Basement finishing services in DE

Things You Should Ask A Contractor - Part 1

Wed, May 16 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Bill Anderson: Well good morning folks this is Bill Anderson from Under Your Home with DryZone. Jason Harmon actually had to go away this weekend but I do have somebody here with me that I've wanted to get on the radio for a while and his name is Kenny Sharpless, he's our production manager. Kenny, how are you doing?

Kenny Sharpless: Good, thanks.

Bill Anderson: Kenny, a lot of times we talk about our service and sales department along with all the different things that homeowners expect from us. I kind of wanted to get you in here to talk about exactly what happens once the salesman leaves the door, where does he go from there and what should our homeowners see when they think of DryZone after they've already signed the contract?

Kenny Sharpless: Well before they see us the paperwork has to go from the salesman to the office and eventually I'll get the paperwork. Now once I get the paperwork I go through it, for any discrepancies and issues that the guys might encounter after I look through the paperwork I'll sit down with each foreman individually and have a meeting with them to go over the paperwork. Making sure they understand the paperwork and that’s when I'll send them out to the house. They then go set up at the homeowner's house, meet the homeowner, introduce themselves, probably introduce the helpers that they have with them, get started with the job, go down the list of paperwork item by item so the homeowner and the foreman are both on the same page, that everybody understands what's going on, that there isn't anything that got dropped.

Bill Anderson: A few weeks ago we had talked with Heather, our service manager and she talked about our Wow service, what that meant and the things that really make it WOW. Well we also have Wow service in our production department. So when the guys get out there what's the first impression that we should get from the homeowner?

Kenny Sharpless: The first impression they should get is that we're an organized company, we're put together and we keep our trucks looking good, keep everything looking clean; all our guys are in uniforms, look clean and look ready to work.

Bill Anderson: Look like they belong there?

Kenny Sharpless: Yes, they look like they know their jobs, they don't look like guys we just picked up off the street, threw in a truck and said "Have a nice day." We spend a lot of time on our guys training. We'll go over that a little bit more.

Bill Anderson: Well I know you and I we had spent a lot of time when we started actually researching the whole idea of putting our guys in uniforms and what we wanted it to look like. Also the story that I always tell people about was when you and I went down to a sister company in North Carolina and when we got there this company really had a small building, I mean it's probably a quarter of the size of ours and they had how many trucks in there? Like 10, 15 trucks.

Kenny Sharpless: At least a dozen or so.

Bill Anderson: So it was absolutely organized chaos, all these guys were running around and the biggest thing that we said was we thought our guys actually did a better job in the morning of getting themselves ready getting out but they looked professional because they were in uniform.

Kenny Sharpless: Our guys are more organized but they looked more organized because their guys just looked like robots - they were all the same look, they look organized.

Bill Anderson: A lot of times companies actually pay for people's uniforms but our guys pay for their own uniforms which was something that we all sat down and talked about even the helpers agreed that everybody should be in uniform to make us look professional.

Kenny Sharpless: We feel like our guys should have a choice in what's going on with the company. DryZone's a family company, we're all one big family and we feel that the guys should have a choice on what they look like and how they present themselves.

Bill Anderson: Like Steve who is one of our service guys, in the summer time he actually had the shorts go along with his uniform so that way he was a little bit more comfortable in the field because he was jumping in and out of crawl spaces all day so it's easier for him to wear that so he wasn't really super hot or super cold because when you get down in crawl spaces which is always nice and cold, right? At least in the summer time anyway, nice and warm in the winter. What do you think is one of the biggest attributes that your guys give to our company? We don't hire sub-contractors and that's one of the first questions I think we get from homeowners nowadays, is "Do you hire subcontractors?" We're all saying "No, no, no, no, these are all our guys, we pay taxes, we do all these things with them, and we buy their health insurance or vacations. Over the time you've been with us -- and you're one of our longest employees that have been around - what changes have you seen over the years from the guys and what really do they do to stand out from other companies that you've worked for?

Kenny Sharpless: The guys themselves are a good group of guys, their personalities mix well with everybody, we don't have any bitter apples in the team. I think that's probably one of our biggest attributes, the fact that we have a great group of guys. I wouldn't want to let any of them go I'd take a dozen more just like them.

Bill Anderson: The first thing somebody says when we have a new guy who starts is "If you can get through the first week or two without getting fired you're probably going to make it" because we're real tough on applicants who come in the shop, right?

Kenny Sharpless: Well we expect a certain type of person that we're willing to train also we're willing to make that person who we're looking for but they've got to have something for us to get started with so we have gone through a few people here and there to get the right candidate.

Bill Anderson: One of the biggest sayings that I've always had was "You work for the job that you want, not the one you have. You work for the paycheck you want, not the one you have" and you've definitely epitomized that with this. You started out as the third man on the crew many, many moons ago and you worked yourself all the way up to be a production manager. Sooner or later we're going to start to have an assistant production manager underneath you because when you start doing the kind of volume that we do, I don't know about you, but when I first started our company I used to know every single one of our homeowners. Now I feel bad like I was in a home show a few weeks ago and somebody came up to me and they were just like "Oh you guys did such a great job. Thank you, thank you, thank you" and I'm like "Listen, I'm not trying to be rude but who are you?" and they were like "Oh we understand Billy, we know you guys do a lot of houses" and I felt bad because I used to have that personal connection with every single homeowner and I don't get it anymore. I know that you're kind of going into the same place. You were at least at every single job once a day or once a week while it was going on; now I know there are a lot of jobs that you just don't even get to go see. There's just a name associated with somebody. How do we make those homeowners that truly are sometimes just at least a name still feel special? How do we control that quality?

Kenny Sharpless: Honestly I think it falls back on the guys again, like I said our guys are topnotch guys. They're very personable; when they meet the homeowners the homeowners always have a great experience with our guys, easy to talk to and will do anything for you. Which goes back to our Wow Service and Wow for us. This is anything from moving a rock out of your driveway to adjusting a homeowner’s stove because we adjusted Smart Jacks under her house which caused the stove to be not leveled. So to me part of our Wow Service was me going in there and spending five minutes in adjusting her stove.

Bill Anderson: When you talk about Wow Service we actually truly empower our people. I was talking with you before we had gotten to the radio station about how there was a job that happened this week and we had to take the discharge out another 10 feet so it would actually work because there was a little bit of a crown in the ground. The foreman said "You know what? I don't care, we're going to run it farther" and a few weeks ago when Heather was here she had talked about how there's actually a monetary number associated with that, so Pier had actually put that extra discharge in with no cost to the homeowner to make sure that the system worked the way it should have. I think that's really one of our large things that we try to do with our guys so they are capable of making those types of decisions in the field. If it's not going to work we need to do whatever it takes to make it work.

Kenny Sharpless: Like I said we send them away to Nebraska and Connecticut, like you said before we are going down to various other companies to sit in with them and learned some stuff so our guys get plenty of training. This way they very capable of handling questions or concerns and then with the Wow stuff our guys will do anything, Wow's whatever it takes to make the job good and done.

Bill Anderson: I was sitting there with a homeowner this morning that had some crawl space work done and she was having some issues with her foundation. She was actually getting a lot of sagging on the inside of her crawl space and we started talking about the quality of the work because they went out and got a generic contractor to do their crawl space remediation work. They just went down to Lowe's and bought some corrugated pipe, some really cheap drain tiles and French drains. When they came in there with their plastic, it was just some really cheap plastic, along with a sump pump from Lowe's that was plastic which will probably burn up in a year. The sad part is I actually did the numbers for it and it would have actually cost him less money to have us go in there to encapsulate it than it would have the other guy. Unfortunately part of what was happening was they ran their liner up overtop the sill plate and when you do that you're taking all the ground moisture and funneling it towards the wood so when this happens you start having wood rot, mold, termites and everything else. You and I were recently at a house that if the homeowners would have taken care of this five- ten years ago and you know where I'm talking about, that house inGeorgetown, it wouldn't have been as bad as it was. Why don't you explain exactly how bad it was because I had you crawling underneath there with me?

Kenny Sharpless: Yes, like you say a lot, it doesn't take long for a good problem to go bad but for a bad problem to get worse it can happen overnight. In that case if she had gotten us in there five years ago and had her crawl space encapsulated the work that's going to have to be done now could have been salvaged. Also she probably wouldn't have to spend a third of the amount of money that she's probably going to have to spend now to fix the damaged floor joists, the banner board that's rotten and all that's all due to the moisture in the crawl space.

Bill Anderson: The sad part is the insurance company isn't paying anything for it because this was an ongoing condition; it wasn't like it flooded because you just don't get a flood one time causing your floors to rot out. It may have flooded and there was enough moisture down there over time but it takes a while for wood to rot out. We actually have a little mold type farm in our office that we use for home shows. So we have this great big Tupperware thing that they use in restaurants to make salads and pastas. We have wood in there along with sheet rock, paper and some of our different inorganic materials we use. It takes a while so I'm putting hot water in this thing every day and we actually had mold grow. We then took a coffee cup put some coffee in it and let the mold grow in the coffee then took the mold out to actually give it like a starter culture. I put a lot of mold in this thing and it's still taking forever. The sheet rock is just now getting some mold on it but it's taken a good long while and this has been the last couple of months to really get a lot of mold on top of the wood and everything. Like I said I'm inducing boiling hot water every day and it stays wet for a day but we keep putting it in there to get that nice hot warm temperature so it's not like this wood rot happens overnight; it's going to happen over time. When you start looking at your girders where you can grab it the main supporting beam is your girder when you grab it and it falls apart in your hands.

Kenny Sharpless: Disintegrates?

Bill Anderson: It disintegrates which is a bad thing and there's nothing worse than the backbone of your house falling apart. So when we talk about getting these things done when you first buy a house, it's brand new, it's supposed to be in good shape. So why wait until it gets bad to go fix some of these problems.

Kenny Sharpless: I've built residential homes for 10 years so I kind of know a lot of the new building practices, the way it should and shouldn’t be done and since I've worked for DryZone I really now learned the way it should be compared to the way it shouldn't be. A lot of builders call it a conditioned crawlspace meaning a crawlspace with vents in there to let the outside air in and that's not right it’s not what a conditioned crawlspace is. What we do is initially is a conditioned crawl space.

Bill Anderson: When we use the right material for it anybody can keep a roof dry with a tarp but wouldn't you just rather have tarp papers than shingles and everything else that it normally takes. That's what is happening you get these Chuck in a truck in there and they're essentially basically trying to put a tarp down there and pass it off as something that is going to work. I think we're actually up against the break here but when we get back I really want to talk to you about what you've seen in the field from these other different companies that try to do what we do and what kind of problems you've seen that actually cost the homeowners.

Kenny Sharpless: Okay.

Bill Anderson: So folks we'll be right back and like I said this is Bill Anderson from Under Your Home with DryZone.

Bill Anderson: All right folks, we are back. I appreciate you being here and Kenny I absolutely appreciate you filling in for Jason. I think you'll actually be here the next couple of weeks doing this. Before the break we started talking about wood rot, mold and everything else that seems more often than not that we'll go into a house that was done like maybe six years ago or ten years ago when this whole conditioned crawlspace thing started really gearing up and everybody got into it. What have you seen? Like I know I was down there with one of our inspectors in a house that we didn't do that they took the liner, their version of CleanSpace, and ran it up the wall overtop of the insulation and they took those little green nails that they use for tieback. What do you call them? Button caps?

Kenny Sharpless: Button caps?

Bill Anderson: Button caps, yes, and they used that to push it down the liner into the insulation to hold it into place. Then they took some Batt insulation and jammed it up in the banner board which draped it over top of their liner so when I got out of the crawl space the homeowner said "Listen, this system just doesn't seem to work right. I spent all this money" he's like "I didn't know you guys were here. I heard you guys on this radio station so I wanted you guys to come out and look at it because something's just not right." I went underneath there with the inspector and we started crawling around pulling some of that insulation down and all they did was roll it up on top, stuck that button cap in there and it wasn't even sealed. I mean I could pull the whole walls down with my pinky. The homeowner was livid, the company's now out of business.

Kenny Sharpless: All they've done is channel the moisture right up to the banner board.

Bill Anderson: You leave the three inches but they never sealed it so all they did was they tried to hide the poor workmanship that they did. So one of the biggest philosophies I have in life is "trust but verifies" and that's kind of what the homeowner was doing. Unfortunately the company was out of business. They were a landscaper, they were doing a whole lot of landscaping especially over the winter time, they said "Hey, I know, let's get into this crawl space thing because we see DryZone all over the place and they must be making money" so you can't beat that hard. So they went in there and did what they did and for whatever reason, I have no idea even who they were, we have a business name but that was it, they're out of business. Now the homeowners are out $5000-$10,000. To have it done right it's going to cost them a little bit of money to have it fixed. So the moral of the story is that sometimes you get what you pay for and I get the fact that homeowners don't know who to listen to, it all starts sounding the same. When you start looking at cars, TV's or if you even start looking at cruise lines. For instance my wife and I and my daughter were planning on going on our first cruise this year so I started looking at everything with my sister's going with us they're obsessing about it so now I'm obsessing about it which is a lot of fun. It all starts sounding the same this cabin number, that cabin number, this deck, that deck it all is the same. So who do you believe? Kenny I know that you don't see a lot of the sales process but you've seen the pre-mailers that we send out to homeowners. It has this thing that we talk about, things you should ask your contractor which I'd like to talk to you a lot about next week because this paper that we send out to you if you don't know what to ask a contractor it tells you what to ask. You don't even have to know what you're talking about.

Kenny Sharpless: That could keep you from getting your Chuck in the truck or your DryZone, that could get you somebody who's going to do the poor job on your house or that could get you somebody who's going to do the quality job and do it right.

Bill Anderson: Exactly, the last thing you want to do is spend a lot less on something that you really should have because if you go to McDonald's, you go to the guy who's selling hamburgers out of his truck on the street I bet you the guy selling hamburgers out of the truck on the street is probably lower, you can get it for like 35 cents or you can go do McDonald's and just spend 99 cents, get at least a double cheeseburger or whatever they have nowadays. I hate seeing homeowners when they're like "Listen, he did a good job for my neighbor" which is probably his first job and he really tried hard to do a good job and then he found out how hard it was and said "The heck with this, let's find some shortcuts." Because let's face it that's what at least a good amount of builders do. There are a lot of really great ones out there, I know of a few myself, like Jo Baulderstone, he's a great contractor down inRoyal OakinEaston. I really like him, I think he does a really good job, and he really studies and he actually - whenever we call him up he's like "Billy, listen, whatever it takes to make this the right way that's what we'll do, just do the best you can as far as price on me" and we always do, we're not the super huge company that's going to charge a million bucks, we truly do believe that if we keep our prices low that the people come to us.

Kenny Sharpless: A lot of places to me pay you go to a Mercedes, you buy the Mercedes name. With DryZone you're not just buying DryZone's name and what we offer, the quality or experience but you're also buying a product that is of that quality as well so you're not getting a cheaper quality product, you're getting the best quality product that's out there which is what I've seen on houses that I've gone into that other companies like us have done, that seems to be more or less what you see, the details. To me the devil's in the detail and when you go into somebody else's house that another contractor did and you see the little stuff the tape seams, the stuff that's really easy and small that should be taken care of at a glance of an eye that gets left and they just don't seem to care about it, that's not us. Our guys are once we get done we go through the house again and again to make sure that everything's done and it's done right.

Bill Anderson: To me that's all part of training, we've said it a million times on here how much we actually spend on training and what it takes to actually make it professionally. I haven't said it on too many of your production meetings but I do know that that's always the first thing you started with is "What do we do better than everybody else?" and every single week that I've been in there you have talked about it and everybody keeps reiterating this is why we're better. When I go to work for somebody I always want to work for the best company and that's the reason why, it seems like lately we've been getting more phone calls from people who were in "the conditioning crawlspace business" than we ever had before because all those other guys are going out of business and people are really starting to figure out that we are better than everybody else. A lot of times folks look at us and they're like "Well Billy you say you have a better product and it's at least as much if not better than the other homeowners. Why is that?" I look at it as the better you are at something the less expensive it should be because if you start specializing in something and you start learning how to make things go better. I mean the first time you pick or turn on a computer it takes a while for you to learn and to become efficient at it. We'll probably do what? 500- 700 homes this year?

Kenny Sharpless: Easily, yes.

Bill Anderson: Easily and eventually you get good at it, right? So when you have other companies in there that are pest control companies, I don't always mean to pick on the pest control companies because I know it's mean so I don't want any haters out there but pest control companies seem to think that because they're in their spraying their pest control stuff that they can start doing it. Now there are a lot of companies I mean a lot of pest control companies out there that don't. They're like "Listen, we're the bug guys; we will call in the specialists when we need it." When I'm underneath the house we could very easily tell the homeowners "Yes, we'll take care of your bugs while we're down here." However we don't because I don't want to get into the bug business. If we did that then I'm going to loose focus on what we do, even if we did, I could spray your house for bugs in 10 minutes and I can do it for like $20 with a can of Raid. It doesn't make it right but if I told you "Oh, it's the same stuff that all these other companies use" who are you to believe? So hopefully you're listening to these things because you should always ask your contractor for licenses which a lot of folks don't ask me whenever I go out to do inspections for homeowners. I have one guy who pulled out the sheet and he said "Bill" and then started going right down the list, he was like "Tell me about this, tell me about that." I pulled out the sheets so obviously I have the answers to it but the first question he asked was "Is your company licensed in that state that they work in?" So we work inDelawareandMarylandso basically we own the entire peninsula except for the bottom part ofVirginia. So I don't go intoPennsylvania, I don't go intoNew Jerseyand I don't go even on the western shore. When we work we have to have certain licenses through the state of Delaware, we have to have all of these different town licenses, but in Maryland your MHIC's, which is your Maryland Home Improvement Commission licensed there are companies that I've seen on TV, the radio and even in print ads that give you this MHIC number so I'm telling you right now they don't have one. It kills me because that's one of the things we're very proud about because it's not really easy and any idiot just can't go out there to get a license in Maryland which I love Maryland for that because they really have to show the state that they're a good company. We had to take tests, show our credit reports every year, show deeds to our houses and all that good stuff. Now if I had it right which I know I do, if a contractor screws up in your home in the state ofMarylandthey take care of you and then the state ofMarylandwill go after the contractor so the state ofMarylandwants to make sure that you have something there to get. So you have to have some type of a financial responsibility kind of a background for you to even have a license inMaryland. In New Castle County to get certain licenses, I was also talking to some of our electricians and plumbers that work for us and you just can't go to work in New Castle County, you have to have been in business for so long which I forget all the criteria but New Castle County's tough and I love it. The last few minutes we have here this morning I really want to focus in on our basement finishing products, and we had Burt Murray in here a few weeks ago who started talking about the things that we do and how it is a wonderful product but you deal with a lot more of the inspectors than I do so we call for all these different inspections that aren't even called for, right? Kind of talk about those a little bit would you?

Kenny Sharpless: Before getting started I usually have one of the inspectors meet me out at the house that we're actually doing the work on and that's just so that as well as me looking at it, Billy looking at it, I've got the inspector of that township, county, whatever it may be, I've got that inspector actually looking at what I'm working with and seeing if he sees anything that I'm unfamiliar with there that we need to be aware of. Most of the inspectors that I've talked to seem to appreciate that, they seem to appreciate that we're going to take the time and get with them ahead of time rather than start a project, running the issues, and then trying to fumble around trying to fix up. So they seem to appreciate the questions and the upfront concerns and comments.

Bill Anderson: We're trying to figure out the issues before the issues find us.

Kenny Sharpless: I tell a lot of our homeowners when I'm talking to them that DryZone to me isn't just a company that's here to fix your problem crawlspace, basement or whatever it is, but we try to be proactive as well as preventative." When we do our basements or when we do our jobs we actually try to think "Okay, what could the problem be with this system?" and then we try to solve it before it ever becomes a problem.

Bill Anderson: Yes, even in crawlspaces I know we always kind of focus in on crawlspaces but you have sewer lines and a lot of times they're laying right in the ground so we work really hard at getting those liners underneath that pipe so that way if there's ever a leak you know it and the plumber doesn't have to sit there and try to open up the liner and find out where it actually is and everything else. We really try to make sure that everything's exposed like the fist thing I know that the guys do when they get in a house is they tack up the wires because there's nothing worse than you spending all of this money and you say "Man, you know what? They did a great job except for the first day the guy pulled the cable wire out." So it was a great job but and I hate that but, I mean there's nothing worse to a reputation than having somebody say "You know what? They did a great job but..."

Kenny Sharpless: We want the homeowners to look in there and see a nice clean crisp look. When the clean space is in and finished that's ideally what you should have, you should have a nice clean crisp look.

Bill Anderson: When the basements are done you shouldn't really even know we were there.

Kenny Sharpness: The water issue being resolved.

Bill Anderson: Leaving the water issue being resolved, you'll see the nice pretty white plastic up two feet up the walls but other than that you have a brand new sump pump that looks like it's always been there so it blends right in. When we do foundation work you would never know we were there hopefully because that means your floors are straight and there are no huge gaping cracks in your foundation. With basement finishing you should know we were there, you should definitely go downstairs and say "Wow"! I know in a few weeks we're having an open house up in Bear for one of our homeowners and all of his neighbors are already coming down saying "Tell me when it is because I really want to talk to these guys because my basement doesn't look half as good as this, I spent twice as much getting it done, and it was just with dry wall that's going to get ruined."

Kenny Sharpless: I actually spent a lot of time up on that house and while I was outside working I'd be working with the guys and homeowners would stop and talk to me and ask me what we were doing there because they'd see our lettered trucks and what not and I would just go into detail, start explaining to them stage by stage what we were doing and a lot of homeowners that was their reaction, they were just at awe, and then once I showed them the material that was what really set it up. The one neighbor across the street was telling me that he's seen most of his neighbor's basements and out of all the basements he's seen the homeowner that we just finished has the nicest basement and he was shocked, he was running around town to the rest of his neighbors. I think in one day I probably had four to five homeowners stop by just to see what was going on and see what it looked like.

Bill Anderson: Kenny, the time on the wall says this was actually a pretty quick half hour. Listen folks my name once again is Bill Anderson, I'm being joined by Kenny Sharpless. Kenny you're actually going to join me next week, correct?

Kenny Sharpless: Yes, I'm going to try.

Bill Anderson: What I'd like to do is give you our websites again so if you have any of these issues and any of these questions, even if you just want some advise. You can always catch us on DryZone.com\the duck. So Kenny I appreciate it and folks we will talk to you next weekend!

What is so smart about these jacks

Wed, May 16 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Bethany Beach, Delaware April 5 2012 3:30 in the afternoon Foundation Supportworks by DryZone receives a call from a homeowner in Bear Trap Dunes, who has structural problems in their home! It seems that many of the doors and windows in the home have “racked” or went out of square, making them stick or not open or shut at all. This problem has been happening for a few years now but has really gotten worse this spring, the homeowners were at their wits end, and searched the internet for a company who could fix this type of problem.

