The World of CONCRETE | Hour 1

season is just it is upon us. And you know, despite everything having to do with the local fires and all the rebuilding there, I'm just talking about all across the nation. This is the time of year when people are gearing up to get going. Maybe you're going to be doing some room editions, maybe you're changing up some stuff, maybe you're building from the ground up. You know where it all starts. It all starts coming out of the

dirt with concrete. And so we're going to spend some time talking about concrete today, concrete and Mason and if we get a chance to get into both, that would be great. I have sitting in studio with me a very very special guest, one of my favorite concrete contractors, and I love just sitting here in studio, you know, talking shop with pros that I love and respect. Chris Carson is here with me today. Oh there's our live studio audience. Chris, say hi to everybody. Glad to have you here.

then we just launched off on a professional relationship. After that, I was so impressed. You can just go to house whisper dot Design if you are looking for an in home consult house Whisper dot Design. All right, let's introduce the team. As always, Elmer is on the board. Good morning, Elmer.

Dean A three three two ask Dean. The phone lines are open now. Ricardo is standing by ready to take your call, and you already heard his melodious voice. Andrew Caravella at the near his desk, Good morning morning. How you doing.

Producer Richie standing by, He's ready to take your call. He'll tell you everything you need to know. And yes, I'm talking concrete today with my special in studio guest. But as always, regardless of what I've decided to do as a theme of the show, you can call me about anything outside inside landscape, architectural design, decor construction DIY. You know the whole mgilla. So give me a call. Let me help you figure out what's going on with

your house. I will be happy to talk to you about neo Gothic architecture or how to fix that leaky toilet and everything in between. We'll just go for it,

all right. I'm very excited. Sitting across the table from me this morning, my friend and professional colleague, Chris Carson of Chris Carr Some Concrete and Masonry, is sitting in studio with me because I wanted to talk concrete today and any chance that I can actually bring one of my colleagues and a respected contractor into the studio with me, then all the better. Concrete. Concrete is Okay, We're gonna get into Chris's story here. But let me just lay

some groundwork for you. Concrete is synthetic rock, Okay, that's I mean, just to put it in a nutshell, we figured out a few hundred years ago how to make synthetic rock. In fact, the Romans figured it out how to do it in their own way, and others before them. It quite literally forms the foundation of our lives. And I mean that in every sense of the word. Concrete

is holding up your entire house right now. It's in your driveway, it's in your sidewalk, it's on your patio, it's on your walls in the form of stucco, it's on your roof in the form of tile. It's in your house as grout and mortar, maybe even on the finished floor or a countertop or two. And that's just the concrete part, let alone the masonry, which goes hand in hand with the concrete. Concrete is the most used man made material in the world in the world, next

to water, next to water exactly. It is the second most used resource after water. Are you hearing me? Okay? And concrete's use is increasing. China uses more concrete in two years in two years right now, China is using more concrete in a two year period than the US used in the entire twentieth century. Think about that, all the nineteen hundreds, from nineteen oh one to nineteen ninety nine, all of the concrete used in the United States. Now China uses that much concrete in a two year period

of time. About thirty billion tons of concrete are used each year globally. That's the equivalent to and I don't know I believe this analogy here or this comparison. I'm not sure. Must have been a coffee drinker who came up with this one, But it is the equivalent to fourteen coffee mugs worth of concrete for every person on planet Earth every day. That is how much concrete is being used each year globally in the world. Concrete is also a problem for us environmentally the way that we've

done it, and it is shifting. But concrete accounts for eight percent, that is no small number, eight percent of all global CO two emissions. If the cement industry, the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, after the US and China. Just think of it that way. I mean concrete is and no judgment on this, it's just simply these are the facts. Concrete is a massive, massive part of all of our lives and of human civilization.

