Home Improvement Show
Fire Safety and Chimney Tips with Greg Boss | Home Improvement Show
n this episode of the Home Improvement Show, host Rich Oris welcomes Greg Boss from English Sweep. They dive into fire safety as they discuss Fire Prevention Week and Chimney Safety Week. Greg shares valuable advice on the importance of maintaining working smoke alarms, choosing the right fire extinguishers, and knowing how to use them properly. Rich shares a personal story about a kitchen fire and emphasizes why keeping safety equipment up-to-date is crucial. They also talk about chimney maintenance, handling leaks, and upgrading your fireplace. Listen in for expert advice to keep your home safe and sound!
- Broadcast on:
- 05 Oct 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
At your service, it's the home improvement show presented by Mosby Building Arts. To ask a question, call 314-436-7900 or 800-925-1120. Now, the host of the home improvement show, Rich Horace, on the voice of St. Louis, King of OX. [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, St. Louis, and welcome to the King of OX. Prove is show your go-to destination for expert advice on all things home related. I'm your host, Rich Horace. Like he said, for the next two hours, we're going to be diving deep into your home improvement questions, conundrums, curiosities, anything you may have going, fixing a pesky floor squeak, all the way to mastering the art of DIY projects. We can help you out right here today. Let's make your house the envy of everyone in the neighborhood right here today, and hey, you know, I know you're busy. I know there's a lot to get straightened out, a lot to do. You got a burning question on your mind. Do not hesitate to reach out to me today. Dial 314-436-7900. And I will be here with you for you for the next two hours. So come off, St. Louis. Let's dive in and spruce up your homes. And today we do have a little bit of a special day, and there may be some special questions for you guys that you can get answered today. So today I have a special guest. His name is Greg Boss. He is a master sweep and owner of English Sweep. So we've got a couple reasons that we're going through this today and good reasons to have Greg help us out and deliver some information to us because this week, this coming week, the sixth through the 12th, we have fire protection week. And this year's campaign is kind of strives to educate everyone about the importance of having working smoke alarms in the home, but there's much, much more to discuss and talk about than just that. And then the following week after that is chimney safety week. So we've got Greg here today with me to kind of help talk about discuss and maybe even answer any questions for you. So I would remind you again that if you have anything, fireplace, chimney flu, chimney related, anything leaking brick, leaking chimneys, we can discuss all sorts of things like that. That Greg takes care of, helps us at Mosby take care of a lot of these things. So again, you can reach me and Greg, get those questions out and answered. 314-436-7900. But let's jump in here with Greg and just see what's going on. How you doing, Greg? Good to see you. - I'm doing great, Rich. Thanks for having me on. It's a wonderful day out here, but those temperatures are changing. And this week coming up, this get being ready for fire prevention week is really exciting because every house is a home. We have family that know how to get out of a house, having working smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, you know, are really important, so. - Yeah, no, absolutely. And I do have something I do in my daily job with Mosby Building Arts is I have to discuss smoke detectors with people very, very often. And sometimes they're kind of this kind of surprise that I need to discuss that with them, but there's so much in our codes today. And when we remodel the inside of a house and we get so deep into a remodel, the municipalities will pick types of projects where they say, okay, you're remodeling a full kitchen, you're updating the smoke detectors in the whole home. You're remodeling a full bathroom, you're updating the smoke detectors in the whole home. And there's a lot of them. It's not cheap. It takes more than you think. There's a couple of different ways around it, but I'm always having this conversation. And also because I've heard a lot of people say, "Well, what if we don't pull permits? "What if we don't?" And I'm like, see, so that's where it becomes sticky because it's my responsibility. It's our, like your responsibility, Greg, to know when you should be pulling a permit for a project, not that owner, right? Right, right, right, right. Exactly. So I'm like, so I can't really get to just do that. And the other reason I've taken a little bit of a Mosby's taken a stand on that, obviously that when we're there, we're going to build it, right? We're going to get permits. We're gonna make sure. Sometimes we're building a little better than that, but 'cause it does become a minimum of sources. And sometimes we may go a little beyond what the code say, but my other kind of personal reason is, I don't pull permits in your home. And then I don't update the smoke detectors because they don't know the work I'm doing. And your home catches on fire. Yeah, no, thank you. I don't want that on my conscious. Do you want, how much time do you want to get out of your house in the event of a fire? 'Cause when they're up to code, it could be quicker. And so I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not, I just, I refuse to do that. And so yeah, we're starting out some jobs, couple two, $3,000 in, and we haven't even discussed the project yet because we've got to do all this electrical work and to get their home up to code. But so it's a good thing in the end, to make sure that's right and everything. So I would say for now and for the first and the fire protection safety and all that, other than just the smoke detectors, and of course, getting the batteries checked and all of that often, what other things should we be thinking about with the fire protection week and just with our homes in general? Well, I mean, having the right fire extinguisher, like in your kitchen and in your house and you buy your furnace room, buy your fireplace, if you have a fireplace there, have a fire extinguisher there, you want to put out a chimney fire if you would have it or just to be able to put out a fire. But you know, you got a lot of seniors too that they have the old battery operated and they can't get up on ladders to check that. And like you said, doing a remodel, now they make you have all electric smoke detectors and cover them in oxide testers working in the house. So those are the things to think about when you're doing those remodels. Yeah, no, a hundred percent for sure. It is very important and I can tell people also from a personal aspect of being, not just in this industry, but being a homeowner and having things happen as a homeowner. I don't remember if it was maybe four years ago, something like that. I was actually getting new appliances. I had them ordered. It was kind of ironic. I had my new appliances ordered and we were kind of updating our kitchen and I put a microwave dinner in the microwave and I walked into my pantry and I got this OCD thing with throwing away cardboard boxes. I have to rip them up. I can't throw away two inches of air. So I'm ripping up this box and I drop it in the trash can and I turn to walk back in the kitchen and there's just literally smoke billowing across the ceiling. And right about the time I saw that, the smoke detectors start going off everywhere and they're loud as I'll get out. My wife jumps up, I open the microwave and it's just completely engulfed in flames. And so I slammed it shut thinking, why did I open it? Like, what was I even thinking? Like, you think I would maybe even know better, but so I slammed it shut and then I went into my pantry because I have a fire extinguisher in there and opened it up and put it out. And man, what a mess this whole thing caused. And end up ripping the whole microwave off the wall over the stove, putting it out in the, like on the front porch steps, out about eight feet away from the house to let it kind of simmer and cool down. And it was just like, oh my God, but yeah, it can happen. And it was a frozen microwave dinner that I just, I don't know if there was something in it, how