That Time We Talked with Eric G From Around The House

This is episode number 97 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 for another spectacular, stupendous Wonderful time at the Homeowner Show Studios.

I don't know where you come up with these words that you use, but, um—

I write them on the palm of my hand.

Well, eventually you're gonna run out of them. I don't know when it's gonna happen.

Shouldn't have used permanent ink.

Well, uh, man, I'm— I guess I'm doing fine. I don't know where to go from there.

You're not— you're either fine or you're not, Kev.

Yeah, that's, that's all it is. Yeah, for me.

Well, so I, I actually heard from a mutual friend of ours that you actually may not be doing so fine.

Well, you're going to have to give me more context than that, because we have a few mutual friends.

Yeah. Our mutual friend Chris told me that he has had raw liver on his hands, and that he has had some of the stinkiest things on his hands known to man. But that whatever it is that you and he got into the other day, he's never smelled anything worse.

Yes.

And I'm curious as to whether it was something y'all found, or did it come from you?

Thankfully, it was not from me personally. So, Chris works with me, and we work together. He runs the facilities where I work. We come back from you know, quarantine coronavirus junk, whatever you want to call it, come back to work, and I walk into this kitchen area that I'm kind of responsible for, and there is this smell, and it is not pretty.

Yeah. It—

the, the best way I can describe it is it smelled like vomit, which, which is, is odd because we know no one's been in there, right? And so but it was a different smell than like a dead animal.

Right, so immediately you're thinking domestic terrorism.

Yeah, I'm going, someone has come into this place and done horrible things. Um, and so, um, so he couldn't find it, I couldn't find it. I'm going, listen, I know there's no food in here. Before all this happened, I cleared all the food out of here. Like, I, I know there's no food in here. And so, uh, we had an event in there on Monday night And I wanted to change clothes before the event, so I changed clothes. I was gonna go grab a bag and just stuff my old clothes in there. I opened this drawer and I went, whoa! That, it's somewhere near. It's somewhere near. And so I told one of the people

that was with me, I was like, you gotta go smell that.

You gotta tell me where that's from. That's the difference between dudes and gals, right? Because like, if a gal smells something bad, they're going to warn everyone to stay clear of the area. Whereas a bunch of guys, it's like, you gotta go in there and smell that.

Right.

You've never smelled anything like this before.

Exactly.

No matter how bad it is, you know that they need to smell that.

Right. So, actually, it reminds me of a bit that Ellen DeGeneres did. I don't know if you've heard it before. She did this bit about how bad things taste. She was like, oh, you gotta taste this! Taste how bad this really is! One of those types of things. But anyway, The next day I called Chris and I was like, I think I found where the smell's coming from, but we gotta do this together. Like, I'm not doing this on my own. And so, uh, so we go in there and he goes, oh, yep, that's where it's coming from. So we open up the cabinet that was beneath this drawer. It's on, it's on a lower level. And I said, man, the only thing in there is soft drinks.

Mm-hmm.

That's the only thing that's in there, cases of soft drinks. Well, I suppose that it, you know, we, when we were gone, you know, you kick the heat up to whatever, you know, the air conditioner to where it's not coming on all the time, right? I guess that a few of these soft drinks busted and it was just kind of all over the place and it wasn't liquid anymore.

Oh no.

It was like dried honey is what it was like.

But it didn't smell like honey.

Uh, no. This, I guess, is just the sugar content had, um, Well, it had turned. I don't know what else— I don't know what other word to use. It had turned, and, um, it was awful. And so we just— we took the whole thing. I was like, Chris, I think there are actually some good cans in there still. And he was like, oh no, no, the whole thing, the whole case into the trash can. We dumped it. He sprayed— he sprayed the thing down with, with some— I don't know what it was. He sprayed it down, and he was like, honestly, I don't really care what this does to the cabinet as long as it kills that smell. We're gonna get get rid of this one way or the other.

Either that or the cabinet's gotta go.

Yeah, well, and that could have been an option. Yeah, as far as we were concerned at that point. So, uh, but it's funny because he goes, he, he tells me, he says, Kevin, uh, my hand has smelled better. That's what he said as we were leaving. And he said it, and obviously I don't know if it smelled worse, but if it's still lingering today, I mean, that was, that was over 24 hours ago at this point.

He was, he was still, he was still moaning about it today.

So it was, it was that bad.

It was, but I can tell you what's not gonna be bad.

What's that?

Today's episode.

I agree. Today we've got a good episode.

Yeah, we've got a killer guest for you guys. We, we have connected with our new buddy Eric up in Portland.

Are you—

Eric, are you back in Portland now?

I am back in Portland.

All right.

So, and we, we just missed him. I mean, he was like just in Texas. Yeah.

Which, which, you know, that could be anywhere from 30 minutes to 10 hours.

10 hours.

Yeah. Yeah. So But he was actually only about like 3 hours away from us.

Yeah.

So, so, but anyway, uh, Eric is the host of At Home up there in Portland, and you're, you're now across many radio stations now, is that correct?

Yeah, so I host, uh, Around the House with Eric G.

Around the House. I'm sorry, I got that wrong.

Yeah, it's all good. Yeah, so it, uh, we're syndicated on the Sun Broadcast Group, so we're, uh, cruising across the northern states and working your direction.

If I read right, you guys have been on the air more than a quarter of a century now, right? This show?

Yeah.

We're in our 32nd season, and I'm the 4th host. We're creeping up from when we started counting episodes. I think we're at 970 right now.

Yeah. I pulled up your podcast feed, and it was hitting 900s. I was like, good Lord, this show has some legs.

Yeah. I actually listen to a podcast that's in the 1600s, but They were 3 days a week for a while, and they were doing like 30-minute segments, and then had dropped down to like 10-minute segments. I'm like, you cheated. You absolutely cheated. We're going once a week here. We can't compete with that.

We can't compete with that.

You know, so, so yeah. Um, and one of the things that I was listening to, and, you know, we can get into this a little bit more, is Craig. So Craig and I kind of feel like we've got an interesting niche here with, um, with what we do. Now, there are a couple other people, but, uh, the kind of the way, the direction we go with our podcast, there's not a lot of people doing it. And I've listened to a couple of your episodes, Eric, and, um, it sounds like your episodes lean more toward the actual doing of projects. Is that, is that right?

Yeah, we, we get off the reservation sometimes, but yeah, we, uh, definitely are kind of the Do it yourself, but we've got a lot of contractors that follow us as well. So we we've got an interesting mix, and I'll throw some weird stuff in just to make the show go sideways sometimes to make it interesting.

Nice.

Are you talking like Coke cans in a cabinet sideways, or no?

That's on that's that's not just sideways; that's on the floor, like laid out prostrate is what that is.

Yeah, that's that's that's what I call hobo power as far as the smell.

Yes, definitely.

Intentionally trying to deter. her outsiders.

That's—

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we— like, my craziest show probably is where we had the paranormal alien Bigfoot-style host Clyde Lewis on. We talked 2 hours about haunted houses.

Oh, that's awesome.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah, that's been— that was probably our craziest one, and we're trying to book him again right now because we're on the— at least on the same network, and he lives here in Portland as well. So we're gonna do another Haunted house one, and that was by— it was at about— it was like I was trying to bull ride for the first time and just stay on for seconds, 7 seconds.

It was crazy. Well, I mean, let's just be honest, there's some weird stuff out there.

Yeah.

There's some weird stuff out there, and I don't know how to explain it.

When his wife called in and said that I could talk to the dead and I had no idea that I could, that's when I just kind of went, okay, this is getting crazy.

Wait, that you could talk to the dead?

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I, I, I could, uh, telekinetically talk to the dead. And I was like, wow, there's a first right there.

Yeah, wow, skill you didn't even know you had or needed.

Now I gotta, gotta throw that on the resume somewhere.

I don't even think it's a skill I wanted.

I tell you what, you put that on the resume, it'll get you an interview. No kidding.

Oh man, no kidding.

Well, so is— I mean, like, so I mean, like, they sound like they're actually like true believers, like they're I mean, you know, they're out ghost hunting, they're out, you know, looking for the paranormal, the alien, the Bigfoot. I mean, like, they're in it up to their necks, right?

