Eric

It's around the house.

Andrew Pace

In this episode we've got one of my favorite interviews we just did with my buddy Andrew Pace, green building expert.

Andrew Pace

And this is gonna be a lot of fun.

Andrew Pace

But here's the thing, it can't all fit into the radio show cause it was over an hour.

Andrew Pace

So make sure you hit our premium membership over there where you can catch the whole thing commercial free and ten days free for that.

Andrew Pace

So head over to aroundthehouseonline.com and sign up there.

Andrew Pace

This is an interview you don't wanna miss.

Andrew Pace

And we even talk whiskey around the house shows brought to you by pyramid heating and cooling serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon.

Andrew Pace

They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

Andrew Pace

Head to pyramidheating.com Oregon CCB 59382.

Andrew Pace

When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to.

Eric

Know, but we've got you covered.

Andrew Pace

This is around the house.

Andrew Pace

Welcome to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement brought to you my friends over at monument grills.

Andrew Pace

To find out more, head to monumentgrills.com.

Andrew Pace

and we have a fabulous show today.

Andrew Pace

One of my good buddies that every time he comes on here, we get off on sidetracks.

Andrew Pace

We have a lot of fun talking about everything, healthy home and maybe a little whiskey, even if we can slide that into the conversation.

Andrew Pace

Andrew Pace, Andy Pace, my friend, welcome back to around the house.

Eric

Thank you, Eric.

Eric

I'll tell you what, I've been looking forward to this conversation since I found out about it again because, yeah, you and I always get into these great conversations.

Eric

A little bit of some side tangents that are always enjoyable.

Eric

But this is fantastic.

Eric

Great, great to see you again.

Andrew Pace

Ah, great to have you on here.

Andrew Pace

It's been way too long.

Andrew Pace

Let's talk about you for a minute.

Andrew Pace

For all the new people out there, you've got the green design center.

Andrew Pace

You are one of my probably two people that I reach out to and I'm like, okay, I got to figure a healthy solution out here.

Andrew Pace

And usually get my emails or LinkedIn messages going, what do we do about this?

Andrew Pace

And it's always something strange.

Eric

Yeah, thats actually my career has been made on answering those tough questions quickly.

Eric

I work with people all around the world who have allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivities, mold sensitivities, pretty much anybody who has an immune system disorder that doesnt allow them to live in the current state of our home buildings.

Eric

And so anything that could cause a reaction to for somebody would be chemical, off gassing, mold, bacteria, you name it.

Eric

So I help folks remodel, design and build healthy homes.

Andrew Pace

And there are so many, I'm going to use this because it's politically incorrect and I don't care because that's my style.

Andrew Pace

But there are so many old wives tales out there of how to deal with things that are completely the wrong answers, only answer to do stuff.

Andrew Pace

And it's shocking where people are like, oh, go do this.

Andrew Pace

And it's like, what are you talking about making that worse?

Andrew Pace

Like that?

Eric

Its funny you mentioned this right away because the hot topic lately has been if your house has a lot of chemicals coming from the building materials, what you should do is do whats called a bakeout where you heat up the house and that excites all the chemicals and the materials and it allows them to off gas faster.

Eric

And ill tell you folks, thats the absolute worst thing you want to do in your house because yes, you will get more chemical release, but you also get new chemical compounds being formed that wouldn't be there unless you heated it up to that temperature.

Eric

Not to mention this is only effective if you do this at 100 degrees for two weeks straight.

Eric

And by that time, you have now voided every warranty for every building material you use.

Andrew Pace

So that's good on the list, right?

Eric

Exactly.

Eric

Exactly.

Andrew Pace

And the funny thing is, is maybe all of those plastics in your house that finally the oils on the outside have finally off gassed and they're slowed down, you are hitting the control alt delete restart on those as well.

Andrew Pace

Right?

Eric

Common sense says that for sure.

Eric

We know that a lot of building materials that are used, let's say materials that finish or cure on site, paints, stains, adhesives, caulking materials, those can off gas anywhere from about two and a half to four and a half years after they reach a full cure.

Eric

Other materials like plywood and plastics, the off gassing never really is fully complete, but the majority of it will release within those first few years.

Eric

If you now expose it to this new temperature that its not supposed to be at, it can then start the process all over again.

Eric

So, yeah, I hear that all the time from customers.

Eric

I think there was an article written about 25 years ago by a scientist named Hal Levin, wrote this article on how you can do a bakeout, but then he came back out with an article right afterwards saying, but don't do it because you can't do this effectively in a home without causing a whole host of problems.

Eric

So don't even try, Evan.

Andrew Pace

I think the only thing you might do is kill some bedbugs, and that's probably.

Eric

You might do that.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

It'll certainly increase your energy costs for a while.

Eric

It just.

Eric

It's a bad idea, Evan.

Andrew Pace

Oh, man.

Andrew Pace

I can.

Andrew Pace

I just.

Andrew Pace

I'm thinking of the.

Andrew Pace

The different systems in your house that are gonna go sideways with that, and that's just not good.

Andrew Pace

Not good at all.

Andrew Pace

But it's the same thing about.

Andrew Pace

On social media posts out there, people just going, oh, yeah, just take that bleach and wipe down all the mold, and you'll be good to go.

Andrew Pace

And you can cover it right up and go right over the top of it.

Andrew Pace

And I'm just like, I don't care what you're using, guys.

Andrew Pace

Let's just put the bleach away.

Andrew Pace

I don't really have a good cause for bleach to be used.

Andrew Pace

There's so many better products out there, even if it's on a hard surface.

Eric

Right.

Eric

I think that we get to the situation where, because somebody does something for a living, they can call themselves an expert.

Eric

I hear this all the time.

Eric

To your point, contractor says, oh, yeah, just bleach the wood.

Eric

It'll be fine.

Eric

I've been doing this for 30 years.

Eric

I've never had a problem.

Andrew Pace

That's my favorite line.

Eric

Okay.

Eric

My response always is, I've been golfing for 30 years, and I'm still absolutely horrible.

Eric

Just because you do something doesn't make you an expert at it.

Eric

Just because somebody gives you money for something you do does not make you an expert.

Eric

There are so many of these old, as you say, wives tales that people just assume work, otherwise they wouldn't be still saying this.

Eric

There are so many of these issues that keep on getting perpetuated, and these ideas, they do not work.

Eric

They cause bigger problems.

Eric

Bleach especially makes mold worse.

Eric

So do never bleach mold, Joe.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

And what's bad is there's some.

Andrew Pace

I think there's even some EPA documentation out there saying, oh, it works good on.

Andrew Pace

On non porous surfaces.

Andrew Pace

But I'm like, why make it worse?

Andrew Pace

Maybe it does kill some of it.

Andrew Pace

There's, like I said, so many better products, and I just wish the government would take that page down, because it's misinformation in my mind.

Eric

It's just information in today's consumers.

Eric

And this is not to rip on anybody in particular, but generally speaking, people skim information.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

So you download this sheet on how to get rid of mold.

Eric

Oh, it says, I can use bleach.

Eric

Okay.

Eric

I can use bleach.

Eric

It says you can use bleach on non porous surfaces.

Eric

You didn't read that next line.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

And so I would rather err on the side of safe, and let's just not talk about it at all.

Eric

Let's talk about what works in everything, and you don't have to worry about it, Evan.

Eric

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

And there's so many good preventative measures out there.

Andrew Pace

Stuff that you got me lined up with out there in the past with.

Andrew Pace

With stuff is.

Andrew Pace

Is okay.

Andrew Pace

You got the problem fixed, but you're still going to coat something over the top of it.

Andrew Pace

Don't run down, and get the hardware store primer that says it's good for mold.

Andrew Pace

Go get something like call well or something.

Andrew Pace

And I got that from you.

Eric

Yes.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

And that the Callwell product has been an absolute lifesaver.

Eric

The.

