Hey everybody. It is Tuesdays with Kelly and Dan. Hey Dan.
Hey, Kelly, are you? This wonderful. Uh, well, we're recording on a Sunday, so this wonderful Sunday as we record for our upcoming Tuesday. How you doing?
You got me up early
Yeah, I, you usually keep me up late, so, you know, it's, it's
Nice balance.
these time zones,
Yep, nice balance.
Yeah. At least we're only a a couple hour difference in time zone.
Our, our friends out on, uh, you know, New Zealand and, and Australia. It's, it's crazy trying to connect with them. I hope to, at some point, I know you have, hope to connect with the three of them and, uh, and, and jump
It was one of those like random Sunday afternoon type things.
Yeah. Where it just happened to work out. Right.
Yep.
I, I, I forget how many hours are they different than us? Like
12.
eight, 10. I don't know. It's crazy. But What's the weather like by you right now?
It is foggy today so far. We have a fog advisory. It rained yesterday. Uh, I don't know what the week's supposed to be yet. I haven't looked at the app. I guess I could do that, but it's been cold. It's been like 45 to 50 degrees during the day.
Hmm.
Um, so like when I go outside to go work, it's like, oh my God, let's hurry and get this, this job done.
Yeah,
So
were, uh, we were in Florida over the holidays while I was in Florida over the holidays. My wife and my daughter are still there. My daughter is gonna be starting an internship at Disney World
how exciting.
And, uh, my wife is, is still down there to help get her situated and everything, and then she'll fly back.
But when we get Home By we, I mean, me and the dog, when we got home, uh, it, it wasn't too bad. It was probably close to 40 degrees.
Okay,
then, uh, let's see, I woke up to two inches of snow. Um, and by the end of this week, it's gonna be in the single digits.
Now you won't have your daughter to shovel the snow for you.
I, well, I wonder, have my daughter to worry about her shoveling the snow if I'm not home.
That's where the problem comes in. If I'm home, I'll shovel the snow. I don't care. But, uh, when, when she's home by herself and I'm off at a trade show or, or who knows where, one year it, it was pretty, pretty bad that, uh, neighbors, friends of ours came over and helped her and the snowblower wouldn't start for her and all that other stuff.
And, and then when we got home, I went out in the garage and I. I fired the snowblower right up. I have no idea
Yeah,
wouldn't start when she was doing it. And a neighbor who's very mechanically inclined, he, he couldn't get it to go either,
it just died.
But yeah. Anyway, so on this Sunday morning, I was, uh, Sitting with my cup of coffee this morning and kind of running through of a bunch of things, emails and all the rest of it. And part of that is usually hitting Facebook and the social media stuff and seeing what's going on. And, and I stumbled upon something that, uh, was, was a little concerning, so I thought maybe we'd talk about that a little bit today.
Sure.
I can't remember what group it was in or who did the posting, and that's not really relevant. But the, whole of the post was a service tech had a pool spa set up Gunite, that was missing main drain covers. And everything he could tell there was no way to affix drain covers. They were conventional looking plastic sumps that were in the structure, but there was no way to affix drain covers to it.
And he posted in a, in a group and said, Hey, what do I, what do I do with this? And as the internet always goes, uh, some of the responses were, um, actually scary the, the people that, uh, responding were, you know, many of them saying, oh, I've, I've been doing this for, for years and this is what I do. Um, and it's real apparent that they, they really don't have an understanding of the, VGB Act and. The requirements for drains and drain covers to be VGB compliant, uh, with some of what they were talking about doing. Um, I, you know, the, the drain cover has to match the sump. It's covering by VGB standards, and you can't just arbitrarily take any drain cover and put it over any Opening in a pool and say, it's now VGB compliant, because that doesn't work. The, uh, drain covers they're are certified with the sump that they're made for, um, or the application that they're designed for. And there are all kinds of things that come into play. far the pipe is below that drain cover? The, uh, um, that's a, that's a critical one, and. Uh, you know, to just grab any grate that you have on your truck and some plastic ackerman's and drill some holes into the, into the floor of the pool or the wall of the pool, run some screws into plastic ackerman's.
