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French Drains with Larson Home Services · Ask The Experts

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  Speaker 1: Eighth, six thirteen ten WIBA and Ask the Experts, joined
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  Speaker 1: this morning by mister Andrew Larson from Larsnome Services. The
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  Speaker 1: website Larsenhome Services dot com. That's l A R s
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  Speaker 1: O n Home Services dot com. The telephone number six
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  Speaker 1: O eight five three five forty three forty three. That's
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  Speaker 1: five three five forty three forty three for Lars Snome Services.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew, how you doing this week?
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  Speaker 3: You know, I'm doing fantastic. H Most of the listeners
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  Speaker 3: might not have even realized that I wasn't live last week.
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  Speaker 3: I was in our neighbors country, Canada. Who catching ballleyes
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  Speaker 3: and muskies.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, good to have you back.
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  Speaker 1: I know you do your get an annual fishing trip
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  Speaker 1: up to you go up just to Lake of the
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  Speaker 1: Woods areas look.
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  Speaker 3: In the woods. Yeah, that is correct. So it's uh
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  Speaker 3: if nobody's ever been there. It is a it is
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  Speaker 3: a wondrous place of fourteen thousand islands and a million
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  Speaker 3: feet of shoreline, and part of it's in Minnesota and
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  Speaker 3: part of it's in Ontario, and it's it's awesome.
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  Speaker 1: I've driven through that. It's it is amazing. We think
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  Speaker 1: about like Minnesota and how dense in northern Wisconsin. How
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  Speaker 1: dense the lakes are that area like around Lake of
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  Speaker 1: the Woods, Canora, all that it is there are it's
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  Speaker 1: so much water, so many fish.
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  Speaker 3: You.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it's great to have you speaking of so much water.
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  Speaker 1: And of course maybe tie it into the Olympics as
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  Speaker 1: well taking place in France. Let's talk about French drains.
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  Speaker 1: I know why you get questions from time to time.
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  Speaker 1: You can always email Andrew his email address WIBA at
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  Speaker 1: larsenhome Services dot com. I know you get questions from folks,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's through the email or people just stopping and
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  Speaker 1: asking you questions about all sorts of things when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to home repair, homer modeling, those kind of things.
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  Speaker 1: And you want to talk a little bit about those
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  Speaker 1: those French drains. What exactly Let's start off with the obvious, folks,
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  Speaker 1: what exactly is a French drain?
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  Speaker 3: What is a French drain? I mean, we're not just
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  Speaker 3: naming it, you know, because of the Olympics or anything
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  Speaker 3: like that. It's actually been around for a while. But
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  Speaker 3: you know, funny story, you mentioned Canora, been to Lake
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  Speaker 3: of the Woods like twenty times and have never been
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  Speaker 3: to Canora. So one day, we decided to take a drive.
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  Speaker 3: Do you know what I look at chan, I look
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  Speaker 3: at houses, and I look at their roofs, and I
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  Speaker 3: look at their gutters, and it's a sickness. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: I remember thinking while I was there's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: places with gut it without gutters, in fact, ninety nine
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  Speaker 3: percent of them. But if you've ever been to that area,
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  Speaker 3: everything is rock. It's all rock. There's literally no dirt.
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  Speaker 3: The only dirt is the couple inches of top soil
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  Speaker 3: from trees falling and you know, decaying over the past however,
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  Speaker 3: many millions of years. But so then, so then this
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  Speaker 3: question came in. A listener was wondering about a French drain.
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  Speaker 3: They're thinking about building a house, there's lots of trees,
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  Speaker 3: didn't want to deal with gutters build it brought up
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  Speaker 3: a French drain system. And excuse me. Up there on
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  Speaker 3: Lake of the Woods where they don't have gutters, it's
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  Speaker 3: kind of what they have. Rocks kind of act as
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  Speaker 3: a French drain system. Also, most of the homes are
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  Speaker 3: almost none of the homes actually have basements because you'd
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  Speaker 3: have to use dynamite to dig a hole. The water
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  Speaker 3: hits the ground, it hits that stone and it just
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  Speaker 3: runs away so much so we actually have a friend
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  Speaker 3: up there who has a home and they know that
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  Speaker 3: they cannot keep the water from coming. This house actually
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  Speaker 3: does have part of a basement. It's actually built into
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  Speaker 3: the hill a little bit, but because it hits bedrock,
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  Speaker 3: they know that they cannot keep the water out of
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  Speaker 3: a house. So there's a system that is actually made up,
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  Speaker 3: made for in the winter when the snow melts. It
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  Speaker 3: actually allows the water to go enter the home from
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  Speaker 3: one end of the floor to the other and it
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  Speaker 3: actually just runs across the floor and drains out in
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  Speaker 3: the front. It's wildless thing ever seen, but anyway, French
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  Speaker 3: drain can take the place of gutters. It is a
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  Speaker 3: drain system that would go essentially in your landscaping around
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  Speaker 3: the home. Some have done it with like cement on
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  Speaker 3: top on top of the ground. I've seen it with
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  Speaker 3: cobblestone or river rock looking stuff, but usually it's going
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  Speaker 3: to have a drain in the ground that if it's
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  Speaker 3: around a residential home, you can't see, so as the
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  Speaker 3: water falls off the roof, it then just goes into
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  Speaker 3: that drain and is carried away from the home. So
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  Speaker 3: instead of taking the water off the roof into a
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  Speaker 3: gutter and then down a down spot and away from
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  Speaker 3: the house, it just lets the water fall off the house,
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  Speaker 3: hit the ground, enter the tube or the drain or
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  Speaker 3: the French drain, and go away from the house. Great
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  Speaker 3: IDEA sure problem is is that what happens here that
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  Speaker 3: might not happen south of here snow, snow and ice
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  Speaker 3: and it freezes. So now ice and snow can be
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  Speaker 3: an issue on the roof here in the winter. Now,
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  Speaker 3: let's take a drain that's underground. So that's the biggest
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  Speaker 3: problem with a French drain type system in our climate.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to stay frozen longer than we want it to.