As the only real foundation repair company on Delmarva, DryZone went to the home to perform an initial inspection that is free. Bill the inspector for DryZone soon found the problem, you see the concrete piers that go down the middle of the home had shifted, and that was making the floors above it sink and that “sinking” made the doors and windows not operate correctly. Bill recommended seven new Smart Jack crawlspace supports; these jacks once installed transferred the weight of the home onto the new piers, and then lifting the floors began. After a short time, the Bethany Beach home was brought back to a level position.

DryZone is the only Foundation Supportworks dealer for all of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we offer a 25 year nationally backed warranty, and completely trained crews, so you will never have to worry about who is working on your home. Homeowners from as far north as Wilmington, DE to as far south as Pocomoke, MD have trusted DryZone for all of their structural issues.

A what kind of escape?

Wed, May 16 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Any basement that is going to be finished in Delaware must have an egress or fire escape, if you choose to place a bed room in the basement than you will need that egress in that bed room, and if two or more bed rooms are built in the basement then you will have to have one for each bed room. We are asked many times by homeowners why they need an egress, our answer is simple if a fire takes out the stairs to the first floor how will you get out in a fire. Total Basement Finishing by DryZone can install as many egresses as you need

It starts by first digging a large hole next to the foundation, and our rock wall is then installed where we will be cutting your foundation so the new window can me mounted. All of our products have been approved for residential and commercial basement finishing application and come with nationally baked warranties.

I hope that you will never need to use the new basement fire escape, but if the need ever happens you can rest assured that by choosing DryZone to have this life saving product installed in your home, you will be able to leave a burning home safely and securely. DryZone installs these and many more basement finishing products in every town on Delmarva, including Middletown, DE- Smyrna, DE- Easton, MD and Salisbury, MD

Cinco DE Mayo

Wed, May 16 2012, 00:00:00 -500

DryZone Delaware and Maryland’s largest waterproofing company celebrated Cinco De Mayo on May 4, 2012. We have a very diverse company Heather Anderson, DryZone’s Quality Assurance Manager, was quoted saying, so we had the idea to celebrate with our Latino employees. The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capitol and throughout the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually September 16.

We love our employees they are a great bunch of guys, they are the best at fixing basement when rain begins to fill it up or if you have mold or high humidity in your crawlspace. Edwin a newer employee to DryZone said he has worked for many companies in Sussex County Delaware when he moved here from Puerto Rico a few years ago and has never had an employeer treat their guys with as much respect as he gets here at DryZone.

Have DryZone out to fix your basement or crawlspace, we cover all of De and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, including Dover, DE -Bridgeville, De-Eden, MD-Chestertown, MD

Basement Finishing Information

Thu, May 10 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Male Speaker: It's time for Under Your Home with DryZone. DryZone in Milton, Delaware -your complete source for basement and crawl space waterproofing, foundation repair, and basement finishing; 24-hour service - we never sleep at DryZone.

Bill Anderson: Good morning, this is Bill Anderson and this is Under Your Home with DryZone. I appreciate you folks getting up, having coffee with us. We're joined with Brad Wazlavek, one of our design specialists and Adam - he had so much fun last week that he wanted to hang out again. So, Adam I appreciate you getting up this morning.

Adam: Glad to be here.

Bill Anderson: And Brad you're employed by me so, you just had to do.

Brad Wazlavek: Where you tell me where to be I'll be there.

Bill Anderson: Listen, we were talking last week after show and I'm going to kind of let you guys talk a little bit. You kind of had your own little agenda for today. Before we start let's go ahead and get those pesky numbers out of the way. Adam you're still a guest here so why don't you go ahead and start.

Adam: J&A Electric at (302) 943-9894.

Brad Wazlavek: And of course you can get hold of DryZone online at DryZone.com - really neat website, constantly changing, so I definitely recommend checking that out.

Bill Anderson: Yes please because I work really hard at making sure that website -- I don't think people actually grasp when we start talking about our website, Brad, but we work so hard on our website, there's so much - have you ever been on our website, Adam?

Adam: Yes.

Bill Anderson: Okay. Have you been on it recently?

Adam: Not recently, in the past few weeks.

Bill Anderson: When he says recently it's almost every single day.

Adam: Like every hour.

Bill Anderson: I like to be on every five minutes there's so much information on there. Technically we have three different websites. We have our DryZone.com and we have our Delmarva Foundation Repair which is more of like our commercial foundation website and then we have our Total Basement Finishing-MD-DE.com.

Adam: Total basement finishing will get you there.

Bill Anderson: Yes, and then you just click on the Delaware part. On our main page if you ever want to check out those two just go to DryZone.com, scroll all the way to the bottom, and it actually has the two icons - the Foundation Support icon and the TBF, Total Basement Finishing icon. But just the DryZone.com is an amazing website, Adam. It's so interactive, there's so much stuff going on. You should be able to really find out every single thing you want. Recently we have been trying to win the Better Business Bureau Torch Award in Delaware so we had submitted a packet to them explaining to the Better Business Bureau why we deserve this award. We talk a little bit about our website. When you look at it there's so much information that you have to be careful, sometimes too much information is a bad thing. It's not splashy, it's just very user-friendly and I think that's very important. My mom and Dad are constantly on the website now. Not my website but just the internet in general and my Dad will say, "Billy should I touch this? Should I hit this button? What should I do?" Mom and Dad never had a computer so this is their first real introduction to it. Now they're on Facebook, which is scary. DryZone does have a - just for you folks who actually do go on Facebook - DryZone does have a Facebook page so find us and like us.

Brad Wazlavek: The majority of the world is on Facebook now.

Bill Anderson: I live through my wife's Facebook when she posts all of our stuff on it.

Brad Wazlavek: You know the cool thing about that is the DryZone Facebook page let's you know if we have an upcoming event. A couple of months back we did a Habitat for Humanity where we went to the Green Turtle in Louis. It was actually October 25th we went to the Green Turtle. Adam was just a huge help with that. We went there and donated 10% of the daily profits, we had a booth set up and we were educating people and had a lot of different donations come in from different areas. Like I said, Adam was a huge help with that, getting a doctor's office and some other stuff came in so that was big and obviously the Facebook page is the place to find out about those things. If you go in there and you like us you'll get updates and also we'll tend to throw things out there if there's a storm coming, a lot of people say "You know my basement only leaked the one time."

Adam: Water's not going anywhere; it's going to find a way in. If it found a way in one time it will find a way in again so keep an eye on that. When it’s into the rainy season definitely checking out our page, see if there's a storm coming.

Bill Anderson: Let's be honest about it, we didn't have much of a winter this year. It's going to be spring here shortly. It's raining more and more every week.

Brad Wazlavek: And with the snow we had a quarter inch, it was up north a little.

Bill Anderson: We had to, actually, go up north a couple of weekends ago. Heather, my wife, and I, we've been on the Atkin's diet so we haven't really been eating anything good, it's just all been proteins. I don't know if you guys have ever done this, but I'm telling you now fondue is the coolest thing in the world and that sounds very 1970, but I'm telling you it is so much fun. You sit at this little private table and have a little burner in front of it and they put this pot in front of you and you get to pick out these different types of cheeses. They actually melt the cheese right in front of you and they bring out apples and bread, and when you're on a no carb diet that's pretty much what bread is trust me, that bread tasted really good that night.

Brad Wazlavek: So you did that?

Bill Anderson: Oh yes, we definitely went high on the hog. And we don't normally do the dinner part; we've actually been doing the dessert part. We got this chocolate and peanut butter and then they put raspberry, cherry and blackberries. You start dipping like cheesecake and marshmallows. Even at 6:30 in the morning cheesecake sounds good. I don't remember where we were all going with that, but where were we?

Brad Wazlavek: It was snow. We got off topic on the snow. Like you said, we didn't really have a winter time so it's definitely going to hit the rainy season soon, keep an eye out for it. There are a million ways to get a hold of us. I mean DryZone is a pretty recognizable name; it's short and easy to remember. If you type in DryZone in a Google search you're going to come up with our page.

Bill Anderson: Yes, just make sure because there's apparently this cream that you can buy.

Brad Wazlavek: Really?

Bill Anderson: Yes, there's actually a Dry Zone Cream, not a waterproofing cream. It's really bizarre.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, it's funny.

Bill Anderson: Remember to put the .com after it. Like we were talking about our website, if you actually want to see your inspector you'll have pictures and a little bio, there's pictures of a lot of our team members and I'm working really hard to get everyone on it. Not only their picture. It's funny - I was looking at a lot of different websites, not even just within our own industry, I started looking at every website I could. Most companies when they have a meet-your-team page, which is what we have, they only put their sales guys on there, or the top people; they never actually put the guy who sweeps the shop, the guy who gets the dirtiest, who really works - let's face it - probably the hardest. They're never putting that up there. So we believe that we want to take care of all of our employees and all of our employees truly are family. There's nothing we wouldn't do for them and we know there's nothing they wouldn't do for us. We actually are trying to get all the bios of everybody in the company; that way when Brad goes out and hopefully they're already going to look at the website and they're going to see Brad and they're going to say "Oh Brad how's Jeremy, your son?" because Jeremy's on there.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, actually speaking of him his birthday is actually tomorrow, he turns eight, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Bill Anderson: When you look at it, Brad's going to be able to say "Okay, listen, since you know me you were obviously on that page." This is your foreman, this is his history, and then you may have - let's just for example say that it was Jeff and Jeff has a Henry and Israel on his crew. You're going to be able to know who Jeff, Henry, and Israel are and it's going to say that Jeff's the foreman and Israel he's the co-foreman and Henry he's the helper on the crew. That way it makes lot more personal.

Brad Wazlavek: I think it also makes the homeowners feel a lot more comfortable too.

Bill Anderson: Yes, because they know who they're dealing business with - everybody.

Brad Wazlavek: And how many times do you hire a contractor that even - I would say that a lot of people have some sort of landscaping done, even the guy that just mows your lawn.

Bill Anderson: I plan on just putting rocks in my yard.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, that's the easiest way to go, exactly. Let's just say for instance you have that, how many times do you really meet the guys who are actually doing it? This is a way that it makes it a lot more personable and makes you a lot more comfortable with our company and these guys obviously - like you said it's a family-run business, it's really tight knit. That was one of the things that really impressed me when I first started working here. It's been almost a year now and everybody looks out for each other, everybody takes care of each other. We get calls in the morning when the foreman’s go to our jobs and let us know "Hey, you know what? Your jobs starting. Anything I should know?" things like that - it's kind of nice, it's a really well run company and it really impressed me a lot from when I first started.

Bill Anderson: One of the neatest things that we do is a few weeks ago we held a job fair and I like to bring the people, whenever we're hiring for production, I like to bring the foremen in with their production manager and they get to interview a little bit. They get to talk to people, but when that actually comes down to hiring they actually get the vote on whom. They have to feel if that person's actually going to work well on their crews. I've had jobs before where companies have just hired arbitrary people - the manager's hired somebody and the workers are stuck with them -- whether they were good, bad, or what - so the lower people on our crews have a say on who's going to work on their crew. The biggest philosophy we have from Basement Systems and we've held it true to this day and it goes” "As long as I'm alive and as long as I am in DryZone it's going to stay that way." Most companies you go into there’s always inter office gossip; "Oh that guy over there, he's a jerk; that guy over there don't talk to him, don't eat lunch with him, he's just an ignorant so and so." With Basement Systems you don't hear that, there was no behind the doors punching somebody in the gut kind of thing. Everybody truly liked each other. These folks, when they started their company they all knew each other, they were all friends, and it wasn't like the new person who came in they had to try to work their way into this click. It was "Listen if we're going to hire you we're going to welcome you with open arms, you don’t have to earn your spot here, you've got to earn your right to get on my crew." Well they're the ones who voted them in basically so they can't turn around and say "You can't do this because you have to earn your right to do this." You voted him in so obviously you gave him that right. I think that when you really empower your employees to really help pick who they're going to work with they all start being a little bit more critical of who they want to hire. Definitely we have a performance-based type of a program with our guys. A lot of their money comes from, or a lot of their paycheck comes from the work being done on time and correct so they don't want to lose a bonus because somebody's in there not doing a good job. And when you have that type of philosophy your company people don't sit there and ride the clock anymore. I have a friend of mine that has a business and it's a small construction company and there are three guys working for him. He was out bidding a job one day and he came back and two of the guys were sleeping. They were sitting in one of the bedrooms because I guess they were still framing it up and they were just there taking a nap. While the cat's away the mice will play. And I truly believe that everybody in our company, when we go away we're fortunate enough in life, (and I thank God every morning) that I'm able to do the things with my family. Last year we went out on a cruise and it was our first real vacation because I wasn't using my cell phone on that boat because of the cost. But I knew that the company was taken care of because I have good people in place. Adam, like I said that's one of the reasons why we chose you guys to do electricity because you follow our same philosophies. You're going to see that on our website, you're going to see the people that you deal with, and very shortly we're trying to get links to our different vendors and all that other stuff so that way when we say "Hey listen, we're going to refer Adam" they're going to know who it is. It will be just like a meet-the-team page but it's going to be, for example: we use Jim and Donny from Kodiak Construction. They actually do a lot of our different panels and stuff like that for our Total Basement Finishing projects. Or if somebody needs just some different stuff done they're great for stuff like that. I want to be able to have those people on there, Adam, I want to have you and your guys on there, and we use Dave Brickman for plumbing and heating. I plan on getting Active Pest Control and their guys on there.

Brad Wazlavek: As I was going to say we've had Active on the show before.

Bill Anderson: Yes, like my brother-in-law, David Lawson, from Dr. Energy Saver. There's a lot of stuff that we know we'll partner up on that when there are some companies out there that are still - you've all heard the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" right? Like Adam you're an electrician, you're a master at it, you know what you're doing, you're an expert - but that's what you do. You're not going to go into basement waterproofing next week.

Adam: No, I don't think so, unless you want me to earn a little bit more money.

Bill Anderson: But it's one of those things that like I'm not going to go be an electrician. Why, because you're not going to be as good because you can't know everything.

Adam: I enjoy working with you guys because I see it on every level, from the office on down, that nobody pretend to step over their boundaries of what they can do or pretends to know everything.

Brad Wazlavek: And that's what I like. When I first started, of course it's almost like nervousness when you start a job, you don't know whose where, you're looking for the clicks and that doesn't really happen in our company, it's pretty crazy. I have a lot of respect after going to a few job sites when they're doing the install. These guys they work hard - like eight, nine hours in a row - it blows me away. I do a crawl space inspection; I'm under your house a half hour or 45 minutes at most. These guys are under there crawling around in dirt and everything else for eight hours. They come home and they do it all over the next day and they love it. To do that kind of a job, that's hard physical work and love it every single day, that just shows the level of dedication you just don't find these days and it really just blows me away. With the whole family aspect of the company you really do feel that way. They have a lot of good constructive criticism whereas some other companies they might come in and they give you some criticism - it's not so constructive. These guys actually take it in because they know it's coming from the heart and that's really a big deal to me - to be able to work with somebody and then respect them enough to actually do that. It's a big deal to me that they have a good company and this is definitely - like I've seen, myself included, a couple of guys come on after the job fairs or whatever and they'll say "You know what? This isn't even a job, this is a career," to hear somebody say that their second day on the job is a big deal.

Bill Anderson: And I think they all really enjoy it. Troy, actually he's looking at me funny, because he keeps holding up a sign that says "Break" so I'm going to let him enjoy his job and not yell at us about staying too long.

Adam: J&A Electric, you can reach us at (302) 943-9894.

Bill Anderson: And we'll be right back folks.

Male Speaker: It's dark and dank, filled with mold and mildew, and there are creatures crawling, creeping.

Male Speaker: Do you want to save energy costs and save up to 20% of your heating bill each month? Let DryZone show you how. DryZone will install a clean space encapsulation system in your crawl space and save you money. When your crawl space is encapsulated by DryZone your heating system won't work so hard, your tile and hardwood floors won't be cold, and your crawl space becomes great for storage. DryZone offers interest-free financing for 18 months.

Male Speaker: Start the New Year off right with Creative Kitchens and Floors at Seaford Delaware. Serving Delmarva with pride and commitment Creative Kitchens and Floors is celebrating 19 years in business. And they're offering their promotion ever - take an additional 19% off their already low prices on kitchen cabinetry. Choose from wood mold. Wood mold is universally recognized as one of the finest kitchen cabinets. Thinking economically? Think Aristocrat cabinetry. Hurry, this sale ends February 29th. Call Mike Griffith today at (302) 629-3166 for an appointment and details today for that new kitchen you've been dreaming of. Hurry, this sale ends February 29th. At Creative Kitchens and Floors customer satisfaction is our primary goal. (302) 629-3166, (302) 629-3166, or stop by their showroom at 8 North Arch Street Seaford. Congratulations CKF.

Male Speaker: Requirements for 19% discount - 10 cabinets minimum, [inaudible 15:45], countertops, cabinetry installation, floor covering material and installation. MHIC number 14298.Male Speaker: Do you work with or are you a member of an organization that provides employment information or job referrals? Any organization that regularly distributes employment information to job seekers or refers candidates to employers is eligible to receive information about our job vacancies. To be contacted when we have jobs available contact Beverly Jones by mail, PO Box 237 Cambridge Maryland 21613, fax at (410) 228-0130 or by email at bjones211@comcast.net. You will then receive periodic announcements of jobs at our stations. MTS Broadcasting LC is an equal opportunity employer.

Brad Wazlavek: Welcome back, once again this is Brad from DryZone here with Bill Anderson and Adam from J&A Electric. We were talking off the air and actually in between last week and this week. I made a comment last week about the smoke detectors being required in each room in a finished basement. I guess what we did is I went back and did some clarification on that but it's not actually in the code and we'll get into that in just a second. I was under the understanding that it was code because when I went to training they had said that. It's international code so it's one code book pretty much for every state, country, or whatever. And then what you have is –

Bill Anderson: Technically.

Brad Wazlavek: Technically, yes - and then what you have is each state in our county is able to interpret that differently. For instance I know in Connecticut they told me they rarely do an egress window which is basically a fire escape for your basement. It's a big window that you can crawl up out of in case something happens. Down here that is required and the weird thing is with the code it's not required. It's very vague so it's open to interpretation. Now obviously it's a good idea to have a fire escape in your basement, I mean obviously that's a good idea, and with us it's not even an option, it has to be done. Let me get back to the smoke detector thing. Adam you were saying that what's the code exactly again?

Adam: The code states that you have to have a smoke detector in a bedroom outside of a group of bedrooms and in a basement.

Brad Wazlavek: Okay, so just one in the basement is code.

Adam: Correct unless you have a bedroom in your basement.

Brad Wazlavek: Right.

Adam: Then you want to get an additional one in there.

Brad Wazlavek: Also, and again to specify too, if there is a bedroom in the basement it definitely needs an egress in that bedroom.
Bill Anderson: But you don't need one out of the bedroom. If you have like a big room in the basement and a bed room down there which the weird part is what constitutes a bedroom is you have to have a locking door and a closet.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, like I said code is very open to interpretation by different people and some things are not, some things are, I leave it up to the code official and most of what they say does make good sense. A fire escape are always a good idea obviously, but if you’re in a bedroom which has to have a locking door and a closet, the fire escape, an egress window, has to be there. Now if you have a bedroom and then a wide open space; you don't necessarily need to have the egress window, but as long as you can get out that bedroom window you're good.

Bill Anderson: One thing that I was talking, actually with our production manager kind of following your egress thing - one thing that we're going to try to start doing is we're going to try to start eliminating that - we use what's called a Rockwell folks and Rockwell it's just a very pretty way of holding back the dirt. When you cut a hole in a window or cut a hole on a basement it's below grade so you have to have some type of a shroud, some type of a well to keep the dirt from obviously flowing into the window. In a fire you're trying to get out as fast as you can and the biggest thing that's going to help you get out as fast as you can is light. We're actually talking about figuring out ways of trying to put lights on the outside on a motion detector, so that way when you're jumping out the window the lights come on, you can actually see where you're going. You can make sure that your wife and your kids are behind you. Those are things that we look at that, I guarantee you most companies don't and that's what's going to separate us between and the other bids that you get. The biggest thing we always talk about in the office, and Adam I'm sure you run into the same problems, is that I don't think a lot of homeowners - it's not that they don't get it, it's just that I don't think they're as informed as they need to be, especially when you're finishing a basement. There's a lot of things that go on, there's a lot of different pieces that go on down there and after a while when you’ve done one, or two, or three different appointments that last two or three hours; you start doing two or three of those things and it all sounds the same, it all looks good, nothing looks really bad. There's a company out there that takes regular fiberglass batt insulation and they glue that to a piece of canvas basically and that's a roll. And when it gets wet they say "What you do is you take your walls down, you lay it out, and you let it dry.

Brad Wazlavek: And I touched on that last week with if you go on YouTube and look up the splash video basement system splash, you can find it but splash should bring it up. It's a very funny video. It's not sort of independently, sort of with us.

Bill Anderson: You know what I'm going to do Brad? I'm going to talk to Catherine, one of the ladies at Basement Systems who helps us with our website. I'm going to make sure that gets actually on our website.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, so if you go to DryZone.com we should have links to most of that stuff already but like I said it's kind of a work in progress. The website actually has come quite far away since even I started almost a year ago. The fiberglass panel is just - they crack me up. When you see that stuff in the water - to kind of let you in - I'm a spoiler here but it starts off like 23 pounds for a panel and like a whole wall down big thing. They soak it in water, it jumps out like 170 pounds, and it’s insane. It's four or five times its weight.

Bill Anderson: It's funny because I had homeowners tell me - and this is how they sell it Adam - you go in there and they take a fork and they stab - they have a sample of it - they go in there and they stab the material with a fork and then they pull it out and then they rub it and all of the fibers go back together because the canvass is kind of like individually woven; so you could actually stab it, pull it out, rub it to where it doesn't really leave a mark. How many people run around stabbing walls with a fork?

Brad Wazlavek: Exactly.

Bill Anderson: With ours you can take a baseball bat and I'm going to tell you right now if you've got kids there's been a baseball bat in your wall, there's been a football impression in your wall, there's been a baseball impression in your wall. My sister took a gold club to me one time and my mom and dad were hot because they came down the basement and there was a golf club sticking out of the wall and my dad's like "What in the world are you kids doing?"

Brad Wazlavek: That's pretty extreme obviously - taking a baseball bat to it - but you really can. Our stuff's made out of concrete and ceramic, it's so hard, and what I like to tell people is "Yes, if you have kids that are whacking your walls with a baseball bat you probably should sit them down and have a talk."

