Chicks in Construction

In this episode of 'Chicks in Construction,' hosts Mickey Paradise and Jessica welcome Maribel Healy from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of the Triangle. They delve into various DIY plumbing disasters, common homeowner mistakes, and the importance of professional plumbing maintenance. From flooded kitchens to malfunctioning faucets, Maribel shares valuable tips on what homeowners should and shouldn't attempt on their own. Additionally, the discussion covers the benefits of a plumbing membership for maintaining fixtures and the surprising necessity of annual hot water heater flushes. Tune in for laughs, insights, and practical advice to prevent your home from turning into an indoor pool!

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:51 Meet the Hosts and Guest
02:14 How We Met: A Funny Story
06:26 Getting into Plumbing: Maribel's Journey
08:42 Homeowner Horror Stories
10:14 DIY Plumbing Disasters
12:47 The Importance of Knowing Your Water Shutoff
14:03 Shower Head Replacement Gone Wrong
23:25 The Faucet Fiasco
31:29 Spec Sheets and Mixing Parts
32:58 The Pretty Tax: Are Expensive Fixtures Worth It?
33:52 Exploring Popular Plumbing Brands
34:01 The Risks of Cheap Plumbing Fixtures
35:12 Toilet Troubles and Solutions
37:01 Special Trash and Parts Toilets
40:19 DIY Plumbing Cautionary Tales
43:38 Maintaining Your Water Heater
49:57 The Importance of Plumbing Inspections
01:02:08 Smart Plumbing Technology
01:04:39 Conclusion and Contact Information

Contact our Guest, Maribel Healy:
Website: 
www.benjaminfranklinplumbing.com/hollysprings-nc

Call 919-999-3649, or visit our website using the book now button or on google clicking book now. 


Maribel Healy is the President and Owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of the Triangle, proudly serving Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and the surrounding communities. With nearly two decades in the trades, her journey began in her teens when a mentor recognized her potential and encouraged her to step into plumbing, setting the foundation for a career built on purpose, perseverance, and service.
Under her leadership, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing has become known for both its dependable workmanship and its strong community presence. Her team organizes local food drives, sponsors area schools, and actively participates in multiple Chambers of Commerce, supporting local businesses and regional growth.

Maribel leads with a servant’s heart guided by faith, integrity, and a genuine care for people. She lives, shops, and raises her children in the community she serves, investing daily in its growth while inspiring the next generation of women in the trades.


Submit your homeowner horror story:
www.chicksinconstruction.com

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www.youtube.com/@ChicksInConstruction

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Creators and Guests

Host
Jessica Abreu
As a social media expert, Jessica has a knack for identifying what makes each business unique and translating that into powerful, engaging content that resonates with clients and customers. From crafting tailored strategies and managing accounts to recording on-site content and boosting engagement, Jessica and her team handle it all so their clients can focus on what they do best.
Host
Mikki Paradis
President & CEO at PDI Drywall Inc. Mikki founded her first construction company, PDI Drywall Inc, in 2005 while she was still a student at NC State. After growing PDI into a multimillion dollar company, she has become an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for innovation in business and leadership. With a passion for empowering others, she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking professional dedicated to driving growth and fostering meaningful connections. Known for her dynamic energy and ability to inspire, Mikki is deeply committed to creating positive change in her industry and beyond. Whether through her entrepreneurial ventures or speaking engagements, she consistently challenges the status quo and encourages others to reach their full potential.
Guest
Maribel Healy
Maribel Healy is the President and Owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of the Triangle, proudly serving Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and the surrounding communities. With nearly two decades in the trades, her journey began in her teens when a mentor recognized her potential and encouraged her to step into plumbing, setting the foundation for a career built on purpose, perseverance, and service. Under her leadership, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing has become known for both its dependable workmanship and its strong community presence. Her team organizes local food drives, sponsors area schools, and actively participates in multiple Chambers of Commerce, supporting local businesses and regional growth. Maribel leads with a servant’s heart guided by faith, integrity, and a genuine care for people. She lives, shops, and raises her children in the community she serves, investing daily in its growth while inspiring the next generation of women in the trades.

What is Chicks in Construction?

You plan your renovation with excitement, trust your contractor, and hope for the best...until things start going sideways. That’s when most homeowners realize they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

From permits that were never pulled to “contractors” who ghost after demo day, the construction world can feel like a maze of hidden costs and shady shortcuts. Too many homeowners end up confused, overwhelmed, and out of a lot of money.

The Chicks in Construction Podcast is here to change that. Hosted by Mikki Paradis, a licensed general contractor with 20+ years of experience, and Jess Abreu, a homeowner turned construction content creator, this show breaks down real renovation horror stories and teaches you how to protect your time, money, and home.

After building a multimillion-dollar drywall business and helping countless homeowners recover from construction nightmares, Mikki is on a mission to make sure you go into your next project informed, not blindsided. And Jess brings the perspective of someone who’s been in your shoes and now knows exactly what questions to ask.

Submit Your Construction Horror Story: https://chicksinconstruction.com/

26 - Chicks in Construction
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[00:00:00]

Jess: They say water finds its own level, but when you DIY plumbing, it also finds your floor.

Today we're talking with a pro plumber who's seen it all, burst pipes, flooded kitchens, and those, it looked easy on YouTube disasters we're asking the big questions, is that pricey faucet a pretty tax or a smart investment? And can those Amazon brand fixtures actually save you money or just set you up for a surprise indoor pool moment?

So grab your wrench. Don't

Mikki: touch

Jess: it. And your wet dry vac friends, this one's gonna splash. This is the chicks in construction.

Mikki: well, hello and welcome back to another episode of The Chicks in Construction. I'm your host, Mickey Paradise, and this is my illustrious [00:01:00] co-host.

hi, I am Jessica A

Jess: Please welcome

Maribel: Maribel Healey with Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of the Triangle.

Mikki: She is a plumber. Y'all. We got a lady plumber. I'm not sure if you're allowed to say lady plumber. We kind of discussed this before we started filming, but that's what we're calling her.

We're calling her lady plumber. We're sticking with it. So we got a plumber in the house.

Jess: Yes.

Mikki: Very excited.

Jess: Yeah. And you joking? I'm excited to be here. Some clapping

Mikki: sounds there. He's like, I'm not doing that.

Jess: He's like, I will not, um, like entertain your every whim.

Mikki: Oh. Also, guys, I don't know if you see we have a studio dog today.

Uh, I'm so here for it. So what is her name? Kelly. Kelly. Oh, hi Kelly. Yeah. Okay. She just poses. Listen, I'm gonna be real distracted for two reasons. One, Joe, put a camera or put a TV screen so I can see myself. I'm never, I'm not looking at you, I'm looking at myself. I'm a problem. And also there's a dog. So real distracted today.

Love you guys.

Maribel: All right, here we

Mikki: [00:02:00] go. Get into it. So

Maribel: I'm so excited that you're here. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for inviting

Mikki: me.

Maribel: Thank you for

Mikki: coming on. Yes, absolutely. One of the things we had a, in our home, in our horror stories mm-hmm. We get a lot of people that say the plumbing. Wait, did you want me to say how we met?

Oh my gosh. Oh yes. Let's backtrack. That's a funny story. So, so here, here we haven't even, I haven't heard the story, so we're all hearing it fresh you guys. I was like, Jess, how did you guys meet? She goes, that's a funny story. I said, should we save it for the Chicky chat? 'cause we have to call it Chicky Chat now, because now that we know that's an option, we're gonna do that.

And she was like, we'll save it for the Chicky chat, she said, but it's a good story. So we're all hearing it. First time I didn't hear for it first time. So tell us, tell us the story. We want the tea, if you will. All

Jess: right. So as all good things start, it started with a Facebook post.

Mikki: Oh yeah, we know on this show all good things start with a Facebook in a Facebook group.

So

Jess: yes, so I put out in a Facebook group that I was looking for homeowner horror stories or experts, um, to come on the podcast [00:03:00] and talk about what they do and pitfalls that homeowners fall into. And just some tips and tricks to everybody. And a friend of mine tagged Maribel and is like, oh, she's a plumber.

I don't know like if she would be good for your show, but like, she's a lady plumber. And so I immediately. Went to her Facebook page, clickety clicky, tried to friend requester, which she has not accepted.

Maribel: Oh,

Mikki: oh, I It's okay. It's fine. I'm teased. I get that.

