SUMMARY KEYWORDS
tile, bathroom, paint, people, abt, handles, plumbing, bathroom remodel, light fixtures, house, valve, projects, hinges
00:02
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 helping hand. Here are Andrew and Rosalie.
00:19
Hi, this is Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABT plumbing, electric heat and air, once again with the show You Got This! It’s a show of DIY do’s and don’ts. And I’m actually sitting here at KNCO with DeeDee Vierra. She’s the head of our HVAC department. And yeah, why don’t you introduce yourself?
00:35
Hello. I’m DeeDee, I’m the head of our HVAC department at ABT. And been here going on five years, hasn’t it been five years?
00:47
It’s great time just flies. I mean, yeah, we’ve been in business for a little over 20 years now. And all the time. It’s just like, oh, wait, how long have people been here? We were just having a conversation this morning about one individual word that he had been with us for a year, but he’d only been with us for like six months. But you just Yeah. It’s weird. Yeah, time is weird. It’s weird, especially living through this time that we’re living through right now as time is very relative, isn’t it? Yeah. For sure. Try to figure out it’s just Well, yeah. Anyway, so we just thought I had to kind of like ask you a few questions. How’s it going at Abt? How’s it been? What’s what’s been going on your life? Anything? We just freeform it for?
01:30
Awesome. Things were going good at the company. We are growing like crazy. If you’re listening to this and want a job in plumbing, H back or electrical?
01:44
So I’m talking about efficiencies and hiring you guys still interested in like, we’re both shaking? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely looking for people. So yeah, yeah. If you’re thinking of a career change, or thinking of a jump on to a different culture and different company, definitely. Yeah.
02:03
Look us up. Yeah, we’re just growing and the people we work with are great. We have a lot of fun. It’s, it’s been a pretty amazing, especially coming through the pandemic. I mean, it’s just been nuts. And keeping up with that has been a little challenging. Yeah.
02:20
I mean, it’s, we’ve talked about this before. I mean, the pandemic has been kind of a double edged sword for us, because, yeah, all of a sudden, our demand has gone way up. But trying to find the staff to be able to to take care of the problems for people has been really difficult. So it’s been kind of a interesting ride the last couple years.
02:39
Yeah, if we can get away from cloning sheep and clone our guy. Yeah. That would just be perfect. Yeah, you
02:48
can’t do that. Unfortunately.
02:49
No, it’s a little creepy. A little Orwellian. But, yeah.
02:56
I’m just gonna dive right in for a quick question. We were one of the unusual companies. We actually have a female who’s in the industry, HVAC industry. You run the department, you run the sales, you run the crews, you manage the shop, you do everything. How has it been as a female in this industry? Because I mean, that’s another thing. I mean, we’re looking for women, too, because it’s kind of an untapped market out there. I mean, how’s it been for you?
03:22
Yeah, I would say it’s definitely an untapped market. It has its challenges. But overall, it’s great. I mean, I love the guys I work with customers are very receptive. Not very often that I will get pushback. It’s usually from like the male right of the home.
03:44
I mean, it is a male dominated industry. So yeah, yeah. And people expect to see a male out there. So it’s, it is sometimes takes people a little aback.
03:54
Yeah, for sure. But I think, and for women, I think they’re very comfortable with it. They’re just this kind of like this inherent, like, trust all of a sudden, you know,
04:06
one of the people’s homes, so yeah, I mean, if you’ve had, you know, you out there in the Listening world, you’ve had technicians or people come in your homes that sometimes you’re like, personnel, my house or not, yeah, that’s one thing that, you know, we really strive to make sure that we have people that are comfortable. And I think that’s definitely a benefit of having you working. Yeah, working in people’s homes. Because yeah, I mean, it’s a much different kinds of energy.
04:31
Yeah, and I think problem solving, you know, men and women do problem solving a little bit differently. And it brings a lot to the table when you can combine both those thought processes. So I definitely encourage women to get into the trades on any Sorry. Yeah. on any level, I
04:52
didn’t double check
04:53
on any level because it’s challenging. It’s different. It’s the there’s never the same issue twice, you know? Yeah. I highly recommend it. And it’s a good living wage. It’s got good benefits and, you know, allows you to learn things you can do yourself. Yeah.
