[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Happy Christmas Eve on around the house. Today we have got a special episode. This isn't just some replay. I have curated the best episodes with the most information. We'll start out here talking about smart home basics, and we're gonna talk with master electrician, dus and Selzer from electricians you, and then we're gonna talk some fire safety with UL Fire Safety Research.

[00:00:31] Eric Goranson: And the last segment here of this. Hour we will be talking with my buddy Tom from Evolved Stone and that stone you can mount in the inside and outside of your home. With just a finished glor and so much more, let's get back to the shop.

[00:00:46] Dom Rybak: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home,

[00:00:49] Eric Goranson: there is a lot to know the We got you covered.

[00:00:53] Eric Goranson: This is

[00:00:54] Eric Goranson: around the house. Welcome back to Around the House with Eric G and Caroline B, where we've [00:01:00] been talking home improvement every single week. And you should be tune in every single week. And if you don't, just catch it on the podcast. Hit the subscribe button, and guess what? It'll show up and you can listen to us, including that midweek special.

[00:01:14] Eric Goranson: Hey Caroline. Hey.

[00:01:16] Intro: Hey.

[00:01:17] Caroline Blazovsky: So talking about home tech.

[00:01:20] Intro: Yeah. And how I'm

[00:01:22] Caroline Blazovsky: lazy and I don't wanna have to go in and like maneuver all these apps. It just gives me more stuff I have to do in a day. So I want it simple. Make it simple for me and I'll do

[00:01:31] Intro: it.

[00:01:31] Eric Goranson: So up until now I've always said that you should figure out your your smart home plan of the things you want to add around that smart home base, that hub, right?

[00:01:44] Eric Goranson: That is the one app that you can run. It's kinda like the master control for your. So you don't have to have all these different apps to run things. And so for my house, I went with Samsung Smart Things because it's probably the most [00:02:00] retail friendly, it has the most options for companies that play well with it.

[00:02:05] Eric Goranson: Right? Hmm. So I can put in all these different, you know, things. And so you have to almost think about a smart home hub, is that universal language that will work with all the. Smart home devices around. So when you look at, you know, when you look at a box, for instance, there's all these different kind of languages that your smart home pieces use.

[00:02:31] Eric Goranson: Maybe it's on wifi, maybe it's Bluetooth, maybe it's using a language called ZigBee or Z-Wave. Those are two different. Compatibilities of how things communicate. And that's what I like about the Samsung Smart Things, is it uses both, you know, all of those to work with that. So it has a lot of different things, including Nest and all those different things.

[00:02:54] Eric Goranson: And so it's kind of cool how it all plays together.

[00:02:57] Intro: So

[00:02:58] Caroline Blazovsky: when you put this app on, it [00:03:00] goes on your phone, I'm assuming, right? So the app's on your phone, and then these devices will automatically connect to it and it'll allow them to infiltrate the app and adapt them just like a Bluetooth, would they It finds that particular

[00:03:12] Eric Goranson: device?

[00:03:14] Eric Goranson: Yeah. So what happens is, is that when you load that up, and now here's one change that's happened, Samsung has let a third party come in and start to use and create this hub and. If you have the Smart Things platform out there, uh, it's also made by AO Tech, A E O T E C, smart Home Hub. And so it's about 135 bucks.

[00:03:37] Eric Goranson: It's really cool, but once you load this hub up, get it going, then you could start adding all your smart home things into it. Hmm. And so that way you can create things. What I like about Smart Home Hubs, and we've talked about this in previous episodes, is I can program. All these different things to happen around my [00:04:00] house.

[00:04:00] Eric Goranson: So for instance, when I go to bed at night, if I want certain lights on outside, certain lights to be off, I want lights on. You know what? What do I want to happen when I go to bed every night? Hmm. So I can go through and hit it. So I hit the goodnight button that I've created on my smart things. It does all these 20 different things for me.

[00:04:23] Eric Goranson: Nice Sergeant. Oh, it's nighttime. I gotta do this, this, this, this, this. That's fabulous. That way I know the doors are always locked without having to go check 'em. Right? Mm-hmm. Your blinds can be closed. I know. The garage doors shut. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And so you can set that up. You can also set the lights to be at whatever dimming you want.

[00:04:45] Eric Goranson: So if you want like a hallway light just to be low dim, you can set it so when you hit goodnight, it takes it to that. Hmm. And it just sets it really well. That's where it's kind of cool. So if you like at your house, you could set it if you had, your blinds were compatible, and I dunno if [00:05:00] they are or not, but if they were, you could set it where it automatically closes some blinds, opens others, or closes them all, and you don't have to go through and resettle those blinds.

[00:05:09] Eric Goranson: You can hit goodnight. Yeah, that's nice. And so there's a lot of little things that you can do that with. And so that's where that hub is really the key. Does thermostat also

[00:05:19] Intro: go in there? Yep.

[00:05:20] Eric Goranson: See, yes. Many of the, uh, the thermostats will work with that as well. But to be honest, I set my thermostat in my thermostat.