Eric

The true method of remediating a mold situation without going down into a deep rabbit hole here.

Eric

But the true method is to.

Eric

They open up the wall.

Eric

They do containment.

Eric

They open up the walls.

Eric

You're vacuuming, you're scraping, you're sanding, you're cleaning.

Eric

Then when it's dry, you encapsulate, you put a coating on so that this situation can happen again.

Eric

Call well is a little bit different.

Eric

Call well.

Eric

After you encapsulate and you vacuum to get rid of the loose material, you literally paint two coats over the moldy wood, and that's it.

Eric

You're done.

Eric

It saves 75% of the labor.

Eric

And the way it does, it's not by using some toxic science, scientific, noxious chemical.

Eric

It uses lime.

Eric

It uses calcium hydroxide, natural mineral.

Eric

And it raises the ph of the surface so high that it kills mold on contact, and it stays active for a minimum of five years, which is unlike anything on the market.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

PH is science.

Andrew Pace

And when it gets to point where it's gonna not.

Andrew Pace

Nothing's gonna grow on it, you've created something without off gassing and sending in your healthy air off into the.

Andrew Pace

Into the stratosphere with bad contaminants.

Eric

And we've got.

Eric

We've literally have hundreds and hundreds of years of.

Eric

Of experience using lime.

Eric

Farmers use lime lime wash the barns to get rid of the mold.

Eric

Villages throughout Europe since the plague have been using lime on their.

Eric

On their homes to essentially stop the spread of.

Eric

Of disease.

Eric

So we know it works.

Eric

So that.

Eric

Another old wives tale, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Eric

I believe that one.

Eric

This works.

Eric

It's a natural material that works.

Eric

Let's just stick with that.

Andrew Pace

Its basic science.

Andrew Pace

Lets go ahead and use it.

Andrew Pace

Its something we learned in fifth grade.

Andrew Pace

And it works.

Andrew Pace

Its so smart.

Andrew Pace

And I think topically, because its not been a bad hurricane season for most, but weve had a lot of storms on the east coast and across the south that have been really hitting people that maybe have been in homes for five years that have never had to deal with water intrusion issues, whether its in a first floor, a crawl space, or a basement.

Andrew Pace

And these are some really good tried and true ways to deal with it because so many people, I see it on social media, hey, I had 18 inches of water in my basement and it's finished.

Andrew Pace

So I'm going to take the drywall out and put new drywall on.

Andrew Pace

Am I good?

Andrew Pace

And it's just like, you're not dealing with this correctly.

Andrew Pace

And it's, it's one of the things that we see here in the Pacific Northwest because we have a lot of basements and crawl spaces.

Andrew Pace

House flippers go in and take an unfinished basement that's been unfinished for 30 years because of water intrusion issues.

Andrew Pace

And they go in there and say, cool, let's go add another thousand square feet to the house.

Andrew Pace

They finish it off incorrectly, and people move in and eight to ten weeks are going, why am I coughing?

Andrew Pace

Why am I not feeling well?

Eric

Right.

Andrew Pace

And then you go down and start peeling back some drywall and see, wow, white on this side, black on this side, and it starts to get to be a hot mess.

Eric

It comes down to that we just talked about before, this is the way we've always done it.

Eric

So let's just continue to do it this way and everything will be just fine.

Eric

Whichever side of the coin somebody is on about climate, the climates, the fact of the matter is we realize that weather patterns are changing.

Eric

And then areas of the country that used to get a lot of rain may get less, may get more.

Eric

And this has a cyclical as well.

Eric

We see this every ten to 15 years.

Eric

I know here in my state here in Wisconsin, about every ten to 15 years, we get these summers of absolutely torrential rainfalls.

Eric

And then a summer like now, which we haven't had rain for two weeks, it's just, it's, this is what happens.

Eric

But it's always safe to err on the side of, let's protect from the moisture because at some point in the hundred year existence of this home, moisture is going to be an issue.

Eric

So why wouldn't you protect against it?

Andrew Pace

Evan?

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

So simple.

Andrew Pace

And the science is out there.

Andrew Pace

The materials are out there to do this correctly.

Andrew Pace

And I just like to see people doing it right because depending on the location as there are some crazy rules for basements and stuff across the country.

Andrew Pace

What is that in Colorado where they get frosty and they've got to have an adjustable floor by six inches on the.

Andrew Pace

There's a lot of weird things that happen that all of our friends down in Florida and California are going, what are you talking about?

Eric

Right?

Andrew Pace

Really?

Andrew Pace

There's not one rule that fits everything, but there is one rule for controlling moisture, making sure that that is a dry space down there and not growing mold.

Eric

Preston and then you throw into this whole equation the fact that in every state you have a different set of building codes, energy codes.

Eric

You bring up Boulder, Colorado.

Eric

Im working with a customer in Boulder right now, a large contractor, and the things he has to do just to meet the energy codes, literally causing health issues for his customers because there's the unintended consequence of trying to do the right thing.

Eric

And this is what we're in right now, in the middle of code officials around the country trying to make our homes more energy efficient.

Eric

I understand that everybody loves energy efficiency.

Eric

Our bottom line, our wallets love energy efficiency.

Eric

However, if it's happening in a way that's making the occupants less healthy, let's reevaluate what we're doing.

Eric

And so why would we use spray foam throughout the entire house if we know spray foam is problematic for a majority of people who have asthma and then others who just don't like chemical off gassing.

Eric

And so let's look at these things and say what makes sense, not for necessarily just the environment, but for us who live within the environment.

Eric

We should be working this together.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, it's almost backwards right now.

Andrew Pace

It's like the energy efficiency right now is graded higher on the scale of building officials than the health of the human living inside the house by like four to one.

Andrew Pace

And then people like, you have to go back and go, okay, we have this mess that was created, that was building code was followed in this construction process.

Andrew Pace

But how do we go back in and get fresh air?

Andrew Pace

How do we get this stuff cleaned up?

Andrew Pace

How do we make this happen?

Andrew Pace

And that's a tough battle.

Eric

It's 100% avoidable.

Eric

And when you ask the code officials if we can do something different because we're dealing with health of the occupant issues, they'll say, yep, sorry, it won't meet the code.

Eric

So there are builders now that I work with around the country.

Eric

And I won't name names, but they're looking at this.

Eric

They're saying, we're going to submit based upon the codes, but we're going to build what we know works.

Eric

What we know was healthier.

Eric

And you got to be careful with that because you don't, certainly don't want them to cheapen up the process to pad their own pockets.

Eric

But they're the ones who have to deal with the angry homeowner when they come back and say, listen, everybody in the house is getting sick.

Eric

We're not getting enough fresh air.

Eric

The material that are supposedly eco friendly are all off gassing toxins.

Eric

And then now it's the builder's fault.

Eric

Why did you put us in this situation?

Eric

So the builders are trying to nip that in the bud and say, here's a better way to do things.

Eric

Most importantly, I want to give you a home that is aesthetically pleasing, meets the budget, it's going to last a very, very long time and is healthy for you and your family.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, amen.

Andrew Pace

And that's one of those things.

Andrew Pace

And it's one thing that whenever I've been teaching seminars as far as home tech and healthy home stuff that I do, and I haven't done as many over the last years.

Andrew Pace

Cause I've been doing the media thing like this.

Andrew Pace

But I always brought up a thing.

Andrew Pace

When you're dealing with contractors and you're building new homes, you should be doing air testing before and after.

Andrew Pace

Before you hand it over to your consumer, to that end customer so they know where you left it.

Andrew Pace

So there's a baseline.

Andrew Pace

And quite frankly, if you start seeing some bad air results, you go, oh, what product is causing this?

Andrew Pace

Because when misses Smith comes in with her cheap wayfarer couch or whatever that came from, wherever that's all filled up and off gassing for the next two years, it's not on you, it's on them.

Andrew Pace

And you can help.

