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Weathering the Cold with Larson Home Services · Ask The Experts

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  Eight O seven thirteen ten wiba. Yes, some folks maybe, uh maybe
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  looking for ways to get warm and some heat. This time of year.
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  It is bitterly cold out there, and for some folks that means a very
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  uncomfortable home. Here to help us solve that problem once and for all,
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  mister Andrew Larson from Larsen Home Services. Learn more online Larsen Home Services dot
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  com. That's l A R. S O N Home Services dot Com.
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  Telphone number six so eight five three five forty three forty three. That's five
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  three five forty three forty three. Andrew. Are you keeping warm this morning,
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  my friend? Barely? Barely? Yes, barely exactly. It is
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  you always been a week like this, right? Yeah? You always like
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  this, we do. And it's it's funny you say that because I was
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  thinking about that this morning. I'm hoping that this is the week, because
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  I think you're right. Generally, it's it's like one week of bitter cold
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  and then we get like a day or two here or there, but nothing
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  like that, just that one annual deep deep freeze. Do you ever get
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  out like I know obviously you've got great folks out in the field and do
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  stuff. Do you like ever get a chance to kind of get out and
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  kind of check on things and do those type of get out in this type
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  of weather, check on things as in as in check on how everybody's doing.
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  How's it going guys, Yeah, yeah, check on the car obviously.
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  I mean the past couple of days we were not working. I mean,
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  you know, the guys that would be working would be working in the
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  attics, and fortunately in the attic for most of the homes that we deal
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  with poorly air sealed, poorly insulated, so the addicts could be quite comfortable,
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  to be honest with you, but you know, we have to be
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  in and out of the house all day, and we've got hoses that go
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  in through. The people really just don't want their doors and windows open when
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  it's thirty blow inchill, which I get it, you know, I get
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  it, And trust me, our technicians were not like super sad that all
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  the people are canceled for the first couple days of the week. Yes,
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  you know, here's the thing, though, you say, we get a
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  weak weather like this, and I call it the week of the week of
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  of rethinking why we live where we live, because that's what I've been thinking
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  about why do I live here? And then it goes away and we forget
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  about it and spring comes, because I mean, it's all I know.
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  I know that, like this cold snap just happened, but it is already
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  mid January, a month we're going to be thinking about spring projects and you
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  know everybody will be, you know, feeling better because these these short days
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  that getting you know, no vitamin D from being outside, Like you can't
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  be outside, it's it's dangerous. So I want to and I wanted to
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  talk with you. You mentioned it being dangerous outside. One of the things
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  that we obviously looked to for relief is getting inside, getting warmed up.
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  And there are some signs, not always the most obvious signs, but things
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  as a homeowner you can look for that point to you may be in need
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  of new installation. You mentioned addicts. Being very warm right now not a
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  good that's that's not a good situation. And correct me if I'm wrong.
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  If it's warm. Critters like finding warm places too, don't they, Andrew?
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  They do. Critters love warm places. I mean, if anybody lives
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  in the country right now, if you're in by fields, if you're around
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  whatever, you know, mice like to find its way in. And one
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  thing that mice really really really enjoy is fiberglass insition that they just love it.
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  Yeah, And the one thing that they don't like is true soft cellulose,
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  which is what we have the fire retardant that it is treated with.
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  They don't like it. They naturally clean themselves and they get these chemicals on
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  them and it irritates them. They don't like it. They go away,
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  they don't come back, you know, forever, forever. Now, it
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  is what it is. But you know, I've been setting mouse traps and
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  it'd be just it's much easier when you know they don't want to live in
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  your attics. So, you know, one thing I really wanted to talk
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  about was, you know, all the snow that we got left. I
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  mean we went from literally it was such a mild December, I mean forties
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  fifties. There's no pain, right, It's not a lot of people are
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  to thinking, hey, I think we should get new gutters now it's December,
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  or hey we should get a rift for placed it's December, or when
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  it's fifty degrees. They're not thinking about their installation. It's not even cold
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  out now. All of a sudden wham, it's thirty below. People are
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  having all kinds of issues, and our phones are bringing off the hook.
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  Now, if you pay attention to the weather as closely as I do,
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  and you've looked to next week, have you, I've heard rumors that it
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  might get me warm. Yeah, I mean we're going to be touching forty
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  Also chances Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of Now that's the type of thing if
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  I'm a homeowner and I have bad air ceiling and bad insulation, and I
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  have ice dams, Because I can tell you right now you should not have
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  ice dams on your house. If you have ice dams, you've got a
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  serious heat loss issue. You know, there's a lot of gutters that have
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  icicles and such hanging from them, and that's not a problem because icicles are
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  showing that things are actually sliding off your roof. But if you have ice
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  dams right now, you've got a serious problem. And when we get warm
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  temps like we are next week, and if it rains, it can be
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  somewhat of somewhat chaotic. There's no place if you've got ice dams. There's
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  no place for the water to go, especially when we're melting all that snow
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  as well. And this is when improperly done flashings, insufficient ice in water,
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  or leak barrier on roofing, or just shingles that are done for this
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  is when and that stuff is going to start rearing its ugly head more so
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  than just in a summertime rain, because everything's frozen solid. Now we go
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  to warm temps, it thaws, it rains. That could be a major
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  problem. So if you're looking outside on your home and your neighbors all have
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  a lot of snow on their roof and you really don't have quite as much
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  snow, and you're seeing ice dams, it'd probably be a good idea to
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  have someone come and check that out because nothing should be thawing right now.
