Summary Keywords
diy, hire, installing, air, heat, door, talking, plumbing, walls, plumber, pro, chuck, fixture, week, andrew, easy, tile, frame, abt, air conditioning
00:03
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.
00:31
This is Andrew Twidwell owner of ABT plumbing electric heat and air, once again with the show You Got This, a show of DIY do’s and don’ts. And yeah, I got a little noises going on and it’s moved to my seat and it’s cracking. So try not to do that anymore.I got Rosalie Brown. She’s zooming in and I’m zooming in from lovely Auburn today. And it’s Wednesday and it’s already 80 degrees and it’s not even close o’clock yet so it’s gonna be another scorcher. Well scorcher being at eight, I think or my own it here.
00:57
Those of you that are up here in our beautiful Nevada County, Placer County area, I’m sure have just been kind of baffled by our weather recently, between heat and cold and rain. And it’s it’s kind of schizophrenic.
01:14
it’s been interesting. Yeah. And the flooding in Montana. And we actually, were actually planning a trip next week. And we were going to drive through Yellowstone. And now I don’t know if we’re gonna go drive through Yellowstone. So
01:29
because yeah, the whole main roads all washed out. Yeah, that’s been that’s northeast got hammered. It’s been crazy. That’s weird, too. Because I have friends in Michigan in the northwest. Yep, they’ve got they’ve got heat warnings they’ve got like, they’re opening cooling centers. Because I think yeah, Michigan, Michigan, which would be a big part of the Midwest. So I’m sure in St. Paul, you might have that same experience. They were actually they were talking about
01:53
closing some schools because not all the schools have air conditioning.
01:59
Summer let them go home like it’s
02:03
they’re gonna do just that learning and they’ll be doing the zoom thing. It’s It’s just crazy because like the heat index is just all over the place. So yeah, crazy heat everywhere. My biggest complaint as always is pollen. It’s getting getting in all my places. So I went to bed with a major we got we got products for that, that we can
02:27
I didn’t Well, I mean, I could take something over the counter. But you know when you first get that, that headache and you’re not feeling well, first thing I think, of course is oil. You know, nothing can be allergies anymore. Nothing can ever be pollen. I right away. You go to just be a cold anymore. Oh, oh, no. Yeah. So I woke up with a headache, but I could smell and I could taste so I was like, Okay, we’re in good place. But yeah, the pollen is killing me. But otherwise, whether here’s, you know, kind of typical, starts off gray. And a little bit I wouldn’t say chilly. But it turns out, we call it June gloom. That’s kind of a thing here. And so kind of starts off a little bit gray a little bit. You don’t know you’re gonna get and then by this time, like right now 1130 In the morning, we’re like seven, eight, we’ll probably get up to like 80 something, but nothing crazy. Nothing crazy.
03:16
What are you gonna do you know, and I’m blessed to have air conditioning. So I will never take air conditioning for granted.
03:24
It’s nice. I like it, too. Yeah, we haven’t. We didn’t have it to the houses that we lived in. We finally got it, man. Why don’t you ever live without it? Yeah. Can you can you have a company that installs?
03:38
So I’m just really cheap. Your wife is a very patient woman. I’ve said that many times. She knows how I feel.
03:47
Yeah, I would demand air conditioning. But anyway, so so we’re gonna have some, some heat. We’re gonna have some, whatever, you’re gonna be in travel mode soon. So yeah, it’s gonna be interesting to see if the quality of the show improves or declines as you chop
04:04
states
04:05
it’s a 5050 chance it’s a complete crapshoot. We don’t I don’t know what’s gonna happen. But I will I’m actually not going to be missing anything because our drive time is going to be not on a Wednesday so we’ll be able to I’ll be able to make it to next show. Yeah, I did have something to tell you that. Oh, so yeah, actually. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday. Chuck Cole and helping them out with this is this daughter and her boyfriend are building a campervan. And they’re going to go live the van Life and Work remote. So they needed something soldered. But anyway, he’s an engineer. He owned he owned holders in coal, and he wants to be on the show next week. So we might have an actual guests
04:47
talking about foundations next week because he’s that’s his gig. So I meant to tell you that before and I’m just telling everybody on the air. So that’s the plan right now. Next week will be Chuck Cole.