Bill Anderson: You have a son, I was 12 years old, when I was a kid, my brother and I we were making a tent one time outside and my brother ticked me off and I chased him around the backyard with a hammer. I wasn't planning on hitting him. But my dad, trust me, I think my dad was going to hit me with it. It wasn't a good day. But kids are dumb, right? They run around, they have more energy than anybody else in this whole world, and they just start bouncing off the walls. Just look at the ceilings.

Brad Wazlavek: The ceilings, there's always something in there. I was talking about a second ago - not so much your kids are going to take a baseball and then intentionally hit your wall. Incidental contact is not even going to be a problem. If they bump into it, even if it's not even kids, if it's you and a bunch of your friends having a party; if somebody bumps into you, you fall into the wall with a drink. Our stuff glides right off - it's not going to stain - and with the kids again if your kids write on the wall there's a little Mr. Clean Magic Erasers they’re worth their weight in gold, it wipes it right off. We used to take the samples and we write on it with lipstick and we wipe that right off right in the presentation. Ballpoint pen, pencil, anything comes right off.

Bill Anderson: When we first got our dealership for TBF, Total Basement Finishing, my brother-in-law who owns the energy audit and installation company Dr. Energy Saver - David has like four girls, just way too many girls, I felt so bad for him, and now he finally has a son. So, what I did was we took these panels to his house and just normal size, like two foot by two foot or whatever, and we took motor oil and we took lipstick and we took sharpies and we took like everything that the kids could write on with, not that kids are writing with Motor Oil, but we took every single thing that we could think of and put it on there and then wiped it off. I mean sharpies come right off.

Brad Wazlavek: It did, it's just absolutely insane. When I first saw that I was like "What is that stuff made out of?" It was remarkable. And I know if you have dry wall anywhere kids write on those walls, it's a fact of life. If you have this in your basement, and a lot of times you've had people call us up and they want specifically a kids' playroom and you show them that, they're immediately just in love with the wall panel because you wipe that stuff right off like it was brand new.

Bill Anderson: I'm surprised that most people don't have - I mean like I said there's a tremendous amount of unfinished basements out there. We grew up in Colorado, there was no such thing as crawl spaces, so we moved here on Delmarva, it was like 1986 and we moved to Bridgeville. We had this crawl space and we're all mad because where are we going to play. We had no place to play. My dad was like "Well I guess you have to go outside."

Brad Wazlavek: Do you ever go outside?

Bill Anderson: Exactly, I'm like "Okay, well it's the beach, that's cool" and then we realized that tourists come down in the summertime which there's nothing wrong with tourists. That's where we played because it was nice and cool, it was inside, my mom and dad - because now its not like it was when I was a kid. My mom and dad used to let us just roam everywhere. If my daughter's in the mall and she's 12 years old - walking with her friends or whatever, I'm like 10 feet behind staring constantly. I don't let her out of my sight because there's way too many whackos out there and it’s not just a Delmarva thing, it’s not just a Delaware thing, it’s not just a Maryland thing, it's a world thing. There are a lot of scary cats out there.

Brad Wazlavek: That's what - like you were saying - you play in the basement growing up and it's unfinished space. What if you could have that space that kids could play in and the reason why they might have left it unfinished in the ‘70s is because you don't want to worry about the walls getting ruined. Now you don't have to worry about that with Total Basement Finishing panels stuff wipes right off, you're not going to get holes in it, it's amazing. We've mentioned that, I think it was last week, about the weight that the walls can hold, you can pretty much - I joke around if there were mini motorcycles it would pretty much hold it. I don't recommend that but it's pretty funny, it will hold so much weight that you could hang shelves, put all your toys off the floor, and the next thing you know you've got a nice open space that's like a multipurpose room. The sky's the limit with this stuff, it really is impressive.

Bill Anderson: Speaking of little mini motorcycles I have a homeowner that's down in Felton and we did her crawl space and now her crawl space is like six feet high. It was a tall crawl space. You could walk right through it. She actually wanted to put her motor scooters down there. We told her "Ma'am just don't do that." She wanted this great big massive like garage door going into it and she told us "No, it's great for storage, Bill" and I'm like "That's gasoline under your home" and she was like "Okay, never mind." I wouldn't recommend putting motorcycles in your basement.\

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, I would say it's a joke, you never know what people are going to hang on their walls but it's always funny. Really cool stuff, and again we have four divisions, and that's just one of them. The foundation repair is really the next thing I'd like to get into and that's really, really fun. It's a lot more involved in what we're doing now, but that's definitely the next aspect as well. The Total Basement Finishing was a big step for me and the sky's the limit for me as well. Hopefully you'll hear from me in the next couple of weeks or so, we'll see.

Bill Anderson: I'll tell you what, since you brought it up next week and folks grab your pen, grab your papers and all that good stuff because I think we are going to talk about foundations next week. There's actually a couple of really interesting projects that I want to talk about. I've got some really new helical pier projects going on, one where we save the owner of this property tens and tens of thousands of dollars. And then I want to talk a little bit about our Lunch-and-Learn's that we're doing and some of the good stuff. It looks like we've only got about a minute or so left folks. Do you guys have some parting shots; have some parting words of wisdom?

Brad Wazlavek: Like I said I would definitely check us out, DryZone.com. Total Basement Finishing is actually the system and the division so if you want to look that up, it is stuff that's really interesting, a lot of information out there. It's a relatively new way of thinking, but a lot of information out there so definitely check it out, and take a look at the products and if you want, it's actually me that installs for our company. You might actually meet me in person if you want to have me come out and take a look at your basement.

Adam: And I'd just like to add that I've been in this trade over 20 years and it's absolutely amazing to see some of the products that DryZone offers and with the basement finishing and the crawl spaces I definitely would recommend it to anybody.

Brad Wazlavek: Cool, that's always a good endorsement.

Bill Anderson: Why don't we go ahead and give out our numbers here.

Brad Wazlavek: You can also get us on the web at DryZone.com and if you feel like emailing bill he's always available at bill@dryzone.com.

Adam: You can reach J&A Electric at (302) 943-9894.

Bill Anderson: Well it's been a pleasure, I appreciate you both hanging out with me on the weekends, and we'll see you next week.

Brad Wazlavek: Sounds good.

Adam: Sounds good.

Male Speaker: You've been listening to Under Your Home with DryZone. DryZone in Milton, Delaware -your complete source for basement and crawl space waterproofing, foundation repair, and basement finishing; 24-hour service - we never sleep at DryZone.

Electricity in Crawlspaces

Thu, May 10 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Male Speaker: It's time for Under Your Home with DryZone. DryZone in Milton,Delaware -your complete source for basement and crawl space waterproofing, foundation repair, and basement finishing; 24-hour service - we never sleep at DryZone.

Bill Anderson: Good morning folks, this is Bill Anderson with Under Your Home with DryZone and I have a special guest for the next few weeks. We have Brad Wazlavek. Brad, how are you this morning?

Brad Wazlavek: I'm doing pretty well, Bill.

Bill Anderson: Brad's been with us for, I guess about a year now and he takes care of a lot of our crawl spaces, he takes care of a lot of our wet basements, he's also doing our basement finishing projects. You and Burt have been doing that together for a little while now; that's definitely your main area of focus since we moved Burt over to the engineers.

Brad Wazlavek: Oh yes, it's true, I really enjoy it actually. It's something that gives me multiple things to focus on and really, kind of adds another tool to the tool bag as they say.

Bill Anderson: Well not only do we have Brad this morning but we also have Adam and Adam is from J&A Electric Company and they do all of our electric work -Adam how are you this morning?

Adam Klemanski: Good, how are you?

Bill Anderson: We really wanted to talk definitely with Adam this morning, kind of talk about some different codes because I've had a lot of homeowners, and Brad and I, we've talked about this for a little bit, and we go in there and we talk to homeowners about our crawl spaces, even our basements. There are a lot of electrical things that have to go in a home for these different components to work. So, Adam we have a couple of different things that you do for us, like I said in the crawl spaces and basements, and then you do all of our wiring and finish electric stuff for basement finishing projects. So I want to talk a little bit this morning with Adam about electricity for crawl spaces. What actually has to happen? What does the code say? Like with us our SaniDry CXs, they're 6.4 amps, our sump pumps are made by Zoeller and they're like 9.3 and 9.4 amps. What does that actually mean to a layman person? What's an amp? What does it all mean?

Adam Klemanski: Well actually with the National Electric Code it states that anything in a crawl space must be GFI protected especially like receptacles, equipment, and all that stuff. Basically in your installations we usually run a circuit for each piece of equipment due to the drawl of each one.

Bill Anderson: The drawl is what the actual plank uses.

Adam Klemanski: The amperes, correct.

Bill Anderson: So what does GFI mean?

Adam Klemanski: Ground fault - it's actually GFCI, ground fault circuit interrupter.

Bill Anderson: And what does that mean?

Adam Klemanski: It's an imbalance that's created where it will trip like a breaker would.

Bill Anderson: In the event of?

Adam Klemanski: A fault like moisture, anything, any kind of imbalance.

Bill Anderson: So like when your wife tries to throw the toaster in the bathtub.

Adam Klemanski: You've got it.

Bill Anderson: It's supposed to trip so you don't get shocked, right?

Adam Klemanski: Correct.

Bill Anderson: When you start talking about the different wiring and all that, I've gone into a lot of homes and I've seen - and Brad I'm sure you've seen the exact same thing- we go into a house and it's just this great big bird's nest of wires that people are daisy changing everything. If we're working down a crawl space and we plug one of our drills into a socket that's underneath a home the refrigerator might pop off on the third floor or something like that. How do you actually get the wires from point A to point B to where we know it's just a single circuit connection?

Adam Klemanski: We actually go straight from the panel, the circuit breaker, to the receptacle itself which in that term would be a dedicated circuit. We don't plug into anything; it's under the crawl space because standard practice for all our homes was to just drop a receptacle or a light, something of that nature, from the living room or a bedroom or anything that's pretty close by.

Bill Anderson: So you drill through the wood, you go up through the ceiling. I know a lot of times we find them in garages so I mean what's the process of what you guys do to get from point A to point B?

Adam Klemanski: There are a few different ways. When the panel is in the garage, we run a pipe from the panel to the crawl space and drill through and then run our wire. If the panel is in the laundry room or a bedroom say like in an older home we're able to fish down the wall without any damage into the crawl space and go that route.

Bill Anderson: And by fish what do you mean?

Adam Klemanski: Inside the wall.

Bill Anderson: So you'll just drill a hole at the top and the bottom and then?

Adam Klemanski: Yes, come through the bottom plate, drill a hole, fish it up into the panel, like it was pretty much there with the house.

Bill Anderson: I'm assuming we're still using Romex nowadays, right?

Adam Klemanski: Right.

Bill Anderson: The biggest thing with our show is we talk about education. So what I want to do for all the layman people because you all know what Romex is and GFIs. I know you talked with my business partner this morning about trying to run the different panels outside by our shop; even I will start to get clueless on some of the things you guys were talking about. You'll say "Well this three phase is running down the end or the road," so with our show we try to really get the homeowners to understand exactly what's happening on very layman's terms. We use this cable called Romex and I know that's a very standard wire nowadays, right?

Adam Klemanski: Right.

Bill Anderson: What is Romex?

Adam Klemanski: Romex is basically a NM-B cable, non-metallic, sheath cable. It's standard practice in residential applications for today's code and standards.

Bill Anderson: Now what happens if you go in there and you see - because I was looking at some pictures from a house I guess it was last, one of our guys was looking at it. It had the old porcelain knobs and knobbing too, so, tell me how things have progressed from electricity from even 20 or 30 years ago because a lot of our homeowners they're going to see this stuff and if they see the old knob and tube and they're like "Okay, that doesn't look like the Romex thing you were just talking about." What really are the options out there? I know it's just pretty much Romex nowadays but what can people see in their homes?

Adam Klemanski: Well actually by code, knob and tube is actually still legal, it's actually grandfathered in by grandfather - I means if it's part of the home that it can stay but in new applications it's not suggested to use that method because it's outdated and not as reliable as Romex is with the ground. Being the key Romex has the ground and if it were knob and tube it doesn't - that's pretty much a non-insulated wire running across joists and etc. with the use –

Bill Anderson: Good way to get a fire then. So we go from the box and you guys are putting in a brand new breaker and a box.

Adam Klemanski: Correct.

Bill Anderson: We normally talk with like a 15-amp breaker. It's funny I have a lot of homeowners that will put in a dehumidifier and will also put in a sump pump. So, most homeowners say "Okay your dehumidifier is 6.4 amps, your sump pumps like 9.3." So, obviously we're going to be over the 15-amp limit for a breaker. They'll say "Just go ahead and put a 20-amp breaker in there." Why do you not want to do that?

Adam Klemanski: The first thing is that a breaker can only handle 80% of it's rated capacity so a 15-amp breaker can only handle 12 amps and a 20-amp breaker can only handle 16 amps. If you do the math with that you definitely want to stay within the range to where you don't have the possibility of tripping the breaker. If you were to put both of these units on one breaker then obviously it would trip at some point.

Bill Anderson: And the biggest thing that I see is that most people don’t realize that breakers are designed to trip and that's a good thing. You don't want to oversize the breaker just so you can stick more stuff on it. It's funny because I have one homeowner that just would not listen to us. They were like "Billy listen" they had two sump pumps and they had a dehumidifier. They wanted to put like a 30-amp breaker in there and I'm like "We're not doing it" and they're like "Why? It will fit. It technically, will work" and I'm like "You don't oversize the breaker to meet your needs, you put the appropriate breaker in there for the right equipment and that's a huge thing that we see as water-proofers who install the different electrical equipment. I think people just hear "Okay, I need a 30-amp breaker. We'll just install that because it's probably going to be cheaper since you're only running one wire," and then you put like a double duplex box in there. What kind of stuff do you see that you're like "Oh my God, what were they thinking?" I know that - Brad I know you've seen stuff - I've had houses where I've gone in and there was water in the crawl space and this is back when we would go in there when there was a lot of water in there and you go swimming through the crawl space. I came up on this hill, this mound of dirt that was in the crawl space. Sitting right on top of that hill was a wire that came out of the crawl space ceiling onto the ground - it was wound up with an outlet stuck in it that was live. Definitely, not good, so when we look underneath the home one of the first things our guys try to do is staple all the wires up that they can. I don't know about you, Adam, but I can't stand a lot of people in the other trades. There's a house that we did in Georgetown, actually Brad you sold it, we had to have the sewer pipe moved because we had to put in new supplemental girders underneath the crawl space because the floors were sagging and they were getting a lot of moisture in there. We basically had to put in supplemental supports. Well, unfortunately, one of the sewer lines that was going into addition run exactly the same place that we had a support going in. So we called up a plumber to move it and the bad thing was when the homeowner called up the plumber they chose their own guy. Whoever did the cable wires ran it around the sewer pipe, I guess to keep it above the floor, somebody didn't buy nails, and they literally just strapped it all the way around it. So that was a nightmare for the plumber to get done. However, once we did what we had to do they come out, they cut their pipe, we came in there, supported the floor, we lifted the structure. We got it nice and level again - the floor. The plumber came back in and literally right in front of the crawl space door ran the sewer pipe so the crawl space doors are normally only - the entrance - only 32 inches wide by maybe 16 or 24 inches tall. In this case it was actually 24 inches tall so right in the middle of that they ran a four-inch sewer pipe. So you couldn't get any big piece of equipment in there anymore and it was a nightmare because you had to go into like a little basement before you ever got into the crawl space. You had to get up on a ladder, right as you try to go in the door where the HVAC guy already ran the geothermal lines; which was hard enough, now there's a sewer pipe right in your way, it was a complete nightmare. What they did was they ruined that homeowner's entrance. Now they're going to have to pay to have a brand new entrance cut into that crawl space so you can access it from another way because there's just way to do it now. I know you see stuff like that all the time.

Adam Klemanski: What I tend to see is in the workmanship with wiring being on the ground like you said and I know that we take pride in stapling the wires up correctly and making sure that everything is secure. I've also seen that with your guys, they make sure that everything is on point. I think a lot of times it's out of sight out of mind in a crawl space and possibly the homeowner doesn't go under there so maybe a lot of guys, I can't speak for everybody, but they may think "Okay, what's the quickest way to get it done" and it's no big deal because you can't see it.

Bill Anderson: You know it's funny because - and Brad we were talking about this in our last training class we had at the shop - the first house we ever sold DryZone, the first house DryZone ever sold Gary and I went out to do the inspection and to make the presentation to the homeowner. When we got underneath there and the house – maybe it was 1- or 15 years old, I don't know - but what we found was a great big pile of Reese peanut butter cups, the packages, and a 12-pack of beer right in the same pile like somebody was just sitting there, I guess doing the framing and started eating peanut butter cups and drinking beer. What are the weird stuff you guys have seen? You guys have been in a crawl space.

Adam Klemanski: I've actually seen - I have a little collection going on my laptop from strange things I've seen, someone’s watch, I guess maybe broken and they just dropped it in the crawl space, it was laying down there all rusted up. Actually the other day, I guess it's probably a week and a half, or so, ago I saw an old newspaper and nobody can tell that the newspaper is a little older by the print and I got up on top of it and it was shredded up and I found a date stamp and it was from 1947, it was the Wall Street Journal, so I thought that was pretty cool. The house is probably 150 years old and obviously my granddad was down there at some point, or who knows what, but I thought that was pretty cool.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, definitely some strange things. I see a lot of like ‘70s and ‘80s style Pepsi cans and things like that. Where contractors have just thrown their trash when they're doing it and luckily when we go in there and do the clean space system. We clean all that out and it makes it look a lot nicer and then you actually see homeowners - I've had several of them joke about "Hey, however it goes out upstairs I'm crawling underneath the house because it's going to be nice and cozy and clean" and that always makes me smile.

Bill Anderson: I know that you couldn't make it that day, Brad, and I don't know if we ever told you, but the extreme homemaker's house that was down in Mardela, we did the crawl space in it. When we got down in there and it amazed me how fast, we talked about it a lot for like four or five weeks on the show, but when we got down there to actually do the work, my daughter goes to the same school that this young boy, he got his arm cut off, he went to school so my daughter was like "Daddy, I think you really would look kind of cool if you did this house." Actually, Brad you got a hold of the company for us and volunteered our services and everything, when we got there that day it was a concrete floor, it was like pre-cast walls, it was easy to build the home. I was trying to figure out how they built a house that quick because you need dry time in mortar and everything else so they basically had these pre-fab walls that they just pour the concrete in. There was a lot of junk left in this crawl space and the sad part is even if it was just concrete it wouldn't have been bad if somebody went down there and washed it up, it was amazing. And the sad part is I know everybody was trying to get this house done. So, it was quick you leave some material down there. We don't like to leave material on jobs because first of all it's rude, and number two you’d think you'd be able to use it on the next couple of jobs. If we ever wonder why businesses don't succeed it's because they don't keep track of their stuff. When we went underneath there I found a good $200 to $300 worth of fittings, just plumbing fittings underneath there. I found three and a half full boxes of Romex, we found a whole half box of breakers that haven't even been used yet, still wrapped up and everything. It was amazing how much stuff was left down in there. The sad part is we still see that in a brand new house, not some special Extreme Home Makeovers or Habitat for Humanity or anything like that, I'm talking about somebody paid to have this work done, they built their dream home, the house we're going to live in forever and it's a million dollar mansion at the beach - a million dollars doesn't buy you a mansion at the beach anymore but –

Brad Wazlavek: You might want to up that two or three times.

Adam Klemanski: Guilt property, right?

Bill Anderson: It's amazing at how long or how much stuff people live underneath that thing, it just absolutely kills me. So when you go down there and you know nobody takes care of their stuff. We've got to take a break real quick, if you guys will hang out through the break, the station's got to make some money, and we’ll be right back.

Male Speaker: Do you want to cut energy costs and save up to 20% of your heating bill each month? Let DryZone show you how. DryZone will install a clean space encapsulation system in your crawl space and save you money. When your crawlspace is encapsulated by DryZone your heating system won't work so hard, your tile and hardwood floors won't be cold, and your crawl space becomes great for storage. DryZone offers interest-free financing for 18 months. Don't be left out in the cold.

Male Speaker: Do you work with or are you a member of an organization that provides employment information or job referrals? Any organization that regularly distributes employment information to job seekers or refers candidates to employers is eligible to receive information about our job vacancies. To be contacted when we have jobs available contact Beverly Jones by mail, PO Box 237 Cambridge Maryland 21613, fax at(410) 228-0130 or by email atbjones211@comcast.net. You will then receive periodic announcements of jobs at our stations. MTS Broadcasting LC is an equal opportunity employer.

Male Speaker: Hey you, yes you, how much do you get paid per hour? You know that's just about what you'll save by going to Easton Hardware 303 North Washington Street in Easton instead of one of those cavernous discount stores. What would you rather spend your time doing? Looking for your supplies or actually working on your project? At Easton Hardware you'll park a few steps away from the door not way, way down there. You'll go inside, ask for what you need, and quickly be shown all the items to complete your successful do-it-yourself project, not wondering hopelessly lost in aisles of stuff, trying to guess if you picked out the part that will fit your pieces. When you subtract the frustration of trying to look for the supplies you need, subtract the frustration of trying to look for the supplies you need, subtract the extra time, guess what? It all adds up to savings of both your patience and your pocket. Spend time on your project, not on the supplies at the real savings place - Easton Hardware. Easton Hardware 303 North Washington Street in Easton.

Bill Anderson: We are back and we're still being joined with Brad Wazlavek, he's one of our system design specialists at DryZone and we're also here with J&A Electric and before the break our producer was holding up a sign showing the 800 number and we forgot to mention our numbers here. You can always get a hold of DryZone at 955- D-R-Y-Z-O-N-E which is the 800 number or you can get a hold of us locally at (302) 684-5034. You can find us on the web at DryZone.com where all of our shows are archived, where we have lots of videos, we have lots of testimonials, reviews, all that good stuff, and if you have any questions you can always get a hold of me at my email which is simple bill@dryzone.com and Adam since you're our special guest this morning why don't you go ahead and give out your numbers.

Adam Klemanski: You can get a hold of us at (302) 943-9894 or if you prefer email that would be jaelectricde.aol.com.

Bill Anderson: So Adam how long have you guys been in business?

Adam Klemanski: A little over three years.

Bill Anderson: And you're licensed where?

Adam Klemanski: Delaware and Maryland.

Bill Anderson: Obviously you just can't go out and just become an electrician. What's the process of somebody actually becoming an electrician?

Adam Klemanski: The typical process is to do an apprenticeship for four years and to go to school and then you can obtain your license after that point but pretty much it's the schooling on top of the hours in the trade which go hand in hand.

Bill Anderson: Where did you go to school at?

Adam Klemanski: I went to Delcastle for the State Apprenticeship Program upstate in Newark.

Bill Anderson: And you did that for how long?

Adam Klemanski: Four years.

Bill Anderson: Four years - wow. I'm assuming that's just like a regular college at that point then?

Adam Klemanski: Actually it's like adult education night school. It's an equivalent of a college curriculum.