Andrew Pace

You have at least a baseline to protect yourself, at least when the house was handed over.

Eric

It's one of those things where some of the builders we work with will say, if what we don't know can't hurt us.

Eric

And the more you want to know, the more you need to know.

Eric

And then it opens up a whole Pandora's box of issues.

Eric

Sometimes it does.

Eric

But I'll tell you, if there was a way, and there is a way, using different methods of error testing, to actually do it at certain steps of the construction process, to say, at this point, we're good to go from this point back, everything that we've done is good.

Eric

And now we know between this checkpoint and this checkpoint, something has caused this massive raise in the VOC levels in the house or the formaldehyde levels.

Eric

We can then look back through the construction schedule and the materials to say, it must have been one of these two or three things.

Eric

And then those are obviously things we'll avoid on the next job, of course.

Eric

But I've been involved in houses throughout the country where I get brought into somewhat remediate the chemical issues in the home.

Eric

And, well, look at these air tests.

Eric

A house thats just been completed before the family moves in is testing out between seven and 15,000 grams per liter of vocs.

Eric

Wow.

Eric

And these are supposedly homes that are built to green built standards.

Eric

So people say, how can that be?

Eric

Understand that all these greenbuilt standards are predicated on the EPA requirements for vocs.

Eric

Vocs, or volatile organic compounds, are chemicals that can contribute to outdoor air pollution.

Eric

This is the definition of what a VoC is?

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

Inside of a home, there's not enough nitrogen uv to create low level smog.

Eric

So you look at vocs and say some are dangerous.

Eric

Yes, some are dangerous for humans.

Eric

A lot of them are completely harmless.

Eric

But if you use materials that might be considered zero VoC to meet the regulations, it doesn't mean that there's zero toxin there.

Eric

There are over 92,000 chemicals used in the production of building materials and home goods.

Eric

Out of that, a couple thousand of them are considered vocs.

Eric

The rest of them are either not regulated as vocs because they don't contribute to outdoor air pollution, or they're not volatile organic compounds at all.

Eric

They're other things.

Eric

And so I don't understand why we just, why do we strive to do low VoC when if I peel the skin off of an orange for breakfast, I've just released 850 grams per liter of vocs.

Eric

It's not going to poison me, it's not going to hurt me.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

It's nourishment.

Eric

So we need to stop chasing these numbers and actually look at the details, how these materials are made, how our houses are built.

Eric

So we're not relying on some esoteric score to tell us thumbs up or thumb down.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, I was doing some research the other day and I saw that there are eleven.

Andrew Pace

I think it's current.

Andrew Pace

It's within a year or so current, which is always hard when you're doing research.

Andrew Pace

But it looks like there's eleven states in the US that don't have statewide building codes.

Andrew Pace

And so they're more city or, or county or township or whatever.

Andrew Pace

And that's part of the problem, too.

Andrew Pace

Like, I got a buddy being, having a house built down outside of Phoenix, Arizona, and I've been watching this thing get built, and I've been, just because he lives up in the Pacific Northwest my way, and I'm watching this thing get built and I'm like, are you kidding me?

Andrew Pace

We couldn't do that.

Andrew Pace

So great example.

Andrew Pace

The house has been open air outside in Phoenix, and for the last four weeks, they've had this crazy windstorms and stuff that's been going on down there.

Andrew Pace

There's no windows or doors in it, but they've already got the drywall and it's textured but not primed.

Andrew Pace

It's just been sitting there soaking in whatever.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

Oh, boy, that is, oh, that's scary.

Eric

And I know people say, yeah, but Arizona, it's a dry climate, folks.

Eric

Mold exists everywhere.

Eric

It doesn't have to be just in the Pacific Northwest or, or in Atlanta, Georgia.

Eric

Mold is everywhere.

Eric

And so once it gets onto a surface like plaster or an acrylic based texture or what have you, that becomes a food source, and eventually that mold will come back and itll come back very, very strongly.

Eric

Its interesting because, yeah, there are a lot of locations that dont have building codes, and then theres the other, on the flip side of the coin, theres a lot of locations that have building codes, but they dont have code officials to actually enforce them.

Eric

So its like, what good is having them?

Eric

And we all know building code is basically the bare minimum.

Andrew Pace

Absolutely.

Eric

That's what you need to hit just to get your permit and to make sure you can get a certificate of occupancy that you built to those standards.

Eric

It's the bare minimum.

Eric

And if there's nobody there to actually do any inspections, then why even have them?

Andrew Pace

Yeah, it's been interesting.

Andrew Pace

I've been working on a few projects around here.

Andrew Pace

I'm not going to say what part of the state where it's at.

Andrew Pace

And, and I did helping out some friends and my brother and knocking stuff out and inspector walks in and goes, looks around, looks good, and heads out.

Andrew Pace

And I'm like, you didn't even walk in the room that I went.

Andrew Pace

I'm following the rule of the lock.

Andrew Pace

And that's the thing with building codes, right?

Andrew Pace

You're like on section this, it says this, but four paragraphs later in my instance, it actually goes against that.

Andrew Pace

So you have two rules.

Andrew Pace

Which one are you going to use.

Andrew Pace

And this is international building code and it's like absolute insanity.

Andrew Pace

So it's hard to navigate.

Andrew Pace

But we sent, we had to literally ask five or six questions because we're below the right permits on this.

Andrew Pace

And the building department had to come back and say, let me get with the rest of the people in the office because I don't actually know that answer.

Eric

So you are probably one of the few people who wants to ask those questions because you want to know for sure.

Eric

There's a lot of the people in the industry would not want to ask the question because it's like calling the IR's instead asking them about your taxes.

Eric

I don't want to open up that Pandora's box.

Eric

And so if nobody, hey, if it's not mentioned, if it's not notated, I guess we're good.

Eric

Move on.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

These were all just conflicts within code where you're like, ah, that says that.

Andrew Pace

But that says the other thing.

Andrew Pace

Which one is it?

Eric

Yeah, yeah.

Eric

And then look at an existing home when you're going to be buying an existing home and hiring a home inspector.

Eric

I've had two situations now just in the last couple of weeks where people have come to me saying, we hired a home inspector when we bought this monumental dream home.

Eric

And within a year of moving in, everybody got sick.

Eric

I have one in particular where her kids developed these very rare neurological issues because of mold exposure.

Eric

And it's all because the inspection never, never dug deep enough to figure out if there's a mold problem in the place.

Eric

Like the Carolinas, where mold is prevalent.

Eric

But also they're building methods.

Eric

Absolutely stink.

Eric

And sorry to my South Carolina friends.

Eric

You need things like vapor control barriers, people.

Eric

Just because you don't do it doesn't mean that it's the right thing.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

So in any event, I think that we could avoid all of this if we just had a way to educate the professionals themselves so they know what to look for.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Pace

Such a great call because it's crazy.

Andrew Pace

Like great example out at a project I've been working on, my brother, out on the Oregon coast out here, building code said okay, its an old fifties house we went through and we removed most of the material that was moldy because it had literally had water leaks for 20 years inside of it.

Andrew Pace

It was known as the Blue Tarp House in there.

Andrew Pace

And so we went through and probably reframed 50% of that just to start over in that.

Andrew Pace

But going through it, when we put stuff back in, we did vapor barriers in the right spot.

Andrew Pace

We put in a rockwool insulation in the walls when we reinstallated just to do stuff that was going to be as durable as we could moving forward, we used five, eight drywall inside instead of half inch.

Eric

Nice.

Andrew Pace

Here's the thing, and this is one of the things that I've noticed with new drywall, for instance, and this is the light drywall that we're seeing.

Andrew Pace

If you talk to firefighters and people that are out there testing this stuff, this new lightweight drywall drops down on a fire about ten minutes earlier than it ever did because they've aerated the drywall mixture so the screws don't hold.

