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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.
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This is Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABT plumbing electric heat & air, with the show you got this, a DIY do’s and don’ts. And I was just told to talk slowly. So I’m talking a little bit slower than I normally do. I’m going into snail pace. That’s the problem about growing up in a city and then well, I can coffee because yeah, even at 55 I still talk really fast.
0:43
You know, but I was I was speaking with someone about this the other day. And there’s also kind of it depends on like, how you grew up and like, how much effort it took for people to like, hear what you were saying. Like, when I grew up, I grew up in a lot of chaos. So like if I wanted to be heard, it was like megaphone times 10 or hurry up and say it before you lose your window. So I
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opened up a household a very dominant women, twin sisters that were you know, twin blonde, cute sisters that were nine months younger than a year and a half younger than me. So yeah, it was for me to be heard at any one moment. It took some effort. Yeah.
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And you gotta get it out. To this day. Right? You gotta get it out quick. And that’s my thing.
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My family right now. It’s still like to my kids don’t listen to my wife as
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well. Now we have the attention span that that’s about what is this is about? So doesn’t it’s not
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even like eight seconds anymore. It’s like, two seconds. Three things.
1:46
You got it. You got to get it out there. So you did a good job. If they’re tuning in Fridays at 9am on Cancio. Grass Valley. They know who we are. So that’s the good news. They know you’re Andrew and that your
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thing about coffee. So yeah. And they
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know you’re living this fabulous life. You’re going on all these cool going all these cool places. I have to say your photography the last couple of weeks. Love it, even some guy and
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actually I’ve been thinking about I haven’t been posting much lately, just because I’m like, man, like just too many questions. To what to brag. Yeah, social media is so weird. You feel like, you know, I have an artistic flair. And I like sharing my photo photographs. But that same time, I feel like I’m bragging that I’m doing all this stuff. You know, it’s that social media thing is hard, right? Because it’s people like my guy. You’re living this great life like, yeah, there’s a filter. You’re literally seeing the highlights. Yeah, seeing all the stuff that it took to get to that, to get to that moment, right are the edits in photography. I learned a long time ago when I was in school that it takes a good two to 300 images to get a really good one. And even like, I tried it crazy, because she’ll, she’ll want pictures and she’ll be like, you’ve got 10 pictures of the same thing. I might cat but they’re slightly different angles until I find the right angle.
3:06
I I have to be honest with you, I actually understand that because I was looking through my phone the other day. And I was like, Oh, you could get rid of the spine. And but no, but the next one, the next image looks just like it No, but it’s like I’m having this conflict in my head. Yeah. But that one’s slightly different. And I don’t know if it’s better with the sepia tone, or if it’s the button. I do that I’m like, of all the things for me to worry about. But um, but it will say
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how those lines angle or line up with the corner of the image. Yeah. How’s the composition work? Yeah.
3:38
I mean, but But I will say that the the one thing I do appreciate about the pictures on social media, like other people’s travels and stuff, is that, yeah, sure. I mean, it can strike that like, oh, you know, kind of wish I was there, it can strike that. But at the same time, it’s like, how unlikely is it that I’m gonna go to that place? And now like, I have this pool, you know, like, exactly. So I kind of have the opposite. I feel like when other people do cool stuff, and they share it, I get to be a part of it from the outside and see it. So I’m usually the oversharer. And with
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all due to working on Yeah, with all
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the stuff that goes on in the world, whether you’re talking about just whatever and you know, there’s so much like just overwhelming. So when I see a picture of like this cool escape and the nature I’m like, I don’t know, that seems pretty cool. So yeah, I’m a big fan.
4:28
Yeah. And like speaking of that, yeah, like the fireworks I had one of our friends, mutual friends has her fire licking close to her house and her neighbor’s house went up just last week. So yeah. Oh my gosh, so glad she was safe. And her husband’s house is still in one tech, but man her neighbor’s house. He managed to just get out with the dog just in time. It’s scary.