Bill Anderson: Okay and you said you had to apprentice so did you just have to work for somebody for four years or did you actually have like a mentor?

Adam Klemanski: Yes to be state registered you have to work underneath a licensed electrician so I went the contractor route, worked residential, commercial, industrial and then after a while decided it was time to open up my own business.

Bill Anderson: You have a partner, right?

Adam Klemanski: Correct.

Bill Anderson: And who's your partner?

Adam Klemanski: Jimmy Brittingham.

Bill Anderson: Okay why Jimmy? Why electricity? What's the story with J&A? Give me the background. Let's hear why because let's face it - we had Active Pest Control in here a few weeks ago. When we started promoting them it takes a whole to build relationships and trust people and they had a lot of things they had to prove to us and we had a lot of things we had to prove to them. I can give you a long list of what you guys proved why you get our business but for our listeners who get a chance to really get to know Adam at J&A tell me about your business.

Adam Klemanski: Well Jimmy and I have known each other probably for about five years now and we actually worked together. We got laid off from the same company and we had decided to start our own business because the economy was a little tough with trying to find jobs as an electrician for another contractor. We always had a lot of contacts from work we had done on the side and everything. We just decided to make a go of it and it's been great so far.

Bill Anderson: And without trying I guess to get into too much of your business DryZone will do anywhere between 400 to 600 homes this year. You guys pride yourselves on being small, you guys pride yourselves on taking care of -I don't want to say small like it's a bad thing because I don't think it is - but I know you cover our territory now which is from LINA Wilmington down to the Virginia line and then bay to bay but what separates J&A - by the way I think that's one other thing that does separate you guys that I know that I can get a hold of Adam, not Adam's secretary, not Adam's wife will answer the phone, I can just get a hold of Adam. Tell me why choose J&A.

Adam Klemanski: We pride ourselves on being on time, being reasonable, and we take pride in what we do - every project, big or small, we try to do it the right way and on time. We try to build relationships for the future not for the present.

Bill Anderson: You guys definitely don't skimp on materials which you don't go out there and buy the cheap breakers, you don't go out there - because I'm assuming even with Romex there are cheaper versions of it or is it just pretty much is Romex?

Adam Klemanski: It's pretty much standard. Every application is different, but we try to approach as if it was our home basically.

Bill Anderson: One of the reasons why we chose you guys is because you've worked in our home, you've taken care of us and you were one of the big, big people when it came to our Habitat for Humanity function. When we talk about the people that we build our relationships, I know that I can count on you guys. If I get a homeowner that something bad has happened and they need electricity right then I know you're willing to stop what you're doing, get somebody over there, and get it knocked out for us. As an owner I appreciate it just so you guys know. I want to talk to you a little bit about and I want to say that mostly for next week if I can because you said you were going to join us next week, correct?

Adam Klemanski: Correct.

Bill Anderson: Okay, I know getting up at 6:30 in the morning is hard, we've got a lot of coffee and Red Bulls here right now, so what attracted us to you? I have some more work now.

Adam Klemanski: Basically the first time I've ever seen a crawl space that was encapsulated I was absolutely just floored with that—the craftsmanship, how well it was done. And just the idea of what exactly this procedure is doing for homes, I like that, so it peaked my interest.

Bill Anderson: Let me talk to you a little bit about waterproofing because obviously that's near and dear to my heart, when we talk about condensation in a crawl space I know that the Romex is insulated so you don't necessarily have to worry about the rust inside the wire but the boxes; they'll get condensation even on the inside of it, right? I know a lot of that stuff is copper so you're not going to have to worry that much about trust but how much rust do you actually see in crawl spaces?

Adam Klemanski: Actually a basement that's not conditioned correctly, yes, we see it a lot where the terminals on the receptacle and even the sockets and the fixtures themselves, light fixtures.

Bill Anderson: And what happens with stuff like that?

Adam Klemanski: Corrosion and every time basically the wire's going to break free and it's not going to work - there are all kinds of possibilities with fire hazards, anything of that nature.

Bill Anderson: And I don't want to make it sound like this but I mean truly having an unconditioned crawl space could lead to a fire is what you're saying?

Adam Klemanski: Ultimately.

Bill Anderson: I mean I know it's got to be like the perfect storm, but I believe in Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law basically states that if it could happen it's going to happen at the worst possible time at the worst possible moment. So, I believe in the worst case scenarios on everything. You plan for the worst and hope for the best. Like the Delaware State Fair, they plan that thing so hard every year and they work so hard on it and I'll tell you last year it didn't rain that much but the heat was just about as bad as the rain.

Adam Klemanski: The heat was pretty awful.

Bill Anderson: You should know, Brad, you worked it with us.

Brad Wazlavek: I was there quite a bit, people were coming in, and we had the fan going all over, dehumidifiers coming in and out of the hut just to stand in front of the fan for a while.

Bill Anderson: The funny part was we were actually talking about getting - because we do a lot of different fairs and stuff like that and if you ever want to see where we're going to be on our website there's a little page on our left hand side that says Home Shows and we do that for more than just home shows, it's county fairs, it's home shows, it's our Lunch-and-Learns that our people do, our real estate presentations that we do, all that good stuff that's sitting on there. And if you ever do want to come see us at one of our home shows, or different events go right on our website, it tells you the dates, the times, the websites, wherever you want to find us. I want to get back into some stories guys and I know I'm kind of bouncing around here this morning and I apologize but –

Brad Wazlavek: That's pretty much power for the courses I write.

Bill Anderson: We didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night so I apologize in advance. I really want to hear about these weird stories because we always come on here every week and we preach and we talk and we do this and we do that. What are the weird things you guys are finding?

Brad Wazlavek: Well luckily a lot of people think that there might be a dead animal down there or something like that, I really haven't seen that many dead animals in my experience so that's good. It sets you at rest hopefully. I've only seen one snake which is good; a lot of people think there might be a lot of snakes down there. Truthfully the most I've ever seen as far as creepy crawlers goes is little candleback crickets, you see a lot of them.

Bill Anderson: You know it's funny because I talked with Darren about that like a couple of weeks ago and it's amazing the kind of stuff - if you haven't listened to the show yet Brad, or haven't even go on our website, listen to it, actually it should be uploaded here shortly, it's amazing the kind of bugs and stuff that you'll see and stuff he was talking about.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, that's pretty much my daily routine is going around through that stuff and as an inspector and a systems designer I get in there before the CleanSpace. So, we're quite used to getting cobwebs in the hair and everything like that to the point where, when I started here I actually had longer hair and I've decided I'm just going to keep it pretty short because of that. But as far as weird stories go I would say that the weirdest thing I've ever seen would definitely be that newspaper I talked about earlier but every once in a while you see something a little strange. You see a lot of people that they put deodorizers or something to soak up the smell and they don't realize that's it's basically putting a Band aid on a crack in a dam, it's not going to work.

Bill Anderson: There's a competitor that we have and I'm going to say shall remain nameless because I'm definitely not giving –

Brad Wazlavek: Probably a good idea, yes.

Bill Anderson: We're definitely not giving these folks plugs. They took like a Febreze thing, put their company sticker on it, put it down in the crawl space, and charged the homeowner like $50 a pop to put a deodorizer down there, like the same thing that you put in like bathrooms and everything else, the homeowners complained about smells, we went out there, we went underneath there, and I literally was like "Oh my word, are you kidding me?" It was the funniest thing I've ever seen and they had them everywhere. They had like 10 of them in this house. Well the thing is like literally you go to Harris Teeter or FoodLine and you pick up this little refill and you stick it in there. Problem was they sold it and that was it, they never even came back and said "Okay, we need to refill these things" none of that. You could tell the thing had been down there for like a long time - that's how they got the smells out of their house. So, I was sitting there to talk with them and they're like "All right, look, these things are like $50 a piece, it worked for about a month," which they should, you put enough perfume on anything and it will smell good for a few minutes, at least it's going to cover-up the smell, and she was like "But after that they stopped returning phone calls" and these were the same folks that they started out at like $150 a piece, these air fresheners were $150 when they first walked in and as soon as they said no they said "We’ll let me call my boss because my boss - I just have to call my boss and let them know that I'm leaving, I'm safe and everything," and he gets on the phone and he's like "What? Oh really? Are you kidding me? Wait a minute, hang on. Folks listen we actually had an overstock of these things, so what my boss is willing to do," and get this I can't believe it "we're going to drop it $50 so now they're only $100 for you" and the homeowner's like "Well listen that sounds great, I still need to think about it, we've got a couple more estimates coming in" and they were like "Okay, well I just wanted to let you know because we were running this special" and "Okay, so that's great." So the homeowner says "Thank you. You have a nice day" and then they called back up like an hour later and said "Well listen the house that we were working on we found that it isn't that far away from you. They're like maybe an hour away from you, but the house that we were just working on today, the lady was actually allergic to it. She had this really weird peanut reaction to it. So if you're not allergic to peanuts, we can get them in here and since we're only that far, we're only an hour away from you, we'll just drop them down to $50." And they were like "Well $50, it's going to work, right?" And they're like "Oh yes, it's absolutely going to work." So they went in there that afternoon and put like 10 of those things in there and like I said for a month it smelled okay I guess and then it just got bad again. They called us out there and they're like "Listen, I don't need your hard sells and I don't need this and that because we've already had that." I'm like "How about I just do an inspection for you and I'll show you what I find down there and we'll just go from there?" and the homeowner's like "Whatever, that's fine." So I go underneath there and I find this thing and I just start chuckling. And we brought it back to the office and Brad and all the other designers, I mean they were just rolling in their seats because it was the funniest thing they've ever seen. I'm just like "I can't believe the people using Febreze." It wasn't Febreze, it was some no-name knock-off Takahuchi brand or something. The moral of the story was they got sold a bill of goods and nothing good came from it. They rattled that money and let's face it $50 times 10 that's still $500, that's a lot of money, that's a decent TV at Wal-Mart nowadays.

Brad Wazlavek: For something that doesn't really do the job in the end.

Bill Anderson: Just be careful because if it sounds too good to be true it probably is, and that goes with electricians and that goes with anything. I've heard people promise the world and you have to verify, you just have to verify, you've got to verify, you've got to verify. The only thing that I know we have to verify right now is, I think we're running out of time. We need to get these phone numbers out so, Adam, I'll let you go ahead and start. Why don't you go and let everybody know all your good information.

Adam Klemanski: J&A Electric it's (302) 943-9894 and on the web atjaelectricdelaware.com.

Bill Anderson: Brad why don't you go ahead and give our –

Brad Wazlavek: Sure, we can be reached at DryZone.com. Also you can get a hold of Bill, my last name obviously is very hard to spell so I'm not going to bother, but Bill's website is dryzone.com and then his email is bill@dryzone.com very simple.

Bill Anderson: Gentlemen I appreciate you getting up early with me. Brad I know you said you're going to be here for the next few weeks with me.

Brad Wazlavek: I'll be here, you tell me where to be I'll be here.

Bill Anderson: I'll buy the coffee and Adam you're a big guy so next week if you join us. I'll bring the doughnuts, okay?

Adam Klemanski: All right.

Bill Anderson: Well folks I appreciate you listening. This has been Under Your Home with DryZone, please give us a call.

Electricity in Finished Basements

Thu, May 10 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Brad Wazlavek: Good morning everyone. This is Brad with DryZone here today with Bill as usual and Adam as well from J&A Electric. He joined us last week and you'll be joining us again today.

Bill Anderson: Definitely, guys listen I told you last week I appreciate you getting up this early with me. I know it's not fun getting up this early on a Sunday, but everybody that we've ever had on the show they've all been real nice about it. They've all been real troopers about getting in here and making sure these homeowners get as much information as they can. Guys last week after the show we started talking about our TBF products. We said we definitely wanted to bring it up this week. But before we do that I know last week we had been neglectful about getting out numbers and ways to get a hold of us, so Adam, since you're still our special guest this week I'm going to let you go ahead and start it off.

Adam: J&A Electric (302) 943-9894 and on the web at JAElectric@aol.com.

Bill Anderson: Okay, so that's your email.

Brad Wazlavek: Well basically you can get a hold of us at DryZone.com. My last name is Wazlavek, it's a little hard to spell, and I’ll go ahead and give you Bill's email address, that's bill@dryzone.com, pretty simple, easy to do. You can get a hold of us any time and we'll be happy to answer any questions and hopefully set you up with a pre-inspection, we'll come out and take a look at the house.

Bill Anderson: You're kind of our resident TBF expert now so why don't you go ahead and start talking about TBF and the electrical part of it. What should homeowners expect? What does code say? I mean that's a big thing that folks need to know is, what does code say because we have to follow that.

Brad Wazlavek: Well basically TBF stands for Total Basement Finishing so our inorganic basement finishing products - we do floor, ceiling, and walls and we've got Adam here today actually because he's done a few of these houses with us. He's taught me some things about the electrical codes and the way that it's installed. I actually didn't know these things, so I'm glad that he's here, he can answer some questions that way. First off Adam let's talk about the breaker boxes or the outlet boxes that we use. I'm sure everyone's familiar with those blue boxes that you get at like home improvement stores. Those are actually rated 15-minute fire rating which means after 15 minutes they're pretty much useless, they just melt. And the ones that we use are porcelain and they have a two-hour fire rating. Now in your experience as an electrician what would you say is like the biggest difference because that might just seem like to somebody that doesn't really know they're like "Well 15 minutes is still a long time." Does it really make that big a difference?

Adam: Yes, I believe so, the construction of the porcelain boxes is much better. They're more heavy duty and they seem to hold up a little better than the plastic boxes.

Brad Wazlavek: That's good to know. Actually up in Connecticut at our home office they have fire tested all of this stuff and I've been out there several times and seen it in a display case and you can really tell the difference. After 15 minutes of that box cooking essentially it's basically just a mound of goo while our porcelain one's are a little scorched, still in perfect shape. And from my experience, or at least my thought would be if there is a short in electrical box you're going to want that time to be able to know - that's basically the biggest difference there for me anyway.

Bill Anderson: You know it's funny, I was sitting there talking with Gary, my business partner, and in the men's bathroom we have a lot of things plugged into an outlet in there. I went in there, it was sometime last week anyway, and I said "Have you noticed? I think we had a fire in the bathroom," and he was like "Yes, Billy I saw it. It's okay, we got it out and taken cared of because I know you're doing a lot of stuff in our building now." But this extension cord was plugged into it and now I guess somebody had pulled it out, but the whole socket, the part where you actually plug it into was like black and I was like "Oh my God, there was a fire." You couldn't see it when the actual extension cord was plugged into it. Why does that do that? I know you haven't really - I assume you haven't seen it yet - but why does something like that happen and is it actually dangerous?

Adam: Yes, it is dangerous. It sounds like basically it was overloaded - tsk, tsk.

Bill Anderson: You know what we had going on?

Adam: It's basically from arching, from overloading a receptacle, from plugging too much into it, too much of a current draw will cause that and your wire expands and contracts and on that device it's more vulnerable because it's stripped underneath the terminals. While it's expanding and contracting it's drawing all of that current and heating up.

Brad Wazlavek: Going along with the TBF products, again Total Basement Finishing, I definitely recommend everyone go online, look at Total Basement Finishing because if you're thinking about finishing your basement it's definitely a complete alternative to what you might have normally thought about with your dry wall or your fiberglass and fabric panels, things like that. The nice advantage to our system is that it's 100% inorganic which means it will never hold mold, it does not absorb water at all. Actually there's a really neat video if you in YouTube, look up splash video. It's about three to four minutes long. We actually throw a bunch of wall products in a pool and see what happens in the worst case scenario. A lot of the homeowners that I go to talk with about doing their basement, they've seen this online before I even get there and they're very impressed with it. So, I definitely recommend that; even if you're not even thinking about finishing your basement it's a very entertaining video. If you're curious to see what happens if you throw a piece of dry wall on a pool it's going to let you know. What I like to talk about next is I've run into a bit of an issue here. Where you have a breaker box and say, there are four slots that are still open. When you finish the basement typically how many slots do you need when you finish a basement electrical wise?

Adam: Standard would be anywhere between six and eight depending on the size of the basement obviously.

Brad Wazlavek: Most of our basements they're not astronomically huge. Most people just want like a family room. We've done a lot of man caves lately; which I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with that term in Delaware, but definitely six to eight is a good thing. I usually take a picture, when I'm in the basement, of the actual label of the box because as far as I know different breaker boxes have different - sometimes there might be like dead slots, or you just can't use them. How does that work?

Adam: That's more typical in older panels to where you don't have the space, it's more of in appearance, but actually the boss switch is where the breaker snaps onto and it's unavailable for use.

Brad Wazlavek: And the reason I bring this up is because again, if you're thinking about finishing your basement and you look in your box you're probably going to need some sort of an additional panels, sub-panels is what we call it, to handle all that extra electricity. It's not like you can just plug your lights into a standard outlet in your basement. You're wiring a whole new room in your house. You want to make sure it's done right. The next thing I really kind of want to touch on - a lot of people have a smoke detector in their basement and from my understanding the code says that you need a smoke detector in each finished room. Which means if we're putting say a bathroom down there you're going to need a new smoke detector, you're going to need an existing smoke detector, basically each room needs one. That's my understanding.

Brad Wazlavek: Maybe, I just misunderstood the code. If you want one I definitely would recommend one but it's something that you'll definitely want some kind of smoke detector down there because if you're in the basement you don't want to get stuck down there during a fire.

Bill Anderson: I think common sense prevails and I know you do that anyway, Brad, you just automatically stick one in every room, but I think code - here's what to do with code - I mean Adam obviously you have to deal with code every day and so do we. Some of the codes are stupid.

Brad Wazlavek: It's also very vague.

Bill Anderson: Well it is.

Adam: It's misleading.

Bill Anderson: I believe that only time when you actually have to have one is at the bottom of your stairs and that's a combination of smoke detector and a carbon monoxide one.

Adam: Yes, a CO2 detector and they also must be tied to the upstairs, each bedroom and outside of a group of bedrooms by the building code.

Brad Wazlavek: So that's good, again, I'm glad we have a licensed electrician with us to let us know that kind of thing.

Bill Anderson: I still like the way you do it Brad and I'm going to promote your code the way you do it because let's face it - I've seen some of the dumbest things when people try to finish their basements. Like people will have a gas stove down there. I'm telling you, to get a gas stove in a basement you have to know Jesus. It's tough. It's smart to be like that because you don't need a fire source. I don't know why people put fireplaces down in their basements anyway. Like I told you like last week I believe in Murphy's Law. That's just a disaster waiting to happen, there are a lot of things you can do in a basement. We've done some beautiful basements, to some very normal ordinary basements; so it's a little playroom for the kids and the same question happens every time. "I want a kitchen down here." "Why do you want a kitchen and what exactly do you mean by a kitchen?" "Well we want to be able to have cold drinks" and I'm like "Okay, so you don't have to cook steaks, or anything down here?" and they're like "No." I'm like "Okay, let's just cut out the stove. You can put a microwave in there, you can have a regular refrigerator in there, you can even have a sink as long as you don't need to go bake a cake while in your basement, and you’re okay." That's where a lot of homeowners need to really think about what they're looking for in a basement, what they're trying to achieve in a basement because I know our code. I think it's a little bit different, Adam, than yours when we go to finished basements. We prefer to use for every 60 square feet --Brad

Wazlavek: --Sixty square feet of floor space or ceiling space we put a light.

Bill Anderson: Now code says it's one for every hundred I believe.

Adam: Right.

Bill Anderson: We just feel that it just doesn't make any sense to have a basement which is dark inherently with less lighting.

Brad Wazlavek: We found out that homeowners, when you end up putting one for every hundred square feet, they say let's just do the bare minimum to save money. They don't like the lighting source and they always ask for more lights. When I generally approach the homeowner about the lighting I say "Code says one for every hundred square feet, but we found that our homeowners in the past like more lighting and usually they're very receptive to that. Like you said, basements are inherently dark, not a lot of windows to begin with, and sometimes the one, gets covered up when you do the new construction; so they want more light.

Bill Anderson: And besides that, Adam you've never heard this yet, this is the coolest thing I've ever heard. Brad and I went up for training, I guess it was a couple of months ago, and it was for some different marketing training for some different total basement finishing training up in Connecticut where Basement Systems is located. And what was the coolest thing you ever learned about lights?

Brad Wazlavek: What I thought was cool, is something that was so simple when you think about it, and I see it every single day - the wall panels that we use are very neutral in color, it's a combination of off-white and beige, and you can actually change the color of the wall depending upon what kind of light you glow on or what kind of light you reflect on it.

Bill Anderson: And that's not with the diffusers and all that other good stuff, that's if you had a can light when you had a dimmer on it you turn it up all the way, you turn it one color. When you dim it it really takes - and I'm color blind but you could really sit there give it a different hue.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, fluorescent lights, if you have those, it's going to be a little brighter, if you have dimmer can lights it's going to be a little more like a yellowy, earthy tone. It's actually very neat because we come up against that objection every once in a while where somebody say "I like your walls but it's just the wrong color" and we say "Well look most walls are very neutral in color which is why we picked of-white and beige." If you change the lighting scheme you can actually change the color and the feel of the room which is really kind of cool when you think about it.

Bill Anderson: Like when you come to the south next time and how we have the little room up there like when you first come in to actually turn some lights on and off where you can actually see it's really neat. I kind of want to talk real quick, Adam, if I can, and actually we'll probably have to do it after we get back from break because Troy over there is telling me that we have to go to break here in a second. Why don't you go ahead and give out our numbers so that way homeowners can get a hold of us and then we'll take a break and then we'll come back.

Adam: Once again if you want to get a hold of DryZone on the web at DryZone.com. Email address like I said you can get a hold of Bill any time. It's bill@dryzone.com.

Brad Wazlavek: And our local number is 9302) 684-5034 so Adam -Adam: J&A Electric and you can get a hold of us at (302) 943-9894.Bill Anderson: Now listen when we get back from break like I said I want to talk about what you find unique about our system, Adam. It's definitely a different type of construction. When you talk about different modular panels that we use, it's not typical framing unless we do the steel studs with the panel over it but it's still way different, I'm assuming, than most of the insulations you've seen before. So when we get back from break I kind of want to talk about that. Okay guys?

Adam: Yes, I'm good.

Male Speaker: Start the New Year off right with Creative Kitchens and Floors at Seaford Delaware. Serving Delmarva with pride and commitment Creative Kitchens and Floors is celebrating 19 years in business. And they're offering their promotion ever - take an additional 19% off their already low prices on kitchen cabinetry. Choose from wood mold. Wood mold is universally recognized as one of the finest kitchen cabinets. Thinking economically? Think Aristocrat cabinetry. Hurry, this sale ends February 29th. Call Mike Griffith today at (302) 629-3166 for an appointment and details today for that new kitchen you've been dreaming of. Hurry, this sale ends February 29th.At Creative Kitchens and Floors customer satisfaction is our primary goal. (302) 629-3166, (302) 629-3166, or stop by their showroom at 8 North Arch Street Seaford. Congratulations CKF.