it happened, it was very interesting, but luckily I was able to call my appliance person and say, hey, any chance on getting the microwave a little sooner than the rest of the stuff? And we also found out how hard it is to live without a microwave without a doubt. But that's a good thing that you brought up. You do how to operate that fire extinguisher. I mean, people have never pulled a pin and aimed it, don't know how to actually work it. So that's a key thing to, you know, least go maybe get a lesson on how to use that fire extinguisher. And some of the new compact ones is still pulling a pin, but you're just pushing a button instead of pulling a handle down and aiming it. So again, knowing how to work that fire extinguisher in that case is a good thing. But what if you weren't there and you had walked out made on the garage, you know, what would have happened there? But, you know, again, that's why you have doors closed and things like that, you try to keep those fires down 'cause once that oxygen hits that and then all of a sudden it just creates more of a mess though. - Yeah, yeah. And that's something we can touch on too. We got to take our first break here, but I would like to touch on that training because I've been through some, I did it with my children. It is very important. I think everybody should do it. So when we return, we'll touch on that training, but also don't forget we've got chimney stuff. We've got Greg Boss, the master of chimneys sweep here. He can answer any questions about your chimneys, your leaks, all that. I can answer anything else about your home. Feel free to give us a call, 314-436-7900. Don't go nowhere, we'll be back with more. - You're listening to "The Home Improvement Show" presented by Mosby Building Arts on "King of OX." Now, once again, here's Rich Orris. All right, St. Louis, we are back and we are sitting here with Greg Boss from "English Sweep" owner, chief operator and head bottle washer of "English Sweep." He's done it, he's been there, he's lived it. He knows everything, absolutely everything about it. He's helped us at Mosby, he's helped me at Mosby. We've worked together, we've fixed things, we've improved things. It's not always about fixing it. Sometimes it's about new, it's about better. It's about getting that new fireplace or getting that new chimney cap that goes along with the house really well. We can talk about a lot of that stuff also, but we're also here for you, for your comments, your concerns, your questions, maybe even if you have a story of something that happened to you, like I was kind of going over and how you could share that and kind of help our community just understand that, hey, this stuff really does happen and we really should kind of think about it, train about it, understand it. So, hey, give us a call, we're here for you, we got two hours going here today. So we'll be here till one o'clock. So three, one, four, four, three, six, seven, nine hundred, get you right to me and we will get your question on the air. But so Greg, before we left for the break there, we were kind of talking about that, using that fire extinguisher. And it's something that I actually learned through Mosby, was very early on, I was in the field, it was 18, 20 years ago, or something after I first started working here. And we had a training for everybody in the field on how to use the fire extinguishers and we would have them in our trucks and on job sites and that to be safe and you were making a good point through the break about how you use that, what could be the adverse effects, but you gotta try and use it properly. And I went through that training with Mosby years ago and I did it with my children. I did it with both my children and I literally had my daughter out behind our house by the creek shooting off a fire extinguisher just to say, hey, when it comes, you need practice. You need to know how to do it. So what are some of those pointers on? I would definitely advise everybody go out and get, think about it, get some training, look up some real stuff. But what kind of pointers you have for how you use that fire extinguisher? - Well, the main thing to start off with is make sure you have the right one for different parts of the house. The summer not made for like Greece. Summer not made, been actually made for a real fire. But that gotten, like you said, shoot it, get that training, but no different ways how to pit a fire out. You know, if we think about like a chimney fire, if you got something going on in your house, best solution there is not to take a fire extinguisher and shoot it into like the fire 'cause you could blow those embers out onto the floors and cause more problems. You would want to shoot it more up the flu. Our better solution is, you know, take a couple soaking wet towels and throw it all over your fire and let that steam expand and it will pit the fire out also. - Yeah, no, that is definitely good advice. And I would definitely advise everybody to think about that, train on that, try and shoot your fire extinguishers. It's well worth the money to use one up and get another one to understand how to use it because what you could lose if you don't is much, much greater than that. So what about just general kind of practice around the house, safety around the house? We were talking about like the second floor ladder, things like that, any other tips on making the fire plans and all of that for everybody, if something bad or catastrophic were to happen. - Well, the escape ladders for like a second store, like each room should have one because a lot of homes only have one main stairwell going down to the main floor. So having an escape ladder and practice of hitting it out the window during the daylight and going down there and you get that field how to get down there because, you know, most accidents happen when you're in your sleep, you know, you smell something, there's a fire going on or something like that and be able to know how to do it when it's dark compared to when it's light outside. The other thing is, you know, during, if there's a fire and you crawl on the floor 'cause there's smoke, you should be down low, but before you open the door and go through something, touch that door to see if it's hot on the other side because you could open up that door and then the whole room could be engulfed in flames. But, you know, we're all have very busy lives. Nothing's ever gonna happen to us, you know, and then all of a sudden it does. And like you said, a 35-hour fire extinguisher learning how to use that is well worth the practice and letting your family have that comfort, that peace of mind, that they're safe in their home and that there's a solution if something does go wrong. - Yeah, yeah, and you know, something new, I just learned in the past couple of weeks that we were looking at remodeling a basement and we read pretty deeply and got our licensed architect involved on, read these rules from the municipalities and help us understand them because what we were hoping to do was add a second set of stairs to the basement. And so now you've got the one in the middle of the house and then we were gonna have one close to the garage. So basically you can come up a set of stairs, be right at the door to the garage and go out the door to the garage. But the definition of means of egress lands you outside. It has to be outside. So even if you had a lot of older homes in St. Louis that have two staircases, they're 100, 100 plus years old, they've got the main staircase and the servant staircase and that is not means of egress 'cause if that whole first floor is on fire, it doesn't matter which staircase you go down, you're still landing at the base of a fire and you gotta be able to get outside. So I wouldn't rely on that for, oh well, if the house is on fire, they'll just go to the other staircase 'cause that might not be the case. So plan for that ladder, plan for that, that big enough window, egress outside and getting yourself to outdoor air 'cause that's where you need to be. And one of the things I've always promoted too is make that plan with your family and pick that spot where you go. We've done the same thing at Mosby Building Arts. We've got two ways out and we've made a plan and we're saying, all right, if you're from here to here, you go out the back, if you're from here to here, you go out the front, if you can or else you all go to say and then we have meeting spots