Yeah, I wouldn't say he's active in it, but I tell you what, he is such a great storyteller. I think he's on 500 or 600 stations across the country.

Wow.

And so he just talks to— he's kind of the interviewer, if you know what I mean. He doesn't really— he's super knowledgeable, but it's just one of those things where I knew him because we broadcast out of the same radio station. He did his radio show out of the same station as I did, so it was just one of those. And I'm like, hey, it's Helen and that loaded show.

Okay, so, so, I mean, I think, I think we— I lost you there just for a second. So is he, I mean, kind of doing a show similar to like what Art Bell used to do? Is that—

yeah, he is. He— yeah, he took— he kind of stole that from Art Bell probably 4 or 5 years ago. Okay, he was actually beating Art Bell. So yeah, it's— oh wow, it's the same late night Art Bell-ish kind of stuff. So nice.

Well, have you seen that, um, that Unsolved Mysteries is back on Netflix? I mean, I know this is a little bit different here, but Unsolved Mysteries has made a comeback on— they've got like 5 or 6 episodes out right now. Really? On Netflix.

I am stoked for that because that's awesome.

Yes.

Is, is that, is that just, uh, is that like a murder mystery kind of a deal, or is it like just conspiracies and things like that.

Are you serious right now?

I'm dead serious.

Oh my goodness.

You need to remember, man, I don't watch TV.

Well, yeah, but I mean, you were 9 once, weren't you?

Uh, yeah, and they didn't let me watch TV then either.

Oh, OK. So, uh, so—

Even I'm shocked.

We're kind of showing our age here a little bit. But like, uh, so Unsolved Mysteries was these—

all—

and there were all kinds of stuff, but there were, there were these unsolved cases, OK, that, um, that Unsolved Mysteries would go in and almost— they wouldn't necessarily open them up, but they would go and they would interview people and talk to people. And a lot of times there were like UFO sightings types of things, but a lot of it, you know, was around, you know, so-and-so was found dead and they couldn't figure out— never figured out who it was or—

Okay.

Or anything like that. Like, uh, there's a, there's a place actually, uh, just outside of, of the college that I went to in Abilene, Texas that, uh, is called Anson, Texas. They've got what they call the Anson Lights.

Oh yeah, I've heard of those.

It's kind of paranormal type of thing as well. And Unsolved Mysteries actually did something with them, but they never— it never wound up airing. So it's that kind of stuff.

We have 2 places in Texas that does that. We got the Anson and then the Marfa.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So anyway, crazy. Well, I guarantee That's not the majority of what Eric talks to his guests about.

Promise you, promise you.

So I guess something I'm curious about is, um, just kind of tell me, tell me a little bit about what, what it is that you do and, and, and kind of give us some background into, into you a little bit.

Yeah, it's funny. I started out going to a trade school in high school doing radio TV production and then started doing radio and realized that I was gonna starve to death. In 1991, I could make $2 more an hour at McDonald's than I could do on radio and drive time. So I got out of it, got into interior design, and started designing and running remodeling companies and things like that. And then I started to get back and make it all work.

Oh, okay. Well, so So you said you've been— how long have you been hosting this show then, the, the, um, Around the House?

So I started ago, I said, well, 10 years, and then I turned around and, uh, took over about 4 years ago. And it was the Around the House with Handyman Bob and Eric G, and then, uh, about 4, 4 and a half years ago it changed to Around the House with Eric G, and now I own the show and We made some significant changes. We kind of had an older listening audience 'cause Handyman Bob, who's still a good friend, was in his 70s. And so we kind of had that age of that, if you know what I mean. And now we've kind of made it a lot more hipper and a lot more fun and do a lot more stuff.

Yeah, it seems like you guys are doing like lots of videos and product reviews and different things like that now as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Trying to do more of that. And, uh, we're gonna start doing some more live videos and stuff with the show. And, uh, just finishing up building the set here behind me, so we'll have a, uh, one-stop shop for shooting videos and of course doing the, uh, weekly radio show slash podcast. Awesome.

Yeah, it's, it's really nice to have a, a kind of a place that, that's yours that you can, you know, you know, you can do, do your own thing out of. Craig and I, um, are fortunate enough that he's got a place here at his, in, in his condo area house, land, barn, dominium, the compound, whatever it is that he lives on here, that, that we've been slowly working towards making our own. And it's, uh, it's been nice to have a place. It really makes a difference for sure.

Yeah, it does. And I've been so busy for a little Fox 12 station, so I do, you know, TV segments for them. So like this morning, I was downtown at 9 o'clock in the morning doing a TV TV segment down there and then running around. So there's always a project. I'm filming this weekend, building, doing a deck addition. And you know how it goes. You just, there's a lot going on and we all try to stay in, keep it under control.

Well, and so you're doing these TV segments for this Fox station. Do you have like a regular crew that goes in and does these projects with you and for you?

Yeah, I've got 2 crews. I've got the one crew that is the TV station crew that comes out and films that. And then I have, 'cause I live in Portland, I stole the Nike commercial crew that does all the Nike commercials for them here in Portland. And so they're my video crew as well. So like when I did those Greenworks power tools, I've got a super high-end pro team that helps me do my higher-end videos. Otherwise I'm just doing, you know, like everybody else and doing cell phone quality, you know, decent stuff that way.

Yeah, which to be quite honest, some of the cell phone quality stuff out there is pretty good. It really is.

It is, it is. My crew showed up for the first time when I was doing these Greenworks video, and the guy showed up with $100 grand worth of camera gear, and I'm like, that's better than my, uh, my little cell phone here.

Yeah, yeah, I would guess so. It's heavier too. Yeah, so that's— Craig, I figured out what the fundamental difference is between us and Eric G.

Yes.

Um, we don't do this for money.

We, we have to have a real Sounds like he's got a real job.

He's got a real job. We haven't figured that part out yet.

We got fake jobs. That's the problem.

Yeah, well, we got real jobs. They're just not this podcast. Well, that's— but, but I will say that the end goal is probably very, very similar, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we started this podcast because we felt like there were some things that some other people needed to know, needed to hear, needed some, you know, someone to help guide them through the process of what does it look like to own a home. And when you have contractors come into your home, I mean, so many times you don't know whether they're reputable, whether they're not, you know, how do I know what questions to ask these people? And, you know, at the end of the day, how do I know that a plumber who's charging

me $400 is doing the same job that a plumber that's charging me $900 is doing? If they say they're going to do the same thing, parts got to be the same on a on a toilet, right? So like, how do we, how do we navigate all of that? And that's kind of where, where we kind of jumped in here. And so our, I guess our end goal is kind of like, let's, let's help people understand how to navigate owning their home a little bit. So.

That's awesome. That's awesome. And one of the reasons I was actually down in Portland, I was working with Roger Wakefield, one of your guys' star plumbers down there in Dallas. So I was shooting some videos with him and he was telling me some of the things that he sees out there on, on bad plumbers. And I was totally shocked when you, you know, I've been doing home improvement this whole life and I'm like, really? A bad plumber will actually load up in his little video and show you that you've got roots in your plumbing and you don't, and they can load it up on their machine and pretend like they have it?

Yep.

It was shocking.

Yeah. Yeah, it's nuts, man. I mean, there's, there's always bad actors out there and it's, it's, it's so difficult. Every Yeah, go ahead.

Every trade— no, every trade has them. I mean, it's, it's, it's like everything out there. There's, there's a couple bad of everybody out there, and that's the tough thing. And what you guys are teaching as well is, is how to not find those when you're looking in the trades to find those people, because there's some amazing people out there that'll bend over backwards and do you right 100 times over. But you're just trying to dodge that 1%, 2%, or 3% out there that are trying to just take your wallet from you.

Oh yeah, and all it takes is that one experience to sour you on all the rest of them.

It just takes one to create a bad name.

Yep.

