0:04
Before you start your next do it yourself project. Listen to this. You got this is on the air you got this is hosted by abt plumbing electric heat and air owner Andrew Twidwell and Rosalie brown with a helpful hand. Here are Andrew and Rosalie
0:19
Hi, this is Andrew Twidwell, owner of abt plumbing, electric heat and air once again with the show. You got this as a show of DIY do’s and don’ts. And I nailed that this time. That’s great. Even with my foggy, foggy brain. How are you doing?
0:31
Um, well, Andrew Twidwell of abt plumbing, electric heat and air sponsors of our weekly radio show. You got DIY do’s and don’ts. It is my name is Rosalie Brown. I’m a Taurus, I’m good, I’m a little fuzzy.
0:50
And you like walks on the beach Right?
0:53
And I really like it when the temperatures in the 70s.
0:57
That’s not that’s happening anywhere right now. It was snowing in Mexico like I was our son flew in last night from Mexico City. And he’s like, it’s been like 15 degrees in Mexico City. And like I’ve been shivering, because they don’t have heat there. No one has heat. Even in the mountains. People don’t have heat. So people look at him like he had one friend that lives up in the highlands a little bit and that like you know, 7500 feet because Mexico’s like 7000 and Mexico City is in and he’s like, do you know I live in Minnesota I we have heat. And she’s like, You have What? What? You have heat. They don’t even have heat up in the in the mountains where they get a little snow. It’s crazy, anyway. Well, I mean, it was interesting.
1:40
Having lived on banner mountain, and having weathered many storms, I can relate a little bit to that whole.
1:50
No power, you got no heat.
1:51
Yeah, for like seven days at a time. So I could totally appreciate that. But so last week, when we got together, we weren’t even sure like what our recording schedule was. So technically, this is the show that’s going to air the day before Christmas Eve. And so I feel like we should get our little holiday cheer in before we forgot it.
2:15
Sure. Cuz it’s been it’s been rough, like, so we had our Christmas party this weekend. Yeah, it was Friday. And it was great. We had, I think we had about 50 people. 15 kids. So we had our party planning committee, because I just love calling the party planning committee because you and I are both big office fans. Yes. The show. That’s That’s right. That’s what she’s. So we have a party planning committee. And so they got two clowns, which we kind of talked about it like that’s a great idea to balloons and stuff. She didn’t quite check what this clown was going to wear. And oh my goodness. She was this very young, attractive woman that had a look at push up bra with tattooed breasts, and like garter belts and rainbow and it was pretty wild. It was the best Christmas party ever. Well, it was it was so out of ordinary. I mean, it was great with the kids. The kids loved her. But it was just like, wow, that’s interesting.
3:19
Well, I will say it was pretty funny because
3:24
we had an 1849 to boot guys sit around drinking beer and like, hey guys a bunch of young guys.
3:35
Well, I was so you know, so DD, you know, text me some pictures on Friday night and because you know, I was here in my safe germ free bubble. I’m not because you also you also you also all passed around the flu so I’m glad that I
3:52
was super spreader of it. And you did 20 employees nine of us have been out sick for the weekend one of one of our guys or whatever managers, Kevin has been with me forever is still in the hospital. So I mean this this flu is no joke. I mean, he that’s he’s still in oxygen. He’s hoping to get out today. But it’s it’s pretty scary. Well, I’m dealing with it myself. Every day is getting a little bit better. But it’s still it’s still rough. I haven’t left the house since Saturday.
4:24
Remarkably, you don’t look like you haven’t left the house. Like that’s the good news. You look like normal. Your hair.
4:33
I didn’t put any gel in this morning. But that was that’s pretty good. Like, I like two days where I just like did nothing. I felt like just total trash, right? And then that night, I’m like, I’m gonna change my sweat pants to put clean sweatpants. Put a clean nice clean shirt. I’m gonna feel better.