05:13
Yeah. And we’ll, we’ll get into that. But yeah, I mean, I, I always thrive to try to have females on our crew, we’ve had a couple come through, but haven’t you’re the only ones ever stuck. Unfortunately, you know, we’ve had multiple female technicians come in, but it’s hard. I mean, it is a physical job. You’re doing more of the managerial side. But a lot of the stuff these days, especially in the HVAC side, doesn’t require the type of you don’t have to be some burly dude, to be able to work on heating and air conditioning you especially on the service side, electrical side. Yeah, I’ve got a couple of friends in the Bay Area. female friends who are electricians, and they’ve do very well, down there. Yeah. Plumbing side, I can understand it. It’s, you know, it’s dirty. And you’re dealing with, you know, people’s stuff sometimes. So, right. Yeah, that can that can be a barrier to entry for a lot of people. So I thought that’d be kind of interesting topic. I don’t know.
06:12
I think I mean, even even with some of those physical obstacles, at least speaking for our company, I mean, we’re very team oriented. So if somebody needs help doing something, you’ve always got backup.
06:23
I mean, yeah, I mean, that’s one thing we really strive, because a lot of our guys are aging a lot more like my age. And as I’m sitting here with my creaky back, we make sure that we have an extra technician with with or an extra that apprentice with our technicians, so that they don’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting. So they can do Team Lifting. So yeah, yeah. Anyway, cool. Well, let’s talk about some of the stuff that you’ve learned while working at ABC. But also a lot of the stuff you’ve already we’re doing anyway. So I, you know, I’ve been following on Facebook and following your your you guys. Your, your wife just bought a new house not that long ago, and her fixing it up, and you’re tackling a lot of those projects yourself. Yeah. And that’s kind of what the show is about is tackling these projects yourself. Why did you choose to do some of these things yourself? Because
07:13
money. And I like the creative process of it. I mean, some of the things that we’re doing are, you know, not like toys, structural. Right. So it’s static? Yeah, it’s aesthetic. So it’s fun
07:26
just updating the look of the house. Yeah, it also has good bones. So it’s just a matter of bringing it back into the bringing it to the century.
07:34
Yeah, we are, we’re going from like, you know, the Partridge Family up to today. So that’s been it’s been a really fun process. Sometimes, you know, there’s a little back and forth as to color palettes and things. It takes some time. But, yeah, but, but no, it’s been really good. My dad was a contractor. So I learned a lot of stuff from him. And then I of course, you know, ask the guys at work, you know, like, hey, so I’m trying to do what are your thoughts on it, you know, get feedback from them. And it’s been cool. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s allowed us to do some things that in a shorter amount of time tech man ourselves, because, like, all contractors, including our company, everybody’s booked out.
08:17
Yeah, that’s the thing right now. And, you know, I’ll just say it, isolation has affected us all and has affected us in the in the construction arena, because like our materials, we’ve seen increases in some materials of 234, and even 500% increases over the last couple of years. And labor is is increasing, because you know, there’s just a limited pool, and then trying to find somebody right now. To do work has, oh my gosh, it’s just a nightmare. I know, we’ve gone we’ve went through our own remodel, and it took us a year and a half a year and a half about a year to get it done. Just having to wait for our contractors because we have other projects going on and trying to fit us in. So being able to do it yourself. You’re not having to wait for that. You’re still having to pay the price for material. Yeah, that is what it is. But as a lot
09:07
of time, but you know, again, I enjoy it. And you know, if I make a mistake, it’s I just have to redo it. Yeah, you know,
09:13
what are some of the projects that you’ve been taken on at the house so probably our biggest
09:17
project lately has been our guest bathroom. Yeah. We reuse the vanity so I we tore off the existing countertop sink all the hardware faucet, got a new top and a new sink and then bought new hardware. So why
09:36
did you have to get a custom top for that? Are we able to buy one out of the box? No.
09:40
Well, it was customers are long so we cut it in half. So we have the other half I’m using it for a barbecue outside outdoor kitchen. So the company came they installed the countertop for us. So we had that done professionally. Didn’t want to mess that up. And then everything else we’ve done yeah So
10:01
including like a you putting wainscoting up? Yeah. And that and we did I did wainscoting in our bathroom remodel and man it’s just a game changer because it’s it’s one of the things that it’s relatively inexpensive and it’s and the sheets you buy it and sheets now as opposed to putting up individual planks and now being like in the last 30 years or whatever, but it goes up pretty quick and oh my goodness, it makes it look so it just cleans it up. It just looks like you’ve got nice millwork
10:29
Yeah, and it just brings texture and and the walls in the bathroom aren’t really straight. So Lisa was taking on the wainscoting. And it was kind of funny because you know I had said like it’s a little bowed by the bathtub. Just know that and kind of one ear and out the other. And then during the day I got this text. Did you know that the bathroom wall is crooked? And I know Yeah, I told you. I said just roll with it. It’s fine. So you work.
