That Time We Talked to an Electrician

This is episode number 64 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 today. Yeah, everything's going good, man. How about you?

I didn't even ask you.

I know you, you're gonna ask.

I didn't even get there yet.

I, I, I felt that impulse coming, coming from you. Like, Kevin's gonna ask me how I'm doing. I'm just gonna go ahead and preempt him and just let him know I'm doing okay. All right, fine.

I'm good too.

Didn't ask.

And here we are, folks, off to a good start. Number 64. Here we go.

We've been here a couple of times. A few. Yeah.

Yeah. It feels like a few.

Hitting it on autopilot.

Yeah. No, I hope not. I hope not.

You're not phoning it in?

Not yet.

All right.

I'm close.

Okay. Time to upgrade Kevin.

Yeah, yeah. Well, man, I want to talk about something that you did recently.

That I did recently?

Yeah.

All right, did it like come out the official police blotter or?

Well, we can't talk about some of those things.

Okay, good.

But you just recently went to a pretty cool, Uh, weekend. You— your company sponsored this, but yeah, beyond that, um, one of our former guests put on a pretty big event this weekend.

Yeah, I mean, if you guys— man, what episode was that?

I don't know, probably in the— probably in the mid-50s.

Something. Yeah, it was like— I don't even remember what we called it. It was like that time we talked about blacksmithing or forging. Forging, is that what we call it? Okay. Um, anyway, Jacob came on, the, uh, the contestant from, uh, Forged in Fire. They had this huge gathering over at Southern Star Brewery for, uh, which just sounds like a really bad idea, selling knives at a brewery.

Yeah.

Anyway, I think there was like 23 contestants from that show, and so we got to meet all these guys and hang out with them and see their knives. And some of these guys make incredible stuff.

Yeah.

And like, there's really like a lot of sophisticated blades, and then there's like some really simple ones. Like, one of my favorite ones I saw was this guy made a twisted handle knife out of a railroad spike.

Really?

It was gorgeous, huh? I mean, and like the spiral on the blade, and then there was no leather on It was all metal, um, and it was— he was selling it for like $50.

Wow.

But like, then you saw some that were like $2,000 blades, and like they had these really intricate designs. And, and the other cool part is, uh, if you remember when Jacob came in, he brought that big sword.

Yeah.

That was like almost 6 feet long.

Yeah.

So most of the guys there had a piece from the show that they brought with them.

That they'd made on the show?

That they'd made on the show.

Cool.

Um, and there was some really, really cool stuff, and it was, it was just, it was a fun day. day they were— they did a live competition where they, uh, they all had to make a knife, and I think they actually used railroad spikes that, that day.

Wow.

Um, and so yeah, we had a booth. We had a, a sword in the stone for the kids to come up and try and pull out and get their picture made with. And so that was a lot of fun. But the coolest thing is there was this guy there named Cowboy Szymanski. If I'm butchering that name, I apologize, Cowboy. You're a really cool guy. Your name's just hard to say. Yeah.

Um, why couldn't he be named like Cowboy Bob?

Yeah. But yeah, I think it was Symanski. He had some really, really awesome knives and some leather tooling as well. But he had this booth set up and he brought all his gear with him. And so in this box of horseshoes, and he was— he had all the horseshoes cut in half. And so for like $35, you could come up and he would take you through the whole process of making a blade and you would make a blade with him. And then when you're done, it would go in a leather pouch and you'd walk out. So for $35, you walked away with this really cool knife that you made.

That sounds like a steal.

It was awesome. Yeah, so I, you know, I set my daughter up and I was like, hey, go, go make Daddy a knife. And so she did.

It was—

and she had a blast.

This is not your younger daughter?

No, that would not have been—

We don't let her near fires.

No, or sharp things, or really just anywhere that there's potential violence. But, but yeah, so I mean, it took her 15-20 minutes and They heated it up. I mean, she's, she's sitting there on an anvil hitting this red-hot glowing piece of metal and hammering it out, and she's having a blast because, I mean, she can— what's cool about the horseshoes, if you've, if you've ever worked with horseshoes, like, they're pretty malleable. They're not like a hard steel or anything like that. So like, you heat them up and get them red and you smack it with a hammer, it's gonna move and change shape pretty, pretty easy.

Yeah.

Um, and so that was big fun for her to actually see see that work.

Nice.

So it was a really cool event. We got lots of cool pictures. I'm sure if you stalk me on Facebook, you can find some of them.

I stalk you all the time.

I know. Cool. Sounds fun. Yeah, it was a blast, man. We'll definitely do it again, probably, if they invite us.

Sure.

So it was a good opportunity for sure.

Yeah.

So, but today we have a really cool episode. This is actually like something that I think a lot of people have requested from us to actually talk Yeah.

I mean, I think there's certain things that like, whenever you think of the Homeowner Show, you think of things that, that you do around your house. Right. And some of the people that we've interviewed, like there's certain things that they're kind of given, right?

Yeah.

For some reason plumbing was super early for us. We did, we did plumbing.

We did 2 plumbing episodes already.

Yeah. Leaks and plumbing. We've done roofs. We've done, you know, we finally got around, we were like, oh man, take it. Took us forever to do air conditioning.

Yeah.

And there's some of these things, it's like, man, it these are just kind of common things around the house, but one of the things that we haven't gotten to yet for one reason or the other is electricity, right? We've just not had an electrician on the show yet, and, uh, the wait is over.

Yeah, because we weren't going to talk about it because—

no, well, we're morons. And we're not dumb to try to do it ourselves and figure it out.

We're smart enough to know that we're stupid.

That's perfectly said. You're so wise. Wise moron.

Can turn a phrase.

Exactly. Well, yeah, let's, uh, let's, you know, bring these guys in and, uh, let y'all introduce yourselves and, um, tell us what you do.

Well, I am, uh, Weston with New Builds Electric.

And you're an electrician?

I am an electrician. I just recently started my own company. I've been an electrician for 12 years now. Started fresh out of high school, and here I am 12 years later still being an electrician.

Awesome.

It's not as bad as it sounds, but yeah.

Who you got with you here?

Uh, my wife Courtney.

Hi!

She's, uh, the motivation behind the scenes. She keeps everything going, keeps the advertisements going, and I try.

I don't have to as much now. I mean, we have a lot of people that have been awesome and jumping in and tagging us. And really, I'm just the cheerleader. I don't do nothing with electricity. He makes me change light bulbs now and then, but luckily I have him for all the other questions around the house. But, um, yeah, I'm super excited to see how far he's come because we've been together since we were 15. Well, he was 16, so we've been through this journey.

Cradle robber.

We're the same age. Whoa. But yeah, so we've grown together, and I've just seen him once he started in the— as an electrician straight out of high school, and it was pretty stressful through the union and doing commercial, and he's worked at the plant. And finally, when it got time to take his master's test, watched him study forever, forever and ever, and so many more hours, and all the work he put into that and all the schooling. And so I'm so proud of that.

That's awesome.

to see, you know, his business flourishing. And it's a great opportunity to be here and get to, you know, talk about it. And I know he's kind of more of the quiet type, so I might have to pull some questions out of him because he's over there like, I don't know. But, um, no, I'm super excited to see how New Build is coming along and growing and really— Yeah. And you've probably actually, I mean, like learned a lot just by helping be a part of the business and answering questions from customers and having to do something that you've, you've, you probably know more than you, than you, than than you realize. Yeah, probably, yeah. So I'll help him every now and then trace

problems or something, but I do a lot of the invoices or just typing stuff up and getting back to customers. But it seems like a lot of our customer base, or his customer base, is really, it's case by case. So a lot of times people have questions about lights or about plugs or about this and that, and now I'm getting to the part where I'm like, that sounds like a ballast. I'm like, oh, I know what that is. But really, it seems like a lot of, troubleshooting is case by case. You never know, you know, what their house, you know, situation is or what's in the wall. So a lot of times I'm like, I'll have them call you back.