04:57
Okay. Yeah. All right.
05:00
Well, that’ll be exciting. I’m excited because I don’t have to do anything set the record button. I’ll just
05:06
wait. We’re just gonna studio. Right. Yeah, that would be, that’d be even better. I don’t get a week off. I wouldn’t look that in the face. That’s amazing. So, what we’re gonna do this week though. Now he listened last week. Thank you for hanging in there, we had some real sound challenges.
05:24
Andrew was not only out of his usual comfort zone, but He then got nervous and was like playing with a bracelet or something. So halfway through the show, I’m looking at him going, what are you doing? That just went from there.
05:40
I’ve got a pen right now that will twirling around in my hand. So yeah, I need to fidget with something. Yeah, it’s always some I’m gonna get you some silly putty. Because that’s quite
05:51
I know how to make a fart though. So you know? Oh, so maybe I’m gonna get you something might not be quiet. Maybe we shouldn’t find what you fold it on itself. Make a bubble and make it? Yeah, maybe we should. That’s what you did when you’re eight languages. Have you sketching in the background? Yeah. Okay, so let’s go back to
06:09
I mean, I’m caught up when you’re like, you’re kind of on mine. No one wants to hear they’re over it. They’re changing the dial. Let’s get into the content of the program. Right. So DIY do’s and don’ts. So this is actually right on the line, right. Some of these things are ones that you can do. And some of them are ones that you probably want to get somebody else to do. Hire somebody knows what they’re doing. Right. So like, this is round two of our, you know, hire trailer now. Right? It was funny, because Chuck was trying to solder and he’s like, I can weld. But I don’t know why I can’t he couldn’t get this one fitting to seal. So he brings it to me. And of course, you know, I get it, I get a fix for him. But I’m like, Dude, I’ve literally done, I don’t know, probably 5000 solder joints in my life?
06:54
Because that’s all we did, you know, repiping houses and stuff. So yeah, there are things that you know, if you’ve done it a lot. And those of us that are in the profession of doing whatever it happens to be, we know how to do it. He’s like, Yeah, I can, you know, he knows soil by looking at it, you know, he can tell you what’s underneath the ground, because it’s geoengineer, or whatever he is anyway. So anyway, so this is that right along the lines of what we’re doing, because he literally tried to do some soldering, and it beat him and it bummed him out. So check if you’re listening. Sorry, I threw you under the bus on this one. But
07:28
you can redeem yourself next week, actually. Yeah, I’m talking about foundations. And he doesn’t know about foundation. So I know very little about. You’re gonna get to be a pro after all, Chuck. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So let’s revisit the bathroom really clunky. There’s a couple of things we didn’t talk about, on things that you might want to hire a pro versus doing yourself. And I know, we’ve all lived in bathrooms that were not up to the quality we wanted, there’s things we wanted to change about it. And I think we talked about, you know, quickly, you can do some basic tile on your own for sure. But when you get into the more complex tile jobs, you know, that’s up to you, I’d probably write a check for that. Now, one thing I know you can do I know you because I know you’ve done this, would you do you would do DIY or a pro on a vanity replacement? Because those seem pretty easy to be honest with you. You know, and I saw this and
08:25
as a DIY project on the list, and it is one of the things that technically Yeah, you could probably do.
08:32
But there are some nuances with with them like everything else, you know, are the the emergency shutoff valves or the angle stops, are they sufficient? are they actually going to turn the water off when you start disconnecting things?
08:45
Is the the waste arm that’s coming on the wall? Is it at the right height and the right area? Because sometimes you’ll have when you’re replacing a fixture specifically if you’re putting trying to take advantage Yep, put a pedestal sink in. If that if those rot if the plumbing isn’t roughed in for that vanity or for that specific pedestal sink is not going to work. So there’s some little nuances that can make it really difficult so yeah, you can do it but it’s one of those things where if you’re if you are planning to do it I hope you’ve had some plumbing experience doing other projects before you take this type of project on because it’s not as simple as they kind of make it out to be right all the other YouTube videos and all the videos on like the the box retailer stores Yeah, can I mention them by name, but they’ve always got like a here’s the video here’s how you do it. And yeah, if all the plumbing lines up and it’s all perfect in perfect conditions, of course it’s going to work. See I look at that and I think if it’s got perfect conditions, I can do that. You pull stuff out you put stuff in, but you’re right. That’s not real life. There’s always something right. And also like an illness situation. There’s a lot of parts that are involved. And I don’t care who you are even plumbers I know and Me included when I’m working in my own house. I don’t have a service truck
10:00
with me anymore. So I’m spending probably two to three, maybe four trips to the hardware store to get parts.
