Get Ready for Spring

This is episode number 135 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could join us.

Happy Easter, Kevin. Happy Easter, and happy Easter to all you out there listening right now. Thanks for joining in and Listen to the episode.

That's right. Hippity hoppity and lots of ham.

That's right.

So you got fun, fun traditions?

You know, I mean, for the most part, the traditions that we have are a couple of different things. Obviously, my kids love, you know, hunting for Easter eggs. Right. One of the things that's kind of unique, I don't know where my wife kind of came up with this, but we do like an Easter egg hunt dinner.

Okay.

Okay, so hang with me for a minute. So she's got a, like, a couple of really large eggs, and they're large enough to hold a sandwich. Okay, so the other eggs, she'll put like fruit and chips and things like that in. So they literally, they literally hunt for their food, and then they open up all of their eggs And they eat their dinner. That's one of the things they love to do.

Back to a simpler time when we were scavengers. Exactly. Okay. Yeah.

So some, some kids are hunters. Some kids are gatherers. I think my kids are both.

So you got to hunt the egg.

That's right.

Crack it open.

Exactly.

Okay.

Yeah. And then I mean, really, the only other thing is, I mean, we, we eat a eat a regular dinner that I think most people eat, you know, ham, that, that sort of thing.

Okay.

But I mean, fairly traditional, I guess. I mean, nothing, nothing super crazy or anything. What about y'all?

Well, I mean, I think, I think we've actually talked about this before. One of the big staples for our Easter lunch or dinner is the pineapple stuffing.

Oh, yeah.

So which, if you haven't ever had, goes really great with ham. Yeah, I mean, it's an— yeah, it's just a delicious dish.

Sure.

So, um, but probably the unique thing that we do is the kids typically have an Easter egg hunt first.

Okay.

And then afterwards, the kids hide the adults' eggs, which are really just little bags filled with tiny bottles of booze.

Oh, nice.

Yes. So wow.

Well, I will say it's a way to actually get the adults excited to actually go and hunt the eggs. Yes. Yeah. So similar idea, only without the booze. I probably— the funnest egg hunt I ever did, I was in college. And a good friend of mine, their family had me over for Easter. And they did an egg hunt. And I was like, What? Like, I'm 22, you know? I was like, what is this? But every egg had money in it, like dollar bills. Some of them had like— I had one that had a $50 bill in it.

Oh gosh.

Yeah, I'm, I'm, I want— I left with like $300 that day, and there was like 6 of us, and we all left with like that, that amount of money. I'm like, how do you have this much money?

How do you know how there wasn't a fistfight?

I know.

You tell me there's a $50 in the egg, I'm tackling you when you find it.

Well, I didn't know. I didn't know what was in the eggs. They didn't tell me. And literally, I started breaking open the eggs, I was like, what? I would have tried a lot harder if I would have known that there— but it was pretty fun. There were some gift cards in there too. It was awesome.

Yeah, so we know that there's booze. And this year, it was just me, my wife, and my sister. So, you know, we have the, the 1, 2, 3, go.

Sure.

So when it was go, my job is to block while my wife goes.

Oh, okay.

Because, you know, it's a team sport.

Sure. And so especially, I mean, y'all live together, right? All the, all the booze is going to your house.

We're gonna get to share.

Right.

Yeah. And so I block my sister long enough.

Okay.

So that my wife can get enough of a head start that when I finally let go of my sister, Okay. Where, you know, she's already gotten a few, hopefully. And if she doesn't, she's in trouble.

Sure.

Because what was I blocking for? What?

Yeah. Well, what are we doing here?

That's right.

Don't you—

you had a plan. You—

we talked about this.

What are you doing? You knew it was coming. You had one job.

You have one job. That's right. So that's awesome.

Anyway, the big accomplishment for me this last week, man, around, around the home is I, I tackled a couple of stumps.

Oh man.

And I've been looking at these stumps, I got it for at least 4 years.

Oh my goodness. And stumps are, stumps are one of those things, it's like they're, they're just annoying.

Yes.

And unless you bring someone out to grind the stump, which, you know, those things are pretty awesome. Have you ever seen one of those work?

Oh yeah.

They're amazing. But, you know, Not the cheapest thing you could do, right?

Yeah.

So what'd you do in order to get rid of these stumps?

I basically came home and I just had enough. So, okay, I got out my chainsaw.

Yeah.

And I have these, uh, they're 6-foot-long pry bars.

Okay.

And, uh, a couple other tools basically. Right. Um, and I just, I just whacked at the thing for like an hour and a half.

Gosh, that's got to be like just super exhausting.

It was. Yeah, it was. Um, but I felt really good about myself when I got done.

Did you get them all torn up?

Oh yeah. Okay. So, and like, I think like it wasn't too long ago a friend of ours was over and they got their, their car hung on one of the stumps because it's near our driveway.

Yeah, I know which one you're talking about.

Yeah, it's— well, that one's gone now. Okay, there was 2 of them. One was much smaller than the other one, but the big one, I tackled that one first because I know my vehicle's not getting hung on it, right? Yeah, it was it was somebody else. Yeah, lower vehicle.

Yeah, lower.

We're not going to name names, right? Sometimes they listen. Yeah. You know who you are.

Yeah, that's right.

But anyway, so I was like, you know what? I'm tired of this because I and I hit it the other day.