10:56
All that I’ll make it
10:59
looks like a funhouse mirror. It’s fine, it gets character,
11:02
but that’s what you get when you have an older house and you’re going to fix it up. Things settle things shift. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a house that was perfectly square. Yeah, floor that you put a marble on and the marble didn’t move. You know?
11:16
Yeah, no, I mean, you walk a little like downhill walking into the bedroom. Like, yeah, but it’s character. That’s how I look at it.
11:22
Exactly. So you did the wainscoting, you did a new top, you save the vanity, and that’s something you know, I’ve talked about before in previous shows is you don’t have to replace the cabinets a lot of times. Um, did you actually if I remember correctly, you’ve stripped them and refinished them.
11:40
I just sanded them. I just roughed them up. So the paint would still be painted. Yeah, I painted them and then just new harbor. Yeah, it was huge. I mean, you’re talking like a paint of paint. Yeah. Versus a whole new I mean, it would have been a chunk of change. Yeah. So you’ve
11:53
got kind of a standard size. A lot of times you can buy a marble top or granite top or quartz top that fits. And you don’t have to do any, any modifications. If you’ve got something like you said, you got along.
12:05
Yeah, we got a lot. Yeah, our vanity is a little odd in size. So it was a little bit longer. And then I knew that I could buy this slab and use part of it for something else. Right. So financially, it worked out well for that. And
12:19
you change the hardware so you changed the the just the the you didn’t change the hinges, hinges oh the hinges as well. Yeah, hinges
12:25
knobs. Yeah, we did everything. And then we have left we’re leaving the bathtub or we’re changing out you know, faucet and all that in the bathtub. just haven’t done it yet. And then
12:36
we just the trim though the outside the stuff that you see, are you changing that stuff on the walls as well,
12:40
I don’t know yet. Because I haven’t gotten to determine exactly, that’s to be determined. Hopefully not hopefully, it’s just you know, on the outside.
12:49
And that’s something else you can do. A lot of people don’t realize this. But if you have like a name brand fixture behind the wall, like a shower about that’s a price Pfister or Moen or a delta, a coal or something like that. A lot of them you can change the hardware on the outside of the wall and update it without having to change the valve. So that’s a quick, relatively inexpensive update. But I say name brand because of the fact that if you got something that doesn’t have a brand on it, a name on it can be incredibly difficult to identify and trying to find parts. Plus, if it’s not a big name thing, they probably don’t support the product any longer. So
13:26
yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have to do the valve because it’s the old school like, they look like crystals, you know those knobs, right? Pull it out and turn it. You don’t pull it out there too. They’re hot and cold or separate.
13:39
So you can do this. Okay, okay. All right. Yeah, it’s a deluxe. Yeah. Oh, Delta knockoff. So you can get you can get nice cross handles for those. Yeah. For under 100 bucks. Oh, perfect. Okay, so that’s a game changer. So
13:52
that makes me the only problem
13:53
you do when you have two handles is this to say this as a caveat to being a plumber. With two handles, you don’t have temperature balancing. So if somebody flushes the toilet on the house, and you’re in the shower, you are going to notice a temperature change. Like that’s just normal. If you change it out to a pressure balancing valve, then you don’t have those peaks and valleys of hot or cold depending on what fixture is being used. If somebody’s using the washing machine, it doesn’t get hot all of a sudden or somebody flushes. Well, it doesn’t get cold all of a sudden. It’s just our guest guest bath handles personally. Exactly. Yeah, I just don’t know.
14:29
Yeah, exactly. I mean, we were just telling them Yeah, so yeah. And then when you do that,
14:33
take the handles and the take all the trim off of the valve and take it into your local hardware store. And we’ll be able to match it up.
