Gutter Talk with Conner Mack

This is episode number 125 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 are glad that you could be with us on this exclusive live journey on Multiple platforms.

That's right.

Yeah, we're experimenting with the Facebooks and the Twitch. And did we try LinkedIn? Nope, we're not on LinkedIn yet. Nope, but that's coming.

It's coming.

Yeah, and as soon as you goobers get over there and subscribe to YouTube, we can start doing that one too. It'll still be up on the YouTubes. Well, yeah, it will be unless our guests have like— our guest is like really offensive and says something like uber political that Amazon doesn't like.

Yeah, and then they'll just cut us out.

Cut it out.

100%. Yeah, yeah, then we're gone.

Yep, yep, they'll demonetize us.

Well, that, that— they're gonna have a hard time doing that.

Yeah, joke's on them.

Yeah, they, I mean, they can, they can take it off the air. Demonetizing, that's a whole nother conversation. Good luck, suckers.

We never even made any money on YouTube. None.

So I gotta tell you, Kev, I'm, I'm pretty excited to be here.

This is the most peopling I've done in like 2 weeks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Why?

Because I've been in my own personal quarantine.

That's right.

So like, this is— well, I mean, like, we're on the property, but I still haven't been in my house for 2 weeks. And I'm not going to be until next Monday.

Yeah.

So because the 'rona has run rampant.

Yeah. On the ranch.

You see that?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a nice alliteration.

Thank you.

And Man, your kids strike again.

I know.

I mean, if it's not one of them, it's the other one.

Well, if I was in the majors, I'd be in— I'd be in the Hall of Fame.

Yes, you would. So yes, you would. Hey, 2 out of 3 ain't bad most of the time.

Well, 2 out of 3 in this case is bad.

In this, in this case, it's very, very, very bad. Yeah.

So, but like, you know, quell all the fears in the room. I've been tested.

Yeah.

Negative?

Yeah.

I'm good to go.

Yeah.

Just not in my house. No.

No, otherwise I would not be here.

Right.

Because you would be infected.

Don't want any ranch 'rona.

Nope.

So.

Well, I, I'll tell you what, like, that, that's a big decision. I mean, this is, this is tough. I mean, because, well, you got, you got your wife at home with 3 kids and you take off. live with your parents for— well, not really, but, you know, essentially on their property, right?

Yeah.

And because you got to work. I gotta work. People gotta work.

And, you know, someone's worried about some disease killing me. I gotta go out there and kill stuff.

That's right, right. You're too busy to be around your family.

Bang a woolly mammoth on the head and drag it home. They can eat it. I can't touch it though.

Well, you're providing for your family.

That's right.

That's the thing.

Well, I'm trying to.

Yeah, do the best you can. So, well, I've—

I—

it's got to be tough.

Yeah, I imagine it's way harder on my wife. So she seems to think that it's harder on me. And I'm like, I get to go places.

Yeah.

So I'm not here. I'm not stuck here.

Right. So, and you're not taking care of 3 kids right now. Even though— let's just put out there, they're not sick.

No.

Your kids are fine.

No.

But they tested positive.

The one that just tested positive has zero symptoms.

Right.

So, which is like, as I've— again, like, I see tons of people every single day, and when like they find out that like my family has it, they're like, oh, what symptoms? No symptoms. They're like, oh, just like me. Like, this is the story I keep hearing over and over and over again. And it's not to say that like, you know, people people aren't having symptoms and it's not a bad disease. It is. But like, so many people have it that have next to no symptoms or problems with it.

Right.

Yeah.

And I wonder, I wonder if there's something to that. Like, just over time, we've either figured something out or that it's just affecting different people completely differently. It's the weirdest thing to me. Yeah, there's, there's no rhyme or reason.

Well, especially since we were told it was supposed to go away yesterday.

Yeah.

I mean, Joe and Kamala, I mean, like, it was like a clean sweep, right?

Well, I mean, first of all, it was gonna be Election Day, right?

Yeah.

So I mean, the election came, it went.

Uh-huh.

Now that it's been decided— Yes, ultimately.

I don't know who decided, but it was decided.

It's now been ultimately decided because we have a new president sworn in, right?

Welcome, Joe.

Welcome, Joe. And, um, still here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, dude, did you hear about the, um, uh, there was a— what was the name of that magazine? Anyway, it depicted him as like Jesus with like people— like it was like an old iconic stained glass and like people like standing around Joe worshiping him, and they had like the golden sun around the back of his head.

Oh my goodness.

It's just the most ridiculous. No, I don't care. Like, if you like him or you hate him, that's just dumb.

Yeah, it is. Now, I'll tell you what is not dumb. Uh-huh. The Bernie Sanders mittens memes.

Oh, those are so good.

They're fantastic. Oh, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you just—

where are you?

Where?

Yeah, where have you been?

Right now, if you're listening to this right now, like at this moment, you're not I mean, you're live on Facebook right now. How have you missed it? Yeah, it's all over Facebook.

It's all over Facebook. Well, and I think they've, they've actually done one with him at the Last Supper.

Yes.

Sitting like to the right of Jesus.

Yes.

It's so funny.

Yes. My favorite one that I've seen, though, I'll just throw this out there and then we'll get into our, you know, our actual show.

Yeah. With what we're all here for.

Yeah, exactly. My favorite one is the one where it's just a picture of of him where he was, right? It's the actual picture and it says, this could have been an email.

That's right.

That's my favorite one. What's that?

I mean, like, the reason people are doing it is because he was sitting by himself in the cold.

Yeah.

Obviously could care less about what's going on. Absolutely. And just bundled up. It's so good.

So funny. Yeah, they're, they're calling it Inauguration Mittens Bernie Sanders. Yeah, that's like the official name of of this.

Well, and so here's the thing, man. Like, everyone's like, well, Trump didn't go to the inauguration. And I'm like, yeah, he probably saw that picture of Bernie and is laughing his butt off down in sunny Florida. Yeah. Going, yeah, I didn't go to that.

Yeah, he's, he's on a golf course somewhere. Yeah, absolutely. That's funny.

Oh my gosh. All right. So we got, we got a really cool episode for you guys. We brought in my buddy Connor Mack. And this was, this was actually sort of a last minute, like, we've, we've actually been losing guests to the 'rona.

Yeah.

Um, and well, the guest that had to postpone their interview today actually was having some health issues other than 'rona. Um, but, uh, but anyway, so we've having— we're having to pivot.

Yeah.

That's, that's the theme of '21 so far is to pivot. Um, so we really appreciate, uh, Connor, you, you jumping in here at the last minute and, and giving us some excellent content. Connor and I have actually, uh, worked on a job or two together, and the last one that we did was actually gutters. And so I gave him a call and said, hey, could we could we talk about gutters if you came in? And he was ecstatic to do it because it's kind of what he does.

That's our thing.

It's your thing. So we got Connor Mack, your friendly neighborhood roofer.

Yes, sir.

But a big part of what you guys do is gutters as well.

Gutter systems. Yes, sir. No, that's correct.

Okay, so give everybody— I mean, you know, we might have some people listening that know you, but for those that don't, Give us, give us a little background, who you are, what you do, all the fun stuff.