outside of the building, you know, farther away for each direction and that way you can gather people and know. So get that meeting spot with your family so they're not just wandering, you have a kid does make it out, they're in a panic, the house is on fire, you gotta do that often and remind them what to do and where to go and all that. It's the only way to remember it when you're in that situation. - Yeah, and you know, your pets know when there's something going on too and that's a, you know, your pets will let you know if something's wrong in that house and you know, and say, "Hey Rover, calm down." You know, there might be something really going on. But again, having those smoke detectors, carbon dioxide testers working in a pepper spot, can give you at least a few minutes of time to get out. - Definitely. - But I love the meeting area. - Yeah. - And if I meet and don't worry about anything else, this gotta get out first, so. - Yeah, absolutely and think about it too. You can train your pets. So we were talking during the break too about earthquakes and maybe in the next segment we can talk a little bit about a little bit more about that and things to plan but my sister years and years ago when she was, I mean, she was probably in middle school, maybe early high school ninth grade or something. And there was a like a fortune teller kind of guy predictions person that predicted we were gonna have this giant earthquake in Missouri on our new Madrid fault. He predicted it was, it was early '90s. It was maybe like '91 or '92 or something like that when he said this would happen. And my little sister trained their dog when she blew a whistle to go down in the basement and meet her underneath the stairs in the basement. And I was like, that is great. But so she literally, and if that whistle went off that dog would run down there and go underneath those stairs. And so you can do that with your pets too, maybe blow a whistle and they know to run to your room or something like that. At least maybe you have a chance for that. So, but hey, we need to take a break. We'll get into more of this. We got plenty more to come. Don't forget we've got all the questions, answers, everything from you guys we can get into. If you have anything going on around your house, feel free to give us a call 314-436-7900. We'll find us. We'll have more with myself, more about your house and more with Greg and English Suite. Right after this. - The voice of St. Louis. News Radio 1120-K-M-O-X. - All right guys, we are back. And a lot going on today. We've got Greg Boss with us from English Suite. We're talking about everything, fire prevention. We've got, we'll get more into the chimney stuff for what's coming up for the following week. So, I want to get into more of that detail. But I do want to remind everybody, we're right here for you. We can answer anything you need, anything you got around your house, especially if you've got chimney, chimney leaks, any flu issues, problems, anything going on with your fireplace, maybe a back drafts often. And you want to maybe ask some questions and see if we can figure out how to help you out. That's what we're here for today. We'd love to hear from you. 314-436-7900 is where you can find us here today. And yeah, so Greg, through the break, you were talking a little bit about some of the different flu pipes and drier vent pipes and things we have to think about while we remodel and everything. And there's a lot that we do have to go through and try and think about as we remodel people's houses for access and everything and getting into all of that. So we're going to get, I'm going to get back into that in just a moment. We've got John on the line. So let's see what John has going. Maybe he's got something that'll include you, Greg. John, what's up? - So I have questions regarding the attic. - Okay. - I want to put in attic baffles. - Yes. - But I'm not sure if I just want to put them where the sausages are or if I have to put them in in every rafter. And then my second question is in regards to covering a whole house fan, fan to cover it from the movers or on top where the blade is. - Oh, for the whole house fan, are you thinking of like a temporary covering? Like just during the winter months? - Right. - Oh, gotcha, gotcha. So looking at your attic baffles and getting the air moving in that attic. So really those baffles, you'd want to put those in between each of the rafters wherever you have a low soffit line with soffits that can intake air. - And so wherever there's an event and opening in the soffit, I should put a baffle there. - Yes. Well, and it also depends on what kind of exhaust that you have because if you have a ridge vent that's-- - You have a ridge vent. - You have a ridge vent. So basically to match that ridge vent's exhaust, you want to have air that can intake all the way down the whole soffit line front and back of the house, the same distance as that ridge vent. So if you've got 50 feet of ridge vent, you want 50 feet of air coming in and baffles on the front of the house and the back of the house to bring that air in from both sides. So if you have a random area every eight or 10 or 12 feet where there's a hole that lets air in, then you need to create more holes or more access to let more air in so that that ridge vent can actually work properly and ventilate the entire attic. - No. So they're spaced like every six feet, maybe? That wouldn't be enough. - Yeah, that would not be enough. Basically what you're looking for is when they cut that ridge vent, they cut about two inches of plywood out on each side of the roof. And so you're looking for the same size opening if you can imagine a two inch strip going down that soffit line from one end to the other, one on the front of the house and one on the back of the house, that's what would match it. It's hard to match it perfectly, but the closer you can get, the better. - Okay, so without having to replace my soffit, would it be all right just to do where the vents are or should I just put the baffles all along the rafters? - So you could put, if you have openings, you could put the baffles all along the rafters in kind of in place of if in the future you change that soffit to be fully vented all the way down, then you'll already have the baffles there. - Okay. - So that's what I would say to do just to getting them where the vents are now is better, getting them all the way down will be the same, changing your soffit to get air in all the way down at some point will be the best thing that you can do. - All right, and then how high should the baffle go up? - Just higher than the insulation. So generally when they do that, that baffle is, it's like maybe three feet long, and so they kind of put it in there against the plywood, underside of the plywood decking, and then they take a piece of like fiberglass insulation and they stuff it in there underneath it to kind of hold it in place. And that keeps it there while you blow in all your new insulation. - Oh, okay. - So, and so I would do that all the way down and then you'll be covered for any future outdoor soffit material change that lets more air in, then you'll really be good. So for your attic, for that attic fan, I would suggest covering that from the attic side. You'll be way better off 'cause those bat, even those, the little louvers are thin, they're very thin metal. So even if you cover it from the underside with something, you'd get a lot of cold and heat transfer through that because you're still kind of uninsulated to the whole attic, so you're better off getting like a really thick blanket, something that's kind of a good and so like a moving blanket and just drape it over that whole thing from the attic side. And then it wouldn't hurt to cover it from the inside too. One is just a kind of a second thing to help not let air get through. And two is so you don't turn that fan on accidentally while that blanket's still on there. 