14:43
Okay, that’s what I’ll do. Yeah. So yeah, so we just have that then the flooring, but the floor is going to wait a while. But what are you doing on the floor? We haven’t decided yet. Okay. Because it could tie into like, you know, everything else all the other flooring and so right now it’s just it’ll just Yeah,
14:59
and like and bathrooms, a lot of the new waterproof pergola look really nice in the bathroom, which is really hot right now. So you can actually do wood in the bathroom now and not have to worry about it. Yeah. And it’s pretty easy to install. I say that although the last room I had I had a buddy of mine. I paid him to do it. Because, yeah,
15:18
I’ve done pretty well. I did pretty well on my last house. Yeah. By myself. Yeah. And you can get it done. It was 20 years ago. So it’s easier now. But getting that stuff to snap in and the shims and the tapping it and yeah, and he’s sad broke a few pieces. Like,
15:32
yeah, you can get it in I did a whole ironically, this individual moved into, we had a guest house and on the property, he moved into that, and I installed the floor, and I had to kind of apologize to him. Like, dude, I’m really sorry, but I installed this floor. It has little buckles on it. Yeah, right. Wrong. Yeah. When you only do it every once in a while, you know, you’re not proficient proficient if you if you’ve done it a couple 1000 times. You’re much better at it. Yeah.
15:59
Yeah. But ya know, it’s coming along. It’s everything’s painted. Now we’ve got the light fixture in. So just and that’s another
16:06
relatively easy update for people. If you’re trying to update things, light fixtures are pretty quick and pretty inexpensive. And you can get some nice, less light fixtures out there.
16:14
Yeah, you can get some really nice light fixtures for fairly inexpensive.
16:19
Yeah. And again, this is for entertainment value. So if you’re dealing with electrical, please, yeah, you really should know what you’re doing. Because I also had, my father was a contractor and had a friend that was messing with some electrical and didn’t make it. So yeah, that’s not good. So you want to be careful when you’re dealing with electricity anytime. But yeah, you guys did it. And just make sure you you don’t use the wire nuts that come in the box, use quality wire connectors and twist the wires together. And again, this is for entertainment value. Yeah, there’s not a how to. Yeah. Yeah, YouTube’s for that.
16:54
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, those are some of the things we’ve done. And we’re gonna start, we have our other bathroom we’re going to do and you actually gave me a child saw. So yeah, I’ve never done tile. So I’m getting a little nervous about it. But I think it’d be okay. Tile is.
17:10
It’s fun. And it’s, it’s surprisingly easy. The hardest part is making sure that all the tile is sitting flat, whether it’s on the wall or on the floor, right? So that you don’t have like little lips that catch your feet and stuff. So and there’s a couple tricks, you know, a rubber mallet is pretty handy, or even just a two by four can get those things knocked down. And depending on if you’re using a mastic or a thin set fence, that’s a lot easier to be honest. Yeah, I
17:40
think I’ll be doing that the
17:41
mastic just because it gives you a little play. And it gives you a little time. Right as the glue once you get it down. It’s pretty hard to get off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I have to admit I kind of like tiling. But again, it’s one of those things where last bathroom I hired somebody just because looking at his work after it was done compared to my work. Yeah, you know, and being a craftsman traits person. I noticed little things. But a lot. The lay person may not notice, but I noticed that. So it was really nice. Having somebody who actually knew what they were doing. Right, man, they did nice work. It was the same guy that did the Holbrook. So similar tiles, so he did a an amazing job. That’s cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that’s one of the things you can do. But there’s a difference between a professional and a DIY, but with a DIY, you can get it done.
18:33
Yeah. And I do have a friend who taught woodworking and stuff at a high school for 30 years. Yeah. So he said he’d come over and give some guidance, you know, for the tileworks He’s done a bunch of them. Yeah. So yeah, I think that’s gonna be kind of the plan for him to get me started. And then once I get my jam on, then
18:53
yeah, and it’s all about having the right tools. Starting in the right spot. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. If you got somebody that has a clue. Yeah. To help you with that it makes makes a huge difference.
19:03
Yeah. And just making sure like, you know, all the rows or even whatever cuts that have to be Mitered and stuff are correct. And
19:11
yeah, yeah. Using leisure boards for the wall. Yeah, stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. And again, all of this stuff’s on YouTube now, which I gosh, I can’t remember I was I was trying to fix my 64 VESA the other day and I don’t necessarily work on engines very often and I couldn’t figure out how to unclog the carburetor. I thought I’d have to completely pull it apart and rebuild it and everything and there was two screws I pulled out and blew them out and put it back in and fixed it and that was all because of YouTube. And it was the Muse dude, they could barely speak English but got me through it. So fantastic. Nice. I thought it was gonna have to take it into a shot but um, it took me 15 minutes so yeah, wow. And not what that didn’t include watching YouTube but so a lot of these things Yeah, like and like how to do tile how to layout a tile and that’s the thing. It’s, it’s um, as a layperson, as somebody that doesn’t do it very often, whether it be paint, painting, plumbing, tile, work, anything like that, we tend to forget how much prep goes into these projects. Yeah. And a lot of times the prep can take longer than actually doing the job like, especially with painting. So, you know, watch those videos and see what kind of prep you’re gonna need to do because you don’t just jump in and start laying tile. Now have a clue or start painting if you don’t know what you’re doing, or yeah, get an idea.