[00:05:28] Eric Goranson: So rarely do I change the thermostat through my hub. Interesting. Just because I've got it pretty much set up. I don't have to change it anymore. I, I know what it needs to. It's set up, it's smart, it's, it's doing its own thing. So for me, that's probably the least used feature on a smart home hub for me is my thermostat because it's already set up and it's working.

[00:05:50] Intro: So

[00:05:51] Caroline Blazovsky: gimme some ideas of things that would go on there, because like I'm thinking about my house, right? So I have an Eco B thermostat, so that probably wouldn't be on there. My blinds would be a

[00:05:59] Eric Goranson: huge thing. [00:06:00] If you had door locks mm-hmm. , that could be a big thing. Garage door openers, that could be a big thing.

[00:06:06] Eric Goranson: Uh, light switches, uh, especially on exterior light switches. You never remember to, you never forget to turn 'em on or turn them off cuz you have, have it happening, you know, you can create it. So at sunset, I want them to turn on at sunrise or a half hour beyond Sunrise. I want them to turn off. See,

[00:06:23] Intro: I would love that.

[00:06:24] Intro: So you can go through, we've

[00:06:25] Caroline Blazovsky: got a Bat Spotlight. Bats love our house. So we have this huge mm-hmm. spotlight to prevent the bats from coming. And I like hate having to go outside. Unplug this huge spotlight. I have it on a timer right now, which, Doesn't do well with the conditions outside. So I could put this all on the timer.

[00:06:41] Intro: It would

[00:06:41] Eric Goranson: be awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And l Lutron makes, if it's just a regular one 10 outlet, Lutron makes an exterior plug that goes in line to that. So you could just plug it in all the time. Right. And then it would control that. That's what I, so you never have to go outside to do that. And so now you're just doing it goodnight.

[00:06:59] Eric Goranson: That thing. [00:07:00] Or you just have it set up that a DU comes on and at sunrise it goes off. It goes off. I would be, and then you're good. So you never have to do that. It's just, it's stuff you don't have to remember to do. So that's where that's really helpful. And you know, I did a lot of speaking at the show. I gave what, 16 seminars that I gave to builders or modelers and designers, and the message I wanted to get across.

[00:07:27] Eric Goranson: We'll talk about some of the new things that happen here in the next segment. But I wanted to really start getting across that there's a new trade in the organization out there for people that are building and remodeling. You know, we all know that you need to have the plumber out. We all know you need to have the electrician out, or even your H V A C tech, right?

[00:07:46] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. the new person out there that you need to have on your job site. Is the integrator nice? And I know a lot of people are going, who the heck is that ? That integrator is that person [00:08:00] that's gonna come on the job site that is gonna make sure that you have all the low voltage wires going where they need to go.

[00:08:06] Eric Goranson: They're gonna make sure that the internet works and all corners of the house. They're gonna make sure that all of your new stuff that comes in your house plays well together. So when the Garage door company comes out to put the new garage doors in the garage door opener that that garage door is gonna work with your system.

[00:08:26] Eric Goranson: And then the most important part of that whole thing is, is when it's all done and installed, they're the ones that are gonna help you to make sure it's all working correctly. And they're also gonna be your tech support at the end. And

[00:08:37] Intro: you,

[00:08:37] Caroline Blazovsky: and you told me something before we did the show. I was talking to Eric about, you know, how much of this is diy, how much of it do you have to go and actually hire an integrator?

[00:08:47] Caroline Blazovsky: And your answer was kind of interesting. You didn't gimme the answer that I thought you would say. No.

[00:08:52] Eric Goranson: I, I, I mean, I'm not an integrator. I don't pretend to be one. I speak about it a lot and I'm teaching builders, remodelers, and designers about it. [00:09:00] But let's be honest, if I'm building a new house, I'm hiring an integrator because I'm hiring that plumber, I'm hiring that electrician.

[00:09:06] Eric Goranson: They're gonna be coming out and doing it, and I'm gonna let them use their expertise. To make sure that my house is working perfectly, you are listening to my favorite episode segments of 2023. Now, when we come back, we have so much more. These are all my favorite things from 2023. My favorite guests, my favorite topics.

[00:09:26] Eric Goranson: Stay tuned for more on this very beautiful Christmas Eve around the house. You'll be right back.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we talk everything about your house every single weekend. Thanks for joining us today. We've got a special guest in the studio. Dustin Stelzer, master Electrician from Austin, Texas. And the guy that founded Electrician. You welcome to around the house, man.

[00:09:57] Eric Goranson: What are we doing, man? This is great. [00:10:00] Happy to have you on today, man.

[00:10:02] Dustin Selzer: Yeah, dude. It's happy to be here. I, uh, checked out your show and I like what you're about,

[00:10:06] Eric Goranson: so thanks. We've got a mutual friend, our buddy Roger Wakefield, master Plumber. Yeah, .