4:53
It’ll make it happen. But yeah, so then I’m texting you and I’m like, sir, are we here we are now whether is that? Are we going to record it? You’re like I’m gonna will myself to good health. Okay, so this morning I’m texting you did you will yourself to get house so I did miss the clown I miss a super spreader but I’m not gonna lie to you the second Didi sent me a picture of the party I literally said and pardon, I hope can see it doesn’t get upset about this I literally said What’s up with with the boobs the clown. I was like, what that’s first thing I saw. First thing I saw. I was like this is there’s so so yeah, y’all had some some added spunk this year. So holiday holiday, Laura Laura, who
5:36
got the cloud, she’s like, you’re not gonna fire me over this? Or you? Were like, No, this is awesome. And even Betty, she, you know, I mean, it’s hard going to these things, right? You’re bringing your spouse to these things because she’s not in the day to day with everybody that she you know, she could be a little socially awkward, awkwardly social is what we’d like to call it. PC, she can do social things, but it’s sometimes it takes some effort, right? And she’s like, this is awesome. This is the best. This is so many great stories for so long.
6:10
It is. It’s gonna be legendary. I think it’ll help with the recruiting process. We are hiring by the way, if anyone anyone’s listening, we have great office parties. And we we pay pretty good. Speaking of benefits of working at Abt, because you know, before we get into our the bulk of our show, I just wanted to say a couple of things real quick in case before people change the dial, or they don’t know that they’re listening to us. Or you go, I don’t go anywhere. So you’re kind of doing something really cool and really special this year for the staff scary. I know. But I think that the more people that can come hear about it up front, the better in case you know, like people our loyal listeners, they might also turn to abt when they have a problem with their plumbing, their H back or their electrical. And you know what, this, this holiday season is going to be a little bit different for abt what why don’t you tell us kind of what you’re doing this year.
7:07
So we started a while ago that I know a lot of I’d have a lot of friends in different industries. And a lot of times they’ll give their staff the week between Christmas and New Year’s off. And we had a set goal, if we could make sure that all the bills were paid, you know, keep the lights on kind of thing that we would have, and bringing enough money that we could actually pay everybody would give them the whole week off. So it looks like we’re going to meet that goal. So we’re going to have we’re going to be closed from Christmas through New Years, so that our staff members can spend some time with their families and relax and recharge. It’s been like for everybody. It’s been a very stressful couple of years. And, you know, I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate this team we have, we’ve pulled together because we’re all just amazing people. And, you know, most of us are family people. So we want to, you know, we don’t have a lot of time to spend with our family, especially when you’re dealing, when you’re in this industry. A lot of times you’re working late, sometimes you’re going out in the middle of the night. We try not to do that too much anymore. But you know, it’s it’s hard. It definitely takes a toll on the family. So we decided to do it in our guys are not just our guys are all of our staff pulled together and rally behind it. And that the goal, and we’re actually met the goal early. So just so proud of them that they work so hard to make this happen. So yeah, we’re going to be closed for the week of until the new year. And they’ll be able to hang out with their families and relax a little bit because yeah, you know, hasn’t been very last couple of years have been very relaxed. Well, for most of us, though.
8:48
That’s true. That’s true. And as someone who’s got, I mean, my kids are older now, right? But when you got school aged kids, and they get that time off of school, if you’re able to be off anyway, right? So being able to be with your with your kids and stuff like that, we don’t often get that opportunity. Right? So yeah, so anyway, I just thought like, like, we’re gonna put it out on our we’re gonna do an E blast to our customers. So they know, we’re gonna put it up on on social media so that there’s a chance people are gonna see it. We don’t want to disappoint people that need our help. But honestly, if it wasn’t for this,
9:22
I’m hoping we don’t lose too many customers but but you know, to be honest, in a business, I think the most important people are the people that you work with more so than the customers I hate to tell you all, but really, if I take care of my staff, my staff takes incredible care of our customers. So the better I treat my, my team, the better they can treat all y’all
9:43
so exactly, and they’re gonna come they’re gonna come in hot after the new year, then we ready? They’re gonna be healthy, they’re going to be ready to go. And honestly, if you have, if you have something that is not an emergency, you’re going to want to put it off anyway who wants to get who wants to be dealing with that? sentry, anyway, you know, I mean, so we will be back at your beck and call, so to speak after January 1. So with that said, Andrew Twidwell. Are you ready to take us down the path of DIY this week?