Andrew Pace

So technically, the fire departments are saying, hey, when you're putting up drywall on a ceiling, you should either be using glues and adhesive or twice the amount of screws.

Eric

Wow.

Andrew Pace

Just to keep the ceiling up there.

Eric

So.

Eric

And this is the problem that exists.

Eric

How does that information get disseminated to the trades and then make it into a set of plans and have to be dealt with by the code officials?

Eric

Because we also see the same thing with TGI choice.

Eric

And firefighters will tell you, I don't want to enter a home that's fully engulfed if we know it's TGI because it's going to collapse.

Andrew Pace

Same with trusses.

Andrew Pace

Trusses where you have the metal plates.

Andrew Pace

Five minutes of flame contact on those plates, and they go curl, curl, curl.

Andrew Pace

And then you've got all these sticks there and you see these now in new construction where they actually built those truss joists for four systems.

Andrew Pace

And I've talked to a few firefighters here on this show where they walked into a room.

Andrew Pace

They're walking to a room and they could see that the carpet was holding up and it was the tax strip that had still held on the outside, but the center had floored.

Andrew Pace

So they were basically going to walk into a room that was a trampoline, that the tax strip was still holding the carpet, but that had actually fallen in.

Andrew Pace

Wow.

Andrew Pace

And so, and the crazy thing is, and again, this comes down to building code, that if those trust manufacturers put two screws in those joints, holding them together, you wouldn't have that issue.

Andrew Pace

It would still hold together during that time.

Andrew Pace

But that would be such a simple code thing.

Andrew Pace

And take a trust manufacturer an extra two minutes of trust and put those in there.

Andrew Pace

But it just doesn't happen.

Eric

Doesn't happen.

Eric

And this always makes me think about the way homes used to be built.

Eric

Right.

Eric

With.

Eric

With full cut dimensional lumber.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

And why these homes, some of these homes still exist today is because of how well they are built with such good materials.

Eric

Yeah, they had to deal with, with lead and asbestos and so forth, and we know how to deal with that now.

Eric

The methods of how they did things and the materials that they used last so much longer than what we have now.

Andrew Pace

I think part of it was the homes were insulated, they could breathe, they could dry out.

Andrew Pace

We weren't trapping everything in.

Andrew Pace

I think that's where we started to go sideways.

Andrew Pace

If I was going to make a guess on this, and I'm not a scientist by any means, but it seems like as soon as we started throwing up tar paper in places and plastic on the inside, and before we put the drywall up and started making all these mold sandwiches, trying to be more efficient, thats when these house things tended to go sideways.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

When I give presentations on this subject, I always talk about how the industry really changed vastly in the early seventies with the OPEC oil embargo, and it caused commercial buildings and residential builders to start tightening up spaces to save energy because energy costs were so high in the early seventies.

Eric

In the eighties, we had that mentality of keeping things nice and tight.

Eric

But then was the explosion in synthetics and plastics.

Andrew Pace

Yep.

Eric

And so through the eighties.

Eric

So side note, if you're gonna be buying an existing home, I would avoid homes built in the eighties.

Andrew Pace

Yep.

Eric

That's just, that's a general thought.

Eric

Yeah, there are exceptions, but that's generally speaking, and that's because at that point it was like a science fair.

Eric

Like what are we gonna do to make this home better performing and using all these new, exciting plastic materials?

Eric

They don't breathe, they bend in the wind, they bend with temperature, sway.

Eric

They don't have the same characteristics of what we've known for hundreds of years.

Eric

And then in the nineties and two thousands, with the energy codes really starting to push builders into getting rid of every leak in the home whatsoever.

Eric

Now we have these toxic boxes that we've built that the, that stale air can't get out, and you wonder why people were getting sick.

Eric

So now finally, we're to the point where the healthy home is starting to take off as a talking point now nationally, because I think we are learning from those mistakes.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

So I got a question for you here, and this is a great one, and I have my opinions, but I'm curious to ask the expert here, what do you think about OSB versus plywood, for instance?

Eric

Boy oh boy, I know it's right.

Andrew Pace

It's like one.

Andrew Pace

Is it right?

Eric

So OSB.

Eric

If you're just looking at regular OSB, not like zip wall systems.

Eric

Right.

Eric

For sheathing.

Eric

But if you're just looking at traditional OSB, the big downside to it is that because there's so many exposed edges of the wood and there's a lot of adhesive used to, when they apply this back or push this back together again after shredding it, that there's much more of a chance, especially of the edges of moisture getting in and swelling.

Eric

And then it turns into a, a structural issue, it turns into a mold issue.

Eric

And then you use a CDX plywood in lieu of that.

Eric

And that eliminates a lot of that problem.

Eric

But then its double the cost.

Eric

And so then I look at it and say something like a zip wall system, which has that WRB built in, that green coating thats built in, which if thats done correctly with the tapes and so forth, is probably double the cost of OSB as well.

Eric

But in any of these situations, this is just one part of the, of the entire system.

Eric

It's one component.

Eric

So one.

Andrew Pace

It's one, it's one cup of water in the lake.

Eric

Right, right.

Eric

Exactly.

Eric

And so what you do on the outside of that, on the inside of that, this is where it makes a difference.

Eric

If you have an air gap or rain screen between the sheathing and your siding, that's going to eliminate 95% to 99% of the moisture wicking from condensation and wind driven rain.

Andrew Pace

So then it doesn't matter what you have back there in the sense of water damage, because you've now stopped it and you've given a path for the water to go.

Eric

Evan.

Eric

Exactly.

Eric

And then also keep in mind then, from a chemical standpoint, whether it's OSB or plywood, they still have to use adhesives to push them all together to glue it together.

Eric

These adhesives that are being used now for moisture resistance exterior grade use are not urea formaldehyde based, urea formaldehyde base adhesives can only be used interior because they're not moisture resistant.

Eric

For moisture resistant OSB and plywood, they use what's called phenyl formaldehyde or phenolic resin.

Eric

And this resin is about 200 times less likely to ever become airborne.

Eric

Matter of fact, in the 30 years of, in this business and testing materials, I have never had a phenolic resin based panel ever off gas formaldehyde.

Andrew Pace

Nice.

Eric

So I recommend it all the time.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

So great example I just made for my around the house northwest tv show.

Andrew Pace

I just made outdoor, for my outdoor kitchen, I made countertops out of paper stone.

Eric

Nice.

Eric

Love that stuff.

Andrew Pace

It's awesome.

Eric

It's great.

Eric

And that is.

Eric

That's the original phenolic based panel materials.

Eric

This is, if you remember, if those of us who are old enough remember bakelite from way back in the day.

Eric

Bakelite.

Eric

These for handles for pots, too.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

And then, like, what's on top of the electrical poles, the wires wrapped around.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

So basically it's layers of paper soaked in a phenolic resin.

Eric

And this is what is done now for paper, stone and rich light and all these other companies that make wonderful products.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

It's completely inert.

Eric

It's incredibly dense, very durable.

Eric

You can cut directly on it.

Eric

And while you might scratch the surface a bit, that could be renewed.

Eric

No big deal.

Andrew Pace

Yep.

Eric

But it won't dull your expensive knives.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

So it's a great product.

Andrew Pace

And I can use it outside.

Andrew Pace

It's heat rated, so I can use it up to, I think it's heat rated up to like 375 degrees.

Andrew Pace

So if I put it next to a barbecue or next to my outdoor pizza oven, I'm not ruining it.

Andrew Pace

It's just so good.

Andrew Pace

And I can cut it like wood so I don't have to have a fabricator do it, which I think is the other part.

Andrew Pace

And the thing I liked about Paperstone is the stuff I got was FSC certified.

Andrew Pace

So it's clean.

Eric

It's clean.

Eric

And I've used that material for exterior cladding.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

Commercial buildings.

Eric

It's unbelievable.

Eric

I got a piece outside my office window that is a cutoff from one of our jobs.