[00:10:14] Dustin Selzer: Roger. Roger and I have a great relationship. It's kind of one of those.

[00:10:18] Dustin Selzer: Like plumbers are better, electricians are better. Kind of the things . So we're always giving each other crap. But uh, yeah. I love Roger, man. Just a positive, great dude. Always on fire. Always wanting to help people out,

[00:10:29] Eric Goranson: man. He is, he is Just as solid as it Getz my favorite plumber out there. Well, I wanted to talk to you today, man, about so much that you've got going on.

[00:10:38] Eric Goranson: I love how you're just blowing up the electrical space out there and really given some education to. Electricians, but including homeowners as well for people trying to tune in and, and learn something else out there, because I think there was such a need for that. And man, you've just jumped in and filled that space full steam.

[00:10:59] Dustin Selzer: Yeah, [00:11:00] I, um, I saw an opening a long time ago, so basically how I started was I got my master electrician's license and I figured like that my whole career, there was nothing visual for me to see for like, how does, how do you wire a switch and like, how does a capacitor work and all this stuff, you know, like I didn't understand it.

[00:11:17] Dustin Selzer: And electricity's in visual, invisible, you know, so like with plumbing, plumbers can see the water. So they can see what's happened. There's no mystery there. But with us you gotta like understand quantum physics and wave particle physics. Like you don't really see anything and it just acts crazy. So I was like, okay, there's people that have made books on electrical code and you know how to.

[00:11:38] Dustin Selzer: How to install stuff correctly, I guess to codes. But there's just, there was nothing instructive in like video or visual form. And I'm a creative person, I'm a very visual learner. So I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna make it. So about six years ago, I just started putting videos together and, you know, the, the cool thing is that as I'm instructing people, I'm having to have my head in books and actually like learning things even deeper [00:12:00] and more profound.

[00:12:01] Dustin Selzer: And I found that just teaching in general, having apprentices on under me, it like forces you to know a lot more, a lot quicker. So, um, it's kind of, and it's Justin,

[00:12:10] Eric Goranson: it's so true because you can know that this is the right way to do it, but when you have to sit there and explain why it's the right way to do it, it's a different thing of, oh yeah, we just always do it that way.

[00:12:22] Eric Goranson: But why do we always do it that.

[00:12:24] Dustin Selzer: Yeah, . Yeah, I had some people coming up that I worked under, you know, some journeymen that I would ask them. I was that annoying apprentice too, man. Like I would, like, how does this work and how does the, how do the waves do this? And how, where do the, and people are just like, dude, shut up.

[00:12:37] Dustin Selzer: Just go put the wire in . And I'm like, but how does this work? And they're like, I don't care how it wor just the white wire. Hook it to the other white wire and shut up. But so, you know, I would find teachers though that were nerds like me, other journeymen and other masters, and those are the ones that I really clung to because they had that thirst when they were younger and they understood and they needed to pass that on to somebody who really cared and wanted

[00:12:59] Eric Goranson: to be great.[00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Eric Goranson: That is awesome. And you know something, I think right now in, in 2022 going into 2023, that electricians are going to be the need of the future over the next de next decade or so. More so than even ever before. I, I think it's gonna be almost like what we saw on the turn of the century when we started putting electricity in homes.

[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: Now we're going to be putting in so much more electricity into homes from car chargers to, you know, maybe taking things that are natural gas and flipping 'em over into electrical and, you know, how many 100 or 150 amp panels out there in the residential world that are gonna have to be swapped out in the next.

[00:13:44] Dustin Selzer: Well, it's K man. It's really interesting to see that because we've. Not only are we putting more things into homes, we're kind of changing how much things use and reducing it as much as possible. So I think what we're gonna see in the next, I don't know, like [00:14:00] 10 years or so, is that all lighting's gonna be low voltage.

[00:14:03] Dustin Selzer: you know, like, I think there's gonna be a way LEDs, like everything's already low voltage. It's being converted from high voltage to low voltage, but I don't think there's a need. There's a lot of commercial lighting out there right now. Mm-hmm. , that's all just low voltage cable to each thing. And you have low voltage cables down to these little smart switches and occupancy sensors and stuff.

[00:14:21] Dustin Selzer: So a lot of this stuff doesn't need to be as bright and as powerful and crazy, so a lot of that's gonna reduce. Um, and I think that Excellent. Using DC using battery backup and, and things like, I just think we're gonna see a reduction in a lot of things, but also, like you're saying, we have car chargers, we have these big crazy pools, we have all these other things that we want to do.

[00:14:42] Dustin Selzer: So I don't know, it'll be interesting.

[00:14:44] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I just look at it, you know the general homeowner out there that's got maybe that a hundred, 150 amp panel and they just went out and bought the, the latest electric car and they wanna put a hot tub in, and all of a sudden they got more ampers pulling outta that panel than it was originally designed.

[00:14:59] Eric Goranson: [00:15:00] Not counting the rest of the house.