'Cause if you use the fan and somebody doesn't realize that or know that, they come in, they click that on and yeah, you'll have more of a problem if it gets caught up in that fan. - Okay, that was very helpful. - No, no problem, I appreciate the call. And I would remind you too that you can consider there are attic fans. If you use your attic fan a lot and you really like it and enjoy it, there are attic fans out there, you can purchase and have installed that fit between the rafters and they have doors that open and close on the backside and they will insulate as well as your attic through these really thick, like six inch thick foam doors. So you'll get the full insulation value when you're not using it. And then when you go to use it, it just opens up and it works. You need a little height and you need space for this thing and they don't fit where the old attic fans were. So it comes with some framing drywall painting work to get it installed, but they're way, way better. So if you love them and you use them and you have them, I would look into getting one of those installed 'cause that's the best of both worlds. So hey, we gotta get to our last break at the hour. We got Chris and we got Cara on the line. So if you guys can hold through this really quick break, we'll get to you as soon as we return. Now back to the Home Improvement Show presented by Mosby Building Arts on KingMOX. Once again, here's Rich Ora's. All right, you heard him, we're back and this is a little bit of a shorter segment. So I'm gonna jump straight into the phones here and we'll get Cara on the line and see what's going on. Can you hear me, Cara? Oh, I can. Can you hear me? Can, thanks for calling, what's happening? Well, thanks for taking my call. I have a slab house and I want your opinion on a water heater and a boiler that are in a closet, kind of a garage closet. So really the goal is to reduce any freezing pipes or reduce a fire source from any kind of gas exhaust fumes. And right now, there is an open vent to the outside, an external kind of little 12 by 12 open vent and the doors are completely closed with no inside air access unless the door's open, right? So what is your opinion on the doors? Do they need to be louvered or completely closed? So it depends on if you have what type of water heater and boiler you have. If it's getting rid of fumes to the outside and it's a standard system and it's using air from around the room or outside or in the garage to get the air to the unit to move it. So there's sealed systems that you don't have to have any air in or out. So you can get a water heater that's a sealed system that the pipes go outside and it gets its intake air from outside and it gets rid of the bad carbon monoxide fumes to the outside, then you can have a completely sealed room. And if your boiler would need to work the same way, if it's gas flames and has a fluid drawing out carbon monoxide, you would need both of them to work the same way so you can completely have a sealed room or you need some sort of pipe bringing in outside air into that room. So usually that's what they do is the room sealed, it has a door that's like an entry door that actually has weather stripping that seals and then they bring in a small pipe where those units can suck in air from the outside to get their recovery air as they run so that they're not getting carbon monoxide into the house or in the garage and into that closet and possibly into the house. So it kind of depends on the units you have and you definitely, if you have older units, you need some sort of recovery air to get inside that room while they run, but typically when those rooms, when you have separation from the garage and the garage door seals and you've got that, it can kind of get that intake air from outside and you've got the boiler running, hot water heater running, that room typically produces so much conditioned air in the winter that the pipes just don't freeze that are in that room. That's just kind of a product of how it works and that's why they typically don't freeze very often. They would need to get really, really cold with some sort of leak of air infiltration directly into that room. So if you had pipes freeze, I would also look for some kind of other uninsulated area or air leak into the room that's letting in more air than it should. - Wait, Rich, I'm sorry, I just need to clarify something. So you were mentioning, it depends on whether it's a standard system or a closed system. What you're saying that the risk of freezing decreases when the closet itself is completely shut off with like a closed system. But if I have that outside vent and right now it's drawn in air that way to rid the CO2. - Yep. - The chances that it's going to freeze are very minimal because of all the heat produced in the room. - Correct. - Unless we have one of those super sub zero weeks, right? - Correct, yep. Something really bad, really low sub zero or you get just a lot of leakage air infiltration into there where it kind of overcomes the heat that's being produced. But that just doesn't happen a lot in those circumstances. - Okay, and then just one more clarifying question. With the doors that are there, if I have that external source of air, the doors are okay to be completely closed just like a front door. They do not need to be luvered. - Yes, correct. - All right, yay, wonderful. - So is it luvered now or? - No, no, no. - Yeah, it's not, yeah, it typically isn't, yeah. - Okay. - Yeah, 'cause your garage gets really cold and you open the garage door, it's really cold in the garage and that's why they're creating that separation from the garage. All right, sounds good? All right, well, I guess we got done with that one. Let's get to Chris real quick and see what's happening there. Chris, can you hear me? - I sure can. - Awesome, thanks for calling. - No, I'm glad you guys are here today. I got a kind of an interesting question that I'm not sure if I'll do it this way or not, but I basically set up for a, I guess I'll call it a carport like things and as I got ready to dig my posts or my holes for the footings or the, where I was gonna put the posts, I realized I had run underneath the line that goes from my home back to my barn, from my solar and I'm right over the top of that power cable. - Okay. - And I can obviously, I can move it some, but what my concern is I've already dug three of the four holes and so I'm afraid I'll have a compromised hole for one if I start moving around. And the idea I thought about is, is it possible to, once I have that, that cable located to put in two piers around the cable, fill those up and then put a, a pier on top of it so that it'll, it'll have enough, will that have enough strength to hold everything together or is that not gonna work? If, you know, if I can get the part that's down there, 'cause I think the cable's down about maybe 20, it's more than 24 inches and maybe more than 30 inches. - Okay. - So that makes sense what I'm saying or not. - No, it does and if it's more than 30 inches, usually that's how deep your piers are. So you might be okay, 'cause 30 inches is our frost line in St. Louis area. But I would, at the most, I definitely would recommend not having, I'd recommend shifting things if you need to and not having that cable line, even if it's in conduit or whatever, inside that pier. And one of the things you could do is put like a box around that cable line or kind of like an L of two pieces of some kind of material that won't rot or anything over that. And if you shift that pier away from it, so you got the whole bottom of the pier next to it, but it makes for like kind of a wider pier. And so you'll have your whole bell pier outside of that wire, but you're gonna go ahead and pour concrete over top of that wire and have that box around it where it doesn't, it isn't encased in the concrete. And then you just kind of shift everything to over that pier. You should be fine there. I would definitely, main thing is to recommend not doing a pier with that wire going through it. 