Okay.

I didn't get hung on it, but I was like, that should. Yeah, so frustrating.

Yeah.

So anyway, um, it took me a good hour and a half.

Wow.

And I, I probably ate up a chainsaw blade. It was so worth it.

Oh yeah.

But like when— and like once you get like the— here, let me, let me give you guys a trick. If you guys have one of these pry bars, what you can do is you can actually, you know, you can cut the, the line with your chainsaw and then you stick that pry bar down there far enough in the middle And then work it back and forth and it breaks it off.

Right.

Um, and hopefully it just breaks it off enough, low enough to the ground where you can then get in there with your chainsaw and whack the rest of it out.

Yeah. So if— okay, let me ask this. This pry bar you have, does it weigh like 25 pounds?

It probably weighs more than that.

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I've used one of these things. They're, they're amazing.

Quite handy. Yes.

Yes, they can. I mean, You can beat people with them and— wait, wait, that got dark. Sorry. That's, that's not actually what I meant.

You could, but you'd have to get a running start.

I mean, these things are— I've used them for a couple of different things, but they can do some damage for sure. They're awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's just like a blade at the bottom, like a, like a 3-inch blade, right?

It's not, it's not quite that wide.

Maybe 2-inch?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, it's about 2-inch.

Okay.

But like, it's super heavy and dense.

Yeah. It's awesome.

I think we paid like $30 or $40 for the thing. I mean, it's just really—

It's a dollar a pound. It's just something like that.

Yeah. So I forget what we originally bought them for. Uh, I think we might have been like leveling like a pier and beam or something like that. Yeah. Um, but anyway, super, super handy.

Yeah.

Um, so anyway, I was— I felt more like a man, right, after getting rid of that stump. Yes. I didn't— I don't need a grinder.

Who needs a grinder?

For girls.

Yeah, and people with more money than you. Yeah, exactly.

Who needs to spend their money?

No.

Yeah. Anyway, well, cool. What do we got on the docket today, Kev?

All right, so, um, I, I was just kind of thinking like, this is a— this is an important part of the year, right? Spring.

Spring.

It's happening.

I mean, love is in the air.

Oh my gosh. I— this is one of my favorite times of year. We talked about that a couple of episodes ago.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and there's just a lot of things, like people are, are out in their, you know, in their yards, or they're doing stuff. It's just kind of a— it's a beautiful time of year. And so I thought it would be really important for those who listen to the show to get some things prepared at their house, because I think what we have a tendency to do as people is look back a few months down the road and go, man, I probably should have done X.

Right.

And I never did it. Wish I would have done it. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you, um, a few different things that we think need to be on your spring readiness checklist. All right, so we're going to give you a list of things you need to go and do before— in the next— within the next month to just kind of prepare yourself for the spring for the summer, get yourself ready. Okay?

Yep. Prepare yourself.

Prepare yourself.

Yep.

All right, so we're just gonna kick this off, right? I'm gonna give you a few things, uh, you've got a few things as well. Yeah, we're just gonna talk about them. First of all, you need to get your air conditioner checked.

For sure.

I mean, this is one of those things that I'm telling you, it is easy to overlook. It is really easy to overlook this, but I cannot tell you how many people I know who in the middle of the summer, it's like July the 20th, and they're going, I'm just— it's, it's awful at my house. I hate my life.

I'm like, why?

Well, my air conditioner went out.

Right.

Really? Why'd your air conditioner go out? Well, I don't even know. I'm waiting on the air conditioner guy to come over. He said he's booked for like 4 days. He's the soonest person that I can get here. I'm doing the best I can. We're sweltering in the meantime. And I'm like, oh man, I wish you, you know, wish they would have told you that whenever you got your AC checks. Like, yeah, I never got that done. Really? Why? You know?

I wonder why it's broken.

Exactly. And so it's one of those things that, yeah, it's gonna cost you $50. I mean, most, most people that I know are going to charge you $50 per unit to come out and give it a cleaning, check and make sure all the capacitors working. You know, they're going to go up and make sure that your drip pan is doing what it's supposed to, that it turns on the way it's supposed to, that's cooling to the degree it's supposed to. They do all of that kind of stuff. And you should feel pretty confident that You're prepared, right?

And let's, let's just rip this bandaid off.

All right.

Stop whining about it being $50.

Right.

I mean, like, $50 is cheap.

Yes.

When you consider someone's time to come out and actually inspect your system.

Yes.

I mean, that's nothing.

No, it's really not.

It's really, really not. And, and like, I get it. Like, it's $50. I mean, $50 can, can buy you quite a bit of groceries. Probably fill up your gas tank these days. But like, when it comes to your air conditioner, it's just not a whole lot of money.

No.

When you think about the cost it's gonna be to replace that thing later on down the line, which you're going to have to do eventually if you plan on being in the property any amount of time.

Right.

$50 is no big deal. You know, $100 every year because you should get it checked out in the spring and then in the winter— fall.

Yeah, the fall, I mean.

Or the winter. Yeah, like pre-winter, right, late fall, whatever, um, get it checked out. And so like, it's just not that much money when it— considering the amount it can save you. Yeah.

What do you think? What do you think people are worried about?

Do you think it's $50?

Because I think it's something different.

