Defensible Space & Defeating Mice: California’s New Rules & Old-School Traps

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Craig Williams, and I'm here in the studio hanging out by myself, doing this one solo tonight. We got some fun stuff for you guys coming up in this episode. Homeowner Show. Hope you're gonna enjoy it. It's gonna be a fun episode tonight. While Craig flies solo, let me finish getting all this stuff. Guys, with the wingman show, there's a lot of buttons to press. Here, welcome to the show. There you go. If you're watching the video, you get the fun graphic. Glad you guys could join us here live on the feed. If at any time during the feed you have a question, I actually did this on my on my personal.

livestream the other night. If you got any questions about anything that I'm talking about, feel free to jump in and ask me those questions. I love getting the questions. They're fun to answer. It doesn't really matter the topic. I'm just happy that you guys are engaging with the show. Happy to have you guys around and listening while we're going through this stuff. We're gonna be talking about some stuff going on in California right now. And it's not really related to the riots. So sorry to stamp on that for you. We may mention the riots because it does have to do with fires, but we're not going to be talking about any of the riot stuff. I mean, who knows? We may talk about it. Somebody may ask a question. If somebody asks a

question, I'll have to answer the question. We're also going to be talking about how to set a proper rodent trap tonight on the show, which I see a lot of people out out there in the world making big mistakes when they set these traps. It's not difficult to do, but there's just a lot of things that people assume about them, and it just doesn't need to be that way. So, but part of the reason I wanna talk about this is, not the rodent stuff, but we're gonna talk about all the things having to do with the, it's called wildfire preparedness in the state of California. Uh, so we're gonna be talking about the wildfires in California and what they're doing, uh, so that homeowners can actually get their homeowner's insurance

back on track to actually be covered with wildfire protection. Um, it's pretty interesting what they're doing. We'll see what you guys think about it. And then we're gonna be talking about how to set up a rodent trap tonight. Also wanted to let you guys know we're gonna be doing a live appearance this Thursday, uh, with The Net. Uh, so we're excited to do that. We usually do about a 3-hour show. We're gonna be talking to about 10 to 12 business owners here local in the Houston, Texas area. Always a good time. We always meet interesting people. There's usually people that we've never met before that have interesting businesses, um, and it's, it's always neat to hear what's going on in the

small business world here in, in Houston. Um, and it's always just a great night to get out and meet folks, network. Uh, there's a lot of money that gets, uh, changed hands at these events because people find good partnerships. Uh, and when the Homeowner Show is there, it attracts Uh, ethical, responsible business owners because they know, uh, if they're gonna be on the show and they're gonna talk about their business, that our listeners are gonna hold them accountable when they say the things about their business that they're gonna do, the things that they can accomplish, and the kind of value that they can bring to your home. And, and so it's, it's a valuable opportunity for them to

get on the show, but it's also a valuable opportunity for you, the homeowner, to actually engage and listen to the wisdom. and, and some of the, knowledge that these professionals can bring to the table and let you be informed about your home in a way that you probably haven't been able to do before. So for all that, tune in this Thursday. Also, we're always happy to have our sponsors. Our longest standing sponsor right now is Lone Star Appliance Repair. Guys, we, we say it all the time. If you're gonna have, you know, take the opportunity To see if your appliance can be repaired. It's always more affordable to get your appliance repaired if possible than it is to go buy a new one. And plus, you don't have to go to the store. You don't have

to deal with like the, the sleazy, uneducated sales guy that they just put in that aisle. You know, it doesn't really know anything about the, the products that he's selling. You know, if you, and, and usually you, you have like a, you know, a complete set of appliances that you, you wanna maintain. And so Lone Star Appliance Repair has the technicians, they have the parts, they have the knowledge to repair those appliances. Give 'em a call, 936-647-2364. We also are thankful to True Texas Solar and Roofing. Guys, energy independence is now not a thing of the future. It is a thing of the present. And energy independence is a possibility even if you're attached to the grid because True Texas Solar can get you set up with a solar system,

a whole home battery, and a backup generator. So in case— and listen, listen, and here in Texas, especially in South Texas, hurricane season is upon us. You wanna be prepared. You wanna have energy options for when the grid goes down, and it does go down from time to time. And you wanna be able to maintain your food through refrigeration. You wanna be able to sleep at night. when it's hot because air conditioning is a necessity here in the South. So give them a call, 936-286-8325. They'll get you set up and they're a roof specialist as well. So if you need to get that roof replaced before you put the solar on top, they can get the roof taken care for— taking care of you, taking care for you as well. Also, our sponsor,

