[00:00:00] Intro: It's

[00:00:05] Eric Goranson: around the house. Hey guys, Eric G from around the house. We have a great show to give you today and it's going to be my favorite interviews of 2023, the movers, the shakers, the people that had something to say, and we'll be doing a new interview, every single segment. So each hour, that's four of them.

[00:00:24] Eric Goranson: And Hey, if you've got any questions for us, feel free to give me a call. 833 239 4000. That's 833 239 4144. And you'll end up in a future episode of the show. Now we have got some great people to talk to and you'll hear them each and every segment. Now let's get back to the show. Let's have some fun. It's been a great year.

[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: When it comes

[00:00:47] Craig Elworthy: to remodeling and renovating your home,

[00:00:49] Eric Goranson: there is a

[00:00:50] Intro: lot to know. The

[00:00:51] Eric Goranson: We've Got You Coming

[00:00:53] Intro: is Around the House.

[00:00:56] Eric Goranson: Welcome to Around the House show. This is where we talk about everything. about your home every [00:01:00] single week. Thanks for joining us today. I'm going to buddy on here that we have been talking about this for, I don't know how many years we've seen him out there as mechanical hub.

[00:01:10] Eric Goranson: He is on like the new build now, or I don't know. Every time I turn on social media, he's out there, Eric Garney. Welcome finally to around the

[00:01:18] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: house, my friend. Thank you for having me. This is going to be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Man, this is going to be

[00:01:22] Eric Goranson: great. This is great. And man, you just own that space out there and the plumbing mechanical.

[00:01:27] Eric Goranson: And I just absolutely love that. What's new out there, brother. I mean, you're doing everything.

[00:01:32] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: Oh, well, thank you. I don't know about owning it, just playing and having fun. It's cool to share fun information, but yeah, it's, it's been fun. Started on social media with mechanical hub stuff about 10 years ago.

[00:01:44] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: And it just seems like. Finally, you know, it's really paid off spending all that time posting those dumb videos or memes and things like that. And just sharing information to whoever wants to pay attention, I guess.

[00:01:57] Eric Goranson: Well, that's awesome. Cause I mean, I was down [00:02:00] there designing construction week and I sit down on the media table and I see you there.

[00:02:03] Eric Goranson: And. Or I see your crew there and I'm like, man, he's got people. How cool is

[00:02:08] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: that? Oh man. It's so, it is actually cool. Thank you. I think so too. You know, it's so neat to, to, um, have built things up to a point where, you know, social media can be fun. It can be useful, but it's turned into a business for us because we've just been able to create partnerships all over the country, different industries to produce content that is hopefully professional and useful enough for.

[00:02:34] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: An audience that we built up and yeah, there's kind of a little tiny crew, like I'd call it that.

[00:02:41] Eric Goranson: Hey man, it's help is awesome. I mean, it's, it's, it's amazing. And I know the public out there doesn't see what it takes to put together like your social media content. I mean, you guys are always cranking out videos, but it's just not somebody standing around on the phone and, and plugging it in.

[00:02:56] Eric Goranson: You guys have a. A good size production going for even the [00:03:00] simple stuff.

[00:03:01] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: Yeah. Yeah. It does. It takes a lot of time. Uh, we're, we're even expanding the crew because, you know, up until now, it's always just been in house. Like I've edited every video you've ever seen with my face or name on it, you know, things like that.

[00:03:16] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: And as we expand and we look at what we can do, what we, how we can share information. You know, everything we produce really is the intended for like the, the professional side of things, but you know, we're ignoring an entire audience that, you know, has potential to, that we could possibly create a space with like DIY and sharing, although there's a lot of crossover on, you know, because of social media, we're not producing content specifically for like, Hey, um, Mr.

[00:03:50] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: And Mrs. Smith, you're going to do your bathroom. This is how. Me as a plumber would approach, you know, what I'm going to look at. If you have us come out and give you a [00:04:00] proposal on the project or

[00:04:00] Eric Goranson: something like that. Yeah, no, totally. But you're right though. The crossover gets out there so much. And I actually love checking in with you to see what the latest plumbing tools are out there, whether or not I'm going to use them or not.

[00:04:13] Eric Goranson: You know, I'm always like, Oh, cool. What's Milwaukee came out, what's rigid come out with what's going on. Right. Isn't it crazy how

[00:04:20] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: like. Literally we, I just posted a video the other day and it's a, it's a full size drain cleaning machine. Like this is a professional multi thousand dollars cost tool that is, has been tested for, you know, a couple of years now that's put out into the industry for the professional and it runs on a battery.

[00:04:44] Eric Goranson: Like right.

[00:04:45] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: Everything. I don't, I joked the other day because I was on a job site and the tile contractor accidentally, he ruined one of his, his cords. It was plugged into his grinder. And I joked to him, I'm like, wait, [00:05:00] your

[00:05:00] Eric Goranson: grinder has a tail on it. What

[00:05:01] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: in the world is that? Why don't you have a battery powered?

