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Basement Waterproofing with Larson Home Services · Ask The Experts

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  Eight O seven thirteen ten wuib A and ask the experts hanging out this morning
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  with Andrew Larson. Andrew, of course comes to us from Larsen Home Services.
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  Great website, Larsenhome Services dot com. That's spelled l A rso N
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  home Services dot com. They're teleph number six O eight five three five forty
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  three forty three. That's five three five four three four three. And again
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  the website, Larsenhome Services dot com. Andrew, how you doing this morning?
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  I'm doing fantastic yourself. I can't complain at all. I've got a
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  nice dry basement, so it's probably a good thing. Number of folks I've
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  heard from this year that have had water in their basement, uh, staggering
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  number. And I know you get questions about wet basements all the time,
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  and they say, Andrew, you are the experts from the roof up.
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  What does that have to do with a wet basement? And what do you
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  know? You know a lot of things about a lot of different areas of
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  construction and house maintenance, don't you well, I mean, don't check me,
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  but we do every week though on the radio. But no, yes,
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  Over the years, I've learned a lot about it. And you know,
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  a lot of people think because we put good gutters on, we can't
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  ever get water in the basement, and unfortunately that's just not true. There's
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  a lot of other factors. I mean, look, we can get down
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  to what type of soil do you have. I mean, like, okay,
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  so where I live, I'm north of Lode. I I'm out in
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  the like the Lake Wisconsin area. A lot of people listening are familiar familiar
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  with that area as if you go out there on the weekends. There's about
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  twenty five thousand boats out there. So it comes from somewhere. But it's
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  very sandy. It's very very sandy soil. So I mean, in order
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  for me to even have green grass, I have to have a sprinkler system
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  because our soil holds no moisture. I do have a great gutter system on.
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  Obviously, we do have basement drain tiles, which I'll get into in
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  a minute, with a sump pump. I actually with all the rain a
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  few weeks ago, we had six inches of rain in one day at my
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  house. Wow. And uh, even when even when I get that much
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  rain, I get a little worried. I'm like oh lord, that is
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  a lot of rain. I opened up my sump pump well to look and
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  it's basically dusty with cobwebs in it, so which leads me that I know
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  that it's such sandy soil that you know, even though I've got great landscaping
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  grade away from my home, that that water is soaking through. It's going
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  straight through the sand, and I'm up high and there's a little pond,
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  and I think it goes into the pond. I guess I probably don't have
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  anything to worry out worry about, but I always want to make sure that
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  my daughters are working properly and my downspout, my downsboat extensions are on properly
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  all the time. Because actually, when we were building the house, we
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  got a big rain and we we had some gutters on and an extension came
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  off and we actually did get water in them, and it wasn't finished,
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  so it didn't really matter. But ever since then, I've been kind of
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  like on edge, like I don't want water in the basement, but the
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  amount of calls we've been getting from people who do have water in the basement,
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  it's a it's a really really helpless feeling because there's at the time it's
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  happening, there's there's nothing you can do. Put towels on it, put
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  a bucket there, whatever you can do. But most people, most homes
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  built I would say into the nineties. I'm not sure exactly when it became
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  code, but for the most part, it is code to have a drain
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  tile system and to some pump in your basement. Where we live, I
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  always say that water will take the path of least resistance, and unfortunately for
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  some people that ends up being in their basement. And so many people that
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  we've been talking to have I've never had water in their basement. We've never
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  had water, it's never been a problem, We've never had gutters, never
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  been a problem. Well guess what, I lost count of how many inches
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  of rain we've had in the past couple months. But it's in the feet
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  so at that point that's when stuff like that can rear its ugly head.
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  So a drain tile system, for those that are listening that don't know,
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  is it can be in the form of Some are rectangular, rectangular, some
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  are square systems. The most common would be a perforated black tube. Why
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  is it called drain tile? I get it, But that's what it's called.
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  And it's around the foundation of the home where water would tend to come
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  into the house and as that water will filter through the dirt and right next
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  to your foundation as it tries to come in, it actually ends up going
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  into that tube and it then is filtered into a drain tile or basin or
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  some pump, and once that fills up with water, it then pumps the
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  water out of the home. It sounds a little backwards, Okay, let's
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  let the water come in so we can pump it out, but we're letting
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  it come in in a controlled manner. So that's code now. But there's
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  a lot of homes that don't have it. But there's some great companies out
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  there. One that sticks out for me would be Basement Systems. I believe
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  they're out of Fort Adkinson, great company. They're actually part of the Contractor
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  Nation network, which is also Doctor Energy Saver and Gutter Shutter. But they
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  come in and they fix wet basements and they refinish basements with with finishing products
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  that are made for basements, no wood, no dry wall, things that
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  if there is some moisture, it's not going to hurt it, and and
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  they're they're a great, great option as well. But I mean it starts
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  with getting water away from the home. It's interesting. The interesting thing to
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  me too, is when we talk about you know, you think about having
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  a finished basement in the water and water getting in. Is is taking multiple
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  steps to make sure that it doesn't happen and if if it does happen.