I, I don't— I think, I think they're worried. I think a lot of times it has to do with people being suspicious of people's motives. Yeah. When it comes to inspecting their equipment. That's exactly where I'm going. You know, that they think that because they're inspecting it, that they're going to fabricate some sort of nonsense that's not, you know, even there.

Right.

To justify doing a multi-thousand dollar repair job.

Yep.

And part of that is that the reality is, is there are companies out there that will do that.

Yep. There just are.

And, you know, the, where people run into issues is not because all air conditioning repair people are charlatans. It's that you're too lazy to do the research and, and talk to like maybe 3 people and say, who have you used that's, you know, been really good to you? That's done a good job, that's been honest, that has been like, hey, thanks for the $50, your air conditioner looks great.

Yeah.

And then went on down the road.

Right.

You know, those companies exist.

Right.

know, if you need to know some, reach out to me and Kev. We know a few.

That's right. Yeah, and this is, this is not even too Bourbon Craig.

No.

Saying these things.

It's like half a Bourbon Craig.

That's right.

Give, give me a minute.

I mean, because I think you're exactly right. I think that there are people concerned that someone's going to come in and either A, try to sell them on something they don't need, or B, sell them something that they actually do need and they just don't have the money to do it and they don't want to hear about it because it stresses them out.

Right.

I mean, because the reality of it is, if you get an air conditioning guy over and they say, look, if you don't change out this capacitor, it's gonna— you know, you have a real chance that the middle of the summer, this thing's gonna crap out on you.

Right.

The capacitor is only $150, but you— there's 3 of them, you have to replace all 3. I don't know what it is. And then they're gonna say, look, your ductwork needs to be resealed, or it needs to be cleaned, or all these sorts of things. And the thing is, like, those things are probably all true because here's the thing you need to know: your house requires maintenance just like your car requires maintenance, right?

Yeah.

So you need to change your oil every 3,000 miles. That's not just a ploy, it needs to be done, right?

Yeah.

Maybe it's 5,000, whatever the number is. You gotta get your oil changed. You also gotta take care of your, your appliances and the things around your house, because if you don't, I promise you, you're gonna be in a situation where on June the 20th or July 20th, you're gonna be whining to me because you forgot to call the $50 guy and get him out to do the job.

Yeah.

So get it done.

Just get it done.

Get it done.

You're gonna be—

you're gonna be happy.

The problem's not gonna get any better.

No. Well, and that's a good point. Like, if you do have a problem, it's better to know it now. I mean, um, I'll tell you this, like, last time, uh, Jehu came over to our house, he was like, all right, Kevin, let me level with you here. You've got a unit here that's a 2002 model. It is 19 years old. Air conditioners just typically don't last that long.

Yeah.

All right. You're on your last leg. You need to be realizing that this could be $6,000 down the future.

And that's right, you know, anything else in your house when it turns 18, it needs to move out. That's right.

I mean, if you don't know that already, prepare yourself.

That's right.

Prepare yourself. And it's going to cost more than $6,000 for most of that stuff to move out. You need to be preparing yourself. So, but that's good information. I had no idea that was a 2002 model.

Yeah.

I had no idea. And so my wife and I kind of had this conversation. Look, we need to start saving so that whenever this goes out, it's not a big shock, right?

Yeah.

We're not gonna have to put it on a credit card and finance this thing just because we weren't prepared, right? So we talked a long time about air conditioning units, but it's a big one.

It's a big one.

It's a big one.

Yeah.

All right, second thing here, you need to do a sprinkler system check.

If you have one.

If you have one, you need to do a sprinkler system check. And here's why. All kinds of things happen whenever that thing isn't running.

Yeah.

Right? I mean, it happens whenever it is running. You have things bust, you have things crack, you run over a sprinkler head. But in the last time you turned your sprinkler system on until now, someone stepped on a sprinkler head, there was a freeze, around here, pretty hard freeze, right? Um, something has happened to where there's a good chance that your sprinkler system has a problem and you need to address it. Because here's what's going to happen. You're going to turn your sprinkler system on because it's the right season. And if you're like me, you've got a Rachio, right? The, the Wi-Fi deal. It's going to come on whenever it needs to, and I don't even have to touch it.

Right.

Which is awesome. Except I'm gonna get a call from my neighbor at 3 o'clock in the afternoon going, you got a geyser in your backyard because you got a sprinkler head that's busted. You didn't know about, you could have taken care of it. Now you don't know about it. So you need to do a check so that you know, if I've got a problem, take care of it. Good to go.

Yeah, right. Well, and plus, if you, if you were living here, and you experienced the Siberian freeze that occurred, you know, like chances are you haven't turned that sprinkler system back on just for the fact that you're afraid.

You don't want to know.

You don't want to know. You're like, I know if I turn it on, I'm gonna find the leak and then it's gonna cost me a bunch of money to get it fixed. So you just haven't turned it on.

Right.

Eventually you're gonna have to turn the thing on. You got to. Yeah.

And let me tell you this, sprinkler systems are one of the most frustrating things to own when it comes to things that break.

Yeah.

But they're super easy to fix. I mean, most of the time, it's unscrewing a sprinkler head and screwing a new sprinkler head back in. Sure, you got to dig it out. And that kind of sucks. But yeah, you could call somebody come out and fix it.

Do you know how much one of those goes for?