[00:05:03] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: And when he's like, ah, cause I'm, I'm never charging my batteries and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well. He says, do you

[00:05:09] Eric Goranson: have a cord? And I said,

[00:05:12] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: honestly, I'm not sure if I do. So I went out to the van and I actually had a cord. It was still wrapped in its cardboard sleeve and zip ties right from, right from like home Depot or something that I bought it like two years ago.

[00:05:27] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: It was shoved under a box on a shelf. And like, you know what I mean? Like that's the state of, of how we exist out on the job site. Sound like everything. We do if it, if it's powered and it's related to plumbing and HVAC, it's probably cordless.

[00:05:45] Eric Goranson: And what's cool is, is, and people, there's a lot of people out there that are the haters of the battery world out there.

[00:05:49] Eric Goranson: I am definitely not one of them, but until you actually see it and test it. You really don't notice that that battery puts out more power because they can actually [00:06:00] use the little computers inside to direct the amps to outperform what a plugged in tool is going to do. And it's amazing how they

[00:06:07] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: can do that.

[00:06:07] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: Yeah, they can make the so DC motors in general are smaller. Uh, they, they have more potential energy. And so the stored energy in a DC, you know, battery. Like these lithium batteries. Now there's some kind of new technology out there. I don't know anything about, I don't remember what it's called, but like, there's just so much power available.

[00:06:27] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: And like you said, it's all about that electronic side of things because electronics have been in tools, but mostly they're really just on off. And now they're saying, you know, directing power and utilizing the battery to its fullest potential.

[00:06:41] Eric Goranson: That's crazy. I think I saw that a new one you came out with that was that a chain auger or whatever that thing was, that drain cleaner that was super cool.

[00:06:47] Eric Goranson: That was battery powered. I'm like, how is that big battery? How's that thing running off, uh, you know, an M 18 Milwaukee battery, right? Right.

[00:06:55] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: Well, we can thread pipe now. Uh, just today I got, uh, some [00:07:00] information and some pictures. I haven't used it myself cause it's not available yet, but for HVAC work, uh, which I do as well, like for many split systems and stuff like that, they have a, now I have a battery powered vacuum pump for referred, you know, for.

[00:07:14] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: For refrigerants down. Yeah. And so, like, on a small system, if I'm just going to go out to your place, we're going to put a mini split in your garage and, you know, because he's like, I can't use it. For a studio or anything, we can do that job. We can do the whole install. And then I can do like, none of it's going to require a cord, you know, it seems novel at the, at, at, you know, from the face of it, but a lot of people are interacting already on that post, uh, on my Instagram saying, well, you know, that's not going to work for me and seven, I think.

[00:07:44] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: If you just stop and think about every job we do, there's an application for something like this. Like it doesn't, you know, just because you've done something a certain way for 20 years, doesn't mean you've been doing it the right way for 20 years.

[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: You know, that's my favorite line is I've been doing it.[00:08:00]

[00:08:00] Eric Goranson: Let's talk about this for a second. Let's talk about the elephant in the room. The haters out there. I've been doing it this way for 30 years. And you just kind of have to, in your head go. Sorry, brother. You've been doing it wrong for 30

[00:08:11] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: years. I know, I know, you know, another side of that coin too, is like a lot of people, like I look back, so as a plumber, uh, in order to get my license and everything, like I had to do an apprenticeship

[00:08:24] Eric Goranson: and.

[00:08:25] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: I have fond memories of the people that taught me like this trade. And I was so lucky to work for people that were so nice and like very smart and very skilled. And so looking back all the, you know, I've been a plumber for 25 years now, so a little while I look back and I, I, like I said, fond memories of these guys and stuff.

[00:08:42] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: But like, if, if I were to learn now, Today that I would, I was taught something that incorrectly, like, let's just say it was wrong. And like, or there was just a very much better way of doing it. Sure. I would have to look back all the way to the guy who taught me and think. I mean, I [00:09:00] thought at the time it was right, but I guess maybe he was wrong.

[00:09:03] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: You know what I mean? So like, yeah, I get there's like, it's, it's like an emotional attachment to, well, I've done it for this way for so long, you know, what's wrong with that? And I think, I don't know. Anytime somebody makes my job a little easier or a little safer or just like a little faster, but. I didn't have to do anything more to achieve that.

[00:09:22] Eric Aune Mechanical Hub: I think that,

[00:09:23] Eric Goranson: isn't that a good thing? Right. It should be a good thing. And it's, Oh yeah. I mean, I get like you do, you know, the bigger you get, the more haters you get out there. Right. I mean, it's just like a scale. There's a percentage out there of those, of those people that always like. to tear people down, but don't go anywhere around the

[00:09:40] Intro: house.

[00:09:42] Intro: We'll be right back.[00:10:00]

[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: Welcome to the round the house show. This is where we talk about everything about your home every single week. Thanks for joining us today. I am still down here in Las Vegas at the design and construction week. This is a combination of the international builder show, kitchen, a bath industry show, and even this year, the national hardware show.

[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: So. This is the one place in the world you got to be if you're doing anything around your home. And I'm in one of my favorite booths with one of my absolutely favorite people. I'm sitting here in the Bro Nuto booth where we are going to talk about ventilation today and so much more stuff. Dave, welcome back to Around the House, my friend.