Eric

It's been there for, I think, twelve years in the rain, in the snow.

Eric

I'm in Wisconsin, but 20 below zero in the winter and 100 in the summer.

Eric

It hasn't changed at all.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

If you want it to look really good, throw some of that spray wax on it.

Andrew Pace

Wax wax on it.

Andrew Pace

And man, it looks like it's brand new.

Andrew Pace

Day one again.

Eric

Exactly.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

Beautiful material.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, it's great.

Andrew Pace

It's great.

Andrew Pace

So what do you think now?

Andrew Pace

Heres my question for you.

Andrew Pace

How do we deal with this today and were getting so much new information as far as healthy air inside our homes?

Andrew Pace

I think people woke up about indoor air quality a little bit when they were home during the COVID years here and people started paying attention.

Andrew Pace

But it seems to be a little bit of the Wild West.

Andrew Pace

I put an air scrubber in my house.

Andrew Pace

I'm not going to say the brand name because I'm going to say something bad about it, but what I don't like about it is when my wife is going to go bake, I have to go turn it off and unplug it because it will actually kill the yeast and her dough will not rise.

Eric

Evan, that's wild.

Andrew Pace

So I'm like, wait a minute.

Andrew Pace

And it's giving.

Andrew Pace

It's one of the hydroxyl type systems.

Andrew Pace

Right.

Andrew Pace

But I'm like, health wise for me, I'm like, wait a minute.

Andrew Pace

How healthy is that for me?

Andrew Pace

If that yeast thats sitting there in a bowl on the countertop, we just did wont rise.

Andrew Pace

And if I take it outside right away and put it outside on the outdoor kitchen counter and its the same temp, it does great.

Eric

Evan, again, this is like the unintended consequence of trying to do the right thing.

Eric

Were trying to make our indoor air quality cleaner, but theres no, I should say theres very few ways right now that we can filter what we want to filter.

Eric

It's like an ro system for water, right?

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

A reverse osmosis system for water.

Eric

Takes everything out of the water.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

It doesn't just take the bad stuff, but it takes the good stuff out, too.

Eric

And I think like these, these hydroxyl type cleaning systems, they sanitize so well.

Eric

Then it sanitizes out the good yeast.

Eric

Yeah, I can definitely see that.

Eric

And I think that this is where having a good, healthy home consultant in the project to say, to ask those questions, it's like having a good interior designer, to me, I love working with really good interior designers because they ask the questions that an architect won't answer or ask or a contractor doesn't necessarily ask.

Eric

They ask, how do you live in your house?

Eric

So if you told me, we like to bake bread, okay, I can't use an air purification system that's going to kill off all the good yeast as well.

Eric

So, yeah, it's, it's.

Eric

But we're learning this as we go.

Eric

And you're right, it's the.

Eric

Because of COVID healthy home topics are now top of mind.

Eric

Yeah, I think that it was a big awakening.

Eric

Our homes can be the cause of a lot of our problems.

Eric

Not Covid, but all these other things that are happening that.

Eric

And also in the last five to ten years, there has been so much research coming out about our.

Eric

About genetics and about how there are, there's about 25% of the population that has the genetic predisposition to have mold sensitivity.

Eric

And mold sensitivity is what leads to chemical sensitivity and electromagnetic sensitivities this is all just coming out in the last few years, I think were on the tip of the iceberg.

Andrew Pace

Evan.

Andrew Pace

Absolutely.

Andrew Pace

I can walk into a house and being an interior designer, kitchen and bath designer for 30 years, I could walk into a house because of my mold allergies.

Andrew Pace

I can walk in and go, wheres your mold problem?

Andrew Pace

Yeah, I can.

Andrew Pace

I am like the canary in the coal mine.

Andrew Pace

I can walk in and go, you got a problem in here?

Andrew Pace

Let's not talk about the kitchen.

Andrew Pace

What's rotting?

Andrew Pace

I smell mold.

Andrew Pace

Where is it?

Eric

You're the human mold dog, right?

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

I can get it in 5 seconds.

Andrew Pace

Literally.

Andrew Pace

I just do that.

Andrew Pace

And so when I was out looking at homes to buy.

Andrew Pace

It's bad.

Andrew Pace

I can walk in and go, nope, don't want to deal with it.

Andrew Pace

Don't like the house that well to even go farther.

Andrew Pace

We're out.

Eric

No.

Andrew Pace

What do you mean?

Eric

So it's interesting, you, you probably are then in that 25% where you have, um, mold sensitivity.

Eric

But you probably also have a very good immune system where it doesn't necessarily affect you quickly.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, but I I'm noticing more great example and this is something sawdust.

Andrew Pace

If I'm out cutting hemp for lumber all day working on a project and I get it all around my collar and stuff, my neck is all red from broken out.

Andrew Pace

So I'm noticing different sensitivities now at age 53 that I didn't have before.

Eric

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

Because I've exposed myself to that enough.

Andrew Pace

Right.

Eric

So that's it.

Eric

And somebody becomes sensitive to these things usually by long term exposure.

Eric

A little small exposure, but long term or it's a massive exposure.

Eric

You walk into a house where they just sprayed pesticides or you've been exposed to something at work or whatever the case was, even something like a massive health issue like major surgery or a car accident or childbirth, it can change the body chemistry.

Eric

So these things can actually change how your immune system responds.

Eric

And so yeah, at 53 myself, Im finding that I am now sensitive to things that I never thought would be a problem.

Eric

And Im in this business, Im surrounded by healthy materials all the time.

Eric

And maybe thats one of the reasons why.

Eric

Cause I'm not inundated myself with the garbage all the time.

Eric

That when I do come in contact with the real lousy materials, it instantly hits me.

Andrew Pace

It's wild.

Andrew Pace

It's wild.

Andrew Pace

And it's just one of those things.

Andrew Pace

You go, oh, okay, I'm seeing this and it's getting interesting too.

Andrew Pace

We have so many things going on and there's so many things out there that you can solve too, like how many moldy bathrooms are there out there?

Andrew Pace

But at the same point, you can go in and these days and put in one of the good bathroom systems behind the tile.

Andrew Pace

That's going to do a much better job of preventing it with less errors.

Andrew Pace

Traditionally, there's shower drying systems.

Andrew Pace

You don't have to have a wet, moldy shower when you're in there.

Andrew Pace

There's so many different things out there that are solutions to these problems.

Andrew Pace

But we really have to, when we're designing these spaces, really work with that and try to figure out the best solution for everybody.

Eric

Yeah, I think that's the, that's the biggest thing is, is making sure that we're planning for this.

Eric

Like I said earlier, just assume there's going to be a moisture issue at some point.

Eric

So let's plan for that.

Eric

And we know we can't avoid moisture in a shower.

Eric

This is what a shower is.

Eric

So how do we, how do we get rid of that moisture properly so it doesn't become a problem down the road?

Eric

How do we get rid of the moisture between the, in the cavity walls of our homes so it doesn't sit there and then, and cause a festering mold problem?

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

So we know it's going to get in there.

Eric

Let's just understand that and agree to that.

Eric

Now.

Eric

How do we get rid of that?

Eric

How do we alleviate that as a problem and we don't have to worry about it down the road?

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

And how do you put instead of insulation, maybe, maybe not doing spray foam, maybe doing, you know, a rockwool or something else like that that's going to be much more resistant and maybe not going to sag down if it gets moist.

Eric

Yeah, exactly.

Eric

100%.

Andrew Pace

That's the cool stuff.

Andrew Pace

So what are you seeing in technology now?

Andrew Pace

I know we're running a little bit out of time here before we talk some whiskey, but I wanted to see where do you see science going right now?

Andrew Pace

We see a lot of air sensors now in people's homes where they're all of a sudden looking at PM 2.5.

Andrew Pace

I can look over, I've got one of the bro newtone ones in my living room that I look over and go, huh, I wonder why that's yellow.