10:08
So, you know, you’re looking at a project that could possibly take you all day or potentially into the next day is your time. Is it worth it? To do? Is your time worth more valuable than that? Because most of most of us are, most of us feel like our time is more workers worth more than that. Whereas, plumber who has done this, a lot can come in and probably do it, you know, in an afternoon, and not spend days trying to put it in. So right, right, you can give it a shot. Anyway, I got to if I got to do the demo, I think that would be exciting. Yeah, but I’m into the demo. I’m not into the rebuilding so much. That’s a metaphor for my entire life, by the way, but we’ll talk about that some other time. Okay, so if we’re talking about like, let’s say that you’re going to finally put that addition, in let’s let’s move out of the bathroom, because we’ve kind of covered the bathroom that yatta yatta yatta. Um, so when it comes to DIY, right, there’s certain stuff, it seems to me, it would be obvious that you wouldn’t pour your own foundation that will be hiring a pro. But what do you say about that? Yeah, I would not. I went to a foundation. Right? You want to have an engineering meeting? You got to know what you’re doing? And concrete is seemingly simple. But there’s a lot that goes on with concrete that you don’t know. Yeah, right. Burying Ground, and footings and stuff. Yeah, you’re gonna want to, and if you’re going to do an addition, you’re gonna want to get permit.
11:29
So yeah, you automatically get to the point where yeah, you’re, you’re hiring some professional. So
11:34
right. Now, what an obviously, we’re, if you’re looking at,
11:40
let’s say, for this edition, you got some stuff going on, you can do you can frame how do you feel about framing and walls? Because I mean, I guess that depends on your, on your know how as well, right? Yeah. And again, it’s like, I know how to frame myself. But I’ve done framing. But when I watch somebody that actually does it for a living, the amount of time it takes me to frame a wall compared to somebody that does it on a consistent basis, it’s just not worth my time. It’ll take me five or six times the amount of time that it’ll take somebody does it on a daily basis, they can frame up a house within, you know, a crew confirmed frame out a house and a couple of days, whereas, you know, I’d be there for a couple months. So
12:24
it just doesn’t make sense. I like kind of my viewpoint to do it, unless you’ve got a lot of carpentry skills and some really good tools. Right, right. Absolutely. And so how do you feel about exterior siding? Do you feel like that’s something that as a DIY or a higher Pro, I would hire a pro for exterior siding? Because there’s too many variables? Variables, right. I mean, now you’re talking about water intrusion, air intrusion and all sorts of things that you if you mess up on something like on that, you’re talking about dry rot and potentially destroying the the framing that is in the walls? So yeah, I would hire that out. Yeah, that sounds awful. So what are so when you think about the different things you can do when you’re having in addition to you know, adding on to your home? What What would you say are some things that would be men based on the skill level? Like they’ve got to
13:16
make sense like insulating walls? Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty easy, because it’s literally just laying the insulation and stapling it up. Although that’s, again, one of those jobs where I would probably hire it out because I’ve done it and it’s awful work. Because if you’re using fiberglass that just that stuff gets everywhere, and it’s painful, and it’s yucky and good as a DIY because yeah, it’s not that hard. But terrible job hazmat suit, man, that stuff gets in your skin, it’s a worse, worse hurts, right? And it gets in your lungs, even even with gas masks and respirators. You still get some in your lungs. It’s scratchy is
13:57
not fun. I would I would hire that out and drywall. They’ve got drywall here. Selling drywall. Yeah, installing drywall on the walls. So that is that is definitely a DIY thing.