[00:10:44] Eric Goranson: Thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, this is great. Man, you guys again. Are changing the rules of

[00:10:49] ventilation

[00:10:49] Dave Jones: again. We are changing the rules of ventilation. Yeah, innovations are our game this year. It gets incredible what we've been able to come up with and just the advances and changes.

[00:10:57] Dave Jones: I mean, we're, we're all talking about it, right? It's been in the news [00:11:00] for years now. And I mean, just the other day we had another big news splash and you can be on any side of the fence on that. You want to, but holy cow, it gets everywhere. All right, let's

[00:11:08] Eric Goranson: unpack it. We're just going to dive in. Let's go.

[00:11:10] Eric Goranson: We're just going to knee deep here. You know, the gas range ban and I'm using air quotes that nobody can see right now is one of those things that, um, Really got me fired up because I'm like, okay, and you probably feel the same way, but I look at it and go, we have a ventilation issue. Yes. This is not just a gas range issue.

[00:11:29] Eric Goranson: Correct. Sure. There could be gas ranges that are leaking. There could be anything else. But that is such a small part of the ventilation problem compared to everything else that's coming up in

[00:11:39] Dave Jones: your area. Yeah, well, 100%. Yeah, I mean, anything you cook on your gas range, on your electric range, you could have a wood burning range.

[00:11:44] Dave Jones: It really doesn't matter. There's something going into the air off of your range. You're, we were talking earlier, you know, you're frying your country fried steak or whatever it is, right? That's that's emitting oil and and smoke and all sorts of other things in the air that you can't see and you're breathing right in without that, [00:12:00] that range hood getting that out, you're gonna run into a lot of problems.

[00:12:03] Dave Jones: So we don't care. Use whatever range you like, wherever you're at, keep it, use it right.

[00:12:08] Eric Goranson: We love it. Think about this when you walk into grandmother's house and you have that cookie smell. Oh, yeah. We all love that. It's awesome, but that's really not healthy. It's kind of like new, new car smell, right? You go, oh, this is great.

[00:12:21] Eric Goranson: Oh, these VOCs smell so amazing and the VOCs coming off the leather. I love it. These aren't really supposed to

[00:12:29] Dave Jones: be good smells for us. In fact, uh, you should be able to walk into your house and smell absolutely nothing. I don't know if your listeners know who Christoph Erwin is. Uh, he's, he's based in Atlanta and he's got the, um, anyway.

[00:12:40] Dave Jones: Brilliant guy, uh, and he, now we're talking about it and he said, yeah, good smells, bad smells, it doesn't matter. A smell is a sign that there's something in your air that shouldn't be there. So, yes, baking cookies, like, please, I want it, but no, that, like, that's not good. You've got little kids, like, they're breathing these fumes, like, this is not good.

[00:12:57] Dave Jones: We should get rid of that. Uh, you know, take them outside and smell [00:13:00] them. Yeah. Maybe? I don't know. That's better.

[00:13:01] Eric Goranson: Sure. I mean, if they're in front of you, you're smelling them on the spot, right? I mean, you are. That's true, yeah. Because they'll be getting ready to consume it. Absolutely. But, you know, that's the thing, and it's, it's such a misconception out there.

[00:13:09] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And I mean, we have legislation issues out there in certain states. Sure. Because my personal belief is that every house should have a working ventilation hood that goes outside the building. And I don't understand that even in my state where they, if I do a rebuttal and I pull a building permit, guess what?

[00:13:26] Eric Goranson: That has to be a hood that vents outside. I could still go into a home center. Yep, and

[00:13:31] Dave Jones: buy a recirculating

[00:13:32] Eric Goranson: Don't worry about that, doc. I'm going to give you a recirculating one. And I'm like, you know, a recirculating hood is about as smart as a recirculating toilet.

[00:13:40] Dave Jones: You're not getting anywhere. I mean, for the most part.

[00:13:42] Dave Jones: Yeah. I think we'd argue that if, if, if you've got to have one, maybe you live in an apartment and that's your best option. Make sure you're changing that filter. Make sure you're treating that right. But then find another way to ventilate the house. If you don't have that hood, which you should, it's the right way to do it.

[00:13:55] Dave Jones: A hood that ventilates out. I get it. Sometimes you can't do it. Make sure you have something else. Run your bath [00:14:00] fan, right? We don't think about that. Small apartment, like usually a small apartment is not going to have a vented range hood. It's going to have a recirculating, but run your bath and that's going to be ventilated out.

[00:14:07] Dave Jones: Code requires that everywhere. There's no such thing basically as a, as a recirculating bath fan, right? So run it, crack a window if you can. Not the best scenario. You're bringing in whatever's outside, but it's probably better than whatever's coming off your range.

[00:14:20] Eric Goranson: Probably better. Absolutely. And bath fans are a great example of that because I use them ventilation in my house because That's one of my next steps is, uh, and I just created my own, uh, fresh air intake problem at my house.