Well, appreciate the invite out here to the show, to the Homeowner Show. Again, my name is Connor Mack, your friendly neighborhood roofer. I do everything from gutters, roofing, fascia, soffit replacement, siding, anything except a pool, and I could probably learn how to do that. But no, I've done a couple, couple jobs with Craig Williams over here, the Bug Man, and Yeah, that's—

I've officially been branded the bug man. The bug man.

You got branded yesterday too.

I did?

By our friend Jessica. Remember? What was it? She— it was pretty good. I don't remember what it was now.

I'm gonna look it up while you converse.

Yeah. All right.

All right.

Well, Connor, you know, yeah, thanks for being here. So really, I'm just kind of curious, like, what How did you get into this? And what kind of, you know, what, what, what propels someone to start working, you know, roofs, gutters, those, those types of things?

Well, let's be honest, it's not really an attractive industry. Nobody wakes up one day and says that they're going to be a roofer or gutter installer. You know, everybody has dreams and aspirations. Let's be a doctor. Let's do— be an athlete. Let's do something of that nature. Uh, when I first got out of the Navy, uh, kind of bounced around, did, uh, car sales at Ford, uh, Brinks, you know, the whole nine yards, oil field. As we can see again now, that's kind of another industry that may be dwindling right now. So made the best of it. And yeah, that's just woke up one day and became a roofer. Coming on 4 years now. And that's about it. I like what I do. You know,

it's a new thing every single day and helping homeowners and installing some helpful tips and tricks, you know, to help preserve their initial investment is something that I pride myself with. So.

Awesome. Cool. Did you figure it out?

The Barefoot Bug Killer.

That's what the guy called.

The Barefoot Bug Killer.

I have to go see if I can get the URL registered for that.

There you go.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know. I mean, I think you're in the wrong state. I mean, the Barefoot Bug Killer. Yeah, I think you Arkansas would probably be better.

Could be, right? I could make that work there.

I mean, no, don't get me wrong. I got a bunch of friends from Arkansas, lived there for a long time. So I feel like I have some leverage to be like the Barefoot Bug Killer. That's got to be like an Arkansan thing, right?

I think I'd feel a lot safer stepping on bugs barefoot in Arkansas than I would in Texas.

Because, because of the types of bugs they have.

Correct.

I mean, we're not, we're not talking about like scorpions and Exactly. Things such as that, right?

Yeah.

Spiky things.

Yeah.

I'm not stepping barefoot. That's for sure.

Maybe the boot bug killer.

The boot bug killer.

I'll step on them with my boot. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right, Connor. So let us get our heads wrapped around, like, is— do you do mostly residential roofs?

A little bit of both.

A little bit.

90%, probably residential. Definitely do intermix between commercial, multifamily, things that nature. But yeah, bread and butter and my forte is just being the residential, friendly neighborhood roofer.

And so around here, I mean, like, I know we have lots of different roof types. Are most of what you're dealing with shingles?

And no, I mean, we get— Houston's weather's funny. So all these roofs, you know, they're installed to your preference. We've got shingles, we deal with the shingles. I just did a tile roof repair yesterday. Uh, pretty extensive repair out that, um, metal standing seam mod bit. You know, we get the whole, whole fluctuation of different kind of roofs out here.

And I think that one that you and I worked on, that was a tile.

That was a tile roof as well.

I don't know, I would not like want to walk on one of those.

No, it's, uh, definitely, uh, I did that day, but it's got, definitely got special, special technique getting up on there.

Yeah, but, uh, is this like the, like the terracotta tiles?

100%.

Yeah, they freak me out.

It's weird. It's funny. I mean, because you're so used to— I'm used to the, the shingle application and doing 6 nails a shingle out here. You know, when it comes to those tile roofs, they kind of fit together like a puzzle, right? You know, there is no securing of it right there. You know, you have them fastened, you know, but then the rest are actually strategically placed and fit underneath. And it's just with the weight of it, you know, that's what's holding everything together.

That's crazy.

It's a It's a different type of roofing system, that's for sure.

So have you ever done a slate roof?

Uh, personally, no, no, I have not. Yeah, okay, one of those— we've got— I've got those, uh, metal roofs that mimic it, Matterhorn. I've done a couple Matterhorn jobs, and those mimic slate perfectly. And it's a light, light shingle, you know, uh, metal roof section, if you will, you know, and it mimics slate 100%. So it's definitely popular in The Woodlands. out here in our backyard right here. There's a lot of slate roofs, you know, and then you got a lot of those designer roofs that mimic it.

So I'll tell you a quick story about a house I worked on one time that was— it was a slate roof house, and this was a, a custom, uh, ground-up build down in River Oaks. And the guy had gone to school at an Ivy League school up in the East Coast, and they were tearing down one of the buildings where he had gone to school. And he said, oh, I want the roof. So he had the roof taken apart. It was a slate roof. He had the roof taken apart and then reinstalled on his home here. And I, I learned— the only reason I learned about it is because I was doing some work around the house and part of it fell and almost smacked me in the head.

Yeah, you might go to the hospital. Yeah, you gotta wake up with this, with a bruiser.

Yeah. And so like when it crashed and like broke apart, I was like, what the heck is that? And they're like, oh, that's the slate roof. And I was like, slate roof? What the thick. And it's like, then they told me the whole story. Oh yeah, I was like, who does that? Like, not me.

Definitely good to look at, you know, but as far as, you know, you got to have, you got to have installers that know what they're doing. Yeah, something like that, you know.

Well, and part of the reason I bring it up is because like you're talking about, the only thing holding it in is like the weight of those. I think that's the same on slate roofs is you can't nail it.

No, exactly.

Yeah, I just—

maybe you could glue it, but it's a whole other animal outside of shingles, I'll tell you that.

I mean, do you like use grout in between? Like, I do. It's like walking on the kitchen.

That's right, right.

That's crazy.

I mean, they are pretty.

Oh, they are, 100%.

So, but anyway, I guess more of what we wanted to, to kind of focus on today is gutters. And I know you guys install those, and the project you and I were on, we were actually taking them off and then putting them back up and all that kind of stuff, which is probably a valuable tidbit of information to have, is like you can take them down if you need to and put them back up.

Case-by-case basis.

Sure.

You know, so with our exception, when we did that one on that tile roof, you know, we were helping you out, um, the, uh, the gutters were fastened below the drip edge, you know. So that's what's important. If you're fastened into the drip edge, that that's a whole other animal, you know. So because we were able to remove the entire gutter system, it was fastened right below it, it was simply detach.

Yeah.

Do your job, you know, and reattach and go on. The unfortunate thing is 90% of the times they are always done incorrectly. So when we do re-roofs, you know, if insurance pays for a new gutter system or, you know, retail, if we do a new gutter system on that, you know, we definitely Remove everything from that roofline, from that drip edge below and fasten right there.

So for people listening that may not know the vernacular, what is the drip edge?

So the drip edge is that little angle flashing that goes beneath your shingles, alongside your fascia and your fascia board. So it runs alongside. The functionality behind that is when you have water running off your roof, off those eaves, it's supposed to drip beneath the shingle, hit the drip edge and fall all the way down and either fall off to the fascia or drain into your gutter system. And then flow out away from the roofline.

Okay.

