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Leave It to the Professionals with Larson Home Services · Ask The Experts

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  Speaker 1: Eight oh six thirteen ten WI b A Madison in
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  Speaker 1: the morning and ask the experts. Brought to you by
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  Speaker 1: Larsen Home Services Online Larsenhomeservices dot com.
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  Speaker 2: That's l A R. S O N Home Services dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Tellphen umber six so eight five three five forty three
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  Speaker 1: forty three. That's five three five forty three forty three.
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  Speaker 1: Join this morning by Andrew Larson from Larsen Home Services.
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  Speaker 1: And Andrew, we're going to talk DIY versus hiring a professional.
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  Speaker 2: Did I ever tell you my roofing story when I
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  Speaker 2: was in high school?
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  Speaker 3: No, but I'd love to hear it.
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  Speaker 1: So, when I was in high school, a friend of
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  Speaker 1: mine's dad bought a house down in I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: somewhere in southern Wisconsin, beautiful home and thought him and
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  Speaker 1: his buddies were just going to redo the roof on
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  Speaker 1: their own. And I was a senior in high school.
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  Speaker 1: You know, a strong young man. I'd be perfect to
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  Speaker 1: help out. I'm like, yeah, I'd love to help out.
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  Speaker 1: I'd love to assist. And uh, I didn't know this
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  Speaker 1: about shingles, but shingles are super heavy and very heavy,
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  Speaker 1: and they set the thing of shingles when they had
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  Speaker 1: them delivered like and the driveway and then the ladder
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  Speaker 1: to get up on the roof was on the others
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  Speaker 1: is like a lake house, so it was like on
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  Speaker 1: a hill. So I would go and I would grab
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  Speaker 1: a thing of shingles, throw it over my shoulder, waddle
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  Speaker 1: down the hill and then run as fast as I
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  Speaker 1: could up a ladder with shingles and throw them up
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  Speaker 1: on the roof. I did this a pallette worth and
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  Speaker 1: I literally I have never been so tired in my life.
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  Speaker 1: I like fell asleep, passed out, and the dudes Dad's like,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think I'm gonna pay you.
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  Speaker 2: You slept Mostly.
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  Speaker 1: I lways say this Andrew the most most miserable work
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  Speaker 1: of my life. And I do, and I will add
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  Speaker 1: this and this is this is absolute fact.
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 1: Two years later they had to have the roof freaked on. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I did not put the roof on. I just delivered
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  Speaker 1: the shingles.
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  Speaker 2: I can't be.
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  Speaker 3: Helping getting rid of all killed here.
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  Speaker 2: I am not my fault, not my.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, you know, on my list, and it's not just
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  Speaker 3: because it's what we do on my list. Number one thing,
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  Speaker 3: honestly is roofing. Yeah, and not that it's rocket science,
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  Speaker 3: because it's not. But I always talk about critical details,
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  Speaker 3: things getting done properly and honestly. It is one of
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  Speaker 3: the hardest jobs I've ever done. You all you did
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  Speaker 3: was haul the shingles up the ladder, yes, right, touch
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  Speaker 3: anything else they can't when they can't do a roof
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  Speaker 3: drop for us, I've seen the roofers put two and
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  Speaker 3: three bundles on their shoulders at a time and sing
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  Speaker 3: while they're going up the way. Oh my god, I
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  Speaker 3: want to make you feel bad about yourself. But time
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  Speaker 3: we do a roof drop where I crane it right
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  Speaker 3: onto the roof.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why.
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  Speaker 3: But roofing is one of them. Real quick story. One
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  Speaker 3: of my sales reps before he started working for us.
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  Speaker 3: He lives over We have an office over in Rochester
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  Speaker 3: and he lives outside of Rochester. They got some hail.
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  Speaker 3: It's like, hey, I need a new roof. He calls
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  Speaker 3: me up. I said, yes, we can take care of it.
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  Speaker 3: He's the best, one of my good friends from high school.
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  Speaker 3: I've known them almost my whole life. And I said, listen,
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  Speaker 3: we'll give you a really really good deal on it.
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  Speaker 3: YadA YadA, YadA.
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  Speaker 1: Eh.