Yeah. Well, like, so, so you mentioned you were straight out of high school and what, what really kind of got you started in electricity? Because I mean, there's a lot of avenues that people, you know, wind up starting certain things. What was it for you?

So for this one, I was actually working at academy making $6 an hour, and a friend of mine would join the union making $12 an hour. And somehow our paths crossed and he was like, hey man, you want to make some real money? Come over here. They have great benefits and you get a raise after every school of you, uh, every year of school that you complete, you get a raise. It was a 5-year program and at the end of it you're making $30+ an hour. So, uh, I started there with the intentions of just doing it to get by and stuck with it because it just kept getting better and better, really.

Yeah.

But, uh, honestly, it was never anything I ever intended on doing with my life, but it's been good to me.

Yeah, you know, that's interesting because that— because I think a lot of times, um, there's people that bounce around to things, but they never—

it's like they stick with it, or— yeah, yeah, stay with it.

Yeah, you know, it's like a what do they call that? It's like, um, good at a lot of things but not a master in any one. Jack of all trades but a master of none. Yeah. And so I, I think it's, uh, it's, it's good. And I think that speaks a lot of luck to your character and the type of person that you are, that you're willing to, to stick it out. So that's awesome, man.

Well, um, I will say my father-in-law played a big role in that. He was at the same job for, uh, since he was probably 16, and he's still there today.

Nice.

So, uh, the first time I got laid off in the union, which is a common thing, he didn't understand why I got laid off. And so I was like, well, you know, I might as well stick with this now because if I quit and change it up, I'm, I'm not gonna be, uh, I'm gonna look bad in his eyes. But I mean, that wasn't the main reason. Also, it, it was a job, and as we grew as a couple, we— it financed Yeah. It, it played out.

Got us through those days. Yeah, definitely. Especially getting races. Yeah. So you, you said that you were, you were working with, was that the job you were working at a plant?

Um, so through the union, they work everywhere. I've worked at airports, uh, a lot of Memorial Hermann hospitals. I did work in some plants in La Porte and Pasadena.

Yeah.

Um, I tried, before I started studying for my master's, I tried to venture out and get some other kind of more than just commercial work under my belt. So that whenever I did take my master's test, uh, I had a little bit of solar, a little bit of generators, wind power. I took classes on hydropower and stuff like that just because the master covers everything.

Right.

But also, I didn't want just the book knowledge. I wanted to have hands-on as well. And, um, I— after all that, I'd rather just stick with commercial and residential. Yeah, my hats are off to those guys who do more than that. But, uh, It's definitely not for me.

Is it, is it just a layer of complexity that's just not like what a residential or commercial building's like? Right. Yeah.

Yes, sir. Well, that in 10 years, most of it was all commercial and, uh, just venturing off to something different, it would take at least another 5, 6 years to where I would feel comfortable.

Yeah.

And those areas.

Well, so what's, what's the, like, and I've heard you say a couple of times you had to sit for your master's. license in this. What's the big difference between someone who has that and someone who doesn't do that or have that, that's, you know, working with electricity?

So as a journeyman, the requirements from the state are 4 years of being an electrician, which is 8,000 hours is what they call it.

Mm-hmm.

And the test is—

the test is hard, but Real quick, what are all the levels we're talking about? So there's like master, journeyman, and then apprentice. Apprentice. Okay, so this is an apprenticeship system, right? Okay.

Yes, sir. Um, yeah, so the one I went through was, uh, the JATC in Houston, and it was through the union. It was a 5-year apprenticeship program, and, uh, when you finished that, they had a big party and you turned out and you got to take your journeyman's test. But, uh, So the journeyman's test, it's pretty hard. They don't just give them away to anybody. It's still a 4-hour test. It's 100 questions, and it's not easy. You have to study the code book. So for the master's test, they require another 2 years of being a journeyman, and then the test is the hardest test I've ever taken in my life.

Yeah.

You have to know the book. Through and through. You can't take any kind of notes with you. Um, so I guess the biggest difference between a journeyman and a master would be the code knowledge.

Okay.

Um, there's just things that I would have never thought about that I— that they required me to learn. And, uh, you have to be ready for everything. It's not just as a journeyman, someone else has the headache of telling you, giving you the task, telling you the problem, and telling you how to fix it. As a master, you're the one figuring out the problem and either telling someone else how to fix it or fixing it yourself.

Yeah.

There's nobody for me to go ask, basically.

Well, and I know in our industry there's certain levels of people that you have to have in your business in order to even operate that business. And I assume you kind of have to have a master person in order to even have an electrician company, right?

Yes, sir. So, um, you can't get a contractor's license, an electrical contractor's license, without having your master's license.

Right.

And insurance for the company.

Right.

Yeah. So, um, pretty important part.

There's—

thank goodness.

Exactly. And so I, I don't talk— I don't frown on it, but there are a lot of people that do unlicensed electrical work.

Yep.

Sure.

And I'll, I will say it all day, there's many things that anybody can do that is electrical work.

Right.

And a lot of times those people will do it cheaper than a licensed electrician.

Yep.

It's just how many times do you want to pay for it if it's not done right? And if it's not done right, will they have the insurance to back up their work?

Yeah.

And sometimes even when it is done right, electrical, it changes. People say it's simple, people say it's the same. It's different case by case. It's, it's almost never the same on some of the old houses because you never know what the last guy did. Which is ironically why I have new builds electric from start to finish. If I put my name on it, I can guarantee the work. Um, and if it's— well, if it's something that's an older house and I'm coming back through, I can't guarantee the last guy's work.

Yeah.

Which, I mean, I still come through. I don't have a problem doing adding to or changing anything, but I'd preferably, uh, I sleep better at night when it's just something that only has my name on it.

Yeah. Well, so with, because I mean, I would imagine most people listening to this probably own an older home. What, what is it about older homes that makes it such a challenge and so difficult to, to do some of the work that you do?

So, I mean, it's, it's hit or miss. I've been to older homes where you open the panel up and it's like, wow, this guy actually knew what they were doing.

Right.

Um, and then I've been to some where the house has been sold and bought and sold and bought, and everybody's uncle was an electrician of some sort, and there's been 10 different people in the panel.

Mm-hmm.

10 different people in the attic, and you just go up in their attics and you have no idea. There's many possibilities why they could be having the issues, or— but you just have no idea why the last guy did what he was doing.

Right.

And why it would work for 10 years and then all of a sudden decide to mess up, which is often a lot of things that we hear from homeowners is, well, why did it just now start acting up if it worked that way for years? And then I tell 'em it was done incorrectly. And then they want to ask how come I'm telling them and it needs to be changed.

Mm-hmm.

But I can't explain it because, I mean, it's—

You don't know who did the work.

Right. That, and you don't know what type of work they did. Exactly.

And you can't verify the work that they did. And you can't, you can't put your stamp on something else that someone else Right.

And so for me, my hardest part is in my head, I can— I know why things work the way they do. I'm not a huge talker, and I have a hard time getting words out. So whenever people ask me to explain myself, mm-hmm, it's easier for me to just be like, hey, um, if I don't have someone else with me, I'd be like, look, I can show you. But, uh, to put it in words, it's, it's not—

It's more complicated than just saying. This and that. Right, yeah.

It doesn't, there's not always a way to put it in words to make it make sense. Like, I can't tell you why something worked for 20 years this way and now it doesn't.

It's like talking to a doctor when they use all their jargon. It's like, well, we're trying to explain it in just regular terms, but honestly, this is this kind of panel and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you start getting all these terms mixed up and he tries to tell me and I'm like, so that's this? And he's like, no, no, no, no, that. And I was like, oh, okay, sure, sure, sounds good.

Well, so I think that brings up a good point. And something that I'm curious based on that is like you, you mentioned, you know, the licensing and you mentioned the amount of hours you put in and the testing and the insurance and all that kind of stuff. Uh, what kind of liability is a homeowner under if something goes bad? And let's say there's an electrical fire, maybe it doesn't burn the house down. Maybe it just, you know, electrical fire in the kitchen and the kitchen's messed up. So they call their, their insurance, their homeowner's insurance. Is there any liability based on the fact that they didn't use a licensed electrician to do the work?