10:17
All right. So you got this great list of things from Angie, who are a real big fan of and he’s listening? No, no, are there? I’m not a big fan of most social things anyway, anymore. Because yeah, we were just talking about off air. But a lot of them just turned into places for people to rant like, the bad county peeps, and just complain about my new shirt. And, yeah, a lot of me, we serve so many people that,
10:44
right, and I just want to just on that point, just like, let’s remember that people are feeling powerless, people feel very frustrated about many things in life. And so when given, yeah, and when given the opportunity to vent, let’s be real, they do it. And they do it in places where they’re going to get a lot of cheer and support for them. So while we had a couple people kind of off on tangents, in the last week or so on one of the one of the social media apps, you know, here’s a way to
11:16
just remember a lot of the things that you’re reading on social media, you’re getting one side of the story,
11:20
right, and here’s right and Andrew, we don’t have the we don’t have
11:23
the ability, unfortunately, as businesses to go in and say our side most of the time, because they are very one sided. Angie’s List is one of them. And another.
11:33
But listen, like on that note you just did to segue into the good stuff, we’re here for just look, people are frustrated, they need to have a relief valve, they are going to complain. And you know what, it’s hard this time of year, especially things are expensive. Professional Services are expensive. You can’t always get what you can’t always get what you need at the right time. So look, I get it, people are frustrated. So
11:55
unfortunately, you have to try to find talent right now. It’s been abysmal for most everybody that I know everybody’s short staffed right now. And not just something like this is something for you all to keep in mind. customers out there for any kind of business. Be Be courteous to yourself to people that are waiting on you be courteous to people, businesses you’re working with, because there is a lot of issues right now trying to find talent. I mean, we’re we talk about all the time in our recruitment, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had people come in, they want to come in for an interview and just ghost us. I mean, is it’s gotten really weird around recruiting and hiring people. So it’s gotten really expensive. We just bought it, I just bought a truck this month, and it was almost gonna say $72,000 for a truck, I used to pick them up for $25,000.20 years ago. So things are really expensive these days. So until it’s hard to find, so we do our best to make sure we get people out as soon as possible. But especially this week, I got a third of our staff is out sick. And I can’t do anything about that. That’s completely out of my control.
12:58
So people are getting hired for that. Right. So people are jazz people are freaked out. So you know what, bless and release, like, we’re hoping that everyone’s going to have an easier time as we move into the new year. And we’re going to keep doing the best we can to be of service. So with that. Let’s segue you
13:15
pointed out we are up. We’re at 4.8 4.9 on Google calling it double digits right now. So we’re making a lot of people happy. And unfortunately, you know, when we’re doing foreigner service calls a month, we’re gonna make some people unhappy.
13:31
That’s 200 400 service calls, that’s 400 opportunities to really screw things up. So
13:38
we’re not perfect. I wish I wish we were but you know, sometimes my guys screw up. Sometimes office screws up sometimes I screw up. Yeah, that’s just
13:47
you know, who doesn’t screw up? Me, me. So I’ll do my best to coach you next year, how to really write to really get your stuff together. Okay, but we’ll talk about that off air. All right, let’s segue into what the people are here for.
