Foreign.
Speaker BReady to turn your house into the home you've always dreamed of without the headaches or huge bills.
Speaker BYou're tuned to around the House, the nation's number one home improvement radio show and podcast with expert advice that's helped millions tackle everything from remodels to repairs.
Speaker BHost Serig G. And John Dudley have got you covered with the best advice and information about your home.
Speaker BNow let's get this hour started.
Speaker AWelcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.
Speaker AThanks for joining us today.
Speaker AI'm Eric G. John Dudley, good to see you.
Speaker AThis is going to be a fun episode today, brother.
Speaker COh sure.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CThey always one of your favorites, roofing.
Speaker CLet's go.
Speaker AOh man, I tell you what, this is a pet peeve of mine because for instance, I live in the Pacific Northwest and for some reason some builders forget that we're or even homeowners forget that we're in the Pacific North Northwest and one roof surface does not fit all climates in my opinion.
Speaker AAnd you should be paying attention to the roofing that's going up.
Speaker AGreat example.
Speaker AI don't talk to one of my brothers much every few years if I have to.
Speaker ABut I was talking to my mom this last weekend and she's oh yeah, we had that windstorm and he could hear the shingles blowing off his roof and he called his roofer in the middle of the night at 2am and left him a voicemail so he could be first in line to get somebody out there.
Speaker ANow this house is what, five or six years old.
Speaker ASo this isn't a new roof.
Speaker ABut he is out in the middle of the desert where the wind rushes through there and a 30 mile an hour day.
Speaker A30 mile an hour wind is a calm day.
Speaker AYeah, it's getting 70, 80, 90 mile an hour.
Speaker AAnd of course he didn't talk to me about anything about the house.
Speaker AWhen he had a built in I would have went probably should put on either metal or even better put on something that is a hurricane rated asphalt shingle and you'll probably be good.
Speaker ANo, they probably put the 25 year architectural up there that was as cheap as you could get the builder special.
Speaker AAnd now every four or five years he's up there having somebody weave in more roofing up there and it's always going to look like you've just woven more roofing.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, we see that so often.
Speaker AAnd what I mean by that is like for instance here in the Pacific Northwest, at least on our side of the state here.
Speaker AAnd I Say that because in Washington and Oregon, there's the Cascade mountains that divide the state kind of left and right as you look at it and politically.
Speaker ABut when you look at it, you got desert on one side and on the coastal side, you got this wet area over there where moss grows on everything.
Speaker AAnd when you put a clay or concrete tile roof on it, it doesn't work so well.
Speaker AIt's not like it's Arizona.
Speaker AThat concrete, man, it loves to soak up moisture.
Speaker AAnd two, when it does, it is just the perfect medium for moss.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker CI've pressure washed a few, my mom's house included.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd the problem is pressure washing it is tough because you get so much organic matter that likes to fill in down underneath it even.
Speaker AAnd to get those to look good and even is a tough battle when you're up there.
Speaker APressure washing, that's where you almost have to have the professional or contractor up there that knows what they're doing.
Speaker CYeah, that'd be me.
Speaker CBut yeah, it's not.
Speaker CIt's not a quick rinse down that stuff.
Speaker CIt's tough, man.
Speaker CIt's like barnacles on a boat.
Speaker CIt's insidious.
Speaker CAnd you're right, it gets under there and oftentimes a keeping it consistent with your pressure washing.
Speaker CSo you don't got lines everywhere because you have to hit some of those spots so hard to get the moss off or loose.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CAnd secondarily a lot of times with.
Speaker CEspecially with tile roofs, you get that moss out of there.
Speaker CNow you got a roof leak because the moss was actually stopping the water from going through to your house.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYou had that in there, which was true.
Speaker AAnd then, oh, my gosh, you got the cleanup afterwards because that moss, you're wearing half of it.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CIf you don't put plastic down beforehand, you will the next time.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd I'll be honest, that's where I look at the softwash guys out there and go, have at it, kids, because that's just a lot of work.
Speaker AI saw a guy, my old house, the neighbor had paid some guys to come over and the guy was up with a little 110 karcher.
Speaker COh, yeah, that's pressure washer up there.
Speaker CA little like he was up there
Speaker Afor three days on a not big house.
Speaker AAnd I was just like, that's a
Speaker Csquare inch at a time there.
Speaker CThat is not gonna suffice.
Speaker ANo, I was just like, oh, brutal.
Speaker ANo soaps, no nothing to no surfactants to break that down.
Speaker AAnd I was just like, oh, brutal.
Speaker CIf you want to get out of the house?
Speaker CI guess that's one way to hide.
Speaker AYour wife's having the baby shower and the family's over.
Speaker AI got to do the roof.
Speaker AIt's the one day I can do it.
Speaker AYeah, it's a great place for it.
Speaker CI'd rather be tying flies in the garage, but they can come in the garage.
Speaker CThey ain't coming up on the roof.
Speaker ANo one's coming on the roof.
Speaker AAnd that's the thing, man.
Speaker AIt's tough.
Speaker AAnd we saw here in the 60s and 70s, we saw cedar shake shingles here, which were either the shakes are the big ones.
Speaker ASo those are the big hand split shakes that look kind of wavy and they break and they do it.
Speaker AVersus a more traditional cedar shingle that looks like it's on the side of a house.