Andrew Pace

So it's trying to figure stuff out, but it's, you're always learning with this stuff.

Andrew Pace

But where do you see science going right now?

Andrew Pace

Because there's been a lot of different materials out there.

Andrew Pace

Look what happened to lumber liquidators ten years ago with their urea formaldehyde problem.

Andrew Pace

And now where they're at today, we're seeing a lot of things changing out there with people's eyes getting opened up to building materials.

Eric

So for the longest time, we saw a lot happening with, like, smart home technology.

Eric

And now we're finding that there's a marriage between smart home technology and health.

Eric

So all these air quality testers that you can install into your system that it basically just pops up on your, on your cell phone to say there's a problem at home.

Eric

Information is always powerful, information is always needed.

Eric

But its how you interpret that information.

Eric

I do see that it causes a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, when people see that their PM 2.5 level is up, but they fail to remember that maybe a window is open and somebody was burning leaves down the road.

Eric

And so I will be honest with you.

Eric

50% of most of my consulting calls deals with stress control and understanding that the stress reactions that we get from all the potential toxins and so forth can actually cause the exact same adrenaline release and the exact same symptoms as if you were being inundated with a chemical with mold.

Eric

So there's a lot of stress relief happening in these calls technology.

Eric

I think right now, 95% of what I read in the trade publications, what I see at the trade shows, deals with health of the occupants in one way or another.

Eric

And I think this is where we have a chance for a complete paradigm shift in our industry to now start building and remodeling truly healthy homes, not just because we're trying to do our best to save the environment, but because we have to exist here in this environment.

Eric

What good is saving the environment if we're still poisoning out of the human occupants?

Eric

And I think we're finally starting to get that as an industry.

Eric

I've never been more excited.

Eric

I've been in this business for over 30 years.

Eric

I have never been more excited to be in it than I am right now.

Andrew Pace

That's awesome.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

There's three things I've been screaming from the rooftops on home tech for inside the homes.

Andrew Pace

One is I want an erv system that's measuring the incoming air quality and comparing it to the indoor air quality.

Eric

Yes.

Andrew Pace

And if the outdoor air quality is worse, he shut her down for me.

Andrew Pace

How hard is this?

Andrew Pace

It's not simple.

Andrew Pace

Simple, you know, go.

Andrew Pace

Now's not the time to run that.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, can't be that hard.

Andrew Pace

I've been screaming for that one for like, three years now, because for me, it's in it.

Andrew Pace

It's for everybody out there.

Andrew Pace

But for me, when we have western wildfire smoke, I tell people, hey, go turn that unit off for a couple of days, but make sure you set an appointment on your calendar when you're going to be home to remind you to turn it back on again.

Eric

Right.

Eric

Exactly right.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

We have a technology, folks.

Eric

We have the technology to do this, so let's just get her done.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

The second one is, I want, when you turn a cooktop on in the kitchen, I want it to automatically turn on the vent fan to the setting of the cooktop down below.

Eric

Mm hmm.

Eric

So you're speaking my language, Eric, because people always ask me about the differences, that we can talk about this between gas and electric cooktops, but I tell them that no matter what you end up doing, the process should be, when you go walk into the kitchen to start preparing a meal, the first thing you do is turn on the range hood.

Eric

Then you start mixing your ingredients.

Eric

Then you turn on the range because you have to start creating this current.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

If you only turn it on because you smell or see smoke, it's too late.

Eric

Too late.

Andrew Pace

And then the other thing.

Andrew Pace

I've said this, and I've said this to now four different appliance manufacturers.

Andrew Pace

I said, you got all the smart stuff.

Andrew Pace

Why don't you have a temperature sensor that's in the hood that automatically turns off the cooktop when it gets too high?

Andrew Pace

How hard is that?

Eric

Oh, that's a smart one.

Eric

I love that.

Andrew Pace

Right.

Eric

And it's so simple.

Eric

It's so simple.

Eric

Like, this is like 20 years ago, I was trying to convince H vac contractors to tie in with the ERV, tie in the range hood, the bathroom fans, and even windows.

Eric

You can put sensors on the windows.

Eric

If any of that triggers the ERV, then makes up the air properly.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

It's very simple to do.

Eric

But it's like, people look at me like I have three heads.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

I've said this to some major companies, and they look at me like, oh, that's interesting.

Andrew Pace

I'm like, but you're going to, you're going to put out on the market a rice cooker that gives me tomorrow's weather.

Andrew Pace

But you can do this.

Andrew Pace

I don't care.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, it's just, it's.

Andrew Pace

That's the crazy stuff.

Andrew Pace

And it's so simple to do.

Andrew Pace

And hopefully we'll get there and you guys out there listening, I'm talking about you that I've been talking about.

Eric

Yes.

Eric

Please listen to this show.

Eric

And make these changes.

Andrew Pace

It's so simple.

Andrew Pace

It's so simple.

Andrew Pace

And the other thing I want to talk, before we get into whiskey, talk here for a minute, is I want to talk about just.

Andrew Pace

We didn't touch on it, but just measuring your humidity in your home and making sure that you've got that under control, that can be one of the biggest problems, even if you've got healthy materials inside.

Eric

Yeah, boy, that's.

Eric

That's definitely something that we preach.

Eric

Raising the humidity in a house not only causes us to be in a situation where mold growth is going to be more prevalent, anything above 50% to 55%, but we've also found that it drastically increases the amount of chemical off gas.

Eric

So when moisture enters into a surface and then eventually evaporates back out, it's going to carry with it the chemical footprint of where it was.

Eric

So we have tested numerous homes over the years where people complain of high vocs or high formaldehyde.

Eric

And then we look at the, at the humidistat, we go, it's 62% relative humidity in here.

Eric

What I want you to do is close the windows.

Eric

We talked about this before.

Eric

If it's worse outside than inside, right.

Eric

They have the windows open the middle of summer to try to get fresh air, but all the humidity is coming in.

Eric

So close the windows, turn on the air, turn on a de hue.

Eric

I'm going to come back in two weeks.

Eric

I'm going to test the home again.

Eric

I'm going to test the specific surfaces again.

Eric

We've done this, and every single time, all that off gassing goes down more than 50%.

Eric

So this makes an enormous difference in your indoor air quality.

Andrew Pace

And, guys, don't go try to deal with your basement humidity issue, please.

Andrew Pace

With a little target dehumidifier, please don't just go get.

Andrew Pace

I don't care if it's one of the main brands, there's no commercial here for this, but get a built in unit that actually has a drain line that goes where it's supposed to go to meet code in your area, and get the humidity out of the space, and it'll save you money in the long run, because you're not going to have to go buy six of those things and you'll be throwing them away.

Eric

Every two years, 100%.

Eric

And if you.

Eric

If you have it in a basement that was never designed to be a livable space, but you're trying to treat it as a.

Eric

As a family room, understand that that basement is probably not waterproof the same way that a new home would be knowing that it's a livable space.

Eric

So you might be fighting Mother Nature throughout those humid months, but it is what it is.

Eric

You just got to deal with it.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

Look at the older homes that we see in certain parts of the area in the twenties, thirties, and up to early forties, where there were significant concrete problems that maybe they weren't washing the sand, or there was just these mixture problems that they had.

Andrew Pace

Where I can go into Portland here, and I can take the key from my vehicle and lightly scratch and not hurt the brass key, but scratch through and literally go through the entire foundation because enough moisture has come through that has taken just enough lime out of the mix.

Andrew Pace

Right.

Andrew Pace

And calcium and everything else that you have literally compacted sand.

Andrew Pace

Evan.

Andrew Pace

Wow.

Eric

That's amazing.

Eric

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

And so the.

Andrew Pace

The.

Andrew Pace

That thing, they don't build them like they used to.

Andrew Pace

Doesn't always apply in that situation.