With this grate over the top of it is not VGB compliant. Um, to epoxy a cover over the top of it or pool putty a cover over the top of it is just crazy absurd. And, uh, you know, really, really
Well, and think about those products that you just mentioned. They don't have a long lifetime,
no,
you know, and they're very easily broken.
right and easy to pull off. I mean, the, you
Yeah.
and, you know, kids mess around with stuff. And today's pools, the, the, the main drains, the floor drains aren't 8, 9, 10 feet down. Like they, they were routinely back in the sixties, seventies, you know, when, when residential pools were built with a shallow end and the deep end, you know, the majority of pools in our area being built in the last 15 years, if not more, are more resort like in, in that they've got, you know, like a five foot deepest part. So people are walking over these drain covers and kicking them, and pool cleaners are running across them and getting hung up on 'em and. The maintenance people are brushing the pool and hitting it with their, their brush and their vacuum head that kind of epoxy stuff. It'll, it'll jar loose in no time at all.
And the northern, the, the, the winter areas where pools are winterized, the main drains are blown out with compressed or, or, uh, uh, compressors or air blowers. Those main drain covers pop free because of The aspect of winterizing 'em,
Yep.
and, and oftentimes it's not even noticed. You, you're blowing it out.
You're kind of running through the routine. You throw the cover over the pool, and then in the spring, a lot of the pools are not clear. They're green, they're cloudy, they're, you get everything up and running and there's no drain cover on the thing at all. And as soon as the pool is clean and warm, mom and dad let the kids run out in the yard and go swim.
Yep.
that drain cover's sitting off in the corner of the deep end where it. As said all winter long and no one really even realized it. So, um, still, I'm sure you run into it too, literally, millions, I would guess, of pools out there that don't have dual drains, that they're single drains. Um, and you know, we, we see 'em all the time. Obviously anytime that we're doing. The and, and things. If we're plastering a pool, if we're putting a new liner in a pool, those single drains are converted to dual drains. It's part of the process. There's no if and or buts about it. Homeowners aren't given an option as far as our company's concerned.
They have to have it converted into an unblockable, either a, a strip drain that fits the VGB Act, uh, requirements, or a dual drain setup. And, uh, but there are still countless pools out there with single trains. So imagine that and a half foot deep pool in the scenario that I just explained. And a and a couple of, you know, missteps with letting the kids run out and jump in the pool.
'cause it's finally a warm day in the spring and the pool's finally clean and they're all excited. And, and thing you know, there's, there's problems that happen. So, uh, with that there, the only thing we found for a number of years we actually used it was an adapter. And I, I can't remember the company.
It's not a huge company that makes these things, but it's a plastic adapter that fits down inside of the sump in the floor or the wall of the pool. And it has a flange on the top that you can then attach a VGB grate to.
Yeah.
When it slides inside of the, the drain, existing drain sump, it has these thumb screws inside of this adapter that you tighten and it basically just puts pressure against that outer, the inner wall of the main drain sump, the existing sump to hold this adapter in place. And then you can take any, uh, it's, it's made in a way that you could probably use virtually any round VGB grate to attach to this adapter. and that was the only thing that we knew there to try to these pools safe. And, and we did use it for quite a while, and the entire time I was very concerned because I could not get anything from anybody to prove to me using that adapter provided a VGB certified, uh, installation when it was done. The manufacturer had no documentation to say they, they, they threw, their website is kind of hokey. It's a smaller, you know, manufacturer and they, I think they throw a VGB logo somewhere on there, it's, it's not obvious. And they were non-responsive to give certification information showing it's been through VGB testing and it truly is approved.
So that was always a concern. Anyway, what we've been using. Um, is, uh, who is one of the sponsors for Talking Pools. And again, our sponsors aren't sponsors because they wanna sponsor us. Our sponsors are sponsors 'cause we use their products and we, we like what they have and they're, you know, they're, that's the only way you get to be a sponsor on talking Pools.
But, um, they make a simplus drain cover
Yes you do. I've used that many times.
So now you, do you ever, I know you sometimes deal with vinyl pools, right?
Yeah. Not very often.
A majority of 'em are gunite.
Yes.
and, and the majority of our listeners I think are dealing with gunite pools. I know there's some, you know, in the snow belt areas that are listening to us at where the vinyl market is much more prevalent. Uh, but neat thing about this sump is the mounting plate that it comes with can be secured to From what I could tell. Um, and maybe there's something out there that, that it won't. But existing main drain sump that's out there, Hayward, Pentair ra,
Yes,
waterway,
able to put it on a lot. Of main drains where they didn't have the cover anymore, or like on the commercial ones, I've used them there because, you know, the pool is from, let's say the seventies and, you know, it just, the size isn't the same. Um, they do have like two models of it. Uh. And that is dependent on the sump ring of the original, um, cover.