4:49
I saw that. And I was and I was just Yeah, I saw that. And I was like I had some roll moments of like just sitting with that and that was really I was super great. gratitude. Yeah. But then I thought to myself, you know, but her neighbor has people that, you know, like they’re having the opposite like, Oh, my God your house, you know. So it’s,
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it’s a lot going on. Hopefully people will,
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there is a lot going on, I will say this, I did not have any. I did not have any coyote sightings since we’ve been together last. So I have taken to carrying a baseball bat with me. And people that people think I’m okay, I just want to say this, it’s not for hand to hand combat, it’s because one of the warriors gain
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something from Clockwork Orange,
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I’m not going to like assault a coyote, it’s that if you if you look taller, or you if you have something to make noise, a lot of the time, you’ll be able to kind of disrupt them enough that you’re able to kind of remove yourself or they’ll scamper off. So I don’t want to wake up my neighbors at 6am with the whistle. But guess what, I ordered one. So I’m about to become the least popular person in the neighborhood if I’m not already, but um, I have been ever since I’ve been carrying my baseball bat with me. Like, I have not seen a coyote at all. I’d rather be prepared that that was not what I was, that was quite a life changing moment last week, that way,
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rocks work well, as well as rocks will do the job as well. So yeah, to have me I know, when we went out to the Boundary Waters in in northern Minnesota, the person was saying, you know, banging pots doesn’t work anymore. And I remember that. I mean, they just it doesn’t work for chasing bears way anymore, to being pots tried to get rid of wildlife just really doesn’t work. Like yeah, the only thing that really works is rocks. And don’t worry about hitting them in the head, or they’re trying to hit them in the head, but try to hit them in the in the hind quarters. It feels like like a little sting even or, you know, to a two inch rock and with a coyote. You know, if you’re throwing rocks and three inch or two inch, and hit them in the rump, it’s just gonna feel like a sting. Well, it’ll scare him away.
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I thought about this long and hard. Okay, so I thought about a few things over this. And I’m just gonna say this before we segue into what we’re here to talk about. But I actually was an amazing shot. You wouldn’t know that now, because you’ve known me for so long. But I was an amazing shot. And I have to say that with a shotgun and all kinds of other weaponry. I’m actually pretty people don’t know this about me, actually a spot on target, believe it or not me. So I thought about this, but okay, but the likelihood of me taking a little rock from whatever is going around, and being able to do a baseball like you know, like Cal Ripken type throw at a coyote is probably not great. So
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well. So you pick up a handful of rocks and you’re shopping? I did I did. One to connect.
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That’s true. That’s true, I think. Yeah. So so I’m going to connect on the ground around them just right. I’m going to get them out of that zone. Yeah, I’m going with a scatter effects scattering just yet. So anyway, now that we’ve we’ve conquered coyotes. Okay, so what are we going to talk about this week? Andrew Twidwell?
8:09
Well, once again, our wonderful producer found a great list of things for us to talk about, on the plummet on topic topic of plumbing, because I mean, let’s be honest, the majority of problems you’re gonna have in your home are going to be plumbing issues. More so than electrical, I mean, our plumbing departments were busier than our electrical or HVAC department, just because of the nature of the beast, you know, there’s more plumbing issues. So you got this great list. And I’m going to kind of read through it because there’s some really awesome stuff here. And the number one thing that we’ve talked about this before, but do not, do not trust the flushable label on any products. Do not trust the flushable Label Label on the wipes, do not trust the flushable label on the applicators. Do not trust the flushable label on anything, you know, be my guest if you want to, but we make a lot of money on set products. So if you do decide that you do want to flush the wipes down the toilet, just know there’s a good chance that you’ll be talking to a plumber at some point within the next you know, year to five. It may it may not happen even while you’re owning the house, but eventually it’s going to happen so you can just avoid them. Avoid them.