Speaker ABut those were maintenance nightmares as well for the same reasons.
Speaker AAnd we had those on our house as a kid in eastern Washington in the Tri Cities.
Speaker AAnd holy smokes, dude.
Speaker AThose things, when they get dry in the summertime, when it's 110 degrees outside for a week and a half.
Speaker AYeah, that's a kindling fire ready to start.
Speaker CYeah, buddy.
Speaker CAnd that.
Speaker CAnd like, honestly, I'm a fan.
Speaker CLike, I. I love me a.
Speaker CA cedar shake roof, but.
Speaker CYeah, problematic, of course.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker CHalf the time nobody seals them, so water's just soaking right in.
Speaker CMoss is growing in the first year.
Speaker CYou've got a jungle up there.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CAnd again, another example of the minute you start pressure washing that moss off,
Speaker Ayou're getting leaks and you're doing all of it.
Speaker CYeah, yeah.
Speaker CYou're getting leaks in your roof.
Speaker AWhen you think about how they built those roofs, many times they wanted that cedar to dry out, so they're stacked up on there.
Speaker ABut many times there's not a. I don't know, there's not tar paper underneath it.
Speaker AThey're up there on two by two lath across the.
Speaker AOff the.
Speaker AOr one by two lath across the top of that, or one by fours or whatever.
Speaker AAnd there's an area that lets them breeze, so they're just over the top of that.
Speaker ASo when you go to tear that off, you're now resheathing the entire roof, which on a project can be expensive,
Speaker Cbut it's super fun because you get to knock down all the little nails that had those shakes put in.
Speaker AYeah, I know, dude.
Speaker AWe had that.
Speaker AWe had that on the beach house out there.
Speaker AThey had.
Speaker AThat was not the shakes.
Speaker AIt was the cedar shingle roof.
Speaker AAnd what was worse was they had that and then some not so smart person.
Speaker AI'll be as nice as I can with that.
Speaker ADecided to put three layers of three tab over the top of it.
Speaker COver the shingles?
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker COkay.
Speaker AThey nailed it right over the top of the shoes.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker CYeah, that should work out.
Speaker AWas not fun.
Speaker AWhat?
Speaker AOh, yeah.
Speaker AAnd of course that was the beach house.
Speaker AWe had another 10 layers of tarps over the top of that.
Speaker CSo wow.
Speaker AIt was the worst to pull off.
Speaker ANow the good news was I didn't have to worry about getting rid of the asbestos filled tar paper because there wasn't any.
Speaker AIt was just a lot of times
Speaker Cthey'd put that rosin paper under there.
Speaker CYou're like, what is it?
Speaker CWhat was the point of that?
Speaker CEven so your gum didn't fall through the cracks and
Speaker Ait was so bad.
Speaker AAnd what they had done too, and I think they had used, was funny.
Speaker ASo they had dipped all the two by sixes that were actually two by fours that were going across or actually no, one by four.
Speaker ASorry, they're going across there.
Speaker AThey had dipped those in tar or had wiped tar on them so they wouldn't rotate.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker ASo that was cool.
Speaker ADid it solve the problem?
Speaker ANo, no, because they still wouldn't put nails through it, which didn't help, but it did cut back on the rot.
Speaker ABut oh my gosh, that was a battle.
Speaker AWe had to resheet, resheat that whole thing.
Speaker AAnd then it was all stick framed, not trusses.
Speaker ASo we had to do a lot of repairs.
Speaker AIn some areas where you couldn't get on it, it was just like, all right, let's cut that out and reframe
Speaker Cit many a, many a times, my friend.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnyway, so I think for the Pacific Northwest, west coast, you know where you get that water.
Speaker AAsphalt shingles, for instance, are great.
Speaker AYou can do some of the new composite tiles and stuff out there.
Speaker AThey have so many different roofing things now from damped metal that has a roofing coating on the outside of it where they look like shingles and they snap on.
Speaker AThere's the ones that look like slate that are made out of rubber.
Speaker AThose are interesting.
Speaker AAnd they nail on like you would a slate.
Speaker ABut they're made, actually made out of a rubber product.
Speaker CSo they're super durable, but doesn't sound eco friendly.
Speaker CBut it sounds like you could be
Speaker Athere a while when you're talking in our area and we're going to talk about different areas in the country here.
Speaker ABut when you talk about that, it's one of those things you really need to pay attention to of what your zone is, where you're at.
Speaker ABecause I think for the Pacific Northwest, asphalt shingles, metal roofing, and some of the composites make a lot of sense.
Speaker ANow when we come back, Johnny, let's talk about kind of your area that you did a lot of stuff on.
Speaker AThat's gonna be the Pacific.
Speaker AThe Southwest, really?
Speaker AWe'll get out of the Pacific Northwest, go to the southwest and talk about that one return, because that's a whole different area that you used to work in.
Speaker CYeah, yeah, yeah, let's go.
Speaker ALet's do it.
Speaker AAll right, we'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.
Speaker ADon't change that dial.
Speaker AKids these days.
Speaker AI'll never understand what it's like to play an instru.
Speaker AWhat's up?
Speaker CThis is sticks it in you and Satchel from Steel Panther.
Speaker AAnd you are listening to around the House with Eric G. Yeah, we love
Speaker BEric G. And you should, too.