Male Speaker: Requirements for 19% discount - 10 cabinets minimum, countertops, cabinetry installation, floor covering material and installation. MHIC number 14298.

Male Speaker: It's dark and dank, filled with mold and mildew, and there are creatures crawling, creeping.

Male Speaker: Do you work with or are you a member of an organization that provides employment information or job referrals? Any organization that regularly distributes employment information to job seekers or refers candidates to employers is eligible to receive information about our job vacancies. To be contacted when we have jobs available contact Beverly Jones by mail, PO Box 237 Cambridge Maryland 21613, fax at (410) 228-0130 or by email at bjones211@comcast.net. You will then receive periodic announcements of jobs at our stations. MTS Broadcasting LC is an equal opportunity employer.

Bill Anderson: We are back. I appreciate you hanging on through break. And as promised we were going to talk about TBF panels and why the electricity, how you actually install it. The way we do it folks is there's a channel that goes up, on the ceiling, after we do our fire blocking, there's a panel that goes on the bottom and the whole finished wall gets put in place.

Brad Wazlavek: It's really neat, the wall is so strong it acts like its own stud.

Bill Anderson: Exactly.

Brad Wazlavek: It supports itself and it's actually very cool. The sheer reading is up over 800 pounds I think the last time I checked. What I like to tell people is, if you can find a bracket that holds that kind of weight you can pretty much hang anything on the wall.

Bill Anderson: I mean TVs aren't even 800 pounds, even like the old, the Curtis Map TV you could hold one of those, the whole wooden box TVs, I don't even know if those were 800 pounds.

Brad Wazlavek: It's pretty impressive actually.

Bill Anderson: So Adam like I said, when we put these Woddler wall units in there it's not traditional framing. Traditional framing for the people who don't know you basically build a studded wall. You have your two plates, your top and your bottom plate and then you have your studs that run up and down. Normally, as an electrician somebody would come in and they would put all the walls up and you'd come in there with the drill and start drilling the studs and start running your wires.

Adam: Right.

Bill Anderson: So what makes ours so different? What are the challenges? What makes it easier? What makes it harder? What do you find with our system?

Adam: I have to admit the first time that I've seen one of these panels I was absolutely amazed at the construction of it, how heavy duty it is. It doesn't surprise me that it would hold 800 pounds.

Bill Anderson: Yes, it's pretty funny because you say heavy duty. Have you ever held one?

Adam: Yes, I actually had to move one once and it was fun. Brad Wazlavek: They're something like 95 pounds apiece.

Bill Anderson: 95 pounds a piece - when we're bringing those things downstairs the guys get –

Brad Wazlavek: It's one at a time.

Bill Anderson: Yes, it's definitely one at a time; the guys definitely get a workout. So anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

Adam: No that's okay, like I saying the construction of everything, how well it's built and I definitely can see where the inorganic product and all that is an advantage to he typical dry wall that we're used to see.

Bill Anderson: We have to call for inspections whenever we do electricity with you - and I'm not trying to have you speak for an inspector - but normally you come in and you get a rough-in inspection. And what does a rough-in inspection consist of?

Adam: A rough-in inspection is where the underwriter will come in and actually take a look at all the wiring in the walls, etc. and to make sure that your boxes are spaced out per code and things of that nature.

Bill Anderson: Now with us when we put that full panel up there that's a finished wall so if you ever heard any issues with the inspector saying "Well I can't really see all the wires."

Adam: No, actually the inspector told me that he had never seen that before and that he was impressed with it. They pretty much treated it as a remodel when they looked at it.

Bill Anderson: We normally leave a couple of panels here and there open so when you go to get your rough-in inspection they can actually get a shot in the flashlight behind the panels. Is there any type of special conduit you have to use and I should actually know this question, but I don't. Is there any special application for us that you do that you don't do in typical wooden construction?

Adam: Still pretty much the same practice with the new code, tamper-proof receptacles are installed and –

Bill Anderson: What does that mean?

Adam: Tamper-proof receptacle you have to engage both slots in the receptacle with a plug for it to operate.

Bill Anderson: When you go to put your plug in it has two little peak-a-boo doors so the kid can't go stick in the fork.

Adam: Yes, exactly.

Bill Anderson: That's how I learned when I was a kid - I learned about electricity early on - I stuck a fork in a receptacle and I wanted to burn my little brother with my fork one day so I turned on the toaster and I stuck my fork in the toaster. I thought those were hot, not electricity, so I learned real quickly those were electric.

Brad Wazlavek: That actually kind of explains a lot. Obviously our stuff is a little more cutting edge and I think that's really cool that the little things really push it over the top. We're not running down your local home improvement store, our stuff is specially made for what we do. The little doors on there, the tamper-proof receptacles are just one of those little things that kind of set us apart and it's a really cool thing.

Bill Anderson: And one of the nicest things I've seen from homeowners or that we get a lot of raves about is the fact that obviously you're not an employee of ours, you guys own your own company, but we bundle your guys as services into our proposals and our packages and all that so that way the homeowner doesn't have to go out there and hire company A and then hire company B and then they'll have to sit there and coordinate subcontractors. Even if it's just us doing a simple dehumidifier and they need electricity. They can get it all from us, knowing that there's a really licensed electrician. You talked about it, I guess it was last week's show, about the licensing that you have to go through. Four years is a long time, I mean that's a pretty heavy commitment, that's a college degree, whether you go - maybe you could go at full time in two years and part time in four years, or whatever the case may be, there's a lot of schooling involved. I like that because our company truly preaches training, and Adam, we'll spend more in training this year than a lot of companies make. Making sure that all of our guys are trained; that's not just the new guys on the block, that's not the old guys, that's everybody. I plan on taking my production manager to Illinois, hopefully in the next week, or two and we're going to look at some different mud jacking techniques. And we don't do a lot of mud jacking - we talked about that in previous shows where we inject a grout underneath concrete, whether it's a sidewalk or a garage - we're going to actually raise that slab without having to bust it open, it's so much less intrusive. But those different techniques that people are constantly learning, maybe a different way they do it, maybe a different handle. We always try really hard to keep up on the top of our products no matter what we're doing. I mean you've been with us for - except Brad - about a year now and you're already been to what - five or six trainings already.

Adam: Actually you lose track after a while, but the thing I like about it is a lot of industries require continuing education and we understand they're required, but we do it because it's right, and that's what I really like about it, not even so much that there's a new product. If there is somebody who's had a lot of success doing something differently, our network is so vast that we can give them a call, we can set up a web conference or something, and we can learn that new way to do it, or that new technique. It works to our advantage as well - that's another thing that really kind of sets us above the rest.

Bill Anderson: But you do a designing “webinar” every week with Basement Systems and they really talk about - and that's the cool thing about it because most of the time we have sales people that are supposed to be on the road selling all day. Forget about training we invest that time with Brad and obviously a “webinar” doesn't cost anything. But that's obviously lost production because we can't have really appointments before it and the time of day there really isn't a whole lot time to do it afterwards. So when Brad sits down in his different “webinars” and we really get into the meat and the bones, let's face it basement finishing is a different animal.

Brad Wazlavek: Basement finishing is a lot more intense.

Bill Anderson: And it's a lot more complicated. We need to make sure that our homeowners are 100% educated. I can't stand it when I go into a home and we'll have to go against the dry wall guys. Like there's a new product. Brad, remember we were talking about it last week and maybe you don't even know I'm assuming you don't know about it, Adam, but somebody took the TBF panel, they looked at it, and they said "Man, this thing is great, this thing is wonderful. How can I be a dealer for it?" They said "You can't be a dealer because this area is filled" and we don't over saturate the area, which I do like. There's not that weird competition that you get at some other places. It's sort of the same, it's the same idea anyway of the harder type inorganic board that has insulation on the back of it. However they finished it off with dry wall mud, tape, and they paint them.

Adam: This defeats the purpose.

Bill Anderson: The whole idea of doing this is to stop mold and mildew, that's the only reason to do this thing. So what they're doing is they're putting dry wall mud which gets in the rock but there's glue in gypsum that makes it moldy, or it's organic so it can get moldy. And does anybody know what paint's made out of?

Brad Wazlavek: Latex.

Bill Anderson: It's latex, that's where latex comes from.

Brad Wazlavek: It's rubber, that's a plant.

Bill Anderson: When they say rubber tree that there's actually a real rubber tree, it's not like the money tree or things like that, it truly is a real living organism, it's a plant and they take that rubber and they refine it out of that tree and they make latex and different rubbers. Now, I know that there are some synthetic rubbers, but there are only one or two paints out there that aren't completely organic, but there are still some. Like you said, Brad, I mean there's no sense in doing anything, if the whole idea that you're trying to accomplish is to keep something from being moldy.

Brad Wazlavek: The number one reason that we get people calling to "refinish their basement" where it's already been done in existing dry wall and it's been there - who knows - 20/30 years, is because of the smell. And most of your smells are going to come from your rot, your mold, things like that, so if you're going to refinish it and you're going to put all this time and energy into it why not deal with something that's never going to happen again?

Bill Anderson: Well tell Adam your favorite picture.

Brad Wazlavek: Well my favorite picture is - and this is kind of funny - I know I asked but I have a presentation that I use and there are pictures of what happens to dry wall and the fiberglass and fabric panels. There's this one picture and for the dry wall it's gorgeous, it looks like a wall that just got put up and there's a guy squatting down with a piece of it cut out and it's just the back of it, it's nothing but black mold. And the reason why Bill likes this is because the guy's name is Bill Anderson, so it's kind of funny.

Bill Anderson: Actually I made a joke when we started with Basement Systems. They have a sales guy there named Bill Anderson, so I told Mike Delmolino who's in charge of the CleanSpace, or the wet crawl space division in the Basement Finishing Division that he liked me so much that he had to go out and get his own.

Brad Wazlavek: It's an amazing picture and it's one of those things that where it's usually the first one I show and I just sort of put it up on the screen and sit there quiet for a second, let that sink in, because a lot of people don't realize that yes, your wall can look gorgeous from the front and the smell - I can't say how many calls we get even for basement waterproofing and they call up and they say "Hey, the smell, where's it coming from, I don't understand, it's not visible?” You cut out a piece and their dry wall's going to show, it's just nothing but black mold on the back and I'm talking thick, just everywhere, and the reason behind that is - and this is another reason why our panels are neat - you constantly have water vapor coming in through your walls. Whether it is poured concrete or block foundation, it's very porous, it's basically a hard sponge. So what happens is that when there's nothing there to block it, it comes out into the room, creates humidity and evaporates. But, if you put a dry wall, stud it, plain foundation wall there or structure there, it's going to block all that and it's going to create a circular motion. There's no place for that water to evaporate anymore, it's going to suck up into that dry wall, or anything that's organic really and that's where you get the mold problem. Now to kind of get off that, I know we talked about electricity earlier and I kind of want to get back on that, but we had talked earlier about the distance between electrical outlets, what does code say the electrical outlet distance has to be.

Adam: By code you have to have a receptacle within 12 feet of each other, wall space, within 6 feet of a door opening and a wall that is two feet or more must have a receptacle to go on it.

Brad Wazlavek: Okay, now the two feet thing really interested me. You don't run into it a lot, but sometimes you have a wall that a lot of basements, you might see, there's a little bump out, it's a little strange, maybe there's a bay window, or something and people want to save that wall space to put shelving in. But that's a two-foot wall, you need a receptacle. You need a power outlet on that wall and I think that's really interesting. You hardly ever see that upstairs in the house, so it's something to definitely think about. If you want to keep that little bump out you're going to need some electrical outlets there if it's two feet, or bigger. The reason I really ask is he says every 12 feet is the same thing with the lighting, every 100 square feet of lighting needs a light, we use every 60 because we find it's better one obviously for easier math, but also because people will want more outlets generally. We like to do one for every 10 linear feet.

Bill Anderson: Well it also helps with the doorways and I know like so much between the door and so much on a normal wall those differ.

Brad Wazlavek: So it's good to have a couple of extra. I found that a lot of times, especially recently with doing a lot of basements, the man cave idea, there's going to be a TV, chances are there's going to be some sort of entertainment system. Whether it's blue ray, or some sort of a gaming platform you're going to need your electrical outlet, you're going to need your internet connections - something like that - all three of those bunched up together. Then people want the regular outlets throughout the room so you need to have a few extra. Like I said, constantly keep in mind based upon what you want to do with your basement. It's really interesting just to hear this code and that was one of the things that really drew me into the basement finishing aspect. When I started I was all crawl space and basement waterproofing and then the basement finishing thing came around and I was like "Let me try that," completely different animal like we were talking about earlier, it's really different. We really have to sit down and design a living space, it's not fixing an existing problem it’s designing something that you're going to want to enjoy for years and years and years. Speaking of which our wall panels themselves have a 50-year warranty, that's five zero, fully transferable and fully nationally backed by Basement Systems which I think is really cool because you're just not going to get that anywhere else.

Bill Anderson: You said you're 31 Brad, right?

Brad Wazlavek: I'm 31 now.

Bill Anderson: So by the time you're 81 that's when our warranty –

Brad Wazlavek: Knock on wood, by the time I'm 81 that's when our warranty will end. The really cool thing is obviously a lot of times people don't stay in their house that long, maybe it's a starter home or something and they just want a really cool space and they're going to sell it in 10 years. When you go to sell your home and say "Hey, by the way, I know you like the rest of the house, let's go take a look at the basement" there are 40 years left on those walls if you've lived there 10 years. You've enjoyed that space for 10 years and you can pass that warranty on. A lot of warranties that you get with different companies they're not transferable. Also the nationally backed aspect of it is nice because if something happens to your company they can give you a thousand year warranty, but it's only covered by them and if for some reason they go under, or maybe they get sold your warranty is gone. With us if something happens to our company, hopefully it won't, but if something does happen it's still covered nationally, actually technically internationally because we do have divisions in England, Ireland, and Canada as well. Our warranties are a big part of my presentation, a big part of our deal. The walls are 50 years, flooring is either five or ten depending upon what you get, and then the ceiling itself is 30 years. Now the ceiling is huge as well, 30-year warranty on ceiling - that goes against sagging, discoloration. Again it's very heavy duty warranty so that's something that's always been a big point for me to touch with people.

Bill Anderson: Adam you actually snake the wires because we don't have the traditional wire. I'm assuming we're running grooves on the back of the panels for the ones that are right up against the wall, there's no special conduit we have to use?

Adam: No the walls and the [inaudible 27:12] are ready for each other and it's approved and totally legal by code.

Bill Anderson: Perfect. The nice thing is for Kent, Sussex, and New Castle and I don't know about the ones in Maryland, I don't know if you've given any books out to the inspectors or not.

Adam: I'm not sure, it's been a while.

Bill Anderson: I know for New Castle County with Steve Wensel which - I'll tell you one thing, here's the deal - and Adam I know that you guys have to deal with some of these different things, but New Castle's tough in Delaware. I love that. Like with us, we're a foundation company and I love the fact that no matter what somebody's in their checking on and they want engineer's reports and they want regular permits and they want this and they want that and they want this. I definitely want to give a plug out to New Castle County and Maryland because Maryland's the same way, you have to have your MHICs which is Maryland Home Improvement Liaisons and all that. I just kind of want to give them kudos.

Brad Wazlavek: Last time I was out there, for instance, they scared me at the office, before I went up there for the first time, and they were like "Oh, I can’t be here all day. It's a pain, this and that." I had a great experience, I went up there, I was taken right away, they had like different stages, they have your intake and then they have the actual inspector that you sit down with but I really enjoyed it, it took me a couple of hours and I got what I needed and they're really friendly, definitely a good plug.

Bill Anderson: Troy's overhead telling me we've got to go. I want to thank you both very, very much for getting up this early, early cold Sunday morning and folks this is Bill Anderson with Under Your Home with DryZone and I've been joined by Brad Wazlavek who's going to be here for a few more weeks with me and then Adam and I'm not even going to try to pronounce your last name.

Adam: It's Klemanski.

Bill Anderson: Klemanski.

Adam: Good Irish name.

Bill Anderson: So Adam why don't you go ahead and give out your numbers before we leave the show this morning.

Adam: J&A Electric at (302) 943-9894.

Brad Wazlavek: And once again DryZone you can get a hold of us at DryZone.com. You can also email Bill at bill@dryzone.com.

Bill Anderson: And you can always get a hold of us locally at (302) 684-5034. Gentlemen I appreciate you being here and folks we will see you next week.

What it Costs you NOT to Fix your Crawl Space or Basement

Wed, May 9 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Bill Anderson: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is Bill Anderson bringing you Under Your Home with DryZone and as promised Jason Harmon said he was going to join me this morning so Jason how are you?

Jason Harmon: I'm great Bill. Thanks for asking.

Bill Anderson: We always have some great ideas for you folks, some great questions and some great things we'd like to talk about. So, Jason let's just go ahead and get right into it.

Jason Harmon: Yes, let's go for it Bill. Today we've taken a look at the cost of not fixing your crawl space. A lot of people think “out of sight, out of mind”, well that's not really true, when an issue arises with your crawl space, and there could be a number of issues with your crawl space. The most common issue, is high moisture content, or actually, standing water in the crawl space, but there are other issues as well which we're going to touch on. Heating and cooling bills, deterioration of wood and termites and other health concerns can also rear their ugly head. So, let's start out with talking a little bit about heating bills and cooling costs, Bill.

Bill Anderson: If you remember a few weeks back we had David Lawson in here from Dr. Energy Saver, right? I appreciate outside folks when they come in here and talk to us and like I said, that's why I want to get some other folks in here because we really wanted to do this program from an educational standpoint. When we talked about the heating and cooling David mentioned the fact that it costs a lot more to heat and cool wet air than it does dry air. It's even, in my opinion, a lot more than that because in our last episode, Jason, we had talked about the insulation in your floors, right? And that was one of the questions that a homeowner had, “Why should I pull it down?” and they had heard all of these different things about what they should do, what they shouldn't do, where it should be, why it shouldn't be here. Well when you have say 90-degree temperatures and let's face it, that's what we have around here, at least in the summer time. The whole idea with those vents is to let that air come down into our crawl space. And even in the winter time when those vents are closed they're not really closed because you can go in your crawl space and look right outside. So, when you have that really hot air outside it comes inside. And if hot air truly raises that means that your crawl space is going to be cool and fairly temperate for most of the year, am I right Jason?

Jason Harmon: Correct Bill.

Bill Anderson: So, if that's true we're taking 90-degree air, we're bringing it into a 55, 60-degree crawl space and when you have that type of temperature variance you get condensation. People say "My ducks are sweating and my pipes are sweating" all these things are sweating. Well it's even worse than that, it happens on the inside of the ducts also. If that's true then you're going to have to start worrying about the galvanization because galvanization doesn't, for one, last forever, and two, is a very thin layer on those ducts. Most ducts, at least that I come across, are not galvanized anyway, instead it’s a simple fiber board. That starts getting condensation and we have dust and everything else that's in our house, and that's that. Organic material floats around inside of our ducts and we start talking about molds. If we have all these ducts that are surrounded by 60-degree air and we have an intrusion of 80/90-degree air what's that going to do to the inside of the duct?

Jason Harmon: You're going to get condensation, moisture buildup.

Bill Anderson: Condensation, but it also warms up the air too, right?

Jason Harmon: That's correct, yes.

Bill Anderson: So you're paying to have your house at 60-some degrees and if these ducts are being warmed up, or cooled down depending on the season, that's going to make your heater run longer, your air conditioner run longer, and at the end of the day how much more does that cost you?

Jason Harmon: The thing is, Bill, dry air is easier to heat and it's also easier to cool. If we can condition your crawl space, and control the humidity in your crawl space, it's only natural that your heating and air conditioning costs are going to drop.

Bill Anderson: I talked with David after the show a few weeks back, and one of the things that he said because I asked, "how come my air conditioning bills or my electric bills" because everything in my house is electric, I didn't like gas, I didn't want that option "how come in the summertime my electric bills are only like $80, $90 and I run my air conditioner just as much as I run my heater in the winter time?" and he told me "Because in the wintertime it's far more than just that. Billy, listen there are different coils that get turned on; it works differently. I didn't know the difference. I just figured you turn one thing on, it either became hot or cold or whatever. Well it definitely costs, like you just said, a lot more to heat that wet air than it does dry air. And ever since I had them out to my home I've definitely seen my electric bills go down. They talked more about - even more than I guessed – about ceilings and stuff up inside my house. We did some different things and found out that my own ducts were leaking a lot more than what they thought. The good news is - David pointed out - I had some very, very leaky ducts and at least those ducts, since I have my crawl space encapsulated and conditioned, at least it's helping me keep air inside the building envelope because there's no insulation in my floors, all my insulation I have is on my side walls and my foundation. If I'm not having those different forces affecting the air that's in there it’s better than having nothing, but it was still extremely leaky. So one of the things that we've done since we partnered up with Dr. Energy is we can actually give homeowners that free energy. So, last week we talked about “trust but verify” - that was one of the questions we had if I can remember, Jason. How did it go? It was something about how should they choose the contract or who should they trust - something like that? Well that's one of those “trust but verify” things. You have this third party coming into your home looking at it, they'll be able to - numbers just don't lie and that's why I like math. They're going to be able to tell you "Hey listen it's buttoned up down there,” or “it's not buttoned up down there." I feel it's extremely important that just because I say I'm the expert, just because Jason says, or Kevin, or Johnny, or Burt, whoever your designer may be, we're going to have third parties that can come in and actually check our work.

Jason Harmon: Let's repeat something too to our listeners today, Bill, concerning the air in their home. Approximately 50% of the air that you breathe in the living area of your house is coming out of your crawl space or your basement, whichever you have. Your home is like a chimney, the house is drawing the air up, it comes from your crawl space or your basement up through any little crevices between the floors and the house and goes up through the house and is exhausted out of the vents in your attic space. So, your air is constantly being changed and that air is being drawn into the house from the lower level. If we can condition that air it's going to help from a number of angles - not only your heating and cooling costs, but also the quality of air coming up will be much better.

Bill Anderson: You know Jason you're absolutely right, I couldn’t agree with you more. It's amazing when you really start researching this and it kind of comes back to these books that we send you - a lot of this information that we're going to give you it is a lot of common sense. Hot air rinses just like Jason said. Well, if that's true then you can actually really look at the different forces inside of your house; hot air rises, water goes downhill, there's no ambiguity in that, right? Jason, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of our homeowners had questions before we ever sent them our literature, now they're actually speaking in terms that we talk in because now they're educated.

Jason Harmon: Education's a great thing, Bill, but you can have a lot of book learning and a lot of school housing but if you don't have common sense you don't have a good education and that's what I feel with DryZone they're providing a lot of common sense to our installers and our sales people concerning the conditions they're going to run into when they go out to look at homes and inspect them.