Jess: It's okay. Savage,

Mikki: but fair. It's a savage. But fair comment's because, but you understand

Jess: why she didn't accept me.

So I also wrote her a message and I was like, Hey, so I put out this post and my friend said that you're a plumber and I have this podcast and would love to see if you're interested in being on it. Let's chat.

Mikki: Nothing.

Jess: Not

Mikki: radio silence.

Jess: Nothing. Nothing. Exactly how it

Mikki: happened.

Jess: Nothing. And then all [00:04:00] sudden, like normal lies detected.

Nope, nope. And then probably what, at least two weeks, maybe. Maybe up to a month later, she sends me a message.

Mikki: Oh, okay. I, I remember you telling me that you reached out to a plumber. Yes, but I didn't, but we never heard back. Yeah. Well eventually, I, the pieces are connecting. The, the math is math thing.

Jess: And so she finally reached out and she's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

Um, I finally talked to Nicole is the woman who, um, we both know, um, Nicole, um, mentioned that you, you were on a podcast and that she had. She had mentioned me being on it, and I saw your message, but I thought you were spam.

Maribel: She

Mikki: thought

Maribel: you were ai. I get so many people reaching out, it's like, I would love to interview you.

And I'm like, delete. And it's like every time, you know, I get these messages too. See the

Mikki: narcissist send me is like absolutely. Whether you're real or not, let's meet up in a dark alley so you can ask me questions about [00:05:00] myself. I'm here for it.

Jess: Yeah. So I went directly to the spam folder. Oh yeah, you're a spammer.

I was a spam. It was

Maribel: actually deleted.

Jess: It was deleted. So she had, oh, she deleted you. She had to go find, so I got the message and I was

Maribel: just like, oh, a spam. It's like delete, delete. And then when Nikki mentioned, it's like, so have you spoken to Jessica? And I'm like, wait, who? Oh, she's a, she's just like a real person.

Doesn't like what? Awesome. And then I had to go searching for it because then, and I was like, Hey Nicole, so you know I don't have Jessica's information. Can you share that with me? Because. I had deleted it, so, oh, that, you know what? 'cause I was spam. Mm-hmm.

Mikki: It's important to be safe on the intro. It's, you know, yes.

But yes on, I call it, there's two ettes, the dark and the light. It's important to be safe on both. I said that to somebody yesterday and they're like, what's wrong with you? And I was like, no, nobody else. We're the jury's still out. People ask

Jess: me every day, I have no answers. Yeah. So, but after she, um, messaged me, we met up for coffee and I got [00:06:00] to find out all about her and her story.

And you guys are gonna absolutely love her. She is a treat and delight.

Mikki: Jess is really good at being a co-host. Like, she was like, Hey, we have a guest today. And I was like, awesome. Well, technically she let me know yesterday, so, yeah. You know, she doesn't need to read me in guys. Like, I'm just here for funsies.

She's like, what are we doing today for the, okay, now be serious. How did you get into plumbing? Like, I want all the tea, all the backstory.

Maribel: So I started, um, I used to work as a teenager in Home Depot. Okay. And I was working in special order millwork Okay. Ordering for contractors. Okay. And there was a lady there and she's like, no, no, you're too good for this.

She's like, you have to speak to my sister. She works for a plumbing company. Okay. Now this is in New York. Okay. And, um, basically she's, she set up an, an interview with her and she's like, you have to come work for us. [00:07:00] Oh. And mm-hmm. I went, met the owner and everything and they hired me on the spot. And then I started working in the estimating department.

Okay. Writing estimates for plumbing, which gets you acquainted. Such a

Mikki: great way to learn, such a great way to learn. Asking

Maribel: a million questions about parts and things like that. And then I was pricing jobs, looking up materials and those things. Yeah. And. That's where it all started as a teenager. Oh my gosh.

You love that. And I've been in plumbing ever since. You

Mikki: have been in plumbing since you were a teenager? Yes.

Maribel: I was 19 at

Mikki: the time. Get it, y'all. Mm-hmm. I'm, I'm here for this. Mm-hmm. So Benjamin Franklin Plumbing?

Maribel: Yes.

Mikki: I've never heard of this before. What? It's a residential. It's a franchise. Oh,

Maribel: okay. Okay.

It's a franchise. There's over 250. No, I have heard of them. Now that I think about it nationwide.

Mikki: That's amazing. So you mostly do residential like and light commercial? Yes. Okay. Light

Maribel: commercial.

Mikki: Alright.

Maribel: Not

Mikki: new construction. That's fair. Listen, I'm in new construction. I doubt my choices every day. Every day [00:08:00] I did it.

Today it's a whole nother beast.

Maribel: Mm-hmm. In New York we did do, um, we had two division, two divisions. One was new construction, the other one was repair and maintenance. Okay. So we did do it in New York here. Uh, it's not so much. Presidential commercial. Is it because there's like a lot commercial,

Mikki: a lot of, like, a lot of people in the new construction realm?

Maribel: Um, honestly, the margins are a lot less when it comes to new construction. That's true's. It's a longer process. Yeah. The payment is usually up to a hundred net one 20.

Mikki: That's true in new construction, new lives. So

Maribel: there's a lot of different things mm-hmm. That go into new construction.

Mikki: Yeah. Awesome. I love that.

So just as you have, you have some, some homeowner horror insights for us, which we've been trying to get people to share with us, but people are, are, are less likely. I don't know what it is, but we, our whole, our whole vision is just to help homeowners learn [00:09:00] about mistakes that were like, that they made, that other people made.

Mm-hmm. Whatever, just like. How can we help people have better experiences with, with all trades, like general contractors, drywall contractors, plumbers, electricians, like, and make

Jess: sure that their husbands don't touch things that they shouldn't.

Mikki: That is a fact. I, you don't, guys don't understand how many calls I get.

I can only imagine how many calls you get that your husbands, but I feel like you guys also get, not just like how my husband broke it, but also my kid flushed this down the toilet. Yes, a hundred percent. Because I used to get, my kid was riding his bike in the house and, and I, I don't have kids. I don't know what they do.

I was like, this seems normal.

Jess: No, my kids have never ridden their bikes in the house. No. Jess is

Mikki: like, absolutely not. But, um, like a lot, but a lot of, like my husband, so I have a funny plumbing, when I used to rent, they were like too cheap to hire a plumber. So the husband comes in Oh gosh. And he, it literally turned into like a [00:10:00] leaky faucet.

And then we're, we're filing rental, uh, insurance claims because he flooded the entire second floor.

Maribel: Oh, wow.

Mikki: All like Bill should stick to it.

Jess: Yeah. So tell us, what are some things that homeowners should not be touching in their home? That's a good one. Uh, pretty much any plumbing.

Mikki: Don't that you heard that ear folks.

Don't do it yourself. Don't do it.

Maribel: Plumbing

Mikki: is

Maribel: not a di iyer. I, we get a lot of calls. Um, sometimes the wives complaining. I told my husband not to touch it and he did. Mm-hmm. And this is a situation we get also calls from men saying, I YouTubed this. Oh. And it looked simple.

Mikki: It's not,

Maribel: but now I'm flooding.

Yes.

Mikki: I feel like water is just not, no, just don't where you wanna test your YouTube university skills.

Maribel: It's one of those things, once it starts flowing, it's hard to stop. Yeah. And if you don't know where your water shut off, [00:11:00] may the Lord be with you. Most of homeowners are like, how do I stop it when they call?

Know, don't know where your shut off

Mikki: is.

Maribel: Yes. They don't know where it is. Sometimes the. Usually it's, there's a label to it. Yeah, it's been rubbed off. Oh, so they don't know which valve it is. Yeah. Yeah. And they're running around the house frantic looking for this shutoff valve because the fact

Mikki: that water is now pouring into your house, that doesn't make the stress any worse at all.

You know? Like it was fine until you messed with it and now water's pouring into your house and you're not panicked at all. No.

Maribel: Lot of times you know where, where it is, but because you're in a panic, you're like, yeah, hundred percent. Forget exactly where it, where it is. Hundred

Jess: percent. Where is, where is a water shutoff in your house?

Mikki: It could be literally anywhere.

Jess: Mm-hmm. Really? Correct. Oh my

Mikki: God, yes. There's no standard for where they go. They just, it's like wherever the plumber's, like that's a great place for a water shutoff for the whole house. It can be whole house, literally

Jess: anywhere.

Mikki: Mm-hmm. So there's one. There's one at the main.