[00:14:30] Eric Goranson: Cause I've got a really cool HVAC system, carry infinity. Awesome. Um, I had my dog door, which was my makeup air, except a little tease for you guys watching the show. My first segment I'm doing on the DIY is I put in the automatic dog door. Nice. Which is really cool for the dogs, except I just closed up my makeup air.

[00:14:49] Eric Goranson: You sure did. So, that's my next issue. Makeup

[00:14:53] Dave Jones: hair. I'd love to talk about that one. Do you, this, and I'm surprising you with this question. Where are you putting it? Where are you putting the makeup hair when [00:15:00] it comes in? Where are you dumping it?

[00:15:01] Eric Goranson: Right now, I haven't done that yet. So, I'm not sure yet. Where are you going to dump it?

[00:15:05] Eric Goranson: Good question. Okay. You know, I have my, my HVAC system, which is a gas furnace, electric AC. Okay. That is in the garage, but it's really close to the exterior. So I could come in, hook into that system there. Okay. There's some room to do that. Okay. That would be one. All right. Um, and there's other places in the house

[00:15:21] Dave Jones: I can hide it.

[00:15:22] Dave Jones: Yeah. There's, we've got a lot of conversations around that. It seems to be another one of those topics that. No one wants to talk about because it's scary where you put, where you put unconditioned air, you know, which is what you're doing, where do you dump that in? We're, we're trying to work on that too, because that's a challenge.

[00:15:34] Dave Jones: That's a big challenge. So I'm always interested to hear about what people are doing with it. And

[00:15:38] Eric Goranson: then my house is even more so. Cause I have a 1200 CFM max foot in there. I have a 48 inch. So, you know, that's a lot of basketballs growing out the building. That's a lot of air.

[00:15:50] Dave Jones: Where's it coming

[00:15:51] Eric Goranson: from? Right?

[00:15:51] Eric Goranson: Yeah, yeah. Luckily, I don't have any other gas burning. I don't have like a gas, uh, you know, a gas water heater or something that I'm pulling in. Okay. You know. [00:16:00] Okay. I'm not dragging carbon monoxide back in. But I'm still pulling dirty air from the crawl space and attic space or something like that. What are you doing

[00:16:07] Dave Jones: for, uh, for fresh air?

[00:16:08] Dave Jones: Do you run an ERV in your house? Not yet. Not yet. Oh, I heard a yet in there. Yeah, it's going to be happening. Alright, alright. It's

[00:16:13] Eric Goranson: going to be happening. You know, I know, we'll talk about that later. Alright, good. But, let's talk about ERVs for a minute. Okay. Because my biggest problem that I had with them And one, I hadn't really designed it out yet.

[00:16:24] Eric Goranson: It's always one of the things, okay, that's the next step. But my biggest problem that I didn't like about them is, I'm in wildfire country. Yeah. And in August, September, there could be a week or two. Sure. Where we're the worst air quality in the world. Sure. And I didn't want to have something that I was going to have to manage on my own and go, Did I turn that off today?

[00:16:44] Eric Goranson: Yeah. No, I totally get it. Me turning it back on again. It's going to be the worst part because I'm going to forget about it. Right. Or if you're not hoping

[00:16:51] Dave Jones: to do it with your wife, you're relying on somebody else at the house to handle it. So we're, we're taking a look at that, uh, in a really big way, a really unique way.

[00:16:58] Dave Jones: And in fact, maybe I, maybe I can [00:17:00] announce this now. Sure. We're uh, we won today at iBiz. We won the um, best indoor product of the entire show for our Overture system, which manages this problem. So let's jump into that. Let's jump into that. Alright, alright, okay. So Overture is a system of, you know, it's an automated indoor air quality system.

[00:17:17] Dave Jones: And it's a bunch of switches and sensors that go around your house. All the switches have sensors in them. You have sensors you can put in all over your house. You can hardwire them. You can plug them in. So we can measure air. And we all know about that now. We've all seen molecules and a wares and air things and we've all heard them.

[00:17:31] Dave Jones: They're probably here and they make cool products that tell you what's going on. And then they tell you, okay, great. Go open your window. But you just told me your problem was there's a forest fire outside. Yeah. I'm not opening my window. So what was your, what's your solution for that? So what we've done is we've designed the system to work with our fresh air systems to say, wait, there's bad indoor air quality outside.

[00:17:48] Dave Jones: We, we look at the EPA's AQI score, the air quality index. And if it says this is no bueno, we are not. You should not be breathing this. The system will say, Nope, we're going to go into research mode. I'm going to shut down the fresh air [00:18:00] supply. We're okay for a little while here. There's enough air in the home.

[00:18:02] Dave Jones: We're not going to suffocate overnight. Like we got some time, the system will run and it'll still exhaust things as it needs to, and then it'll bring that fresh air in when

[00:18:10] Eric Goranson: the air quality is better. Yeah. Cause I'll pull up on my phone. I'm like, Oh, that's bright red. That's not a good day today. You know what I mean?

[00:18:16] Eric Goranson: And that's where I was like. I'm just not that consistent to trust myself to go, okay, I'm going to have to manually manage this. Well, and we're not smart

[00:18:23] Dave Jones: enough. Let's be real. Like I am because I work at a company that does inter air quality. The average consumer, the average homeowner out there doesn't know.