20:31
Yeah, for sure. I had to get in just twice. Yeah, because they looked like they were right. And then I was like, Nope, this offset is completely wrong. I had to go down, took one of the originals and went oh, here we go was off like a quarter of an inch.
20:44
I have a bag of 50 hinges in my garage. From my kitchen remodel. Yeah. Yeah. Do you come from brass to chrome and I thought I got the right one. And yeah. And then they went to come back. So yeah, I have a heavy paperweight that’s sitting in my yard right now. And one of these days I’ll go donate it somewhere. Restore. I know. I know. Well, yeah. Last time we tried to give the to restore that we couldn’t they weren’t taking but that was a year ago. Yeah.
21:10
Yeah. And then right now I’m restoring. I have a medicine cabinet and like a towel cabinet out of my grandparents house. So when Hills stripping. Yeah, so I’ve been stripping those by hand. I’m not using chemicals. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah, I’m not I like sanding and chiseling, and yeah, I don’t I’m weird like that.
21:30
That was that was some thick paint.
21:32
I know. Three, seven layers of paint. Yeah. Amazing. I’m sure it’s all led base. But I was using my respirator. So yeah.
21:40
The I mean, they make really good paint strippers. Now.
21:43
I can’t I organic.
21:46
Non novios
21:50
I’m weird like that. It’s like it’s a weird, like pointillism. Like I totally love doing pointillism. Yeah. I just love getting in there and just etching it out. And
21:58
I can’t imagine Yeah, yeah. torture for me.
22:01
Yeah, that’s good. It’s fun.
22:04
So you’ve been doing a lot too. And you guys only own the house? Not even a year yet. No. So you’re gonna get a lot of stuff done. Yeah. took me seven years to get my bathroom remodeled. Both our bathrooms. Yeah, my wife was like, how are we gonna wait on this? Yeah, but
22:17
your bathroom remodel? Didn’t look that bad. I mean, it was like, You know what I mean? Mine is like was bad. Yeah, I mean, it well,
22:25
you didn’t see your master. We had termites of the walls. And you could see
22:30
that cosmetically it didn’t look that bad. Whereas mine look really bad. Yeah, yeah.
22:35
So you couldn’t live with it? Yeah. That we had. The kitchen we did within six months of buying the house.
22:41
Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s the bathroom. It was like, this is one of the first things we’re tackling for sure. Yeah.
22:48
So there’s some kind of ideas on things you can do. Hopefully, it’s helpful, you know, a couple tips in the trade. And also, here’s a non I mean, you know, the trades, right? You’re not necessarily a woodworker, or a plumber, or a painter or any of those things by trade. Right. And it’s all hobby esque. Yeah. Minister TECHO bathroom remodel. Yeah. And in the end, not only were you able to get it done, but you probably save something in the neighborhood of 10 to 20 grand. Yeah, for sure. In labor
23:20
costs. Yeah. And something that we did. That’s an easy thing, too. Is our kitchen cabinets. Were just oak cabinets. Yeah. And no handles and I am we painted and added handles. And that again, very inexpensive to do the same handles and hinges made a huge
23:37
difference and relatively inexpensive remodel, whereas compared to yeah, having to pull cabinets. I mean, you’re six figures these days. Yeah, a kitchen remodel.
23:46
Yeah. No, it was like $170 In total, some
23:49
paint. Yeah. All right. So well, that’s our show. Wow. All right. So time is up. And I didn’t write down the phone number. Darn it, because Rosalie’s not here. But I think I can remember five, three. If you want to reach us for any plumbing, electrical heating or air needs, you can reach us at 5302 or 390 90 255-302-0390 92. You can find us on the web at easy as a B t.com. And you can please like us on Facebook. So we got a lot of fun stuff. And maybe we’ll share it. Maybe we’ll have Rosalie share a couple of the pictures that you did on your place. So we can yes and see what we did what she did at her house and we’ll share it on the on our website and on our Facebook page. Anyway, thanks for listening, and we’ll catch you guys next week. Right.
24:33
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rosalie. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning at nine o’clock on Cancio Newstalk 830