Speaker A1987.
Speaker AWelcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.
Speaker AIf you want to find out more about us, head over to around the House online dot com.
Speaker AJohn and I have been sitting here talking about roofing, and I know this can be like watching paint dry.
Speaker ASo we're going to try to keep you engaged here with this because it's not the most sexiest subject, but we're just trying to help you guys as you're out there looking to replace a roof or whatever, make some smarter decisions that will get you the most out of your money.
Speaker ABecause if you put the wrong roof in the wrong place, that can get really expensive because you don't want to do this twice.
Speaker ABecause even the least expensive asphalt shingle can be pretty expensive when you're talking about putting it down, up top and having to replace a bunch of stuff.
Speaker ASo we're trying to help you save some money in the long run and give you something that's going to be a good investment for your home.
Speaker ASo, John, Southwest, what was the most popular roof you saw down there?
Speaker AOf course, we got everything.
Speaker CStyle, brother.
Speaker CEverything's style.
Speaker CSome of the, like little Rambler type homes would have just your basic three tab asphalt shingle on them.
Speaker CBut generally speaking, everything was tile everything.
Speaker CAnd yeah, it was just.
Speaker CIt was same here in Columbia.
Speaker CAnd tile floors, tile roofs, everything style.
Speaker CSame thing in Arizona.
Speaker CTile floors, tile roofs.
Speaker CBut yeah, some of the, like, there were neighborhoods, older neighborhoods, 50s, 60s type neighborhoods with these just ranch style, Rambler style homes.
Speaker CAnd a lot of those were Just asphalt shingles.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CBut as long as they're lighter colors, 312 pitch, it's not so less.
Speaker CAnd they're all single level, prone to a lot of, not a lot of wind problems.
Speaker CBut we get wind problems in the northwest as well with the three tab shingle.
Speaker CThey just blow off.
Speaker CThat's part of the deal.
Speaker AThat's what they do.
Speaker AIt's interesting.
Speaker AAnd then you go up into the Northeast, for instance, you get up there even in the Midwest where you got snow and cold and that stuff.
Speaker AReally, that's where you see the metal, the slate and the impact resistant higher end architectural shingles go in and they work well because you're now dealing with freeze thaw and trying to get snow load off for that.
Speaker CThat's why metal is good for sure.
Speaker AAnd that's important.
Speaker AAnd then the interesting stuff is when you get out to the coastal areas.
Speaker AYou know, when you're on the coasts and you're at the beach, whether you're on the east coast or the west coast, you still see the concrete tiles.
Speaker ABut I'm much more of a fan of metal.
Speaker AAnd the three tab out there, because you got all that salt water and galvanized does work okay, but it still rots pretty good.
Speaker ASo I think almost out there, you're almost better.
Speaker AFor storm proof is to get into some of those architectural shingles that are rated for hurricanes that are meant to withstand 100 mile an hour wind.
Speaker AAnd then you use stainless steel nails to put them in so they don't rot off and fly off.
Speaker ABecause, man, if you don't know what corrosion looks like, head out to the beach and build something and you'll see why stainless steel is everywhere.
Speaker AYou can put up.
Speaker AI put up gate hardware that was super rated and a year later, galvanized has washed off of it.
Speaker AYeah, got to go.
Speaker AStainless steel can't go cheap on this stuff.
Speaker CNo, the coast is brutal.
Speaker CI have to go tile at the coast.
Speaker CI just think it, it's.
Speaker CI just love.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, it looks good.
Speaker CIt's the vibe, right?
Speaker CI just.
Speaker CYeah, I love it.
Speaker AAs we wrap this subject up, brother, the thing that I want to make sure people do out there, whether you're doing zinc or copper strips across the top for maintenance or whatever you're trying to do, maintain it.
Speaker AI like to have on a roof, somebody get up there every year or two, take a look at it, inspect it, maybe clean it.
Speaker AThere are companies out there, when you're in the last half of that roof life, they can get up there and put conditioners on it to help it be pliable and not lose as many of the granules off your three tab or your architectural shingles.
Speaker AThey can come in and paint those metal roofs that have had the color wash off from the sun and that kind of stuff.
Speaker AThere's a lot of stuff like you were talking about sealing those wood shingles.
Speaker AThere's a lot of maintenance.
Speaker AAnd if you stay on the maintenance, you can save yourself a considerable amount of money with this.
Speaker CYeah, it's important.
Speaker CNobody wants to do it.
Speaker AIt's a heck of a lot safer to get up there.
Speaker ATo have a professional get up there with fall protection and do it.
Speaker AThen you get up on the ladder and end up doing a Christmas vacation dive off the roof.
Speaker CYeah, that's not good.
Speaker CAnd.
Speaker CYeah, but.
Speaker CYeah, and a tile roof.
Speaker CIf you.
Speaker CYou can't just hop up there, you bust every damn tile up there and you replace stuff.
Speaker ANo, especially metal roofs, too.
Speaker CYou gotta duct tape giant sponges to
Speaker Ayour feet just to keep from busting them up.
Speaker ASo, yeah, find that main company that's good at it that can get up there.
Speaker AAnd I even know some roofers that are doing maintenance agreements and stuff that'll come back every couple years and check it, make sure it's good and do all that stuff.
Speaker AIt's kind of going to the dentist.