'Cause if that ever moves, even the slightest bit, it can compromise that wire and you'll have a much bigger job to take care of. So Chris, appreciate the call. We gotta get into our our time break here with the news and everything. So don't forget, you can give us a call, find us right here at 314-436-7900. We got Greg Boss with me. We've got a whole 'nother hour for everybody. We'll talk to you in the next hour. - At your service, it's the Home Improvement Show, presented by Mosby Building Arts. To ask a question, call 314-436-7900 or 800-925-1120. Now, the host of the Home Improvement Show, Richorus, on the voice of St. Louis, King of OX. - All right, everybody, we're back. Our two for you right here. We got everything going for you. Had some pretty good calls, questions, and conversations, and some great conversations with my special guest today, Greg Boss talking about fire safety, chimney safety, everything with that around your house. A lot of important topics there to go over, but remember, we're just now starting a whole brand new second hour for you. So again, don't forget, you can find us both here, especially if you have any fireplace, chimney, chimney leaks. Any kind of questions on that. We got the expert on that with me today for you. So 314-434-36-7900 is where you can find us and get your questions out there. But so yeah, Greg, let's kind of just let everybody know just about you, about your business, about what English sweep does, stands for, some of the different stuff that you guys do, what type of work, all of that. So you want to just kind of maybe start out with your background, how you got into this, how you became the owner of English sweep, and what you guys do. - Well, yeah, English sweep was started back in 1978 from a gentleman from England, and that's how the English sweep name came into play. I worked with the gentleman, started in '83, and he had some health issues, and I bought it from him in 1985. And I wanted to time with my family, and I like working with my hands and seeing the work that we do and see how it looks afterwards, that sense of accomplishment. So at that point in time, I went and got certified by the Trimney Safety Institute of America, and then I also learned how to do brickwork and stuff came up immediately. So I went to school to become a Mason. - And that's awesome. - Yeah, so I've been able to teach our crew, which is 28 strong, and we can take care of all the chimney-eventing needs. I'm a master-certified sweep, the only one in Missouri, and we basically can take care of all your chimney-eventing needs. I call this venting experts, and we don't look at the chimney as a specialty as one item. We look at a fireplace in the chimney as a whole system, and how it affects what's inside them below, and what's outside them below, how air pressure works, but does a chimney need the tuck-pointing work, or does it need to be rebuilt? We do want the house down on 109, chimney looks great, but as soon as we popped off the cement on cover, the whole chimney started coming loose because all that was holding out was a thin coat of what's mortar called tuck-pointing, where it was removed and stuff, but the rest of the chimney was over 100 years old, that mortar, and it was just sand. So we look at the whole thing, we look underneath it to see how it's venting. Like your furnace and water heater, making sure it has make-up air, so it leaves the fireplace alone. We do a lot of relining of those furnaces and water heaters, just because of the new high efficiency appliances in these smaller flues, so they vent properly and don't create moisture, or like we call it a rainforest inside your chimney. - Yes, yes. - So now you think you got a leaky chimney, and you spend all this money on gutters and roofing and tuck-pointing and then you can come out for around, like $1,000 per liner system and it stops all the water issue. So just having the right information when you're working on a home project helps out a whole lot, and to having the right tools. So if you have a lift, you have scaffolding that can be put up, things you can do that work safely is important, but with anything we talked about too was, with all the different major things going on around town, tornadoes, earthquakes, things like that, people don't think, well, oh, nothing went wrong here, but your chimney outside shakes, it moves, mortar falls out, you can crack tiles, things, all those things can happen. So having your fireplace checked on a regular basis is important, but, and the other big question we get all the time, do you have to do anything with my gas fireplace? Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, your gas fireplace, you want to check to make sure there's no leaks inside your systems, you know, if you start your fire and there's a big boom, that means there's some kind of delay in addition. So have it redone and have it checked, make sure those holes in your burner, they rust out because you got water being produced when you, when you burn gas and those holes rust out. And you know, your flame doesn't look right. Yeah, we stop using our gas logs because it didn't look right, we were scared of it. Well, let's come out and give you that confidence on how to use it. It might be pitting in an electronic night or something like that or change out your pilot system that's remote control, so you don't have to get down there and be lighted each time. Those type of conveniences, we have those skills to help you just to create those worn fireplace memories. And when you're not using your fireplace, those other eight year, eight months out of the year, you know, make sure it's still attractive and it's still a focal point of your house where all those celebrations happen all the time. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I'll have you answer a question that I get from time to time on the show. And I've never really, I mean, there's so many different answers out there. It's kind of sporadic what I've read on the internet and what I've heard people say and what I've investigated, but I'd love to hear your opinion on. So when you have the gas fireplace, how often should you look into and or clean the actual flu on a gas fireplace? Well, I would say, well, the National Fire Institute that the word gas certified through said they should be checked yearly. If you look at most of all manuals, all those gas appliances says that they need to be checked on a regular basis. But you know, a lot of times you have different fireplace shops, things and people install gas logs and they don't sweep the system beforehand. So are those articles combustion being contained? 'Cause now you have carbon monoxide, you got water, going up a flu. Do you have cracks, gaps that could be leaking into your living quarters above you? You don't want that, and you don't want all that to sit the fall down on your gas logs. But then they don't work properly. So having that checked and making sure that what you don't see is doing what it's supposed to do, making sure it exhausts properly. If you got gas logs, is your fumes going up the flu or is it backing into the house? I always hear, oh, my fireplace was smoking, so I picked gas in it. Well, where's that carbon monoxide water going in? We had a home, we had a home out in Innsbruck that basically, you know, the walls all were turning black because it was not venting properly. And it was a vent-free gas log, but it was not, the logs weren't properly, things weren't set up right, and they're pumping carbon monoxide back in their house. Thank God that the black showed up on the walls, so it brought it to their attention. So gas needs to be checked also, especially a lot of those direct vent systems, because you'll start it up and there'll be delay, delay, and then also there'll be a big explosion of the gas and you know, everything has shakes, and then it works fine. Yeah, yeah. Yep, no, I've had that question come up quite a few times, and I'll tell you a funny story about a week or so ago from mine, I was actually just working from home in the morning and heard this really weird noise, and my wife was sitting in the living room where our gas fireplace is, and she's like, what is that noise? It sounds like it's coming from the fireplace, and it ended up, it would just happen real quick a few times, and I finally figured out, and I walked into the living room. There was a woodpecker like on the metal pipe, and it was just coming right, that sound, and I didn't get a picture of it, 'cause by the time I got outside, I saw this giant bird fly away, it must have the front door shake or something scared it off or whatever, but yeah, woodpeckers sitting on my metal chimney with a metal pipe sticking out of it, going (grunting) we're warring around the house like, what is that? It was absolutely crazy, so yeah, I might wanna make sure that thing didn't poke a hole through there, huh? - Yeah, this guy have a chuck, but you know, that is so common, they have a woodpecker like on your furnace flue, or your chimney flue, and they're pecking away, and it sounds like somebody's coming, shooting a gun down on your flue. - Yeah, it did, it was loud. - Best solution for that, rubber snake. - Yeah, just throw him, you have a rubber snake on top of there, yup, that'll take care of him. All right, so hey, we gotta get into our first