I learned that recently I asked for the, the aquastar cover. Uh, they gave me one. I went there and it wouldn't line up with that ring. Uh, come to find out, they gave me one that was for more of a newer pool than the retro one.
Okay. Well, I know the, the, um, for us, like I, if, if you have a, uh, the ability of anchoring into a concrete pool floor or wall, uh, this something. Simplest cover and, and mounting plate, I'll call it works great. Aquastar actually has certified fasteners that can be into the concrete structure will hold that mounting plate down. And it's all part, it's all been VGB approved with their certification process. Um. So you can definitely know that when you're done, it's a certified thing on vinyl liners, though there's no concrete to mount it to, you know, you can't, can't just go drilling holes into a liner
right.
something to hold up that way. So the, the cool thing is the way that they've made these mounting plates to be able to be secured into the existing drain sumps. Uh, so on a vinyl pool, don't, you know, we, we've got the ability of, of using these and, and making sure that it's a safe environment when we're All done with it. And these, these sumps are designed and they've got different, a whole slew of 'em.
I mean, if you were to, to look up their stuff. Um, I, for any of the listeners out there, if you've, if you've found another manufacturer who has a similar product, I would love to know about it. 'cause I do like to know just everything that's out there and, and, you know, send us an email or post it in the group and, and us know.
But, um, so far Aquastar is the only one that's got something that I've run into. But the, uh, the, their design were, you know, you, you literally could have just a piece of pipe flush with the floor of the pool and put this over the top of it, and it is VGB certified. You don't have to have any depth the sump, which that is a criteria that all of these sumps and, and grates are certified to. Is how far the pipe is below the grate and things of that nature. Um, this hale star one that, that we, uh, we use all the time has a zero depth version of it so we can put it over anything and it, you can still have depth below it, but you don't have to have depth below it, which is really, really cool. Um, on the commercial end of stuff, I know we've used their, their larger Uh, rec or square, I guess grates, right, that fit into the nine inch, 12 inch, 18 inch, 24 inch
Yeah.
for years. Um, we use their, well even renovating when we do re plaster, um, in a lot of instances we'll use their strip drain. Um, instead of putting dual drains in, it tends to, in certain cases, be an easier. uh, retro cut open the floor and, and put their strip drain in instead of do doing round drains and connecting the pipe. But anyway, the, there are right ways and, and doing things and wrong ways or, or not. Certified ways of doing things and the liability aspect of it. I understand when people are doing what they think is right to try to secure a drain cover, um, it's better than an open hole certainly, but if you do something that isn't a proven method, that has something to back up the process. Um. That liability is gonna completely fall on you. And of the liability, none of us want to have someone hurt as a result of our actions or a result of anything, honestly, whether
No.
or, or whatever. But, um, you know, we, we don't do these things because we're, we're trying to problems for people.
But, uh, so we do things because we think it's okay. And I, I guess my point is I just don't want people to. Look at main drains and VGB and think it's okay.
Yeah.
you to, to know what you're doing is right and know that no one is going to be hurt by the result of your actions. Um. So I posted some links to some of the products that I was talking about in this group this morning, and I'm hoping it helps some of the people out there that were, were commenting on that, uh, about things they've done in the past and, and ways they do it even now to, uh, I guess educate a little bit more and, and help protect them and those that they're working for just don't want people getting hurt. There's more that goes into VGB beyond greats too, right?
Right.
with it all the time.
Well, and they've really, at least where I'm at, they've really been cracking down on, uh, on it to the point where it's been challenging for some companies that I know that do commercial work to get approval for new mainstream covers.
Yeah.
Because what is it now? They have to, it used to be what you. You determined the flow rate by, you know, dividing the number of gallons by, you know, how long you want it to turn over and now, and then you have to consider the filter size.
But now they want the main drain covers to pretty much be able to hold capacity for the power, uh, size of the pump just in case it's ever at max flow
Right.
It's not just, oh, I could pick this main drink cover for because of this. It's like, Nope. There's a lot more into it now than before.
