
(44:03):
it's that's Hawking is your friend.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Cawking is your friend?
Speaker 4 (44:09):
Hawking? And cock. Yeah, we go through cases and cases
and cases and cases of cock.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do well. Ron Again,
thank you very much for joining us today. I had
a good conversation with you yesterday. I appreciate your friendship.
You run a great business. It's a plus Wildlife Control.
Are you officially in Canton, Akron Canton area?
Speaker 4 (44:31):
Yes, Acron Canton's mostly our primary er Gary.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
All right, And the national association is new CoA n E,
w co.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
A no no no and and w CoA A and.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
W CoA dot com. Very good, my friend. Thank you so.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
Much, God blessed.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Take care all right, take care? Thanks all right, there
you go. A great guy, very knowledgeable too. And uh well,
we'll follow up on some of that conversation when we
get on the other side of the news. You're at
Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (45:16):
Weekends mean a never ending list of things to do
around your home. Get help at one eight hundred and
eighty two three Talk You're at Home with Gary Sullivan
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