Bill Anderson: Jason, I'll tell you what, let's talk rotted wood - that's definitely one of the costs of not fixing your crawl space, right? We have this damp environment down there and wood and water can cause rotting, right?

Jason Harmon: Oh boy, Bill, when you talk about rotted wood in a lot of cases you're looking at extreme costs to fix it. When you start replacing girders and floor joists you're looking at a very, very high cost so why let your house get to that condition. Get us out of here to take a look at your property and tell you whether or not you need something done to prevent this wood from rotting. We've seen houses where we could take a wooden pencil and stick it through the floor joists, they were so rotten.

Bill Anderson: Jason I tell you we were under a house I guess it was about two or three weeks ago and I was able to actually grab the girder, that's the main backbone of your home, and I was actually able to break all three pieces of the 2x10 off with my hand. I mean this place was gone. I've seen the opposite too. I've been underneath the home and this contractor came out and told the homeowner that they had a wood-eating fungus. We went underneath there and it really wasn't that bad. So, how does a homeowner really know they have wood rot? Let's face it; a lot of homeowners just aren't going to go underneath their house.

Jason Harmon: Most homeowners very seldom ever go in their crawl space and a lot of homeowners are not capable of getting in their crawl spaces, especially, the elderly that can't get down on their hands and knees and crawl through that little opening. And that is what we're here for - if you think you've got a problem call us, we'll be glad to come out. But you know there's another thing you have to think about. You need to maintain your home; at some point in time that house is going to be sold or left to a family member. You're going to pay for that problem one way or another. If you sell that house, and a home inspection is done, and they find all this rotted wood; one of two things is going to happen or one of three things actually - either you're going to lose that buyer, you're going to have to repair it at your cost or you're going to have to drop the price of your home considerably. So, do it now because it's going to be cheaper to do it now than it is 10 years from now.

Bill Anderson: Jason, one of the things that I hate to see; we'll get called out to a house and the price is X and the homeowner says "No, no, no, it's too much, I'm thinking about selling in about a year". I’ll simply say "Okay, call me if you need me." It's funny because a year later and sometimes it's almost to the day or to the month, they'll come back and say "Listen, I've got a buyer, but the home inspector went underneath my home. What do we need to do to get this thing sold?" It just kills me when people spend that much money to fix a home when they could have done it a year ago and actually reaped some of the benefits of it. Some people just absolutely suffer from indoor allergens, whether it's the dust mites or whether it's the molds. Molds are in every 2x4 in your house because anybody that's had a leaky ceiling; they've taken off the sheetrock and they've sprayed some Clorox on the wood and studs and they've kind of fixed the leak and put the sheetrock back. Well it wasn't like the mold was hanging out on the table for it to happen; it was already in the wood and in the sheetrock and everything else. Like Jason said for heaven's sakes don't wait to have the things fixed because, Jason - and correct me if I'm wrong - but one of the biggest things I talk about in my office is, it takes a very long time to go from good to bad, it just doesn't take a very long time to go from bad to worse. Something we'll be talking about in the next few weeks is the actual cost of fixing it now, while it's not a big problem as oppose to in a few years, when it does become a big problem.

Jason Harmon: Bill I was in real estate for quite a few years and we had a saying concerning first impressions. First impressions mean a lot to a buyer when they start looking at a house. An encapsulated crawl space is one of those things that when a buyer sees, that the homeowner has had the foresight to go ahead and encapsulate that crawl space to give him a better living condition, they're not going to try and pick apart anything else in the house that might be a minor issue. On the other hand, if you have a bad crawl space they're going to start looking for everything else that's wrong with the house.

Bill Anderson: Yes, Jason, I've actually had homeowners tell me "Listen Billy my house sold this much faster." There was a lady that we had their crawl space done and later she ended up passing. We got a letter from her son that said "I appreciate what you did for my mom. I don't know if I necessarily agreed with it when we were having it done, but I do now. The biggest reason why we sold this house was because the home inspector went in there and said if these people took that much care of their crawl space you can imagine how well they took care of the rest of the house and this was during that horrible time we had with the mortgage crisis and houses and everything else." This house was able to sell for exactly what the homeowner wanted because of that first impression. The home inspectors I know, that's where they start out because you start from the bottom and work your way up to the top. He went to the crawl space and was like "Wow, I can't believe it looks that good. We're going to have to give them an A." Well Jason, I'll tell you, I think we're actually ready for a break. If you'll hang on through the break I'd appreciate it and folks we'll be right back.

Male Speaker: Your home is your biggest investment and provides warmth and shelter for you and your family. Now is the time to repair your home for the winter weather just around the corner. Do you have a lead basement, water in your crawl space, or cracks in your foundation? DryZone provides waterproofing and crawl space encapsulation products and services all over Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland. Call DryZone for a free inspection and estimate or log on at DryZone.com/theduck. DryZone will keep you ahead of the storm.

Kirsten Strohmer: Here's a thought for businesses - if the sky began to fall right now you'd hear about it right now on the radio. Tomorrow you'd read about it, it's history in the paper. Hi, this is account executive Kirsten Strohmer of MTS Broadcasting. Radio advertising - it's timely, it's frequent, it's in your home, in your car, in your office, on the beach, it's everywhere and it's cost-effective. Let me put the power of radio to work for you, call me at (410) 228-4800 or click sales on our homepage at mtslive.com.

Bill Anderson: All right Jason, it looks like we are back on the air.

Jason Harmon: Okay, well we're still talking about crawl spaces and let's just don't forget we also do basements too, not just crawl spaces, but today we're really, really hitting the crawl spaces because this is one of the areas that we find a great deal of problems on the Delmarva Peninsula. We haven't talked about termites yet, Bill. Let's talk a little bit about termites.

Bill Anderson: Termites are basically these little bugs - not basically - they are these little bugs, and they burrow through wood to get nutrition and that's how they survive. So it's like us, we don't go to the woods anymore - well some of us do go to the woods to find our mules, but we don't go walking down the road to find our wood, we go to the store - and Jason's laughing as I said that - but termites, their supermarket is wood and that wood has to be wet. Termites don't eat dry wood. Why is that Jason?

Jason Harmon: Well they're eating the cellulose in the wood.

Bill Anderson: As they're eating the cellulose what they're doing is they're actually chewing it up. Cellulose has no nutritional value. So, Jason how many times have you seen termite damage in your life?

Jason Harmon: A lot.

Bill Anderson: Normally you see a whole bunch of sawdust there, right?

Jason Harmon: Correct.

Bill Anderson: If termites eat wood then why is there sawdust there? It doesn't make any sense, right? Like I said we talked about it right before the break - common sense. If termites eat wood why is there still wood when they're done? What they're actually doing is getting the pulp out of the way to get to the mildew, the mulch, and the microbes - that actually has nutritional value. So when you talk to termite guys what's the biggest thing they always talk about? They would say "Get away from the house" got to have molds away from the house because mulch is always wet underneath. It's like sand, sand's always dry on top but you dig an inch or two inches to it it's nice and wet. If we can get that wet wood away we stop termites.

Jason Harmon: And the other thing about termites is, a termite has to return to the ground to get moisture and that's why you see the little tunnels coming up your block walls to the wood members of your house. This little tunnel is made out of mud and the termites build these tunnels to get from the ground to their food source and if you can control moisture here you can prevent termites.

Bill Anderson: Once again, going back to a question I believe we had last week; we make sure that we leave that three-inch place, that inspection place at the top of our systems so that way the termite guys can still fix anything they need to fix, they can still drill the holes, and they actually inject this fog, this pesticide, into the hollow cores of the block to try and kill termites. Now one of the things that we offer folks doesn't happen as much around here, but there are some builders from Pennsylvania and I think from Jersey that come down here and they'll take - blocks are eight inches wide and I've seen them use like a 2x4, 2x6 as their sill plate. What happens is you can actually reach the top of the block and put your hands inside every hollow core. You see it a lot in garages, I don't know why garages are able to be built that way, houses aren't, but we have this thing called a wall cap. Somebody in our company thought "Termites can crawl up here very easily" so, we actually have this clear wall cap that we use that will still allow us to see the termites and it also stops the moisture that comes out of those hollow cores because that's definitely a big spot for moisture. When we do a normal sill plate over top of the normal block we actually seal as many areas up as we can to stop any of that moisture from, like Jason talked about a little while ago, that stack effect. Hot air rises and you're still going to get somewhat of a stack effect even in a concrete column, those hollow cores are inside that block.

Jason Harmon: We've been talking about termites for a while but there are a lot of other little varmints that can live in your crawl space, also underneath your house. Things like crickets, spiders, that sort of thing, even snakes, we run into snakes, we run into mice and rat skeletons when we go underneath houses and by encapsulating that crawl space we're going to basically eliminate those problems also.

Bill Anderson: When we first started DryZone Jason, I was on the radio and somebody asked me what a camelback cricket was. And for those of you who do not know what a camelback cricket is: these things have this little round body or oval body, kind of shape of a football, and they're not more than about an inch big, Jason?

Jason Harmon: At the most.

Bill Anderson: Well they have these spidery legs and they don't jump like a normal cricket, they jump straight up in the air. The first time I was ever in a crawl space, Jason, I don't know if I've ever told you this story, but I stuck my face down in there and I turned my head to the left and these things - there were thousands of them - they were just as far as the eye could see. These cricket things actually freaked me out, jumping in my face. I was in doubt for a second trying to figure out exactly what was on me and that was my first introduction to a crawl space, Jason, but we'll see them a lot in the crawl space and I always make sure that I have something in my hand to get rid of them. When we finish encapsulating the crawl spaces, after about a week or two they all go away because they're just like everything else, we've taken away their food source, and we’ve taken away their moisture. The ground is inherently damp so they can still get moisture out of the ground and if there's no food source and there's no water they die. It's just like us if we can't get any food and if we can't get any water we don't last very long either. So that's my little story for you this morning about camelback crickets, Jason.

Jason Harmon: Okay Bill. So we move along to another concern that is created by problem crawl spaces and that's health concerns. Bill you've probably had some specific things addressed to you by homeowners.

Bill Anderson: You know Jason I have. And we've been doing this a long time; we always hear "Oh I get my grittins. Oh my son has asthma." A lot of times that's a real thing. Sometimes I meet the husband and he's like "The wife - she's just nuts. She thinks that there's a problem so you're here just to humor her." I always invite both parties down underneath the crawl space and I've had some homeowners go underneath there and be like "Oh my God Billy I need to go outside and get a mask, I can't believe how bad this is." Whether it's the asthmas, the allergies, whatever the homeowner has; we can eliminate a lot of those issues.

Jason Harmon: We can help with those issues. We're not saying that by encapsulating your crawl space we're going to cure your asthma or anything that you might have, but there is a very, very good possibility that it is going to help to eliminate some of the problems that you presently have. We talked earlier about dust mites, the number one allergen, that is something that can be easily taken care of, and all of the other things that are coming up with the air out of an unconditioned crawl space getting into your house can be causing you some problems. And if we can clean up that air and we can condition that air and your crawl space there's a potential that we can help with some of your health issues. As I said earlier we're not going to cure them, but we think that we can help with them.

Bill Anderson: Yes, I mean at the end of the day, Jason, dust mites, that's the number one indoor allergen and I can't stress that enough, because if we can actually eliminate the number one indoor allergen imagine how much healthier we can actually be. I'm not this great big green guy who runs around and I smoked for a long time, I had a great big old greasy cheeseburger before I got here this morning and when you talk about these dust mites I mean they're just horrible little creatures, they look like little ticks under a microscope. Really it's what they are because they're parasites. They live in our bed and they live in our couches and they eat our dead skin. Jason you so eloquently put it last time we're actually allergic to their droppings, there's nothing like laying in a bed with a whole bunch of bug droppings in it, right? It's kind of gross, but when we breathe that; people who are allergic to it really suffer. I've seen people - I mean we've all heard of Erin Brockovich and she won some big cases and I think she actually was involved in a case in her own home, which had black mold everywhere. I tell homeowners I'm color blind so black mold, green mold, purple mold, blue mold -- it doesn't really matter, the only really good mold is in pizza, cheese, and beer, right? When you have these molds in your house I don't think homeowners should necessarily freak out and rush their kids to the Marriott for a week while we're working. I just think you need to start addressing those issues because it comes down to a time, Jason, where we can't keep our head in the sand. And when we talk to homeowners common issues like, "Listen, my dad lived in a home for 50 years and they didn't have mold. Why do I have it?" Well, I answer a lot of those homeowners, "Your dad's house was built in 1940, right? The wood they used in 1940 was a lot hardier than it is today." Jason you were in the lumber business for 110 years, how did the woods look when you were young as compared to now?

Jason Harmon: Bill years ago a lot of wood was cut locally and they were using the better woods like oak which is a very hard wood and they did not have the laminate materials that we have today which contain different kinds of glues and we were using more solid products than laminated products. And the method of construction back then actually was not as good as today because the houses weren't sealed as well which actually made them ventilated. Today, we find this is not a good thing. Back then they didn't have the products that we have today for insulation and floor coverings and that sort of thing.

Bill Anderson: But there were no mechanicals down there either.

Jason Harmon: There were no mechanicals underneath the house either. We had a space heater or a wood stove to heat the house. So, it was a totally different situation than it is today.

Bill Anderson: Jason my father-in-law ended up redoing his house, he had to dig his house out, take out all of his floors and all the floor joists just so we could get to the crawl space. When he was younger my brother-in-law actually had - and he was a small guy really, really small - apparently he was the only one who could fit under the house so he always underneath this house. He dug this little channel all the way around from where the electric panel was; for whenever they needed to fish wires up. What we did was we ended up dropping the level of the crawl space down. We actually ended up building and almost lifted up the house, put a new foundation in and had that crawl space a lot deeper in the ground just to fit the different mechanicals that he needs now. He just had like this great big pellet stove that they used - it used to be a wood burner stove, now it's a pellet stove - and he said when he was doing this he wanted the geo-thermals and all that other good stuff in his house. That requires room, that's the reason why contractors are starting to dig down into the ground because it still makes the houses look like they were a long time ago. When they do that you have different environments than we had in 1940 and 1950 because we just didn't have the HVAC and all that stuff running through the house and that's a big reason why we're getting more condensation. We've introduced unnatural things into a space that was really never meant to be ventilated.

Jason Harmon: Well not only that, but we have a very high water table here on the Delmarva Peninsula and as crawl spaces were deepened and basements were put in; there's the potential for more moisture access into those areas as we get closer to the water table. In fact, the water table here on the peninsula has actually risen over the last few years and we strike water at a lesser depth than we did years ago.

Bill Anderson: Yes, I know, down in Ocean Pines whenever we do foundation work we're in water at 18 inches and that's even during the droughts. You're absolutely right when it comes to that. Things are just different than they were 50 years ago. Things change, things move. One thing that doesn't change Jason though is our phone number, right?

Jason Harmon: That's correct, Bill, that remains the same.

Bill Anderson: You can also reach us at DryZone.com/theduck and we always ask for people to email us, let us know what they're thinking, if they have any questions or whatever. My email address is bill@dryzone.com.

Jason Harmon: My address is Jason@dryzone.com.

Bill Anderson: They make it that easy for us, don't they?

Jason Harmon: They sure do.

Bill Anderson: Everybody else in the office has a lot of different numbers in it. I don't think they think highly of us, Jason, they make it easy for us.

Jason Harmon: Bill, you mentioned earlier that things are different today than they were years ago. The good thing is that products are progressing to the point where we could control these conditions that we didn't have years ago.

Bill Anderson: Well Jason one thing we can't control is the time that we have left this morning. Jason, I will see you next time.

Jason Harmon: Great Bill, good to see you.

Foundation Repair Information

Wed, May 9 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Male Speaker: It's time for Under Your Home with DryZone. DryZone in Milton,Delaware-your complete source for basement and crawl space waterproofing, foundation repair, and basement finishing; 24-hour service - we never sleep at DryZone.

Bill Anderson: It's 6:30 in the morning. I'm Bill Anderson, this is Under Your Home with DryZone. And I actually have still some special guests. I'm not sure why they do it but I definitely appreciate it a lot. I do, I appreciate you guys being here. We're joined with Brad Wazlavek and Adam and I'm still not going to try to pronounce your last name. Adam from J&A Electric anyway - Adam, I appreciate you being here. I know you don't have to get up on the weekends, but it definitely is fun when you're in here so I appreciate it. So Brad, last weekend you said you wanted to start talking about some steel.

Brad Wazlavek: You know foundation is a cool thing because when you think about it, most of what we do is moisture control and things like that. No one really thinks about what happens if you let that go too far. If you let that go too far you're talking about sagging girders, you're talking about rotting wood, and then eventually the actual foundation of your house can get cracks in it and things start to sag. It could start out with something as simple as a door or a window not opening or closing properly, that's a good indicator of it. Little cracks in the corner of the dry wall where the door frame is that could become something very serious, very fast. We actually can take those sagging and failing foundations and either support them, or in a lot of cases lift them back up which obviously, Bill, you're our main guy with that so I'm glad I'm here, I'm going to learn a little bit as well as the people who are listening as well.

Bill Anderson: Basically, here's foundations, we have something sagging, we have something breaking, it's going to come from two things - either the soil underneath your home is eroding or being compressed or you have too much moisture in your wood and that wood starts to lose its expanding capability. So it’s - let me tell you in lay man's terms - when wood gets wet its like when pasta gets wet. When pasta gets wet it gets noodle-y. The exact same thing happens to wood, the only problem is when wood gets wet then mold and mildew and all that other good stuff starts growing on it and when that happens the molds and mildew feed on the wood and grow. Those are really your two things. Like I told you, Brad, that I wanted to talk to you about a couple of different projects that we've got going on. Before we get into that though I do want to make sure that we give everybody our phone numbers here - so Adam you're still our guest so our guests go first.

Adam: J&A Electric - We can be reached at (302) 943-9894.

Brad Wazlavek: You can email Bill if you like, its bill@dryzone.com. I'd give you my email address but my last name is Wazlavek, way too hard to be telling people how to spell it.

Bill Anderson: So, we talked about some different projects and there's a storage place inSalisbury; I don't know if I'm actually allowed to say where it is, but it's over at say hypothetically nearSnow Hill Road. And the whole back wall and this is a long building, I mean this thing is like hundreds of feet long, there are two places in it where underneath the footer it just started eroding. I don't know if it was actually erosion or just compression of the soil, compression is when things compact, so when it's pushing down on the soil it settles. We started knocking off some of the mortar because somebody's tried to patch it over the years and patch it over the years and patch it over the years. We were taking a shovel and we were scraping off the mortar - I could put my whole hand in the wall. It was bad. So, what we were doing was when I first got this phone call the gentleman called me up and well, he talked to our call center obviously and he just told Rob, who's one of the gentleman who acts as our call center manager and he's in charge of the other folks who answers the phones for us, but he was talking to Rob that day, Rob basically took down his information and he set the appointment, but the guy said "Listen, I really need to talk to somebody even before somebody gets out here." So, Rob asked me if I didn't mind taking the phone call and we talked for a few minutes. He was like "Bill, listen, I don't know what to do." He was like "I've had a structural engineer, they're talking about taking down the entire wall, they want to put this one helical pier underneath this footing" which is definitely an acceptable way of doing it. He's like "But I have to move everybody out." He's like "I have no other place to put them. My old place is full. What do I do? Can you please come out and look at it? I need options." He didn't want to have to rent storage heads or have people move because who wants to go move the stuff out of storage at the end of the day - that's just really not an option for most people, it's in there for a reason.

Adam: I've seen storage sheds; those things are packed to the gills.

Bill Anderson: It's not even that, if your garage is full then you put it in a storage shed - that's really why we have storage sheds when we're moving. There's a reason why those places are in business. So I got out there and I said "Okay, why are we replacing the wall?" and he replied "Well because this guy said I should." I said "We’ll let me talk to your engineer." I sit down with their engineers and I came up with a better game plan and this game plan was instead of replacing the wall, the footer, and everything else we were simply going to go underneath there and excavate around the footing in 12 different places and we're going to start driving a helical pier. A helical pier is a great big screw and what we do is we take the excavator out and we have a bucket on it. We dig a hole and the footer is like four and a half feet in the ground so it was actually a big hole, And then we simply notch the footer, we prepare the footer - without getting too technical in detail - we simply made a pocket in the footer and there's a really great big huge bracket that we use that actually goes underneath the footing. But before we put that bracket in, we take off the bucket on our excavator and we attach basically a great big old screw gun. So we put this helical pier, this great big screw, on the end of that gun and we get it - basically we set it correctly so there's a certain way that there's closeness we have to be to the wall, there's a certain torque or a certain amount of force we have to embed these things into the ground. We get all that prepared and we just start screwing this thing down until we reach a certain resistance, or a certain pressure on our hydraulic gauges. Once we reach that pressure we keep putting extensions on and we go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper in the ground until we reach this magical number, which depends on certain events. We have a couple of different numbers that we look for. We screw these things into the ground and then we basically put that great big bracket underneath the foundation and once that's done, we go on to the second, the third, and the fourth and fifth and sixth and this project here is actually six piers, a 30-foot space and six piers. So there are two places along this wall where it was failing and once we got those six helical piers in place we were able to put what's called a ram basically on top of each one of those piers and we're able to lift that whole foundation back up into a level position. We had to put little metal shims in the wall in the motor joints so we didn't close that gap too much, we had to close it to the appropriate level and we simply put enough pressure on that wall and we were able to raise it back up into a level position. Then we locked those piers down and we effectively transferred the weight of that structure from the soils that were failing onto these new piers.

Brad Wazlavek: Wow, that's really impressive. So what you're saying is you put these giant essentially screws in the ground, you're holding this whole building up, and you're able to do that at I imagine less than the cost than what the structural engineer was coming in to do it, right?

Bill Anderson: Well the structural engineer, what they do is they just give you advice. Most structural engineers don't actually perform the work which I think is good because what they do is they try to find the best solution without really having a stake in it. With us, we actually do a lot of educational things with engineers and architects and we perform these things called Lunch-and-Learns. So any engineer who's actually out there listening, any architect that's out there listening, anybody really who wants a presentation done, let us know; we'll come to your office and in an hour we'll have this whole presentation for you. It's not a sales pitch, we're not talking about a huge amount of specific products. I'm not saying WaterGuard, I'm not saying CleanSpace, or SuperSump or SaniDry CXs or 28 helical piers. We're just simply talking in generalities and we actually bring you lunch too. So, if you want to feed your office for free for a day and be a great guy you're more than welcome to have us. You’ll want to call my office; Brad's given the number out before. That's your easiest way to actually get that type of information. So, going back to your original question when an engineer comes out he looks at the problem, he assesses it, and then he actually comes up with a game plan and he says "You need to simply do A, B, C, and D." With us, it's nice because now a lot of engineers are getting to know us and we're doing enough of these presentations that we are actually seeing it actually specked on blueprints. I have a lot of friends in the trades and a couple of my friends are general contractors and engineers will put "You have to use X, Y and Z products in this home" and the contractors are like "Okay I don't know what X, Y, Z product is, I don't understand." They've never had to deal with it, it was something that an engineer heard at maybe even a type of Lunch-and-Learn and it's a great product to use, but now the contractor may have never heard of it. We'll sit down with the engineer and we'll say "Okay, listen, here's what we want to do" they say "Great" on the next house they speck it and if the contractor doesn't know then we can come out and talk to the contractor and say "Listen, this is the type of results you should expect. This is the type of timeline" and normally most of our stuff is done within days, not weeks.