Yeah, and that's something that, uh, our, our Midwest PhD, a chapter, uh, had Ken Gregory from Pent Air come out. We had a dinner meeting and, and had him as a speaker to help educate members of our chapter to just that. um, the aspect of things that we, we all see, know, we, we talked, uh, last week about builders that shouldn't be building Right. And dumb things they do. Was that last week, these holidays that got me all messed up. I think that was last
I think so. Yeah.
anyway, recently about, um. pools that shouldn't have been built or
Yeah.
in pools that shouldn't have been built the way they were built and, and stuff like that. on the service side, many service people out there are as guilty in doing things that shouldn't be done.
Right. Um, there's, you know what? Maybe next week we'll talk more on that, but, uh, one of them taking whatever pump that you've got or have access to installing it where that pump should never be installed.
I see it all the time.
And then with
Figures better.
variable speed too, right? uh, we, we run into what, what I would say is, uh, reputable companies in our area in having their staff install variable speed pumps and not doing any programming.
Mm-Hmm.
put it in outta the box. It's running, I think the intelliflow, not the current I three, but the, the prior one outta the box.
It ran at 30 50 for some reason as a high speed. I don't think it did 34 50, unless you changed it to
Okay.
But even at 30 50, that pump is in most applications. Gonna try to pump hundred gallons a minute, 110 gallons a minute, maybe even more. And they're, they're just dropping it in on a pool that has a, you know,
And shouldn't have copper
a
plumbing.
inch and a half return and, and one inch and a half drain and an inch and a half skimmer, and, and they're putting it in there and letting it run at 30 50. They don't do any programming. They don't do any math. They don't put flow meters on it, which is something that I think everybody should be required to do if you're installing variable speed pumps. Um, if you're not doing that, you should at least be using pressure and vacuum gauges and calculating the total dynamic head and that pump. the flow rates that the system is, is capable of handling. But um, all of that circles back to this main drain thing because technically pump at its maximum capacity, not what you program it to, but what it's built to at 34 50 RPMs cannot exceed the flow rate That the drain grate is rated for,
Yep.
and this is, this is a challenge and I still don't have an answer for this one, especially in our market. But you know, if you go out to a pool today, how do you know what the flow rate of that drain cover is? I
I have absolutely no idea. Like when I do pool inspections for realtors, I put down, yeah, there's a main drain cover, but I cannot certify that this is VGB compliant.
Right.
Unless you go diving down there with your scuba gear, you're not gonna know.
right, and, and the way that ANSI seven is, is written, is to basically, not basically to, to flat out say that you have to know the rating on that drain cover if you're installing a pump,
Yeah.
and if you put a pump in, that will move more water than what that drain cover is rated to. you're the one that's gonna end up liable for that may happen.
Yeah.
And with that too, you know, we so drain covers. We all know. Now hopefully we all know drain covers have to 'em. They have to through the VGB certification. Have ratings as to how long, how many years until that cover needs to be replaced because plastics fatigue, right? Sunlight, chemicals, stress, all that stuff fatigues the plastics and allows them to, to become fragile and, and potentially break. Um, the drain cover that I was just talking about, the simplest cover from Aquastar, I'm almost positive off the top of my head. It's five years. Every five years that cover needs to be replaced.
Yes.
that cover exceeds lifespan, the potential of it being brittle and breaking increases, and that's the reason for, for why they have to be replaced. Well now put that drain cover in a situation where you're drawing more water through it than it was designed for. And you can right now on your mind great just being sucked down when that pump is running when that plastic becomes brutal enough, it's just gonna Start breaking off and, and falling into the sump itself, and soon you've got a, cover that's busted or, or completely missing everything that it's, uh, supposed to have had to protect people from being sucked into it. So, and that's something too that the aspect of, you know, as we're doing liner replacements, that we do I don't know, say up to 150 of 'em every year, or plaster, replastering and, and even the pools we build, um, we, I, I am always trying to find ways to do two things. One, to and market the business. Um, but with that to two, always be cognizant of liabilities and potential harm. that, in that process, um, if you throw people too quickly into situations, liability increases, right? If they're not trained enough, they're not knowledgeable enough, they're gonna do things like I'm talking about, that are going to potentially create unsafe environments. So, as we are replacing and installing these drain covers, What liability do I have if a homeowner doesn't realize that that drain cover is supposed to be replaced in five years, I would think quite a bit.
Well, I've told customers that their main drains need to be, look like they haven't been changed in 20 years. And they're like, okay, well what do we have to do to fix that? And I tell them like, yeah, I don't wanna do any of those options.