What's that?

The sprinkler heads? Like what? Yeah, like what is one of those like? I know there's like lots of different ones, but like in general, what is one of those like? Because I don't have a sprinkler system, so I have no clue.

Like $12.

$12, okay. So like $12 and the time to dig out the old one.

Right, it really depends on what you're getting. If you're getting one of those rotary heads, remember we had that, right? Yeah, if you get a rotary head, some of those are a little bit more expensive, like maybe $15, but some of them are as cheap as like $7 or $8.

Okay.

I mean, they can be pretty inexpensive. Now your time is valuable, right?

Right.

We've talked about that. Go check out our DIY calculator on our website at homeownershow.com. There's a plug.

There you go.

Check this thing out.

Drive some traffic.

That's exactly right. Check it out because your time is valuable. But I mean, you're talking— I mean, let's say you had to replace 5 sprinkler heads, you're gonna spend less than $30 probably. I mean, it's just not that expensive to fix this stuff.

I thought they were like $12 apiece.

I don't do math, Craig.

Okay.

Okay? Plus it is like—

I didn't know if there was like a bulk discount.

Well, actually there is.

Okay.

You can buy them in contractor packs if you really want to. And it's actually not a bad idea.

Okay.

Like, I'll tell you this.

Just have some in the—

I always have 2 or 3 in my garage so that if one goes out, it's really not that big a deal. I don't have to run to Home Depot.

It's good to have some rookies on the bench.

That's right. That's right. And it's just one of those things that like, here's the most frustrating thing about the whole thing. Forget going out and worrying about having to fix it. Whenever you get your water bill and it's $20 more than you expect it to be because you forgot to do your sprinkler system check, that's where you're gonna go, I hate myself right now. Okay, don't hate yourself. Yeah, just check your sprinkler system.

You're probably an okay person. That's right.

Turn it on. Hey, this is a cool way to get your kids involved, right?

Digging?

No, check your sprinkler system.

Oh, just have them run through it?

Have them run, have them turn it on, have them run around the back. Hey, is it working? Yes.

Which side of your kid didn't get wet?

Exactly.

All right.

It's a good way to involve the kids.

Yeah.

There you go.

It can also increase their speed and muscle twitch.

Muscle twitch. All right, I'm ready for my next one.

All right. Lay it on us.

Get your lawnmower tuned up.

Okay.

This is an important one, and here's why it's important.

I mean, I, I guess, I guess all of our electric friends are—

They're laughing at us.

Well, I mean, like, they're, you know, this does not apply.

I mean, it really doesn't.

I mean, and this, this is actually like a genuine question I have because I've seen— okay, so like the, the, the electric mowers, like obviously the technology has gotten better.

Yeah.

Um, you know, so we've got electric weed eaters. We actually have electric zero-turn mowers, battery, battery-powered zero-turn.

Yeah.

I would imagine they need some sort of like greasing, oil, something, or I mean, you got to change the blades. You have to change the belts.

Yeah.

All that kind of— so I imagine all that stuff still going on. Sure.

So yeah, I mean, you're not doing oil changes.

Not, not an oil change per se, but like, I would imagine like there's like grease points and I would assume so.

I, I don't, I don't own one.

Right.

I, I have a, I have the, um, the battery-powered EGO, yeah, trimmer.

Right.

And there's, from what I can tell, there's really nothing.

No grease points or anything like that on it?

Not that I know of.

Okay. Um, how do they keep it all loosey-goosey?

I don't know. They're awesome. It's like super, superpower.

Let us know, EGO. Now tell us your mysterious ways.

That's right. Now I may be wrong, and if I am, well, Please, listener, Joe, whoever you are, send us a message at info@homemowers.com.

There's not like a maintenance manual that comes with that thing or?

Oh, there is.

Why don't you get that thing out? Is it like a QR code or something?

Oh yeah, just go on EGO's website. There's a support manual somewhere. I'm sure there is.

I'm not looking it up till I have a problem.

That's exactly right. But, um, I would assume, like you said, on, on the lawn mowers, there's still going to be maintenance to do a little bit. It's not going to be the same amount of maintenance. You're not gonna have to be adding oil, which honestly, oil and carburetors and all of those sorts of things, even just the gas engine, I mean, there's a lot of stuff to gum up and just kind of, you know, be a problem. Whereas on the gas, you really don't have— yeah, you're gonna have a drive belt because all those things have self-propelled, right?

Right.

So you're gonna have a drive belt, you're gonna have, um, you're gonna blades, those sorts of things. So yeah, I'm sure that there's some maintenance that needs to be done. It's gonna be fairly minimal. But if you don't have that, if you got to get what most people have in today's world—

Yes.

A gas-powered mower. Honestly, like, you can do it. It's not that big of a deal. You can, you can change the oil, you can, um, you can change, change the blades, you can sharpen the blades, you can do all of those sorts of things. But honestly, For a pretty nominal amount of money, it's like $100 or something like that, you could take it to a small engine shop and they'll do it all for you.

Sure, yeah.

And it's, you know, something you don't have to worry about, something you know I've gotten it taken care of.

I think that's true if you have like a push mower.

Yeah.

You know, riding mower is a little bit different. Like mine's a little more complicated. I've got a zero-turn Cub Cadet.

Okay.