Speaker AIt's not fun, but you got to take care of it.
Speaker AOtherwise, that's the most important surface of the house.
Speaker AAnd if it fails everything else underneath, it's going to go wrecked.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker CIt all starts there, man.
Speaker AIt does, brother.
Speaker AI wanted to pivot here and talk into something a little bit more fun.
Speaker AElectrical upgrades and stuff around the house that makes sense.
Speaker AAnd I tell you what, it's one of those things when you're out searching at houses, when you're out looking around, and this is a big one here.
Speaker AAnd I noticed, especially in my area, we had a big housing boom in the 50s, 60s, 70s.
Speaker AA lot of places in the country did.
Speaker ABut you see these electrical panels that are like the cutler hammers or what they call the split mains.
Speaker ASo you really can't turn the main off to the house.
Speaker ABut there's the kind of the 220 breakers on one side and then you got the regular outlets on the other side, but there's no main coming off of it.
Speaker AOr it's a split main situation.
Speaker AThere are so many of those breakers that were in a few brands of those panels where the breakers failed.
Speaker AThey did not go off when they Would overload and they would get crazy.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AAnd this is one of those things that when you're buying that house and you're doing the inspection, I see so many people on social media that have those and they're trying to find a breaker because they don't make the breakers anymore.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AAnd then I see a few of the, what I would call the electricians helpers out there that are pulling these panels out and they're pocketing the outlet, the breakers.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker AAnd they're trying to put them on Facebook, marketplace or ebay.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker AHoly smokes.
Speaker AThat's dangerous.
Speaker CYeah, buddy, that's.
Speaker CNo.
Speaker CAnd you bring up a really good point.
Speaker CAnd I get it.
Speaker CAnd again, I always bring this up, man.
Speaker CGo on AI and ask about it.
Speaker CLike, seriously, get some answers.
Speaker CSo you are informed.
Speaker CBecause who the hell knows about electrical panels?
Speaker CYou know what I mean?
Speaker CIf you're just a basic home, you're like, I just want a basement.
Speaker CYou know what I mean?
Speaker CI just want a bay window or something.
Speaker CYou're like, oh, I didn't know Federal pacific panels from back in the 60s burned houses down consistently.
Speaker CLike the stuff you want to know because you go to buy the house and you don't realize you got a 15,000, $, 20,000 bill staring you in the face the first day you move in.
Speaker ADude, my panel was so crazy.
Speaker ASo I'm just trying to do a panel switch out and I've got an overhead line that comes in now.
Speaker AWhen they did this panel originally, it was on the other side of the house.
Speaker AThey put a carport.
Speaker ASo the meter was under the carport.
Speaker AAnd they allowed it back then, but you can't do it now.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker AAnd all of a sudden they're like, oh, by the way.
Speaker CYeah, the move the entire mast head, which is super fun.
Speaker AThe mast head is now going to move 25ft.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker CAnd it's a two inch pipe that you got to get routed through or around.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CEverything.
Speaker AThat was a battle.
Speaker CSuper fun.
Speaker AI did this two months before they made everything arc fault breakers, which was good because that did save me some money.
Speaker ABut I had an electrician in there for two days doing it.
Speaker ACould I have done it?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ADid I have time to know?
Speaker AI was like, no, I'm gonna have this guy do it.
Speaker ABecause this was rose city electric here in plumbing in Portland.
Speaker AThey did it for me and I'm like, guys, handle it.
Speaker AJust handle it.
Speaker AAnd I'm happy I did because they powered through it so crazy.
Speaker AWhen we come back, I want to talk about that too.
Speaker ABecause some of the mistakes I see get made and there's so many people out there putting in car chargers that are like trying to get their Tesla Charger.
Speaker AAnd let's talk about that around the House returns now as we go out
Speaker Bto break, lets listen to a little Dudley.
Speaker BWe will be right back.
Speaker AWelcome back to the around the House show.
Speaker AYour trusted source for everything about your home.
Speaker AThanks for joining us today.
Speaker ASean.
Speaker ADudley and I are sitting here talking about electrical upgrades that make sense.
Speaker AAnd I wanted to talk about this one buddy, because so many people out there are either trying to DIY or they got the handyman over there trying to put the Tesla Charger on the wall system up because they want to charge their car.
Speaker AAnd man, this gets crazy.
Speaker AI saw a guy yesterday on social media, I was just commenting and I was like, are you kidding me?
Speaker AHe was like, hey, I just put in a new service and my new car charger and I got to pull permits.
Speaker AWhat boxes do I check?
Speaker AAnd I'm like, that is the cart ahead of the horse.
Speaker AYou are going to get fined.
Speaker AIt's just crazy the fact.
Speaker CYeah, yeah, I'll be nice.
Speaker ABe nice.
Speaker AYou got to get this stuff in the right order.
Speaker AWhat is your take on that?
Speaker AWhat is your take?
Speaker AI want to hear your take, Johnny.
Speaker CIt just scares me that you don't know which box to check and you're going to do it yourself.
Speaker AAlready done it himself.
Speaker CYeah, let's just start there.
Speaker COh man, come on.
Speaker CI don't know.
Speaker CI'll tell you, a contractor for decades, there are two things I just didn't mess with, man.
Speaker CAnd it's gas and electrical.