So if it was a brand new house, they could probably put it back on the builder. But if it's an older house, unless they were the original owner of it, I think they would have a hard time pinpointing Who did what, or pointing fingers at who did what.

Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I, I think that's one of the things that, that I'm hearing you say. Anybody can do certain things, right? You know, I can even go out and we were talking about this before the show. I mean, I can change a breaker in a, in a panel. It's really not that difficult. Um, but at the end of the day, I have to understand that I'm the one who's responsible for that. And ultimately I'm responsible who, for who I hire too. If I hire someone to come out and do it and they don't have the correct licensing and, and those sorts of things, then I'm probably still liable for that because I'm not going to be able to put it back on them. Hey,

this is the work they did.

Right.

They don't have any insurance for it. Right.

Right. Um, yeah. So, and that's happened several times where I've done something in people's detached garage far away from their house. And 6 months later, they'll have an issue in their house, but I was the last electrician there. So the blame is directly on me, whether or not it has anything to do with what you did.

Yeah.

So the only real way to be out of that is at the end of, on, on all of my invoices, I have a little small disclaimer says, hey, you know, what I did was this and this, this is working while I left. And that's, that's about as much as I can guarantee. Now, if they ever did want to press the issue, I'm not sure how well it would hold up. For either end. I mean, I might even come out on, on the losing end because I was the last one there.

Sure.

But, um, yeah, ultimately it's just, it might be cheaper in the short run to hire somebody that's not licensed, but if, if there ever was any issue, it would pay off just a little bit extra to have somebody that is licensed and insured.

Okay. So how do I find out if you're licensed and insured and how do I verify that?

Man, so several people, and it's not awkward at all. Apparently, um, I look a lot younger than I am. People ask me all the time, so how do I know you're actually a master electrician? Or how do I know that you have a contractor's license? So the contractor's license go hand in hand. You actually can't even apply for one until you have your insurance.

Okay.

And they both go on a yearly basis. You have to pay insurance upfront for a year and you have to pay the contractor's license upfront for a year. But, uh, man, if, if they get uncomfortable when you ask them to present it to you, I would probably call somebody else.

Yeah.

Right.

Because something else I've learned is that a master electrician have also had the background screening. They can't get their master's unless they've had that background check. They clear for that way too, which is, you know, I feel like that's pretty good to know. Oh yeah. In people's homes. Right, exactly. Um, and then also coming with that, I know there's a lot of times where he'll be called out to pull a permit. You know, in the city of Houston, or— and every— it seems like everyone has their own set of codes and rules and things.

So that is something else. Recently I had somebody who pulled a panel. Anybody can call into CenterPoint and schedule a disconnect. They don't necessarily require anything to pull the meter off, but to put the meter back on, they require a permit. And some parts of city of Houston and just different smaller towns or whatever But, um, so a lot of times people hire guys to change out their panels, but when it comes on time to permits, either the guys have already got paid and left the homeowner there without being able to get their power back on, or the guys are calling their friends frantically trying to get someone to pull a permit for them.

Hmm.

And at one time, I mean, I never did any work without a permit, but I would call buddies for jobs And ask them, never had any luck and now I understand, but I'd be like, hey man, can you pull a permit for me on this job? And now being a master and seeing what it took to get there, there's no way I'd pull a permit for anybody else's work.

Yeah.

And even if I visually inspect it, it's just putting my name on something that I didn't do.

Well, and for people that don't really understand, I mean, like, why, why would that be such a bad idea for you to do that?

Well, um, basically, so the permit would have my name on it.

Uh-huh.

Company's name on it. If the homeowner did have an issue, they could sue us for it and the city would come after us also.

Right.

Um, and after so many strikes with those kind of issues, I would actually lose my license.

Yeah.

Um, which I, I made the mistake of. I, I pulled a permit for a friend of mine who had another contractor work on their house, complete rebuild. They're realtors. This was their first house to flip.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, the house was built in the '50s. They did a whole rewire on the house. The contractor got the money and left before it was ever time for inspections. So my friend called me unknowingly and said, hey, uh, I just got kind of screwed over. Can you help me out? So I, I pulled a permit for him and thinking everything was good. And it wasn't. 2 days later, I get a call from the City of Houston inspector. Did you even come out here? Did you look at this work? Did you do this? Did you do that? This isn't ready for me. Why are you wasting my time? So then I actually went to the house, and this was my rookie mistake. The house was horrible.

Nothing was up to code. It was crazy that— I mean, I understood why the inspector was so mad, right? And so it took us about 3 months to get that house up to code.

Oh my gosh, tedious stuff that you would never think about, like the tub jacuzzi door was in the way of some— what was it?

So they had an inside bathtub, right, that was considered a jacuzzi, and there was no access for it, which makes sense. There's supposed to be access to— for the maintenance guy to be able to service it or whatever. They're supposed to be able to see the power going to it. They didn't have any of that, which it was finished tile work in there.

Oh gosh.

And then, uh, the panels— none of the breakers were up to— are up to code. They're supposed to have AFCI and GFCI breakers. which are horrible breakers, but City of Houston requires them. They're like $80 apiece. And 9 times out of 10, in brand new houses, 6 months to a year old, most of my calls are to change those breakers out.

Really?

Yeah, they, they're super sensitive. And, uh, the homeowners just don't want to deal with them. So I, I personally, I'll just recommend what they can put in. And, uh, I don't do it myself because it is what the city requires for whatever reason. But I can tell them, hey, you know, a regular breaker will do the job. And, uh, if you were 2 counties over, they wouldn't even require you to have that.

But going back to the house situation, just they didn't have the right contractor to do the job. So then when Weston got there, you know, and I heard quite a bit about it, just so much he didn't even know where to start because it needed to be just redone completely because Everything was out of code, everything was wrong, and it was outlets didn't have covers or this and that, and they left it like that. And so, you know, when people are trying to, oh, we gotta get our house ready to sell. Well, I mean, we, you know, see inspectors all the time, you know, is it Ricky? I think she posts about it all the time, just this electrical thing or this, and they're catching them. Whereas as homeowners, you're just kind of

like, oh, just put a Band-Aid on something. Yeah. Or we'll just kind of put this over here and it won't be caught. Well, when it gets caught, then you got to redo now all your tile work because of the one little plug that was under there that you had to get to. It's just crazy, all the tedious little details in these things. So if it was done right the first time, man, I felt really bad for them because— Well, and that's not even to speak ill of contractors because contractors a lot of times are just trying to do whatever that homeowner's paying them to do. They're probably like, I want tile all over this Jacuzzi tub, you know, and like didn't realize

that they needed access. And like, just so everyone knows, I mean, like if you have a tub, you need access to that drain, that some, some form or fashion. I mean, even if there's no electrical in there, it's good to have access in there for all kinds of reasons. Um, and a lot of people don't realize that.

And it doesn't necessarily mean that that has to be from the outside. Yeah. I mean, cause if you've got a pier and beam house, you can get to it underneath possibly.

Right.

But that being said, uh, I, I think it really goes back to something that you mentioned earlier and that is that you need to know the people that you're hiring. I mean, don't be dumb. Like, make sure that you're asking questions and make sure that you're seeing their license. Call references. Like, don't just look at reviews, although look at reviews, look at reviews, call references. Like, do everything you can before you hire someone to come out and spend hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars for some of these people to work on your home. Make sure that you're doing your due diligence because at the end of the day, you said 3 months? 3 months, and these are flippers.

Yeah.

So these flippers—

That's money lost.

Oh my goodness, every single day that they don't have that house on the market, they're losing money. And so, you know, and it's the same thing like for you as a homeowner, even if you're not flipping your own home, um, you're just trying to live in it. 3 months, I mean, you already paid for it, now you got to pay someone else to come do it.

Or you get ready to sell and realize this is out of code or that's out of code. And you just spent all the money updating the kitchen or appliances or something. And now you're spending money on the little nitty-gritty electrical.