Here in the twenty first century, concrete wasn't widely used in the US. I'm going to have to tell you this story. We're gonna have to talk about this. It wasn't widely used in the US until after nineteen sixteen, when the Portland Cement Association used what I think I like to call a classic drug dealer marketing technique to pull off one of the most successful product campaign stunts of all time. We're going to talk about that, but

first I want to find out more. I want you guys to find out more about my special instant studio guests, Chris Carson. So tell you what. When we come back, We're going to hear Chris's story. I want to hear how you got into the concrete business, concrete and masonry business. What leads a guy into that, and how long have you been doing it? And what are your favorite and

least favorite parts of it? And then I'm going to tell you all this drug dealer marketing technique that made concrete such a prevalent part of our lives here in the US. And then we're just going to get into the practical stuff that affects y'all every day when it comes to your concrete, everything from cracking to curing, to how does it really work? To what are the kinds of finishes? And so on and so on, all of the issues, all the highs, all the lows. We're going to cover it all.

birds in my yard have decided that it's springtime. And I think, honestly, if I have to trust the calendar or the wildlife around me, I'm going with you know, just let nature speak for yourself anyway. It's a beautiful day here in southern California. I hope wherever you are, I know it's not the same everywhere else. It's like two degrees in some places. Wherever you are, I hope you're comfy. I hope you are warm and safe or cool or whatever you need to be. And I hope

you've got some good plans for today. My big plan today after the show, by the way, is was unexpected, but it's fine. I'm gonna go do some work. I'm gonna actually go over to a dear friend's house and help him deal with a plumbing leak that their whole house, you know, built in the seventies copper, and the copper is starting to lose itself. Somebody in the past, not him, ran all the new water lines overhead, which is the right way to go. But I've got Chris in here.

There was one bit of groundwork left in his place because they have a kitchen island, so a continuous roll copper line has to go under from the kitchen sink wall over to the to the island, and it has started this week to pit out into leak. He woke up he heard hissing, heard water moving in the pipes, no faucets were on. It's a leak, and for sure found it. And so we have a creative solution, though I'm I'm not going to talk about it because I don't.

I'm just going to say we have a creative solution of how not to tear up the floor in order to get new water lines run over there. And that's what I'm going to go do afterwards, and I get to spend a few hours with my bud and it'll be good. But also I get to spend the next couple three hours right here with a friend, Chris Carson of Carson Concrete and Masonry. Is that the official name? Am I saying that? I just all, I'm your company

name is Chris. Call Chris see periods there you go? Okay, Chris is a is a fantastic expert concrete and masonry contractor. And that's what we're talking about today, concrete. So first of all, just so everybody knows what your story is, how did you get into all this, how long you've been doing it, how'd you start, why'd you want to go into concrete or you know.

I'm an outdoor person and my friends were in construction, whether hanging drywall or whatever they're doing, and concrete was my calling. So I ended up working for a very high end concrete guy in Long Beach, California, and learned from him. And he had a company to where he slowed down and he'd lay off the people that were low in the total pole, which was me. And about the third time he laid me off, I go, well, you let me off one more time, and I'm talking,

you know, I'm eighteen nineteen. I just go, I'm going to quit and start my own business. And I put an ad in the penny Saver and put a add in there. No job too small, concrete, masonry, And that's how it all started.

interesting to be involved with. But my bread and butter is, like I say, parking, rect schools, residential love, doing detail, custom concrete work, finish work. I've done it all from foundations at an early age, building foundations for chains like

McDonald's and Blockbusters. And you know, I got pretty big when I was a young young man, maybe in my twenties into my thirties, running thirty to thirty five guys for five trucks out of a ten thousand square foot warehouse every day, my own pumping company.

have a great crew. If I could find people like my crew, i'd probably be back to another big company. But I'm pretty much the hands on guy. I'm not one of those guys that run for one job to another. I take care of my clients.

true craftsman, somebody who loves the details. Somebody who is not sitting in an office somewhere letting it just happen out there, because because his first and foremost passion is cashing checks and going about doing something else. He's there, he's present, he's with it, his hand picked his crew, and he would be happy to have a larger operation, but not going to do it unless the larger crew matches the same quality profile of the as the existing crew.