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  Speaker 3: It is underground, so it's gonna freeze in the winter.
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  Speaker 3: There's no way around that. So what is keeping water
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  Speaker 3: away from the house? I mean, there's always a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of an issue at that springtime when we get
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  Speaker 3: the freezing thaw and the freezing thaw and a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people's gutters are still chucked full of ice. It's
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  Speaker 3: a massive ice block, and if we are to get
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  Speaker 3: a rain, the gutters are just going to overflow all
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  Speaker 3: over the place. Now, let's take the gutters away and
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  Speaker 3: have it just have that rain just hit the ground
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  Speaker 3: with absolutely no place to go. Because that's one of
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  Speaker 3: the best things about gutter shutter is it allows most
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  Speaker 3: of the ice and snow to slide off the home.
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  Speaker 3: That's why you will see more icicles with it, because
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  Speaker 3: it's allowing the ice and snow to fall off the house,
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  Speaker 3: but it has a much better opportunity keeping the actual
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  Speaker 3: trough free and clear of ice. Still going to get
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  Speaker 3: some ice in there, but not as much so it's
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  Speaker 3: going to thaw out sooner. So anyway, Essentially, a French
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  Speaker 3: drain system is just an underwater or underground drain tile
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  Speaker 3: system that almost like would go in one's basement. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: except most of the time that water is just carried
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  Speaker 3: straight away from the house. And when it's free and
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  Speaker 3: clear and it's not plugged up all as well, it
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  Speaker 3: works great. The problem is if they do get plugged
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  Speaker 3: up or froze up, there's really no way to get
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  Speaker 3: them working until mother nature just thaws it out. I've
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  Speaker 3: also seen drain tile systems where it actually has a
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  Speaker 3: great system that you can actually see on top of
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  Speaker 3: the ground. Sometimes people will have a negative slope coming
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  Speaker 3: down their driveway, so water hits the end of their
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  Speaker 3: driveway or their whole driveway, and it actually runs back
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  Speaker 3: towards their garage. And there's no way to fix it
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  Speaker 3: except putting a French drain system in right before the
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  Speaker 3: garage door so the water can go in and then
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  Speaker 3: go away. It becomes a big problem in the winter,
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  Speaker 3: and I can also get and can also get plugged
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  Speaker 3: up with debris.
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  Speaker 1: And we kind of, you know, as we kind of
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  Speaker 1: identify some of these problems. I know, I get like
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  Speaker 1: folks who say, you know what, I've got this at
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful house, and you know, you think of some
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  Speaker 1: gutters there.
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  Speaker 2: There's some out there that are quite ugly.
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  Speaker 3: Like when we get that there's an extent, there's definitely
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  Speaker 3: an aesthetic an aesthetic issue to some gutter systems for sure.
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  Speaker 1: And let's talk then, and as we talk about gutter systems,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about gutter shutter and and there's something here
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  Speaker 1: where it's it's solving a couple of the problems. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: it's solving the biggest problem, which is you don't want
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  Speaker 1: water in your basement. Problems solved there. You don't want
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  Speaker 1: clogged gutters problems solved there. The attractiveness, the style is
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  Speaker 1: the way that they look. Let's talk about that, because
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  Speaker 1: that is as you talk about French drains and and
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  Speaker 1: kind of how that system works. And I think of
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  Speaker 1: some of the reasoning why a homeowner might want to
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  Speaker 1: look into something like that. Again, I think a lot
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  Speaker 1: of times it's aesthetics. Gutter shutter are and I know
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  Speaker 1: we've talked a little bit about this in the past.