[00:18:29] Dave Jones: My wife doesn't know when to turn on the bath fan half the time or the range hood always. Let me be clear. Always every time you're in there turn it on leave it run for 20 minutes when you're done cooking or in the shower Whatever it is around

[00:18:41] Eric Goranson: the house. We'll be right back. Don't

[00:18:42] Intro: go anywhere[00:19:00]

[00:19:12] Eric Goranson: Welcome to the round the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education Thanks for joining us today By the way, this episode was brought to you by RootQuencher and RootQuencher. com. If you've got trees, shrubs, bushes, and you're wasting water when you're watering them, or you want to cut it back, check out RootQuencher.

[00:19:30] Eric Goranson: com. Those guys have spikes that put water right into the roots and not all over the top where it runs down the hill and doesn't end up where you want it to. If you want to save money, go to RootQuencher. com. Today, we are going to talk about something that is this massive tidal wave. That only a handful of people are talking about.

[00:19:50] Eric Goranson: And we've got Andrew Brown here from tool fetch, but we're talking the trades today. Brother, thanks for coming on around the house today. Eric, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. [00:20:00] This is such a big deal. And I don't think we can talk about it enough because I tell you what, I can't tell you how many times I'm seeing in schools and high school specifically right now, they've taken all the trades, right?

[00:20:14] Eric Goranson: They've removed them completely out of so many programs. Kids get forced to go to college because it's the right thing to do. And after spending a hundred grand in a college education. They get out and say, Hey, I'm going to go join the electrical union, or I'm going to go drive the Mason union. And they get into the trades and now they've got a hundred thousand dollar bill that they really didn't need to have.

[00:20:35] Eric Goranson: It's crazy. What's your take on this? I mean, it's happening all

[00:20:39] Andrew Brown: over and you understand why there is this,

[00:20:43] Craig Elworthy: uh,

[00:20:44] Andrew Brown: skilled trades cap, right? There's this 40 percent of men and women retiring or are at the retirement age in the next five or 10 years. That are leaving the industry, leaving their trade. And there's a lot of people who are not coming in.

[00:20:59] Andrew Brown: There's not [00:21:00] enough. So there's seven to eight trades people leaving. There's one or two maybe coming in. And it's really what's being pushed to the younger individuals. What's, what's the message that's being pushed? And it's interesting when the younger generation, when they're sitting down before they sign on that data line for college.

[00:21:21] Andrew Brown: Is there a guidance counselor saying, you know, There's another opportunity. There's maybe a skilled trades path. And I don't feel that's being spoken about because I do feel that teachers and guidance counselors are the best marketers for college, right? And if kids have the right information, maybe,

[00:21:40] Craig Elworthy: maybe they'll

[00:21:41] Andrew Brown: consider a skilled trades path instead of spending a hundred thousand dollars.

[00:21:47] Andrew Brown: Not every school, but around a hundred thousand dollars, you know, go to, you know, trade school and spend less amount of money and for a less amount of time. And you could be working in an apprenticeship [00:22:00] and making money at the

[00:22:01] Eric Goranson: same time. It is incredible. And I call it, I call it the big business of the college education and the best salespeople right now seem to be the high school teachers and guidance counselors these days.

[00:22:12] Eric Goranson: And I think they're doing such a disservice and. And another show a couple of years ago, I brought up the concept that I've been waving the flag for a while is that, you know, if you and I go down and get a car loan and you and I walk down or get a house loan and get a mortgage, we have to kind of prove a business plan on how we're going to pay that back.

[00:22:32] Eric Goranson: Right? So I would love to see that happen with a college education where, okay, I'm applying to go to college. And I wish they would ask a couple of questions and say, all right, when you get out, what's the game plan for your career, because there's so many people going out and getting what I'm going to, and I'm not going to go after a certain group here, but what I call generally junk degrees, because I see them working at Starbucks and in other places after they've spent [00:23:00] this stuff, I wish they could actually sit there and say, Hey, what's the game plan to pay this back?

[00:23:05] Eric Goranson: And maybe start a discussion. Of maybe this isn't for me and maybe I should get into the trades where I can actually be much better off and live a more comfortable lifestyle outside of my work environment. Yeah. And I can attest

[00:23:17] Craig Elworthy: to this

[00:23:18] Andrew Brown: because I went to college for four years and I was more confused when I came out of school.

[00:23:23] Eric Goranson: Then when I was in school, I started off as a programmer.

[00:23:26] Craig Elworthy: I was doing C plus plus on the

[00:23:29] Andrew Brown: weekends and looking at myself and looking at the people around me and said, what are they doing? Why am I taking advanced calculus? Yeah, I went into business. Then I might under finance. Then I went into it and then I had this life changing events on nine 11, which.

[00:23:44] Andrew Brown: Put me in a different path for selling tools to the skilled trades. And it's just, I feel like sometimes you just don't get all the answers and you're just kind of going from major to major and there are a lot of individuals, especially [00:24:00] friends who came out of school and not happy with what they're doing.