14:09
But again, you know, it’s one of those things where, you know, how much is your time worth? Because a professional drywaller can have a room rocked, taped mudded. In, you know, my office here is a 10 by 10. Maybe they could do this in an afternoon. You know, where it will take you probably two or three days. So, depends on what your budget is. You could totally do it. Drywall is not terribly difficult, but yeah.
14:42
And it depends on if they show up by the way, I should put that out there because I’ve dealt with situations where people just don’t show up and so it’s dry drywallers and painters typically are their own breed
14:55
sets about if they show up and get it done. But yeah, I mean even I can find
15:00
I can take texture a while like nobody’s business. So I would do it if I had to. And that same goes for obviously DIY with your addition would be the kind of what I would call the finished work, right? You’re painting the walls, installing, putting the trim up, you could totally do that. Again, though, I recently I’ve been hiring a carpenter do do a lot of you know, the last remodel I did, I hired a carpet to do the trim work, because we didn’t like wainscoting and stuff. And
15:27
they’re there. Again, somebody that does it on a regular basis. I mean, they’re talking, you know, 30 seconds of an itch to tolerances. And for me as a plumber, I was, you know, if I’m within a niche, um, good. So, with my carpentry skills, I’m like, you know, a quarter inch and it kinda, you know, there’s a lot of cocking, so don’t look that great. So you can do it. Painting. Again, it’s one of those things where yeah, you can totally paint yourself. It’s, you know, and what’s your what’s your, what’s your opinion on flooring? Because I think you’re gonna say the same thing. I mean, it depends too, right? If it’s in the that kind of what do they call that clicking? Yeah, the clicked hard. The clicking fake faux wood or faux tile? Yeah.
16:08
That’s, that’s pretty easy.
16:11
So yeah, you can totally do that yourself. If, you know you can even tile for but again, it’s one of those things where I’ve laid a lot of prototype flooring, and I did the last one, not the last job. But the job before I did in my house, it did not come out pretty. I did not do a good job.
16:31
But no one else has noticed that other than myself and my and my tenant who was a foreign contractor, so Oh, that was my that was a good person to get in there. First thing they probably. Oh, no, that’s, I apologize before we move on.
16:46
I’m really sorry. But I’m the one that installed this. So we’ll get some rock rolled up. Yeah, we’ll get some rights. Runs fix everything.
16:54
So let’s move into like improvements. Right? So if you were going to some of these things kind of crack me up because it feels like they’re so obvious. I would never I would never in my wildest dreams try to install my own skylight. That’s so That’s so silly. That’s even on there. To me. Yeah. Again, one of the things your water intrusion and you’re talking about dry rot, it’s it’s you want to have somebody actually really knows what they’re doing. Because if you mess up on an exterior stuff like that, it’s it’s just a can of worms that can bite you right away or fortified over time, over time, right? And, you know, so again, seeing where you got the new siding, you know, obviously it’s best to leave it to the pros. But, but when you’re and this was interesting to me, so installing a new entry door, that seems like a DIY, I guess, but I gotta tell you the idea of me installing an entry door feels like that is way too important. And that just really depends on what you’re doing. Like if all you’re doing is changing the door and leaving the frame in the trim frame. That’s pretty easy, but if you’re pulling out the the trim slot doors come with the casing, and that is a bigger deal. Again, you’re dealing with exterior and potential water intrusion if you’re just dealing with the door itself. Yeah, it’s some hinges okay, maybe maybe trimming and shaving shaving the door so it fits. Oh my god. So I have to tell the story to DIY nightmare. Well, I don’t know if it’s a nightmare or just pathetic that we never fixed it. But so when I when I was married, we bought this really, you know, unusual really cool house and and it was a house that had two front doors like two entrances so there was like one entrance up you know, by the street I guess. And then if you walked around this really cool kind of I can’t explain it but there was like a little deck and that had an entryway too. And so for some reason, the people who bought the house trim they just went ahead and always use the kind of deck to get into the house. Okay, well, the front door like the front entryway, the door had a gap, like of I don’t know, an inch and a half, two inches. Wow. Like on the bottom. And okay, it seems like in theory, if you’re married to a contractor, which I kind of was that that would be one of the first things that we would
19:22
fix. But I have to tell you that that door was never fixed until I think that it got fixed when the house before you sold it. Yeah, right when um, so because that door how to get that front door had a gap of like an inch and a half, two inches for years. And like, at the bottom of it. Yes. And I was like, What is this seems like it’s fixable or something but it was never never really taken care of. So hey, rodents. I know Wow. Come on over this party and this is the same person as the same person who used to leave the front door wide open when it was hot.