Brad Wazlavek: Wow.

Bill Anderson: Because you've got to think, if somebody's going to out and remove 30-foot sections of a block wall which is eight/nine feet high as it is then you have another four feet below the ground, you have to support that entire structure, you have to tear out floors, you have to dig, you have to pour footings, it's got to dry for a week, it's got to cure at least at some point and then you come back and you put the walls on it. You can't even rest the roof back down on the thing until the walls are dried so then you're another week in the process. We can go out there in a day and screw three, four, five, six helicals into the ground. Like this project5 here it's taken a little bit more time than we had wanted because there's not a whole lot of room to get the excavator back there and we had to jog back and forth. Normally, it should take us less than a week to get 12 done. If they were going to do it the other way you're talking like three or four weeks. And when you start talking like February, March, January - those type of winters people never have to move their stuff, not one material got moved out of that storage shed, not one personal belonging, they kept the inside nice and dry, no dust, we were in and out of there and you get a 25-year nationally backed warranty when it's done. It just makes sense. There are a lot of folks that just don't know what a lot of the different foundation options are nowadays and we're trying really hard to educate the consumers and the people who are educating the consumers on our different products. I've said it before in these shows and I'll say it a million times; an educated consumer makes an educated decision. When I go to buy electrical equipment I had to go - we're doing more video testimonials for our website, we talked about our website last week - I didn't just go out to Best Buy or Staples and buy the first one I saw because it was pretty. I actually went online and I looked at a lot of different reviews because I think reviews are great. That's something that we, actually, do have on our websites. Not just testimonials, but we have reviews; that meant somebody actually went to either Google or Yahoo or Bing or, one of those places, and actually said "I like this company so much that I endorse them." The nice thing about it is, if we were doing something bad it would be on there too, right? So it's something that is truly a third party endorsement that you just can't fake. So, I went on and I started looking for those different things and I made an educated decision. I picked the camera that was in my price range because nobody has unlimited resources, everybody has a finite expense. I went out there and I found the best one that my money was going to buy and that worked well for us. I don’t think I am disappointed with the camera. If you truly follow that philosophy no matter what you're doing in life I think it's going to work. If you can be educated about what's going on in your home, whether it's electricity, whether it's Total Basement Finishing, whether it's foundations or crawl spaces or basements most folks - Brad you're doing crawl spaces too, how many times do you meet a homeowner and you start talking about crawl space vents and why they're so bad and how much moisture and humidity it lets in down here in Delmarva.

Brad Wazlavek: It's a big deal.

Bill Anderson: You do your presentation and then they're like "So do we leave the vents open or close?"

Brad Wazlavek: Sometimes you almost feel that you inundate them too much and you really do have to take your time. It's a lot of information and like me for instance we're still learning little bits here and there. It's a lot of continuing education type stuff. So, for me to be able to sit down an hour, or two hours or however long it takes somebody and push all that knowledge into their brain. You really have to take your time and make sure they understand everything. Those vents, just you touch them real quick and those vents are evil, don't be fooled. The vents actually do like my codes for a few weeks in a row by just touching them real quick. Vent and crawl space eventually is what the code says but it then has some arbitrary number and it doesn't make sense.

Bill Anderson: You know the term or the algorithm they use?

Brad Wazlavek: What was it - 22 vents for 15 beers or something like that?

Bill Anderson: No, for every 150 square feet you have to have 2.2 vents, foundation vents, right?

Brad Wazlavek: We figure with a 150 square foot house you have to have 22 vents.

Bill Anderson: Exactly and I've never seen a house with 22 vents because the code says if you put some plastic or some garbage bag material down you can reduce that number by a huge percentage - like 80% or 90% -- whatever. So then the masons go out there and they say "Well you've got four walls, let's just put two, one in each wall." I mean that's kind of how we do it. I can tell you something else we do, break.

Brad Wazlavek: That's a good segue.

Bill Anderson: You like that segue. So, we do have to take a break folks. Before we go to break I'm going to have Adam give out his information, I'm going to have Brad give out our information and how to reach us.

Adam: J&A Electric at (302) 943-9894.

Brad Wazlavek: Obviously you can catch us on our website; we've been talking about that for quite a while, DryZone.com, something we're really proud of so definitely take a look.

Bill Anderson: So, I know my mom and dad listen to the show, www.dryzone.com. My dad actually you don't have to do the “www dot” anymore but my dad was like "Why don't you ever put the “www dot” in there?" and I'm like "Dad, you don't need to do that anymore" and he was like "Oh really." I showed him the little trick in the address bar. Folks we've got to take a break, we'll be right back.

Male Speaker: It's dark and dank, filled with mold and mildew, and there are creatures crawling, creeping.

Male Speaker: Do you want to cut energy costs and save up to 20% of your heating bill each month? Let DryZone show you how. DryZone will install a clean space encapsulation system in your crawl space and save you money. When your crawl space is encapsulated by DryZone your heating system won't work so hard, your tile and hardwood floors won't be cold, and your crawl space becomes great for storage. DryZone offers interest-free financing for 18 months - 1-855- DryZone or online at DryZone\theduck.com.

Male Speaker: Start the New Year off right with Creative Kitchens and Floors at SeafordDelaware. Serving Delmarva with pride and commitment Creative Kitchens and Floors is celebrating 19 years in business. And they're offering their promotion ever - take an additional 19% off their already low prices on kitchen cabinetry. Choose from wood mold. Wood mold is universally recognized as one of the finest kitchen cabinets. Thinking economically? Think Aristocrat cabinetry. Hurry, this sale ends February 29th. Call Mike Griffith today at (302) 629-3166 for an appointment and details today for that new kitchen you've been dreaming of. Hurry, this sale ends February 29th. At Creative Kitchens and Floors customer satisfaction is our primary goal. (302) 629-3166, (302) 629-3166, or stop by their showroom at8 North Arch StreetSeaford. Congratulations CKF.

Male Speaker: Requirements for 19% discount - 10 cabinets minimum, countertops, cabinetry installation, floor covering material and installation. MHIC number 14298.

Male Speaker: Hey you, yes you, how much do you get paid per hour? You know that's just about what you'll save by going to Easton Hardware 303 North Washington Street inEastoninstead of one of those cavernous discount stores. What would you rather spend your time doing? Looking for your supplies or actually working on your project? At Easton Hardware you'll park a few steps away from the door not way, way down there. You'll go inside, ask for what you need, and quickly be shown all the items to complete your successful do-it-yourself project, not wondering hopelessly lost in aisles of stuff, trying to guess if you picked out the part that will fit your pieces. When you subtract the frustration of trying to look for the supplies you need, subtract the extra time, guess what? It all adds up to savings of both your patience and your pocket. Spend time on your project, not on the supplies at the real savings place - Easton Hardware.EastonHardware303 North Washington StreetinEaston.

Male Speaker: Do you work with or are you a member of an organization that provides employment information or job referrals? Any organization that regularly distributes employment information to job seekers or refers candidates to employers is eligible to receive information about our job vacancies. To be contacted when we have jobs available contact Beverly Jones by mail,PO Box 237CambridgeMaryland21613, fax at (410) 228-0130 or by email atbjones211@comcast.net. You will then receive periodic announcements of jobs at our stations. MTS Broadcasting LC is an equal opportunity employer.

Bill Anderson: This is Bill Anderson and our show is called Under Your Home with DryZone. The biggest thing we talked about when I first started this radio show was I wanted to make sure everybody was informed so we try to keep the guests fresh and like I said Adam, I actually don't know how fresh you are at 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday but - not fresh like you stink, just fresh like you're tired but - I want to definitely talk about education, why things are what they are. We were talking about during break you were talking about our SmartJacks, you said that you come in there and you do our outlets for us and you were wondering why we started putting these metal poles I guess in the crawl space.

Adam: I was really curious about that, see what the idea behind that was.

Bill Anderson: Normally you see like a block pier down there, the columns, the block columns, or even sometimes they're port walls or block walls. The whole idea about those, Adam, is you can't just have a piece of wood going from one side of your house to the other because it's too far, it's too long of a span. Bridges can't go on indefinitely; eventually there's a place where it's going to break. So the whole idea with those block piers is to shore it up basically. We're just shortening the distance so nothing fails. The problem is you're normally around when the houses are even framed up you're there. You've been there when they're just doing footings and foundations and all that, right?

Adam: Right.

Bill Anderson: So, if somebody goes in there and they go to dig these footers for the piers what do you normally see them do? Normally it's a guy out there with a shovel, like a mini loader out there with an auger on the end of it. Well it's funny because when you really look at how you design a footing it should really be square. What happens is when somebody starts digging a hole, what would the bottom of the hole look like?

Adam: It’s round.

Bill Anderson: It's like a cone, right? When you have a lot of pressure on this nail, this cone-shaped thing in ground that gets wet, and I'm just going to spend a couple of minutes here this morning. On Delmarva at least Queen Anne's South you don't have that many underground springs. Most folks I meet there say "Well I think I have an underground spring." You really don't. What you have is a high water table. To have a spring you have to have a cavern. It's just water moves through sand. So, when you start getting a lot of rain the ground starts getting very saturated. What does saturation mean?

Adam: Higher moisture content and higher water content.

Bill Anderson: When you learn too much the brain gets saturated, right? When you get too much of something that it can't hold correctly - it doesn't matter if it's knowledge or weather -- if I'm saturated with grease I have too much grease in me. The ground when it gets saturated you have more water in the soil than it should really hold. You have these houses that have a footprint and normally, when it's snowing people are on snow shoes and they're walking on top of the snow. You take the snow shoes off, you sink. The house, the perimeter wall is going to act like this, snow shoes. However the middle where those individual piers are, if the ground gets wet it could act like a nail and get driven into the ground. So you start to see this downward settlement in the middle of your home. You start to see cracks along the crown molding, up in the corners or see nail pops. Your sub floor, your carpet, all of a sudden starts to move down below your base board, you actually start to see gaps in it.

Brad Wazlavek: You see a little gap there.

Bill Anderson: We'll get a phone call, getting the dry wall guy didn't put enough glue in something. He didn't put enough tape. He didn't put enough dry wall mud. He didn't do this. Somebody did something wrong. So, we'll go underneath and we're not just Chuck in the truck and you've heard me use that phrase before. Chuck in a truck is basically a jack of all trade kind of guy. It's just a guy who has a station wagon and a ladder and he's in business. Not that there's anything wrong with people who own station wagons that happen to have a ladder, but when we're going to spend money; I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing and I guess that's another show another day. When we start doing things in our home we should really expect some type of measured success. Adam when somebody calls you out and they have an outlet that doesn't work they have a certain expectation when you leave. They want it fixed, right? They want it to work. And Brad when somebody comes and asks us for a dry crawl space or a dry basement they don't want the illusion of a dry basement, they don't want the illusion of a dry crawls space, right?

Brad Wazlavek: Oh yes, they definitely want to be able to figure that out and see what they paid for, absolutely.

Bill Anderson: They want it to work.

Brad Wazlavek: Exactly.

Bill Anderson: So when Chuck in the truck comes out, I've seen people go out there and buy some junk at Lowe's and not that there's anything wrong with Lowe's, but it's all homeowner stuff. I don't think I'd buy anything at Lowe's, I mean I might buy some drill bits, some hammers, knee pads and maybe hard hats and stuff like that at Lowe's, but that's not where I go to get my building materials. When we set out there and Chuck in the truck's there he buys these light duty jacks, these little low easy and rusty columns in the crawl space that they took a landscaping paver to, something that you walk on to make a patio with, and they jam a couple of those in the dirt or they dig a hole. I will to tell you, right now, digging a hole in a crawl space is rough. I don't care who you are, I mean we have some guys that are fairly short, there's nothing fun about laying on your belly trying to dig a 30-inch hole, it's just not fun. So they get tired after a while and they'll say "Well six inches is probably deep enough," and they might pour some concrete in there, the whole six inches and they put these jacks in. Well, if you actually go to Lowe's and you read the packaging those jacks were only meant to be a light duty structure for a temporary time only. That's the two requirements that it says it has. What is temporary about our home? What is light duty about our home? What happens is these vents that we've talked about before in the past and even touched on today - you let hot humid air into a nice cool crawl space, voila, you're divine, you have made rain a.k.a. condensation. And metal is normally cold, you're going to get condensation on the coldest things. So, it starts to "sweat" and when metal and water mix you make the rust. So, they put them in, two months later Chuck in the truck, he’s got his job back from the state and now you'll never get a hold of them because he was only using a prepaid number in the first place probably. Not that there's anything wrong with people with prepaid phones.

Brad Wazlavek: Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Bill Anderson: Yes, not that there's anything wrong with that. When you hire those types of folks they're going to be ten times cheaper than us probably, but when there's a problem my homeowners can tell you right now that they would rather have paid more than what they needed to than less than what they should have, right? There is nothing worse than re-doing somebody else's work. There's a house that we did up inDelawareCityand what happened is somebody came out there and they dug a six-inch hole and used a Lally Column. You know what that is, right? It's a great big cardboard tube and they dig it out, they dig this hole in the ground, then they pour concrete in it and that's what they make as their footer. So they use Lally Columns, those light duty posts that they use in basements. They took two 2x4's nailed it together and then tried to lift the home with it. I went in there and I'm telling you - the guy had it done like a year ago - Chuck in the truck is no longer in business, the recession took his station wagon, the ladder got repossessed.

Brad Wazlavek: I didn't even nail it in there; you're doing a good job for me.

Bill Anderson: So he called us up and he's like "Listen I can't get a hold of this guy, he won't fix it, I don't know where he is, I don't know if he moved toTampaBayor what, but I need help." When we go out there I looked at it and I'm just like "Really, are you kidding me?" He was like "Billy, I don't know. The guy sounded good.” He did a really good job building the deck and, "He said he could do it" and I'm like "Well probably performed brain surgery, he had to have a little bit of training."

Brad Wazlavek: So, in essence it's like trying to jack up a car with a bumper jack, like trying to jack the whole back end of a car out with a little temporary fix.

Bill Anderson: Yes, and expect it to hold for a while and it was bending, it was moving, it was going - his house was going to fall down. They took out the old original support and this is his main girder, this is the backbone of his house - it was dying, absolutely utterly dying, there was nothing good that was going to happen from this. We got in there and he didn't even realize he had to have permits. So, we called up Delaware City, we got Delaware City's permits after he got New Casa County's permits, if you're in New Casa County, you've got to have a permit for everything. If you go into Dewey, if you have your house power washed you've got to have a permit. So, we got all the permitting for him, we had to dig footers, we had to dig so many footers because we couldn't just take everything out and they do a footing inspection. My production manager was there to talk with him which is, usually, the time we have an inspector on the job. Let's face it folks, this is Delaware City, this is not a bustling town, probably could have gotten away without getting a permit, but that is not how we do business. We make everything legal and right. The inspector came out, and he was like "Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous. This is really what they left you?" and they don't know who the guy was and I don't think he had a business license. So this homeowner is paying quite a little bit of money to fix the same solution that he had done not that long ago. We got in there, we dug the footings, we got it compacted, we actually had to remove sections of this girder at a time so his house didn't fall down on them. We had to put I-beams down most of the holes and support it that way temporarily to where we could actually get these footings dug, the new girder was put in its place. We were actually using the appropriate sized girder made out of the appropriate material and lagged together correctly and they were putting a real heavy duty jack in there. These jacks are actually rated up to 60,000 pounds of vertical load. So, when you talk about sagging floors upstairs we can literally raise your home. I've seen houses raised before in five inches that have settled, that's a half foot almost. There are just so many different things that we can do in a home, just make sure you're doing it right. Does it cost a little bit more to have it done right? Yes, but if you need brain surgery you're not sitting there shopping people saying "Listen, I'm going to go and I'm going to alienate myself again. I'm not going to Walmart to get brain surgery done. I will go to Walmart to buy groceries and to buy video games and everything else, but I'm won’t even go to Walmart to get my eyes done, I'm actually going to go to an optometrist that actually has its own building.

Brad Wazlavek: You're on a roll; I love it.

Bill Anderson: It's Sunday morning, it's still a little cold outside.

Brad Wazlavek: I was in a house not that long ago and I think we just got it done not too long ago inGeorgetown, where they actually had the concrete pillars that were built out from the blocks. Someone went in and put supplemental support with those instead of the adjustable jacks. For one, those are great they obviously can't adjust them and when they do adjust them they stick this little itty bitty wooden shims in there. And when you think about that your entire home's weight is resting on a piece of balsa wood, it's very strange to think that's acceptable.

Bill Anderson: You know the funny thing about that is builders are keeping me so busy because literally we go back every single day with a crew that's dedicated to nothing but, they go in there and they will replace those little shims with metal plates.

Brad Wazlavek: Yes, it makes sense to use something that's going to last a lot longer. It's your house, like we've been saying the whole time, what's more permanent than your house? Really, there isn’t much. Like I said with this house the columns were actually so bad and they sunk in the ground so much, that some of them weren't even touching the girder anymore. Some of them were a good three to four inches below the girder and slanting where they're wondering why their floor was bouncing, it's because there's nothing there.

Bill Anderson: All right, you know what else is gone?

Brad Wazlavek: Time.

Bill Anderson: Time, yes, we're out of it. Well folks listen I appreciate you getting up with us, having coffee with us. I guess I owe you two, breakfast for hanging out with me today.

Brad Wazlavek: That's cool with me.

Bill Anderson: I'd say it's wherever you guys want to go. Let's go ahead and give our numbers before we leave.

Brad Wazlavek: I'm just going to keep plugging the website because it's really cool - www.dryzone.com.

Bill Anderson: Adam.

Adam: J&A Electric and the number is (302) 943-9894.

Bill Anderson: Well folks I appreciate it and we'll see you next week.

Male Speaker: You've been listening to Under Your Home with DryZone. DryZone in Milton,Delaware-your complete source for basement and crawl space waterproofing, foundation repair, and basement finishing; 24-hour service - we never sleep at DryZone.

DryZone Honored in Dover Delaware

Tue, May 8 2012, 00:00:00 -500

May 4^th 2012 was a big night for DryZone as they brought home another award. Most of the time we are honored for crawlspaces we fix or foundation repair solutions, this time we have received an award for thebest website from the Home Builders Association of Delaware Sales & Marketing Council for the 20th Annual Regal Awards Gala held in Dover Delaware at the Sheraton Hotel 1570 North DuPont Highway.

An informed homeowner will make an informed decision, which has been DryZone’s philosophy since Bill Anderson and Gary Lawson founded it in 2006. The internet is a great way to give our homeowners as much information as we can said Lawson, most people will search out what is wrong in their home and the internet is where most people begin their search. DryZone’s marketing department works side by side with the “Tree House” on how to effectively build and maintain their website, “this award not only belongs to DryZone, but with everyone at Basement Systems” Anderson was quoted telling everyone at the Regal Awards .

Our website will continue to show homeowners how to fix water or moisture in their crawlspaces and basements, or how to fix their sagging or broken foundations or floors. DryZone covers all of Delmarva including Wilmington, De/ Bridgeville, DE / Eden, MD and Salisbury, MD

Where is all of that water comming from?

Tue, May 1 2012, 00:00:00 -500

As the spring turns to summer the heat and humidity will return, and so will the damp crawlspace we have noticed last year. Fixing a crawlspace can be done in stages over time or all at once, when DryZone send an inspector to your home you can rest assured that a certified waterproofing professional would inspect your home. Most problems in the crawlspace can be taken care of without much notice to the homeowners.

DryZone is the largest installer of crawlspace vapor barrier on the shore, we cover all of Sussex, Kent and New Castle Delaware and all of the counties on the Maryland Eastern Shore, including Wicomico, Worchester, Somerset, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, Kent and Cecil.

Water under the home

Tue, April 17 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Water in your crawlspace is a major concern for homeowners on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, an Easton homeowner asked DryZone out to look at the problems that they were having. John the Senior Designer for DryZone showed up on a Saturday morning. He performed a free inspection of the crawlspace; many pictures were taken along with moisture readings of the air and wood. When John emerged from that forgotten space below our feet, he had some good new and some not so good news to report. You see the sump pump installed by a plumber a few weeks back was nothing more than a 5-gallon bucket with a cheap plastic pump in it, most of the water in the crawlspace was not even making it to the sump.

John explained that the water needs a way to get to the sump pump most people refer to this type of system as a “French drain”, he also showed them many types of crawlspace drainage systems. John likes to use the analogy “it’s like a gutter for your crawlspace” and DryZone has a drain, made specifically for this type of space. Hydrolink™ will direct the water coming in from your foundation or the hydrostatic water coming into the crawlspace and send it right to the Smart Sump®. Along with our unique inspection ports, you will never have to worry about your new drains clogging

When this step of fixing the crawlspace is complete John showed the homeowners how to keep it dry with CleanSpace® the only real crawlspace vapor barrier on the market today. DryZone offers all of our homeowners a 25 year nationally backed warranty, along with the comfort knowing Basement Systems the manufacture of CleanSpace® have certified the installing crew. DryZone is the full dealer for all of Talbot County including Saint Michaels, Oxford, Trappe and Cordova

Is the chimney leaning?

Fri, April 6 2012, 00:00:00 -500

We were asked by a Seaford, DE homeowner to look at a leaning chimney, the solutions that were given to him ranged from a complete tear down and rebuild, to a guy coming in a placing a bottle jack like you find at Napa under the footing to “jack up” the chimney. The homeowners needed a permanent fix to this problem, so they spent days looking for a real foundation contractor. They chose a local foundation contractor DryZone to come look at the issues that they were having.

The appointment was set for the following week, and Bill Anderson co-owner of DryZone showed up to the home to perform his inspection. Bill stated that he sees this type of problem a lot on Delmarva, “chimneys are a big problem” like this home the contractor who built the chimney did not even use straps to hold the structure to the home. You see the top of the chimney started to lean away from the home; he was lucky that it did not topple over. With the hurricane last fall and the earthquake we had, the home was in desperate need of repair. Bill determined that they would need two new helical piers that would have a heavy-duty bracket installed under the chimney. Once this is performed, we can then lift and rotate the structure back to a level position.