Speaker CLike those two items burn houses down.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CIf I don't know enough to be certain I'm doing it correctly, I can't sleep at night.
Speaker CAnd I've done that, I've done that.
Speaker CI'm like, man, I think I did that right.
Speaker CAnd I'll lay there in bed all night and man, what if the house burns down?
Speaker CLike, and, and lesson learned.
Speaker CLike, I just, I don't mess with things I don't know about.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CJust don't know.
Speaker AYou don't mess with it.
Speaker CAnd electrical should not be a DIY thing.
Speaker CSwapping an outlet.
Speaker COkay, fine, swap an outlet out.
Speaker CMaybe even running a new one.
Speaker CIf you can run that wire from one to another and you know that the circuit breaker can take it.
Speaker CYou got a 20amp, you got four outlets on.
Speaker COkay, but you're good.
Speaker CBut man, you go wiring car chargers or redoing your Whole, no, you just can't, you can't, man.
Speaker AI tell you what, it gets crazy out there.
Speaker AAnd now the good news is now there's technology to help you with that.
Speaker AIf you're worried about those shorts, if you're worried about that stuff, and we've talked about on the show before, but there's a little box you can plug into an outlet in your home called Ting Fire.
Speaker CYou did talk about that.
Speaker ASo it monitors your house for shorts or things like that or bad neutrals or whatever.
Speaker AAnd it monitors your house all the way to the transformer.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker ASo it watches your home.
Speaker AIt's super trick.
Speaker AAnd if you have any kind of a short going on, it goes, hey, warning.
Speaker AIt'll send you a text, however you set it up, or an email or whatever.
Speaker AThey'll call you.
Speaker AAnd here's the cool thing.
Speaker AMost insurance companies now are paying for that for free.
Speaker ASo you don't have to go buy it.
Speaker AJust get a hold of your insurance company and go, hey, State Farm, can you send me one of these?
Speaker CThat's nice.
Speaker AAnd it warns you, it'll send you.
Speaker AAnd the thing is too, they put a thousand dollar insurance policy on it.
Speaker ASo if you, you have a warning, they'll send the electrician out and they'll pay up to a thousand bucks because they want to know what the sound that it made, what was the problem?
Speaker ASo they're doing further research with that.
Speaker ASo they'll send out that insurance claim basically.
Speaker AAnd they go, okay, they're paying for the first thousand bucks for the electrician so they can go, oh, that was a stab outlet in the back of an outlet or the wires pushed in the back and it got loose.
Speaker ASo it's one of those things that can totally protect your home.
Speaker CWow, that's great.
Speaker AAnd it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker AAnd for, oh my gosh, for older homes that you have maybe some sketchy wiring that you haven't found yet, makes a lot of sense.
Speaker CMaybe some bundled up knob and tube that the squirrels are chewing through.
Speaker AHow many times have you seen that?
Speaker COh, dude, I lived it.
Speaker CI'm like, hey, why is my.
Speaker CWhy is my.
Speaker COh man, I just blanked out.
Speaker CAnyway, the squirrels chewed through the vents, my gable vents, and crawled into my attic, nested and started chewing on the knob and tube.
Speaker CI'm in my North 30th house and it's like, what's that hole all chipped away?
Speaker CAh, yeah.
Speaker AOh, there it is.
Speaker CRodents.
Speaker ASo I just went over to tingfire.com to their website 4 out of 5 electrical fires are prevented in homes with it.
Speaker CWow.
Speaker AOver a million families trust ting and they've had 25,000 potentially devastating fires prevented already.
Speaker AThey're just a few years old.
Speaker CWhat a brilliant product.
Speaker CI mean that and then the insurance companies jumping on board.
Speaker CThat's fantastic.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AThink about it.
Speaker AElectrical, the insurance company.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker ANo, you're going to plug something in your wall that costs a couple hundred bucks and it's going to prevent four or five fires.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AAwesome.
Speaker CHundreds of thousands of dollars, right?
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CThat's a little bump in revenue.
Speaker AYeah, just a bit.
Speaker ASo that makes a lot of sense to me.
Speaker AThat's one that makes sense.
Speaker AAnd you go, okay, I can get on that butcher.
Speaker CI love it when new technology and engineering serves instead of just plays ridiculous.
Speaker AYeah, so many times it does.
Speaker AAnd you think about car chargers.
Speaker AThis gets interesting.
Speaker ASo many times people are like, oh, I bought the car, you gotta get my car charger.
Speaker AAnd they get in it and they go, oh, I have 100amp service.
Speaker AIf you've got a 60amp car charger, you're in trouble.
Speaker ARight?
Speaker CNot if you only want to use one lamp in your house.
Speaker CYou're fine.
Speaker AHey honey, we're not turning the AC on tonight because I gotta charge the lightning pickup.
Speaker COh, man, you're not going to be popular.
Speaker CNot going to happen.
Speaker AAnd we saw that at my buddy David's house.
Speaker AHe had that trailer that was down in Pacific Palisades beforehand and he couldn't get a charger because he had a 40amp service to his property.
Speaker AAnd that's all the neighborhood was wired for.
Speaker CHoly cats, man.
Speaker ALiterally, you would have had to turn around, turn off the every breaker except for the car charger and do a Class 2 car charger just to get it going.
Speaker AAnd then you'd have no power in your house for 12 hours as you were charging it.