[00:24:04] Andrew Brown: They're just not happy, or they switch completely and they do something completely different, but you've already put in a tremendous amount of investment into your education, but you're, you go into something different. And I

[00:24:15] Eric Goranson: see that happening often. It is, it is, it's crazy. And, and it's, I think we've got to really start with younger kids of getting them in school, using their hands on stuff and teaching some common sense stuff because.

[00:24:30] Eric Goranson: You know, those woodshop days really figured out if you were good at working your hands and if there was a passion there, because I know so many people in doing what you and I do that I go back and, you know, I'm in my early fifties, but I go back and say, when did you figure out, Oh, it was woodshop. Cause I, I loved what I was doing.

[00:24:47] Eric Goranson: I was creating something or it was the mechanic shop or whatever metal shop, welding, whatever that was back in, you know, in that middle school slash high school age. That we've just [00:25:00] yanked that out of the schools and made those things, you know, computer labs or whatever else, but all those things are needed, but we've just created this huge skills gap, which is now hurting the public moving forward.

[00:25:11] Eric Goranson: I mean, it's great if you're going to go into the trades, because as you know, as an electrician, you can go out and make six figures and work anywhere in the country. But Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner that have to hire the, hire the electrician go, wow, why is that so expensive? Where are all the shop

[00:25:25] Andrew Brown: classes? Where did they

[00:25:26] Craig Elworthy: go?

[00:25:27] Craig Elworthy: What happened? Right. I don't

[00:25:30] Andrew Brown: remember taking a shop class. Right. I'm not too far behind you, but I don't know if you're taking a shock class and if a kid has a mechanical build ability or a technical spark, maybe that gets defined in a shock class that they wouldn't have noticed unless they took the shock class.

[00:25:48] Andrew Brown: But the shock class is not there. Maybe they just go to college and they do something else. So I'm all for bringing chalk classes back into schools on top of, if you don't go into a skilled [00:26:00] trade, you can use those skills, their lifelong skills, which you can apply to stuff around your house, because I know people that won't touch anything.

[00:26:08] Andrew Brown: Right? I'm not touching anything. Look, there's something to be said about something electrical and you just don't, you don't really know. And then you bring in an electrician. There's such opportunities in the skill trades in all these different areas. And if you apply yourself and you ride that ladder of success by attaching yourself to people who have been there and done that through mentorship, I mean, it's just unbelievable what's available today.

[00:26:39] Andrew Brown: In this

[00:26:39] Eric Goranson: window and you'll never be without work, right? You'll never be without work because I tell you what, with our massive skills gap that there is no quick fix to this. It's going to be a generational fix, right? I mean, we can't fix this tomorrow. You know what I mean? Because we just have so many people that we don't have the programs even out there [00:27:00] available to fix it, let alone the people to fill those programs.

[00:27:04] Eric Goranson: And if you're a kid right now, and you're, you know, let's say if you're a parent listening to this show right now, or a grandparent. This is something that should be explored because I tell you what, you can go out and be an electrician and in a few years, you're making more than the school teachers are with less debt, a lot less debt,

[00:27:23] Andrew Brown: a lot less debt, a lot less debt.

[00:27:25] Andrew Brown: And it's a shorter period of time, right? So you spend four years, maybe five years in college, you're ahead of the game. With less debt and not just in value. And then, you know, I always say eventually maybe you buy a home, you get a mortgage, that's more debt, more debt, more debt, and it's just, you just can't get out of it.

[00:27:43] Andrew Brown: So it's a great opportunity for someone who really wants to, to be

[00:27:47] Eric Goranson: in that. You know, Andrew, there are some great groups out there as well. There, there are some small programs out there like we have here in my Portland metro area where I'm at. We have a group out in Forest Grove where they teach [00:28:00] building houses to kids.

[00:28:01] Eric Goranson: And I mean, every school year, they frame a house and then the next school year, they finish it, sell it to refund the program again. And they call it the Viking house. Cause it's the Vikings that's the school mascot, but every couple of years, they're building a home. That is a beautiful model. We have a forestry program down here that is in a little town called sweet home out here, which is just the base of the, of the cascade mountains, where they've had a guy that's been doing YouTube videos, manly jobs, Blake Manley.

[00:28:31] Eric Goranson: You just left that school district, but there's like a hundred kids in this little town on this forestry program. And around the house. We'll be right back with my favorite episodes of 2023. Don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]

[00:29:06] Eric Goranson: Welcome to the round the house show. This is where I help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. We got a special guest. here on the line. We're doing it old school today, which I love doing this. This is fun. Craig, welcome to around the house. Yeah.

[00:29:23] Eric Goranson: Thanks for having me. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. We are having a great summer here, at least in my part of the country. And of course the radio show goes across the U S and the podcast is international, but you have changed lawn care. And I love this.

[00:29:40] Craig Elworthy: Thank you. Yeah, um, wow, that's, that's some lofty words.