[00:12:00] So like outside, outside your house, like where the water like comes from the city into your property. Okay. But I think you have to have a special tool for that. Am I wrong? Yes. Okay. So you so probably get guys, probably not that one. That's not for you guys. Nope. That's for us. Not for me. I'm, I'm wondering where in my house doesn't like panic.

She's like, I've never thought of these things. And then that's another thing

Maribel: that you shouldn't touch because even if you had the tool, if you break that, oh, the city go conquer your whole self, you have a bigger problem. So you shouldn't, you definitely shouldn't be shutting off the water outside in the main

Mikki: That's true.

You shouldn't be touching. Okay guys, don't do that. But there is one there. But don't do it. Don't touch it. And then there's one like somewhere in your house hiding

Jess: like it's. It's, it's great. So I know what I'm gonna be doing when I go home today,

Mikki: I'm gonna find it. So this way. I do

Jess: think

Mikki: that's a hot tip though, knowing where your water shut off.

Absolutely huge. You should

Maribel: know where that is. The other thing is key point. A lot of the, we've had occasions, a lot of the new construction people have decided they want to finish [00:13:00] spaces, things like that. Yeah. And the valve has actually been put behind the sheet rock.

Mikki: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maribel: And they actually can't find it because it's buried in a wall.

So it's very important to find what they

Jess: do. So, and in that case, like how do you figure it out? Because you've looked everywhere you, everywhere you've looked everywhere else, and like it's gone.

Mikki: I mean, how would you find that? Like would you, would you have a way of figuring out where the shutoff is?

Maribel: Uh, so it's going to be opening small holes to find where, if ideally if you have a crawl space Yeah.

You can kind of trace the line into where, where it's coming into the hole. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. And then kind of isolate the area where it is. But if you don't, and if you are on a s slab

Jess: like

Maribel: me,

Jess: I'm sure it's in your No, I'm sure mine's in my house somewhere.

Mikki: Well, it is, it has to be. Yes. But, and not behind the wall.

I'm the garage. Okay. Is there like a, so for everybody who's freaking out like Jess's right now, and they're like, oh crap, I don't know where my water shut off is [00:14:00] my husbands gonna do

Jess: something stupid in my house? Hundred percent. Well, I left because he tried to change the shower. Head the other day, literally like two days ago.

Got a, got a new one.

Mikki: He's on it. He's, he's like, listen, I, he's like, honey, I can do this. He turns, turns,

Jess: so he, obviously the shower's not on. He takes the old one off. Okay. He puts this one on.

Mikki: We're starting on the right foot here. Yeah. You like, it doesn't end that way. Literally as we started that way, listen, I don't,

Jess: I don't have a shower right now.

Oh, that has, so he puts it on and he turns the shower on and no water comes out. I'm like, I don't think that's how it's supposed to work.

Mikki: Jess is like, I hate to stay the obvious here, honey, but,

Jess: so then he's gonna hate that. I told the story for all of you,

Mikki: listen,

Jess: it's fine. That's why you come here for the tea.

So, so he shut the water off and goes to un, like loosen it up so that the shower head will come back off and it explodes with like [00:15:00] black water. Everywhere. The whole ceiling come.

Mikki: Tell

Jess: us. Was that like a mineral buildup? It could be. It could be. And then so we, you like it gets better. It's great. Yeah. So gimme more details.

Wait. And so we, we cleaned that all up and like I, I was standing all the way across the room room. I don't wanna be blamed

Mikki: for this. Oh, that's, so I'm like, what was that? My funniest home videos, mom, I just washed my hair.

Jess: Um, so then he puts it back. Oh no. Then he, I was like, did you read the instructions?

No. Okay. So I take out the instructions and after looking at seven different languages, I find the English one. There you go. And then I was like, well, it just says to use, just gotta screw it on. So he screws it. He's

Mikki: like, did you not see me? Screw it on. Yeah.

Jess: And so like there's this white tape on it. I was like, it says not to you tape.

It says not to use plumber's tape in the instruction. So maybe take it off. 'cause it was from the old ones. Yeah, yeah,

Mikki: yeah. [00:16:00]

Jess: So he takes it off, he puts it back on. It was spraying a little bit on the side. He tightens it a little bit more. It's not spraying. He's like, okay. Fixed. I was like, okay, great. So the next day, oh

Mikki: shit, this continues.

Jess: I go, I go take a shower.

Mikki: Oh God.

Jess: Uh oh.

Mikki: Oh God. Did it come for you? The shower came for you? No, I got out before it came off the wall.

Jess: Look, I turn it on, it's fine. And I let it run for a while and I'm like, like, good job, honey. So I get in and I'm shampooing and all of a sudden the shower's like, not really like showering, spraying, and like it's coming out where it's connected and I'm like,

Mikki: oh,

Jess: that doesn't look right.

And so I shut the water off and I get my towel and I step outta the shower. And then, no, it just comes, right? The just the head, just not the pipe coming outta the wall. But the thing. So I run upstairs and I'm like, you know how many times I

Mikki: tell you to not [00:17:00]

Jess: touch

Mikki: anything? Jess is like, I literally have a podcast about this,

Jess: about this.

Maribel: So yes.

Jess: What in

Maribel: God's name. I mean, usually you don't get black water.

Jess: Yeah. No. That's

Maribel: not common. No. Maybe there was air in the line and something and it brought debris with it.

Jess: Mm-hmm. It's not running black anymore. It's just usually there's not black water. There's a brand

Mikki: new shower head. Yeah. Yeah.

Because my thought this, listen, I feel like, like calling a plumber to change out your shower head, that's gonna be tough to get a plumber to show up or am I wrong? Like do you guys get those calls? No, we do. Okay. That's where she's coming after this. She's like, yeah, she's coming right over to my house.

That's fair. Okay, so, okay, this is good to know. So like plumber, you could call a plumber to change your shower head and they'll come and do it. Yes. Even the, even the smallest, you heard it here first smallest

Maribel: things. Well, maybe it wasn't first. Will you have,

Jess: will you have a new shower head to put on or do they have to have that?[00:18:00]

You have, you have to provide the

Mikki: shower head, right? Like the homeowner.

Maribel: So we can, but there has been a lot of arguments because of it. Because I had, I had a gentleman say, you know, any color's fine. And we're like, Hmm. You're like, but do you mean that you have brass everywhere? Like you don't want a chrome shower head metal.

My wife a ring, my wife just wants a shower head that works. And I'm like, maybe you should ask her. You know? And he, she wouldn't care even though everything, she had a, they had a very nice bathroom. She wouldn't care, even though was, she cared even. And I said, hundred percent said she won't care. Trust me, I know these things.

You're like, I'm also a

Mikki: woman

Maribel: and we, we care about these things. Mm-hmm. So I, I said. Are you gonna use the shower? Do you need it today? Speak to her and we'll be happy to order. 'cause it would've been special order because the color Yeah. Yeah. To match everything. And sure enough, he called. He's like, okay, we'll wait for the brass.

Mikki: I was like, I thought so. It's like, thank you for [00:19:00] saving my marriage. Yes.

Jess: Im not getting divorced today. Exactly.

Mikki: That. That stuff matters. And what, what really is kind of crappy is like they, they have like a brushed gold and a like a Kohler brushed gold and a Delta brush. Gold could be the same. Mm-hmm. But if you buy a brushed gold off Amazon, it could be a different shade of brushed gold.

Yes. It's a whole thing. And then the matte finish. And the polish finish. Yeah. Yeah. Mat polished.

Maribel: It's a whole

Mikki: mm-hmm.

Maribel: Yep.

Mikki: Yeah. I don't know why they had to make it so stink and complicated. The other thing I learned is that if you, so, because America Merca, we like to do our own thing. We're here for being unique and individuals, and I'm like, listen, I'm as a unique individual.

I get that. We also are like, Hey, you know what? Hey, you know what world you guys can, you guys can thread your pipes how you wanna thread, we're gonna thread our pipes special. So if you buy and not like a, like a plumbing fixture that is not made in America, it doesn't have the same thread, [00:20:00] which means that it will go on.

Okay. In the beginning. I ain't gonna stay there and then it'll shoot off at you in the shower or leak. But either way it's not great. It's not good. I made that mistake once. Mm. The things you know. Yes. So what is like the most ridiculous story you've ever had? Like homeowner wise? Like clearly you've been, you, you knew that that wife was not gonna be okay with whatever color.