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  Speaker 3: He says, you know what, I'm a teacher and I
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  Speaker 3: got the summer off, so like, I think, I'm just
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  Speaker 3: going to do the roof myself. You know, he did
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  Speaker 3: the math on it, and you know he's going to
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  Speaker 3: make a few bucks. He probably put about four or
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  Speaker 3: five grand in his pocket. I said, justin I get it.
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  Speaker 3: It sounds easy, and your roof is only a four pitch, like,
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  Speaker 3: no big deal. It's first story. Took him three weeks.
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  Speaker 3: Oh no, this is with help. He said it was
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  Speaker 3: the worst hardest job he had ever done in his life.
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  Speaker 3: And he did end up making about five thousand dollars,
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  Speaker 3: but he said it wasn't work. You could have paid
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  Speaker 3: him ten times at he would never do it again.
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  Speaker 3: So roofing, honestly leave that to a professional. There are
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  Speaker 3: critical details that are very important to your roof, not
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  Speaker 3: leaking your friend's house that you did helped with like
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  Speaker 3: they had to have it done two years later because
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  Speaker 3: they probably did it completely wrong and they might have
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  Speaker 3: saved a couple of bucks, but in the long run,
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  Speaker 3: they ended up paying for it twice. So that is
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  Speaker 3: one of them that I say, don't do that yourself
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  Speaker 3: unless you've done it in the past, and you know
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  Speaker 3: what you're doing. Even then it's so difficult, maybe you
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  Speaker 3: don't want to deal with it.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things, Andrew, I don't mean to interrupt,
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  Speaker 1: but one of the things I've noticed is people who
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  Speaker 1: have done them in the past never.
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  Speaker 2: Do them again.
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  Speaker 1: They like, they like they've done them once and they're like,
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  Speaker 1: you know what, Like people that professionally worked as roofers
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  Speaker 1: do not do their own roofs. They have they know,
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  Speaker 1: they know better.
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  Speaker 3: That's a good point. It's a really, really, really difficult job.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, that's why I don't I don't want
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  Speaker 3: to start getting into this stuff. But like the roofers
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  Speaker 3: that we have, the roofing crews that we have, you know,
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  Speaker 3: and we've we've been in a partnership since twenty eleven,
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  Speaker 3: and I'm I'm telling you, it could be ninety degrees outside.
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  Speaker 3: You could have a ten to twelve pitch roof and
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  Speaker 3: these guys are singing mariachi music. I mean, it's just
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  Speaker 3: is what they do. They're phenomenal and they're really really
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  Speaker 3: good at so oh and that roof that that my
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  Speaker 3: soon to be. Then after that sales rep, he quit
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  Speaker 3: teaching and came to work for us that, Like I said,
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  Speaker 3: job took him three weeks, and I said, hey, you know,
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  Speaker 3: justin I don't want to make you feel bad, but
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  Speaker 3: like your house would have taken us five hours. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: like literally from the time we parked on the road. Yeah. Anyway, different,
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  Speaker 3: different deal. My number two and three are kind of
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  Speaker 3: the same. But like electrical work and plumbing work. Oh now,
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of people that think they know how
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  Speaker 3: to do electrical work. But here's what I do know.
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  Speaker 3: It is, like the number two cause of home fires
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  Speaker 3: is improperly done, improperly fused. Are improper breakers on electrical work.
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  Speaker 3: I would personally leave that to a professional because I
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't want to burn my house down. Okay, Second, plumbing, plumbing,
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  Speaker 3: you know, unless you're just changing out a faucet or
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  Speaker 3: something like that, but if you're actually trying to redo
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  Speaker 3: real plumbing work, whether it's in a wall or in
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  Speaker 3: a basement, I've done it. I won't do it again
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  Speaker 3: because every time I do it, it ends up leaking and
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  Speaker 3: then we cause bigger problems. So electrical work and plumbing work, like,
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  Speaker 3: leave that to a professional unless it's like really light
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  Speaker 3: work stuff, you know, changing an outlet cover. You know,
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  Speaker 3: you probably do that yourself. Even I can do that
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  Speaker 3: outlet covers, no problem. This one really stuck out for
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  Speaker 3: me because I was doing some research and landscaping. Now
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  Speaker 3: landscaping like what that doesn't seem that difficult, you know,
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  Speaker 3: putting in some edging, putting in some rocks, some shrubs, YadA, YadA, YadA.