So that's, that's the functionality of the drip edge. It needs to be below that. If your gutter system is installed into the drip edge, it creates, it creates an unsealed area of that, you know, so your metal drip edge is going to flex, you're going to get water intrusions that are going to go run underneath that shingle and kind of, you know, and in turn, compromise your decking along that whole Ridgeline, you know, the whole eaves.

Because typically decking's like OSB.

Oh yeah, and at 2021 right now, lumber cost is about 260% higher than it was in 2019. So it is, it's ridiculous. Used to go from buying a sheet for $9, you know, you're spending $26, $27 a sheet, 4x8 sheet of decking now.

So is, is it the, the demand for lumber right now? Is that what's driving the price up, or do they even know?

It's a little bit of both, you know, but when it's all said and done, with COVID with everything shutting down, all them plants that we lumber plants, at the lumberyards, can't find anybody to work. People are either getting sick or they're, they're laid off. They're in limbo right now. And so across everything, there is an increase in lumber. There's an increase in the shingles right now. I mean, we're all, everybody in this industry and home remodeling, home builders, everybody of that nature, all these material costs are going up.

And they're feeling it. Oh yeah.

They're feeling it one way or another.

Are the, are the, I mean, because I know like with roofs, a lot of times it's a, it's an insurance thing that's, that's going on. And so like, are insurance companies, you know, just kind of having to suck it up and pay the additional, or how's it?

Well, because that's—

yeah, with, with insurance, you know, when we go through the insurance, we use the same kind of estimating software that they do. It's industry standard, you know, so when we put in our zip code over here, insurance should allocate for this. Now, having said that, those softwares sometimes don't reflect the new market price or the new increase in market price now.

Right.

Um, so when it's all said and done, you know, we've, I just did a build the other day that has been signed for a while. We've already went through 2 other increases.

Mm-hmm.

But I'm signed you right here. We'll still honor that. But things that are coming in new, you know, we have to have, we have to honor this new market price. Insurance has to honor this price.

Yeah.

You know, so it may take about a month, month and a half for things to really be there. But from our distributors, we're looking at 2 more increases coming up before July.

Really?

Yeah.

So that's— That's, It's a funny time, funny time for sure.

Well, and so you were saying 90% of the time that, you know, the gutters are installed improperly.

Correct.

So most of the time when you're going in to replace a roof, are you having to look at the gutters and go, we need to replace these?

Yeah, if, and that's something that if it's through insurance, we'll supplement on the backside, things of that nature to justify our reasoning behind that. But when we remove the entire, the existing roof system, If you already have gutters that are already into the drip edge right there, we got to remove them, we got to remove that drip edge right there. So in turn, we'll remove them, remove and replace, hit insurance with a supplement, try to get them put back on, you know, and then we run into the case all the time where your gutters are already damaged. Let's talk into, you know, upgrading these gutters, get you a new gutter system.

Yeah.

You know, install it to spec and install it to, to How we need it to function correctly.

So what are some things homeowners can be looking at to go like, maybe my gutters aren't installed properly?

The safest option is to call somebody that climbs roofs, climbs on a ladder every single day. Yeah, you call somebody like myself, free inspections, free estimates, we come out. That's, that's the whole game of it. That's part of it. That's part of it. Yeah, we, when I come out, I do a full 360-point property inspection. I'm looking at everything. window beads, screens, gutters, drip edge, fascia, siding, everything of that nature. And yeah, and then when it's all said and done, we get up on there. And that's, that would be your indication. If somebody else, otherwise, you have a lot of do-it-yourselfers, understand that Homeowner Show, we look for tips and tricks.

Yeah.

You're, if you're easily able to get up on the roof, you know, taking down your Christmas lights, I'm still delayed taking off customers' Christmas lights, but I still have mine up because I haven't had the time to do it. But if you're able-bodied to get up there, have a look, see what's going on, make sure that you're fastened below the drip edge. If you're not, there's a good— you may not have to be flexed right here. That drip edge doesn't have to be bent or flexed. But when it's all said and done, if you see something like that, definitely call, put in for a— let's get you a new set of gutters.

Okay.

Because you want to protect your— it's a serious investment, your home. And that's the whole functionality of gutters. Protect that water flow, get it away from the house. If you're installed incorrectly, you're just— it's just a matter of time.

Yeah, so I think that's something I want to, I want to ask about is like, I think a lot of people look at gutters as a luxury. You know, they're like, oh, I don't really need gutters. I mean, I look at the next door neighbors, they don't have them. I look at their next door neighbors, they do, but then ones next to them, they don't. I've never— I don't want to pay for gutters. Like, so So you're— what I heard you say just now is gutters are really about helping protect your home, but how?

Correct, correct. So, so like you're saying, they're both aesthetically appeasing, appealing. You'll see your neighbors have gutters. We've, you know, do black seamless gutters on a brand new black roof. It looks great, looks awesome. When it's all said and done, the functionality of the gutters is to divert that rainwater, get that rainwater away from everything. Bring it off your roofline. So as long as you have an adequate pitch to run that water down, hit that gutter system, and hopefully you're clean. You know, as soon as you have, you know, stuff and gunk, debris, all that kind of good stuff stuck in your gutter system, I mean, that you can— you plug up that, the downspout.

Mm-hmm.

Think of 3 inches, 4 inches of just standing water across, you know, your entire line. Most residential houses may have 2,000 square foot house, you may have 200 to 225 foot of gutters. If all of those downspouts are clogged and you got standing water, it's a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Keep the bug man over here busy, you know. But aside from that, I mean, you got weight that's pulling down all that water accumulation. And if it's— again, you run into that same thing. If it's already installed into that drip edge, you can get overflow that's going to pour out and intrude into your fascia soffit, you know. get into there, get into the ridge, the roofline, compromise your eaves, you know. So that's where it all runs into. Most people

think it's just for looks. But when it's all said and done, if you're, if you have a proper gutter system that's going to divert water, drain it away from the slab, your downspouts, you always want those going away from the house, protects your landscape, protects the foundation right there. That's, that's what it is.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that, I think it's easy Um, to look at it and go, ah, this could be expensive. But what's going to be way more expensive than that is a foundation repair.

Oh, 100%.

Right?

I mean, if you have to do foundation repair, then, then you're up a creek. And, and I think a lot of people don't understand also, like, maybe their house is on a slope. And so if, if the front part of your house, um, is higher than the back side of your house, the water that's coming off the front side of your house is just going to drain right back into your foundation. So if you don't divert that away, and water is one of the most corrosive things on the planet, right? And so it's just gonna cause tons of problems. And so gutters are an investment. I mean, because fraction of the cost of what it's gonna cost to get, to get like a foundation repair guy, correct?

You know, correct.

So yeah, cool. So I guess the next question is, You're talking— you talked about clogs, right? So there, there's some ways to prevent clogging, right? What, what are some of those things that, that, that you would kind of suggest to, to help with that?

So installation is key, but so is maintenance. It's the same thing with when you get a new roof as well. Maintenance is key on everything. So if you get a brand new gutter system that is installed correctly, like you need it to be, it's important to get somebody out there to assess and do, you know, annual or annual, probably monthly or quarterly at the very least, cleanouts, especially if you're living out here. If you're in a wooded area, if you get pine needles, you know, leaves, we've found, you find kids' toys up in the gutters, and you have no idea how they ended up there. You know, you find things that are growing in the gutters, you know,

same thing, you don't know how they got up there, you know, but again, it comes into— if you're clogged right there, and you've got that moisture that's sitting right there, things are going to thrive, you know.