The crew showed up Monday morning, they unloaded the excavator and got to work. We first dig out around the footing and then had to prep it, the Forman then realized a major flaw in the construction, the footing was extremely narrow less than 6 inches. Within four hours, both helical piles were embedded to the appropriate pressure, and the lift can proceed. The entire chimney made its assent to the roofline, and with a few pushes of the button on the hydraulic pumps, the chimney made its way back into position. The homeowner was overjoyed that his entire home was now stable and with the twenty-five year warrantee that DryZone gave him he can sleep easy even during a hurricane.

So how much does a new HVAC system cost?

Fri, March 30 2012, 00:00:00 -500

I am asked this question on almost a daily basis, so why would you put your heating and air conditioning equipment in the crawlspace. Most of the time it is because it was cheaper, or the contractor did not want it in a closet in the main part of the home, maybe it could not go in the garage. Therefore, we are going to place it in the least desirable pace in the home… the crawlspace. During the summer, the humidity in Delaware and Maryland get to be very high and with the foundation vents, that we have been told to open over the years the air just comes pouring in. The only problem is that air in the home will rise (at least the hot air) so we are left with cold air under the home. So when you have warm or hot air that is laden with moisture (aka humidity) you will begin to have condensation forming on any cold surface, an hvac system is more than cold enough.

Therefore, we go back to the original question “How much does a new hvac system cost?” I have gotten answers from $10,000 and up. One of the main reasons a system can break down is the unit has rusted out! Literally, the whole bottom can give way and the unit falls apart. So by placing a new vapor barrier like the CleanSpace crawlspace encapsulation system in the home, you air conditioning systems can last even longer.

DryZone has satisfied homeowners from Pocomoke Maryland to Wilmington Delaware and from the bay to the ocean, Call DryZone at 1-855-DRY-ZONE to schedule your free inspection or visit us on the web at dryzone.com

Foundation Support and Repair: Permanent solutions for common Foundation Issues

Thu, March 22 2012, 00:00:00 -500

Jason Harmon: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is Jason bringing you Under Your Home with DryZone. This morning I have a guest with me again, Troy. Troy; glad to have you with us.

Troy Hill: Glad to be here.

Jason Harmon: And before I forget let me give you a little bit of contact information on how you can get in touch with DryZone and I'll repeat this again later on in the program. You call us or check us out on the web at www.dryzone.com or you can always email me at Jason@dryzone.com or the co-owner Bill Anderson at bill@dryzone.com.

Jason Harmon: Troy on previous shows we've discussed crawl spaces and their issues and solutions and basements with their issues and solutions but today I want to talk about another product line that DryZone specializes in. That would be foundation support and repair. Over the years technology has improved the ability to address the issues of failing foundations in a permanent way. There are a lot of homeowners that have a problem but they don't really know they have a problem and today I'm going to talk about things to look for that could indicate a problem, what might cause that problem, and the solution to fixing the problem.

Troy Hill: Hopefully you're going to separate these problems between a house with crawl space or a house with a basement.

Jason Harmon: Yes Troy to some extent. Both types of houses can have similar problems but there are specific issues found in each. Let's start by talking about a house with a crawl space that has a problem with floor sagging. This can be caused by a number of things. Number one the existing block or brick columns that are supporting the girder may be spaced too far apart, the columns are supporting the girder and if they're spaced too far apart this is going to create a problem. The girder actually supports the floor joist and the floor joist supports the entire weight of the house. If the girder is spaced too far apart the girder could become overloaded and sag between the columns and when the girder sags so does the floor above it. Another cause might be weakened floor joists and girders due to moisture and wood rot. If you have happened to be listening to one of our shows about excess moisture in crawl spaces we talked about how the excess moisture causes the wood to begin to rot and become weak and unable to continue supporting the weight of the house. A third item and probably the most common is the existing column settling due to weak or unstable soil. Now this often creates a gap between the top of the column and the bottom of the girder that the girders supposed to be supporting. Now once the column settles then the girder sags and the floors above sag and this is a chain reaction.

Troy Hill: I wasn't aware that there could be all these types of problems but here comes the big $550,000 question. Are you ready for it?

Jason Harmon: I'm ready.

Troy Hill: Can DryZone correct these problems?

Jason Harmon: Yes Troy DryZone has the products and the knowledge to address these issues. Let's start by describing just what we do when we come to your house. First the inspector wants to spend a few minutes with the owner to tell them a little bit about DryZone but more importantly to find out what the owner has been experiencing that made him contact us. Then the inspector is going to go into the crawl space and do a complete inspection and take a lot of pictures. Then he will go back up in the house, meet with the owner, download the pictures on to his computer, and show the owner exactly what he has observed. Then he will discuss the solution with the owner and quote him the price right there on the spot.

Troy Hill: And then I assume you're going to put in some shims and additional concrete piers. What's going to happen?

Jason Harmon: Definitely not Troy. Why use something that has already failed? Shimming is cheap and easy but it's only a temporary fix because the piers are going to continue to move and piers made from concrete blocks are time-consuming to install because of the waiting time for the concrete and mortar to cure.

Troy Hill: Now you have my curiosity. Exactly how is DryZone going to address these issues?

Jason Harmon: We do need a minimum amount of space to work in, Troy. If the crawl space is the height of let's say two or three blocks we're good to go. Let's take the problem with the piers, whether it be that they're too far apart or settling into the ground. We're going to use a product called a SmartJack. Now please don't compare our SmartJack with a light duty jack boost that you can buy in a hardware store. Our SmartJack is engineered and tested to support up to 60,000 pounds of weight. Now let me explain briefly how it's installed. A two-foot cube of soil is excavated for each SmartJack location. The hole is then filled with engineered fill, that's gravel, and tightly compacted and then a pre-cast concrete base is set into place. Then the next step is to add a high strength galvanized steel column. These columns come in long lengths and we cut them to the appropriate height of each installation. The steel column and components are assembled and connected to the girder then the SmartJack system is tightened into place. The girder and the floor joists are immediately stabilized and lifting the above floors back to level can be attempted.

Troy Hill: It doesn't seem like gravel could support much weight as like concrete. Is this going to be okay?

Jason Harmon: Remember I said that the galvanized steel column is placed on a pre-cast concrete base and set on a cube of gravel. Now this is the key - the whole system has been engineered for maximum support and the engineering term that describes this is called bulb of significant stress influence. The manufacturer of the SmartJack system has both geotechnical and structural engineers on staff full time that deal with this issue and design these products.

Troy Hill: If my existing joist and girders are weak, Jason can a SmartJack still be used?

Jason Harmon: Yes, Troy. Either new joists or girders can be installed or new lumber can be sintered to each side of the joist or girder. Now sintering is the practice of growing new lumber alongside structurally compromised girders or floor joists.

Troy Hill: Okay now while I'm thinking of it on past radio shows when you were talking about other products that DryZone sells and installs for crawl spaces and basements you mentioned training. Are your people professionally trained on foundation support products too?

Jason Harmon: Most definitely. DryZone sends not only their sales people but also their installers to the manufacturer's facility in Omaha, Nebraska for product and installation training. This is a state of the art facility for administration, training, warehousing, and distribution of their products.

Troy Hill: If you just tuned in you're listening to Under Your Home with DryZone. I'm Troy Hill; Jason Harmon is with us this morning. I've got the questions and Jason has the answer, But Jason let's talk about an email address because anything that we're talking about, I mean the last couple of weeks we've been talking about crawl spaces, we've been talking about basements, today we're talking about foundation support, anything that we're talking about here on the radio that someone may have a question to you guys will answer that.

Jason Harmon: Yes, Troy, we're happy to be able to talk with people about their particular issues. We're easy to get a hold of. They can email us Jason@dryzone.com or one of the co-owners, Bill Anderson, at bill@dryzone.com or they want to talk to us personally they can get us on the telephone.Troy Hill: You talked about the piers that support the girder sinking into the ground because of unstable soil. Can this same thing happen to a foundation?

Jason Harmon: Yes, the perimeter foundation unfortunately can also be affected in this way too. However, we do have the technology to address this issue also.

Troy Hill: Now what indication would there be that there might be a problem? Is there anything we should be looking for?

Jason Harmon: Yes, Troy, some of the indicators might be unleveled floors, sticking windows and doors, doors and windows that are out of square, cracks in the interior walls especially at the corners of doors and windows, stair stepping cracks on the bricks outside on the house if it happens to be a brick house, a chimney that might be separating from the rest of the house and sort of leaning away from it, and cracks in the foundation.

Troy Hill: These are all indications that there may be a problem. Now as a homeowner - and this is what I like about this - as a homeowner we should be looking at these types of things monthly, sometimes daily, to make sure that we don't have sticking windows and things like that or here's a good one, a chimney that's separating from the rest of the house may be a good indication that there may be foundation problems.

Jason Harmon: This is true, Troy.

Troy Hill: And if we're out buying a house these are also things that we should be looking out when we're out buying a house to take a look at these types of things too.

Jason Harmon: Yes you as a buyer should be looking for these things and also when you have your home inspection you want to be sure that your home inspector is keeping an eye for these things also.

Troy Hill: You've got it. Now once you have determined that there is a foundation problem or a foundation issue what are the different methods that can be used to correct some of these problems?

Jason Harmon: Well Troy first of all we will thoroughly inspect the house to determine where the issue might be. It could be just one corner or one end of the house. From the inspection we will determine how to approach the solution. Most likely we will use either a push pier or a helical pier. Now both of these products are similar; the big difference is that one is pushed into the ground and the other is screwed into the ground. For this installation I will use the helical pier.

Troy Hill: Okay, now before we get to the helical pier and what it is I want to go back just a bit when we say the word foundation because when we say foundation to me I think of the group, Foundation Build Me Up Buttercup - anyway that's a joke. Thanks for laughing, buddy. What exactly is the foundation?

Jason Harmon: Those things, Troy, are the indications of a failing foundation. The foundation consists of first of all your footer. The footer is a poured concrete slab that's below ground and it is usually twice as wide as the blocks that are going to be put on it. And then on top of the footer are placed your concrete blocks which create the wall to support the house. So the footing and the block wall are both parts of the foundation.

Troy Hill: So these are things that are saying there's a problem in that foundation part that needs to be corrected. Then we get to this thing called helical piers. What are they?

Jason Harmon: The helical pier that DryZone uses for foundation issues is a heavy gauge round steel pipe. The first section has one or more round steel plates called helix plates that are welded to it and are cut at an angle on the edge to allow them to be screwed into the ground. The plates can vary in diameter from six inches to 14 inches depending on what the soils conditions will require. And then additional sections are bolded to the first section by specially designed coupling as they're screwed into the ground. Troy Hill: Now I have this image of what a foundation is, now I have this image of what you're going to do, I have an image. Now I want to talk about the magic that you guys are going to perform.

Jason Harmon: Now there's really no magic involved, just good old American engineering and ingenuity. The first step is going to be to excavate down to the bottom of the footing. Then we remove a short section of the footing that protrudes past the blocks. Now this will allow us to place a very heavy bracket that is on top of the first helical section under the footing and against the block wall. Then we bring in a mini-excavator which has a hydraulic drive head and we proceed to start turning the helical pier into the ground. As we turn it into the ground additional sections are added until the required depth is achieved. This process is repeated on additional helical piles and piers until the required number are in place. Then we place a hydraulic jack on top of each and connect these to a master control panel. Hydraulic pressure is applied until the necessary lift has been achieved and once this lift has been achieved then the bracket is locked in place and the hydraulic jack is removed. Actually what we're doing is transferring the weight of the house from the unstable soil to the helical piers which are embedded in stable soil. This is a permanent fix and once the excavated area has been backfilled you don't even know the piers are there.

Troy Hill: So basically when you're talking about this you are referring to like lifting or raising the house?

Jason Harmon: Yes, the process is done very slowly actually and each jack can be operated individually as well as in unison with the other jacks. The goal is to bring the house back to a level position and stabilize it and it's amazing the results that we can achieve.

Troy Hill: We're talking about foundations. And what causes a foundation to fail?

Jason Harmon: In a lot of cases, Troy, the foundation fails because of unstable soil. The foundation can also be affected by a high water table. On the Delmarva Peninsula we have an extremely high water table and if the foundation has not been installed to a proper depth on undisturbed soil then when the water table comes up it's going to create a weakened condition for the soil underneath the foundation and the foundation is going to start to actually settle into the ground.

Troy Hill: How long does it take for a foundation to weaken?

Jason Harmon: Troy that's almost impossible to give a time line on that. It can be almost immediately after construction if the foundation was not properly installed but in most cases most contractors are very good about meeting the regulations of the building codes when they install a foundation for a house. But over a time period with the freezing and thawing of your ground and with the wet and dry of the ground it can cause the foundation to start to settle. It is usually a process that starts out slowly but unless it's detected and fixed it can become a real expensive issue for your home.

Troy Hill: I can remember growing up as a child and you're sitting there watching TV and you hear this clank, clank, clank and my parents would say "Oh it's just the house settling, don't worry about it." I don't know whether that was a joke or if you heat that noise - the crack, crack, and crack - it's the house settling but you've got to do something about it.

Jason Harmon: Well actually the crack, crack, crack can be caused by a lot of things. It could be a settling issue to an extent, also houses expand and contract and with heat and cooling you can also hear some cracking in a house. In fact some of your newer houses that have aluminum or vinyl siding on it when the sun hits that siding you can actually hear a cracking in the late afternoon when the sound goes down and things start to cool off you hear it crack again.

Troy Hill: But that's nothing we should be worried about?

Jason Harmon: Not really.

Troy Hill: Not really, it's just expanding and doing its thing, what it's supposed to do?

Jason Harmon: Correct.

Troy Hill: Okay, so we're on this thing called foundation. Now we realize that one of the things that tells us that our foundation is going bad is we try to life up the windows on a nice fall day and we realize that it's tough to lift these windows up because they're sticking. The doors and the windows aren't square anymore. The stair steps every time we go up they're cracking. And you look at our chimney and the attic and it looks like it's moving to the left a little bit. So now we know that there's a foundation problem we call you guys, and you guys are the solution. You come in, you take a look, and you get the foundation back to where it is. Now let's go on the SmartJack. What exactly is the SmartJack all about that's going to help us or going to help you guys get my foundation back to normal?

Jason Harmon: Number one Troy the SmartJack is adjustable whereas a standard girder which is made out of concrete blocks to support a girder is not adjustable. And once a concrete block pier actually sinks into the ground some people will come in and put shims in to try and take up that space just between the girder and the block but this is only a temporary fix because the pier is going to continue to settle into the ground. But our SmartJack being adjustable when we put it in we can tighten that up and actually stabilize your girder which in turn is going to stabilize your floor joist. Now the SmartJack is not a lightweight thing. The SmartJack is a very heavy duty product. The column of the SmartJack is of galvanized steel and the adjustable part of it are very heavy units and these are designed especially for this purpose of supporting the girder of a house and they're designed so that each one of them can support up to 60,000 pounds of weight.

Troy Hill: Wow, that's a lot of weight.

Jason Harmon: That's a bunch.

Troy Hill: Now I know I asked this question earlier in the show but I'm going to do it again just to make sure I'm on the right page. You're actually lifting; you're raising the house to get everything together, right?

Jason Harmon: Troy, we cannot guarantee lift with a SmartJack but we guarantee stabilization. However, in most cases we can achieve lift. Now to give you an example we recently did a house that had a crawl space and the floor on one end of the house had settled. When the lady called us about having a problem when we went out and looked we found that the floor underneath the wall that separated the master bedroom from the adjoining bedroom had actually dropped away three inches.

Troy Hill: Yikes.

Jason Harmon: Yikes is right. And this was an issue where the pier had settled, actually several piers on that end of the house had settled and we were able to go in with our SmartJack system not only stabilized the house but bring it up to almost exactly where it was originally was when it was built.

Troy Hill: Now she's got to be happy about that.

Jason Harmon: She was ecstatic.

Troy Hill: I'm impressed. Now you said earlier that houses with basements can experience the same situations. These helical piers can be used to fix them also, is that correct?

Jason Harmon: Well Troy when we're talking about a house with a basement we're talking about a little bit of a different situation here but yes, they can be, and yes and no is not a good answer but let me elaborate a little bit on that. We have another product called a push pier; this is in addition to the helical pier. The ultimate results are the same but the product itself is a little different and the installation is somewhat different. Unlike the helical pier they're a heavy gauge steel pipe but they do not have the helix plates welded to them and instead of being screwed into the ground they're hydraulically pushed into the ground. Now they have a heavy duty bracket just like the helical pier and we can obtain lift with them also. Big advantage to the push pier is that we do not have to use a large piece of equipment to install them. We can install them from within the basement by cutting a hole in the basement floor down to the top of the footing and then cementing over it when we're finished. Now since the footing of a basement is usually six to eight feet below the grade level the push pier eliminates the need to excavate deep holes around the house. It also eliminates the need to disturb shrubbery and sidewalks, porches, decks, patios, air conditioning units, and anything else that's been added around the house.

Troy Hill: Why not just jack the house up and put a new foundation under it? Can we do that?

Jason Harmon: Not a good solution, Troy. If you're going to do those plan of moving out?

Troy Hill: I was going to say you could see why DryZone does not hire me to do any of the fixing.

Jason Harmon: If you're going to put a whole new foundation under a house you're going to probably have to move out for a couple of months because all your water lines and your sewer lines and your heat ducts are going to have to be disconnected and the house is going to have to be jacked up and it's going to be a lot more costly and you really want to put a new foundation on soil that's already proven to be unstable?

Troy Hill: This is true. Are there any other foundation problems that homeowners should look out for?

Jason Harmon: Yes, there are others but because of time I'll briefly talk about one that's fairly common. It's a bowing basement wall. Bowing basement walls are caused by a number of reasons - settling of poorly compacted backfilled soil, alternating wet and dry soils, alternating freezing and thawing - are among the most common causes. This condition occurs on both block walls and poured concrete walls. We have several products to address the bowing wall issue but I think the best one is what's called a Geo-Lock Anchor System. Now this is the least intrusive, installs quickly, and not only stabilizes the wall but gives the ability to straighten the wall.

Troy Hill: And that's a good thing.

Jason Harmon: That's a great thing.

Troy Hill: That's a good thing, that way we don't have to build a new foundation, we don't have to move out of our houses, we're in there while DryZone can do the work. That's the thing about it, while we're in the house living in the house and you're outside or under the house doing all that can I still continue on cooking and making dinner for the family while you guys are doing the work on the outside?

Jason Harmon: Just pretend we're not there, you can do everything you normally do. The main thing is when we start to lift the house, when we've used helical piers or push piers we want you there because we want you inside the house to observe these cracks in the walls and the different issues, the spaces where the floor has settled, and when we start to do the lift we're going to let you tell us when you're satisfied with what we've got.

Troy Hill: Okay, got you. So I'm in there saying "A little bit more. All right, now there you go, I'm happy right there."

Jason Harmon: That's correct.

Troy Hill: When the lady called did she realize what was going on with her foundation or she just said "You know, it doesn't look level in this room"?

Jason Harmon: She had no idea as to what the cause was. The only problem she had was the fact that her floor had settled.

Troy Hill: And she knew that the floor had settled?

Jason Harmon: Yes, not only did the floor settle on that particular end of the house which was the bedroom end but we showed her also where down in the kitchen she had had some issues too where the ceramic tile floor in the kitchen had dropped away from the wall a little bit. We were able to stabilize that also and bring it back up in place.

Troy Hill: So you guys are like inspectors.

Jason Harmon: That's our job, we inspect your house to find out what's wrong with it.

Troy Hill: Because I heard you say when you go and look at a crawl space you take a lot of pictures and you bring those pictures back and you say "Here's where the problem is." You know that and you see that.

Jason Harmon: This is correct, Troy, most homeowners especially with crawl spaces don't want to go underneath the crawl space or they're unable to get under there for one reason or another.

Troy Hill: I don't want to go under.

Jason Harmon: So we take a lot of pictures because we want them to visually see what the problem is. Now if it's a house with a basement usually they're staying right beside us while we're doing the inspection. And this is a good thing because we can show them on the spot as well as taking the picture exactly what the issue is.

Troy Hill: And see this is the part that I like, that you're actually under there, you're taking the pictures and you're seeing what the problem is. And so ladies and gentlemen listen very carefully to this, if someone calls you up and you're telling them what you're experiencing and they're quoting you a price that's a problem.

Jason Harmon: That's a problem, Troy, because you cannot determine exactly what the problem is without physically seeing it and you cannot quote a solution to that problem unless you have actually seen the cause of the problem.

Troy Hill: And this is the reason why DryZone wants to take pictures, bring them in, and show them to you because - and I'm going to touch on this because I want you do touch on it actually Jason - because they are trained to look for these types of things and they are trained to take pictures and show them to you and say "Here's the problem." They already know the solution, it's up to you to determine what you want done because you guys are trained, you're in school just about once a month, twice a month - tell me how many times a month are you in school?

Jason Harmon: Well actually Troy was having training classes within the company itself every week. There's an hour spent every week just on training in the company and periodically, usually a couple of times a year depending on the situation, they go to the manufacturer's facility for additional training. Occasionally there are new products that come on to the market by the manufacturer and of course when this happens and we need to go get our training on these products because number one the sales people need to know what they're selling, number two the installers need to know how to properly install that product.

Troy Hill: You've got it. So it's constantly education, education, education. The other thing I like is you like to pass some of that education that you've learned to different types of non-profit organizations or Chamber of Commerce that wants to do a luncheon to talk about different types of foundation, basements, and things like that. You're available to talk about that?

Jason Harmon: Yes we are, Troy. We think that education is a very important thing for the consumer and we have developed programs of different lengths that we can put on for non-profit organizations or whoever actually, even a group of homeowners who might want to get together, we'll do it. And there's no charge for doing this, this is part of what we do to educate the public on the potential - and I want to emphasize that word - on the potential problems that they might incur on their home.

Troy Hill: And let's give out an email addresses where people can get contact with you.

Jason Harmon: Check us out on the worldwide web at www.dryzone.com or email us. You can reach me Jason@dryzone.com or one of the owners, Bill Anderson, at bill@dryzone.com. Troy Hill: Anything we talked about on the radio you guys will answer those questions. Can they just email you a question and you'll get back with them?

Jason Harmon: Yes, of course on an email we're limited as to what we're going to be able to describe. If we can talk personally to them it's a back and forth thing and probably is a little better and easier to describe a situation to them over the telephone. Best thing to do is to let us make an appointment if you think you have a problem and come out to your house and check it out and discuss it with you face to face.

Troy Hill: Is there a charge if I think I have a problem and you come out and take a look?

Jason Harmon: No, Troy, absolutely no cost for an inspection and an estimate if you think you has a problem.

Troy Hill: Visit them online at www.dryzone.conm and once again here are the email addresses; Jason Harmon: Jason@dryzone.com and that's J-A-S-O-N, or Bill Anderson at bill@dryzone.com.

Troy Hill: Jason, as always, it's a pleasure talking with you about Under Your Home with DryZone and I look forward to chatting with you next week.

Jason Harmon: Good Troy, see you next week.