20:00
cuz we didn’t have AC, and the possums would just come awesomes and raccoons would come walking in.
20:07
So I mean, I’ve been through some stuff with this person. And so you know, I’ll always remember our time together because the rodents and the janky door, but so it when I look at these, like dry, these are things you can do yourself and I see it says installing a new entry door I just right away go to this dark, dark place. But I suppose if your PTSD on the exterior door, if you’re a normal human being installing a new entry door would not be a big thing, I suppose. And then they talked about as a DIY person, you could be changing electrical fixtures, but I think we’ve talked about this at length. Again, electricity, I think I’d rather just have someone who knows what they’re doing.
20:50
Take care of that little challenge, correct? Yeah. And I never recommend people work on their own electric, just because it’s unless you’ve got some some good knowledge of it, because it’s dangerous for you and potentially fire hazard if you do something incorrect. So
21:04
yeah, I mean, they say change electrical, so like lights and stuff like that, or an outlet or something like that. It’s yeah, I wouldn’t do it. I mean, a fixture, a fixture itself is probably going to be fine. Right? If I’m not touching anything, that’s hot. Right? A fixture itself. When I think a fixture, I am actually thinking of the maybe I’m saying the wrong thing. I’m picturing like, the hardware, so to speak, or that the, you know, dome light or the decorative, you know, whatever, it’d be the actual thing with, you know, the, like a ceiling fan or light fixture, those sort of things. So, yeah, yeah, you pulling the entire thing down and on wiring, you know, taking the awareness off and the wires apart. And, yeah, it’s it’s one of the things where, yeah, technically you can do it, but yeah, unless, if you’re really good. If you’re really handy. You can think about it, but it’s, yeah, it’s electricity. It’s scary.
22:01
And putting shelves up. Yeah, you can put shelves up, that’s easy. Just make sure you get your level out. I’m just gonna say some DIY shelving that have been installed. It’s like, Ooh, man. I’m gonna go drunk. I don’t know. Yes, as a matter of fact, she probably was because I did some shelving that was close enough. Close enough. And sometimes in shelving, that’s where I go, I’m like, close enough, man. As long as things are, you know, knocking over so
22:26
I think we’re, we’ve got time for a couple more.
22:30
We can we can fit one more. So yeah, they’ve got a couple things here like, you know, hire hire people for installing a skylight. Yeah, we kind of went over that. Seamless gutters. Yeah, unless you get the tool, you know, you need the actual the equipment to actually make the gutter to begin with. So that’s one of the things where you’re hiring somebody
22:50
masonary work.
22:52
That’s hard. And it’s a full art form. Like I’ve done some masonary work, and it’s an art, you gotta know what you’re doing. That’s a pro metal, metal roofing. that’s specific for every different type of system that you’re putting in. So hire somebody, and the new siding for sure. I would hire somebody. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it’s even a lot of these DIY things. Even though, you know, at this point you have hired out, I’ve gotten to the point where it doesn’t make sense. Even though I know how to do a lot of this stuff. It’s it’s easier to write a check. And it’s faster, and it actually gets done. So check. I know how you are, I just want to add this little caveat. love you to death. But don’t forget, we do have to have some DIY things because this show we do.
23:41
Like moving further, you’re anti DIY because you’re gonna get less I want to do but if you wanted to hire a professional plumber, or electrician or a heating and air technician, is there a company that people could call locally? Hey, I know what
23:57
let me electric heat and air. You can find this at 530-230-9092 That number again, 532-230-9092. You can find us on the web at easy to cbt.com You can also find us at Abt plumbing.com. We keep keep forgetting to point that one out, it’s a little easier to remember.
24:14
And you can find us on facebook, please like our page. We get a lot of really fun stuff on there.
24:19
And with that, I guess that’s our show. We’ll catch you guys next week. And thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you later.
24:26
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 TNT on Newstalk 830