Mm-hmm. I feel like that's a trauma response. You knew that because you've been through it multiple times.

Maribel: Well, I think I knew that because I'm married and if my husband did that to me, I'd be very upset.

Mikki: Yeah. Fair, fair,

Maribel: fair. You're not wrong. Yes. Uh, ridiculous story.

Mikki: Well, I mean, my definition of ridiculous might be different from yours, but like, what is a, if if you were, like, when you're coming on the show, you're like, this is the story that I wanna share so that people know X, Y, and ZI put her on the spot right there.

You [00:21:00] did, sorry. We did, we don't do prep on the show, guys. We, we put people straight in the hot seats. That's

Maribel: what we do. And that's what they said. I mean, I've been through so many different scenarios that Yeah, I mean, it varies, but I, I think the biggest things are people trying to DIY themselves things.

Yeah. Those are the, the most of the calls that we get is they try to YouTube it. And YouTube, it seemed very simple. I mean, I've, I've myself have seen some YouTubes where you could tell that they cut and then all of a sudden it's like the fixtures there. Magic they

Mikki: say on HGTV. Mm-hmm. Uh, they call it, uh, TV Magic.

Maribel: Exactly. Yeah. TV magic.

Mikki: We doing people

Maribel: dirty and all of a sudden it's there and they leave some things out. Mm. They leave important information, things that you would only know from being in the trade Yeah. And being through it that homeowners don't know. Yeah. And so when they try to DIY it Yeah. See, it doesn't go, what's unfair is

Mikki: like, I've been in construction for 20 years, so like, yeah.

[00:22:00] I'll watch, I'll watch a YouTube video and be like, yeah, I can do that. No problem. And I think, well, if I can do it, anybody can do it. Mm-hmm. And my husband's always like, Mickey. Like you don't have 20 years in construction. Like, no, just because you can watch a YouTube video and it ends well, doesn't mean that's gonna end well for everybody.

And I'm like, really? It doesn't, like why not? But yeah, I mean, so I can't wait for the follow up on your shower. 'cause like now we need to know, everybody needs to know what happened.

Jess: Thank goodness I have multiple bathrooms. Like thank God, God just have the pipe touch sticking out. I have the pipe sticking out.

Yep. Okay. Oh, and we can't put the old one back on. Because apparently when he took it off, he kicked it. Oh, he kicked it? No, it made like a little crack Ooh. In something. So when he put, he went hard on that. He was like, so he put that one back on the hammer

Mikki: a tho on it. It was

Jess: spraying out. And I was like, Nope, no.

He's like, I don't understand why. Nothing I wanna do is ever simple. I was like, can you please [00:23:00] stop touching things?

Mikki: Just stop. I

Jess: literally have a podcast that talks about, I like you are the exact homeowner who needs to listen to everything that I, Brad, have you ever heard of this podcast called Chicks and Construction?

You should check it out. Say what? Not to do. What not to do. So like, let's say no change. Let's just go through all the things. Please change the subject can go through all the things in the house. Your faucets. Mm-hmm. Can, should people be changing those? Can they, can they change those?

Mikki: Feel like a faucet is more complicated than a shower head.

Maribel: A faucet definitely more complicated. It's more complic, avocado than a shower head. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And they make them more complicated. Yeah. There's like three sensor one, they're the, the ones they have mixing. Why did they sell all these

Jess: things at Home Depot?

Mikki: Because they want you to keep coming back, which you flood your kitchen.

They're like, well now you new, new cabinets.

Maribel: And we, I mean, we've received calls, people that try to do their [00:24:00] own faucet. Yeah. But there's special tools in order to like remove them and install the new one. And people don't realize that they don't crack it. Mm-hmm. People don't realize that

Mikki: Jess is like, I wish I had never said anything,

Jess: never gonna let it down.

At least I didn't do it.

Mikki: Yeah. I mean, Brad's toast, but you're fine. Fine.

Jess: We haven't gotten, we haven't gotten divorced yet from all the stupid things. Yeah. I mean, you guys are,

Mikki: are good.

Jess: The amount of things that this man has tried to fix and it just goes so much worse. Like, oh, I. We, she has more

Mikki: folks.

Jess: We have this house in that we bought near the beach.

Mikki: Oh, the beach

Jess: house. And, um, the shower, like the faucet, the handle. Mm-hmm. And the shower head, they were both gross. Like, so my hadn't been living in the house for a while, so it got rusty and everything. So my husband decided that he was going to change them. [00:25:00] 'cause you know, they, they sell at the store, so it's gotta be so this

Mikki: complicated.

I, they're,

Jess: they, listen,

Mikki: Jess, you need to text me more.

Jess: Listen. So he's like, I'm just gonna, I just pull this off and I can, and take that. And like, it's time to be simple. I'm like, okay. So go ahead. Like, who am I to tell you that you can't do things?

Mikki: I not tell

Jess: you can't touch

Mikki: anything. You didn't tell you, oh,

Jess: I just have this podcast.

So one of the. WW he tried to take the faucet off of a pedestal sink, and it was so corroded on there that we just removed the whole pedestal sink solid and put a new one in. And that went fine. That wa that was good job, Brad. He, he, he knocked that. Has it been how long? No, just, um, course

Mikki: she's like, no, seriously.

Jess: I'll see. Uh, July, August, September, October, November, four months. Okay. Go ahead.

Mikki: So it was probably, so what, how long,

Maribel: how

Mikki: long,

Maribel: like, before you know his problems? Yeah. Yeah.

Mikki: I was like, how do I say this? [00:26:00]

Maribel: Well, I would, I would continue to check on it if, if he has a streak of Yeah.

Jess: Oh, well, we, he changed maybe really ratted it up.

Yeah. Well, when he did the shower, he couldn't get something off, so he's like, oh, I'm just gonna put it back on, because he couldn't get it to come off. And I was like, okay, it's fine. Like, I'll just get some, can we spray, you know, polish? I guess I'm polished and like, polish it up, make it, it's gonna be an Airbnb, it'll be fine.

Mm-hmm. So we, we clean up the rest of the house and do things and we go to the beach, we come back and, um, I had repaired this little hole in the tub in one of the other showers. So we all took a shower in this one that he couldn't fix

right now. So good. So that night we put the kids to bed, we go downstairs and [00:27:00] um, I was. What the heck was I doing?

Mikki: Probably watching the 75 reels. I say, you probably,

Jess: and he was, he was in the dining room and I called to him and I looked at the ceiling and I was like,

Mikki: and this is after he had it painted?

Jess: Yeah. Oh my god. A bubble. Oh. And so he looks up and he goes, ah, now I think it's just a shadow. And I was like, shadow not

Mikki: getting a see here folks. What,

Jess: what, what is shadowing? Like that? And I was like, no, it really looks like a bubble. I'm like, get on, get on the ladder and touch it. Oh, was a, uh, it was a bubble.

It was

Mikki: full of water. Huh.

Jess: So, um, he took a little knife and went like this. Ooh. And then the water. The water came out. Oh. And I was like, okay, get a pencil, draw a line around it, see if it grows, see if it grows. Clearly you've done this before. Mm-hmm. Well, no. Um, my, one of my children flooded [00:28:00] our, uh, toilet, and that's what we had to do.

We had to draw a line to see. Anyways, um,

Mikki: this poor woman,

Jess: I,

Mikki: there's been a, a lot of every, everyone watching our show right now is really connecting with you on an emotional level because they're like, oh my God, my husband Jim did the same thing. He did the same

Jess: thing. And so we were, now, this is supposed to be our last night at the Airbnb that we owned, that we were, you're like our Airbnb.

We own it. Um, and we were supposed to be renting it, um, I think two days after we left. It was, it was the first person was coming to stay. Oh my God. So, like, it's not an option. Like it has to be fixed to fixed. Yeah. So, yeah. So luckily we found, um, my cl the cleaning lady that I had. Interviewed plumber. She had told me that she knew people good.

So I was like calling her at 11 o'clock at night.

Maribel: Oh,

Jess: help me,

Mikki: you like, dear God.

Maribel: Like, so you remember that conversation we had? Mm-hmm. About you knowing people? I need [00:29:00] people. I need people, you know, a plumber, all the people I

Jess: here

Maribel: tomorrow.

Jess: Yep. So like right now, he came and he's like, yeah. He's like, so when you pulled the thing off, you made a hairline fracture, like thing in the pipe that brought the water up to the shower head.