Oh yeah. No, I, I, I get that. But you know, the aspect of of them and not doing it is Better than not telling them at all. Right.
Right.
And, and to the point of when, when we're installing this stuff, we know what the product is. and I have not come to a great solution, although I, I've got some different things that I'm, I'm working on, uh, that, that our staff will be working on here before we hit the of 24.
But, um, you know, I, I want to market to it as well. five years down the road, is there not money to be made by replacing drain covers? Absolutely. There is, you know, to do it in a vinyl line pool, you have really little choice other than to have a certified diver go in there and do it.
Mm-Hmm.
Well, charge a, you know, good fee for our certified divers to go into pools.
Great.
So, um, You know, theoretically you can create a whole nother line of, of services offered by just simply tracking and marketing to work you're doing today for future work down the road.
A friend of mine's son, he does diving for main dreams on commercials mainly. And one time me and her wanted to learn how to do it, so if we needed to, we could, 'cause they had the, the gear and everything.
Yeah.
And, um, so I went, I went and met them at the pool, at this pool, and I've decided that I will just always refer him.
Not that it was difficult or anything, it's definitely time consuming, but you charge accordingly. So, yeah, I'm there with my goggles in and he's like, okay, make sure you, you let air out, like periodically as you go down so you don't hurt your ears. And
right.
I'm like, okay. And uh, you could see my friend Janet, like holding me down so I could be down there long enough to, uh.
Take the screws out.
Yeah.
And then, um, when she went to do it, she forgot to let the air out as she was going down, so she hurt her ears.
Sure.
She, she's like, why do my ears hurt? And he is like, did you breathe a little? Like did you let some air out?
yeah. Yeah. It's common eardrums, uh, being damaged from the pressure is I've, I've got one of my ears and I can't remember which one. I think my left ear, I think I've got a, a bit of a terror or something in the drum. I. Um, if I get down to about five foot of water depth, my, quite a bit of pain. So
Yeah,
I, uh, I don't,
you hire people
we, we have, we have employees that, that do that and, um, you know, with that and, and we need to increase our rates for what we charge.
But we get $400 for the first hour on a dive
Oh wow.
and it really needs to go to 500 uh. As I'm looking at last year and, and costs and so on and so forth. Now, with that, we do have two people out there because I don't want anyone diving in a pool
Yes,
there, and I don't wanna rely on a homeowner
because you don't know what's gonna happen.
I. Absolutely. So as a, as a safety precaution, we're always gonna have two, two of our staff there, the, the diver and then someone else who's assisting. And it's also, there's some efficiencies there because getting in and outta the pool, grabbing different tools and gear and, and all that kind of stuff is,
and you can't move fast while you're doing it.
Right? Right. So there's, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of Benefit to having a, a two person team on a dive. And, and when you consider that $400 an hour, well, you know, it's, it's, it's like $200 a person. It's not that outta line for what
Right,
our industry are getting today. And that's why I think I need to go to 500 because, uh. That's a very specialized area of the industry that is not done by many people.
right.
uh, the equipment is not inexpensive. The experience and the certifications are not inexpensive to, to achieve. So people should be, um, paying a, a fee for when that's done. Um, anyway, the, the aspect again of what we're doing today with these drain covers, if we have A method by which we can track it and use that to market to people and tell the people too we're doing it, know, the, uh, Aquastar products come with I'm gonna call it a certificate. I, I, I'm, I am almost certain that every single drain cover they sell has one it has on it that date of manufacturer as well as the expiration. And you know, it can be as simple as, you know, providing a copy of that to the homeowner when you're invoicing so that they've got it and pointing out, hey, know, it's 2024, so by 2029 I'm gonna be seeing you again as we get out there to change that cover. you know, those are things that you change them in the fifth year, right?
Yeah.
So it's not an emergency, it's not something that needs to be scheduled today. You could do it the first week of August. I. When you're in that lull,
Right.
the after 4th of July, back to school mode where our industry tends to have a little bit of a slowdown, fill up that period with stuff like this. Hey, if you need it, and I can do it during my slow time, I'll do it for $400. If you find that it's broken and you need it, it's gonna be $600 or whatever the case is. Um. but it's about building on your existing business and, and again, providing that service that everyone needs and protecting yourself because then you're proactively alleviating some of that liability of someone 10 years down the road having a problem with a cover and someone getting hurt
Yeah.
find out that that cover expired five years earlier. put it in and didn't tell anyone about it, and because of that, you were the last one to touch that drain and it's all on you.