And, um, yeah, actually, um, I called Craig one day and I was like, hey, um, I have like plants growing out of my gutter.

Bring the weed whacker.

I was like, I don't think that's normal.

Yeah.

But I, when I got up there, so I've got a, my gutters, probably when they were put on were pretty expensive because they've got to guard Oh, yeah, they've got a guard over the top. But, you know, dust and dirt over time, just, you know, it gets in there one way or the other. A lot of the times, I think some of that dirt comes off your roof even. Oh, yeah, it rains right into the gutter. So it's really, I mean, yeah, maybe it protects from some things, but the dirt's just right in there. I had like 2 inches of dirt.

Oh, yeah. And it's going to be dirt and it's going to be a mixture of granules too. You have some asphalt that's in there, you know, and you get all that stuff that's just mixing. And then before you know it, you got nasty stuff that's in your downspout if it happens to reach it right there. If it doesn't, then you, like I said, you have all that buildup that's just sitting there stinking, waiting to do something.

Stuff's gonna start growing.

Houseplants.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. And Craig, that's, that's whenever Craig was like, dude, you're gonna, I mean, I can't really help you if you don't help yourself. Like your bug, these bugs are gonna get into your house because you're giving them a breeding ground Correct.

Do so, which is the downside to some of these, these gutter covers.

Exactly.

Yeah, like, they're great at keeping things like pine needles and leaves out to an extent, to an extent. None of them are like 100%. Like none of them. And it's like, the issue becomes how do you then— it becomes more difficult to clean them.

Correct.

At the end of the day. Well, I mean, as a normal, you know, DIYer, you get like get up on the ladder with the gloves on and just scoop it out.

If you're the DIYer, that's somebody that wants to install those screens themselves or their guards themselves, you have a variation of products to choose from. You can all find them from Home Depot and Lowe's and things of that nature. But you may run into something that's going to be more of a solid surface that allows everything just to kind of run off and it has a little minor gap. This little guard that's coming through just allows for plenty of rainwater to come through. You may get those mesh screens or the real fine mesh. Those are good too, but those are going to be something that's good for like a, like an oak leaf tree that's falling down. If you have pine trees like at my house,

I'll never put on these mesh screens because I'm gonna go crazy cleaning thinking that I'm doing myself the service of preventing a clogged gutter system when in reality I've got thousands of pine needles that are stuck in the mesh screen.

Right.

You know, so Again, it goes into where you are, you know, living right there, residing, you know, what your nature, what your, what your tree lines look like out here, you know, to decide on what type of system to use. So all things come into consideration.

Yeah. So I mean, pretty much if you're around pine trees, just like—

Don't do the mesh screen. You got pine trees, if you got one pine tree, don't do the mesh screen.

They're the worst. I hate pine trees.

Yes, don't do the mesh screen.

I do too. Yeah, ours, ours has like, um, But it's solid.

Yeah, I saw your picture just—

yeah, yeah.

So that—

you got a good one. Yeah, you got it.

Yeah, I think they were good. But, um, but they're still frustrating because, um, I'll tell you, like, they get clogged really easy. And if you don't go in there and clean it, and it takes a long time to clean those things, you got to get up on a ladder. And yeah, it's just— it's a, it's a really difficult thing. And, and here's what happens whenever they get clogged. they just don't work.

Mm-hmm.

And what I mean is like water just flows over the edge of them because they're, because they're full. You know, there's nowhere for the water to really drain. And so it's like, oh, well, good thing I got a gutter system if it's not, if it's not clean. And so, I mean, I guess one of the questions I've got is, is, is it worth having covers whenever if you don't have a cover, it would be easier to get up there and clean? You don't have to deal with a With the COVID right? Or is it worth having? You just got to know what you're doing.

Excellent question. No, it's, it's definitely worth having. You know, as discussed earlier, it's, it's going to protect your large investment of your home. You know, it, you know, when you have that, you get away from the water around that foundation, get it draining away. But with the simple understanding that you buy a new truck, you're going to get your oil changed every 3,000-5,000 miles. Yeah, have the same understanding with a new roof, with a gutter system, with anything that you're adding on to improve your way of living on the house. And, you know, instill value in your home, but definitely take the time of day to maintenance it, you know, or call somebody to do it.

So let's talk about maintenance for a minute, because you've mentioned it a couple of times.

It's important.

What, what kind of cost am I incurring to have someone come do that? I mean, because I'm telling you, depending on how tall your roof is—

Oh yeah.

And how many gutters you've got and how much roofline you've got. I mean, some of these 2-story houses—

Yeah.

I mean, asking a homeowner to get up there and clean their gutters out, they're just not gonna do it.

Oh yeah.

You know, so what kind of cost is incurred in that sort of thing? I mean, do you do— do you have quarterly options where you get on a rotating schedule?

And that's, that's something that That when you find somebody that, that runs a program like that, it's definitely beneficial if you can get on a quarterly, you know, run every Wednesday or every, you know, 3 months on that Wednesday. I'm hitting Miss Jones' houses, I'm doing this. Um, when it's all said and done, it just depends on— again, it's like trying to bid Christmas lights. I can give you a flat roof bid, but if it's steep, steep, steep, Mm-hmm. that's what people pay for. You pay for the convenience, you pay for the safety, and that's just where it is. we have the tools and equipment to do it safely, safely. That's what costs from it.

So when it comes to cleaning, it's typically 75 cents to about $2. That's a pretty wide range per linear foot of cleaning is kind of what it is for this market. And again, it's going to depend on the pitch of the roof, you know, how much gutters you have, if you are a second or third story home, like The Woodlands has everywhere, you know.

Yeah.

And all these different sections have their Have their gutter system on it.

Yeah, even some of the ones that, that we have now, I mean, it's not like it's just second, third story, isn't third and fourth story.

Oh, 100%.

I mean, like, those are out there now.

Yeah.

I mean, because they're, they're— I know there's a section of The Woodlands I know now that they're just building them straight up.

Straight up.

So kind of like what they're doing downtown with these, you know, houses really close, right next to each other.

Correct.

So yeah, it's, it's pretty nuts.

So I mean, in an area like that those keep water away. But at the same time, Houston floods, you know, something down there, you're just pushing water to your neighbors, and it's just playing it back and forth, you know. So something out there may not really matter too much, to be honest.

Yeah.

But out here, you have a single-family home, you have something that's nice that you're looking to stay in, or you have an investment property, or you have something that's like that. Like I said, pertinent to have a functioning and installed correctly Roof and gutter system.

Well, and going back to the, to the gutter covers, I mean, how many different kinds of those are— I know we mentioned the mesh ones and the rollover kind. Are there any other ones that—

There's, yeah, there's a, there's a handful of them. You've got your LeafGuards, um, you've got—

And that's the brand name, right?

Correct, correct.

And of those, you have probably 6 different products intermixed between them. You know, you may have more solid surface and then with a little bit of mesh screen coming in. Again, it's going to be on something that's going to be designed for your home. You call somebody that and describe what kind of, what kind of house you have, what kind of environment that's around, trees and everything of that nature. And then they'll point to you the, hey, this would be our option because you got more of these leaves versus pine needles, you've got more of this versus this, you know.