[00:15:01] Dustin Selzer: Right. Yeah. And that's, you know, there's a lot of houses. Like my house was built in 1968. I got like a hundred amp panel on my, you know, it's an old Yeah. ZinCo, which they don't even make, oh, I don't think I, you know, like old, old stuff that definitely has to be replaced.

[00:15:14] Dustin Selzer: But, um, but you know, I will say too, a lot of people, Kind of misunderstand. When they look at a panel, they think, okay, I have to add up every single one of my breakers and that's how big my panel is. And it's like not . Most of what's in your panel, you're not using like even a 10th of, you know? Yeah. If you have a 200 amp panel, you might be using 20 amps maximum ever.

[00:15:33] Dustin Selzer: You know, there's so much capacity. But yeah, if you're adding something like a Tesla charger and you need like 80 amps sustained for eight straight hours or something like that, then yeah, you do definitely, you'll have to upgrade your.

[00:15:45] Eric Goranson: Which is good for you. So true. So true. That's, and that's why you're gonna be so needed in, uh, in your people out there, cuz I dunno.

[00:15:52] Eric Goranson: I see it in, and again, like you said, I, I think that, that it could go a bunch of different ways, right? You know, they could come out with, right now it's, you [00:16:00] know, okay, you need a 60, 80 amp charger depending on what level of charger you put in there. But then, who knows, maybe they turn around and boom, it's something else, you know, in two or three years that, that doesn't require that, which will change the entire plan that they're gonna need to do to, to put in that much amperage.

[00:16:15] Eric Goranson: Cuz you know, my old house here that I have built in 79, I had the old split main Cutler hammer, you know, like to catch on fire. And, uh, , ironically, I bought the house and, and I looked. Panel and I went, ah, that's a little smoked. Okay, that's, that's gonna go on the short list. And sure enough, we had to move the meter to get in, uh, to, to meet code where they'd put it versus where it is now.

[00:16:41] Eric Goranson: And long story short, we noticed that when they were pulling it down that the, the neutral was shorting out against one of the legs and had already rubbed through the wire of the neutral, and that's what was causing the heat inside the panel. So I was weeks to months away from having a panel fire. Yeah,

[00:16:59] Dustin Selzer: strange things happen.

[00:16:59] Dustin Selzer: [00:17:00] And with that old, with that old panel too, there was no surge protection. There was no, you know, like even that era. What, how old was the house?

[00:17:06] Eric Goranson: Uh, 79.

[00:17:08] Dustin Selzer: Did you have smoke detectors? Oh yeah. Okay. So there's a, that's a thing though, as a lot of houses back then, they didn't have any smoke protection or any kind of fire protection.

[00:17:16] Dustin Selzer: They didn't have any, a lot of the breakers just weren't smart enough, or they weren't, you know, not, they weren't smart enough, but over time they aren't as effective as they used to be, so they wouldn't trip. Or you'll have like a bad bus connection. So the actual bus where the breaker snaps in, there's like a loose termination.

[00:17:32] Dustin Selzer: There's all kinds of stuff. And then over the years, all of the change in temperature, all the moisture. Yeah, the like, there's disasters waiting to happen everywhere.

[00:17:41] Eric Goranson: That's one of the things that bugs me sometimes when I jump on Craig's List and Facebook marketplace. I see people selling those old breakers that came out of, you know, I don't know if it's some apprentice or somebody that's at the junk pile at the, uh, you know, when it's coming outta the van at the end of the day, but I'm seeing, you know, black market breakers out there of [00:18:00] stuff that they haven't made for 30 years.

[00:18:02] Eric Goranson: Right. But it. My Christmas Eve episode of my favorite episodes of 2023 of around the House will return after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.

[00:18:30] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is our Christmas Eve edition where I'm playing the best episodes on my favorite segments of 2023. Now let's get back to Steve Kerber from the UL Fire Safety Research Institute

[00:18:43] Steve Kerber: next to your bedroom. That could take. Minutes. Um, and by the time that happens, especially with a fire

[00:18:49] Eric Goranson: door, fire sheet rock in there, you've done a pretty good job at keeping it inside that structure, but you also have stopped yourself from knowing about it as well.

[00:18:58] Eric Goranson: Exactly.

[00:18:59] Steve Kerber: So you, you could [00:19:00] be totally on top of a fully involved garage on fire, where the only way you would know about it is if the neighbor across the street saw it and came and knocked on your door and rang your doorbell. Yeah. Uh, we don't want that to happen. We want you to know as fast as possible.

[00:19:13] Steve Kerber: So that's really where the interconnected alarm. Come into play. Um, people also don't realize smoke alarms expire. Yeah. So 10 years that you need a new, you need a new alarm. Those sensors don't last forever. And I think people don't realize that. I mean, I, I know even my going to my in-law's house and it's like, Oh man.

[00:19:31] Steve Kerber: These are the alarms that came with your house when it was built in 1982. Um, you're way past, so great Christmas gift, by the way. Yeah. Um, give the gift of safety to your family. Uh, check how old the smoke alarms are and replace 'em all if, uh, if they're older than 10 years old. It's

[00:19:50] Eric Goranson: funny, I got into an argument with a client over this subject, so I'm an interior designer by trade.