[00:29:44] Craig Elworthy: I don't know, uh, I don't know how much I've changed it. Per se, but uh, you know, it's, it's definitely a different way, uh, to, to go about, you know, tending to your lawn, uh, for your average homeowner and, you know, for, for a long time, lawn care has [00:30:00] been, you know, largely the same for the last 40 years, you've kind of had the same options and, and now it's kind of growing and evolving into something new, which is, which is really interesting.

[00:30:09] Eric Goranson: Well, what I love about your system is, and the first thing, you know, when I first looked at it, I'm like, alright, cool, it's a, it's a lawn care program for people to take care of the lawns, that's big, and then I went, okay, they're doing the one thing, you guys are doing the one thing that's always been a pet peeve of mine, is you have soil testing in the mix, which to me, is like the basis of everything, right?

[00:30:31] Craig Elworthy: Oh, completely. Yeah. So, so, you know, all of our customers would find out the first thing we do is we give them a soil test because, you know, that was one of the things you're right. That was kind of a big problem was that you go to this big box store and you just stare at a rack of fertilizers and you really have no idea.

[00:30:47] Craig Elworthy: You know what you're doing there and what to get and what not to get, um, and really it all starts with knowing, you know, what your, what nutrients are deficient in your soil. Um, so we start with that, it's, it's, you know, [00:31:00] standard with every box, first and foremost, we get your plan, we'll customize, you know, your, uh, your plan for you, and then we'll send you that product mix going forward that's going to make up for those deficiencies and kind of help your lawn thrive.

[00:31:14] Eric Goranson: Yeah, and that way, you know, I mean, it's, it's interesting. You could have, you could be living out in a more desert community and have a sandy soil. You could be living in the forest and have this super acidic soil and you don't know until that test comes back what your problems are.

[00:31:32] Craig Elworthy: Oh, completely. Yeah.

[00:31:34] Craig Elworthy: And, and, you know, they're all over the map, right? Depending on, on where you live, you know, there's certain types of soil, like you said, but even within, you know, you, you could have a totally different soil structure than your neighbor, right? And just, just because of, you know, years of kind of tending to your lawn, you know, differently.

[00:31:50] Craig Elworthy: So it, it really is all important and you can't cover it with a big blanket and say, well, you know, because you're, you know, in the North, we're going to give you this kind of program. You have to [00:32:00] really dial it in to exactly,

[00:32:01] Eric Goranson: uh, to every lawn. Well, that's what I like you've done with Lombright because I think it's just really smart to give somebody, okay, a basis.

[00:32:09] Eric Goranson: I need to do this. So my, so my lawn is healthier and we waste so much of running down to that home improvement store. You see the pallets sitting out there, fertilizer and people just walk up. Cause I've done the same thing over the years, walk up and go, ah, I think I'm watering my lawn enough. I have no idea what's going on.

[00:32:28] Eric Goranson: That bag looks cool and it's on sale. Great. And then throw in their lawn, expecting a miracle.

[00:32:33] Craig Elworthy: Exactly, right? Or, oh, it's summer, so I'm going to buy the summer blend, or it's fall, so I'm going to get the fall stuff. Um, but it really just totally doesn't work that way. And what we find is that most people do get it wrong, right?

[00:32:45] Craig Elworthy: You really do have to, you know, put in the time and effort to learn about this stuff in advance. And then, you know It's kind of, it's not exactly a science, it's not an art, it's kind of a craft, right? And if you can do it properly, it takes years and, and you'll get there [00:33:00] eventually. But, a lot of people just don't have the time, uh, to invest in, in making sure they do it right.

[00:33:06] Craig Elworthy: So, you know, all our products are, um, Organic and natural. So there's nothing that you'd have to worry about any harsh chemicals going into your lawn. And that was another piece of it as well, is that we did find that a lot of this, especially new homeowners coming into the market, uh, really cared about what was going on in their lawn.

[00:33:25] Craig Elworthy: Uh, and they, they didn't want any of that stuff that had been on there previously in the traditional sort of fertilizer market.

[00:33:31] Eric Goranson: And that's great. Cause you know, there's so many issues out there with. You know, with kids and pets and everything else in the lawn, why not put something in there that's at least organic?

[00:33:40] Eric Goranson: So at least, you know, what's going into the lawn. Exactly.

[00:33:43] Craig Elworthy: Yeah. So all of our, um, all of our ingredients are all sourced sustainably. They're all things you can pronounce, right. They're all, you know, kelp and molasses and cedar oil. Um, and they're all things that are actually beneficial. To the microbiome in your lawn, which is something that, [00:34:00] uh, traditional fertilizers don't take into account at all.

[00:34:02] Craig Elworthy: Like you can go buy a bag of, you know, fertilizer from, from Home Depot, it's going to make your lawn look great, but it's not going to actually feed your soil. And over time, you're going to need more input. So you're going to need more fertilizer and more water just to get the same results because the microbiome is actually dying off.

[00:34:21] Craig Elworthy: Um, but what we're doing is we're taking a soil first approach, and we're making sure that all of that stuff stays in there and actually thrives. Um, so over time, it's kind of like the opposite. So over time, uh, you'll get a much better result off of, uh, off of the MopRite program.