break of this hour. Hey Ron, I see you're on the phone there. If you could hold on for just a moment while we get through this commercial break, we'll get to you, everybody else, more with Greg Boss, don't forget, you can find us three, one, four, four, three, six, seven, nine, hundred for the rest of the show right here, we'll be right back. - It's the Home Improvement Show, presented by Mosby Building Arts on King of OX. Now once again, Rich Orris. - All right, everybody, we are back, and we got plenty of time for your questions, your comments, your concerns, anything going on around your house. Feel free to give us a call, special day today, I'll remind everybody on the chimneys, on chimney leaks, on anything about your flues, your fireplaces, anything going on, we've got Master Sweep, Greg Boss with us here today from English Sweep, he can help answer any of those types of questions with me. So, three, one, four, four, three, six, seven, nine, hundred is where you'll get us, and speaking of getting us, let's go to Ron and see what is going on around town, what's up, Ron? - Hey, Rich, how's it going? - It is going great, thanks for calling. - Good, you came out and looked at our house for a project a couple years ago, and we had to go a different direction, we just chose not to do it actually, but we used chimney sweep annually, and those guys are great. We had a real chimney fire 10 years ago. - Oh, wow, yeah. - Yeah, in a metal flue chimney, and I threw in, fire department also came, but when they came, the fire was out. I had ignited and thrown in one of those chimney flares, and it appears to have worked really well. What do you guys think of those? - Yeah, Greg, what do you think of that? - They are a really great thing to have. It's basically a chemical flare that you strike and you put into the flue, and it takes all the oxygen out of the fire right there and piss the fire out. Yeah, they are really great wood stove owners. We were highly recommended for people who have wood stoves in case there is ever a chimney fire, but another great thing is don't pull out that burning wood when there's a chimney fire. Throw wet towels on that fire, extinguish it, 'cause that steam's gonna expand and pit that fire out also, but it saves your carpet, 'cause you're trying to run, trying to figure out how you can get that fire out. You can cause more damage that way in your house. - Yeah, your guys, and I believe it was you that came out, that was 10 years ago, and when you put the camera up there, you showed us how the metal chimney has those overlapping clips in it, and in a really bad fire, those pop and come loose and tells you you're chimneys run, and in our case, it was not. I guess the fire got, you know, extinguished soon enough that it didn't do any serious damage, but yeah, we have your guys out every year, and they do a great job. Very clean, don't leave a mess. You know, you really worry about that when you see all that black stuff dropping down, you think, oh boy, that's gonna really be bad, but I've never had to be a problem yet, so thanks. - Well, thank you, Ron, yeah. A lot of people go like, oh, I had a chimney fire, and I'm okay, and they haven't had the flu swept, and it had the camera, that's what, an Earth that makes us different. We have a 360 camera, they can go up the flu after it's been swept, and see if there's any damage up in there, see if the flu buckled or the clips came undone, or the flu tiles cracked, because sometimes it's not that first flu file, the first flu fire that has an issue, it could be the second one, because now there's damage up there, so I'm glad we were able to evaluate that, and come up with a solution, 'cause that way you can get back to those worn fireplace memories, so thank you, Ron. - Yep, yeah, not a bad one either, so, okay, thanks again, so yeah. - Yeah, no, appreciate the call, that is great, and that's something that we had talked about when I had you on a year or so ago, kind of the program that you have for setting people up to come out every year, and you were talking about when to have you guys out, because of the rush in, so can you kind of explain that program, kind of like HVAC people do, you can get on a program to have your stuff done every year, right? - Yeah, and we call it frequent fires, and basically, when you're done with your fires, in March, April, May, sometimes even in the June, it could still be cool, people are still using their fireplace, but once you're done, you get your chimney swept, get it ready to go, that way you get rid of a creosote, odor issues, can be eliminated, by getting the fireplace swept early, you get the ash, everything out, and just make sure everything's okay before the rush, 'cause how days are coming, Thanksgiving, Christmas, all that stuff's coming, and it's still so funny, people are like, "Hey, I got family coming out this week, can you get out here?" Well, this time of year, everybody's thinking about getting their systems ready to go. - Absolutely. - And then you have to wait a little bit longer to get it done, but make sure you just call them the right company, because not all chimneys sweeps are the same, there's guys that are like for ourselves, let's stop ourselves, we're full service, we're gonna look from top to bottom, we show up in uniform, uniform truck, a label, local truck, I should say, we call ahead of time, we're certified, and we'll look at everything from top to bottom. Not every day you think about, I need to get my chimney swept, so something's usually going on, we have that empathy to listen and find out what you want done, maybe you wanna re-face or whatever, or switch out your appliances. We're able to look at all that and evaluate that and take care of all those needs for you. We do everything in-house, we have masons, we have, like I said, 28 strong people, we have live operators, they answer those questions and get you on the schedule. So, I mean, that's what's about. Get it done early, like anything else, and get prepared, because, you know, that day shows up in first of October here, and you wanna have a fire, and now you go like, "Oh, we had an issue before. "We gotta wait now, three weeks or something like that, "to get it checked," so. - Yeah, none. I love those stories, too, like Ron had, because there's definitely something to be said, and Mosby Building Arts is the same way. Kind of like you guys, like Hoffman Brothers, like some of these companies that, we've lost the service in what we all do. It's slowly just gone away, and I can take it even down to as simple as, like, returning a toilet to Lowe's. I bought a couple toilets at Lowe's, and I got home, and opened one up, and it's broken in the box. I take it back. They looked at me like I was crazy, like, "Well, you got a cart? "Just get one of those carts." Like, they wouldn't even help me, like, get it inside. They were, they had me wheel it to the back. I'm like, what, okay, I guess I do that now. Like, do I work here? Like, what service went away, and people are looking for that professionalism, for that level of service, 'cause they don't wanna worry about it, and so I like the way you guys, kind of like Mosby has done on the house side, have really, you think further into it, you're further educated, and you really look into things, 'cause even in, like, Ron's instant, okay, it is so easy to be like, "Oh, man, yeah, you had a flu fire." Like, we should just replace that. We just should, it's probably bad, and you get into this whole project that, you guys looked at it and said, "No, you did a good job. "You gotta put out your clips look good. "There's nothing to do here." But so, and you didn't lose at that, because now you've been servicing this man's thing for 10 years, and he absolutely loves it. I was just talking last week or the week before about my termite treatment with Holpers, and one of the things that I love the most about what they do for me, wasn't that they treated my house for termites, and they got rid of them. It's that I don't have to worry about it anymore years later, not just because what they did was so good, but because they have to come to my house every year, and they have to inspect it. And read termite treatment warranties. They will go away if you don't have your house inspected, and all these companies rely on you to know you need to do that. Remember you need to do that. Call them, set it up, and pay them to do that. In Holpers, they literally, they call me. Hey, it's time. I got an email, they called me, we set it up. I paid for it over the email, they showed up, they did it, everything's fine. I don't have to worry about losing my warranty because I forgot to call them in September. Oh, absolutely. You get that piece of mind. And that's what a lot of customers and clients are looking for, is this somebody for the guide? They didn't want somebody to guide them through that process. And that's what I like about you in your program. You help people guide, especially doing their own home projects and stuff like that. But at the end, that client wants to be the hero. Hey, I got my fireplace swept in check for a season. We're ready to go when we're ready to have that fire. They're just looking for that piece of mind solution and know everything's safe and that they're gonna have those great memories around the fire when it gets that time. - Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. So that's what we're trying to achieve. I think you guys are doing a real good job of it. And I definitely want to talk about a lot of the things on this list that you do as a company, as people, just organization and things that you are a part of and help with. 