So yeah, and that's— I guess that's the really hard part, is, is how do you know what you're getting? And it's really hard to know, which is why I think the DIY movement is maybe as big as it is, because it's like, listen, with YouTube, I feel like I can do just about anything because I can, I can hone in. Like, for example, if I want to do something on my, on my vehicle, I can hone in on the exact make, model, year, you know, body trim, down to the, you know, the minute detail because somebody on YouTube has, you know, put up a video showing me how to do it. And I think that's why people are looking around going, listen, I think I can,

I think I could do this, which actually is one of the reasons I think your, your show, Eric, is, is so valuable because you're actually helping them figure out how to do these things, correct?

Yeah, and the problem with YouTube though is, is just like everything else, is you end up having that, that somebody on there that thinks they know what they're doing, but they're actually giving absolutely horrible advice of how not to do it. And so you've got to weed through YouTube as well, because there's some people on there that I'll watch a YouTube video and go, are you kidding me? That's not the way to do that.

Right.

Yeah, yeah. And, and, and you can find the very same video the next click down Doing the very same job and they're doing it completely different. So you really do have to weed through. And I guess that's probably the worst part of YouTube is trying to figure out what's good and what's not.

So yeah, there's some really bad things and, and you know, there's, there's some things where it's like, okay, I'm doing this really simple project, but where I, where it starts to come off the rails is where you see people trying to do like tile showers and things like that. And you're like, oh no, that's wrong. Oh no, that's wrong. Oh no, that's wrong.

Well, yeah, bathroom tile has got to be one of the more difficult ones to actually get right. I mean, especially like if you're doing like a, like a tub surround or a, you know, like a tiled shower or something like that. I mean, like there's specific things those guys have to do in order to make sure that those things are watertight and sealed properly and have the right backing and all kinds of stuff.

Um, I think the number one wrong thing they do is the waterproofing part of it is that that's the part that I'd say the most common mistake is that they You know, hey, I got the tile board up and I'm gonna start tiling. And I'm like, you forgot the waterproof membrane in there someplace.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and, and I've done some of that and it's not the easiest stuff to put up, although just about anybody could do it if you know what you're doing. But the other thing is like, there's so many different products out there that trying to figure out which product is gonna be worth my time, be worth my effort. And at the end of the day, provide the, the end result that I need, which is I don't need water behind my tile, right? So—

Oh man, no kidding, no kidding. And it's just like, you know, in California they still do the hot mop, uh, tar tile. You know, they put the shower base in and they'll come in and with a hot bucket of tar and put tar down, and that's completely code. And I shake my head and go, man, you are the only state in the country that I think will actually let that happen.

Which is weird because that's one of the like more highly regulated states when it comes to like codes and laws and regulations. And, um, and I don't actually don't know what's wrong with tar, but like from— I'm, I'm picking up from your context that it may not be the best practice.

Well, I mean, it, it's, it's sure not as, as, as durable and withstanding as, as like a, a Wedi or Schluter or any one of those other waterproof systems that are really good because, you know, especially in an area that might have some seismic activity, I want something that's going to hold up well. You know, tar doesn't— tar doesn't last forever. You know, look at your road out there. But it's just one of those things that, you know, you— it, it's an old-school way of doing it. But there's things that I just shake my head at and go, come on, guys, let's get into the 21st century with it at least.

I wonder if they feel like they would just be like, you know, You know, looking down upon their tar pits or something like that.

Has, has he actually been on your road? That's what I want to know.

Drive on my driveway.

Coming into your property, it's better than it used to be. We'll say that for sure. Oh man. So, okay, so, so here's a question. Um, how did you get into— I mean, you're, you're a big part of your, your show is, is helping people know how to do things around their house or, you know, whatever. How'd you learn some of this stuff? Where did you get the expertise to do some of these things?

You know, my dad was really into automotive and home improvement stuff. So as a little kid, I was, you know, the oldest of 4 boys. I was following him around and, and doing stuff around the house. And that's kind of where it started. But really, when I got into working at home improvement, we had a host back in the early '90s that was called Eagle Hardware that finally got bought out about 2000 with Lowe's, and they bought it to expand out west. Well, I ended up popping around and I was there. I started out as their door and millwork manager and then ended up blowing my knee out and had to sit down. And I'd already taken some architectural classes in college, so I got into kitchen and bath design. And

then I started going around and learning all the other departments, and I didn't know as much about flooring. The one thing that was cool about that chain is they hired retired pros to work in the department.

Hmm.

So I went over and would start teaching homeowner classes with a guy that was 40 years in the flooring industry. And when you work with that guy side by side for a year, you kind of get the nuts and bolts of what's going on. And then I started doing it on my own projects and it expanded out. It was electrical or plumbing and, uh, That's kind of how I learned over the 7 or 8 years that I worked there of how to do that stuff, because I was working side by side with an electrician or a licensed plumber. And then, of course, started doing it on my own projects and then got back into home improvement radio.

So, I mean, you were essentially leveraging, you know, 40 years of experience, you know, from these guys and just picking up everything you could along the way. I mean, that's incredible.

Yeah. I mean, there were guys that, yeah, they were retired and they were bored after they'd sold their, you know, 40-person crew doing electrical, and they were working at Eagle Hardware. And, uh, man, I was doing everything from— they had a locksmith on site, so you would sit there and walk in, and I was— if he was getting buried, I'd come over and learn how to key locks. And I mean, it was just all the— any place that I could sponge in more home improvement information, I was trying to take it in.

And there's not like there's a lack of things to, to pick up. I mean, there's—

and it always changes. That's the fun part.

Yeah. And so, I mean, like us, us being in Texas, I mean, like we'd be remiss if we didn't ask you, like, what, what are some of the big things that you guys have to deal with up in, up in the Portland area?

Water intrusion is probably one of the biggest ones because we get a fair amount of rain up here. So we've got everything, you know, so that, so that high-performance building stuff is pretty big about putting in the membranes and all those things about the right way to install a window. And then water intrusion in the basement is another big one because, you know, we get our share of rain up here. It's about what we get in, you know, you get in New York City, but it's, it could, we can have 40 days of constant drizzle and that's where that stuff just kind of permeates things. And so you gotta be really careful with, you know, if somebody installs a window incorrectly, you know, 2 years

later you can have that whole cavity rotted out all the way down to the sill plate.

Hmm.

Wow.

Well, so, and is, I mean, are basements kind of a standard issue in the area then?

Basements and crawl spaces, we kind of have a mixture of those. So, you kind of get into those homes that were in the '20s and '30s and '40s, had all basements. Got into the '70s, you might've had crawl spaces. And then, now they're trying to put more basements in. So, we've got a mix of those. It's not like in California where There are no basements in many places, but, uh, yeah, water is a big problem around here, and it's one of those things that, uh, that lead to big mold problems when you're not— when you're not careful with it.

Mold is no good.

Yeah. So, um, so, so I'm— as I'm sitting here thinking, one of the things that, that we've, we've not done a ton of. We've talked about, you know, here we are, episode 97, and we've mentioned having repeat guests from time to time. So one of the questions that I've got for you is, do you, do you have repeat people on your show that you're like, man, that's kind of my go-to person for this, and we wind up getting them back on the show multiple times?

Absolutely, absolutely I do. I've got, uh, in the summertime, I've got my lawn, garden, and landscape expert that comes on maybe monthly. And he's based up in Seattle, which is 3.5 hours or so from here. And he's a 40-year landscape architect and owns a landscape maintenance company. So he's my outdoor garden person. I've got Carolyn Blazowski, who's America's healthy home expert. So I bring her on to talk about healthy homes and all those things. And so, yeah, I've got Roger Wakefield out of Dallas, Texas, who's a big plumber. So I've got my people that I bring in, even though I know a lot about them, I love the experiences of these other people to bring that in into the conversation because

they've got some, you know, when you're in a specialty trade like that, they've got some amazing stories that I love to capture. I mean, I've even got a firefighter that's been New York City for what, 34 years as a lieutenant. And I bring him on talking fire safeties. He's on quarterly now, so it'll be a lot of fun.

Okay, well, yeah, and, and so I think that, um, I think that's one of the, uh, one of the things that is, is really great about, about doing things this way is, is we, we've got one person, Haley, that we've had on multiple times, but I mean, as far as, uh, as far as getting other people back in. We're just still kind of— we're making our rounds still.