[00:34:37] Eric Goranson: Yeah, and a healthier lawn like that uses less water in the long run, correct?

[00:34:41] Eric Goranson: Oh, completely, yeah. So I,

[00:34:42] Craig Elworthy: I was actually just listening to your, you know, how to save water. Um, and yeah, uh, getting a rain sensor on your irrigation is Offs on the list, but also it's the inputs that you put into your lawn, right? And how you can. Um, kind of adjust that over time and making sure that you're putting something into your loan.

[00:34:59] Craig Elworthy: It's not going to [00:35:00] require you to, you know, go out and, and, you know, buy more fertilizer or add more water to it continuously.

[00:35:06] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And that's great. And by the way, what happened to off the shelf fertilizer prices? I did a segment for my TV show and I ran down to the home improvement store just to get a few small bags.

[00:35:19] Eric Goranson: And I'm talking to like the little tiny stuff. If I had like a little condo lawn or something out front. And I walked out of there with like three tiny bags for 70 bucks. And I'm like, what happened to fertilizer pricing? Cause it's like five times at my stores here. What it was three years

[00:35:35] Craig Elworthy: ago.

[00:35:35] Craig Elworthy: Completely. Yeah. And, and it was actually, again, like all things, right. It was kind of the pandemic that had the effect. Um, now, uh, synthetic nitrogen, it used to be really, really cheap. And now if you go buy a bag, right, 30 percent or more of that. That is going to be synthetic nitrogen, but the price in the last couple of years has gone through the roof, um, so that's a, you know, that's a huge problem.

[00:35:59] Craig Elworthy: So that [00:36:00] obviously that drives up the price of, you know, fertilizers across the board. Um, now the nice thing about us is we're not as price sensitive to that. We, we actually use some of the lowest content of nitrogen, um, in any fertilizer plan that I've seen out there. So we are, you know, sort of much less exposed to that

[00:36:18] Eric Goranson: price and change.

[00:36:19] Eric Goranson: Well, and that's kind of the, the, the, I don't know, I don't want to call it the secret or the, the perceived advantage of the off the store shelf fertilizers, because. It seems that those things are maybe not healthy for your lawn, but they make you feel good because they just dump a bunch of Spot nitrogen on there that's going to be in there for three or four weeks your lawn gets nice green and thick because you've just overfed it it seems and then You're like, Hey, wait a minute.

[00:36:46] Eric Goranson: I got to put more on it again. Oh yeah, completely.

[00:36:48] Craig Elworthy: So you're, you're going to be feeding it a lot more often, and you're also going to need to feed it at the wrong time. So, you know, part of, part of the system that we have is letting, you [00:37:00] know, exactly when to put on exactly which products. Um, because if you get that wrong, and if you put on a high dose of nitrogen, Right now in the summer, it's really muggy where I am in Massachusetts.

[00:37:12] Craig Elworthy: You know, you are going to have significant problems, right? Telling the lawn to grow that does not want to grow Um, so it's going to be more susceptible to fungus and more susceptible to disease and you're actually going to cause more problems Uh than you intended

[00:37:25] Eric Goranson: And yeah, that makes again then you're then you're tossing Naturally, what you do is you go, oh, it needs more water, it needs more fertilizer, and you just keep making it worse and worse as you're kind of chasing your tail, if I understand that correctly.

[00:37:37] Eric Goranson: Oh, completely,

[00:37:38] Craig Elworthy: yeah. So, you're, you're gonna, again, and then you're gonna stop and say, you know what, I'm gonna call one of the, you know, the, the national lawn companies in there, and they're gonna do, you know, largely the same thing. They just, they have the knowledge and they understand, you know, what's going on in their lawn, but Yeah, the inputs are going to be the same and you're going to be spending a whole lot more now, [00:38:00] right?

[00:38:00] Craig Elworthy: To try to do something that you try to do yourself. So we're trying to actually Take DIY lawn care and take kind of a guesswork out of it and say, you know We got we got the hard part, right? We can give you the Uh, the right stuff to put on your lawn and we can inform you and instruct you on what it is to put it on and then you don't have to, you know, spend, people are spending 1500, you know, thousands of dollars on their, uh, lawns every year going to these, uh, to these companies.

[00:38:27] Craig Elworthy: And, and by the way, good luck trying to cancel one because they, you know, I've heard horror stories where they just come out anyway.

[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: It's like trying to cancel the gym membership, right? Yeah, you have to tell them you

[00:38:36] Craig Elworthy: moved to like a different country. Uh, to, to actually up inan

[00:38:43] Eric Goranson: Well, so I, I'll tell you this. I saw this, uh, uh, probably four or five years ago. I watched my neighbor across the street from me at my previous house, and they had one of the, we'll call it a green lawn care company. Come over there, and I'm not talking about the, uh, like organic green, but just one of those [00:39:00] green companies out there knocked on the door, came in, talked to 'em a little bit, signed up for the care service.

[00:39:07] Eric Goranson: The guy runs out, grabs the truck hose, and then just starts spraying, and I'm like you didn't even look at the soil. Don't go anywhere around the house. We'll be right back with my favorite episodes of 2023 after these important messages.