RZTL, I think is the model.

Okay.

If you guys want to look it up, it's, it's actually cool. It's Bluetooth.

Um, pretty sweet.

Yeah, so it actually tells me when like maintenance is due and all that kind of stuff. Um, but, uh, the, the— because it's a bigger mower, the maintenance can be a little more involved. Like, it's not, it's not uncommon for me throughout a mowing season to go through a couple of drive belts.

Sure.

Um, it's, you know, and, and like changing the oil is not necessarily as easy as it would be like on a push mower because there's a oil filter and all these other kinds of things. Getting the blades off is a little more complicated. It's not just tipping the mower back, um, you know. And I'll tell you, one of the issues I ran into, um, on, on this particular one is, you know, like with a, with a standard push mower, uh, most of those are pull start, right? You know, so you don't have a battery, right? Because you need the battery in order to start the solenoid, in order to start the starter, in order to start the ignition process on the engine. Um, so the battery caps on my battery popped

during— I don't know if it was because of the freeze or what happened, but like my battery's toast.

Wow.

So, and like, had I— I could have had a real frustrating situation had I not been looking into that before the season of grass cutting started. So now I've got to, I've got to replace that battery. And I'm like, well, as long as I'm replacing the battery, why don't I go ahead and do a lot more, you know, other things that are a little bit more tedious on this? Because I'm going to be underneath the thing anyway.

Right.

You're like, why don't I check the blades? Why don't I check the belts? Why don't I put some, you know, if the belts look good, why don't I go ahead and dress those belts and do some things that are actually gonna cause the maintenance that I'm doing to be worthwhile, to give me a little bit more longevity out of this equipment and help it last through the season?

Sure.

You know, I tell you, one of the other things I ran into fairly recently was on some equipment for our business is we had one of our techs actually use an older can of gas that hadn't been touched in a while. And that actually ended up getting some water into the carburetor, which prevented the unit from starting altogether.

Yeah.

So we had to, you know, like get that water out of there, clean that carburetor out, and, you know, get clean gas in there.

Okay, so what's your suggestion on that? 'Cause a lot of people, I think what they'll do, like me for example, I've got a 5-gallon thing of gasoline, right? And maybe I filled it up in June, Right. Or July, I mean. And maybe I didn't use all of it. I've still got 2 gallons left in that thing. And I mean, you know, gasoline breaks down over time, right? It loses its octane.

Right, for sure. Um, you know, again, the best prevention is maintenance.

Sure.

And, and, you know, if you, if you know that you've got a can of gas that's going to be sitting over the winter period that you're probably not going to be using because that's your lawn equipment stuff, One, either put it in a vehicle that's going to be using it, or 2, put some gas stabilizer in there.

Yeah, you can put like STP in there, right?

Yeah.

And that's what it's called?

Well, the STP is a brand.

Yeah, right, right.

There are other stabilizers. Most of them all do the exact same thing. STP is just a very famous— I think STP had like a NASCAR—

Yeah.

For a while, so they had better brand recognition for a long time.

Sure.

I don't know I'm, I'm, well, I know they're not the only gas stabilizer out there. It's not the brand I use. I don't even know the brand I use. I have it out in the shop.

O'Reilly?

Sometimes, who knows? Who knows what I have? It's a gas stabilizer.

Sure.

You know, I mean, and someone, someone may be yelling at me through, you know, the interwebs and just like, no, you're an idiot. And that's true. Yeah. But, you know, I've not seen a performative difference in any gas stabilizer that I've ever come across.

It's all gonna do pretty much the same thing, right? It's gonna raise the it's good stabilizing, raise octane, all that kind of stuff, right? So yeah, but I, I think that, I think that to your point is you, you're gonna get yourself into a situation where one of two things happens. If you run your lawnmower dry of oil, it's dead.

Yeah.

You're not revitalizing that thing. Probably you're buying a new one.

Yeah.

And, and that could be anywhere from a $200 to $1,000 mistake depending on what you— or more if you try to, you know, if you're talking to a riding lawn mower, they can have the same problem. You may be talking to—

I mean, well, it really, it really depends on like what sort of damage you do to the motor.

Sure.

Um, I mean, I, I, I'll give you, for instance, you and I actually have a friend that just dropped off a power washer at my house.

I saw it.

Um, he, he called me and was like, hey, Do you work on small engines? You know anything about small engines? Like, dude, I've been working on small engines since I was like 14 years old. What do you need me to help you with something? And he's like, no, like I've got this power washer and I know that the gas can and the carburetor are bad. Um, man, it was cheaper for me just to go buy a new one than it was to fix this one, but this one's pretty much new. I just didn't do the maintenance on it. Like, if you can fix it, you can just have it.

Wow.

And I'm like, it's a Generac power washer.

That's good for me too.

I mean, is it?

Because I know you're gonna fix it and I'm gonna use it.

It's a good power washer.

Sure.

And I'm like, yeah, I mean, like, I can, I can probably fix that thing for like $30 in parts. Yeah, good for you. Well, and like, you know, like, for me, like, it's— I've taken those, I've taken those kind of motors apart 100 times.

Sure.

It's not a big deal.

Right.

Like, if you've never done it before, it can be overwhelming.

Yeah.