Eric

But that is true.

Eric

That is true.

Andrew Pace

All right, man, we got to talk whiskey here real quick, because.

Andrew Pace

And then we're going to talk about how to find you and all that stuff.

Andrew Pace

But let's talk about your whiskey career here, because you have some other massive gifts here besides healthy homes.

Eric

Ive always been somebody who loves to research, and I love learning new things.

Eric

And many years ago, I had a friend of mine who got me into scotch whiskey, and I always liked it, but I didnt really know much about it, and I started learning about it, and I just went head first.

Eric

When I do something, I guess I dont do it just.

Eric

But I really dug deep.

Eric

I ended up traveling to Scotland, became a certified scotch whiskey.

Eric

I spent time in Kentucky, became a bourbon executive steward.

Eric

I really love it's chemistry to me, it's.

Eric

And it just so happens it's something that I enjoy to.

Eric

To consume and to taste.

Eric

And so I actually spent a lot of my free time when I'm not healthy, helping people with healthy homes, conducting whiskey tasting events, and teaching people all the fine points of whiskey.

Eric

So it's been a lot of fun.

Eric

This is what I just did.

Eric

I did a tasting event just a couple of weeks ago.

Andrew Pace

Okay.

Eric

For a good customer of mine who has hired me several times for parties, this time I did anything aged in oak.

Eric

Oh, we did scotch, bourbon, rum, armagnac, and then port wine.

Eric

Oh.

Eric

And it was phenomenal.

Eric

I was a little afraid about all these different flavor profiles, but the fact is that every one of them tastes like they've been in oak because they have, and everybody there absolutely enjoyed it.

Andrew Pace

Oh, that is amazing.

Andrew Pace

That is amazing.

Andrew Pace

That is cool.

Andrew Pace

Hadn't thought about that, but, yeah, because that oak gives you that commonality between all those.

Eric

Exactly right.

Eric

And we even did a 35 year old balsamic vinegar be.

Eric

And as a in between palate cleanser after the rum.

Eric

Because the rum, folks, it was good.

Eric

But it really.

Andrew Pace

Something here to just to try to change something.

Eric

Yes.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

And I had a lot of people in the group who weren't necessarily whiskey drinkers, and so when I brought out the balsamic vinegar, they're like, yeah, finally something.

Eric

But 35 years in oak, and again, you definitely taste the yolk.

Eric

You taste those tannins, the, the vanilla, the cinnamon, the, that that particular profile from oak, it's just amazing how they all work together.

Andrew Pace

Oh, that is wonderful.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, that's, that's, that's so smart.

Andrew Pace

And I like that.

Andrew Pace

It's like, wait a minute.

Andrew Pace

Now you got me thinking on that.

Andrew Pace

So what's your favorite, and, uh, let's say, what's.

Andrew Pace

What's your favorite thing that you're tasting right now out there, whether it's scotch whiskey or whatever?

Eric

So, actually, my favorite right now is because of this tasting event, I had to do a lot of research.

Eric

I'm using the air quotes right now.

Andrew Pace

Research, which is basically research this afternoon.

Eric

So sit at home with my, like, Glen Caron glass and, uh, fill it up a few times.

Eric

So, Armagnac, which is cognac, it's essentially brandy from a very specific region in France.

Eric

I have fallen in love with armagnacs, because, again, if you love the big, bold flavors of wood in a spirit, most armagnacs are going to be 20, 30, 40 years old.

Eric

Even though it's made from distilled wine, essentially, because it's in oak for so long, it starts to impart this flavor of a highly sherried scotch whiskey.

Eric

So, if you like McCallan, for instance, which I love.

Eric

If you love McAllen, you will absolutely love armagnacs.

Eric

Oh, yeah.

Eric

Okay.

Eric

I'm gold on those right now.

Andrew Pace

It was so funny.

Andrew Pace

So a couple of cognac stories real quick.

Andrew Pace

First time I really got to sit down and pay attention to cognac.

Andrew Pace

I was in Chicago for one of the builder shows when they did the builder shows in Chicago back then.

Andrew Pace

And we went over to buddy guys, blues legends placed in there.

Andrew Pace

Ended up sitting in there on a Wednesday after our dinners with a buddy.

Andrew Pace

Ended up sharing the table with Buddy guy.

Andrew Pace

Wow.

Andrew Pace

And he was buying Cognac all night.

Andrew Pace

And when buddy guy hands you a glass of cognac, you say, thank you, buddy.

Andrew Pace

Or Mister Guy.

Andrew Pace

And you drink it.

Andrew Pace

And I'm like, yes.

Andrew Pace

Oh, this is pretty good.

Eric

This is not bad, right?

Andrew Pace

Also, having a rock and roll hall of Fame guitar player sitting next to you handing you drinks, also a nice thing.

Andrew Pace

But I was like, oh, okay.

Andrew Pace

And then I was.

Andrew Pace

This was about nine years ago.

Andrew Pace

I was up in Vancouver, BC, visiting a flooring company up there.

Andrew Pace

They were giving me an architectural tour.

Andrew Pace

We were doing some stuff with them up there, which is totally fun.

Andrew Pace

And what was that?

Andrew Pace

It was the rare cast cognac.

Andrew Pace

Is that the Louis XIII?

Eric

Oh, yeah, yep.

Andrew Pace

And the rare cask with the whole.

Eric

That hold that crystal vase and the.

Andrew Pace

Wood box and all that.

Andrew Pace

And I'm sitting at the bar waiting for restaurant reservations.

Andrew Pace

Cause there was a bunch of us, and this guy gets up on the ladder with white gloves and pulls two crystal glasses down and starts flaming the glass with a match.

Andrew Pace

And I'm like, hey, we're on something here that I've not seen before.

Andrew Pace

So.

Andrew Pace

But I had to ask the bartender, I'm like, what do you got going?

Andrew Pace

He goes, oh, I'm pulling this out, and I google it up, and I'm like, oh, that's a $50,000 bottle back then.

Eric

Yeah, it's quite amazing.

Andrew Pace

Am I going to spend money on that?

Andrew Pace

But it was cool to see him serving up to two glasses for a guy.

Eric

Yeah, sure.

Eric

When I win the lottery, I might try that.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

And I'll probably find out that it's probably just as good as the $100 bottle that I just had.

Eric

It's the experience.

Eric

It's the fact that you can live the rest of your life going, I had a $50,000 cognac.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

And I can say, and I'm not bragging here, but I've had a $40,000 scotch whiskey that I got to try at the Belveni when I was there many years ago.

Eric

And it is remarkable.

Eric

Absolutely remarkable.

Eric

If I didn't have a hookup, I probably wouldn't have tried it.

Andrew Pace

Sure.

Eric

No, because I can't afford it.

Eric

But it was a special thing, and I was able to try it, and it is.

Eric

I don't know, it's something about.

Eric

It's like you said you were having a glass of cognac.

Eric

Buddy guy, he probably could have given you a glass of ten w 40.

Eric

You would have loved it.

Andrew Pace

Absolutely.

Eric

So here I am at the belfeni with the distiller, the head distiller.

Eric

I'm drinking a $40,000 whiskey.

Eric

Yeah, I felt pretty good about it, and it could have been anything, but it was tasty.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

And to your point, he could have been handing me an old style beer and I'd have gone, sweet.

Eric

This is great.

Eric

Best beer I've ever had, ever.

Andrew Pace

Adds.

Andrew Pace

It's so much of that.

Andrew Pace

As far as that goes.

Andrew Pace

What are you liking in the.

Andrew Pace

Just in the.

Andrew Pace

In the whiskeys out?

Andrew Pace

Is there a drinker that you're in right now that's just a regular, something like a guy like me would drink versus royalty.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

So a couple things.

Eric

So we have.

Eric

We have a really good bourbon distillery here in Wisconsin called Jay Henry.

Andrew Pace

Okay.