14:05
Alright, so this listen to got embracing the ordinary maintenance leads the way so you know, this is something that I a lot of people don’t realize that you have to maintain a property right, you own a house, it’s going to cost you money to maintain that, and you need to budget for it. So everything from you know, paint, to roofing, to plumbing issues, to electrical issues to simply gardening issues. It’s going to cost you money at some point. And we’re going to talk a couple about a couple of different projects and a couple of different things. But I thought I did a little research. There’s something I already know but I have to budget this for we own some property. So you kind of have to budget these things. But on average, on average, you should expect to spend 1% of the value of your house on a yearly basis on maintenance on average. So you own this article says a $250,000 house than not a lot of houses in in Nevada County are going from zero to $50,000 or more. Most houses, I think the average right now is like five or 600. So if you’ve got a house that’s worth $500,000, you can expect to spend five grand a year on maintenance. Now, you’re going to have some years where you don’t, but you’re going to have that one year that you guys spend 10 grand, right. So take that into consideration when you have a service technician or somebody come out and tell you that you’re going to have to spend x amount of dollars. And just realize that, you know, you need to budget this, you need to put that in your budget. We have an apartment building. And every year we have problems with the boiler, even though we installed a $15,000 boiler system, we still have problems with it. And every year, I gotta get service technician out there, I’ve had a service technician out there three times in the last four weeks. And that’s costing us $4 Every single time somebody shows up. So but that’s we’ve already budgeted that in to the maintenance of the property, right. So take that into consideration when you’re doing stuff. So maintenance is really critical. You know, it’s some of the things that you want to make sure you maintain, obviously, your your plumbing system, I mean, your plumbing system, if you’re an older home, things don’t last forever, right, you can expect things on the outside of the wall to last about 10 to 15 years. So everything from a dishwasher, from a water heater to a faucet to a toilet, you can expect about 10 to 15 years of life after that, that’s just gravy. If it can last longer than that, that’s great, fantastic, you maintain that product. So you’ve managed to take care of it and keep it going. I know homes that have water heaters that are 20 years old, I know homes that have furnaces that are 30 years old, 40 years old. If you’re maintaining it properly, you can make these things last longer. But eventually you’re going to continue to replace those and it’s going to on average, about 10 to 15 years for anything that’s outside of that outside, behind the walls. So anything you need the plumbing or wiring or things that are behind the walls and underground, that typically is a generational thing that’s typically 20 to 40 years. So if you’ve got a sewer that’s that’s got breaks that are lowing roots, and like, let’s be honest, if my sewer is intact, it doesn’t have any doesn’t have any fractures in it, I won’t get roots into the system, if I’ve got a crack in it roots are gonna get in, I’m gonna have to maintain that I’m either going to have to have somebody come out there every year, or every six months to root out the system, or I’m going to need to replace that broken section. Ideally, you should, if you don’t want to deal with it, who does who likes having backed up sewer sewage in their tub, you might want to think about replacing that and solve that problem. But those are the kind of things you can think about, like you know, just kind of some some metrics that you can keep in mind 1% of the cost of the house or another way to look at it, too is about one to $1 to $1.50 per square foot. And those are kind of averages. So if you live in a 2500 square foot house, expect to spend about 2500 hours a year, that might be a little light for California, simply because you know, I don’t know about you, but I travel quite a bit. And there are some states that I can get gas like cheaper, I get food a lot cheaper, I can get service a lot cheaper, and I’m getting home insurance a lot cheaper. So lower taxes, so it’s an expensive state to live in. So you might want to up that one and I would say we’re closer to one and a half to 150 to $2 per square foot would be more average around here. There’s just some good good metrics to keep in mind when when you need to think about your general maintenance. If you’re going to do it yourself, you’re gonna save some money. You know, cleaning your own gutters is gonna save you 120 bucks. Cleaning your your chimney yourself, again, a couple 100 bucks. Although I would recommend if you’re anywhere near my age that you hire somebody to do that, or even 10 years younger than me, don’t climb up on your roof. Because what hospital bill, you basically paid for about 10 years of chimney cleaning. Let’s be honest. I don’t know what your deductible is. But every time you go to hospital expect to spend a couple grand right. So hire somebody for that one. A couple of things, you know, pay, that’s another thing. Paint doesn’t last forever. It starts to look old, either. We’re just cleaning up our house and I noticed we had some discoloration on our paint. And I painted it about seven years ago. I’ll have to repaint it. Now you’re talking indoors. Indoor painting. Yeah.
19:39
Okay, what so what about outdoor? Do you have any ideas on that? Like how long you should expect to 10 years? That’s it.