So if we had just run the tub, there would've been no issue.

Mikki: But it was the shower. The shower.

Jess: So if we hadn't all showered, honestly though, one, thank God

Mikki: you did. Because you would've, you wouldn't have the home. The Airbnb people would've they and thought they had done it

Jess: or they wouldn't have even noticed.

Oh yeah. And it would just continued to leak. Continue to leak. And so listen, glass

Mikki: half full.

Jess: Yep.

Mikki: Just has her own horn. She's gonna write in, she's gonna go to chicks and construction.com, and she's gonna write in and share her home on her horror story. Mine's not from contractors. She's like, no, it's from my husband.

Listen, you share your husband horror stories with us. I mean, hopefully they're construction related, but I, as we know, I'm a gossiping woman. I'm here [00:30:00] for the tea, so you can share anything.

Jess: So let's make sure that nobody else does what we did. If you need to change out the handle in your shower.

Maribel: So a common misconception is, mm-hmm.

I can just remove the plate, the handle, and put a new one. Yes. No, the valve that's actually in it belongs and matches. Yeah. The plate and the handle. So it, the two components meet and you have the wall in between. Even if you

Mikki: buy the same brand doesn't necessarily mean, 'cause it depends on when it was installed.

So plumbing be changing? Yes. Oh yes. So like, you can buy a Delta and a Delta, but if Delta, if you're old, your Delta's really old and Delta's a plumbing brand in case anybody doesn't know, we're not talking about the airline. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm flight. Yeah, you're like Delta, I love Delta. Uh, so like, like Delta or Kohler, there's a bunch of different brands now, but if your one is older, even if you buy the same brand, it might not match up.

Now It might. And I think that's where the false confidence comes from, because like, oh, it happened once, so they must all be the same. No.

Maribel: Or thinking that, [00:31:00] like you said, buy another Delta. Yeah. It should fit fine. It should be fine. Mm-hmm.

Mikki: I mean, ideally. They wouldn't have changed things, but they did. So sorry guys.

Maribel: a lot of, uh, new construction homeowners. They move in. Yeah. All of a sudden there's something wrong with the house and they have no idea what type of faucet they have.

What type? Um, and faucet, shower faucet. The brand. Yeah. Yeah. What brand? And they're like, I need a new cartridge. It's leaking. And I know nothing about what was installed in my home. So if you're buying a new home, I do suggest you ask the homeowner, the builder, to provide you with that information. Spec sheets.

Yes.

Mikki: We've talked about spec sheets on the show, guys spec sheets. That's a great example as to why you want that information. Even if you're doing a renovation. Yes. Like whatever you're doing, you wanna know the brand and the type of fixtures that you have installed. Because when you need a repair, having that information is really valuable.

Absolutely.

Maribel: And another thing, uh, that happens common now in new [00:32:00] construction is they're kind of mix and matching parts. Oh yeah. We currently have a homeowner that is trying to fix, um. It's called a diverter. Yes. Changes the water from the tub to the shower. They install a different diverter from different diverter manufacturer brand from the actual faucet.

So he has like a, a little bit of everything going on in his bathroom. And that's like, so that's like tiled in, it's tiled in. And unfortunately, so we called the manufacturer of the shower faucet and said, Hey, we're looking for this part. They're like, oh no, that does not belong. That's not, that's not part of, in this case is a Kohler dirty, so it doesn't belong to Kohler.

So unfortunately for him, he would have to open the wall from behind. Mm-hmm. And have that replaced. Yeah, because we are not able to find what brand it is or where they got it from.

Mikki: Okay. So we gotta talk about that [00:33:00] because listen, listen, I, as we know, I like a good deal. I'm here for a good deal moment. So, Amazon's real tempting when you wanna, like, you know when you wanna get those fancy fau, but you don't wanna pay that fancy price.

Mm-hmm. We gotta talk about it. They're pretty tax. Oh, let's talk. We gotta talk about it. Let's talk about that. Yes. That's a whole thing. Yes. Because like, listen, I get it. Homeowners, I get, you don't wanna spend $300 on a faucet for your bathroom. I mean, you see it maybe once a day. I don't know what your shower routine is, but you don't spend a lot of time with your shower faucet.

However, your shower faucet has a big job. Like it's, it's working even when you're not making eye contact with it. So Kohler and Delta are two of the most common brands of like plumbing fixtures that I, that I know of. Mm-hmm. Like I know there are other ones. Yes. Like American Standard is one. There's Moen.

Moen, Moen. Mm-hmm. That's another one. Mm-hmm. I've heard of that one. Yeah. [00:34:00] Moen. But now they're just, the market is flooded with just brands that you've never heard of and they're cheap. So what happens when somebody gets the Amazon

Maribel: special? Like, so here's the, the thing that homeowners have to be very careful sometimes.

You're trying to save a dollar here or there. Yeah. And it becomes a bigger problem. Yeah. Especially if you do cause a flood in your home because you're buying something aftermarket, refurbished, that becomes a problem with the claim.

Jess: Mm-hmm. And so sometimes

Maribel: buying something that is a no brand, but looks just as good.

Yeah. Is not the. The best way to go.

Jess: Yeah.

Maribel: Obviously Kohler, Moen Delta, they're a little more expensive than a no name brand. Yeah. But then again, they have warranties on their products that those Nona brands don't.

Mikki: A hundred percent.

Maribel: And they are backed by a big company, that does testing. They [00:35:00] have labs on all these things.

You can find parts for it. A lot of the times if you buy a Nona brand, you can't find parts for it. Mm-hmm. Yes. So when you have to fix No, that's thing. Fix it. You have to replace the whole thing

Mikki: with toilets too. So listen with toilets too. Yeah. When we moved into our house, the house with many toilets and many doors, we have, uh, many things in all of our houses.

Um, we, we, they toilets were, I dunno why I thought that we needed to change our toilets. They were perfectly fine toilets. I honestly missed the toilets we had because they were like, whatever, 30-year-old toilets. They're a good throne. They were a good throne. They were quality stuff. We actually kept one.

And that's Hector's favorite toilet. Is it the one downstairs? Yes, the downstairs. I like the downstairs toilet. That's one. That's a cold toilet. It's a Kohler. Here's the difference. So we replaced three of the four toilets. Why do we have four toilets? I don't know you guys, it's not that big of a house. We have secret toilets.

Yes. So there's four toilets in our house. So we place three of the four. I'm gonna go on a scavenger hunt. Yeah. She's like, oh, I'm hunting for [00:36:00] dogs and toilets. Uh, we have plenty of all of them. The American standard one is one of those ones that has like the push button on the top. Oh yeah. For one and two, choose the flow.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. For one, number one and number two. Yeah. What are you doing today? So that it broke and they don't make replacement parts for it, but the Kohler, the 30-year-old Kohler, we can still get replacement parts for it. So it's like one of those things where it's like, yes, the, the American standard toilet was.

50, $75 cheaper. But I'm probably gonna have to replace the dag on thing because they do not make parts for it. So it's broken right now? No, no, no. We, we, we figured it out. Like, listen, Hector, no special trash. Okay. I mean special trash.

Jess: He found a piece I, but I was gonna say, you can just use one of your

Mikki: other freaking toilets in the house.

You can just, we can just tape on now nine.

But of course, 'cause the hector in no special trash, she was like, hold on, [00:37:00] I knew this day would come. I have a toilet in the shed. I'm just gonna get, it's a parts toilet now. It's

Maribel: the parts toilet.

Mikki: We have a parts toilet, hashtag parts toilet, special trash parts toilet. That's a real thing. The other day. I dunno, I don't know if you've seen the pod.

We talk a lot about my husband, he's a collector of special trash, which it's literally to stay married. I'm okay with it. Like we're just rolling with special trash. It's

Jess: a

Mikki: lot. So the other day I was going through the backyard and I'm like, baby, why is there a toilet? Why is there a toilet in our backyard, babe?

And he was like, that's our parts toilet.

That one saved us. Mickey, you can shut in the toilet that you want because we remember we didn't have to replace that toilet. You can fake the parts toilet. [00:38:00] What do you say to that? Tell me, what do you say to that?

Maribel: Well, toilets don't have that many parts. So if he used the one part, I think the plumber has something to say.

If he used the, the most important part, there's not much to use from the toilet.

Mikki: Oh, listen, Hector can make it work. I'm just saying. He's like, you never know.