Well, I mean, well, I mean, we're making our rounds in the Pacific Northwest because she's in Seattle.

That's true. There we go. There we go.

That's true. That's true. Yep.

There we go.

Which, by the way, if you, uh, if you ever need somebody to talk about, uh, home lending, you need to bring her on. She's an awesome guest.

So, oh, sounds good. I'd love to be, uh, connected there. You know what's funny? I had, uh, my firefighter on a few weeks ago, and it was one of those One of those podcasts where I walked away and went, man, I've been in this industry for 30 years and I hadn't thought about that. And, uh, what he brought up was, uh, you know, you think of manufactured trusses that go on the roof of a house, right? Those little metal plates that, that hold the truss together.

Yeah.

In my show, he goes, yeah, when you're a firefighter, you realize those hold the trusses together for about 7 minutes in a fire, and then those metal plates curl off and fall off. And then the trusses collapsed.

Oh, geez.

And I went, whoa, hadn't thought of that.

Is that just because the fire gets so hot that it, it kind of pulls those, those metal trusses away?

Well, you think about those Preston plates, they've got all those little teeth. They're only in there maybe a quarter to 3/8 of an inch. Yeah, they got hot, they curl up, the, the outside of the wood comes. He goes, man, if you just put 2 or 3 screws in that, We could save a lot of firefighters' lives. And I went, hadn't thought of that.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

Huh.

Yeah, that—

see, that's the kind of stuff that I'm like, you need to be listening to these podcasts because there's something you're going to learn that— that's a really simple thing to do, right? I mean, it's not a big deal, but doing it is really important.

So I was literally sitting here in my garage looking at my trusses going, Whoa, I hadn't thought of that, you know? And, and I love those moments. And we all have moments like that where I'm like, wow, I'm blown away. That was amazing.

That is amazing. I mean, like, we— I mean, like, that, that, that actually sounds like something that's worthwhile to, like, lobby construction companies about and materials companies about. Be like, hey, right, you know, like, we don't— I mean, and I don't think— I think it'd be an easy sell to the customer. Like, like, look, this truss is a little bit more expensive on building your house, but if it was a fire, it would actually save a fireman's life because you spent 2 cents to put a screw in it.

I mean, like, well, think about it. I mean, how much more is it going to cost? I mean, okay, so you've got, you know, each one of those plates, you put in 2 or 3, you know, structural screws in that. As they're putting the truss together, you know, bam, bam, bam, bam, you've got maybe 2 minutes on the whole truss to put the brackets on there. Yeah, wouldn't be that much, put a couple screws in it. And now, you know, and then he said, and the other thing that kind of added to that, he goes, then you put solar panels on and it makes it worse.

And I'm like, oh, because they're heavy.

Yeah. So it was, it was one of those moments. I'm like, wow. Okay. That's amazing.

Yeah. Well, I tell you, Eric, I saw one, I was at one today actually that we'd been working on for over a year. Um, and we were dealing with it because termites had eaten basically this entire home from the inside. And, and we were looking at it initially and we were seeing some of the structural trusses in the ceiling because we, they'd opened the ceiling up because it would, there was like moisture. It looked like what was moisture damage, but it was actually just, uh, termites that were sagging the roof. Um, and as we opened it up, we're like, how is this even staying together? Like, there's nothing, there's nothing holding this together. It's just, it's literally just pine shavings and, and just bits of wood. And as we pulled it, we were just—

the, the construction crew came through and was pulling it apart. And come to find out, it had all built, been built around these steel I-beams. And whoever had constructed this house had had the forethought to put in I-beams as a structural foundation for this entire home. And so there's actually like I think there was like 3 or 4 I-beams in this residential home, um, holding the whole thing up.

Wow.

And so they were able to just rip all the wood out and nothing fell because everything was, you know, resting on those I-beams. Um, it's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I've never seen a house built like that.

Wild. Yeah, that's awesome that they did. Yeah, you know, save the house.

Well, see, that, that, that brings me back. I want a Mueller home.

I want You want a metal home?

I want a metal home. And I, I'm, you know, I was, I, I was hook, line, and sinker when we had our Mueller guy on, you know, because those— I mean, those metal buildings, they can withstand things that, you know, typical, you know, brick-and-mortar type of homes just— they just can't withstand the, the same amounts of, of, of wear and tear, you know.

Yeah.

Eric, have you guys— they take the But can they take that Texas hail? That's my question.

Well, so, so actually, yeah, I mean, it's, it's pretty interesting because, you know, they, they use metal, metal roofs and metal siding and all of that kind of stuff. And, um, you know, I think our roofer friends would tell you that that stuff's way better for, for hail and those types of things than—

At least that's what they've told us.

Yeah, that's what they've said. Um, and who can trust Justin?

Well, of course the more expensive one can handle the hail.

Yeah, exactly. The most expensive product we have will withstand anything.

Yeah, right.

Uh, so, but no, you bring up a good point for sure.

So what have, have you guys, have you guys had any of the strange home trends hitting the area over there?

Oh, we've got a lot of strange home trends. Which ones are you talking about? Because there's, uh, There's a lot of crazy ones out there.

I mean, the tiny home is big here for sure right now. And also, the barn conversion is big, or the barndominium.

Well, and my sister is getting ready to build a container home.

Container home.

Yeah.

Which I think are super cool.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, they've bought the land, they're ready to go. They just got to set it up.

We have a lot of office complexes around here that are using containers to build their shared office spaces. Yeah.

So there's just— I kind of like— I, I kind of can— I kind of heckle container people like I'm gonna build the world out of pallets. It's the same kind of thing.

Yes.

I put them in— I put them in the same people. I mean, I, I, and we're gonna pop over into, into— I'm an administrator on a couple different social media groups out there.

Okay.

And And there was one that I was on, I can't remember the administrator in, and this lady was trying to build a square pool out of pallets.

Oh no.

And you can see the physics of this doesn't work. And she literally had stacked pallets up around the ends outside of it that were, you know, 4 feet high and was going to fill this 12 by 24 pool up. with a tarp on the inside, hoping the pallets were gonna hold this together.

Oh my God.

And it was right up— and it was under her patio, right up against her house. And I'm just like, can, can you do a livestream video? Because as soon as I told her it was not going to work, of course the obscenity started going in the group. But I'm like, no, really, you're gonna put 3,000 gallons of water in your basement or crawl space because this is not gonna work, I promise you.

And for some reason it manages to hold water for like 5 minutes when you jump in It's going to kill you.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

I was just— and plus there's not a basement foundation wall that's designed to put that kind of weight on a patio right outside of it. And I was just like, there's a thousand reasons why this is gonna go wrong. And I would have paid probably $100 to have a livestream video of this whole thing happening because that would have been the best pay-per-view of all mankind for DIY.

You would have, you would have banked. on that $100 that you spent just on the, you know, the views that you get off of that video.

Oh, it would have been the best home improvement. Yeah, I remember it did because she was so set on her ways that this was gonna work, and I'm like, there's no way. She didn't even put plywood on the inside, it was just pallets. I'm like, you realize that plastic is gonna push around the the gaps of the pallets. And she did— she posted up being all proud and didn't want to hear a word about it. It was epic.

Well, I'm kind of like, listen, because, because I'm a member of some of these DIY type of, uh, type of places on Facebook, and, and I'm always amazed at the people that will post pictures and, and, and say, you know, hey, look at, look at what I'm about to work on. Knowing full well that this has like 16,000 members, right? And many of them are contractors and people that actually know what they're doing. They come in and they say, listen, if I were you, I would do this. And they're like, ah, screw you, you don't know what you're talking about. It's like, why did you even post this right now? What is wrong with you? You know?

This is not the public affirmation group.

This is—

oh my gosh. That and my number one pet peeves on this group is, show me your dot dot dot. Show me your, you know, white painted walls in your powder room, or show me your garage doors. Or I'm like, what is this, Pinterest?

Yeah, absolutely.

Which I'm glad you bring that up because that episode that you did about asking better questions is one of the reasons I reached out to you. I thought what you had to say about that was just so spot on. If you want to chime in here and let our audience know, you were putting it out there, like, here's a good way to ask better questions on some of these DIY groups.