'Cause I think that speaks volumes also when companies do this stuff. And it's great for the workers. It's great for the people. And it's great for the community. And you want to be a part of a awesome community and everything. So we're gonna take our middle hour break here, but we'll get into some of those things that you do when we return and don't forget, we're still here for you. We got two more segments coming up. So three, one, four, four, three, six, seven, nine hundred. I'll get you in with your questions for me or Greg, anything you got going on, let us know. And we'll be right back. - The voice of St. Louis, news radio 1120, King of OX. - All right guys, we're back and not going on today, but we do have a couple segments left here and just enough time to get some of your questions in. If you have them, give us a call, three, one, four, four, three, six, seven, nine hundred, whatever's happening, I know you're, it's nice out, it's not too hot, the weather's getting better. I will jump off subject for just a moment to remind everybody, 'cause we were talking about the different weather and the different things happening. And it is now October and it's starting to cool down. And typically in St. Louis, we get our first freeze sometime in October. So think about pipes freezing like we were talking about, your garden hoses, get those disconnected from your hose bibs so that they don't freeze overnight, 'cause that first frost will come overnight, it will come as a surprise. And just disconnect your hoses, get yourself prepared for that. I went around and I did mine yesterday while I was finishing up some cleaning. I was talking about our bird feeders we have and our squirrel feeders, I got out the power washer, had the power wash, the sidewalk, that kind of whole area in the corner of my house. And then I disconnected everything and put it away and put the hose in the garage 'cause it's gonna happen and you don't wanna have that broken pipe inside your house and next time you go to use that hose in the spring and you don't realize that it froze over winter, it'll just fill your basement with water and just damage stuff. So remember that's starting to happen and get with that. I'll try and keep reminding everybody week-to-week about things like that. But I did, Greg, wanna get in with you just about the company and some of the cool things that you do 'cause Mosby does some cool stuff like that too with our Christmas toy drives and just different things that we do throughout the year helping out and doing rebuilding together and different stuff. And you've got quite a list here with Toys for Tots and I love the putting for Down syndrome. Can you just kinda go over some of these things that you guys do throughout the year to help out and help the community? - Yeah, it's all about giving back to the community that supports us, you know, and we just finished our sweep away cancer fundraiser. So basically everybody who had scheduled an appointment through September, we take a portion of that and we give it to sweep away cancer which is a foundation through the chimney, our chimney sweep community. It basically gives back 100% of that money to people in need. - I see what they did there. - Sweep away cancer, sweep away cancer. And then three years ago, we started sweep away hunger. So everything through October, you donate three cans, at least three cans of food and we give you $10 off and we donate that to the shelters circle concerning last year's who we helped support with all the food that we brought in. And then in November through December, we do a toy. You donate a toy and you get $10 off. And then, but yeah, we do all those type of things. We also do, like I said, an alcoholic fund foundation which basically helps as a foundation that young kids died, helps the family with the burial. We do things like that. - Oh yeah, that's terrible. That's nice to do that. - Yeah, that is a tough situation too. And we were talking earlier in the show about being prepared for stuff and I guarantee you there's no one prepared for that, you know? So you're just, yeah, that's wonderful to help out in a bad situation like that. - Yeah, so we, you know, there's different things like, like we're doing the chamber meeting, West County Chamber this week, we helped support all those business owners and out there at the chamber. I'm trying to think of the other one that I had listed over there. But any time we can help the community get back for their fundraisers, we do different parades to help just get our name out there and to get the awareness out there because, again, not everybody, not everybody thinks about their chimney every day of the week like we do, but when that moment comes up, you want to be able to get back. But always giving back to the community and those in need. It's what helps our culture be the best around our family community here at English Week because we do things every day to help give back. Even like on Friday, it's a dad joke day, you know? When we have in our GPU, we call it the good bed and ugly in the morning, going over the jobs from the day before, you know? And we have a little dad joke at the end to kind of get everybody ready for that day. But, you know, we just have a great culture, live people in the office and just people that really care of going out and making sure people have that peace of mind that when they start their fire, that everything's contained and it's safe. So, yeah, if there's something going on in our community that we know about, we go out there and support that. - Yeah, no, that is great. I love that. And, you know, there's so much to be said for the culture of a company. And I think it helps you keep good people. It helps you train good people. It helps keep everybody on the same page on what they're trying to do. And like here at Mosby, we just redid our vision and mission statement. And we've just gotten into, we change that every so often to keep the drive of that culture alive and keep everybody understanding what we're trying to achieve and plans for companies change and goals change. And you kind of start to learn the differences and what you might need to do to help serve people better. So, you start to put that inside of that culture and those statements and everything else. So, I think that is obviously, since we do it, I agree, that's a great way to be and just a completely great thing to do to help out and everything. But, hey, we've got Ron just jumped in on the line. So, let's go to Ron real quick and see what's going on with you. Can you hear me? - Yep, can you hear you fine? - Good. - Yeah, I have a wood stove, wood burning wood stove that's probably 15 years old. And I haven't had any trouble with it, but I wondered how long those things you can expect them to last and what kind of things to look for as they age. - A great question, it's how long they last. There's stuff that's not been out there for 30 years, depends on how it's installed, how it's made. But it's also like the amount of moisture wood that you put in them, a lot of them are steel. So, a lot of people use like more not seasoned wood. They get longer fires and stuff. So, that produces more moisture in the system. You can create rust