Exactly.

Last thing a flipper wants to put on the listing is as is.

Right. Right.

Which is like your only option if you don't want to pay to have it fixed. Yep. So, man, I'm curious, like with an electrician's license, because I know with some different people that we've talked to there, it's Texas specific. Yes. Is your— is what Your license is— could you like go to Ohio and do what you do, or are you, are you kind of locked into Texas?

No. So Texas does coincide with a couple of states.

Okay.

Um, I couldn't tell you exactly which ones.

So there's reciprocity in, in some states with Texas?

Okay. Um, there's other states that, uh, cover more states than just Texas, right? And I don't know how we got screwed to where Texas only covers like 3 other states, right? But, uh, yeah, uh, there's not many options.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Yeah. Oh, I mean, sometimes it's good because, I mean, like, you, you sort of specialize, right? I mean, like, you know how it works in Texas, or, you know, if you're in California, you might know how it works in California.

Exactly.

Um, so like, like in our stuff, I mean, like, we can't— I can't do anything outside of Texas. I think it's a whole other license. There's whole other laws and regs. I mean, it's, it, it gets It's a nightmare. But, but yeah, so like sometimes— and I think we forgot to ask Jehu if his license is good outside of— I think his is just good in Texas as well. Yeah, he used to do stuff in Tennessee. So it's— I, I think it's different for every industry, you know. Um, so like if I hear you right, like you— if you would have gotten your license someplace else, it might have covered more states? He thought about doing that. Okay. It's hard enough just doing it.

But, uh, they're, they're getting to where now they're taking away contractors' licenses completely. I think they just did it with plumbers.

Really?

Yes, sir. And, uh, they're trying to do it with electricians, but, uh, thankfully they haven't done it yet because then they're just going to be unlicensed. Well, and I'm not saying anything against unlicensed people because there are people who can—

that are very knowledgeable and tedious.

But, uh, yeah, eventually it'll just be tough on the industry altogether.

Now, is that a, is that a way— are they like deregulating the industry? Is that kind of what's going on? Okay. And it's like that, that's kind of like what people who are in the business like you are. I mean, it's weird because like in some, in, in some ways you want there to be less regulation because it kind of frees you up to operate your business the way you want to.

Right.

But at the same time, it allows losers and morons to jump on the train and try and act like they know as much as you do.

Yes, sir.

Well, and that's hard for a homeowner because we just told them make sure you're verifying licenses. Yeah, make sure you're— but, but I guess at that point, um, the best thing to do is you have to start heavily relying on references and reviews.

And that's, uh, one of the, one of the first things I tell everybody whenever I give them a price. I said, I'll tell them, hey, look, check reviews, uh, references on my Facebook. And I said, if at any point during this job you feel like we're not given you your money's worth, then you can kick us out. You can bash us on Facebook. You can tell your friends and family.

That's how confident he is.

So far, you know, it hasn't happened yet, which is great. But, um, I mean, no, most of the time everybody's been— it's been real nice. Uh, I haven't had any issues with any complaints, luckily.

And, uh, I mean, I think that goes to show his work though, because I mean, I've seen his work and he's always been not OCD, but he's very particular about things around the house. And, you know, I'm the type that if I take off my socks right there, that's where they're gonna stay until tomorrow. And he's very like clean as you go. So when all of his electrical work that I've seen, he's so tedious. And we'll be eating at a restaurant and he'll look up and say, oh, that looks hideous. They should have moved those wires and that doesn't look good like that. And he wants everything to look really good. So that kind of bounces— I appreciate that. Yeah, that bounces to what you said about like check the

work right after they're done.

That's right.

And you look in his panel and every little wire is perfectly in place. And then you see another electrician later on post a picture of a panel and I just look at it and I'm like, oh boy, 'cause I just know he's dying inside thinking of all the wires that are stuck and stuffed inside the panel. And so I definitely, you know, from an outside perspective, I know what to look for in a panel or in, you know, what your outlet should look like and sheetrock not be chipped on the outside of it. And I mean, even new buildings though, man, those are the worst lately. Like, he's been going to a lot of new houses that have just been built within the last 5 years.

So one of the bigger problems is one master can employ endless amount of people underneath them, right? And most of the bigger companies I worked for, the masters lived in California, Florida. They never saw each job.

Right.

And when you can employ— so anybody can get online and get an apprentice license for $15 a year, probably.

Sure. Yeah. We don't recommend that. Right.

Well, these builders come in and they hire anybody. And so, yeah, they're working under a master, but the bigger companies, they're just throwing this stuff together and it might meet the city specs. If, I mean, if the new houses ever even get inspected. They do, but it's not as, as bad as—

thorough.

It's not.

Yeah, it's not as thorough as it should be. So then you get these brand new houses where they're just thrown together, not really even by professionals, just laborers, $10 an hour, who are told by maybe one journeyman on the job. And so basically—

And they're beautiful homes. Yeah, once he's been in them, you know, $300,000, $400,000 homes.

But yeah, it's just what really went on. So smaller companies— well, I can't even say that. You just have to— it goes back to references. Like, know the builder, check their backgrounds, maybe ask for some of their work references. It just— there's a lot of questions to ask.

Yeah, attention to detail makes a big difference because, I mean, in our kitchen, it drives me nuts, um, because our— the light in the middle of our kitchen is not in the middle of our kitchen.

Oh my gosh, that is so common.

And honestly, I, I bet that it would be on in the middle of the kitchen if they would have put the box on the other side of the beam. You know what I mean?

Right.

If they just would have used it, you know, one side of the stud instead of the other, it might have been in the right place. I mean, it's that close, but it winds up making it to where we have to make a choice. Either our table is off-center of the room Or it is on center with a light. And it's like, we have to make that choice right now, or I got to get somebody out there to move the box, repair the sheetrock, paint. It's just a, it's a, it's a process. And so attention to detail makes a big difference from the start, from the start.

Right. Uh, actually we just spent the last almost week and a half on a house that's less than 2 years old. The homeowners just moved in and that's exactly what we were doing, moving lights over a half an inch, 2 inches.

Really?

Yes, this lady had a home designer come into her home and that was the first thing she pointed out. In one of the bathrooms, the lights was half an inch off from the center of the sink and the mirror. And it would— I noticed it, it drove me crazy also.

Yeah.

But she went around and she just pointed everything out to where the man's wife was like, yes, we have to have this done right now. This is gonna drive us insane. I was like, hey, we can do it, you know? I mean, I don't do sheetrock, but I know a couple of great sheetrockers.

Sure.

And, uh, so we go in and it's pretty simple. There was a couple of them where there were studs right in the middle, but I mean, now it's coming back through. If, if you do it from the start, it's super easy. It's a little bit more complicated after there's sheetrock up, but it can be done.

Right.

And, uh, it still looks nice. And now there's no more just something that catches your eye that it's not going to bug you the rest of your life knowing that, hey, you know, this is off-center.

Yeah, so what do you do when you, when you come across a situation where that the mount for that light needs to be there and that there's a stud running right through the middle of the wall? What do you do for that?

So they have what, what we call a pancake box. I think that's actually the real name for it also. It's about 3/8 thick. It's just the depth of the sheetrock.

Mm-hmm.

So we cut a hole out in the sheetrock and it mounts to the stud, and then you just put the wires through the back of the box and So that, uh, it's pretty much like a flush mount to the wall.

Yeah.

And then basically that's what we do. If not, then sometimes we might chip a little bit out of the, out of the stud.

Yeah.

But, uh, it's not common. And if so, it's not like anything that would damage anything or nothing like that.

So totally fixable.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Yes, sir.

So, so question, uh, first house I ever bought, walk in, By— after we bought the house, um, I knew one of the first things I wanted to do was change the outlets out in the house because all of it was old house built in 1945. All of the outlets were original and they were all 2-prong outlets. And my deal was so many things have a ground on them now, right? So I wanted a 3-prong outlet. So, you know, inexpensive.