Oh, and I feel bad for people because there's so many people that just I frankly don't know. Not beating up on them because we've all been to that situation once where we're in a situation that we have no idea, we're well over our skis. But man, some of these people, I'm like— there was a guy today that I went— I actually posted on his thing and went, you have to be trolling, right? And it was that bad. I mean, he was on there and it looked like somebody had tried to build a waterproofing membrane out of fiberglass. And they were trying to fiberglass, but he took the picture and actually said that he was using,

uh, Vaseline as a membrane and was going to tile over the top of it. And I'm like, you're trolling, man. Sorry. And other people were like, we got to put Red Guard on first. I'm like, come on, guys.

At some point you have to recognize this This person is not serious.

Wow. Just so jumped right over the Vaseline part, I guess.

So, so, you know, one of the questions that we, that we encourage our listeners, listeners to ask is like, what, when you have someone come to your house, like Ask good questions, and good questions are going to render you good answers. So be smart about what you're asking. So let's say, for example, that I want to put new countertops in, in my, my kitchen, and I want to post something on the internet on one of these DIY, you know, even professional Facebook groups. Hey, what is the best way to ask that question?

Well, first of all, I— my advice to you before they even got into that would be to find out how old are these cabinets. Because if you're taking 20-year-old cabinets and you're going to go ahead and put new countertops on them, and they're quartz, stone, whatever else, you're— it's like taking your 1982 BMW that's got 300,000 miles and putting a paint job on it. Is this really the smartest idea for your house?

Yeah.

Because what happens is, is those cabinets are well past their prime. So you wanna kinda make sure that you're not gonna do the cabinets down the road 'cause you're throwing the countertops away.

Hmm.

But the best advice I could give people is take a lot of pictures, know kinda the direction you wanna go with it as far as, am I gonna do tile or laminate or quartz or granite on the questions? But you have to know that As you post that up, you're gonna have some people, they're gonna kind of troll you. There's gonna be the know-it-alls. There's gonna be the people that give you bad advice. So you have to kind of weed through that stuff to find the real answers of whatever that question is.

All right, so I've got, I've got kind of a snooty question from your response. Um, are people still doing tile countertops?

Yeah, because it's a cost-effective solution and they wanna use like, 12 by 24s. I'm still seeing people do it out there as a DIY project because what happens is people go out and look and say, wow, my granite or quartz or, you know, any one of the slab-style countertops are still $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $10,000 pretty quickly out there.

Yeah.

And they want to do it as a DIY project. That's not a DIY project. So now that— now they look at them and go, well, all I can afford to do is myself, so I have laminate. And I have tile. Well, I hate laminate. I'm going tile, and that or butcher block or pallets or or you know B board, you know.

Well, or or I mean another fair. I mean it is somewhat cost effective to do concrete, isn't it?

It is. You got to have some pretty good DIY skills because the forms you build have to be spot on. There is no there is no making that up. I learned how to do kind of concrete. Countertops, but the guy kind of out of San Francisco, he has Chang Design. And so he's got a great resource, and I've always leaned on that for doing concrete because he does— if you look him up, he's got the Bible and he sells all of the materials for doing concrete countertops right. And so that's the guy that I— if I have to go do any concrete stuff, and I've done it before, I just go over to his website and, and take a look at that because it's a master's course

in concrete.

Okay, so you cut out on us there right as you said his name. So I want everyone to hear his name. So tell me his name again.

Yeah, that is Futung Cheng, Cheng Design out of San Francisco.

Okay. All right. Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that is also really important to tell these people is like, there's so much information out there. And when you, when you dig deep enough, you're going to find someone who is an expert, who is willing to not only give you the expert advice that you need, but help you do it and probably not charge you all that much to do it if you're willing to take the time to find those people and figure it out. And so that's a, that's a great resource for sure.

Yeah, that information is out there. And as a, uh, you know, I just did a show here recently about how, you know, if you're taking on that massive remodeling project you're doing here, sometimes hiring that designer could actually save you money versus trying to do it yourself and having to do things 2 or 3 times because you picked the wrong color or did it wrong.

Yeah, having to do it over and over and over again. Yeah, definitely. Well, in talking about finding the right people, one of the other episodes I know that you did recently was talking about the lack of availability of workers in the trades.

Absolutely.

And how we're kind of suffering by not having the right amount of people. I think today there was a really good jobs report that came out that we added a bunch of new jobs. I mean, like, you were, you were, you know, sharing some numbers on your show recently about, you know, how we're lacking in people that can actually do these quality jobs. Uh, what, what were some, what were some of those numbers that, that your show was revealing, and, and how is that affecting how people can, you know, take care of their homes?

Yeah, it's amazing. I was actually doing an interview this morning for TV that'll air next week with a company. It's a nonprofit called Constructing Hope. So they actually take people that were formerly incarcerated and people that were homeless, and they get them into the trades. And so they're trying to fill that trades need. So that was kind of my interview that I was doing earlier on TV today. But what's crazy out there is for every, you know, for, for 100 electricians out there that are retiring, we're only replacing those 7— 70 And pays for electricians. So we're losing every year, we're getting 30% behind just in replacing those, not counting growing.

Right.

So there's, there's literally millions of jobs across the country out there that are available. 70% of all contractors can't find the right people to fill a position right now.

Wow. Well, Craig, you're, you're dealing with that in your own business, right? I just— you, you, you've got a new guy and he's doing great, but like finding good people is very difficult.

It's extremely difficult to find good people. Um, and, and like, well, like, and like for our business, like I don't even want guys that have any training. I want guys with zero training. Like I'm perfectly happy with zero training because I want to train them.

Yeah. Um, but they don't have to get rid of their bad habits, right?

Right. That's, that's my whole thing is I don't want any other company's bad habits. Um, but like what I, what I hear Eric saying is like, if, if you have any sort of like entrepreneurial spirit, like you could, you could jump into one of these trades and start a plumbing business, start an electrician's business. And even if you like, you're not the best, if you're just like honest and willing to do a good job, you can probably make a run at it.

Yeah. Yeah.

I know electrician, I know electricians here in Portland that are, that are giving $10,000 signing bonuses to move to Portland to be an electrician.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

That's how bad it is out there. It's crazy.

Well, so, so a question I've got for you. I have my own theory, and I don't know that it's right. It's just my own theory. What do you attribute that to, that just a lack of people that are in those trades?

Uh, this is where I get on my soapbox. Uh, this is my—

bring it.

I call it the— I call it the It's the big business of college education.

Ah.

College— 4-year colleges have gone into high schools across the country, in middle schools, and, and, and, um, you know, that 6th through 12th grade, and they have taken out auto shop, welding, woodworking, all of the trades classes to put in more college prep classes because they don't want people going into the trades. They want people to go get a 4-year education in humanities so they can go work as a barista at Starbucks.

No, that's—

no, you're exactly right.

In fact, Craig and I talk about this often, about how, you know, there's so many things in this world that you can do without a college degree. And oh, by the way, college is not for everyone. My, my— I, I'll just say that I've got a relative— I'm not gonna say who it is— I've got a relative who as a sophomore in high school made a 33 on his ACT. Okay, the guy's a freaking genius, goes to college and, and can't do it. He just can't do it because college is not for him. And he, he wound up becoming an electrician and was extremely good at it. So, you know, you're right, like, it's not for everyone. It's really interesting that your, um,

that your thought process is very similar to mind. And we've taken the trades out of high schools, right? I mean, so, so now we're teaching, you know, computer skills and business skills and these sorts of things, but we're not— I mean, auto mechanic shop is not a thing anymore. Wood shop is not a thing anymore. Now, I will say there are a few schools that I know of that are bringing some of those things back, but they're still few and far between. And I actually heard—

Sure.

I actually heard a senator uh, this was about 10 years ago, was, was talking and said, uh, we need— what we need is to encourage every single one of our, our kids to be doctors and lawyers and make something out of themselves. And I about threw up in my mouth because I was like, well, I was like, you've got to be kidding me. First of all, that's absolutely not what we need. We do not need a world full of doctors and lawyers. And secondly, That is a ridiculous statement.