Speaker ASo it didn't make any sense.
Speaker AAnd that's okay.
Speaker AI'm gonna get on my soapbox for a second.
Speaker AThat's one of the things that we've got a problem with the electric car thing out there is that we have not designed homes to handle an extra 40 or 60amp circuit depending on what you're putting in there.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CHow is that not standard practice at this point, whether you need it or not?
Speaker CYeah, we make up some new rule about some type of nail you gotta use only on this type of would for this nonsensical reason.
Speaker CBut yeah, something as simple as something that actually makes sense again.
Speaker CYeah, it's just, just it should be standard issue at this point is I guess.
Speaker AThink about this for a second.
Speaker ASo you've got, let's say you got a big 60amp car charger and maybe it's 50.
Speaker ALet's go 50.
Speaker AWe'll just, we'll go a little lower.
Speaker ASo you get a car charger in there.
Speaker AAnd being that the average house out there, newer house, has a 200amp service, if you're being forced to use a heat pump, that's gonna take probably 30 or 40amps, depending on what you got in there for at least one unit.
Speaker CHalf your panel's gone with those two,
Speaker Ahalf your panel's gone.
Speaker AAnd then you've got your refrigerators, you've got your electric range because they don't have the gas there either.
Speaker AAnd then you've got the gas water, the electric water heater because it wouldn't let you put that in.
Speaker AYou could.
Speaker AAnd maybe you got your hot tub out back.
Speaker AYou're out of power.
Speaker CA lot of sub panel work coming up, fellas.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AOkay, so am I gonna put in a 400amp service for this 2200 square foot house or what are we doing?
Speaker CAnd, and why is that not being mandated at some point?
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CSo they can come back later.
Speaker CNow you gotta pull another permit to get that.
Speaker CYou know what I mean?
Speaker AAnd while there's not enough power coming off the pole to come to put in 400amps because you're now doubling the electrical capacity for the neighborhood.
Speaker AAnd got a feeling maybe those wires on the pole aren't big enough for that.
Speaker CYeah, see?
Speaker CAnd you make fun of my shower head that's wired direct from the wall.
Speaker CI don't know.
Speaker AThere is that.
Speaker CI think we're onto something down here versus all that kind of mayhem.
Speaker CNonsensical, crazy.
Speaker CI don't know, man.
Speaker AAgain, it's one of those things.
Speaker AAnd I get people putting in solar.
Speaker AWe have to go out to break here.
Speaker ABut you throw solar in and that can be great in some areas.
Speaker AMany areas in my area you got trees in the way.
Speaker ASo it doesn't make sense.
Speaker AAnd man, a lot of people are leasing these solar things and they go to sell their house and somebody comes in to buy it.
Speaker AThey're like, I don't want to pay for your solar panels for the next 15 years.
Speaker AI want them removed.
Speaker AWho's paying that to be removed?
Speaker AAnd the new roof to be put on the house because you got all these brackets that went through the roof.
Speaker CThat's a whole nother rant for me.
Speaker AI know it.
Speaker CWe got a break.
Speaker ABut yeah, yeah, let's go out to break.
Speaker AWe'll continue on that rant when we come back because that makes sense sometimes and then sometimes it can really hurt that house sale.
Speaker AWe'll talk more about that just as soon as around the House returns.
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Speaker AAll right.
Speaker AWelcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.
Speaker AThanks for joining us.
Speaker AWe have been talking about electrical stuff with your home, things to pay attention to and of course, a few of our little rants.
Speaker AIf you want to find out more, if you got a message to send us where you go, I don't agree all send it over to aroundthehouse online.com.
Speaker Ayou can go over there and hit the contact Us page and hit us up right there and follow us on social media.
Speaker AWe're posting this up on our social media as well.
Speaker ASo you can comment over there when you see that come up.
Speaker AJohnny, one of the big things that you're seeing out there with solar panels these days, and I got no problem with solar like you're seeing people go in with the battery systems like the Tesla Powerwall 3, those kind of things.
Speaker AThe problem though is those get expensive.
Speaker AThat's a battery.
Speaker AThat is a storage, electrical storage system for your solar.
Speaker AJust one battery is 7700 bucks.
Speaker AAnd if you're putting two or three in there, that gets pretty expensive.
Speaker ABut now you can put solar panels up there and have those charging.
Speaker ASo when you lose power, you do have some backup.
Speaker AAnd it can help you if you're overloading stuff too.
Speaker AIf you've got the system designed where you could be charging your car off of that and that kind of stuff, it does make sense.
Speaker ABut man, these systems are complex and they're expensive and I know that there's a lot of companies out there that are trying to get people to lease it or they're doing payment programs.
Speaker AAnd I think those are super smart if you're going to be in that house for the next 25 years.
Speaker ABut if you're going to sell it, do some research because there's a lot of home buyers out there that don't want to make your payments on the system you put in.
Speaker AAnd that can be a problem depending on how your contract is written.
Speaker CI think it's not too much of a rant, but I guess I'm just perplexed that this has been going on for decades.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CThe whole solar idea.
Speaker CThe whole solar.
Speaker CIt's not cost effective.
Speaker CI have a hard time understanding.
Speaker CWe haven't solved this yet.
Speaker CCome on guys, really?
Speaker CDoes it have to be 7, 700 for that box that you probably made for 350.