[00:19:55] Eric Goranson: I'm not doing it anymore, but I walked into her house and we're walking through. This is about three years ago, and I look [00:20:00] up and it. That was a 1972 smoke alarm. It just was. And I looked at and I go, I go, that's like, that's like drinking six month old milk up there. Come on. And I knew that she used to work for the fire department and she's like, oh, it'll be fine.

[00:20:16] Eric Goranson: And I looked at her and I go, come on, you know better. And I gave her hell for it and she, the next week I was over there. She goes, you jinxed. Like what? She goes, that thing last night started going off for no reason. And I realized I was wrong and I had to go up and change it. But even as a professional, she knew, but she was just playing with fire.

[00:20:38] Eric Goranson: But I went a step further in my house. I went with that Google system out there. Sure. The Nest protect. So now what I love about that, I have it in my kitchen and you know, a common place for a fire and I'm adding it throughout the rest of the house. But what I like is it'll tell me when it detects a little bit of smoke.

[00:20:55] Eric Goranson: Yep. And it'll actually text my phone. So maybe. The [00:21:00] dogs are home and I'm not. I'm out running around and I can see if I was to ever have smoke showing up in the house, I'm gonna note that there's smoke before the fire and I might even have to be home for it, which I think is huge, especially if you're a, a parent with teenage kids at home, you know?

[00:21:14] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Those are all important things, and I know it's a hundred bucks for a, for a smoke alarm, but a hundred. Is pretty cheap when it comes down to it.

[00:21:23] Steve Kerber: Yeah. Uh, it's hard to put a value on the, the safety of your family. And I mean, I know there's people out there that don't have a hundred bucks to send spend on a smoke alarm, but, um, yeah, it's, it's vital to have that early warning.

[00:21:36] Steve Kerber: I mean, I can't think of a more helpless feeling in the world than. Knowing that something's going wrong in my house and my kids are in the house. Right. And even if you're not there, I mean, even if they're teenagers, that's, yeah. I mean, I, we know how that works. They're, they're blessed in their music or they're playing their video games or whatever, and I mean, you could have a fire next to 'em and they wouldn't even know what was going on.

[00:21:57] Steve Kerber: Cause they're so into the game and there's, I mean,

[00:21:59] Eric Goranson: they're [00:22:00] just headphones are on or whatever.

[00:22:01] Steve Kerber: Yeah, yeah. They're, they're in a different world. Uh, I mean sometimes maybe figuratively or literally depending on, uh, if they've got their VR headset on and everything else. And it's, uh, yeah, I mean all, all these crazy new things that were evolving, we gotta pay attention to the bread and butter safety aspects as well.

[00:22:21] Steve Kerber: Um, you brought up the closed door. I mean, so here, here's the next component. We got the smoke alarms. Yep. The closed door doesn't cost a thing absolutely free. Just a simple behavior. And we've done experiment after experiment, and what continues to stand out is the difference between surviving a fire and not surviving at that fire could likely be a cheap hollow core door.

[00:22:45] Steve Kerber: That is as, I mean, talk about another evolution. I mean, you know this as you've been designing homes and things like that. Mm-hmm. , I mean, we used to have real doors. I mean, we used to have solid wood doors that were actual useful, [00:23:00] um, For, for many things sound happening. Yeah. And, and, uh, things like that.

[00:23:06] Steve Kerber: And they, and they were beautiful. And now, now you'd probably pay a ton of money to get one of these things in some reclaim store or something like that, but they would hold up tremendously to whatever exposure you'd put on them. And then it was like, well, that costs too much. We don't have that wood. So then we.

[00:23:23] Steve Kerber: Cheapen enough. And now it's essentially a, a very couple really thin pieces of wood with cardboard in the middle, uh, to keep Well, that doesn't like to burn. Yeah. You can even get 'em molded and everything else. And it's wood pulp and it's not even wood. Yep. Um, but we've gotten really smart at making that look okay.

[00:23:41] Steve Kerber: Yeah. Uh, but what that means from a fire safety perspective is that, I mean, you, you want that barrier between you and where that fire could be or where that fire is. And it can cut off that source of smoke, that source of heat, and buy you very valuable time to figure out how do I get out of this place.

[00:23:59] Steve Kerber: Yeah. Um, [00:24:00] which brings us to the, the last really important piece, which is escape planning. Um, if you think that you can wait until you actually have a fire and I'll figure it out on the fly, um, not a chance. Yeah. I mean this, we, we see it every single day. I mean, there, there was one day this year in the United States where people did not die in a home fire one day.

[00:24:26] Steve Kerber: Wow. One day we were we're most of the way through November. Exactly. And I think we're somewhere up to 2000 people dying in their homes. Yeah. And, uh, these are all prevent.