Crazy Clean. Kevin and I have been using Crazy Clean products in our home now for about a year, and we cannot say enough good things about it. All of the claims about it, at least for us, have been true. The rings on our toilet are nonexistent. Kevin's son has not had his allowance money in months because his job is to clean the toilet, and the toilet just isn't dirty anymore. He doesn't have to scrub it because there's no ring. Crazy Clean has some incredible technology that uses ionized magnets To— that doesn't allow the debris to collect around the toilet and prevents it from getting dirty and getting ugly and dingy like it normally would. It's a simple product. You just drop it in the tank, lasts at least 10 years. And guys, I've been told that they're

coming out with a new product that should last a lifetime. Uh, haven't, haven't actually gotten official word on that. Just, just a rumor that I heard. Uh, but it's really, really affordable right now. And I think they're even running a special when you buy 4 or more, there's a discount. You can check it out on the website. Go to Krazy Klean. That's Krazy with a K and Klean with a K. KrazyKlean.com. You can always find the link down in the show notes. Happy to have these sponsors. Thank you guys for helping make this show possible. Want to get into right now this wildfire preparedness. program that the state of California has put out. I've got a document sitting

in front of me about how to prepare your home for an evaluation. Now, that may seem strange. What are we getting evaluated for? Well, this wildfire preparedness program that the state of California has put out is a program where a homeowner can receive a certificate showing that it is wildfire prepared. And essentially that means that it now has on all 4 sides of the home, no matter the shape of the home, it's just assuming that it has 4 sides, that it will have a 5-foot buffer zone around the entire home. And so you have to do some improvements to the property in order for that to work. And it must be at least 5 feet. And there are certain things, certain materials that you can

use. Mm-hmm. Uh, to do that. And, and so let me just go through it with you guys real quick because this is interesting because I think similar things are gonna be happening in other states, uh, that are having issues with insurance companies pulling out. Uh, if you guys have been paying attention to the show for any amount of time, you know that we've been talking about insurance companies dropping certain kinds of coverages on homeowners here in Houston. It's been flooding for years. People have been losing flooding coverage. on their homes. And, you know, it's, it's one of those, it's one of those things that, you know, you just, they don't necessarily have to let you know, like legally they have to let you know, but it doesn't have to be as obvious as you would think. So California has come

up with this program because they understand that the insurance companies are pulling out of the state of California. And so California has less options for homeowners insurance. which means that inevitably prices are gonna go up because there's less options, which means there's less competition. And so they're trying to create a way to incentivize these companies to come back, but also provide homeowners with an option and insurance companies with an option that make them feel better about mitigating the risk on the homeowner's side for there to be fire. Just, you know, from my own perspective, like, why not just do the things that would prevent there being massive fires in your state in the first place? But

I'm not in charge. You know, I'm not Gavin Newsom. But what do I know? It's not like they've been telling them for years that these are going to be problems. But c'est la vie. So here's the deal. This is an actual program. You can get a certificate for your home. And here's what allows you to be eligible. So the applicant must— so you must own the home. You know, you can't be a renter. and, and do this. Uh, you must submit photos. Uh, it said submission of photos is required for eligibility. Photos of all 4 sides of home showing the 5-foot non-combustible buffer zone surrounding the home is required. And then the home must be a 3-story or

less single-family detached home, no townhomes or condos. Okay, so if you live in a townhome or condo, you do not, uh, you don't meet the requirements. Uh, the home must be located in California or Oregon. Apparently Oregon is also adopting this program. Uh, okay, so here's, here's some notes that they want you guys to be aware of, especially if you're in California and Oregon. It says designation certificate requirements are stringent. Protected trees may disqualify some homes, and some homeowners may have to work with the neighbors to meet the requirements within 5 feet due to setbacks. One of the most stringent required actions is creating a 5-foot noncombustible buffer around your home and, and decks. All vegetation, trees including overhanging branches, grass, artificial

turf, wood, rubber mulch, wood, vinyl fencing, and any stored items within 5 feet of your home must have been removed. Meaning you can't have any storage containers up against your home. You can't have any fence touching the side of your house. Okay, you can't have anything touching the side of your house. Now you could, you can have a metal gate. So like if you have a wooden fence and then you have a five-foot metal gate, that would work. But underneath that metal gate, you still have to have a five-foot buffer zone of noncombustible materials. Okay, so there are different designation and certificate levels. See processes and timing. Let me see if I can go through this document. Ba ba ba ba ba.