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I mean, the only flushable thing is really toilet paper. I mean like
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yeah, and then I’ll go into the reasons why because people are like, well, what’s the difference between paper towels and toilet paper? Well, if you put paper towels into a bucket of water, they will still stay solid right because you’re made to pick up wet stuff and then continue to work together it glues that hold the fibers together are not water soluble. The glues that hold toilet paper together are water soluble so when when you take toilet paper and throw in a bucket, all you do is little agitation that stuff just turns in the pulp so That’s why so it’s literally the binding agencies that hold the fibers of the of the paper together that make it so it’s flushable and wet wipes. They’re wet. They have to make them so they’re not soluble. So you know they’re going to not they’re not going to fall apart when they get wet, like toilet paper. Anyway, enough, I’ll get off my soapbox about that one. But that one, that was a that was a big one. Because yeah, we we do a lot of Drain Cleaning because of, you know, stuff like that. And yeah, especially feminine products. We call them little gray mouse’s because that’s what they look like when they come out of the sewer.
10:37
That was not necessary whatsoever. Not necessary.
10:43
This is a this is another really good one. So first washing machine hose. If I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people replace their washing machine and leave the black rubber washing machine hose connected to the to the to the hose bib and connected to the new washing machine. First off on those water washing machine hoses, they have a lifespan of about five years, they also stay right on them turn off when not in use. They’re not designed to be left under pressure, continuous pressure. So theoretically, you’re supposed to be treading water off to those every after you use the washing machine. No one does that. So what you know what you should do and what most like we had just had a washing machine installed one of our apartments and the we had to take it and install it. So this is easier. They would only install it if they replaced the washing machine hoses wisting braided stainless steel, which I was going to do anyway. But because of liability, they have to do that. And the reason is because the brightest stainless steel washing machine hoses are designed to be left under pressure just like a supply two, four fixture like a water like a toilet or faucet. So if you do have a washing machine hose that’s dual black rubber ones, or if it’s over five years old, or if you just have the old one that’s sitting there, replace it. I’ve talked to insurance adjusters you can ghoulish to it is one of the number one causes of water damage in a home. It’s burst wire machine washing machine hoses, and they usually happen when you’re not. So and again, 10 gallons per minute picture again on milk falling on your floor. times 10 every bet
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that blows my mind. I just want to like hit the pause for a minute because I think it cannot be said enough. I have never done this. But man, my life has just changed right now. If you were to turn said hose off, though, after you were done using the washer, the likelihood of your home even if you have a not so great hose. Having water damage goes down dramatically
12:50
significantly. Yeah. Wow. It does it knows it. But, um,
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I feel like that should be a bigger thing. Yeah,
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it’s one of these little things that like people don’t know that. And if you read the hose that literally says not turn water up after us. So it’s like it’s a garden hose. You don’t leave. If you leave your garden hose with a little nozzle on all the time eventually that that hose is going to start to blow up and explode.
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It is literally just a garden hose. It just blew my mind. Okay,
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yeah, let’s get rid of those. And you know, we were talking off camera about it or off show about it. You’re asking like, how much is there under 50 bucks for the set? I can’t remember exactly. But, and it’s, you know, a relatively simple job is definitely a DIY job if you’ve if you’re not arthritic, and if you get some basic hand tools,
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I’ve done it before, it’s pretty simple. Yeah, just replace
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it if you’ve got them. And even if you haven’t, even if you got the greatest stainless steel, they’re designed to last about 10 years. So you may as well if it’s over 10 years old, just replace them. It’s worth it. I mean, especially most people like myself, you know, I think we’ve got $1,000 deductible. So it’s cheaper if I take care of something like that. And it’s less than 1000 bucks. Yeah, it’s kind of a no, it’s an awareness ticker. For I’m gonna skip by that one. That one. Oh, this is one I’ve talked about before. I can’t tell you how many people have bought houses and not had their sewer inspected or not actually had their plumber inspect something.
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Yeah, that’s me raising hands raising hands and then
14:26
you got to replace the sewer. You had to replace the sewer and it cost you what, like 10 grand or something like that? Well, the
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quote was, the quote was over 10 grand but but you know, I think that the Midwest is a unique situation because in in my case, I’m the sewer was actually under tons of concrete. Because there was like, deep, yeah, and then the ground freezes. So yeah, but those are big. Those are big numbers.