[00:24:37] Eric Goranson: Um, so that door, yeah, I've got in our master closet, uh, cuz we're second floor and it's just my wife and I kids are off to college and gone, but, so it's just the two of us.

[00:24:45] Eric Goranson: But I've got one of those escape platters that I can throw over the deck outside or out the window in the bedroom cuz I've got a slider out the, you know, out the bedroom, right out into the deck. And I can pop out that way if we had to. I don't have to worry about

[00:24:57] Steve Kerber: it. Yeah. Yeah. You thought about [00:25:00] it, you're like, all right, well if I, if I get a fire anywhere in my house, Chances are that by the time I wake up, realize what's going on.

[00:25:08] Steve Kerber: The wife and I. What the heck is that noise? And you investigate and try and figure it out that your exit out of the front door, the way you would want to go, is likely gonna be cut off by smoke. Mm-hmm. . So if it's gonna be cut off by smoke, what's the plan B? Well, plan B is out the window. All right. Well, I don't want to hang and drop out the window.

[00:25:29] Steve Kerber: Uh, so we're gonna go ahead and, and get a ladder that, that we can go ahead and get out and, and get down. Um, if you didn't have that ladder plan C. Is door shut. Get to the window, call 9 1 1 and, and start yelling. Hopefully the fire department gets there in time and that door lasts long enough with the heat, uh, or a neighbor gets a ladder to you or whatever the case is.

[00:25:54] Steve Kerber: But I mean, our research has showed that you can take a living room [00:26:00] fire from a small flaming ignition to the living room, completely involved in fire in about three minutes. The average response time of the fire department in the United States is about six minutes. So you do the math? Yeah. I mean, you need to be able to get yourself out.

[00:26:17] Steve Kerber: You need to be able to buy yourself time because it's on you for quite some time until the fire department's gonna get there and they're coming fast. They're doing the best they can. Uh, depending on what kind of community you live in, it could be four minutes. In a city, it could be 40 minutes in a rural area.

[00:26:36] Eric Goranson: So I, I literally have a quarter mile away. I have a fire department right there, but who says they're not on another call when my call comes in and now the next one is two miles that way. So now I just tripled my response time.

[00:26:50] Steve Kerber: Absolutely. And, and, and no control of you whatsoever. I mean, if you've got two departments that close, you're in a pretty well protected area.

[00:26:58] Steve Kerber: That's not common for [00:27:00] most of the country. Uh, but you're absolutely right. They could be out helping Mrs. Smith with a heart attack. And, uh, they're not available when your house fire comes in. We don't plan these things. Yeah.

[00:27:10] Eric Goranson: It's random. It's random. Yeah. You're strong. The thing that I'm a, a big proponent of and it saved my butt one time.

[00:27:18] Eric Goranson: So it's one of those things that, that I've always done is have a nice big fire extinguishers in certain places around the house. Sure. And you know, I've got three in the garage by every door, one by every. You know, I, I, I was like one in the kitchen, one in the master bedroom, just because if you need that as an option, you have an option right there.

[00:27:43] Steve Kerber: Yeah. These are tough. I mean, as, uh, Someone like yourself that, that plans for this and knows how to use a fire extinguisher. It sounds like you might have had to have, uh, deployed one or two in your life. Oh, I got a story for you there, . Yeah, it's, uh, it's tough because [00:28:00] fire grows so rapidly that the important guidance there is one, one, the fire's gotta be small.

[00:28:06] Steve Kerber: Mm-hmm. , and two, like you said, you've got 'em by your exit points, which is

[00:28:10] Eric Goranson: critical. Our Christmas Eve episode of Around the House will be right back. Don't go

[00:28:14] Intro: anywhere.

[00:28:24] Eric Goranson: Happy Christmas Eve. Now let's get back to my favorite episodes of 2023 in this episode of Around the House. Welcome back to The Round the House Show. Now, if this is the first time joining us, it's okay. We'd love to have you part of the family here, so make sure you follow us at Around the House online or on social media.

[00:28:40] Eric Goranson: Just search out the Around the House Show and if you're over on Facebook and you see that page, we also have a close group called Around the House. Now this is really fun group where we get to share stuff up and uh, it's a very safe place to be able to talk about all those projects you're working on.

[00:28:58] Eric Goranson: And that is a lot of fun. [00:29:00] Now let's get back to our conversation with the Evolv Stone. You can find them out over@toevolvestone.com. We can. Pretty

[00:29:06] Dom Rybak: easily, pretty quickly get them a, a cl a custom climbing wall to their parameters. I've built, I've built custom climbing walls and I, I'm not an avid climber, but I, you know, I know how to get around on a climbing wall.

[00:29:18] Dom Rybak: Yeah. We, we've built some climbing walls that , certain, certain sections of it are very challenging. I mean, you've gotta be, you've gotta be a, a, you. Uh, every week type of climber. Yeah,

[00:29:31] Eric Goranson: you're that person versus me getting up there and who's boy certified. But I get up there and I'm like, all right, this is kicking my butt.