Uh, there's an annual review. Uh, so every year the house has to, uh, be evaluated. It says once a designation certificate has been issued, an annual maintenance review is required. This ensures vegetation doesn't creep into the 5-foot non-combustible buffer and crucial upkeep of vegetation is maintained within 5 to 30 feet. So that means that they're gonna feel a lot better if vegetation and debris is within 30 feet of the home rather than 5 feet of the home. But 5 feet is allowed. And so like if you have big shade trees that sort of, they're 10 feet away from your house, but the branches sort of have moved over the top of the house. If you want to have this designation, you want to get the certificate, you got to cut back

all those limbs from on top of your house because those are potential burn sites that can then fall on the house and cause the house to catch on fire. And they don't want that to happen, that to happen no matter how much efficiency those branches might be causing. through shade and giving your air conditioner some relief. They want you to cut those branches back if you want the certificate. So there are 2 solutions. There's a self-evaluation with photos provided by the homeowner for $25, or you can hire a third-party exterior home evaluator for $100. It says there's a 3-year recertification. It says after 3 years, recertification is required to keep the designation certificate active. Homeowners can use their portal log

In to apply for a new home evaluation to verify program requirements that have been maintained. Uh, let's see, noncombustibles. That's definitions here. Made from material of which no part will ignite and burn when subjected to fire. Any material passing ASTM E136 is considered noncombustible. I don't know what that is. I may have to look that up. Let me see if I can look that up real quick. All right, let's copy that, bring it over here to the old search bar. Let's see. It's a standard test method for assessing combustibility of materials using a vertical tube furnace at 750 degrees Celsius. Says materials that pass this test by complying with the criteria in Section 15 are typically classified as noncombustible. So the materials that have been tested at 750 degrees Celsius

and are determined to be noncombustible. But da da. See if there's anything weird in here. Fire testing is inherently hazardous. Thank you for that, internet. Okay, all looks pretty, pretty normal. Um, so really you have to have— if you're going to have materials up next to the house, they have to have the ASTM E136 designation, meaning they can withstand 750 degrees Celsius, um, and be ignition resistant. Um, yeah. So here's, here's the steps to creating a 5-foot non-combustible buffer around the home and deck. Remove all vegetation, meaning no vegetation whatsoever up around the house. Remove trees and trim branches that overhang the 5-foot area. Install hardscape. Replace combustible wood vinyl fencing posts and gates within 5 feet of home. Uh, that needs to be replaced with non-combustible fence such as material as metal,

aluminum, chain link, or iron and concrete blocks. Those are Very attractive, by the way. Uh, looking forward to seeing all the homes with those on there. Uh, remove any vines from the home, meaning if you have a climbing vine on the side of the house, that's gotta go. Uh, clear and maintain the 5-foot non-combustible buffer area, meaning you can't move, uh, you can't store any vehicles, you can't store any debris, you can't store any storage containers, you can't nothing, nothing up against the house. Uh, it says remove all combustible items such as firewood, potted plants, outdoor furniture, trash cans, pet houses, lawn tools, sheds, hot tubs, et cetera, from this zone. No hot tubs within 5 feet of the house. Um, but I wanna go back to install hardscape.

So here's what it says. It says, clear the 5 foot— 5 feet around your home, including decks, covered porches, under and around the stairs to bare dirt. You may also use hardscape such as gravel, pavers, river rocks, DJ base, stepping stones, or concrete to create an attractive non-combustible buffer zone. So really what it's wanting you to do is either just take it down to bare dirt or put rocks. I mean, that's, that's really what it's asking you to do is just put rocks around your house as a 5-foot buffer. And so landscaping companies in California ought to be salivating right now. I mean, this, this is a money train that the state of California has just handed them on a silver platter because the

company that figures out how to most effectively market and then implement these, uh, things on homes and do it affordably is going to make a killing because people in California right now are scared to death of their home burning down and/or burning down again. And, and so they're going to want to do these things because this, this last round of fires was devastating. Uh, we, we still have plans to, uh, talk to our buddy David Applebaum. He's in the process of rebuilding his home. His house burned. You know, and he's helping other people design and rebuild their homes as well. Super excited for him. He just got honored by our alma mater, Texas A&M, as, you know, just an incredible dude by the School of Architecture there. Man, just

like excited and proud of that guy. Like, what a cool story. He has faced an incredibly difficult situation and just done it with Man, just the most dignity and, um, man, just love that I know that guy. Um, so anyway, uh, this, this is gonna be important. This is gonna come into the building of new homes. I guarantee you new homes are gonna be doing this and they're gonna want to be able to do it affordably. And so like the companies that figure out how to do this for builders and for existing homeowners are gonna, they have a great opportunity. You know, and I imagine like there's plenty of people willing to finance these, offer financing on this. So, and, and these, these are things that people here in Texas also and, and other states