14:51
It’s a big job. I mean, in your minimum, you’re talking about five or six grand to replace the sewer minimum. And you know if it’s out to the street, your time hoping you’re actually getting to 20 or 30,000, because you’re responsible all the way out to the tie in inside the street in Nevada and placer. County. So, if you’ve got a busy street, and I know we’ve had to do one that was on 174 in town, so we had to get a permit from the, from the state and from the city have two inspections. That was an expensive job, and flaggers and the whole thing, so Wow. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it can be really expensive. So definitely, if, and even if you have a home inspection, the home inspector is very good at cya stuff, you know, they will say inspected plumbing system should be checked by licensed plumber, check by check the electrical should be checked by a licensed electrician. Take care of that. So it’s worth the you know, two to $500 have somebody come out and inspect it. Especially if you’re talking about a 10,000 potential 10 to $20,000 repair after you buy it. It’s easier to negotiate that upfront than it is after the fact once you bought the house, it’s really hard to go back onto somebody and say you owe and then you got to talk to litigation and all that stuff. So have a plumber come out and electrician come out and he come out take a look at those things. I
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think that should really be again, that’s another one of those points that we say it but I think that should really be kind of broadcast more frequently. That don’t trust
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realtors that. Don’t say don’t do it, because it’s it’s killer sell. So don’t listen to your realtor either. Yeah, that’s, yeah,
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I’m sorry. I’m just I’m stumbling because I’m thinking about some life choices I might have made if I’d had some ins and professional people come take the wheel for a minute. That’s all I’m gonna start. I’m gonna leave it at that. Lots of professionals. Okay, yeah.
16:45
This is a good one. This is right up your alley. Just ditch the harsh drink cleaners. What should they do instead?
16:52
I love this. Oh my god. This one. I know this one. Okay, so one of the things that I have learned to do is to buy cool enzymes that you can actually that are really good for your pipes, right that eat up the gunky stuff and septic septic tank. Yeah. Okay, I’m really into those. And they also kind of take away, like I have a kitchen sink that no matter what I do, it just kind of ends up with like a weird smell. Even though trust me when I tell you, I’m not dumping a bunch of stuff on there. I’m really not. But a lot of people have lived here before me. So essentially, I always use those like at least once a month, sometimes more frequently, I put the little enzymes down the drain. And then the other thing, what I love to do is if I get some kind of weird slowdown, especially in the bathroom, I get the baking soda, I get the vinegar, I get that stuff to come up so that I can move it out of the way clear the pipe, there’s a lot of cool things you can do to be preventative and not have to call a plumber and not have to use the harsh chemicals. I told you the one time I was at a local store bought the harsh chemicals and put it in the put it right in the in the bathroom drain. I can say this now because that house has been sold, right that house has been sold. But um, some of the stuffs flashback and it didn’t get me on my face or my eyes or whatever I glasses on. But I didn’t notice it got on my pants. And I was going into a meeting and I looked down and I had holes all up and down my pants and I went Oh, I wonder what I just did to those super old pipes.
18:22
Wow. It’s caustic stuff. Yeah. And it’s it’s dangerous. I mean, it’s they’re plumbers that if you don’t tell plumber that that you’ve done that I’ve known of guys have gotten into their eyes and it hurts. And I know, I don’t know, directly but indirectly, of friends of friends of friends that have had that I’ve had to go to the hospital because of it. So it’s really nasty. Those things, you know, they say they’re safe, but just avoid them if you can. It’s just not worth it.
18:50
And usually, and usually you can’t avoid it. There’s there’s usually other things you can do. So
18:55
yeah, this is one that’s near and dear to my heart. So when it comes to paying a plumber, when it comes to paying for services, paid by the job mom for the hour. And I’ll explain this because you know, and I may get some some kickback on this from some people. But if I were to, if I was a company that did time and material, if I were to go out and charge by the hour, it would be in my best interest to get the least skilled the cheapest technicians I possibly could and send them out to your house and have them take as long as possible on that onset job so I could maximize my profit. When you’re charging by the job, you know exactly how much it’s going to cost. And whether it takes an hour or if it takes five, it’s still the same price. So pay by the job not by the hour. And then yeah, sometimes you may conceivably be paying more because of that. But the peace of mind of knowing that it’s only going to cost X amount is huge. Plus the fact If that if it took a little bit less than what you thought, it’s probably because the technician that did it is really good. I mean, it’s one of those weird things in our industry where people think that we should be charging the same that we did back in the 70s that we do now, even if a technician has got 20 years experience, that doesn’t happen in any other industry. You know, if you go to a doctor, that’s a specialist, you pay premium that’s to somebody that’s been doing it for 20 years, as opposed to somebody that’s an intern, or somebody is straight out of med school, right?