Yeah.
Amazing. The things you find over a cup of coffee at, you know, five 30 in the morning on a Sunday.
Well, it's a fact of life and if there's ways to make extra money when you need money, that's the way to, that's one of the ways you can do it.
Yeah. And, and that goes for anything that we do. Um, targeting is slow time. Right.
Yeah.
you, you hopefully understand when your slow times are and in some cases you want the slow time to kinda recoup, rejuvenate, um, you know,
I wanna say what with our industry, now that we've somewhat come back to normal Christmas, Christmas holidays, so like Thanksgiving to Christmas, no, Thanksgiving to probably what? The second weekend, January is like slower. Then you have like . The month of tax season and then you have Yeah. Uh, kids go back to school.
By tax like April, the month of April is slower.
Yeah. I, where I live, it, it slows down when it's tax time.
That's
like really bad.
Yeah.
Yeah, not nothing really bad.
For April is kicking off the season. Um,
Well, yeah, 'cause you have to do all the openings
crazy busy. Um.
and because we don't really do that. Yeah, it's a, a little bit slower. It's not really bad, but because people are having to pay their taxes and stuff, it's, they're not like really looking to spend a lot. Um,
sure.
I usually say that it starts picking back up probably about two weeks after tax day.
Because people got their tax refunds.
Yeah. So May is busy again
May is very, very busy.
Yeah.
Like overly busy.
July? Do you see A slowdown
Yeah.
of July into August.
compared to uh, may, may and June. Yes. But. It's still nice how people are still having parties,
Yeah.
but everyone definitely is gearing up for Memorial Day and 4th of July. Those are overwhelmingly busy.
Yeah. And we see towards the end of August there's an our push to labor day then, um
Yeah.
But there's, there's definitely a, a whole back to school mode where, where
Usually the first, what? The first two weeks is of August? Well, no, it's actually okay. Our kids go back the beginning of August. . So the week before,
doesn't it?
right? So the week before they go back to school and the week after they go back to school is pretty dead. 'cause one, they're getting their la I think the reason after, the reason after, uh, 4th of July to like the s the week after school starts, it's slow, is because everyone's trying to get their vacations in before the kids go to school.
Yeah,
Again, it's not that it's dead, it's just slower.
right.
And so no one's home. They're all out and about. Then you have everybody spending all the money, get the kids ready to go to school, you know, get the new clothes, get them supplies, and then they go to school and everybody's in that adjustment phase and of getting back on schedule.
And then about a week after then everyone's like, okay, we wanna have one more barbecue of the year, or one more swim party, or whatever it is.
Yeah. Well, the, the seasonality for us is Uh, April one to October 31st is kind of our season,
Okay.
once you know, you, you ramp up in April to where May is the craziest part. And then mid-September to mid-October is probably the crazier part of the fall as we're winterizing pools.
Yeah.
with it tapering off to the end of October.
But out outside of that too, we, we offer discounts perpetually for equipment installs that are done in the postseason or in the off season, I'd say. and although most of them occur November, December, uh, in fact, one of my sales guys just talked to me Saturday about a filter he sold on Saturday for a pool that's winterized. Um. I'm gonna, it's a clean and clear four 20, I think we get $2,200 installed or something for that filter, if I remember right.
I need to live where you live,
it's 2000. But anyway, the, yeah. Right. Move on up. I'll put you to work right now. Um,
Like
um,
you get 2200, I get like 18 to 1900, and then what is it? And then you say you get like 3,200 for pump for a pump, and I get like 27
Yeah.
and I'm told I'm expensive.
the markets are all, all definitely different. But, uh, anyway, we're gonna be installing this filter, uh, I think tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday this week. Again, towards the end of the week. We're in single digits, so we won't be doing any equipment installs outside then.
But if it's, you know, 20 degrees or above, yeah. Our guys are out putting equipment in.