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  Speaker 1: These are not only perform you know, high performance gutters,
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  Speaker 1: they also look good. They look like like something you'd
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  Speaker 1: want on your house, Like you want to have this
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  Speaker 1: these type of you know what I'm saying, Like you
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  Speaker 1: want it.
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  Speaker 3: That's subliminal, you want it, You're correct. You know what's
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  Speaker 3: funny is my dad does inspections, so probably seventy if
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  Speaker 3: he doesn't make to all the jobs we do, just
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  Speaker 3: because we'd go to so many outlying areas, and but
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  Speaker 3: he does inspect most of the jobs. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: we want to we want to inspect what we expect,
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  Speaker 3: meaning we want to make sure that every little details
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  Speaker 3: right screw placement is something that we will make guys
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  Speaker 3: go back and fix. So my dad inspects jobs to
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  Speaker 3: make sure they're getting done exactly how they need to
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  Speaker 3: be done, and most of the time if something needs
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  Speaker 3: to be adjusted, the homeowner would have never known, but
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  Speaker 3: we know so. But the biggest thing he gets from homeowners,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, on top of how great the installers were
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  Speaker 3: and how great the communication was, which is what we
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  Speaker 3: strive for every day, is homeowners will say, you know,
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  Speaker 3: when they showed me the piece when they came to
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  Speaker 3: my house. Obviously we have a sample so we can
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  Speaker 3: show everybody what they look like and what the colors are.
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  Speaker 3: It's not small, like it's big. It's a full six
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  Speaker 3: inch gutter, and it can look intimidating, honestly, but when
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  Speaker 3: it's on a home they all go, it just looks
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  Speaker 3: so wonderful. We could like, we thought it would look okay,
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  Speaker 3: but we were more concerned about the functionality, But then
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  Speaker 3: once it's on and they see it, they're like, man,
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  Speaker 3: it just looks wonderful because it is a full six
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  Speaker 3: inch gutter, and it's a full six inches top to bottom.
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  Speaker 3: If your facial board, which takes most of the direct sunlight,
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  Speaker 3: is faded or dirty or nasty, our gutters are going
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  Speaker 3: to cover it up and they're going to make the
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  Speaker 3: whole thing look brand new. We'll get it often when
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  Speaker 3: we'll go back to do inspections or my rep will
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  Speaker 3: go back to see how the job went. After it
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  Speaker 3: was done, neighbors will be like, you know, I thought
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  Speaker 3: they got their house painted, but all they did was
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  Speaker 3: put gutters on. Because actually change that trim on that home.
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  Speaker 3: So if there's ever a time you maybe wanted to
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  Speaker 3: change colors or something like that, that would be the
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  Speaker 3: time to do it. There's a lot of times we'll
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  Speaker 3: go to a home and we'll do all the softt
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  Speaker 3: in facia and the gutters just because it is a
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  Speaker 3: facelift on a home that's maintenance free because we use
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  Speaker 3: all aluminum products and you can completely change the color
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  Speaker 3: and completely change the look at your house with just
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  Speaker 3: doing that trim accent of the soffit, the facia and
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  Speaker 3: the gutters' it's free.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's a pretty amazing thing.
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  Speaker 1: As we talk about gutter shutter with Larsen Home Services,
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  Speaker 1: you can actually if you head on over to Larsenhomeservices
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  Speaker 1: dot com that's l A R. S O N Home
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  Speaker 1: Services dot com, you can see some examples of some
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  Speaker 1: of the work that they're that they've done at edge
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  Speaker 1: over at Larsen Home Services. You guys are are you know,
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  Speaker 1: bringing it right up to the right up to the
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  Speaker 1: roofline there, and it's pretty amazing when you see that stuff,
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  Speaker 1: like the work and how these things look and the
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  Speaker 1: gutters look once they're installed. It is absolutely amazing and
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  Speaker 1: checked out again. Just head on over to Larson Home
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  Speaker 1: Service dot com. Also pick up phone Gamme call six
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  Speaker 1: O eight Today is today six oh eight, five three
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  Speaker 1: five forty three forty three. That's five three five four
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  Speaker 1: three four three. The great thing with gutter shutter is
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to compromise in any aspect. You've got
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  Speaker 1: the beautiful, high performing gutters that are that are going
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  Speaker 1: to last a lifetime, that are aluminum. They're gonna you know,
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about taking care of them.
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  Speaker 1: They're going to take care of themselves. They're just a
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  Speaker 1: phenomenal product and as mentioned, they look really really good. Again,
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  Speaker 1: I get to pick up phe Gamme call six oh
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  Speaker 1: eight five three five forty three forty three.
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  Speaker 2: That's five three five.
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  Speaker 1: Four three four three. Andrew, it's always great chatting with
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  Speaker 1: you this morning, my friend. You enjoyed this beautiful day.
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  Speaker 3: All right, We'll see you next week.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin ham Hamsarbercare comes your way next right here, thirteen
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  Speaker 1: ten w I b a