Such a diva.

I know, like 50 cents for an outlet, right? I mean, they're, they're super cheap. Um, and so, so I'll go out and buy a bunch of them. Uh, my brother-in-law's an electrician, had him come over to the house, and, um, the, the first thing he said was, I have no problem putting these in, but they're not going to be grounded. And I said, okay, I don't even know what you mean by that. And he said, he said, well, you, you can, you can put a 3-prong outlet where there was 2 wires Uh, but it's not going to be grounded. Um, and so I said, okay, well, I've been in a house before that had old 2-wire, uh, to all the outlets, but they were grounded. He said

they were probably arced. Do you know what I'm talking about? Where they, where they, where they jumper the— they jumper the positive over to make it grounded.

Oh my.

No, I can't say. I've heard bonded maybe, where it would be from the— you can bond it at the panel and then jump the neutral to the ground.

Okay, well, so, uh, or maybe I was— maybe it was jumping the neutral to the ground. I said positive. Whatever it is, um, you know, this is where a smart electrician really comes in because he said it's super dangerous to, to just—

I wouldn't recommend it.

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about, but if you're jumping anything, I'm not sure that I think that's a good idea.

Yeah, he said, but, but it's, it's, it's a common thing that people will do to, you know, look like an outlet is grounded. And, um, and, you know, there's, there's lots of reasons why you might do that. I mean, one of them is we were having cable installed, and before the, the cable guy would install the, um, the box, it had to be in a grounded outlet. And so we had 2 options. We either could run a new wire back to the box that was grounded or jumper it. And a lot of people will just jumper it. And, and it is— first of all, it's not in code, but it can cause a fire. There's a lot of different things out there that—

Cable, right? I mean, yeah, for cable.

Yeah. And so, uh, this was a number of years ago, uh, before cutting the cord was an actual thing, uh, but I, I think that it's those types of things that I wouldn't have known. I, I just knew that people did that at one point.

And that's where you might call somebody and they just do it for you and you think it's fixed and it's a Band-Aid, and then later you're like, oh man.

So curious, uh, was that house aluminum wiring?

I don't know. I don't remember.

I don't— I wouldn't have touched that house without redoing the whole house for you.

Yeah. And so, well, what we did was we just, we just hooked them all up as you know, 2-wire, and, and they weren't grounded.

Nice.

None of them. No, none of them were grounded. And but it still allowed me to put a 3-prong outlet, uh, or a plug into it. It just wasn't, wasn't grounded. So what we, what we wound up doing is we just wound up putting a surge protector on anything that we needed, we felt like we needed protection on. So TVs, things like that, we just put a surge protector on it.

Nice. Um, so now we actually do offer a full home surge protection. So the— it, it covers your appliances and your electronics, and you don't have to do it individually anymore.

Okay.

And, uh, actually Square D backs the product with a $70,000 warranty.

Nice.

So when you get it, it comes with all the paperwork, and if you ever need it, you submit it to them. It's like a 7-year warranty of it.

Yeah. Okay. Those are installed on the breaker box, aren't they?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

So, so if you wind up having a surge that, uh, so I don't know how much it costs to install one of those. I'm sure it's different depending on the amount that you need for each house. But, um, so, so if a surge comes through and it breaks, um, is it, is it just a simple switch to turn it back on or is it something you have to replace at that point?

It'll, it'll take a few small surges, but, um, when, when it gets a good one, it, it fries it. So it's, it's, Maybe a 30-45 minute install process. And depending on whether your panel's outside or inside, or even if there's any room for your panel, it does go on a 2-pole breaker. So there has to be at least 2 extra spaces in your panel for us to install it.

Okay.

But, uh, price, price varies depending on how big the panel is and how much access it is for it.

But sure, by the time you go out and buy a bunch of surge protectors, right, probably—

no, no.

And so It's worth it.

I usually find it between $400 and $450.

I was gonna say, what is the average cost of one of those? So yeah, that seems pretty reasonable.

Yes, sir. Uh, I know most companies charge about $800.

Okay.

The, the material cost is somewhere around $200. Yeah. So it's about $200 for the install depending on how easily accessible your panel is.

Yeah. And we were talking about this on all these new smart homes. So they have these smart homes with all this technology. You can lock your door from your phone and turn on your cameras from your phone and everything.

And Yeah, one, one good power surge and that kind of stuff is fried. Yeah, um, I get a lot of calls after storms where people say, hey, my, my power did go out, but most times they don't put 2 and 2 together. They just— their microwave will stop working and their dishwasher will stop working.

That's what they get for having a microwave, right?

Oh, here we go.

Thanks a lot for mentioning the microwave.

All right, Craig, 30 more minutes. I get a full Full 30 minutes?

I guess that's how long it takes you.

I mean, I am kind of curious.

Don't, don't.

No, no, no.

All right, keep going, please.

Well, so I mean, one of the first things that we tell them usually when something like that happens is, do you have a home surge protector, or was your power recently out? And most of the times they'll be like, yeah, our power did go out. So we'll come out and see, and a lot of times the plugs will still have power. It's just the electronics and their appliances are just completely fried.

Yeah.

And so, uh, I mean, I haven't had anybody who's ever called me and said that, you know, your surge protector didn't protect our home, or we don't have these issues anymore. Well, no, several people said that they don't have issues with their breakers tripping after power surges or with just their appliances going out or messing up anymore.

Nice. Well, I'll tell you, we, we had a situation, um, where our work, uh, just the other day where a weird power surge happened. Um, there was a lot of, a lot of electrical stuff going up on in the sky that day, and, um, the lights in the whole building flickered for about an hour and a half. And, and obviously that's not okay. But at the end of it, there were, there were 3 things that wound up getting fried, but one of them was the oven. It was a, it was a range, so it was an oven, uh, stove combo. And when you tried to turn it on, the, the oven, it just wouldn't turn on, and it kept giving you a

code. You go look at the code, and apparently there's an electrical panel in there that's called a memory panel that, um, it wouldn't allow the door to lock. Well, even whenever you're just using an oven you don't need the door to lock, only if you're like cleaning it, right?

Right.

Um, but whatever it was, it was that function that was saying wouldn't work. And so therefore the oven wouldn't even turn on at all. And it completely fried the oven. We turned in a claim to the, uh, the energy company and, uh, they actually accepted responsibility for it. But all that being said, you're right, like there's, there's electrical stuff inside that can get fried that if you would have just had it on a surge to begin with, you're not having to go out and buy a new oven, right?

Uh, yes, sir.

$450 is less than what most ovens cost, right?

Especially if you get more than one thing that goes out at one time.

Yeah, it's definitely less than TVs.

But yeah, yeah, no, I can actually speak to this one. Our insurance company actually recommended that we have one put on Um, because it won't surprise anyone, uh, this house has been hit by lightning twice. And so the second time it hit it, I think it did like $7,000 worth of damage.

Oh my goodness.

I do know that, uh, some homeowners insurance companies will lower your rates if you have a surge protector.

Yeah, that's right. That's what he said. He's like, look, if you put in a lightning rod and, and a surge protector on your panel, we can lower your, your, uh, your rate.

Where can I get a lightning rod, sir?

Yeah.

Amazon. Those are not cheap, by the way.

But yeah, and so, all I was gonna ask you, because, and I, again, I don't know much, but these are terms that I've heard bantered around. What would be the difference between like a lightning strike and like a brownout?

I've never heard the term brownout.

See, I hadn't either, and it was like, the way someone described it to me was like if the power sort of drops and you kind of get like that like, like when your AC won't come on kind of a thing, but like there's still power going through it. Someone called that a brownout to me, that like it's kind of like at a lower voltage or something that's coming through the panel. So, uh, um, I'd never heard of it, so I was like, I didn't know if maybe that was because like could have just been that that guy didn't know what he was talking about.

That sounds like a surge, just like a weird surge in and of itself, doesn't it?