Speaker CTake it down a notch.
Speaker CDo we want it?
Speaker AProbably a thousand bucks with a lithium in that thing.
Speaker AThat's probably right.
Speaker COkay.
Speaker CBut still that's been the battle for 20 plus years, I think.
Speaker CYeah, whatever.
Speaker CSome.
Speaker CA long, long as I can remember, like storage, solar.
Speaker CWhy don't we just replace everything with solar and.
Speaker COkay, that makes great sense.
Speaker CUntil it doesn't because it's a million dollars to do.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CWe've managed to bring buying a brand new computer down from $5,000 to $500.
Speaker CSo what's going on?
Speaker AI agree, I agree.
Speaker CThat's all I'm saying.
Speaker CThere's a solution there.
Speaker CLet's find it, let's use it.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker CWe made electric cars.
Speaker CSo.
Speaker AAnd I'll be honest, I think electric cars are going to do a pivot here.
Speaker AI think we're going to see what like Ford is going to be doing now.
Speaker AThey whiffed it with their words, not mine really.
Speaker AOn the F150 Lightning, the electric lightning pickup.
Speaker AIt just didn't sell.
Speaker AThey discontinued it this year.
Speaker AAnd I think it's because you had 200,000, you had 200 miles for towing if you're towing a small trailer around.
Speaker ASo it didn't seem practical for people unless you were like a lawn care company in town running in between stuff.
Speaker AIt didn't.
Speaker CElectric.
Speaker CI think an electric truck is a tough sell anyway.
Speaker CThat's not really rod.
Speaker CBut here's like if you're a truck driver, you want it to sound like a damn truck.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ABut here's the thing, dude.
Speaker AI see we have, we have.
Speaker AI see electric semi trucks driving around here all the time because they're testing them and they're testing autonomous ones as well.
Speaker CYep.
Speaker ASo I'm seeing those cruising around.
Speaker ABut I think what you're going to see, technology wise, is we're going to see maybe little tiny hydrogen engines that are running a generator that you can still plug in.
Speaker ABut all of a sudden, now you can get 500 miles.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AOut of that truck or 500 miles out of that BMW that you're driving.
Speaker AAnd now things start to make a little bit of sense.
Speaker AIf I'm driving from my house to go see my buddy over in.
Speaker AOn the eastern side of the state, I don't want to stop midway.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker ASit and have lunch for an hour and a half for it to recharge, for me to go the rest of the way.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CAnd that's this.
Speaker CThat.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CIt stops making sense at that point.
Speaker CWhat, I gotta get a motel three different times just to get from Portland to San Francisco?
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AI see people do it and they go out there and they pop into the supercharging station and do it.
Speaker ABut, dude, that's a tough sell for me.
Speaker COh, no, me too.
Speaker AThat's.
Speaker CMe too.
Speaker CI mean, as much as I'd like it not to be, we're spoiled, man.
Speaker CWe're not about inconvenience anymore.
Speaker ABut here's the other thing, too.
Speaker AIt makes sense.
Speaker ALike, if you and I are.
Speaker AWhen we're building the beach compound, which will be another year's project, this makes sense.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AWhen there's no electrical in the area.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AAwesome.
Speaker AWe can put storage in there.
Speaker AWe can have solar.
Speaker AThere's a lot of sun, so.
Speaker CAnd again, that's why I brought up Mexico.
Speaker CLike, everything down there was, is deep cell battery, solar functions just fine.
Speaker CIt's working.
Speaker CIt's working.
Speaker CAnd we've made so many advancements, but we're still not utilizing it.
Speaker CIt's like we could and like we should.
Speaker CMy little brother's a little brother.
Speaker CJesse's been preaching about the Tesla roof for five, six, seven, eight years.
Speaker AAnother one that's a little sketch I'm saving up.
Speaker CI'm getting a Tesla roof.
Speaker CI'm like, the what?
Speaker CHuh?
Speaker CThis is like it's seven years ago or something.
Speaker ABut the problem, though, that I see, and this is the problem that I see, the Tesla roof, the weak point to me on that is.
Speaker AAnd if you guys don't know what we're talking about, that is a roof shingle.
Speaker AThat is a solar panel.
Speaker AAnd I get it.
Speaker ABut you think about it, every section of roof has its own connector.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker ASo to me, I go, I don't want to have a thousand connections on my roof to go bad.
Speaker CYeah, agreed.
Speaker CI get it.
Speaker CI get it.
Speaker CAnd I.
Speaker CAnd honestly, to.
Speaker CI don't know enough about the engineering of it.
Speaker CI do know that Jesse, my little brother, is one of the smartest people I'll ever meet in my entire life.
Speaker CSo if he backs it, I'm just take his word for it.
Speaker CBut, yeah, I know nothing about the engineering.
Speaker CI know nothing about the million contact points that are gonna corrode if you're next to the beach or short circuit if you have an earthquake or whatever.
Speaker CYeah, brother.
Speaker AI have tried to get someone from Tesla to talk about that on the show for three years.
Speaker COh, what's up?
Speaker AAnd any media on it at all won't come talk about it.
Speaker CCurious.
Speaker AAnd that's interesting to me.
Speaker CThat makes me want to call them up.
Speaker AI know.
Speaker CCall them out, dude.
Speaker AI'm calling them out because guess what?