Jess: Now you can make it. They make, um, like a, it's a flower, pot out, one toilet. Oh, we're

Mikki: not hundred percent gonna do that, do that. Right. I'm gonna put it on the, either the front to really annoy the neighbors, middle mansion neighbors.

Mm-hmm. Or on the side to annoy the neighbor I hate the most with my whole soul. Oh, go. So that when the leaves fall off the tree and he's sitting on his beautiful back porch that he built without a permit. By the way, uh, inspectors reach out to me if you wanna know the address. Um, 'cause I hate him with my whole soul.

Um, so he can sit on his beautiful unpermitted back porch and see and look at the toilet just in our yard. Because we're those people anyway. Yeah, I mean, I feel like [00:39:00] you should get a matching set. We got a Firebird also just like hanging out on the other side of the house. I mean, might as well just like special.

Trash it up. Oh, he also special trash. Update. Update. We now have a Volkswagen totaled bulk Volkswagen Beetle in the front yard. Totaled, yeah. Yeah. He bought it at the auction.

Jess: Mm.

Mikki: Is the, is the frame of it totaled or,

Jess: oh, I don't know

Mikki: why they totaled it. I don't

Jess: know. I don't ask

Mikki: a, we know I don't ask a lot of questions.

Lot questions at this point. Just like he's like, but does it

Jess: look like a normal car?

Mikki: Oh, no, no, no. It looks, oh, smushed. It was in an accident. Oh yeah. Clearly it's, but it's not a parts car yet. It's a yes. He's working on it. He's working on it. So just in case anybody's following along with my special trash journey.

Yeah. Just, it's been a while since I've come to your house because we're here recording the pod. Yeah. So she doesn't know about our special trash journey. Yep. So I feel like I'm gonna have to come see. I love, I love how Jess like, feels bad for me, but then she also wants to see it.

Jess: I need, I need to see it in my own eyes [00:40:00] just to examine it and um, bask in all of the special trash glory.

Listen,

Mikki: it's a journey. It's wonder we're on it together.

Jess: It's

Mikki: wonderful. So, sorry we went on a tangent. Sorry. No. On a chi chat tangent there. Sorry about that. That's okay. A cheeky chat. I'm sorry. A chicky chat. Okay. So, okay. If, if we've learned anything. It is absolutely do not change your plumbing fixtures yourself.

Especially the faucets. Mm-hmm. Like the sink faucets. But really, and the shower faucets Don't mess with plumbing is what I'm picking up. Mm-hmm.

Maribel: Yes. Bummer. There are things that you can, you know, do inspect your fixtures. Uh, things that I think we discussed before. Oh, they have, they have these tablets that you can put in the tank.

It'll tell you if your, if your toilet is leaking. What? Because you see the dye Yes. Run, go, go into the ball. So there, there are things that you can do just to keep an eye on your [00:41:00] fixtures. Keep an eye on how much water usage you have from month to month. It'll give you an indication if I just let my water bill

Mikki: do that.

I didn't know there was something else. That's amazing. Yeah.

Maribel: That's for toilets. Mm-hmm. Okay. So those are, those are good things. They're, they're very inexpensive. You can find them at your local. What are they

Mikki: called

Maribel: for those who are watching? They're leak tabs. Leak taps, tabs. Tabs, tabs.

Mikki: TABS.

Maribel: And you put it in the toilet tank in the back.

Okay. And it's a blue dye. Okay. Wait 10 to 15 minutes. Alright. If the dye, if the water in the bowl turns blue, then you know that you have a leak from the tank. Into the bowl. Oh, your face. I love that. I can see

Jess: your

Maribel: facial

Jess: expression. I know. I'm, I can't, I can't without having to like, who's. But yeah, so the reason why we talked about the the tab is because my husband tried to,

Mikki: oh, Brad strikes again.

Hector. We need a hashtag for Brad. He's Hector's hashtag is special trash. Brad's is [00:42:00] like, I can don't touch, don't touch it. Don't touch Brad. Don't don't touch it

Maribel: when

Jess: endowed

Maribel: don't, don't. No. He

Jess: had to fix the little flappy thing in the toilet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's like, well, and I was like, oh. And he did, he did that toilet.

Maribel: If

Jess: you had a A parts

Mikki: toilet, yes. You'd have been fine.

Maribel: Well, flappers don't fit in all toilets. They come in different sizes. They come in different

Jess: sizes. So I had to get the softball size one. Oh. And she's like, well, you know, it could still be leaking. And I was like, it

Mikki: could, she was like, tell me more.

Tell me more about how I can go home and tell Brad stop touching shit.

Jess: But I got the, the little tabs in it. Did you? And I put it in the back of the, I put and. It was fine. I was like, drum roll please. Yes, we were fine. We are, we are. Good. So, so leak

Mikki: tabs, get, get, go, go, go. Mm-hmm. I would say go to our website and buy a leak tab, but you won't find them there.

You'll have to go to Home Depot. They sell 'em on Amazon too or on Amazon? Yes. But don't buy your faucets on Amazon. No. Unless they're a [00:43:00] name brand that you've heard of. Um, also

Maribel: those tabs, make sure you buy the ones that are for toilets. Some people tend to improvise and use like color, uh, food dye or things like that.

No, you don't wanna stain your toilet. The process. I was gonna say,

Mikki: wouldn't that stay in your toilet? Yeah, it might. Listen, that's an f around and find out moment. Like do that. If you do that, please go to our chicks and construction.com and, and, and let us know. 'cause we, we need content for the show. Tell us all your mistakes.

We love that for all of us.

Maribel: I'll tell you something that

most homeowners when I have a conversation with them are pretty surprised. Yeah. And it's that you're supposed to maintain your hot water heater and do an annual flush.

I would say 90% of homeowners look at me like, wait, what? I'm supposed to maintain it.

Jess: What is

Maribel: that? What, what,

Jess: what does that entail? Lemme tell you, when I flush my hot

Mikki: water heater, when I have to replace the heater coils, that's when I, that's when I flush it. When, [00:44:00] when it floods my garage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mine's in my laundry room. So when you have a little laundry room, flooding moment, like, Hey babe, we gotta, we gotta drain the hot water here. Okay. So

Jess: tell us, what does this entail?

Mikki: Calling a plumber. Calling, yes.

Jess: Call a plumber

Maribel: first. Calling Maribel, uh, call a plumber first. Mm-hmm. For sure. But you basically drain all the water from the heater and what it does, it allows all the debris and calcium deposit and build up in the water heater to.

Be flushed out and then it fills up with clean water and that will make your water heater last longer.

Mikki: So this is a yearly thing.

Maribel: Yes. Once a year you should be flushing your water heater. And most people don't know that. No. The other thing is, there is a possibility that if your water heater stops working within the warranty period, that they won't honor the warranty.

They won't it. They won't flush it. If you haven't. Of course people will say like, yeah, absolutely. I've been doing that every year. Yeah. I [00:45:00] don't know why they not working. The account deposits inside if it'll tell a different story. Exactly. And so that just happened. They might not honor that warranty if you haven't been flushing it and that that is a

Mikki: hot tip.

Maribel: Yes. And that that also applies to T tankless. If you have a tankless, really water heater, well that

Mikki: would be easy. Well, you still a call a plumber, but it seems

Maribel: like that would not be as. It's actually more difficult. It requires hoses being installed. What do I know? It, it requires chemicals. Savage, but fair.

Really? Yes. It's a different process. Okay. For tankless, definitely call a plumber. Yes. It keeps, it keeps cals calcium from building up in the pipes and things like that. Usually when you flush a tankless. It's the water is completely offended black. You're like offended

Mikki: in your soul that like that was in your water heater.

Your soul is like crying

Maribel: on the inside. Most people, the first time they see it, they're like, wait a second.

Mikki: You're like, I drink black. Why is waters

Maribel: so black?

Mikki: And [00:46:00] that's why I don't drink water folks. Oh my God. Yes, I do. Sometimes

Maribel: that's So maintaining your water heater every year, it, it makes it last longer.

People wonder like, why is it only lasting x amount of years? And it's because people are not maintaining it. They most of the time set it and forget it.

Mikki: Yeah. Mm-hmm. A hundred percent.

Maribel: And so, yeah, we have not done, I mean, we've moved

Jess: our house. That's why the show y'all. Yeah. Almost four years ago. Mm-hmm. I did no idea.