[00:29:39] Dom Rybak: There, there was a job that we did actually locally in Virginia at a gym, and, uh, we had, we had to wait. I think we had to wait for another trade to come through before we could punch the jab out. So I waited for that, them to come through. But everything else had was, you know, The place was fully upholstered, so I had to climb up and [00:30:00] over that wall, I don't know, maybe 20 times in an afternoon.

[00:30:03] Dom Rybak: And , and I was not in climbing shape at that point. And I mean, Uh, parts of your shoulders, you know, are just burning muscles that you didn't know you had,

[00:30:14] Eric Goranson: could hurt . You didn't move for four days, did you?

[00:30:17] Dom Rybak: Ah, this is the worst . It was the worst. And it's after hours and it's dim and you're behind a, you know, climbing wall and brutal everything.

[00:30:25] Dom Rybak: So, so yeah, the climb, that's kind of where, that's kind of where we started to really take this material and develop it out from what it was traditionally used, right in the nineties. and you know, the projects got bigger, our teams got a little bit larger. Mm-hmm. , we got smarter about working with, you know, we have a, uh, we have a steel subcontractor now.

[00:30:49] Dom Rybak: We we're not trying to do stuff in house that we're not good at or don't have room for.

[00:30:54] Eric Goranson: That's it. Own world man. .

[00:30:56] Dom Rybak: Oh yeah. You know, we're not, we're not a, we can fabricate a little [00:31:00] something here or there, but it's easier for someone who's set up for it. Yeah. And I'll, I'll send my couple of trucks. You know, if this climbing wall takes two or three trucks, we cut it down and this mountain down into a couple of trucks and, you know, ship it out across the country.

[00:31:13] Dom Rybak: The steel guy does the same thing, loads up a couple trucks and they, they meet each other on the job site. We all fly out and, uh, try to knock it out as quick as humanly. ,

[00:31:24] Eric Goranson: that's fun. But that tells you about the, the durability and the realism of this product that you can turn around and build a, a high-end climbing wall out of it.

[00:31:32] Eric Goranson: And people still luck at it and go, wow, that looks like rock up there.

[00:31:37] Dom Rybak: Yeah. I, there's nothing that looks, uh, quite like it. And, and you think too, I mean, we've been featured at places like SeaWorld. , uh, Cabela's. Mm-hmm. , Dick's field and stream stuff where they go. Uh, you know, we do, we do some work on, uh, in St.

[00:31:55] Dom Rybak: Paul's with Lucas Lagoons, where they got these grottos that are seeing [00:32:00] hundreds of gallons per, you know, just dumping over the edges of these things. And, and, uh, Yeah, the, the, the materials just insanely, it's got some crazy attributes to it. The fact in which it's lightweight, um, and it, and it weathers perfectly.

[00:32:16] Dom Rybak: Um, it's easy to maintain. You know, I, I saw somebody, uh, uh, did the first cleaning of their evolv stone, cuz it's in the, you know, shady side of the house, and they called me up about it. You just take some dawn. Mix it up with some water, spray it on, wipe it off simple. No, you could, you could lightly, lightly para wash it if you wanted to.

[00:32:37] Dom Rybak: Um, you could seal it honestly, if you wanted to seal it for a little bit more, uh, uh, ease of cleaning it down the road, you know, uh, it's, it's super, super easy to maintain. That's the great part. Um, the, one of the other things, I don't think we even got into it. Um, It's ability to stay on the wall is fantastic.

[00:32:59] Dom Rybak: We [00:33:00] did a negative pressure test. Part of what the I CCC required was they wanted to know the failure point. Like Sure, how, how much hurricane can this wall assembly take is basically the test. Mm-hmm. , that's the A S T M E three 30. And what they do is they take four by wall assemblies that you make and.

[00:33:19] Dom Rybak: Point in time of testing, I was making the stone by hand one a couple stones at a time. Mm-hmm. , and I'm putting 'em on these four by eight walls and we bring this assemblies to the testing site. and they ramp up this machine to try to pull the stones off. It's in a big acrylic and steel chamber. It's okay.

[00:33:37] Dom Rybak: I got a two by four wall, uh, with seven sixteens osb, and then there's a big poly bag on it where this, all my stones have been nailed over and they're trying to pull the bag off of the wall and take the stones with it. Wow. And uh, the, the first time we ran that test without a single stone coming off, we bent the o s.

[00:33:59] Dom Rybak: so far [00:34:00] that it drug the uh, three and a half ring ink nail right out of the center studs, . Wow. Yeah, so that was, so they, they had us make a more scum wall assembly, so I had to go home, make a couple more

[00:34:12] Eric Goranson: stones real quick. You're, you're like gluing and screwing and you're just trying to make it all hold together.