This is exactly the profile of a contractor any in any field that you are looking for. And he's sitting here blushing right now because he's like, oh, come on, but this is the truth. So all right, So now you know, Chris, you know what he's about. And when we come back, let's talk concrete one oh one, A residential concrete one oh one, like we were during the break, and it's a it's a relatively simple concept, you know. It's a material that is you know, essentially made up

of for the most part, like for ingredients, right. Uh, you got some Portland cement of some sort of form or another, which is the adhesive. You've got a couple of different forms of aggregate, you know, sand, plus a larger aggregate of sorts, some form of gravel or rock in the mix, and water. I mean, it's a it's a basic cake recipe, okay, that can be altered in an infinite amount of ways and applied in an infinite

amount of ways, depending on how you do it. And it is incredibly intimidating for just about everybody, including me when it comes to the finished work. Like I was telling you, we'll talk more about that on the other side of the news.

of the call. To ask Dean a question about your house, A three three to ask dean. Producer Richie standing by ready to take your call. He'll tell you everything you need to know. Hop you into the queue, and who knows you and I will put our heads together. We'll get it. We'll get it worked out. I promise we will.

from your expertise and wisdom as well. We just heard kind of his story the quick If you missed the last segment, by the way, then you need to go back and listen to the podcast, which, by the way, you know this show is our House Whisper podcast as well. Listen to the podcast and just listen to Chris describe the course of his career, how he got started, why he does what he does. You will hear whether you're interested in concrete right now for your house or not.

You will hear the quintessential profile of the proper contractor to find for your project. Okay, because Chris and I were both we were just talking during the break, just you know the years of you know, learning stuff the hard way, discovering what it is that's most important to us in life and in business, and then just holding to it and not letting it go at that point. And that's where that's where Chris is at, and so that's a lesson worth learning. Chris, let's talk about just

concrete one oh one. Like I said before the breaks, it's a pretty simple mix, but it's got infinite possibilities. That's why it is the largest resource used second second to water on planet Earth. Right, the thing that I think is most intimidating about concrete for most people is that, you know, it's a one and done thing. I mean, you got to get it right. Once it all pours out into that sidewalk or that driveway or whatever it is.

You either did it right or you didn't. It's either you know, and and it's not like it's not like framing a wall where I'll show up and the crew has put the window in the wrong place and I'm like, oh, guys, grab the saws all let's move that over a few inches and renail it. That's not happening in your business. So there's a whole level of prep and detail that has to go into it. Let's just talk about that a little bit. Yeah, it's prep prep work. I'm starting

with excavation. Compaction is obviously a big thing. Concrete as good as whatever you pour over, meaning meaning it lays on the ground. It lays on the ground, and if the ground moves earth, yeah it's gonna it's gonna fight.

the compacted base material. Keep your boots clean when you're walking around a lot of times things will come off the bottom of your boots and the end result will be in the finished surface at the top of the concrete. But back to yeah, you got the base material, course you have your rebar material, the thickness, the mixed design, poor in placement. But I just want to add one thing with all this being said, all this work that is involved in doing a proper concrete job is the

control joints. The control giants are they're promoting the cracking.

That's why it's called a control joint. A control joint is a is a groove that we place essentially in the a scoring groove that we place in the top surface of the finished appearance of the concrete. And just like the perforation on a ritz cracker or not a ritz like a saltine cracker. When you get a whole sheet of crackers out and you start to tweak that brittle side substance, those crackers are going to crack along that perforation because we've weakened the surface tension intentionally right

at that point. And so a control joint is not to stop cracking. It is to direct the crack down inside the joint, right, And that's the idea. And not enough people and not enough contrary contractors actually place enough emphasis on control joints because they get pushed by a client. Oh I don't want all those lines all over the place. Can we just make it bigger and smoother? So just

oh we're gonna have to go to break here. But just just as a point of your technical expertise, when it comes to any large surface pore of cement, what's your I mean, I've got guys who have said, you know, ten ten, every ten feet is fine. I've never been comfortable with ten feet because I've seen problems with ten feet. Other guys are like, well, you know, every two feet,

but what is your comfortable range? In general that you would advise our listeners don't have control joints any further than this far apart.

That is the key, that's the goal. All right, We're going to talk more about this, but when we come back, we've got some calls on the board, so I think we'll answer some phone calls. Chris, how's that sound all right? Everybody? This is Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. This

has been Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning, from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app