Add that to your list for, to when you come to the house,

Mikki: be like, just send, send a whole crew. Send the whole crew. Send a whole crew. So on

Maribel: the flip side, okay. If you've never done it, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No, go ahead. No, you're good. If you've never done it, you don't wanna start doing it now.

So if we have customers that just found this out and call us guys, the ship has sailed. Yes, the ship has sailed At that point, don't do it. Because what happens is so much debris, there's so much deposit that once you do the flush, it's actually been whole holding your tank together from breaking apart.

And so when you flush it, all the calcium deposit, the buildup, the rust just [00:47:00] shifts in the tank from the pressure of the flush coming out. Yeah. And it'll actually damage your tank and make it and crack the tank sometimes.

Jess: Okay. So we're, let's say I, I'm gonna guess that the people who owned my house before me didn't know to flush it 0%.

So I should probably just not, and just wait till if it's been

Maribel: many years. I mean, it said been at least four I. Four is not too bad. Okay. But if it's, but before them bef, if it's before, if it's more than four four, then probably I would not touch it. Don't do a flush because depending on how much buildup is in the tank.

Okay. Especially if you're water. If you have very hard water and, oh yeah. My, my toilets are always turning down

Mikki: if you have, is that how you know if you have hard water? Is if it turns of your, like sink turns a color, how do you know if you have hard water?

Maribel: So the way we do it is we will test the water for a hardness.

And that makes sense.

Mikki: But if we're guessing we're like at home and we're like, ah, I don't know, do I have hard water? Is there like, well I guess is there, is there [00:48:00] a way to tell without testing?

Maribel: So it depends because it could be really hard. It could be a medium hardware. It's not so bad to your fixtures.

Okay. So it all depends on how hard the water is. Obviously too hard is not good for your fixtures. You see film deposits and those types of things. Home deposit. Okay. But you definitely want to test it. And that's something that, that a good thing to know. What color will the film deposits be? It depends.

It depends on the fixture. It depends on, could it be black? So usually if that seems like we gotta talk about that lunch where, 'cause we've had the situation where the customer has had black deposit, but it's because the water that was coming in was damaging all of the

Mikki: fixtures,

Maribel: the gaskets and things like that.

Oh. And so what's coming out is not really from the pipe. Okay. It's really the rubber gaskets and things like that just deteriorating. So it's a,

Jess: the bathroom [00:49:00] sink faucet, like, and I cleaned it. It was like this black stuff that came off and yeah, it's

Maribel: probably, if it's in the aerator, it's probably right there in the faucet.

It's that rubber. Mm-hmm. That, um, has sometimes a flow restrictor. Yeah. That rubber there is probably just falling apart.

Mikki: Nice. It's great. You just need one. Doesn't seem like we're gonna die over that. No,

Maribel: it's gonna be great. It's brush, keep brushing my teeth. Teeth. So it's most likely Yes. Not from the water, coming from hard water.

It's just, it's just the, and it, it doesn't necessarily have to be the hard water. It could be. It's the wax, uh, it's the gasket from, so they're Be Mar's gonna come to my house

Jess: and she's gonna be like, we need to change everything. Everything's gonna be like, what does Mickey

Mikki: say all the time? Just burn it down.

Jess: Listen. Does Hector have any special trash faucets laying around? I'm sure he has a

Mikki: parts faucet.

Jess: He probably, many parts possible. Okay. So but back to [00:50:00] flushing it, because I know like with, or I'm assuming like with HVAC when they come in and they, they're cleaning the ducks, there are tons of scams and stuff and people like overcharging for things.

So like what would a ballpark be for like having your. Tanks flushed.

Maribel: So for us is a little different because we offer a membership.

Mikki: I was gonna ask this because I think that's so smart. It Yes. Co continue.

Maribel: Sorry. I got excited. I got really excited about that. There's, that's okay. There's a lot of value of having a membership.

Yeah. People don't think that, homeowners don't think that plumbing is one of those things. It's like nothing ever happens to my plumbing. Right, right. Unless Brad lives with you, don't touch it. Not touch it. So having a membership is, there's a lot of value to it. Our membership includes flushing the water heater every year.

It includes things like if you have a water softener, us coming and refilling the salt. [00:51:00] Oh. And we check and inspect every single fixture from every angle. Stop, every toilet, flapper, every faucet. There's a 90 point need you guys in my life,

Mikki: she's like, after I heard the parts story, I don't really wanna be your plumber.

No,

Maribel: a hundred percent not. There's a 90 point inspection that we do. Wow. From checking your water pressure, which is another thing that people don't realize. There is a pressure reducing valve in your home. Yeah. Is there a pressure increasing valve? 'cause I knew

Jess: that.

Mikki: Remove the reducer. Bing, bam. Boom. Don't listen to me.

I'm not a plumber. But the Bing doctor boom made it sound really official. It did sound really official, didn't it, Jeff?

Maribel: And so we check the pressure in the home and so there's a 90 point inspection that we go through. That's a lot of points. So how much is that?

Mikki: Yeah. How much is that? Tell us. So

Maribel: usually for, we provide a complimentary, whoa.

If you have the membership is something that we do every year. So every year we'll come and we'll inspect every single valve. [00:52:00] So how much is the membership? So it depends if, if you go with how many toilets you have, yours is, for me, it's no. So if you have, the basic membership is 179 a year. Nice. And that includes, the flush, includes, um, all these different perks.

Mm-hmm. And if you were to actually just get a flush on its own, most plumbing companies around the area charge more than that. Just for the flush alone. Yeah. So it comes with all these benefits. Ooh. And the peace of mind that like, okay, here's my question.

Mikki: Mm-hmm. Do you guys call or am I responsible for remembering that my, something needs to get flushed?

Or do you like call me once a year to be like, Hey,

Maribel: every year we'll call you and say you're due for your annual flush and so we're coming. We'll do a full inspection of your home and check, check every fixture. The other thing is the outdoor spigots. People don't, it's one of those things, it's outdoor.

You don't see it out of sight outta mind. Yeah. Maybe in the summer you use it [00:53:00] once or twice, but

Mikki: our outdoor fixtures are, yeah. They'd be leaking.

Maribel: Oh, I'm gonna have to call

Mikki: you. Thank God. Just sent me your contact information. Oh God. She's like, burn it. I mean, technically I have two nephews that are plumbers, but like listen, we're only calling them when like things have gone horribly wrong.

Mm-hmm. Like, you know, when we never flushed our hot water heat. And now it has exploded and we need a new one. That's when we're like, Hey, Marvin. Hey Damon, come to the house. Yes. Help your to out and like, hook us up. Um, and, and so they come, but like they're not mainten our stuff. No. So I'm like, oh, we've gotta get on that plan.

Mm-hmm. Hecker's gonna be like, what did you sign us up

Jess: for? Like,

Mikki: so how long does

Jess: a hot water heater supposed to last?

Maribel: So standard warranty is six years. Shit.

Mikki: Spicy priced. Then

Maribel: they're expensive.

Mikki: Like they're top your mouth first we're gonna,

Maribel: the standard warranty is six years and people are surprised when it lasts Exactly.

Six years or [00:54:00] six in couple of months. The

Mikki: six in couple of months is intentional,

Maribel: but then again, if you're not maintaining it Yeah. That you could expect that. Yeah. Mine's

Mikki: Jess is like 1, 2, 3. I, I think my hus

Jess: got built in 2017, so I think mine's eight years old.

Mikki: Listen, it's thriving. I'm sure. Plane. Don't flush it.

Don't flush it. Flush. Don't flush it.

Jess: We're not, we're not

Maribel: flushing it, but when we get a new one. Maintenance plan. Maintenance plan, yes. One of the other thing that I highly recommend, and I know when, when we change water heaters, it's a suggestion, but it's one of those things like, I'm suggesting this, but seriously, like, you need to get this.

Yeah. And it's a shutoff valve. Yeah. It's an automatic shutoff valve. Especially, I know that a lot of the places here, water heaters are in the attic.

Mikki: Stupid. Yeah. It's dumb. But listen, it makes everybody a lot of money because when your water heater goes, you're not just calling the plumber, you're also calling the drywaller and then the painter.

Mm-hmm. And possibly the floor guy. [00:55:00] Yes. So it's a lot.

Maribel: And so that's one of the things we highly recommend. If you have a hot water heater in the attic, you need an automatic shutoff valve, which will shut off as soon as it, um, as soon as soon as it, uh, senses water in the drip pan. Ah, it will. Shut off your Okay.