Right.

So again, I mean, it's, it's all on preference. Are you a Dodge guy? Are you a Ford guy?

Right.

You know, you're gonna find something and something is gonna be better than nothing, but you find something that's gonna work with you well on that designated system, that you're gonna get, you're gonna get all the use out of it, like as designed.

Yeah. And this may actually lead us down another area I wanted to talk about. Does it matter the kind of gutter that you have for the gutter guard?

Correct. Correct. Yeah. I mean, right now, more residential gutters, you're looking at 5 to 6-inch standing or standing seam, seamless gutters are the big popular deal that's going around right here. Um, again, you can go anywhere. You find a cheap gutter system, it's going to perform cheaply.

Right.

Pay the money for something that's going to last and it's going to be there. That's where it is. And otherwise, you go buy you something at Home Depot that's the cheap plastic, and I can't tell you how many of those that I replace. And when it's all said and done, some people think that, you know, get a claim going, they're gonna get a new system. Yeah, they'll pay for plastic gutters. You want to have a nice system. Insurance is going to cover it down the line. You know, something happens, get another nice set of gutters.

So what— so this has always been intriguing to me. So I've bought gutters before. And I bought the seamless gutters. There's still a seam, right? I mean, like, at some point on a corner or somewhere, you can't do a full seamless gutter system, right? Correct. At some point, there's going to be at least one seam, but you got to be more than that, right?

Well, you got to make— you got to make the bends around each of those eaves. But when it's all said and done, through that whole rung of the, the, of the length of the house right there, that's what the, that's what the seamless gutters is about. It's, it's one thing of metal right here. We'll bend it right there on site, you know, and get everything going. There's your seamless. Obviously, when you're wrapping around the house, hugging those eaves right there by your downspout, we'll have the little cutout right there.

Yeah.

That's fastened. you know, to help us bend around.

But that's, that's one of the, that's one of the coolest things I've ever watched is the bending.

Oh yeah.

Seamless gutter. Because, because I mean, what is it, like 6 inches?

Yeah.

It's like 6-inch piece of flat metal that they run through a machine.

Well, a little bit bigger now to get through.

Yeah.

Okay.

But definitely, but run through a machine.

Yeah.

Right. And it just bends it into that gutter shape. And it's like, that is amazing. Because there's no way you could carry that much guttering. So it's just on a giant roll, right?

Yeah, our guys, our guys actually pull it out of there, pull it out of their van.

I was gonna say, I've seen a lot of them.

They pull it straight out. It's on the van, it stays right on it. They'll feed their material through it, comes on out. You got our installer up there that's just hanging them left and right. Easy, easy, easy, you know. So again, that's where it comes into. You pay for something that's, that's good and durable versus a Cheap old plastic gutter system.

Well, so you do have like the cheap plastic ones and you can get those at—

You can get those at Home Depot, Lowe's, whatever.

Yeah, I guess the appeal of that is just the price and it's easy, you know, it's got a little give to it so you can bend it.

Well, I mean, I'm dogging on them, but I'm a renter. I installed the cheap plastic ones on my rent house, you know, simply because, hey, it's not my house. I'd rather have something, you know, and that's where it is. You know, but if I were buying the house, going seamless gutters, not doing plastic.

Well, and I think, you know, then you've got the plastic ones, and you've got the metal ones, and then you've got the seamless ones. And is there anything up above that?

Yeah, I mean, you can get into some serious designer type covers or covers, gutters. I've seen, I've seen copper gutters, you know, and That's expensive stuff. Yeah. You know, and it's like, oh, people, people steal those. Well, those are the people that are not, you know, plastics never came into their mind, you know, and seamless. Nah, we don't need this. We need all the bells and whistles.

So, so like copper ones with those, are those the ones that kind of look like half pipe almost shape?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah. On your big like River Oaks homes and stuff of that nature. Yeah.

And are they, is the ones that are shaped like that, are they exclusively copper or are there other?

Don't catch me lying. The only ones that I've seen are copper. Yeah, that's the only ones that we—

Because they almost look like a half-inch pipe.

Oh yeah, yeah, it's thick. It's going around. I mean, you— it's a good— it's aesthetically appeasing— appealing. I'm using that word today. It's a good-looking system for sure.

Yeah, well, and like, from what I've noticed about them, they can be a little bit deeper.

Oh yeah.

You know, so they can move a little bit more water, I would imagine.

Yeah, but at the same time, you're still maintaining something like that.

Yeah, you still gotta clean that thing.

You still gotta clean that thing.

You buy you an expensive copper system, it ain't cleaning itself.

You know, you gotta, you gotta clean it.

Well, how, and then how are they doing? Again, I know nothing about this. Do they have specific parts made for them to come together? I mean, how do you do downspouts on that?

On the copper?

Yeah.

Is that like, that's another question.

Is that like a weld?

I mean, I would, I would assume, I would have to assume that, you know.

I mean, because that seems like it would really take the cost High.

Yeah, especially bringing a welder out here, getting everything together, you know, that, that would be a costly project.

Yeah.

So any of your viewers want to do that, definitely call me.

Yeah, we'll get it done.

We'll figure it out. Yeah, we can get it done.

But that's one of those deals, it's like, okay, if you weld it all together and have a problem like taking it apart, yeah, I mean, you're, you're— that, that's a— but you're not gonna have any leaks. You know, you better not. I mean, not if the welder's any good, right? You're not gonna have any leaks.

If you're not the DIY welder, you should be all right.

That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are you doing up there?

This is not the time to learn this skill.

No, we could wing it.

I'm just practicing, just practicing. On your gutters?

Get me some JB, right?

Some JB Weld up there. Oh, that's good. That's good. So, so you, you definitely recommend, like, as far as most residential people go, seamless is the way to go?

Yeah, yeah, we, uh, like I said, most people, you'll see variations, but when it's all said and done, 5-inch is kind of the typical residential gutters. We like to do 6, um, throw a little bit more in there, get a little bit more depth and And a wider system. But yeah, seamless is, is popular, you know, and with these new homes that are coming up all the time, especially track-built homes that are one and done on to the next one, do 4 homes in a day sometimes, those gutter systems are not installed right. Okay. But like I said, you spend the money on a, on a new gutter system, we throw in 6-inch gutters, we install to spec, we install it right, we install

for functionality. And that's just kind of where it's at.

I mean, So what differentiates that from other gutters? How deep are typical gutters?

Well, like I said, your majority, the new ones are 5-inch. Back in the day, they were like 4, you know, but as of past 10, 15 years, you're probably at a 5. Right now we're trying to throw more 6 into the loop, but when it's all said and done, typical residential is 5 to 6-inch gutters.

Are any seamless gutters deeper than that, 6-inch?

Nothing that I've came around by. I'm sure we can. I'm sure they have sizes for that, you know, but like I said, our standard 5 to 6 inch.

Okay. So, and I guess one of the other questions I have is, is there a situation on a, on a home roof where gutters would not be advantageous?