Yeah, so he obviously owned Porsche stock, but that's what he was trying to do. Yeah, but here's the thing, but you have a great example. I mean, my old co-host Handyman Bob ended up, uh, he was— showed up at one of the high schools here and showed up for Career Skills Day. So he showed up for Career Skills Day and And the principal's up there introducing all these people. The guy that owned this big plumbing company got up there. The principal introduces him and says, well, guys, if you don't go to college and you don't do well in school, you can always be a plumber and he's here to talk to you.

Oh my gosh.

Well, she walked off the stage. He gets up there and says, and kids, if you really wanna make a lot of money, you can be a plumber because I make twice the amount of money she does. And I own a multimillion company. So if you want to go spend $100,000 in school and spend 8 more years in school to go get that doctorate, you can go do what she does. And by age 30, I was making more than she is now.

Yeah.

So you make the choice. Totally hammered on her. And I was totally shocked over that because she quite frankly well deserved it.

Yeah, she did.

Absolutely. Drops the mic, walks off stage.

And this, this is— I feel like this conversation I've had with several young guys on repeat. Um, so many times I talk to guys and I'm like, well, and you, and you have that same conversation, right? Well, what do you, what do you want to do? Like, what do you, what do you want for yourself? What do you, what do you want to end up doing, being, all this kind of stuff? And then they kind of share with you, you know, what it is that they want to do. And I said, cool, cool. What are you, what are you doing about that? And they're like, well, I'm going to school. And then you talk to them and like what they're going to school for has nothing

to do with what it is that the job that they want actually entails. And, and so I've got—

Yep, I've got a fix for that. Here's what they need to do. I would pass legislatively a bill. If college aid, you have to submit a business plan with that of how you're going to make that money back and make a career out of what your education is. Because if It should be like you and I and everybody else going to get a business loan. Okay, you want money to do something great. Please explain out to us how this makes sense.

No, that's, that's, that's a great idea. That's a great idea because it— what, what it would do is it would deter a lot of people because they don't know the answer to that question, right? I don't, I don't have an option for that. Yeah, yeah.

And if you don't, then why are you gonna go spend $100 grand on college when you don't have a a way to even pay that loan back, let alone be a member of society using that degree.

Well, and here's, here's what boggles my mind about this every time is when I, when I talk to these guys and I finally figured out what it is that they want to do, I usually know somebody that's doing what it is that they want to do. And so I'll say, why don't you go talk to Paul? Paul's a good guy. He knows what he's doing. He'd be happy to talk to you about this. And they won't do it because it doesn't come with a degree, but they won't go have a conversation. And it's just this weird thing that we have where it's like the actual thing that you want, you've convinced yourself that it's not as easy to go get as it actually is, when it's like it's 10 feet away and it's a guy or a gal that's

willing to have a cup of coffee with you. Yeah.

Definitely.

That has 3 degrees in— guy's got 3 degrees in computer engineering and he mixes paint for a living. I just don't understand it.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of money to be wasted on, on school when I, I tell people all the time, 90% of the places, um, that you are going to get a job at is going to teach you how to do that job, even in fields that you have a degree that qualifies you for that job. In fact, you had to have a qualifying degree to even get an interview in that place. They're still gonna bring you in, teach you their way to do it and how to do it, and if you don't, they're gonna fire you, right? So, you know, you have options here. It just depends on what you're gonna do with your options.

No question. No question.

Alright, alright, Eric, I'm gonna do a weird pivot on you here, but I know that you've reviewed several of the EGO products now. I know Kevin's a huge fan of his EGO weed whacker. Is it weed whacker or weed eater? What's the—

Well, I try not to use the word whacker as much as possible in sentences. However, I would use weed eater. But they call it a trimmer.

Right.

That's what they call it.

Weed whacker it is. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and correct myself. It's not EGO. You actually review Greenworks products. Did I say that right?

Yeah, you got it. I did Greenworks last year and this year.

OK. All right, good. Anyway, what I was going to ask you is, I've started seeing so many battery-powered tools and yard equipment and things like that. I saw the other day that Ryobi has come out with a zero-turn battery-powered mower.

What?

Have you seen this, Eric?

I saw the Ryobi one. I actually sat on the Greenworks one that'll do zero-turn mower. It'll do 3.5 acres on a single charge.

Oh my goodness.

It's insane what they're coming out with.

That— and, and yeah, and the thing about it is like what, what people don't understand, and this is a, this is a mindset that people have to really turn the corner on, is that the battery is more powerful than the gas. And it is unbelievable that that's the case, and people don't believe it. And until you hold that thing in your hand, or you sit on that thing and ride it, you might not believe it.

So have you actually done an actual review on that zero-turn yet?

I haven't, because it's so expensive and it's so commercial. I would love to, but I'm not sure they're going to go send me like a $30,000 mower. I don't know what that thing costs.

Yeah, is that, is that really what they're going for?

I have no idea what it is. I, I bet you it's in the 20s.

Really?

I mean, that's— it's, it's— but it's, it's a commercial, like, I own a golf course, I want to have the green tool. But I'll be honest, the air hose, the power cord, and the gas engine is dead for power tools. Yeah, mic drop, it's done.

Yeah, I, I'm, I'm with you 100% because there is no way That, well, I— the EPA is going to wind up getting involved here. I mean, like, like somewhere we're going to have, we're going to have people that are going, listen, you cannot develop that any longer because we have other tools that will do it and you don't have to have gas any longer.

I mean, Milwaukee Tools has a power pack you can take to the job site now in their MX Fuel line that you can take out. And I got to see that a little over a year ago, and I had to sign a non-disclosure on that. But we— you can literally take this thing out that's the size of a, of a small generator, and you can run your job site off of it. And when it's done, you can throw another battery on it and continue. I mean, you can run your microwave, you can run the, the, the anything else off of this thing all day long.

Yeah, uh, EGO has one as well now, and you can put 4 7.5 amp-hour, 56-volt batteries on that thing. So yeah, it'll— it is a 3,000-watt generator. So I mean, and, and they've also got a power pack that like you wear like a vest and you can just load up batteries on the back of that thing and just, you know, you go. So the, the ways that they're making these things portable is, is just amazing.

Yeah, I got to play with their, uh, Breaker Jackhammer, uh, last year and And it was amazing. I mean, this thing was the heaviest duty jackhammer that I've ever used on a project. It was battery powered, and I busted through 6-inch fiber-reinforced concrete in about a second and a half and broke off a huge chunk. And I had my badge, you know, like when you go to a trade show, you have that badge hanging over it.

Yeah.

The video that I shot with that, it wasn't moving the badge. It was like I was holding Couldn't feel the jackhammer hitting. It was— if you were out there working on a job site, you could use this thing for 10 hours and not be tired.

Oh my goodness.

Well, and I, I don't understand why— I mean, like, and I just to back up on that, that Ryobi, uh, zero turn, I think it's going for about $3,500, $4,000.

Really? That's actually, that's actually somewhat competitive.

And that's why I noticed it. I was like, this, this pricing is not far off. From like the gas one, which, I mean, so if it has any like utility, I mean, like the gas ones are just done.

Yeah.

Um, and yeah, my—

the one I was looking at was, uh, was, was your professional lawn care. It had like a multi-fold-up deck. It was probably a 10-foot deck.

Okay. Yeah. So like, that's, that's a—

yeah.

And so like, that's why you're saying $30,000. And because I mean, that's, that's a professional rig that, you know, usually you put like a diesel motor on or something.

Correct, correct.

So yeah, this was—

I'm—

the one I was looking at, it's like a— it's like a 42-inch deck, um, for like—

That's awesome.

You know, and, and, uh, the only downside though is I've seen some of them for sale already on like Facebook Marketplace.

Oh no.

And I'm like, that's not a good sign.

No, no. Well, it's, it's like anything, don't buy the first generation, right? Wait till that second generation comes out.