It does sound kind of like a surge. Yeah. The difference— I know, so they have capacitors that help with the charge of AC units and bigger things that are turning on so that it doesn't just pull all that power at once. Yeah, but, uh, in comparison to a lightning strike, I couldn't—

yeah, sure, because there's not much. Well, because lightning strikes have got to be like the worst thing in the world, right?

Well, like, I know one of the ways you can tell that your house is like probably not set up right is when the AC kicks on, like the lights sort of dim. Oh yeah, you know. And this is what, like, what happened in our house was like the AC was already on and then everything kind of just like dimmed for like an extended period of time and then just came back up later on.

So is that one of those deals where you're like, my house dropped a brown one? Is that kind of what—

again, you use the word again after that?

Yeah. Okay. I'm just wondering.

Well, no, because like, like when we, when we bought this house and like, 'cause it's hard to imagine that things could have been worse. Um, but like, The way that the property is set, because there's 3 separate buildings, right? Yeah. And so each building has its own breaker box. Sure. And so there's the 3 breaker boxes in each building, but then there's an external breaker box that's the main breaker box that feeds all the 3 breaker boxes on the property. Okay.

So that, that would be something, uh, maybe the service was overloaded. So if If maybe there's like a— I don't know if you have a 400-amp service that feeds all 3 houses or 200-amp service. Uh, so a house your size should have at least a 200-amp panel on it. And if, if it's a 100-amp panel, sometimes they do get overloaded, and that, that would cause something like that if you have the AC and even just a couple things running in a house of that size.

Um, like, nothing would surprise me, right? I mean, like, like, when, like, when we bought it The, the main line coming out of the main breaker box was just laying on the ground.

That's not normal.

No.

Oh, okay, okay. All right, just checking.

No, everyone, there should not be electrical lines laying on the ground. So especially none that carry that much. I mean, like, that's like, that's like a death wire. I mean, I don't know much, but like, that That's, that's bad.

It should have either been buried or overhead somehow or another.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, I mean, we ended up getting it put through conduit and like, like it ought to be and all those kinds of things. But like, like just yesterday, the power company came through and they were doing their, their tree trimming and all that kind of stuff. And they took the power line down off the lines and just laid it across my driveway.

Nice.

And left it there. Like they cut the trees, they dropped the line, and then they just left it in our driveway.

Oh, they never picked it back up?

And so like another, another company came through and it was, I think they were like the, uh, I think it was actually Suddenlink that came through and they're like, they came up the driveway and they're like, hey sir, do you know that there's a power line laying across your driveway? No, we didn't know. And I'm like, no, I didn't know that. And they're like, would it be okay with you if we picked it up and like put it on the thing that goes over your driveway so you don't have to drive over that? And I was like, that would be amazing.

Right. Wait, Suddenlink did something for you for free? Yeah. Wow, nice.

Yeah.

Wow, there's a shocker. Well, that brings us up to a question that we actually had one of our followers ask on Facebook, and that was, what do you do whenever you come across an exposed wire in your home?

So being an electrician, I have the right tools. Most of my tools are insulated. that allows us to work carefree with live wires that are exposed. But, uh, if— so just for a regular homeowner, uh, they sell electrical tape at Home Depot.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, they sell tick tracers at Home Depot, and they sell wire nuts at Home Depot. The first thing you want to do is, uh, put some sort of electrical tape on it. Yeah, that way you can touch it and it won't shock you. And the second thing would be to figure out which breaker turns that wire off or on. And that, that does require something we call a tick tracer. They're about $20 at Home Depot.

Mm-hmm.

But what we also call them, widowmakers. I can't say that they're 100%, but they're 80%. And they light up, they make noise if there's power on there.

Okay.

And if you don't trust it, feel free to give it a little touch, you know, if you're feeling crazy.

Yeah.

But, um, no, so that's, that's That's primarily what we use. And so just handle it with respect. It's nothing to be scared of, but know that it can shock you. They say 120 will kill you, but it's just the most common, so that's why there's most common accidents.

Right.

But it'll wake you up. Just handle it with respect. I would suggest at least turning some of the breakers off, if not the whole panel, just one at a time, figuring out which one it is. And then safely tuck it back in the wall whenever you put a wire nut on it, or call an electrician if you want to avoid all of that.

Yeah, if all else fails.

Well, yeah, I mean, like, if you, if you, if you're uncomfortable at all, if it, if it freaks you out, don't mess with it.

Right. Yeah, it's not worth it. Yeah, well said.

Not worth it.

How do you like a lot of the new technology that they're coming out with, like switches and plugs and all these kinds of things? Are they, are they more complicated for you, or do you Do you think that they're actually pretty cool, or—

So a big thing for us right now is dimmer switches.

Okay.

A lot of guys, or a lot of wives, women see it and they just think, oh, this is the greatest thing ever, right? What they don't know is that not all lights are dimmable, right? And, uh, they have to be compatible with the dimming switches. And so we've put them on new houses where the lights were supposed to be compatible with dimmers And the lights flicker, and they, they just— they're not compatible.

I've heard this is an issue with LED lights. Like, they—

it is—

they flicker quite a bit if they're not the right light, if the switch is weird, or—

I, I've been back to one house 3 times now because, uh, same issue. For a little while they worked fine, and then whenever they went to dim it, the lights started flickering, and it was for a few seconds, and then over a period of like a month, they just got to where they didn't even work with the dimmer switch.

Yeah.

And those were brand new lights that we put in that clearly said on the box compatible with dimming switches.

Right.

And that was 3 different switches.

But, uh, so really it's weeding out which are the best brands and best things out there.

Yeah. So now, I mean, we have one brand that we stick to and it works with at least 6 different switches. So So it gives the homeowner a choice of switches because they don't all look the same. They're not all the same. And, uh, are you talking about the bulb, the brand of the bulb? Uh, so the switch itself? The switch and— well, so yeah, I'm sorry. Um, the LED lights, they're like the recessed can lights, right? And, uh, I couldn't tell you the brand off the top of my head.

Okay.

But we order them from the supply house and they just work great with everything that we've installed them with so far. But yeah, so a lot of the times just the homeowners, they don't understand why they can't have one installed.

Mm-hmm.

And it's because either the light bulbs might not be compatible or the light fixtures. So it, it's, it's disappointing when you tell somebody that you can't do something for them without having to do something else. I don't like to be a salesman.

Right.

And I'm not at all. I don't want my guys to be salesmen. I'm not at all gonna tell somebody that hey, you know, you have to do this for me to do that. But also at the same time, I don't like telling them that there's something I can't do, right?

So if I'm hearing you right, the bulb has to be dimmable, the switch has to be dimmable, and the fixture?

So if it's an LED fixture, mm-hmm, then those usually say dimmable or not dimmable. Well, they won't say they're not dimmable, but if they are dimmable, they will say that on the box, right? And then, uh, they do have bulbs that will fit regular fixtures that work with dimming switches, but it's hit or miss. It's not always guaranteed that they're gonna work. Um, some fixtures are just made to be turned off and on. There's no in between.

But, uh, and there's some brands, like there's some things you can go cheap on around your house when you're remodeling and refixing stuff, and then there's some things where you want to invest the extra $3 or $4 per light Right. For, you know, a longer lifetime or lifespan.

So the ones that we found, the ones we were using were like $25. The ones that we found that work are like $30, and those are actually not— they're, they're pretty high quality lights. So just for the little bit extra, and I don't mark up materials for my customers, that's one thing. Like, I don't have a problem. I'll bring a receipt for materials. Here's that. And then we talk about labor from there. Yeah, but, uh, it's— well, back to your question, I guess. The technology, some of it is pretty cool, some of it's just mostly a headache.

Yeah.

Yes, sir. There's a lot of things they come up with that make it seem like anybody can do anything, should be possible.

Yeah.

And it's— yeah, we have that to be so, it has to be— everything has to be right. I mean, it is possible, but there's a long process to get it to where it's possible.