[00:34:17] Eric Goranson: I'm just like, guys, so they

[00:34:19] Dom Rybak: put a three quarter gusset plate at the top of plywood, three quarter gusset plate at the bottom, uh, two by six studs, 16 inch centers. Glu gorilla glued and screwed the entire thing off every eight inches, . Uh, and this was the last test I think that we did. And then they, they draw a vacuum on that wall and we snapped the two by six stud and half lengthwise on the outer side.

[00:34:42] Dom Rybak: There we go. Before the stone came off. So the stuff is

[00:34:46] Eric Goranson: on there. Yeah. You know, there's no mess around with that's, that's there. I mean, that's, yeah.

[00:34:52] Dom Rybak: So that was, uh, 397. Uh, uh, pounds, a square foot, uh, worth of withdrawal and. [00:35:00] That's like a, um, couple hundred mile an hour sustained hurricane wind. So

[00:35:06] Eric Goranson: you got it's way other bigger problems than the neighborhood when that's happening.

[00:35:09] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. If

[00:35:10] Dom Rybak: your shear panels are flying off the framing, then I can't, I can't help .

[00:35:16] Eric Goranson: You'll know which panels are yours cuz they'll still have a evolved stone hook to 'em. Yeah. ,

[00:35:20] Intro: the stone. The stone will still be on it. You just,

[00:35:23] Eric Goranson: you know, if anyone's still a lot round, you can pick 'em back up and you.

[00:35:27] Eric Goranson: Found your wall two and a half miles away. It's still got your stone on it. .

[00:35:32] Dom Rybak: It's an unintentional

[00:35:33] Eric Goranson: breakaway wall. Exactly, exactly. Tom, thanks for coming on today, brother. What did we not cover today that we should probably touch? Did we get it all?

[00:35:42] Dom Rybak: Um, moisture and permeable was a big, yeah, was a big deal.

[00:35:48] Dom Rybak: The color is infused all the way throughout, so when you cut it, you know, a lot of times when you cut. Certain siding products, you know, anything that's pre-finished, you've got the [00:36:00] decor of that product. Mm-hmm. , and it's a different color or a different material than the outer. Our color is impregnated all the way throughout it.

[00:36:06] Dom Rybak: So, um, you know, if you cut a, a stone, you know, square and flush, and you've got that lighter looking. Edge, you could actually take a little bit of Thompson's clear water, seal, and a spray can. Mm-hmm. spray that edge and it kind of just brings that sheen back to it. And you can put that right in the wall.

[00:36:24] Dom Rybak: No one, it'll be any of the wiser, you could texture it up. I always keep a waffle faced, drywall hammer on me. Yep. And I kind of touch, touch up the edge of that stone and I'll put it in place. Um, you know, we, we talked about no, you know, specialty tools. Uh, I, you, you saw my setup. I mean, I had everything.

[00:36:43] Dom Rybak: Basically on me. Yeah. Um, minus, minus the saw. And a lot of times siding guys will even forego the saw they like to work with, you know, whatever they like, you know, four inch angle, Grindr. Yep. You know, whatever, whatever they want to use, uh, or feel comfortable with. I feel most [00:37:00] comfortable, you know, I'm not a exactly a, a trades guy.

[00:37:02] Dom Rybak: I don't claim to be. Um, and my skillset is, uh, particular because. I've been doing this for such a long time, that my skillset is turned into an installer of a ball stone. Yeah, but you know, my chops saw I got a little battery operated. Chop. Saw that thing's perfect. Um, yeah, staging, scaffolding, you don't, you know, you don't need a ton of it for the, for the weight of the stone.

[00:37:27] Dom Rybak: I mean, we could go on and on for days, but, You get the idea. I mean, we have spent a lot of time, we haven't talked about the website or Instagram or Facebook or,

[00:37:37] Eric Goranson: that's where I was gonna go next, brother. That's where I was gonna go next. How do we find this stuff? We wanna put it on our house.

[00:37:44] Dom Rybak: Evolve stone.com.

[00:37:45] Dom Rybak: That's the, that's the best place to take a look. We have, uh, basically national distribution, um, end to, and Canada's also a big market for us because you can put the stuff on, uh, I, I, I was on a job in. , [00:38:00] I wanna say Commerce Township. Mm-hmm. in basically, Detroit was about, it's about negative five when we woke up.

[00:38:08] Dom Rybak: Um, so 7:00 AM on the job. It's, you know, a, a high for the day of like eight degrees and we're putting this stuff up. So, you know, the Canadians are in a pinch, you know, nobody wants to be working out in that kind of crazy cold. But when you got to, you got to, yep. So, , you know, distribution basically. Uh, if, if you're listening to the show, you can probably , you're probably in a territory where you can, uh, get your hands on.

[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: Perfect. Perfect, brother Tom, right back. Thanks for coming on today, brother. Evolve Stone. Gotta check this stuff out and uh, we'll be doing this again soon.

[00:38:44] Dom Rybak: Perfect, Eric. Thanks. Thanks a time. I appreciate it man.

[00:38:47] Eric Goranson: Thanks brother. You've been listening to

[00:38:49] Intro: Around the House.[00:39:00]