Um, and even then, like, it— I mean, like, for him it would have been cheaper overall to take it to someplace and get it repaired, right? But I mean, like, it would have just been a little bit more for him just to go get a new one for what he needed. So he was like, why don't you just play with it? Yeah, because like, yeah, loss.

Yeah, yeah. No, I, I think that, that at the end of the day, doing a little bit of maintenance is going to save you a lot of time, save you a lot of money. And at the end of the day, you're not gonna get to June 20th and be like, ah, come on.

Yeah.

I should have just taken care of something early on and now I wouldn't be in this situation. So most of the time, if you take care of your equipment, they're gonna be fine.

Yeah.

Right? I mean, these motors are not built to just last for a year or two. If you're only getting that amount of time out of your lawnmowers, it's because you're just not doing the maintenance on it.

Yeah, you're not, you're doing zero maintenance.

That's right. And that goes not just for your lawnmower, That goes for your weed eater too. I mean, if, if you don't have, um, uh, you know, not just a weed eater, um, but a blower, whatever it is, if you've got stuff that's— that you're putting gas and stuff through, you just need to check things out. Make sure that you don't have any leaks. Make sure that things are running kind of well, you know, because, because you could be up a creek.

Yeah, I mean, like, on like, on a, I don't know, like a weed trimmer or something, if you've got like a gas-powered one, um, which Let me say this, there are gas-powered weed eaters that you do have to change the oil in.

You do?

The 4-stroke?

Yeah, 4-stroke. Yeah.

Um, and so like you need to pay attention to what kind you have.

That's right.

To see if you need to be doing those kinds of maintenance things to them. But I mean, like if you have a 2-stroke, you know, like changing out a fuel line.

Right.

Those are the things that typically happen to those that cause them to have performance issues.

Yeah.

And fuel lines are cheap.

Yeah, that's exactly what happened to mine. That's why I have an ego trimmer. Because I, I had a problem with my fuel line, and basically it was leaking out. It had corroded, it was leaking out, and it just wasn't working well. And so it's like one of those deals, like, do I try to fix this thing? I've had it for a long time. I just went out and bought an EGO. I'm really happy that I did.

Yeah, that's a killer weed eater.

Yeah, it's awesome. But at the end of the day, like, if I would have just taken care of what I had I wouldn't have had that problem.

Yeah.

So, all right, cool. All right, I got one more and then we'll get on to yours. And that is, um, you need to clean off your roofline.

All right.

Okay. So, crazy story. Is it last year or a year before? Um, our POA is kind of crazy. So we have, we have a property owners association instead of an HOA, which is a homeowners association.

Right.

It's similar, but different. I got a notice that if I don't clean the leaves off of my roof, that I was gonna get fined for it.

Hmm.

Okay, let me tell you this. I walked out my front lawn, and I looked around, I went, if they're gonna fine me, they better fine that guy, and that guy, and that guy, and that guy, because everybody had leaves on the roof. It's still you know it's the end of winter basically, right? The trees were still around here still falling, right? So I had I did I had leaves on my roof in the in the little what do they call it the the the valley yeah the valley of your your roofline. I had leaves up there going down to the valley. Bring it. Come on.

No, I'm done.

Okay. So, um, so I had to get up there and just get the leaves off. But, but there's a bigger reason you do that, not just to get fined, right? What, what is the reason? I mean, you're, you're the pest guy. Tell me what the reason is.

Well, it's, it's so it's like my favorite line. Do you ever see the movie Medicine Man? No.

No.

It's a famous Sean Connery movie. Okay. Where he's, he's in, I believe it's the Amazon.

Okay.

Because he— there's this group of people there that don't have cancer, and he's like, okay. And so like there's a medicine man there that supposedly knows the cure, and when they find the cure, they think it's like a berry.

Okay.

Or something, and it's, it's not the berry. The medicine man goes, not berry, house for bug.

Oh. And it's—

the cure is actually the bug.

Okay.

There's something in the bug that actually kills cancer.

Okay.

So that's always like when people ask me like, your specific question, it's a house for bugs. Yeah. And like, anytime you leave debris on your roof, particularly leaves, pine needles, anything like that, that fills up your gutters, fills up the valleys, all that kind of stuff, it's just a place for bugs to hang out. And the reason is because it, one, it provides shelter from the sun and the wind, but also it contains moisture.

Yes.

And that's also not good for your roof because anytime moisture pools, it prevents— it not prevents, it prevents the— poses the opportunity for a leak, which could just lead to more bugs.

That's right.

That are less fun bugs than the initial bugs.

Right.

So just get rid of all of it.

Yeah, because at the end of the day, water is deteriorating, right? It will deteriorate what it is around.

Oh, yeah.

So anytime you have a place that water pools or water is, is present, you just, just know your shingles or whatever kind of roof material you have, unless it's like, I guess if you have a metal roof, it's not the case. But if you've got regular shingle roof, you're gonna have problems.

Yeah.

So get that—

Eventually.

Eventually. So get that off, make sure you're cleaning your roofline, and at the same time, check your gutters.

Yeah.

over, like stuff's falling off your trees, all that kind of stuff. Check your gutters. Last time I checked my gutters, there were plants growing in them. Because there's so much like soil in there. Yeah.

Just, I mean, like, yeah, stuff grows. And those trees are dropping seeds.

And yes, they are.