And like those dimmer switches he was saying has a lot of tricky wires. You got to do it all right. And we had a friend say she was trying to do it herself, you know, directions off the box should be pretty easy. And then she called him and said, hey, so I tried and I don't think I hooked it up right. And then it's even more of a headache because you don't know where she started or went to or where, where she connected what to. So then it's even additional lengthier process trying to figure out that troubleshooting.

And those switches are, are 2 or 3 times the size of just a regular outlet switch, and they take up the entire box. So a lot of times getting, getting the wires back into the box that they came out of, people are like, oh, it doesn't fit right. And then they put them in crooked, or they, you know, jam them in there, and they're like all, you know, out of, out of alignment with the rest of the wall and all this kind of stuff. And At the end of the day, sometimes you're right, you know, function isn't always worth it.

Or they cut the wires too short. That seems to be a thing where he gets in there and there's not enough wire to get to the connection. He's having a hard time.

One thing I will never understand is some guys just don't care about the next guy. And while you might save money cutting the wires in a new home and an electrical bar, like an outlet box for a plug, down to 1 inch. If you, if you ever go to change the plug out, you can't even pull the plug out of the wall with the wires connected to it. So that's— I mean, not only is it more work for the homeowner, but for the next guy, they have to pull a whole nother circuit in or a whole nother line in for that plug. Yeah, it's just— well, I don't know, that's inconsiderate. Right, right, right. Be a person.

Yeah, yeah.

So we, we always Just try and be courteous and think about the next guy. That's one of the biggest things. And I think that goes for all trades, really. Yeah, absolutely. There's always gonna be somebody that goes behind you, whether you do it right or not. Just years later, it's gonna need to be changed.

You're not gonna be here forever, right? So yeah, have you had any trouble with these, uh, these USB plugs? Have you seen these, the power outlet plugs?

So I personally, we installed a whole bunch of them in the hospital.

Okay.

But, uh, I mean, as far as complaints go, no, I've never had any complaints with them.

And they wire up just like a regular plug, right?

Yes, sir. They're pretty cool devices.

Yeah, they're expensive.

I think they run like $30 to $50 depending on what kind you want.

Yeah, yeah. Again, you can buy a regular plug for like 40 cents.

You would, you would be surprised at some of the stuff we put in these houses.

Yeah, I know. But I tell you what, man, If I don't have to look for one of those charging blocks and I can just plug it right in, it— I mean, number of times people buy new charging blocks is like, might as well pay $30 or $40 for the outlet.

No, we, we put one in our kitchen when we remodeled it. It was— I mean, we just did the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It took a full paycheck.

I know that when we were installing them at the hospital, they, they walked faster than we installed them. They probably bought 5 cases when they only needed 1 case of them.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but wow.

Yeah, yeah, they're really, really convenient and cool. I mean, like, yeah. Well, now you don't only just charge your phone with it, you charge anything. Everything.

Yeah, so many things.

Well, and like a lot of the, a lot of the new electronics that you're buying, I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but like almost all of them have— they're all USB powered.

Yes, man. So Yeah, for me those are great. I buy a lot of flashlights, headlamps that are all— because I can charge them in the truck on the way to work.

Yeah, yeah.

So if I get in the attic and I need a headlamp, I just charged it on the way there. I don't have to go buy batteries for it.

That's right.

It makes a lot of sense. But I mean, like, we have now crossed over the 1-hour mark, so we're— we could probably keep going, but we probably need to respect the listeners' time. Yeah. Anything else we hadn't— that we hadn't talked about yet that you guys want to make sure we, we covered?

No, man. Thanks for having us on the show.

Of course. We'll have to have you guys back because we clearly got lots of questions.

Well, we're not done.

We're not done. I mean, we could definitely go on. There's so many branches and things to cover.

We haven't even done the final four yet.

The final four.

Yeah, I didn't even get to say it right because I'm incredulous right now.

I know. They're halfway out the door. I know. We gotta grill them.

No.

All right.

Well.

Well, so you've listened to our podcast before, so you know that we always ask our guests these final 4 questions.

It's very polite of him to use the we there.

Well, yeah, mostly me because he can't remember them. I have no idea. Like, the last couple of months I've been out a bunch, you know, doing football, and he's had to do some episodes without me. And I'm like, how did you get the final 4 done? I have no idea.

I wrote them on my hand.

Okay, that's about right. So anyway, 4 questions, and we'll let each of you answer them. So we'll just start with the first one.

I kind of feel like we should separate them like the Newlywed Game and see if they get the same.

That would be awesome. Answer for the other person.

We've had like 11 years of—

Well, they've been together since 15, 16. Did y'all know each other before then?

No.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Well, it would be interesting, but we're not going to.

First question. Maybe if we had more time.

Next time. All right. First question. What's the must-have tool you won't leave the house without?

So there's actually 4 of them. Oh, if I can say 4.

Sure, why not?

So my side cutters, we call them Kleins, to cut the wires with.

What do you call them?

Kleins.

Kleins.

Yeah, but okay, so it's really the brand name.

Yeah, I was gonna say, okay, I was gonna say, let's take a moment here because this is absolutely hilarious to me. Now maybe it's just the way it is. But from what I understand, like, Klein's just a good tool. I mean, it's, it's a good quality brand name of tool, but electricians won't use anything else.

So my Kleins are actually Greenlee brand, but only because when I was in the union, uh, Klein's same thing. I mean, you on a job with a whole bunch of people People decide they need them more than you.

Yes.

So I bought some off-brand tools that are just as good. I still call them Kleins.

Yeah.

Um, and I actually got to hold on to them. I've had the pair I have now for like 7 years.

They hadn't wandered off.

I do think it's hilarious because most electricians, they're like, I'm only going to use Klein, which, which is fine, but they call them Kleins. Like, it's like buying Kleenex, right?

Yeah.

I mean, you probably actually using Puffs. But you call it a Kleenex. Can I have a Kleenex? I don't know, we only have puffs in our house. So, all right.

Sorry, Twizzlers and Red Vines, is that the—

Yeah.

Okay.

Although no respectable human being eats those, but other than that—

You mean either one?

Either one.

Like, finally something we can agree on.

Yes.

All right.

All right, good. All right, sorry. So your side cutters?

Yeah, so side cutters, a screwdriver.

Insulated.

Yeah, they're insulated. Uh, and it's a 6-in-1, so it's Phillips tip, flathead, square tip, and then a level and a tape measure.

All right.

There's, there's not many jobs I can't do without those 4 tools.

Okay.

And I would say a tick tracer, but I mean, I can, I can figure out pretty quickly if the wire's hot or not.

Yeah, you put your, you put your tongue near it.

There you go.

You can figure it out, right?

Yes, sir.

All right, well, what about you? What are, what are your, uh, must-have tools. I mean, he had 4, so—

Him. I love it.

That's good. That's good. All right. Are you serious?

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, if we're gonna go do some work, then— I'm not doing it. Oh, absolutely.

You do not want— She's excellent on the sidelines.

Hey, I will cheerlead all day or get him out of tickets when he gets pulled over for driving too fast to his job.

Hey, you know what? Everybody's gotta have one of those people, right?

Cool.

All right, second question: what's a job you've walked away from? Now we're gonna— we're— every single episode we have to qualify this, but you've already heard the qualifier before because you've listened to our episodes before. So, uh, it can be a career, doesn't have to be. What's a job you've walked away from?

Like a, a job that I was hired to do?

Yes. Oh, or, or, or just even something around your house. That you were like, I ain't doing that.

Don't let me tell you that.

No. So my first job was at Carter's Country Shooting Range in Spring. Dream job. Would still kick myself every day for it.

But, uh, that's where we first met. Yeah.

So we got to, uh, we got to put on scopes for people, sight in laser sights, help teach the CHL classes and pull skeet for people. Great job. However, I was the lowest man on the totem pole.

Mm-hmm.

And one day someone just completely trashed the bathroom. And it was stuff everywhere. And, uh, they told me to clean it up. I was making $5.15 an hour. So I, that was the first job I ever walked away from.

Not doing that job.