need to pay attention to because I think states are going to get savvy to the options that they can offer homeowners in order to bring insurance companies back to the table so that they can offer coverage to their constituents in those states. Because here in Texas, you know, it's flood insurance. And the other thing that's going away here in Texas is roof insurance. And the same thing's happening in Florida. And I imagine that there are plans in the works to offer things that homeowners can do to their homes in order to get roof insurance back and flood insurance back here in Texas and in Florida and probably Louisiana as well. And so like this, and like,

I, I'm not a big fan of California, but the way it usually works is California goes first and then everybody else follows suit. It's the, it's the way it's been in my industry and it's the way it's gonna be in the homeowner industry. Like they, they always lead the way when it comes to regulations. And so this may, you know, for California, for new homes, I imagine this is going to be the rule moving forward in high fire risk areas because not everywhere in California is a high fire risk area. But the areas that they do have those problems, this is going to be part of the code now when they're building new homes. I can almost promise you that's what's going to be happening. And, and you can tell by the

way that they're even phrasing this and wording this. I mean, these, these are, you know, these are requirements and, and guides that they're giving to builders. It, it wouldn't be that, it wouldn't be as specific. I mean, this is, this is a, like, gosh, a 7-page document about how to put a fire buffer around your yard. You guys can go look it up for yourself. It's called Wildfire Prepared It's a new program in California. So, I, I mean, I encourage people to look at this because either similar programs are gonna be coming to a state near you where, you know, and depending on the kinds of natural disasters that you experience in your state, you know, peop—

people in North Carolina, I prob— you know, they're probably gonna be dealing with flood insurance issues in years to come because of the issues that they, they had recently with all the terrible flooding that they had there. So anyway, all this is going on while people are literally lighting things on fire in Los Angeles, which is bizarre to me. I mean, like, look, I'm in favor of a protest as much as the next guy. Like, you know, yell your little hearts out. I don't even— I mean, like, it doesn't matter to me what you're even protesting. I'm, you know, I'm happy that you're, you know, active. I'm happy that you're involved. But like, for goodness sake, don't burn your city down,

especially when you have a population in LA that just went through fires, devastating fires. Like, don't. And also, like, they're lighting Waymos on fire. I don't even know. Most people probably don't even know what Waymos are. Waymos are a driverless taxi. Like, What did they do to anybody? Like, why? And like, from what I heard is like that, uh, some of the protesters were actually like calling for taxis to get Waymos to come to the location where they were rioting so that they could light them on fire. It's crazy. Just crazy. And, and, and so like, look, it's not widespread. The city's not on fire. Most of that stuff's been put out by now. But at the same time, like, I get that you're upset.

I get that you're angry, but like, have some self-control. Have some decency. Like, you are damaging other people's property. You are damaging other people's means of making a living. Like, and I, I get that your issue is important, but it's not so important that it needs to ruin everyone else's lives that your issue comes in contact with. It just doesn't. Like, make your voice be heard. Sing it proud. Sing it loud. Like, no one's, no one's trying to stop you from doing that. But like, do you need to light things on fire? Do you need to loot buildings? Do you need to destroy private property? No, you don't. You don't. That doesn't, that doesn't get your message across. And in fact, it makes people, uh, angry at your issue because now they associate your

issue, uh, with violence. With, you know, you're not considered a level-headed human being at this point. You're considered an erratic, unpredictable, irrational thing. So anyway, and just the wrong location to do it. There's other cities where they were trying to light stuff on fire, and thankfully we had some law enforcement in place that was putting that down. And honestly, I don't even care that like you want to like, you know, do the rumba on the American flag and do it in the street, like whatever. But like really, a fire in Los Angeles? I mean, that just does— that seems tone deaf to me. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. What I also want to talk to you guys about, setting a rodent trap. And this is This

doesn't need to be like a long DIY kind of thing because this is something a lot of people try and manage themselves in their home, and I see a lot of people doing it wrong. Um, you know, obviously my company, we're, we're happy to come do it for you, but it's not difficult to figure out how to do it right, and I just see so many people doing it wrong. Um, so right off the bat, you need to figure out what you're dealing with because when it comes— and like, this is in, in regards to setting snap traps and kill, kill traps in the house. I'm not a big fan of glue boards. I kind of think, I think they're kind of cruel and they're also not effective against rats,