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  You mentioned using the right products for a for a space like that so important
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  and one of the things to Andrew, and I don't know the answer to
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  this, but I'm gonna ask you. One of the things I always compliment
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  you on is when you guys redid our roof a few years ago. I
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  was, I was very it was. It was amazing to me how respectful
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  the folks were when it came to like the plantings and other things around the
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  house. Like I was, like, I was amazed at when I pulled
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  up you couldn't tell anybody was there, but like when I looked on the
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  cameras, like how much concern and care was taken for the shrubs and my
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  wife's flowers and all these things. But I also, as you were talking
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  about about getting water away from the house, I've got to guess keeping people
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  from disturbing those areas and kind of keeping you know, we we we've got
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  I thank goodness, knock on what at our house a nice grade where water
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  gets away from the house. We've never had any major issues. I've got
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  to guess, you know, if there was like some some people working that
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  were maybe a little a little less careful, they could create something that could
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  ultimately create problems. And again, I don't know the answer if that is
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  something that's done intentionally, if that actually even has an effect, but it
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  is something that's As we're talking this more, I'm going is that part of
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  why why they're so ginger when they're walking around the outside of the house.
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  No, No, honestly, we're ginger when we're walking around the outside of
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  the home because we do our very very very best to protect people's landscaping,
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  and people put a lot of money into landscaping and and love the plants around
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  their home, and what we try the best we can. We're not always
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  perfect. I'm not going to say we haven't had to replace a few shrubs
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  or a few hostas in our day. But if we wreck something we do
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  we do obviously obviously we replace that, but what's really going to affect the
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  grade around your home more is a if you don't have gutters. It still
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  amazes me nowadays how many homes we go to that don't have gutters. I
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  don't get it, but obviously I'm in the gutter world, so I see
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  the horsetor of not having them or having a gutter system that's not properly functioning.
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  And what happens a lot is they start they clog, and then they
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  fill up with water, and then the water sits in them, and then
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  the water freezes and then the water thaws, and then what happens is they
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  start to sag. So they start to have a sag in the middle of
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  them, and now they overflow every time it rains at they're clogged in one
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  spot. So it's like taking a hose and just dropping it in one spot,
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  and over time that ground is going to sag, it's going to create
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  an indentation in a hole, and then you're gonna get water in a basement.
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  Literally just had this conversation with a homeowner this week. She's like,
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  Oh, it's just overflowing right over right over our front window, and water's
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  coming in the basement. Yep, and it's going to continue. And it's
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  not all on old homes. It's not all on homes without some pump systems.
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  One of my best friends just built a beautiful home on a lake over
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  the past year. They've been in it for a year, and they got
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  water in the basement. I know, it's sickening feeling, but here's the
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  thing. They had a huge deluge a few inches in like an hour,
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  and it had everything to do with landscaping and water not being able to get
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  away from their house quick enough. But once it happened once, then the
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  next rain it happened again. So it's the water will find the path of
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  least resistance, and once it creates that path, it will happen again and
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  again and again and again unless you fix what's going on. And they're having
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  to have all landscape ripped out, stuff re routed. They knew it could
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  possibly be an issue, but they're on a lake and it's pretty tight quarters,
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  right, so trying to channel water to run in between houses and uh,
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  well it didn't work. It failed. So they had a brand new
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  house and water literally running underneath their wall, underneath a window. So that's
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  that's drywall that studs, that's flooring, it's a whole bunch of stuff that
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  has to be fixed. Yeah, that's and it's it's it's interesting when you
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  mentioned some of you know, some of the situations that that folks experience and
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  what goes on with gutters, whether it's an older home or a newer home.
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  I know we talk about gutter shutter gutters and what makes them. Of
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  course, the only seamless gutter that's guaranteed never to clog Andrew, as you
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  talk about, is getting a system that's put in that that is not going
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  to experience those issues where not only is it going to perform well this year,
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  it's going to perform well for years to come. And this year has
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  been definitely a test of a lot of our system. So it's an important
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  day to have the folks from Larstome Services come on out, take a look
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  at your roof, take a look at your gutters, check out what's going
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  on with your home to make sure that you don't end up with a wet
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  base, make sure that your gutters are going to perform and are going to
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  be up to the task for years to come. I got to do a
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  schedule at appointment give them a call at larsenome Services six so eight five three
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  five forty three forty three. That's five three five four three four three.
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  The website Larsenhomeservices dot com. That's l A R. S O N Home
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  Services dot com. And you can email Andrew Wiba at larsenhomes Services dot com.
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  Andrew, it's always great chatting with you, my friend. Stay dry
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  and we'll talk real soon. Right, we'll see you. It comes to
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  eccually me Kevin ham hams Arbercare comes you way next year. On thirteen ten
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  Wui b a