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  Speaker 3: Here's some things that people don't take into account. It
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  Speaker 3: is something that we deal with all the day, all
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  Speaker 3: the time, is grade and slope of your yard. And
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  Speaker 3: I can't tell you how many times we've seen or
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  Speaker 3: had people where they did their own like lawn edging
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  Speaker 3: around their house and used improper materials, like they put
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  Speaker 3: down full plastic as weed barrier. Well, what else is
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  Speaker 3: full plastic going to do besides keep the weeds out
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  Speaker 3: and keep.
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  Speaker 2: The water moving side ground?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, And then it downs fault dumps right into it,
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  Speaker 3: and the grade is opposite of where it needs to go,
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  Speaker 3: and so you've what you've basically done is just created
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  Speaker 3: a shallow pool. Right, So you put lawn edging out there,
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  Speaker 3: and then you put plastic down that the water can't
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  Speaker 3: go through and the water can't get past the edging
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  Speaker 3: and the water slopes back to your house, and we're
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  Speaker 3: literally creating like a little water slot. It's almost like
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  Speaker 3: a little river of for the water to come right
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  Speaker 3: back to your house. So, unless it's just planning a
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  Speaker 3: few flowers, that's something that I would But if it's major,
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  Speaker 3: I would leave that to a professional or really really
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  Speaker 3: really do do your homework, because we can actually create
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  Speaker 3: more problems than we had before.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things I've I've kind of noticed a
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  Speaker 1: trend here, Andrew, is a lot of this is to
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  Speaker 1: save a couple of bucks. Things that seem initially like
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  Speaker 1: they may work out end up causing quite the calamity
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  Speaker 1: and become quite costly. You think about water coming into
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  Speaker 1: your basement because of improper grading, You think about having
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  Speaker 1: to redo your roof because of improper installation, or other
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  Speaker 1: issues that you think about, you know, installing an electrical
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  Speaker 1: outlet that Gosh forbid overheats and causes a fire. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: these are significant things that simply hired somebody that knew
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  Speaker 1: what they were doing.
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  Speaker 3: That's what it is, though, Sean. It is I can
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  Speaker 3: save a couple of bucks. I can do it myself.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, here's the thing, that a lot of people
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  Speaker 3: don't take into account. And if my father's listening, he's great.
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  Speaker 3: This one's going to hit home for him. He usually listens,
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  Speaker 3: but I try to get it through his head because
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  Speaker 3: he's not a spring chicken anymore. He's seventy four, almost
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  Speaker 3: seventy five. I mean, he's in amazing shape and can
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  Speaker 3: run circles around most people half his age. But he
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  Speaker 3: doesn't take into consideration what his time is worth. Well,
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  Speaker 3: I can save a few grand, but what's your time worth.
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  Speaker 3: Let's talk about the mental health and stress of getting
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  Speaker 3: into a project over your head. So quit. My father's
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  Speaker 3: finishing off seventy four years old, finishing off the basement
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  Speaker 3: in their house. I've asked him a hundred times. If
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  Speaker 3: I think I've helped him twice, he just doesn't okay.
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  Speaker 2: Cool.
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  Speaker 3: He's very talented at almost everything. He did all the electrical,
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  Speaker 3: he did higher plumbers, but he's good at that stuff.
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  Speaker 3: And when it comes down to the simple stuff, and
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  Speaker 3: this is one of the top on my list, is
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  Speaker 3: doing drywall. Doing drywall is it's not really that difficult.
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  Speaker 3: You can hang the drywall, it's not that difficult. But
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  Speaker 3: what is difficult is making it look good. Taping andutting
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  Speaker 3: and sanding and mudding and sanding and mudding, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: telling you it can go on forever because if you're
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  Speaker 3: not a professional and you don't have the proper equipment. Sean,
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  Speaker 3: why do you think it is that they put a
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  Speaker 3: texture on every single wall that they finish.
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  Speaker 2: To hide imperfections. I'm going to get.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly to hide imperfections, because if you don't have that
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  Speaker 3: texture and your scene isn't absolutely perfect, you will see
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  Speaker 3: that scene and it will look like trash. So my
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  Speaker 3: dad gets done framing the basement, it's time to sheet rock.
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  Speaker 3: I said, yeah, I will help you sheet rock whenever.
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  Speaker 3: Whenever you're ready, you need me, let's do it. But
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  Speaker 3: if I were you, I would hire a professional. Wow,
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  Speaker 3: we can do it. I understand, we can do it.