So yeah, I mean, it's, it's crazy. Like this new, uh, this new MX Fuel that I was playing with, I mean, it's a 3,600-watt supply that you can use all day long. It's like a generator. It'll actually— if you think about it, they designed that tool to outperform a generator without having to put gas in it. So if you put a Honda generator right next to it and you put their battery-powered next to it But it will outlast that Honda because you'll have to put fuel in that Honda before you have to change that battery. Yeah, that's how they designed it.

Yeah, that Milwaukee stuff that they're coming out with is, is pretty nutso, right? I mean, they've got that, that high-performance chainsaw that they, they've been, uh, ramping up right now, and, and that thing looks incredible.

It's hanging on my wall right over the top if you look at my picture up there. It's hiding up. Yep.

Nice. Well, I, I was actually really close, uh, I, I was I was doing some work in my backyard. I need a chainsaw. And all I have— because I mean, I've always just lived in a residential neighborhood house, right? All I had was a 16-inch electric chainsaw. Now it's— it does a pretty dang good job actually, but I was, I was, I was this close to going out and buying the EGO just to have it because I already had a battery for the thing, you know.

Yeah.

I was that close to going to get it because because these battery-powered chainsaws are doing unbelievable things. And not only that, they're a lot quieter, they're a lot lighter to handle. And, you know, like you're talking about that generator, it's a tool, it's like a generator. It doesn't make any noise. So, so you're, you're out there on a job site, it doesn't make any noise and you're not pissing anybody off because you're running a generator the whole time.

Yeah. I own the, uh, I own the, uh, the Milwaukee, I own the DeWalt and I own the Greenworks. And, uh, I'll be honest, the Milwaukee's the best one. Um, probably my second, it's, it's close to a tie between the, uh, the, the Greenworks and the, and the DeWalt. But the advantage to the Greenworks is, is that's a, that's a 60-volt chainsaw versus a 20-volt. So it's kind of 2 different classes when it comes down to it.

Well, and, and so what is the Milwaukee running? Is it still on their 18-volt system or is it, is that, that, what are they using?

It's an 18, it's an 18, but they're using a 9 amp-hour battery in it. So it's a big battery.

Yeah.

That, that, that's one of the cool things about the Milwaukee, that they really have an advantage over these other companies that are just doing lawn tools, is that they've got a whole line of power tools that, you know, a drill and, uh, you know, an impact driver and, and a flashlight and all these things, it's the same battery for all of those. So man, you can completely outfit your— outfit your entire garage with a Milwaukee battery. And, and Milwaukee makes some of the best tools on the planet.

Yeah, that Milwaukee 18-volt will outperform, in my experience, the FlexVolt by DeWalt, which technically has more, you know, 3 times as many, as, as many volts. But they have computers in those batteries that help regulate and give you power when you need it. And, uh, it's just smarter use of the power.

Yeah, it's, it's insane what they're doing with this stuff, man.

Yeah, and, and that's why it's hard for people to understand that it is more powerful than a gas motor. And it, it doesn't make sense to us because we're looking at AAs going, well, I can change my TV with this remote. It's a completely different type of battery that we're talking about here.

I mean, I'll be honest, it's funny you bring this up because tomorrow morning after I get, uh, my podcast stuff mixed up for tomorrow, for Saturday, I'm actually throwing on Facebook Marketplace the last of my powered corded power tools and my air tools because I just quite frankly, I haven't used them in a year. And why do I need them?

Yeah, you don't. That's the answer.

Yeah, when I started seeing 18 and 16-gauge nail guns and then like framing nail guns that you can do with battery-powered tools, I was like, yeah, I don't need the air compressor anymore.

No, that, that new Milwaukee framing nailer is the best framing nailer out there right now, and it just came out like 2 weeks ago. I used, I used the model of it, uh, their test model about a year ago when I was back at Milwaukee Tools, and I got to play with that. I can land 3 16-penny nails a second with that thing, and it just fires and fires and fires until you're out of nails.

Wow.

And, and you're not dragging a hose anywhere.

Yeah, that's, that's the big one. I mean, not getting tangled up in that thing.

Or sorry, Paslode, you guys make a great product, but I don't have to put cartridges in there either. Yeah, so right.

I mean, that— yeah, there's so many advantages to these tools that are coming out. So, uh, you know, we, we did a review on the EGO trimmer just because, you know, we, we, um Uh, we— I had bought one and it was— I was so impressed with it, so we did a review on it. And I actually, I know a couple people that went out and bought it just based on our review. And, um, I, I just, I just encourage people that are out there, stop buying the gas stuff. You're in the long run, uh, you might pay a little bit more for the tool, but you're not paying for gas, you're not paying for maintenance, you're not paying for so many things that are going to wind up saving you money over time. And oh, by the

way, It's better for the environment. You add all of those things up, it's a no-brainer.

I always fought people out there saying, oh, you should ban the gas-powered leaf blowers. There is no reason to own a gas-powered leaf blower anymore. They're so quiet. You just don't need the new— the electric ones will outperform it every single time. I don't care what brand you're looking at. There are multiple brands now that will outperform.

Yep. So lighter, quieter.

Well, and this is—

they're so much better.

This is why I keep telling people, like, I'm, I'm gonna get the Tesla truck. Yeah, I'm gonna. I mean, like, from everyone that I know that has a Tesla is like, look, it's better designed, it's got more power, it's faster, you'll just like it more.

Yeah, yeah.

And I don't want to because I like working on cars.

I do.

Yeah. Well, man, there we could, we could probably go on and on and on. And we, you know, I mentioned it earlier, we probably will need to get you back on the show. It's, it's been a blast talking to you, but we, we can't let any of our guests go before we do something we do with every single one of our guests, and we call it the Final Four.

Final Four.

That's right. So these are the final 4 questions that we ask each and every one of our guests, and you are the next victim.

And by we, we mean Kevin.

Nice.

Yeah, well, that's just because Craig doesn't remember, remember the questions. So, um, so yeah, so here are the, uh, questions that we have got. The first one is this: what is the must-have tool that you will not leave your house without?

We didn't even get ready. I sure love— I sure I sure love my multi-tool. I love my multi-tool for cutting stuff. I mean, that is one that is, uh, for, for cutting an electrical or doing a quick trim on stuff. That is probably one of my favorite tools that I have. Just, and I'm talking about the battery-powered kind of fine, you know, multi-tool that, um, that will sit there and cut and vibrate those things. Uh, that is that, that is that power tool that, uh, does all the things that I needed to do.

Man, most really good contractors that I run into almost always have that like nearby. On a job site.

Like, there's so many things you can do with that thing, it's unbelievable. They call it a multi-tool for a reason.

Yeah.

So yeah, yeah, it's awesome.

What, what brand are you rocking there?

Well, uh, I, I— Milwaukee sends me tools, so I, I— and quite frankly, it's awesome. So I got— I have a lot of red tools on my job.

All right, how do we get on that list, Eric?

We'll talk about it. It's not that— it's not that hard. I'll work you— well, I'll help you guys out.

Awesome. That would be great. I, uh, I bought my first Milwaukee, um, tool. It was their, um, it was their— it was a router for woodworking.

Yes.

And, uh, man, it, it's one of my favorite tools in my, in my entire garage. So anyway, all right, cool. We're gonna move on to the second question here. So this is the question: what's a project you've walked away from? So, uh, when we first wrote this question, we had in our minds, what is a job around your house That, um, that you started that you called in somebody else to finish because you're like, listen, I, I just can't finish this job. Um, but, uh, over time when we ask this question, what's a job you walked away from, so many people, um, think of careers like, oh, I walked away from that job because I landed this job, it was way better

than that. So we'll let you go either direction. What's a job you've walked away from?

Uh, there's only really one job that I've walked away from, and that was replacing my old split main panel here in the house. I, I was gonna have— so with the city and the power company, I went, I'm calling in the expert on this one, because I had to move the panel about 6 feet over and the power line was gonna have to be moved. And—

Oh wow.

There was a lot going on, and quite frankly, I was in the middle of remodeling my own house. And I called in the electrician to make sure that it got done correctly.

Heck yeah.