Not at all, man. And I was there for, from 15 to about a year and a half. But, uh, that's the only job I've ever walked away from.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

All right, cool. What about you?

Hmm, that's a, that's a tough one. Um, I carry a lot of titles, but I guess the only one that I've really just walked away from— I do a lot of graphic design over the internet, and so one of the things that I do is funeral programs, actually. And anyways, I had a customer who, one of those people that you can't ever be happy, but I try to be nice about things because, you know, everyone grieves differently. Yes, but it got to the point where Um, because I didn't choose a different floral design in the sample that I showed her to see if she liked it. Um, I ruined her life and she was so upset with me and how could I do this to her? So I just said, here's a refund. I'll send you the best I can. I'm sorry.

And then I walked away from that one just because—

I might've been confused. I'm sorry. Was this a job that as an electrician that I walked away from or just a job I—

It doesn't have to be.

No.

Okay.

Okay. Anything. No, it's very broad. Yeah, right. You're spot on. You're good.

Yeah. Yeah. It was a failure on our part to write the question. And now Craig refuses to change the question.

So, well, so yeah, I like the question. As an electrician, I like the confusion.

There's been several jobs that I've turned down or walked away from without question. And I have one right now that I'm contemplating on. And it's just, if If the homeowner or the customer is not willing to go 100%, right, then there's no way I'm even gonna go meet them halfway to do the job for them.

Yeah.

Right now there's a job, uh, there's 4— there's a horse arena or an arena. They have 4 lights and they want 4 pole lights installed, but they want me to use the power that's been there since the '70s and it's been flooded 5 or 6 times. And the wires are all corroded and just horrible. So I don't want to put expensive new lights on this old power, and they think I'm just trying to sell them to get more money in my pocket. I don't want to do the work at all anyways, but for me, it's just a headache.

If you can't do it right, don't do it.

Right. If you can't, so back up your work. It's, it's either do I just throw a number out that's extremely high and then do it if they tell me to. Yeah. Or walk away completely and tell them, hey, you know, if you're not willing to do it right, then I don't want any part of it at all.

Yeah, it sucks walking away though.

Yeah, but again, I don't want that.

But yeah, you want to do it right. I've dealt with situations like— we can talk off the air later on.

Number 3.

Sorry about that.

No, no, no, you're good.

That's fine. How do How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Well, up until about a month ago, it was working out, but now we just come home and sit on the couch and we're lazy.

Speak for yourself.

Okay, well, she works after she gets home from work and is constantly working, so I sit on the couch and watch TV and I'm lazy.

Nice.

Yes, sir.

Love it.

What ended the workout?

Time. Time. Just, just got really busy.

Yes, sir.

I hear you.

And if I can't eat right and I can't— it goes hand in hand.

Oh yeah.

Just eating right, working out, having time for it. If I can't do one, I don't, I typically don't do the others.

Yeah. Understandable.

All right.

And you?

Um, play with my dogs.

Okay.

There you go. We get on the floor and we wrestle and I look like an idiot. I don't care.

Sounds awesome. What kind of dogs?

They're mutts.

Oh, nice.

Yes, the best.

Yeah, cool. All right, last question, uh, kind of. What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've ever received?

Job-related?

Life, job, up to you.

Um, philosophical, religious, we don't care.

I'll say job-related, and just never trust who you're working with. If they say that they turn the wires off test it yourself. And I've— I don't know how many times I've done it to my buddy where I've turned the wrong breaker off on accident.

Mm-hmm.

And he thinks he's working something that's not hot and he gets shocked.

Yeah.

Fortunately enough, he's never done it to me. Makes me feel horrible every time I do it to him. But yeah, that's, that's the number one electrician rule is, is always test everything for yourself. Don't, don't trust anybody when it comes to something like that.

Yeah.

And make sure it's dead if you're not comfortable working on it hot.

Nice. I like it.

Um, and I would say one that I live by, um, it's a scripture, but I think it can apply to everyone even if you're not a believer. But it says, um, who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And that's definitely something that I think can relate to any area of life, whether it's your finances, whether it's building a business, whether it's, um, trying to figure out how you're gonna get from A to B, or, you know, car trouble, AC trouble. Really, there's no reason to worry. It says, you know, tomorrow has enough worries of its own, so don't even worry about it. He says, you know, I feed the birds and I clothe the

fields, so I'm gonna take care of you too. But I definitely love the thought of what's the point of worrying? It's not gonna help, and it's not gonna add another hour to your life.

No.

So that's definitely kind of something I go by day to day and, you know, stick with. That's a good one.

Yeah. Yep, absolutely. All right, so the last question that really probably the most important question that we ask is, how do people get a hold of you if they want to contact you?

Do you want people to contact you?

Sometimes.

Okay.

I will say I miss the days of getting on Facebook And it wasn't work, but probably 90% of people contact me on Facebook. Yeah, which is unfortunate because if they don't do it on the new builds page and they send me a message, it goes to a different folder. Yeah, that gets buried behind all kinds of stuff. I mean, I—

Yeah, you don't get notifications for it, so then you just gotta check it every now and then. Yeah, no, it happens all the time. Yeah, it's kind of the weird defect in their system, right?

But, uh, that, or they just call me on the phone.

What's that phone number?

Uh, 713-751-9258.

All right.

So people can find you on Facebook, anywhere else?

Uh, we do have a website.

Okay.

Uh, newbuildselectric.com.

Okay.

Uh, it's, it's a work in progress. All right. Facebook is, uh, probably the better way to go.

Yeah.

But I mean, the website has our email address also, which is newbuildselectric@gmail.com.

Yeah.

And I mean, one of those 3 ways, I'm usually pretty quick with responding, either me or her, one of us will get back with you pretty soon.

And honestly, this day and time where if, you know, you leave a voicemail or whatever, he can call back after work, but sometimes texting is actually faster. If you say, hey, I just called, I was just, you know, wanting to schedule a quote, might be easier because although he may not have service in the metal building he's working in, you know, maybe when he takes his lunch, he'll see the text message or maybe he can't. stop what he's doing to call someone, but he can text real quick or respond to his messages. Yeah. Well, and we actually, I mean, we connected over Facebook and I tell you, one of the things that's really helpful is like, you can

actually kind of go look at y'all's work. 'Cause I mean, you guys post pictures of it and I mean, that's— Rarely.

We're working on it. So that is one thing. Some customers aren't comfortable with us taking pictures of their houses.

Sure.

Even though we're not gonna post a location or take pictures of stuff that they have. Or you don't wanna really ask.

It's kinda like, hey, can I take pictures of your house, but you don't want to just take pictures without asking.

So when the opportunity does present itself, yes, we do try and take pictures and post pictures just to give some kind of insight on what we do and the quality of our work.

Yeah, it's a good place to check businesses out and see that there's reviews and they'll typically put up work that they're proud of. I mean, honestly, if I'm going to work with a company or look for a company, I typically I don't go to Google anymore. I go to Facebook.

Yeah.

And, um, you know, I look for referrals and then when people refer them, then I go to the pages that were referred and then I look at their stuff and look at, you know, what they're doing. Yeah.

Cool.

A lot of business happening on there.

Absolutely. Well, cool. Well, uh, we definitely thank y'all for taking the time to come out here and be on the show. It's been, it's been really good.

Yeah. It's been fun. We appreciate it. Y'all are hoots. It's good to have you guys on. And absolutely, if you guys If you guys have not yet, speaking of Facebook, you can go follow us on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter. You can send us a message at info@homeloanershow.com. And what else am I missing, Kev? Oh, follow the show. Yeah, subscribe to the show.

Absolutely.

Download the show. Yes, it's on all the platforms.

It is. Yes, please subscribe, leave us a review. That would be really, really helpful for us. But yeah, we really appreciate y'all taking the time to download the episode today. We hope you enjoyed it. And, uh, yeah, even though it's the holiday season, we're gonna still be cranking out episodes. So, yep, uh, you know, keep it, keep it on the subscribe and download all the time. We're here every Tuesday, and until then, we will see you next time. See ya!