Oh, screw that.
we're using well, but it's all relative to, the individual, you know, the, the,
Okay.
sitting home and, and doing
Yeah,
Um,
true.
you know, you wanna go out and spend, you know, four or five hours a day putting
And the people that, and your employees probably have more experience working those temperatures, so it's not as bad to them
Yeah.
as that is freezing. I'm staying home. Uh, , it's not worth it for me to go outside,
But you know, we, we took 'em all. This is the second year we did this. We took 'em all out, um, you know, before the, the code set in. I, I don't remember if it was October or November, uh, to Bass Pro and gave them all, uh, I think we gave them's four or $500 spending limits to go
Okay.
buy a bunch of gear. Carhartt. Bib overalls and jackets for the guys that are working outside. But even inside the building in the winter around here, especially when you get these single digits, it's gonna be cool in the building. So the, the office staff and the retail staff are, are getting warmer, you know, flannel shirts or, or sweatshirts or whatever.
And then we took all that stuff. We had actually two different days that we went up there and inundated the local Bass Pro shop, um, with, with orders for our 50 plus employees. Um, filling up shopping carts. I think I had eight, six or eight shopping carts that I loaded into my car, the, the day I was
Oh wow.
And then we sent it all out and had our company logo, uh, onto all of it. And this year, 2024 is 70th year in business.
Oh my God.
all seasons was started in 1954, and this is our 70th year. So we worked the 70 into the logo for this year and. Had that put on all the clothes. But to your point, yes, they are more acclimated to work in colder weather. Um, and, and it's not just them, but we also understand that, you know, the, the glues that you use for PVC, the conventional glues that you use don't work in cold weather.
No.
you
Oh God, no.
you've gotta use glues and, and thing, you know, you gotta understand working in cold weather, the, the constraints you're working in and the products you're working in need to You need to make sure it's all gonna work. So we have hot and cold glue, we've got, you know, all these different things that we,
What
into and when we get into winter mode.
I remember when I first started, I had a pool. In, in an area called Rancho Marietta, which is like the ritzy area that's like 45 minutes away and I had to fix the um, anti siphon valve. Like had to replace it.
Mm-Hmm.
the temperatures then probably were, like, at night it maybe got to 35. Not freezing, but freeze warning, but it was like 45 out during the day and I used the gray glue that I normally use,
Yeah,
know?
No, not knowing that it wasn't going to set. And so I, I glued it up. And I put it together. I turned it on. Everything seemed fine, but obviously I didn't stay long enough. So then I leave, and then I get a call that there's water everywhere. So they turned the water off. I go back. It blew off.
Yeah.
Did it again.
Waited for a little bit. It looked like it was good. We turned it off. Let's set overnight. And then I came back the next day, turned it on. It blew off again. I had to use Blue Hot Glue in order to keep it together, and that was a learning lesson
Right.
that I can't, so when it's freezing cold outside, someone wants me to do plumbing.
Sorry, it's too cold because my glue won't set.
Right. See, so that's, that's the whole point of our, our, uh, talking pools and all the other things that we do is, is to others learn from mistakes and,
Yeah,
hopefully.
don't do it again
yeah, anyone that just heard us talk about hot and cold glue now will think the next time they're working in weather that's below 40 degrees, that they, they might want to consider, uh, checking into what their glue is capable of before they walk away from something
because I'm the type that I love my. You know, my gray glue because I like that if I, for some reason have to take it off really quickly like I put on and realize, oh shit, I forgot this. I could take it off and it hasn't set yet, or, you know, it just gives me more ability to maneuver for a little bit longer than if you use just blue glue.
Yeah.
Um, but as I learned, you can't do that in every situation.
Yep.
So well, I think that's a good episode for this week. I will talk to you later and tell your puppy there, have a good New Year's.
Yeah. Here. Turn around. Chewy. Say hi. Hi. Chewy. Chewy is all of a five pound Yorkie.
He barely looks like he's five pounds.
My wife and kids picked her up, uh, early on in Covid. we had a, a eight or nine pound peekaboo before uh, had passed away a couple years earlier and we weren't gonna get in our dog 'cause we're never home.
And, Covid hit and then all of a sudden everybody's home. So Chewy, uh, into our family then and, um,
Aw.
she and I just last week, spent two days driving back from Florida together. Nothing, nothing better than togetherness with your five pound Yorkie for a couple days in a car.
So Manly
right? Yeah. Yeah. I know everyone, Dr.
And she, she literally drives, I mean, she, she sits on your lap with her paws up on the steering wheel looking out the window. whole 1200 miles.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Well,
Anyway.
to you next week.
good. Take care.
Bye.