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  Speaker 3: We can do a lot of things. Back in the day,
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to start a construction company called Capable Construction.
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  Speaker 3: You know, has a real ring to it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, what does that mean?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it means we're not great at it, but we're
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  Speaker 3: capable of everything. We'll figure it out. I gave for
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  Speaker 3: the construction company that me and my fam we're doing
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  Speaker 3: our own personal side we're capable figure out. But anyway,
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  Speaker 3: he took my advice and he actually did hire someone
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  Speaker 3: to come in and hang the drywall and do all
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  Speaker 3: the finishing and and it looks perfect. So that's that's
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  Speaker 3: another thing where I mean, I've been in places where
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  Speaker 3: they put additions on and I can see all the
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  Speaker 3: seams and it just doesn't look good and it's a dirty,
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  Speaker 3: messy job. How much time we got left shot?
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  Speaker 1: We could go on and no, I I love hearing
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  Speaker 1: Greg's stories as well as I was going.
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  Speaker 3: To go into a whole nother story, but I didn't
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  Speaker 3: want to run over.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're getting tight on tie.
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  Speaker 1: But I will point out, as this stuff highlights is
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  Speaker 1: the importance of working with not just as you were
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  Speaker 1: kind of ending up there at that kind of pointing
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  Speaker 1: out like good enough. And there's a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: that'll say, even even you know, going away from doing
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  Speaker 1: d I y, there are some people that say, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I work in construction, I can do your roof where
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  Speaker 1: you were. I get the truth is, and I think
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  Speaker 1: I love how much you appreciate your guys that do
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  Speaker 1: roofing is as simple as some I think people that
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  Speaker 1: work in the construction industry may view roofing or dry
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  Speaker 1: walling to get it. To get it right is a skill,
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  Speaker 1: and when you get it wrong, it becomes a major
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  Speaker 1: major issue. And really respecting those folks that it's not
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  Speaker 1: just anybody that can do these things. Well, there's there's
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  Speaker 1: as you point out, a lot of people out there
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  Speaker 1: that can do things good enough, and it'll work for now,
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  Speaker 1: but ultimately, when it comes to your house, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you've got a shed and maybe try doing the roof,
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  Speaker 1: there some drywall on your shed, but when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to your house, you probably want to hire somebody that's
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  Speaker 1: doing this stuff day in and day out. And we've
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  Speaker 1: talked about I talked about my experience and your guys
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  Speaker 1: with that roof literally showed up in the morning. By lunchtime,
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  Speaker 1: the roof was gone, the entire roof had been taken down,
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  Speaker 1: the new decking was put in andy by like two
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  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, the entire job was done. It's like,
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  Speaker 1: are you kidding me? They work efficiently?
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  Speaker 2: Well, well it was, they did.
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  Speaker 1: They did, they had they did have lunch and and
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  Speaker 1: some and and some other things.
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  Speaker 2: But it was just amazing.
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, I think you were telling
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  Speaker 1: me they went off and did another another roof that
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  Speaker 1: day as well, and it was just amazing to see
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  Speaker 1: them work. And that's the cool thing about working with
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  Speaker 1: the folks at Larstorm Services. It doesn't matter you talk
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  Speaker 1: about the experts from the roof up. It doesn't matter
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  Speaker 1: what the project is, whether it's doing the roofs, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's doing gutters, whether it's of course looking looking at
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  Speaker 1: making your home energy energy efficient and improving the overall
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  Speaker 1: energy of your house. These are things that you guys
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  Speaker 1: specialize in in your teams at Larstorm Services really work
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  Speaker 1: day in and day out to perfect and master. That's
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  Speaker 1: a great thing about working with Andrew and the team
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  Speaker 1: at Larstorm Services. Great day to pick up phone, give
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  Speaker 1: them a call six o eight five three five forty
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  Speaker 1: three forty three. That's five three five four three four
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  Speaker 1: three Andrew, it's always great chatting. You have a great
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  Speaker 1: day and we'll talk real soon. I will see take
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  Speaker 1: care and of course say Andrew comes from Larslom Services
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  Speaker 1: that website Larsen Home Services dot com. Kevin ham Hams
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  Speaker 1: Aarbacare joins us next year on thirteen ten.
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  Speaker 2: W I B A