Eric

Jay Henry, I believe, makes the absolute best in the midwest.

Eric

I can't.

Eric

I can't say of all of Indiana, because of MGP, that produces 50% of the bourbon for the country.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

But when it comes to craft distillation, they do it right, and they do it with this rare old red corn that they brought back for.

Eric

For this.

Eric

Their bourbon is something special.

Eric

And I'm not necessarily.

Eric

I'm not a bourbon drinker.

Eric

If I'm going to sit down and have a whiskey, it's going to be a scotch.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

I'm a bourbon guy more than I am a scotch guy, so I'm the opposite.

Eric

Yep.

Eric

So you're going to.

Eric

You would love the Jay Henry.

Andrew Pace

Okay.

Eric

Absolutely.

Eric

Fell in love with that a couple of years ago.

Eric

They did a five year old cognac cask.

Eric

Oh.

Eric

And so I like the cognac cask whiskeys because that means they're using a type of wood called french limousine oak and.

Eric

French limousine.

Eric

Yep.

Eric

And it imparts this really interesting creaminess to the spirit.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Eric

So I'm a sucker for anything aged in french oak.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, absolutely.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

That's good.

Andrew Pace

That's good.

Andrew Pace

There's that.

Andrew Pace

There's a really cheap whiskey out there that's selling across the country that.

Andrew Pace

That I'm laughing about because I know the history on it, and it's so funny and it's big out there.

Andrew Pace

It's that redneck Riviera, the bigger stuff.

Eric

Yep, yep.

Andrew Pace

For the price point, I'd rather have that than old crow, in my opinion.

Andrew Pace

I think it tastes better, but.

Andrew Pace

And it's really inexpensive.

Andrew Pace

But here's the funny story, is that was invented here in Portland, Oregon.

Andrew Pace

And what's funny is that there's a guy that I met at the radio station eight years ago.

Andrew Pace

He had this double barrel stone whiskey that he was doing here with that same distiller.

Andrew Pace

And the more I talked to him, the more things got a little sketchy and things all of a sudden he just disappeared.

Andrew Pace

So I dont know what the whole story was, but he changed his name off Facebook and everywhere else and just went into hiding down south someplace.

Andrew Pace

Not sure what happened.

Andrew Pace

Im sure people were owed money if I was to guess.

Andrew Pace

But whatever happened, happened.

Andrew Pace

Im speculating.

Eric

Preston.

Eric

One of my favorite whiskeys is actually not from Portland, but up in Seattle, the Westland distillery.

Eric

So here's what I'm a huge fan of.

Eric

Their stuff.

Andrew Pace

Their stuff is spectacular.

Eric

Yes it is.

Andrew Pace

A year or two later that stuff comes out from the same distiller.

Andrew Pace

It is the exact same recipe.

Andrew Pace

Wild because I still had a bottle and did a side by side taste test and I had my wife doing it.

Andrew Pace

I'm like, same exact whiskey.

Andrew Pace

So if you'd have played his cards right, he'd have had that thing going off.

Andrew Pace

And after liquor stores across the country.

Eric

Like those guys do, I'll tell you this, I did a tasting event a couple of times in the last few years where we do a blind, blind tasting.

Eric

We'll do, and I'll do usually very, very small pours because we're not drinking to get snackered here, we're drinking for the experience.

Eric

And so I'll do five different pairs, very small steps of five different pairs.

Eric

And one of them is always a really inexpensive bourbon up against a poor man's papi.

Eric

A well or twelve.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

Still great.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, it's great.

Eric

Every single time I've done this, everybody's always chosen the cheap bourbon.

Andrew Pace

It's the caramel ness, it's the taste, it's just easy drinking.

Andrew Pace

Right?

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

And so the one that always scores the highest is Jim beam black.

Andrew Pace

Oh, interesting.

Eric

Yeah.

Eric

Which is amazing.

Eric

It's what, $20 a bottle?

Andrew Pace

Yeah, there's a, that I drink out of Texas that's just my little, my personal house whiskey at home and it's a TX out of Texas.

Eric

Oh, okay.

Eric

I've not had that one.

Eric

I've had the balconies quite a bit.

Andrew Pace

Evan.

Andrew Pace

Yeah, but TX is, it's just caramelly easy drinking.

Andrew Pace

Just, just have something that's tasty that you could just drop over a drink it need or drop it over one of the big rocks and just a sipper that's enjoyable.

Andrew Pace

And for $25 for the bottle, you don't care.

Eric

Right, right.

Eric

And if friends come over and they block.

Andrew Pace

Right.

Eric

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

It's not in the cabinet that nobody knows about with the other stuff like my, like my cuban embargo, Havana club rum and some of that stuff that I may or may not have in that cabin.

Eric

Ah, yeah, yeah.

Eric

No, I think that there's a lot of good ones out there.

Eric

Honestly, when I do these events, I try to pour, like, two or three that are hard to find.

Eric

Almost impossible find.

Eric

Might be expensive.

Eric

And then I'm going to pour a couple that you can go down to the liquor store and get, but you never would because there's a thousand bottles and you don't know what to pick.

Andrew Pace

Yeah.

Andrew Pace

Amen.

Eric

So I did one last year where out of all of the ones that we poured, and there were ones anywhere from $15 a bottle up to $400 a bottle.

Eric

Everybody chose a $15 bottle.

Andrew Pace

Yep.

Eric

It was mellow corn.

Andrew Pace

Wow.

Eric

$15 a bottle.

Eric

It's corn whiskey.

Eric

It's yellow.

Eric

It is.

Eric

But I'll tell you wouldn't want.

Eric

No, it's smooth as silk.

Eric

It's.

Eric

It's a great dessert whiskey, if you're into dessert whiskey.

Eric

Yep.

Andrew Pace

That makes sense.

Andrew Pace

So, Andy, we're running out of time here.

Andrew Pace

You and I could do this, like, for the next 6 hours, which would be like this big Joe Rogan double fest thing, which we're not going to do today, but we're going to do it again here soon.

Andrew Pace

But how do people track you down?

Andrew Pace

Because the green building is such a thing.

Andrew Pace

That should be a normal thing out there.

Andrew Pace

And for people remodeling, there are people that are building homes.

Andrew Pace

They need to know how to track you down for this kind of stuff because you're such an amazing resource nationwide for people.

Eric

Oh, thank you.

Eric

Best way to find me is our website, thegreendesigncenter.com dot.

Eric

From that, you'll find links to not only the products that I've curated over the years to be the healthiest of the healthy, but also links to consulting to.

Eric

I do a podcast called non toxic environments, slowly trying to figure out YouTube and get videos up on YouTube so that's linked on there.

Eric

And then I also have a private, what's called a circle community, which is made up of customers and clients that are truly trying to find answers to how do I make this aspect of my home healthier?

Eric

What do I do in this situation?

Eric

It's not like social media where somebody can come on and basically blast you for whatever opinion you have.

Eric

This is actually people helping people, and I absolutely love it.

Eric

I do that as a free service for all my followers.

Andrew Pace

Nice, man.

Andrew Pace

I appreciate it, buddy.

Andrew Pace

Thanks for taking the time today, Mandy.

Andrew Pace

It's been way too long and I'll have to do this again soon because I think we just scratched the surface on this today.

Eric

Exactly.

Eric

Thanks.

Eric

I appreciate it, Eric.

Eric

All right.

Andrew Pace

All right, guys, go back and make sure you listen to this one again because there's a lot of information here for you.

Andrew Pace

I'm Eric G.

Andrew Pace

And you've been listening to around the house.

Andrew Pace

That was a fast part.

Eric

Good work.

Eric

That was fun.

Andrew Pace

Somewhere unseen and undiscovered anywhere beyond the me love is a love song let's be lovers.

Eric

We're all over the radio.

Andrew Pace

Take mine down.

Eric

You with you?

Andrew Pace

Ral.