20:26
Well, who do you want? Do you want to open heart surgery? Who do you want your help on heart surgery? I mean, yeah,
20:30
and if it takes five hours to install a disposer, which I’ve had, I’ve had those conversations with, with, with homeowners before and like the guy charge me $1,000, because it took him six or seven hours to install it once all the disposer we could have done it quicker, less impact on your life, and cheaper.
20:50
So that’s, that’s one thing I just wanna talk about real quick. So when I have too much is your time worth? Yeah, right? What so when I have to call professional low to come into my house and distract me from what I need to get done? I’m not I’m not that person. That’s mad that they finished in 20 minutes. I’m like, whew, problem solved. I can go back into my everyday life now. So I actually, I don’t sit there and go, well, it was only you know, 20 minutes, and I started to pay $200. That’s just me, though. You know what, that’s $200. I just spent to get back into my life and everything’s working. And now. So I think it’s the way you look at it. But I agree with you 100%. When you look at charging by the hour, you can bet that that it’s in that company’s best interest to have that job take as long as possible. And here’s the thing that’s also interrupting your day to day life.
21:36
And I’m not saying everybody that does this, no, but it is but just as a business model, it is, you know, just think about it, it’s in their best interest to send a technician that has the least amount experience because of the fact that they’re going to make more money because they don’t have to pay him as much. And they’re going to charge more money for that job that would have taken Bob who’s got 10 years experience with taking half the time that Joe took because he’s only been doing it for three years. And guess what, Joe’s making the company more money and actually costing the company less, because they didn’t have to pay him as much. So it’s a it’s a dead thing in our company, the time and material thing. And it should be just, it should just be eradicated from our industry, because it’s it does not help it doesn’t serve anybody well, not at all. All right, I’m off my soapbox on that one. Because that one’s really close to my heart. Because I’ve had this conversation with a lot of homeowners before, it’s just like, cash guys, come on. What are some, oh, this is a good one. That toilet handle that, oh, you always have to jiggle to get it to work. You know, it’s one of those things that if you if you’re listening to the show, you probably have an inkling on how to fix things. Just replace it, don’t call a plumber, just replace it. Try it yourself. And if it doesn’t work, give us a call. But you know, just for us to show up to the door is going to be 79 bucks. So, you know, you could probably do it for $25. And if it doesn’t work in costs, but give it a shot, because you know, your parts are probably going to cost you $25 to get quality parts to this is one thing to that that people don’t realize. And I had this conversation with a actually it was just an article I was reading noncompetition. But actually, no, I think it was in this further down in here. But I think we’re gonna get to it. And we’re almost out of time. Parts for us as a as a company are only about 25% of our costs, their labor is way more than our our material. So actually, that’s closer to 15%. So give me our Labor’s closer 25% Are you should make sure that you get quality parts because the parts are less expensive than the labor to install it. So it may as well spend that extra two to five bucks to $25 on that better part because it will last longer, take less time to install and be better quality because it’s just worth it. That it’s a better investment on that. If you do need a plumber to come out and save you from some project that you get yourself in over your head. Give us a call. We can reach us you can reach us at 530-230-9092 That number again 530-230-9092 You can find us on the web at easy zbt.com or abt plumbing either one of those. You’ll find us on Facebook. Like our page. We got a lot of fun stuff. And on that I hope everybody has a fabulous holiday weekend and we’ll catch you next week. Thanks. Bye.
24:34
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
Transcribed by https://otter.ai