Speaker AI want them on the show to talk about this stuff.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CLet's hear questions.
Speaker AAnd they will not.
Speaker AThey just.
Speaker ANope, we don't do that.
Speaker AAnd it was like, wow.
Speaker ATo the decision makers were like, not a chance.
Speaker CAnd I'm like, come on.
Speaker CNot a chance.
Speaker CWe're going to have to run the Rolodex on this one.
Speaker CWe got to find a door.
Speaker AIt's cool.
Speaker AI like how they're doing it.
Speaker AThey're more like larger, like 12 by 24 tiles that go on the roof versus just a little, you know.
Speaker AAnd again, I don't know the exact dimensions, but I'm just roughing up from what I saw.
Speaker AI get it.
Speaker AYou can literally have a 12.6kW solar roof.
Speaker AMakes sense for a lot of places.
Speaker CBe super.
Speaker AIf it works to me.
Speaker AI mean, I see a thousand connections out there.
Speaker AMaybe it's not a th.000.
Speaker AMaybe it's 500 still.
Speaker CEither way, I'm curious now because I haven't done any research on it until we brought it up today.
Speaker CAnd I just.
Speaker CLike I said, I remember Jesse telling me about it seven years ago or something.
Speaker CAnd I was like, huh?
Speaker CWhat the what?
Speaker CBut.
Speaker CBut now I'm curious.
Speaker CI wonder how much information is actually out.
Speaker CIf they won't come on here and talk about it, what can we find out about it?
Speaker AAll right.
Speaker AI think I see a project coming up.
Speaker CMy interest is peaked.
Speaker CI'm like, all right, are these working?
Speaker CAnd if they are, why aren't there more of them?
Speaker COr are they?
Speaker AAnd I just pulled it up.
Speaker AI was wrong.
Speaker AOn the size, they're 45 by 15, basically.
Speaker ASo they're a little bigger, but still they're 72 watts per panel and they've got a good.
Speaker AThe minimum roof pitch is 212, so that's cool, you know.
Speaker ASo hail reading, a Class 4 fire rating, Class A, wind rating, class F. So they've got all the high stuff there.
Speaker AI just worry about all they snap together and where the power goes, because that's my concern.
Speaker CAnd again, look at the engineering of it and where are the case studies and.
Speaker CYeah, that'd be fun to do some digging on.
Speaker AYeah, they just don't want to talk about it.
Speaker CGood news, we don't have to dig anymore.
Speaker CJust ask Grok.
Speaker AThere we go.
Speaker AThat's what we'll do.
Speaker AThere we go.
Speaker CActually, maybe not ask Grok.
Speaker CMaybe a little biased.
Speaker AYeah, Grok could be a little biased considering the boss man designed it.
Speaker AWe could get a phone call if we start asking, why won't this happen?
Speaker AThat's why I say we ask some harder questions.
Speaker CWe either need to call him up or call him out.
Speaker COne way.
Speaker ACall them out.
Speaker AI think we have.
Speaker COne way or another.
Speaker CWe get them on here.
Speaker AYep, absolutely, man.
Speaker AElectrical is one of those things.
Speaker AAnd guys, before we wrap this show up, I just want to say take the time, pull the permits, get the right people over there.
Speaker AIt's not that big a deal, but save yourself some liability.
Speaker AIf you pull the permit and get it done, then you know it's right and you can just get it looking good.
Speaker AIt's that simple.
Speaker AJust do it right.
Speaker ALike Johnny said.
Speaker AHe didn't ever do a lot of that stuff because he just wanted to get the contractor that knew what they were doing, that's that electrician out there to do it.
Speaker AI'd do the same thing.
Speaker AI think it's a smart business for yourself to just have them do it right versus the handyman that shows up that you're.
Speaker AYou got a hope and a prayer they're not going to try to burn your house down.
Speaker CYou got to remember your whole life is in your house.
Speaker CAnd electrical and gas are dangerous.
Speaker CYou can paint a wall wrong with with very little consequences.
Speaker CYou can roof a house wrong with not a lot of consequences.
Speaker CBut fire.
Speaker CFire destroys things, like everything in the house.
Speaker AAbsolutely.
Speaker AAnd that's one of those things.
Speaker AWe'll talk lighting another day.
Speaker ABut that's one of those things that I just really wanted to talk about with electrical is just take the time, swap it out, no shortcuts, put the right size panel in there and you'll be good to go.
Speaker AThat way you've got something that's going to be durable that you can add to.
Speaker AIf you're going to put in that car charger down the road, plan for it.
Speaker AWhen you're putting the panel in or you're building that house, make sure you got enough to add that pool, the hot tub or whatever else you're doing.
Speaker AAnd it's really becoming something that is part of what we're seeing out there.
Speaker AWhen you do a kitchen model or a bathroom model, you're having to add circuits.
Speaker AThis is a big topic that we're seeing.
Speaker AJohn, great to have time with you today on this, man.
Speaker AFun to banter back and forth with you as always.
Speaker CAbsolutely.
Speaker ABrothers debates, and it's always a great time and always fun sitting there getting your take on these things, man, as
Speaker Ccrass as it may be.
Speaker AAh, that's the good part of it.
Speaker AAll right.
Speaker AFor John Dudley, I'm Eric G. And you've been listening to around the House.