and things. But yearly maintenance, now a lot of our wood stove owners, sometimes we sweep them two, three times a year because they're using it as a, they really heat their house. So, about every cord to a cord and a half of wood, you should have your fireplace swept if you're doing yourself or having a professional clean. Even if you're doing yourself, I highly recommend every couple of years have a professionally clean to make sure we don't see something that you might miss or something like that sweeping on your own. But, when you sweep down your system, make sure you get all that soot out of the wood stove. And again, make sure none of the soot licks out of the pipe as it comes down. You wanna look for screws coming loose. If the doors don't shut right or like the damper system, doesn't close right, it doesn't seal type or also you're burning more wood than you usually do, it means something's happening in that wood stove. But, yeah, the baffle systems that are set up, are harder to get to, just to get them the ash and the soot all removed. So, knowing your system and knowing how to sweep it and maintain it is really important. But, yeah, make sure you're gaskets. You should be able to have a hard time sliding a dollar built through your gasket or your stove. That means that gasket's still firm against the metal. And then make sure your chimney cover is clean enough soot because those one inch holes, you start building up, sit on them. All of a sudden it's about a half inch or even a quarter inch hole. And then also you're starting to get smoked back in when you open up the doors. Those are things that you should be looking at. - Yeah, okay. What I wondered about was the fire box itself. You know, does it typically burn out from the side or the bottom? Is that something to watch for? - They are really well built. And most of those meet EPA regulations. And no, they don't burn out at the sides. You know, your bottom brick or metal depends on what type of stove you have. Sometimes that stuff has to be replaced. But if it starts buckling and things like that, that's usually a sign that it needs to be replaced. - So the door would not shut correctly and you'd see that kind of thing. Yeah, this is a soap stone stove. And so far it's doing fine. I haven't had any trouble, but I just wondered. - Yeah, and the soap stone, it'll read your maintenance, you know, how to maintain that on top also. But those are built really well. Those soap stone stoves are, again, it's just the accessibility to getting all the crew so it out is usually the biggest challenge there. - Yeah, I've never gone into the, where the, what do they call it, a catalytic converter up in there. Of course, you'd have to take it apart to get to that. But I cleaned the flu out regularly, but I've never gone inside. - Well, that's where a professional sweep, like ourselves, we come out there, we would take that catalyst out, look at it, make sure it's still functioning. Because the catalyst can get burned out and then they're not creating that secondary burn and cleaning the soot and combustion air properly. So you're putting more emissions out in there. So having that catalyst checked is very important, very key. - Okay, well, thanks for the help. It sounds to me a lot. - No, awesome, Ron. Thanks for the call. It sounds like that, yeah, like most products, if you maintain it well, if you have someone professional that knows a lot, really help maintain it. And if you use the right things inside of it, whether it be the right wood or the right water or the right amount of power or whatever, you're just gonna be able to get a lot longer lasting value out of whatever products you have. But we're gonna get into our final break and then we'll have the final segment after that. And I think, Greg, I'll jump into when we come back, let's kind of describe how to build that fire on types of wood and kind of help people with those wood-burning fireplaces and everything and make sure they're doing it proper. We'll get to that as soon as we return. - You're listening to "The Home and Proof" and show presented by Mosby Building Arts on King of OX. Now, once again, here's Rich Orris. - All right, yeah, like you said, Rich Orris here, we're in our final segment. We've got Greg, boss, master, chimney sweep from "English Sweep." He is the owner, operator of the company and has been through everything thick and thin since what, the middle 80s, something like that. So I thought what we would do in the final segment here is if you could kind of help explain what people should be doing with their wood-burning fireplaces, just every step of starting the fire, type of wood, things they should do, look out for, watch for, and just tips on how to keep it healthy and all that in between while you guys are getting to service their chimneys yearly. - Yeah, well, the best time to get you wood cut and delivered is in the springtime, because it's the time to dry out and get seasoned. The wood that you're getting now may already be only cut for maybe three, four weeks, and it's not totally dry. So when you do get your wood, make sure it's stacked so that it breathes on the side and get air through it. If it's really tightly stacked, it holds moisture in there. But how to start a fire, what we talked about on break was like these gas starters that they're out there. I see people turn on the gas and then come over and try to pit in a match or throw a match in there and they get a big explosion. If you're using a gas starter or something like that, have the small little fire going before you turn the gas on to that system. And don't leave it on after you get your wood ignited and going. But the best way to start your fire is start off with a paper and some kindling, and then go to medium and do your bigger wood pieces. I've seen all kinds of crazy things where people burn their trash and they get their wood started. They use blow torches, they use kerosene or gasoline. They start their fires. But you know, properly start your fire, protects you, protects that flu system. 'Cause you gotta remember when you start your fire, that outside temperature, your clay tiles that are inside your chimney or your metal flu is all cold. And when you accelerate that heat very quickly into that chimney, you get rapid expansion, you might hear popping, cracking. Those, that's everything expanding through that system. So starting your fire small and building it up is really key for wood stoves and everything else. Those who have wood stoves are trying to burn them 24 hours. You know, lowering that air flow through the wood stove to get your longer burns creates more chryosote in your chimney. So again, getting to a point where you actually get that fire starting, get some of your heat temperatures all the way up to, you know, five, 600 degrees before you start backing it back down is key to help basically get that air flow and that heat through there to get the help products of combustion get out of the system. So how do you start your fire is really key and just make sure that again, you have all your combustion hanging things away from the opening of fireplace, especially around Christmas time. People have things dangling and they got a fire going in their fireplace and all of a sudden it gets sucked into the fire because that air is going up the chimney. We've seen a lot of that stuff catch on fire also. - Yeah, they're putting the pine in the dried out Christmas tree right next to the fireplace and the dried out pine stuff hanging all around it. Be very careful of having that stuff around your fireplace especially when you're starting a wood burning fire like that for sure. So yeah, I had a neighbor years ago that was burning trash in his fireplace in the middle of summer. And first I thought his house was on fire 'cause we saw the black smoke coming out. I thought it's like July, like his house could be on fire and it ended up he was just burning trash but I gotta imagine that's just gotta be like don't use things when it's not the intent of what it is. So it may seem like you can do something like that but really just is a horrible idea. But hey, Greg, I wanna thank you for coming on and thank you for all the work that we've done over the years together on different houses and all of that and we're completely out of time but appreciate you coming on for everybody else out there. Be good, be good to your homes and I will talk to everybody next week.