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  It hasn't barely got above two degrees now for five days. Yeah, so
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  nothing should be thawing. Not even Mother Nature's son's going to make stuff fall
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  right now. So take a look outside. If you see those ice dams,
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  that is that's indication that we have a major air leakage going on.
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  And we'd love to come and check that out for you and show you how
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  we can seal that up and you're not going to have to worry about it
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  anymore. And one of the great things that you mentioned coming out and taking
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  a look. It's not going to cost you anything. And it's that peace
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  of mind as well. If you're seeing these signs, the best thing that
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  can happen is say, okay, just it may to those of us homeowners
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  are untrained eye, it may just look strange to us. Get a professional,
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  have the folks fro lars Stoom Services to come out to take a look
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  again. Best thing looks say oh no, that's that's nothing, that's nothing
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  unusual, everything's looking great. The other side of the coin is this could
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  be causing serious damage to your biggest investment, and you don't want to do
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  that. Prevention is key, and now is the time to call Andrew and
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  the team at Larstoom Services six so eight five three five forty three forty three.
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  That's five three five four three four three. And of course the website
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  Larsen Home Services dot com. That's l A R s o N Home Services
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  dot com. You know we're talking earlier this morning about grocery bills and how
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  much they've gone up. I had mentioned that my wife keeps spreadsheets on just
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  about every everything as far as spending in the prebol household, one of the
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  areas she very much monitors is energy usage. How high is our different bills
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  and she keeps them on these ice and tracks everything. Seeing an increase in
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  in in energy someone in your house is organized, she very much. Somebody's
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  got to be right, got to one of those in your house. But
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  seeing an increase in energy bills and usage is a big sign as well that
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  your house is in need of is in need of attention, isn't it very
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  much? So? I mean we have to pay so when we pay attention
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  to different energy bills, we have to compare apples to apples, So we
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  have to make sure that we have you know, what what were they charging?
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  You know, foresaid energy, what were we charging for our gas at
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  the time? Because those prices fluctuate. For the most part, electric prices
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  are going to stay pretty steady. But most people where we live have gas
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  heat for the most part. It's just it's it's more efficient. Electric heat
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  can cost a lot here. But yes, paying attention to those to those
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  energy bills. If you know, if your house was built in the nineties
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  and earlier, chances are there's no air ceiling done. And I preach air
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  ceiling all the time because it's funny how nobody, for the most part,
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  nobody really thinks about insulation until it gets cold, but insulation does wonders when
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  it's hot too. When it's cold, we're concerned about the insulation, but
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  even more so we're concerned about the air ceiling in the attic filling up all
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  those penetrations that we're all of our heat that we've just paid for, escapes
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  through the ceiling into the attic which is vented, and straight out into the
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  outside where now we have to pay to reheat and rede everything. But the
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  biggest thing for me is just is keeping a home more comfortable we can when
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  we're sucking in air through our rim joys that right now is you know,
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  I don't know what it is outside. What's the point of even looking too
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  cold to do anything? Negative five degree air? It's sucking that in and
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  as that rises up, it's making the floor, the floors freezing cold.
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  Now we can go up into the attic, we can take out all that
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  old, crappy insulation that is mostly full of mice feces and the amount of
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  mice skeletons we find an antics. But so you've got all this, we're
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  going to take it all out. Start with a clean surface, just like
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  we do our roofing, air seal up all the penetrations, put new insulation
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  in while those room joists are sealed up. Now we're not having as much
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  air escape through the roof and we're not sucking in as much cold air through
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  the bottom of the house. We're making the floors warmer, we're making your
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  HVAC system work less, and we're saving money, so it's it's a win
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  win. We will let everybody know about the focus on energy rebates that we
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  are. We're a focus on Energy partner, and there's also some really good
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  tax credits that you're going to get directly off your text and out of text
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  to duck. It's a text credit meaning if you were owed money, you
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  will be owed more money. So it's thousands of dollars that we can help
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  you get back and make your home more energy efficient and more comfortable. It's
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  kind of a it's a it's a win win it is. It is.
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  It's really amazing. As we talk with Andrew Larson of Lars Stome Services,
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  if you haven't had your home checked for, get a little energy audit doctor
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  energy save from the folks at Larstome Services. You want to do that.
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  You want to make sure also when it comes to getting estimates, understanding what's
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  being offered. And Andrew, I know you've talked past about some some ways
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  folks do it. They'll literally just come in, they'll throw another layer of
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  insulation and say problem solve. That doesn't deal with the issue, doesn't actually
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  solve the problem, doesn't help any of those issues we just addressed. When
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  it comes to insulation on your home, there is more to it than simply
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  new installation. They're ceiling and all these other things that they do with Larstome
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  Services. And it's a great day now to not only make your house more
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  comfortable. You're paying the mortgage on that place, use every room, make
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  sure every space is comfortable, but also reduce wear and tear on your heating
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  and cooling, as well as save yourself money when it comes to energy bills.
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  Important day today. Call our Storm Services six oh eight five three five
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  forty three forty three that's five three five four three four three Learn more online
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  Larsenome Services dot com. That's l A R. S O N. Home
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  Services dot Com Andrew, It's always great chatting with you, my friend.
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  You enjoy this chilly day and looking forward to warmer temperature soon. Absolutely see
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  you next week, Kevin ham hams Arbercare comes your way next right here on
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  thirteen ten do wu ib A