in my opinion. There are bigger glue boards. They're very sticky. Like, can they catch a rat? Yeah, they can. But again, just, it just seems cruel. Like they're, they're stuck to this thing and can't get away. And so they literally, most of the time they, they, uh, starve to death or, um, what is it? They die of thirst. Uh, because people forget about them and, and don't go back and, you know, dispose of them properly. So I'm, I'm a big fan of the, the traditional snap trap. Victor's is great. There's other brands out there that do it, but Victor's is tried and true. I mean, like, it just works. Um, but you really need to know what you're dealing with. Are you dealing with a mouse or are you dealing with a rat? Because if you are dealing with a rat and you put out a mousetrap, they're just

gonna laugh at you, uh, and think that it tickles. And if you have a mouse and you put out a rat trap, at best it will probably cut off its tail. Um, and, you know, they'll be happy to get away from that and they'll learn from the experience. So, um, identification is key. Um, you can usually tell through the fecal matter if you know what you're looking at. Again, if you can't, you can, you know, do a good Google search or reach out to a professional and ask them to come identify it for you. Most of them are happy to do that. So identification is key. That way you can buy the right trap. Once you have the right trap, you need to figure out where to place it. Where to place it is where you have seen

them, and/or you can use a black light to find urine trails, which that does happen. They leave quite a bit of urine as they walk back and forth. But usually you can find fecal matter and see where they've been spending a lot of their time. You can also see where they've been chewing, and those are good places to leave traps. The mistake I see people making is when they put the trap down. I see a lot of people taking the traps and putting them out in the middle of the room. That is not a great strategy. Most people don't understand that rodents in your home are— really can't see very well. And so people put them out in the middle of rooms thinking, oh, they'll find it because I put a good treat on there.

And like, they don't like that because, because they can't see very well, they tend to use your walls or in most cases inside the home, your baseboards as a guide to get around. And they don't like to leave the safety of, you know, knowing where they're at. They don't like to wander out in the middle of the room. And so what you need to do is be able to place that trap perpendicular up against the wall so where the snap actually comes up against the wall, because that's more than likely where they're gonna be traveling. And I'll tell you guys, half the time I've caught a rat or a mouse, it's not because they're going after like, uh, you know, bait that I've put on the trap.

It's just because I found their path and they just walk through it. Um, It's really that simple. Now, putting bait on the trap is helpful, and we need to get into that for a second, but placement of it is just so crucial. Like, just don't ever put it out in the middle of the room. You know, and the only time that ever really works is when you have a massive infestation, and I'm talking like hundreds and hundreds of rats and mice in a location. Only then can you put one out in the middle of the room, and you're gonna have any sort of effectiveness in catching anything. And even then, I would suggest like just lining them up against

the wall and just a pop pop pop pop pop pop pop and let it because they're gonna that's gonna happen. They're just gonna be moving back and forth against the wall, and when you have that many, it's really easy to see where they're traveling back and forth. So placement is key, and then when you bait the trap, don't use too much bait. But one of the best things that you can use honestly is peanut butter. So many people try and put cheese on it, and the only reason I can think of that people would do that. Is because they saw it in a cartoon like in Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes back in the day, and they think that cheese works. Cheese is not really that effective. Peanut butter

lasts a lot longer. It has a, a far-reaching smell. I've also seen some guys use things like Slim Jims, uh, pretty effectively. And so that can be an effective tool in your little tool belt when, like, if peanut butter is not working, you can, you can, you know, try and move over to some, some cheap jerky because it also has a smell and it's a smell that they like. And, you know, if they're not going after peanut butter, which is typically sweet and fatty, the jerky will be salty and fatty. And so they'll probably like that. I will, I will warn you, if you try and use snap traps, there is the occasion that you can create a splatter, which can be, you know, challenging if you're catching them on a carpet and you

can get a blood splatter on the ground. Um, and, and that does happen from time to time if you get them just right. Uh, so just be aware of that. There are other means of controlling rodents. Um, but you know, this, this episode I really want to focus on just how to set a trap. Hopefully that's, that's been helpful for you. If you have any questions about that, feel free to reach out to the show, send an email. Always happy to answer questions. Um, guys, this has been kind of a short episode, but I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got a lot of information and enjoyed what you had to hear about the wildfire preparedness in California, the issues that might be

coming to your home state, and how to set a rodent trap. As always, if you have not yet, hit the thumbs up, subscribe to the show, leave a review, send us a message. Always happy to hear from you guys. Until next time, see you later.