Um, yeah, like on a, uh, typically your first story, that, that, that the one right there around your, your eaves and everything on that first story is typically good if you have that second or third sometimes 4th option, you know, story up here. Skylights are a big want for a lot of homeowners. And when you buy new roofs or new homes that have that, or they want to put skylights in, as a roofer, we hate skylights. Yeah, you know, but when it's all— It's hard to seal them.

It is.

Yeah. You know, you're always— I always tell people or ask people, well, you leaking yet? Or when was your last leak? You know, and then 90% of the time, again, I don't know what— I don't know what anybody's thinking when they do this stuff. But you'll have the second story downspout that's literally funneled straight in onto the skylight. You have something like that, or a solar tube, you know, anything that's like that, you have something that's like that, I mean, it's just destined, destined to leak. Don't put it right there. Yeah, put your downspout over here, correct it away from it. You know, you want that water to get as far away from the home as possible.

Sure. So, well, and like, what about like, like, I know on mine, because we have you know, basically 2 roof sections on my house. And like, the top roof has a pretty significant slope. And so like, it seems as if— and there's no gutters at the, the drip line of that roof, mostly because there's another roof underneath it.

Correct.

But like, if that was the slope of my roof, it seems like it would take a massively deep gutter for it to catch the water because it'd be coming off so fast.

Yeah, I mean, and that's kind of where it is. If the water is going to run off As it needs to, again, on the cleanliness of it. You know, if you have a steeper roof, you know, that pitch is, is getting up there. Yeah, that water is going to come down with force. It's going to bring down, it could bring down your gutters, you know, the weight, you know, anything of that nature.

Too much, too fast.

Too much, too fast. Yeah, you know, and like I said, a lot of people, they get those gutters for, for the looks, and then they want to remove or alleviate that, that water trench that comes down by your front porch or your side, you know, your side door or anything of that nature. It's just the best thing to have if you can, you know.

Yeah, I mean, where I see issues a lot of times, and it just like, it seems like it's just not an attention to detail, right? Where you have like these little, you know, deep sloped sections that are not deep parts of the roof. And so like you're talking about like like a 3-foot jut coming off the, off the house that they don't put a gutter at the bottom. And then it just makes that splash pool right there underneath. Whereas like, you really just had to put like a, like a, I don't know what you call it. It's like a piece of metal that you put there to kind of slow the water flow.

Oh yeah, just a little kick out right there. Right.

Yeah. And then put the gutter so that it's not splashing all over the place.

Yeah, 100%. That's something that you, again, you know, it's rushing down. If you can have it rush down or if it's, you have that point coming down from a valley or from a sidewall or anything, it's definitely important to have that little kick out right here to help slow it down and drain it off. Yeah. Drain it out.

Yeah. And I don't think a lot of people realize that, that like all that water when it goes to that valley, I mean like it's coming together and then it's coming fast.

Yeah. Yeah. So no, that's what it is. A lot of people don't know, you know, until you're standing underneath it.

Yeah.

Until it's leaking in. And I thought this was seamless.

And I guess that's something to think about just too is like, when you're looking to buy a house, I mean, the roofline makes a difference in, in what kind of maintenance your house is going to need.

Correct.

And I mean, I know that builders typically take that into, into quite a bit of account. But at the same time, like, one of the coolest things is to have a really cool roofline, right? And maybe it's more, you know, fancy than it is actual functional, you know, and it does the job. But I mean, you just need to— I, I guess one of the things that, that I always look at is like you mentioned insurance, right? Correct. Like, we, we do things all the time. Like, we, we buy a new phone, we put a case on it, right? We put a screen protector on it. We do things to protect our investment. And I think this is— the gutters are just one of those things that protects your investment.

100%. Couldn't agree more, man.

Awesome.

Are there—

agree more, Craig?

Couldn't agree more.

Yeah.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut. Are there, are there any other things that people can add to their system in order to help manage the water and the waste?

And as far as gutters go and everything?

Well, I mean, maybe something like a, like an accessory to your gutter or—

oh, like a, like maybe a French drain?

Sure, yeah, I would encourage that. Yeah, have you a French drain right outside your downspout right there, you know, to truthfully get it away from our— away from foundation.

It's a funny story. I was, uh, I was looking at my neighbor. So a couple weeks ago, remember whenever it came just a deluge?

Oh yeah, came down hard, hard, hard.

For like 2 or 3 days, right? Um, every once in a while I'd look in my neighbor's yard and I, I called them and I was like, dude, you've got a, uh, you got a busted sprinkler. I don't even know why your sprinklers are I'm like, you got a busted sprinkler. And he was like, nah, man, that's just the, uh, that's just the, the overflow valve from my, uh, from my French drain. I was like, oh, it was coming up so— I thought he had a leak. And, and that's how bad the water was coming down. And I was like, holy cow, I can't even— like, it was—

Supposed to go the other way.

Yeah, it was crazy. It was bubbling up like crazy. So anyway, French drains, I mean, we, we put a whole French drain system in uh, our backyard when I lived in Arkansas because our, our backyard sloped pretty dramatically and we couldn't— I mean, the water was causing our yard to drain in such a way that we couldn't grow grass back there. So we actually had to— you would think that water would help your grass grow. No, but not in this case. So we had to actually put in French drains just to get the water to go in a, in a place so we could actually have a yard. Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

So, well, and let me ask you this, and you may or may not know, but I'm curious, where, where is Texas on rain barrels? Because this is something I see people putting into their gutter system a lot now. Like, I know in certain parts of the country, it's illegal to have a rain barrel.

Yeah.

And like, so if you go to, if you go buy one online, they'll have all sorts of disclaimers that like, if you live in this state, this state, in this state, It's illegal to collect.

You can't do anything.

Yeah.

And I think, and I'm not, I'm not 100% on this, so like, don't, don't quote me, but I think in city proper of Houston, it's illegal to have a rain barrel.

Is that, is that because of like the fact that you're stealing water? Stealing water? Well, I mean, in some way, yeah, you're stealing water because you're not— you're, you're in turn using that to water your grass or using that to to do, you know, water your plants or do different things, right? There, you're recycling that water and the city's going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're, you're buying that from us. Is that, is that what that is?

That's just, I, that's the argument from them.

Okay.

I mean, you know, those authoritarians, um, that have no legal right to the sky.

Right, right. And it's kind of like, look, I'm actually recycling this. I mean, I'm—

I stand behind it. Yeah, just don't put it on Facebook.

That's just right.

We'll put a wooden box right there.

What's that?

I don't know. It's always been there.

Planter's box.

Can we look in there?

Yeah, where's your warrant? So, I mean, is that, is that a problem? Do you know? Have you seen people put those in?

I have not seen that out here.

No.

But like I said, I like the idea.

So the way I've, I've seen a couple different ones, and if you haven't seen this, I encourage you to check it out. So like, you can actually put like a switch in your downspout. Right. And so you can, you can redirect the water to either go into the barrel or into the rest of the downspout. And so it's like a little—

Very cool.

Yeah, it's a very cool system. I don't know who came up with it, but—

I have yet to see one of those in Texas. So, but gonna have to get on Google and check it out.

Yeah, it's cool.

Yeah.

I'm a big fan of rain barrels. I mean, like, you know, that's, that's your water. Fell on your roof. Do what you want. I don't care.