Yeah. I mean, like, that's, that's what's supposed to happen, right?

Yeah, it was doing its job. And guess what? That's really good soil in there. Yeah, I actually took that soil out and planted it because it was so good. It was really rich.

Yeah.

Um, so clean your gutters out. Make sure that you're— you've got to— I mean, if you've got gutters, they— there's a couple of things that happen. Um, it's not going— they're just not going to function if they're clogged, right? Unclog them. But more than that, here's what's going to happen if you've got that much stuff in your gutters. they're going to be heavy and they're going to pull away from your roof. They're not gonna work anyway. They're just gonna start coming down. You're gonna have a big problem. So just clean them out, make sure you're done, you're doing the maintenance on your house, which requires that type of, type of thing, or, or call someone out to do it. I mean, there are companies that'll

do it and it's really not that expensive. And was it Connor Mack that was on that was talking to us about cleaning gutters?

Yeah, he does. I mean, like, he does full gutter design and install. Yeah.

Yeah, but I think he does cleanings too, like maintenance.

Oh yes, yeah, no, they'll clean them out.

It's really not that expensive to get someone out to do it.

And there's, I mean, like, not to say don't use Connor, I mean, call him, but like typical landscape companies will do that for you as well. I've hired them, I've subbed them out to do jobs like that before. And the reason I do that is because they typically have the equipment. Because a lot of times they'll get up there and blow off roofs from debris and things like that because it's in their best interest to maintain the property. It makes it easier for them if the gutters are flowing properly, right? Um, so it's just all around, like, it's, it's not— and like, cleaning off roofs and gutters is not, it's not that expensive, honestly.

No. And, and I'll tell you this, I got up and blew the leaves off of my roof, uh, last week actually. I did that. Um, but I'll tell you, like, that's not a safe job. No, it really is not safe to do that. And I've got I've got a one-story house and the roof is not pitched to do, you know, the, the craziest pitch that you've ever seen. Um, but it's not safe to do that. Um, and, and on— to be honest, I'm up there the whole time going, please don't fall, please don't fall, please don't fall, right? Don't slip, don't slip. Um, but I mean, these guys that do it professionally, the landscaping guys or whoever that, that does it, a lot of times they tie themselves off, right? They've got they're on belay of some sort,

and they're, they're keeping themselves safe. So, um, you know, check to make sure if you, if you hire someone that they're insured, right? Uh, because otherwise you're gonna pay for them if they fall off your roof. I know that sounds crazy, but if they're not insured and bonded, you will be paying for them.

So, yeah. Which, I mean, like, might be just— I mean, just key into what Kevin said there, y'all. It doesn't mean that the cheapest is always the best option.

That's right. So including yourself, that does maybe something you can do, but the question is, do you want to?

Yeah, right. I will say, like, I do, I do my own. Yeah, I've got a backpack blower. Yeah, um, gas-powered. Um, it makes it a lot easier. But like, again, like, my roof is not difficult to get up on.

Sure.

It's just, I mean, it's not— I don't consider it an unsafe roof, right? I mean, like, unless you get on the steep pitch, right? So which I just, I don't do. Don't do that. Yeah.

Yeah.

But I mean, like, mine's steep enough that like nothing really stays on it. Yeah.

And that's the thing. Like some people definitely have a steep, steep enough pitch on their roof that it doesn't really matter. But those of you that don't, just, just get it taken care of. That way you don't have a problem.

For sure.

So that's, that's my list. I know you got some things too.

No, just one more. And it really, it kind of relates to what you were just talking about. So like, as you clean out your gutters, as you blow off your roof, you're gonna have some debris. And so since it's now springtime, if you haven't raked your yard since the fall, yeah, and/or you have trees that have dropped a lot of leaves because of the freeze that we experienced here in Texas, and really this is true anywhere, but like, like here in the, in the piney woods of Texas, I mean, trees drop their pine needles pretty much year round.

All the time.

And unless you're, you know, blessed like me to have a burn pile—

Yeah.

Where you can ignite such things, unless there's a burn ban, you know, you gotta bag these things up.

Right.

And do something with them. And something I've been noticing in a couple neighborhoods around me is homeowners who are bagging their lawn debris and their things, you know, clippings and different things like that, putting them out by the street and their trash service is refusing to pick them up.

Really?

Because it's not part of the service that they provide.

Oh, yeah.

Because a lot of these trash services in neighborhoods have moved to a designated bin.

Oh, yeah.

You know, that their machines can pick up and put in the truck.

Right.

Because they've reduced their manpower for the trash operation. So like these homeowners are putting bags of trash out by the street, They're just not picking them up.

Wow.

And, and so that's causing other problems in which, like, again, smaller neighborhoods where people have decided, well, I'm just going to drag these in the backyard and burn them.

Yeah.

And their neighbors are complaining because, one, they're filling their backyards with smoke. And so then they are in turn complaining to the HOA saying like, hey, my neighbor's burning trash. That's not really in the ordinances of this neighborhood. Get them.

Right.

And the homeowner that's burning the trash is like, what? What do you want me to do?

Right.

Like, trash service isn't picking them up. I'm not paying $500 to take it to the landfill, nor do I have a trailer to even do such a thing.

Sure.

What do you want me to do with all this stuff?

Yeah, I'm at a loss.