Yeah, I'm not trying to touch that thing. One of the things that, you know, we, we talk about in this show is like, we call electricians. Yes, we call electricians. Now, I, I'm not afraid to do electrician types of things on some stuff, but at the end of the day, it is so easy to mess up. And if you mess up bad, it is, it is a moment away, right?

The thing that blew my mind is when the, uh, the Portland Public Electric Company came up and they had to cut the, the weatherhead loose. The power is on to my house. He's up there in his bucket truck. He grabs his clippers, cuts the line to the power to my house, and drops it on the ground so they could move it over. And he just had gloves on and the power was hot. And I'm like, you've been doing this for 40 years, brother. And, um, wow. I would never have tried that, right?

No, no, but those guys are crazy. They're crazy. My brother-in-law is one of them. He's crazy.

But as most brother-in-laws are.

That's true.

That's— yeah, you know the difference between in-laws and outlaws, right?

I would love to know. But you cut out on us right as— right as you told us the punchline. You cut out on us. So Please tell me the difference between in-laws and outlaws one more time.

Outlaws are wanted.

That's good, that's good. Oh man, good one. All right, on to the 3rd question. How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

This is gonna sound super campy, but I jump on the home improvement groups and start commenting.

Oh yeah, nice. Yeah, and honestly, like, one of the things that I found is that's actually really good for you as a, as a business person, as well as, man, it, it's somewhat therapeutic seeing how stupid people are out there sometimes.

Oh, well, I'm not Pallet Lady, so I'm doing all right.

No, no, no, no, they're not stupid, they're content creators.

Yeah, someone's lied to them. All right, 4th question, last question.

I know this one.

Oh, you remember the question?

I remember this question.

Okay, I'm gonna give you— I'm gonna pass the reins over to you.

All right, I should, I wrote it. Um, what's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever received?

Know how the project's gonna finish before you start it.

That's a good one.

Yeah, no, that's really good. That— I mean, so, so I've been, um, I've been going through Aaron Franklin's masterclass. So I mean, well, first of all, you know, Texas barbecue, it's hard to— it's hard to beat in general, and Aaron Franklin is truly the master. And one of the things that he does so well is he, he sits there and he writes out where he wants his cook to finish. And then he backtracks from there. And I think that there's a life lesson in that, not just in cooking a good brisket, but just in projects in general, for sure.

Well, it's funny. So my, one of my best friends does the only national barbecue radio show. And so he brings all of those guys on there from amazingribs.com to all those different guys out there. So him and I, I, I trade with him. He gets me meat. I, you know, we, we, we horse trade a little bit between us. But yeah, I've, I've gotten to meet a lot of those professional barbecue guys and there is a very big art to that. Oh yeah.

There is no doubt. I mean, I've, I've smoked my fair share of meats and so has Craig and man, to get those perfectly consistent like they do each and every time, it's It's absolutely fascinating to see them do it, for sure.

All right, Eric, we got the secret 5th and final question of the final 4, which makes no numerical sense, but people have come to expect it on the show. The secret 5th question of the final 4 is, how do people find you if they want to get ahold of you?

Man, it is easy. I'm all over social media as Around the House with Eric G. Or, if you want to hit my website, that is aroundthehousewithericg.com. AroundTheHouseOnline.com, and that AroundTheHouseOnline.com has everything from the podcast to videos to, uh, even our crazy little online store with crazy— Awesome.

And do you, on your, uh, on your website, do you have links to your, uh, your Facebook groups that you, uh, that you oversee?

Yeah, I have a lot of those on there. I still have to add though the one that I'm, uh, I've got 2 different ones. I have Around the House Nation which is our little closed group that we have for Around the House, which is my radio show. And then I'm one of the moderators for DIY Home Improvement Projects, which is one of the big ones that are out there. And I help Cindy Hegman, who started that group, do that, do that. So there's about a dozen of us that help on that page right there. But there's a lot of great groups out there on social media.

Oh yeah, yeah, that's actually one that I'm that I'm a member of, and I got on that one simply to start, you know, just commenting on people's stuff. And, you know, because, well, I, I'm not an expert in, in most of this stuff. Craig and I will tell you that up front. We're not an expert in a lot of this stuff. However, we've had enough people on the show that are experts, and I can speak intelligently about a lot of things where people are just putting out, you know, one or two sentence you know, maybe 1 or 2 phrase responses. And I go in there and I'll write a paragraph about something, and all of

a sudden I'm getting tons of likes. I'm getting people PMing me saying, hey, tell me more about that. You said something about a thermostat, like which one do you like? It like— I'm like, hey, by the way, we actually have a podcast where we reviewed it. I would encourage you to go listen to it.

So, um, yep, absolutely.

That's a great group. And there's like— that's the one I was talking about, has like 16,000 members. Is that Is that right? Something like that?

Yeah, something like that. There's a ton in there, and Cindy does a great job because she keeps people fighting and swearing. A word in there, you're off the group, you're off the island. And it's, it's a very— out of all of them, it's probably the most respectful group that I've seen. Nice.

Yeah, that's a good one.

All right, so real quick, one other thing I saw this week that, that might have gotten you into a little bit of trouble. Not that any of us are prone to getting into trouble on the internet, but I saw you make a post about Whataburger. You were letting the West Coast folks know that there is a significant difference between Whataburger and In-N-Out. Did I see that right?

See, guys? I had your back on this one! All of my West Coast friends, I was getting ganged up on this week. I love my In-N-Out, but, uh, Whataburger just crushes it on a couple different fronts.

Oh man.

Yeah, the, the only thing— my only beef with Whataburger is, um, they— I, I think they pay their employees by the minute because they are slow. However, yep, you get a good product. Yeah, it's worth it, worth it.

So here's— I'll tell you how slow it is here with In-N-Out, because In-N-Out just opened one, a store up, the closest store to us, and there's only one in our metro area. And I'm on a social media group there where it's literally a 45 to 150 minute wait to get through drive-through because it's the only one within You know, 500 miles of here. And if you want an In-N-Out Burger, you're gonna go stand in line for 2, 2 and a half hours in drive-through.

Good Lord. Uh, no, I don't want an In-N-Out Burger that much. Um, ever. No, like Chili's to go, please.

Like, just give me— Oh, that was low. Whoa.

Any, any audience we may have garnered on the West West Coast. They're just—

they're gone.

No, I, I do love In-N-Out. We have a few there. There's one, or I think there's just one.

They just opened one here.

There's one in Katy in the Houston area. There's, there's a few up in Dallas. Uh, but I will tell you, they taste better on the West Coast than they do here. They just— I don't know what it is. I don't know why. I don't know if it's the sourcing of, of food or what, but they taste better on the West Coast. I promise y'all.

Here's the secret with In-N-Out. You have to order it animal style so you have all the different stuff on it. But the fries have a— they're kind of like a hand grenade. They last for about 4 minutes, and afterwards you throw them away.

Yeah, that's true. There's no saving those. No.

Nope. Yeah, if, if you're, if you're more than about 8 blocks away and you're still eating fries, In your car, throw them out the window, man, because it's, it's, it's bird food at that point.

It's over.

It's over.

It's over.

That's good advice.

That's good advice. You heard it here first on The Homeowner Show, y'all. Well, listen, man, it has been our pleasure. Thanks for hanging with us. Uh, you know, we, we've had a couple of, um, of internet things happen here, but it has been, it's been an absolute pleasure. We would love to have you as a guest on a future show if you would be so willing.

So Let me know, brothers.

All right, well, listen, uh, if you have not already, please go ahead and hit the like button. Uh, go ahead and share this podcast if you have not already. Uh, we are on YouTube, so yes, go and subscribe, hit the bell. Um, leave us a review on, on iTunes. That would be fantastic, would help us out a lot. But if you're here with us this long, man, y'all have, y'all stuck with us. We We are almost at 100 episodes, right?

Almost.

We're just inching up to that line, so pretty excited.

100-show centennial.

That's right, yep. We're gonna do something special.

Yeah.

I don't know what it is yet. We don't have no idea. No idea.

We've got 3 episodes to figure it out.

That's exactly right. But anyway, thank you. We are here every Tuesday. Thanks for hanging with us. Thanks for downloading today's show. And until next time, we'll see you later. See ya.