Um, so yeah, I mean, and a lot of, a lot of those barrels have like spouts on them that you can hook a water hose up to. Oh yeah, you know, I mean, it works just like a, like a water tower would, right? I mean, it's the, the pressure, it's just pressurized because of the water that's in there.

There's— I mean, like, they even sell them with filters on them. Yeah. Um, and then screens to keep mosquitoes from getting in there and laying eggs. I mean, like, these things have been researched and developed a lot. And there— anybody that's like a prepper or a off-grid.

Oh, yeah.

Kind of personality. Like, they— that's what they use.

So it's intriguing. Now I'm gonna have to look it up. Because if we can have it out here, we have a ranch up in North Texas.

Yeah, we'd love to have that out there. Make a lot of sense, right?

Perfect out there.

So well, I mean, like, you know, even, even with all of the things, like, there was, there was a news story, I think it was like a month and a half ago, which should just scare the ever-living bejesus out of everybody. But anyway, this was coming out of California, because And this was right before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Right. And so some public officials had come out and said, if you insist on having public gatherings in your home larger than this amount, we're going to turn off all your utilities. Yeah.

Weren't they doing that in California too?

That's what I, that's what I said. It was, it was, it was in California.

In California?

Yeah.

Still thought we were talking about Texas.

No, it was off in la-la land. No, that would, that would not go over well here. No, no.

I was like, What?

Yeah. Well, one, I don't, I don't think the people of California would tolerate that either.

Sure.

But, you know, we wouldn't even tolerate a public official like thinking that.

Even, even, even just the mere like, I'm gonna hint at this.

Right.

As soon as that tweet's sent, it's ground.

Not gonna last long.

Right.

So, but anyway, so it was, it was, there was, there was an actual news story about that. And like, they were pretty serious about it. Like, look, you know, We're gonna curtail this thing, and if you're not gonna follow our rules, we're cutting the water off. And you know, like, situation like that, it's like, well, okay, yeah, turn it off.

Turn it off. I got water. Yeah, what you gonna do?

I got me a rain barrel.

That's right.

I could, I could have 49 flushes out of this thing.

Well, shoot, man, I've been to like— and this is, these are like houses in neighborhoods. I've been to some houses where like there's, you know, 5 or 6 50-gallon rain barrels.

Wow. Really?

Yeah. And they're full.

Yeah.

I mean, because it rains. It rains here.

It rains out here.

So, you know, and, and, you know, I've also been in some yards where it's like that water just got wasted. It was just turned into mud.

Yeah.

So it didn't go in like in the aquifer.

Right.

It was just runoff into the drainage system.

Right.

Through the sewers.

So, so we've talked about quite a few different things. Is there anything related to gutters that we've not hit that you think we ought to talk about?

Offhand, I can't think of anything that hasn't been discussed. I mean, it's honestly the—

my—

the pertinence of installing it correctly supersedes everything else. You know, when it's all said and done, they need to be installed correctly. And they need to be maintained like everything else, you know. As far as that goes, I really don't.

Well, I think that makes it official. The most comprehensive show on gutters ever done.

Yeah, I mean, we've literally hit all there is to cover about them. All there is. I mean, but again, you know, our goal here on the show is to give information to the homeowner. I mean, I was listening to another podcast today and it was like, how dare you? I know. Um, but I was like, they were talking about how podcasts are like, I mean, it's free education. I mean, really, I mean, and that's kind of what we're trying to do. We're trying to educate people on how to own their, their home well. And this is one of those things that frankly is kind of shocking that we haven't covered yet.

I know.

I mean, you know, gutters are, are pretty— I mean, in some ways they're essential. Not to mention the fact that like, just the— I mean, if it's raining outside, And you gotta walk. I mean, here in Houston, there's a lot of detached garages. We've talked about how stupid that is before, right?

Yeah.

We've talked about that.

Yep.

But like, there's a lot of detached garages. So if you don't have a gutter system and it's raining, you're just gonna have a waterfall, you know, you got to figure out how to get through. And, you know, hopefully your umbrella holds up, right? I mean, so a gutter will even help from, you know, the waterfall out in front of your house. So I don't know, they're really not that expensive either. I mean, it's not cheap, y'all. It's not like you're gonna go out and be like, oh, it's gonna cost me $55.

No.

No, a little bit more than that.

It's gonna cost you some money, but the investment, again, it is an investment because otherwise you're gonna be calling someone to come repair your foundation.

Oh yeah.

And whenever you have to do that, like—

You thought gutters were expensive.

Yeah.

You better sit down.

If you don't believe us, like, Go, go listen to the episode where we talked with Lisa Agens. And she was talking about like, they lifted their whole house. Lifted their whole house.

I was there. I've been there.

I've seen—

I saw what she had going on.

Yeah. That's insane.

So you, you kind of triggered me with the detached garages. I've got to ask Connor a question.

Okay.

Like, With the detached garages, most of them that I've seen have the, the walkway from the house to the garage. What is that called? Because I know you put roofs on it.

Yeah.

You don't know what it's called?

No, I just call it the little breezeway.

Breezeway. Okay. Those things are the devil.

You don't like them?

I— well, for a very specific reason. Like, that is— so that is how most people get rodents in their home. Yeah, because it's, it's a completely open tube.

Yep.

From your garage, which is like the most accessible thing in the world to just about any kind of animal. And it's just hollow all the way through inside your house. And like, and you can always tell when someone's had a problem if you go inside their garage and you look above the door, because that's usually where they're—

Caulked to pieces or foamed and screened.

Screened. Yeah. I mean, you can always tell when someone DIY'd it because it's just like all Well, critters not getting in now.

That's right.

Little does he know.

I mean, our house has that.

Uh-huh.

And we, we have technically an attached garage, but I was showing you that little atrium we've got right there. There is a walkway from— and if you get up, up there, you could technically crawl into my garage.

It's— that's the way it is on every single one of them.

Little rodent highway right there.

Well, yeah, not only that, like, from my garage you can actually access all of our bedrooms and all that kind of stuff through the attic. So fun, man. That's— I hate my house all of a sudden.

The house looks good. I like the house.

Thanks, I appreciate that. Well, listen, we, we cannot absolutely let you get away before we go through the most important segment, the thing that so many people are just waiting, they're eager right now. People on Facebook that are watching this are like, I can't wait till y'all get to the Final 4.

Final 4.

That's right. So these are the final 4 questions we ask all of our guests. So we're glad you're here. First time guest. And, uh, do you know the questions? I mean, you listen to the show sometimes, right?

I have. All right.

So, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna get out on them. And so, uh, we're gonna start off just here with the very first question. So what is the must-have tool that you won't leave your house without?

Uh, a ladder for me.

A ladder.

Ladder is on me.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any specific kind?

You've seen my telescoping ladder.

Yeah, I know.

That's why I asked.

Yeah, I still use that. And I got a little giant, but the telescoping ladder— what other roofer you know that drives a Honda Civic? I mean, I can get on most roofs. And that is the most useful thing. And that little ladder has— the ROI on it is amazing. It's handy, handy, handy.

Because yours is the 18-footer, right?

Correct.

Correct.