Yeah, and so like, you really, like, if you're gonna do that, if you're gonna start to bag up stuff in your, you need a plan.

Sure.

You need to know what you can do with this stuff, because otherwise it's just gonna gather in bags. And like HOAs, like, help your, help your residents out. Like, you know, maybe be like, hey, for like $10, we'll provide a trash service that'll come around and do a one-time pickup.

Yeah.

Something. I mean, because it's not good for anybody for this kind of stuff to— one, it's not good if you're just going to leave it on the ground, right? And it's going to make your yards look trashy, and it's going to lower the value of the property in your neighborhood. So HOAs, it's not good for you. Homeowners, you don't want it laying around because it's a potential pest harborage. It's a potential eyesore. And you just don't want to have to deal with it long term. Also, it like any, like organic debris stinks like death.

Yes, it does.

After a while, I mean, it really reeks. And so you just don't want it around, right? And so like, you really need like a plan to deal with this stuff. You know, maybe you just need a friend with a pickup truck. I don't know. But I mean, like, you know, you don't want to be caught in a situation where you got 10 50-gallon bags, right, of organic debris just rotting, you know, either in your garage. And like, like, here's the other thing, man, is if you have a really strict HOA and you've got, you know, 10 bags, 10 50-gallon, you know, what are those, 55-gallon bags?

Yeah, they're huge.

Um, the, the big black ones. Yeah, you know, 10, 10 of those. And like, it's not difficult to fill up 10 of those.

No.

Um, with pine needles and other things.

I, I had 15, right? Yeah, it's not that hard to do.

So, and if you have a really strict HOA, you can't keep those stacked up outside. So where do you put them? In your garage. Yeah, you want to talk about something that reeks? Oh, I mean, just give it 4 days, right? Especially when it hits 90 degrees around here.

Yeah, and you're gonna get bugs in that too.

Oh, it's gonna be nobody's business.

Yeah.

So anyway, like, don't— anyway, create a plan.

Sure.

Know your options.

Yeah.

Like, you know, Kevin, Kevin lives in a neighborhood that's nice enough where— what did you say? How often you have heavy, heavy trash?

So we have heavy trash. We have it once a month.

Once a month.

But they only take a certain amount. Like, you get a 3-foot by 3-foot by 9-foot space, right? And they come around with a, with a measuring tape.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it's not like where I lived in Arkansas. Every Tuesday they came around, it was heavy trash day every single week, and you could put anything out there and they would take it.

Right.

Which is awesome because whenever you do it that often, you just don't— stuff doesn't pile up.

Right.

Right? You were telling me you get it twice a year.

Well, it's, it's a specific heavy trash day. I mean, like, I think I could put a car out by the side of the road and they'd haul it off. I mean, like, it's, it's a, it's like, it's like a unique holiday in my neighborhood. Um, so yeah, but even then, like, it's just something that piles up, right? Right.

So, um, my— but, you know, probably one of the coolest things, what, again, when I lived in Arkansas, they had— there's so many trees. They had a service that you paid for, um, with your regular trash service, uh, to where all you had to do is get all your leaves to the edge of the road, to the edge of your yard. And they came by with a vacuum truck.

I've seen, I've seen that actually in Alabama once, where people would just like, they would literally blow all their leaves and stuff to the edge of the street by the curb. And then there was just vacuum trucks that would come around and suck it up. That's right.

So that's exactly what we did. We would blow them to the edge, the backyard. Everybody kind of figured out that you just blow everything onto a tarp, pull it up to the front and dump it. And then you had to do that like 12 times. It was awful, but way better than the alternative. But We would take them up, put them in, and then the— this— these, these vacuum trucks were like— I mean, they had a vacuum on it. It was huge. Yeah, they'd just go around and just like back and forth.

Better hope your kid's not hiding in there.

Exactly. Because it— I mean, but it was amazing. I've got some pictures of the, the amount of leaves. It probably— you're talking about 15 bags earlier. I'm, I'm talking it probably would have taken me 50 bags worth of stuff. They would come up and do it for you. But if you don't have that Then just do some research. There are some places that actually want that stuff.

Oh yeah, it makes good mulch. That's exactly right.

Yeah, you can take it and they will take it off of your hands sometimes. Um, other times you're gonna have to pay someone to take it. Uh, but, but like you said, figure it out. And if you— let's say you live in an HOA that they, that they don't offer that kind of thing, just talk to the HOA president. Be like, look, We got a problem. We need a fix for this. Help us figure this out. Yeah, you know, and see, see what they're, you know, they're offering. See if there's something you can do about it.

For sure.

Yeah.

So that's all I got, man.

Well, that's all I got too.

That's good. This is all we got time for.

That's right. Well, we've had a good episode. I think this is really important. Now I'm sure there are some other things, and maybe you've got something on your list you're like, hey, they didn't even mention that. So If you do, drop us a note on Facebook or, you know, send us an email at info@homeownershow.com. That would be great. We'd love to answer your emails there as well. So yeah, we've had a good episode. I think it's been good. Yeah, that's about all we got. We are here every single Tuesday, so don't forget to subscribe if you have not already. Go onto iTunes, leave us a rating and review. you. We would really enjoy that. So thank you for joining us.

Mention us to your friends, all those sorts of things. And I guess that's it. So until next time, we'll see you later. See ya!