19:47
That’s it. Yeah. And I had a painter friend that described it to me this way. It’s sunscreen for your home. It literally what protects the wood from the elements from the sun’s one of the biggest deterioration of wood, that and water but Sun does more damage to it than the water. So you want to keep that the exterior painted. And that will make your house lasts longer if you maintain it. So every 10 years, you can expect to repaint your house, whether that’s a completely complete repaint job, or whether that’s somebody coming in and taking care of the bubbles, and recovering all the seals and stuff like that. But I wouldn’t go any more than 10 years. And to be honest, I do you know, I have had a background in painting back in my younger days, because I pretty much did everything. I go around my house every year, and I pop the bubbles and I repaint i prime them and repaint it and I go around and call the joints, just because I don’t want any sign to touch that wood and I don’t want any water to get in between the facia and the structure behind it. So, yeah, it’s surprising it doesn’t lie. These things do not
20:57
last forever. Nothing good. Fortunately, a lot. A lot
21:01
of people I’ve talked to a lot of people like just putting it in. Well, no, by the date. You put this in 15 years ago. That’s just the issue of getting older. Right? Wow, I just moved in here. No, I
21:12
was just I was just like, when you said the cost of the track and you’re like 20 years ago, I paid like, okay, so it was on grandpa settled? A lot of things are different 20 years ago, okay. Yeah. So my kids were barely alive back then. So I mean, like, things change, right? But no, I know. Like, as, as the cost of everything gets higher. The idea that like, Oh, I gotta do that. I mean, but let me just pause for a second. I don’t think you segwayed into what the heck this show was supposed to be about. Just FYI. But I kind of went off on a tangent. Hey, we’ll figure it out. Maybe But if they’re still with us, but I used to be. So you’re saying you’re funny. But I did like that little thing you said about the the paint being the sunscreen. I was like, literally literally lost in that going. That makes so much freakin sense to me. Like, honestly, when I think about my parents as grown up, like, oh my god, like, yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Because, like, I remember the aesthetics of my childhood home based on the wear and tear of the sun because we lived in sunny California. Wow, like that. i Sorry, that was just a genius like
22:22
woodgrain starts to pop out because it’s an expensive contracts, it starts to split the wood and stuff. So yeah. I hope you find this helpful. I’m sorry, I went on a tangent. But it is something that comes up quite a bit in this whole thing about maintenance kind of really got me about,
22:39
you know, what are you going on? Yeah, like, like investing
22:43
in my brains a little flu fog right now to plan for maintenance, it’s, it’s something you need to put some money aside for on a yearly basis. And honestly, for most of us have a monthly paychecks, it should be a monthly thing. Yeah, if you got to put away 2400 hours for maintenance every year, but 200 bucks into an account that’s just for maintenance. That way, when when that surprise happens, you’ve got the money and you can take care of it. Because it’s going to happen if but when you’re going to have those expenses that arise. And a lot of times, you know, when we think about owning a home, all we think about is the mortgage insurance and taxes, we don’t think about the maintenance cost. And the bigger the house, the more maintenance you’re gonna have, the more square footage and more maintenance you’re gonna have. The fancier the finishes, the more maintenance you’re gonna have. So, you know, take those things into consideration. Like I keep downsizing, and I live and I we both live 90 square feet, I can afford a much bigger house. But I like living in a smaller space, it’s cost me a lot less money, it’s easier to clean, it’s easier to take care of it’s so much easier than all the other stuff. So anyway, that with that, that’s our show. Oh my gosh, so sorry, it wasn’t very holiday cheery and stuff. We had a few things going on this year. It’s been a little stressful, and then we’ll We’ll flick. But if you do do need help next year, you can reach us at 53023090925302309092. Or you can find us on the web at easy as a pt.com or abt plumbing.com. And please like us on Facebook, we’ve got some good stuff, we share all this stuff. We share these shows on a weekly basis there. We also have a lot of good tips that are similar to this. In with that, I hope you guys have happy holidays, and we’ll catch you next year. Thanks so much. Bye.
24:29
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rose Lee. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning at nine o’clock on KMC on Newstalk 830
Transcribed by https://otter.ai