No, it came in handy. My house actually, or my girlfriend's car got broken in 2, 2 days ago, our new car, you know, and it's wonderful stuff, you know. And I'm like, oh, okay. So last night, what'd I do? I unloaded that telescoping ladder and I mounted my last camera. And I'm like, this is the easiest thing. It's right here. Pull it out of the Civic at 10 o'clock. Let's get it done real quick.

I've got one of those telescoping ladders myself and they're, gosh, they're so portable.

They're so, I mean, I mean, they're the most genius thing ever.

Horrible pinch points. Well, yeah, you get pinched right there by the thumb. It's bad news.

Well, in yours you have to take them down separately, right? Each one?

Correct. Yeah. Well, I think it's because when I first got it, it was really easy, like butter. You could just literally pull it in. Now this one, it's got a little bit of— it's got some wear and tear, you know.

So goes up to 18 feet. What does it shrink down to?

Uh, it's about 3 foot.

That's crazy.

Yeah, 3 and a half foot.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Yeah, no, I love mine too.

So yeah, cool. All right, next question: what is a job you've walked away from? So Um, again, we, we put this disclaimer out there. We can talk about a career if you want to, but whenever we were writing this question, it's kind of like, okay, what's a job at your house? What's a project really?

As a DIYer that I—

DIYer at your house, you're like, nope. Perfect one.

Okay.

Yeah, no, perfect. Here we go.

Bring it.

So as discussed, we're in a rent house, moved into this house right as, right as COVID took off, you know? And so it was a fun transition into that. And, uh, I'm hanging up TVs. I'm not even a TV guy, but we got TVs. I got like 3 65-inch TVs from the girlfriend's family. They moved and downsized, gave us their new TVs. And I'm like, cool, let's hang these bad boys up. Try to put one in the office, living room, and in our room. My room is the only room that, uh, the— when the house was being built, you're supposed to have 16-inch studs, right?

Right.

Mine are 26.5 inches apart.

What?

So I've got— I used the stud finder. I did everything that I could, you know, trying to get trying to find everything, you know, did the knock test, did the little nails here and there. When it's all said and done, I've got one TV hung up in my room in my house because the other ones are literally 28 inches apart, you know. And it was one of those things where I'm like, okay, after the third wall of completely, you know, pulling a Kyle and Monster Energy and punching holes in the wall, you know, it was, uh, I had to call it quits, you know.

Yeah.

So yeah, we have one TV that hung up and the other two are still in a box and I've been there for a year.

Oh my gosh.

It's a really good thing your house is still standing.

Oh yeah, other than that it works fine. I have no leaks, I don't have a pest control problem, you know. I live in Spring, that's why somebody broke into the car, you know. They didn't get nothing of value, you know, but when it's all said and done—

Because you live in Spring.

Because I'm in Spring, yeah. You know, I need to come out here to the country.

That's right, yeah. That's all right. All right, that's a good one. That's—

hey, I just walked away from that one.

I told Kevin the other day, I was like, part of the reason I love my driveway is that that's about the limit of my, my smallest scope.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, no, it's— I was joking with the cops the other day because this happened yesterday, the night before last. So yesterday I'm getting ready to go finish my remodel out in Orange. Girlfriend's leaving at 6 o'clock, 6:30, and that's when we noticed called the police out there. And, and I was like, yeah, well, I'm an avid hunter. I've got hog traps. I'm about to put some hog traps in my front yard, you know. And I said, I got the camera right here. I'll send it to you. Yeah, she's all about it. So nice.

But all right, well, let's, uh, let's go to the next question. So, uh, how do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Uh, winding down for me, big— I'm I'm a big dog lover.

Okay.

Like your dogs here.

Yeah.

You know, but when I get home, that's, that's what I do. I kick back, I relax, and, uh, and hang with the dogs, you know.

How many?

I've got 2. I've got a very rambunctious and severe, uh, anxiety-prone, uh, German Shepherd.

She has—

she's crazy. And, uh, you just see her eyes flicker like a light switch. She'll turn crazy real quick, but she's a sweetheart. And then I've got a fat couch potato, uh, named Bash.

Okay.

And, uh, so yeah, wind down with them, you know, watch some, uh, watch some Everybody Loves Raymond and, uh, Man with a Plan on Netflix with Joey from Friends.

Yeah, I remember that.

That's a funny show. So that's, that's stuff how we relax.

Where are you watching Raymond these days?

It's on cable.

Oh, it's on cable?

TV Land or whatever.

Okay.

The old—

that's why I can't watch it on my TV.

Well, I don't have—

TV Land is now shows that we, you know, really enjoyed from like our late teens. Yeah, we know we're getting old.

It's like when we were kids laughing at all the shows on Nick at Nite.

That's right, that's exactly right.

We're those people now.

Uh, we are those people, but those are good shows. What are you supposed to do? Watch them, right? Yeah, Man with a Plan's pretty good.

Man with a Plan is funny. I love it. And I like Joey. Pivot. We said that's what today's thing was, you know, it's pivot.

So that's good.

That's where it's at.

That's right. All right, last question.

What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever Uh, it's a pretty easy one is, and I've had to abide by it since COVID and since I've started this little roofing process was our roofing deal. Uh, trust the process, you know, don't rush into anything, you know, come in with a cool collective mindset and, uh, and you do things with, with integrity and, and good morals, you know, things will come.

Yeah.

So that's kind of what my big whole thing is, you know, trust the process. Greener pastures on another side, but mine will get there. Yeah. So just kind of trust the process. Yeah, my whole thing.

And what I, what I hear you saying from that is like, you know, the, the temptation is like sometimes to go for the quick buck.

Correct.

Or, you know, to make a shortcut in order to, you know, make this job last a little bit longer so that my margins are bigger or whatever. But like, do it right.

Do it right. Do it right. Things come.

Yeah.

You know, I like it.

Cool. Well, we, we got one more question. It's a secret question. It's the only one that Craig's allowed to ask. So that's right.

Go for it, Craig. How do people find you if they want to get ahold of you? Oh, easy one.

You can find me up on Facebook, Connor Mack. Or you can look me up on the business page, be facebook.com/yourfriendlyneighborhoodroofer. Yeah, not .com, yourfriendlyneighborhoodroofer. You can also give me a shout on the phone, 832-623-2115. And, uh, that's about it.

Cool. Awesome.

We will link all that up in the show notes so people can, you know, constantly barrage you with messages. I like it. Yeah. So hopefully you guys, if you have any questions, feel free to give Connor a call. I know he'd be happy to help you guys out. He's a good guy too.

So, yeah. I appreciate y'all gentlemen having me on the show, man.

It's been fun.

Yeah, it's been great. Well, uh, if you haven't already, Click that subscribe button. Go ahead and head over to YouTube, subscribe there as well. That would be awesome. And if you haven't already, we would love for you to head over to iTunes, leave us a rating and review. That really helps support the podcast. If you really want to support us, that's one of the best ways you can do that. We really appreciate all you people for tuning in. We're here each and every Tuesday, except whenever Craig forgets to put it up on Tuesday, and then it'll be Tuesday night. But each and every Tuesday morning, we're going to be here.

I may start doing that more often. We had a lot more downloads because of that.

Doing it in the afternoon? Okay, don't, don't listen to him. Every Tuesday morning, open it up, your podcast is gonna be there. We appreciate you guys, but until next time, we'll see you later. See ya!