The water to your water heater. Now you will still, if you have a 50 gallon water heater and it cracks, it lose those 50 gallons, you will have 50 gallons of water running into your home. But you, it won't continue to fill. Mm. And the water just continue to run in your home. So it will shut it off. You will have whatever the amount of gallons is, the water heater you'll have running in your house.

But yes,

Mikki: just you guys know, a drip pan is a little pan that the, that the hot water heater sits in. If you don't have one of those, probably we have problems. Um, so you'll need more than just the automatic shutoff valve, but that little silverish pan or black, it could be [00:56:00] plastic. Mm-hmm. But that, that you're probably like.

The dust is collecting in that is where that is called the drip pan, just so everybody knows. Uh, just, and it will only hold a few

Maribel: inches,

Mikki: so it's not Yeah. It's not gonna hold the 50 gallons. It's not gonna hold. Sorry. Yeah. So, and, and that is important. This is an important distinction because basically if with that automatic shutoff, like yes, at, at 50 gallons, the water stops and you think, well, that's a lot of water in my house, and you're not wrong, but it's better than 700 gallons.

Yeah. Which, if you were to have something like this happen and you're not home mm-hmm. Then it just keeps running until the water company calls you and, and like, I don't know if everywhere is a same way, but, uh, in Raleigh they will call you. So I don't, I don't know if I've told you this story. Nope. Um, waiting for it.

It's a, it's a delight. So I get a call from the city of Raleigh and they're like. What is going on at your house? And I was like, why? They're like, your water bill is $2,500. I have four [00:57:00] toilets. I was like, excuse me, 2,500. My water bill's normally 80 bucks solid. It's not changing. Uh, so they're like, your water bill's at $2,500.

So like something's happening. You've got a leak somewhere. And I was, I said to the guy, I was like, sir, my house is 1600 square feet. If $2,500 worth of water was coming out of anywhere, I would be dead because I would've drowned in my house. Like, or I would be in the bottom of the sink sinkhole right now.

Like there's no circumstance. $2,500 water bill. I'm still alive. Yeah. So like, are you sure I have a leak? And he's like, oh, we're sure. So that guy was not very helpful. I called back, a lady named Doris answered, she's a delay. Doris, if you're watching Chef's Kiss to you, okay. She's like, well. I see. This is wild to me.

She's like, I see that we did replace your water meter like two days ago. So it could be that they, they read it wrong. Mm. She's like, do you want me to send somebody out to check it? I was like, Doris, that'd be great. 'cause I don't [00:58:00] wanna pay $2,500. Yeah. I'm not paying $2,500. Not, and so Doris was right.

They just read my meter wrong when they swapped the meter out, and so they didn't like carry something over. I don't know the, they didn't carry the one and divided. They added a zoom. They added a few zeros. Yeah. And I was like, they multiplied. And so I called Doris back. I was like, Doris, you were right.

Are we good? She's like, honey, I got you. I was like, thanks Doris, but. 25. But long story short, long story, long, um, if you have a water leak, depending on where you live, they, the city will call you because listen, they, there's like programs that will like, help you not have to pay. They don't wanna waste money.

So they'll call you and be like, your, your toilet's running. Um, but you don't want that to be how you find out. Mm-hmm. Your basement is flooded or your whole house is, whole house is flooded. 'cause that's just a whole lot. The insurance is not here for that.

Maribel: Mm-hmm. Yes. And make sure that the one that you do install has an alarm.

It comes with an alarm. Without an [00:59:00] alarm. You want the, you want the one with an alarm, because if you hear it, obviously you're gonna know something is wrong. And if it's in the attic, you can then hear the alarm.

Mikki: So at least there's nothing else. At least you know, the waterfall is about to come. Like, you're just like,

Jess: mm-hmm.

Mikki: Like, get ready guys. It's happening. Because I mean, in that case, like alarm goes off, you're like, all right. The hot water heater's gone like and, and just your options are,

Maribel: well, a lot of the times it starts with a small drip. Oh, so it gives you time. It doesn't always just like split and crash. So it's

Mikki: not always like catastrophe?

No. No. Okay. So the alarm would help you realize there was some duct tape. Brad's like, honey, I got it. And you're like, I saw a video.

Jess: I watched it on YouTube. We're good. Mine's in the garage. Thank God. That is good. That is good. Mm-hmm.

Mikki: I will say when we get calls, it's always like,

Jess: yeah, the,

Mikki: there was in the attic, they had a problem.

I don't understand

Jess: why people thought it must have been. Some guy was like, oh, water flows down. Let's put the hot [01:00:00] water heater in the attic. Makes sense. Some named Gary

Mikki: was like, this is a great idea.

Jess: And everybody

Mikki: was

Jess: like, oh,

Mikki: we'll get on board with that, that then my niece's husband is name or not husband.

Her boyfriend's name is Gary. And, uh. I say Gary a lot now these days. So the plumber's name is Gary now. Sorry, that was a little backstory. Wasn't that the pet of

Jess: something in the, in some kind of animation movie? She seems like a a, she's nodding yes.

Mikki: What Alyssa tell us. SpongeBob.

Jess: Oh, my guy. She knows. I knew that.

I heard Gary was, I was thinking of a little pet. Oh, yes, Gary. Mm-hmm.

Mikki: I love how's like, oh, we know Gary now Gary's on the podcast. Hashtag Gary. I'm just kidding. He's not. Now we're gonna have a little Gary going across the screen. Thanks Joe. Joe will listen to Jess. He will not listen to me. And I respect that a hundred percent.

I'm ridiculous in all things. Okay, so we get, oh, check the, oh, we're at time. We're at time guys. We can't go over. We're trying to, we're trying to not go over. All right, so thank you so much. Listen, if you [01:01:00] guys have questions for our, our illustrious plumbing guest, um. We would love for you to comment down below and then if you have questions, we'll make sure that you're aware of them and they they can answer it.

'cause there's so much, I mean, there's can do. A marathon of podcast about plumbing shenanigans. Mm-hmm. I would probably be better if I didn't go on and on about stupid stories that don't matter to anybody, but we're getting good at the Chicky chat. Well, I, we're thriving at the Chicky chat. Sorry about that.

Uh, we'll work on it, but in the meantime, if you have any questions, please comment down below. Mm-hmm. We would be happy to try to help you get answers because we understand this is. I didn't even know about the flushing. I'm, I'm not gonna lie to your face. I had no idea. So there's a lot that goes into plumbing.

Who knows? We have an expert. Please feel free to ask questions. We'll try to get them answered for you. Yes. Where can they find you? Like if people, if people want a membership moment, please tell us all your information.

Maribel: So, um, before I give my membership, I just wanna [01:02:00] say thank you for having me.

Absolutely. There's, there's a lot that we should have you back. We did, we didn't, we did not discuss plumbing. We, it's because I can't stop talking. But, um, but the latest technology, if people are interested and just concerned with things like leaks. Latest technology is a whole home leak detector. Ooh. Ooh.

It's so exciting. What's wrong with us? It's a smart device and I will keep it short 'cause I know we're outta time. No, you're fine. Go out. It's a smart device, connects to your phone and starts to learn how much water you're using. It doesn't overnight check to make sure, 'cause I believe it's at three o'clock in the morning, but you could set it at other times.

Okay. There shouldn't be any water running in your home. Right,

Mikki: right.

Maribel: And so, I mean, unless you have, you have to learn a food poisoning moment or if you have a digress. An ice maker.

Mikki: Oh, ice Makers is our first hormone horror story. Oh, that's how it got started. Okay. Was a defective icemaker. Mm-hmm. My God.

Today, we everywhere. Okay, so it's called a. Whole.

Maribel: A whole home leak detector. Home

Mikki: leak detector. [01:03:00] Okay.

Maribel: And the best one is the smart one.

Mikki: The smart one. So it connects to your phone, so it connects to your phone, maybe talking, collecting data. Yes, exactly. It probably has

Maribel: wifi. It does. Okay. Alright. It does All right.

And it will also shut off the water. If you're on vacation, shut water. You can shut off the water from your cell phone. And this way there's not water running. Yeah, you need to get that at the beach house. Yes, yes. My God. Today, especially if it's, if it's a seasonal home, you can just off the water, go find out where at the

Jess: water shut off is homes

Maribel: that I've learned today.

I have

Jess: a whole list

Mikki: of things that I'm

Jess: gonna need to

Maribel: do. But yes, if you want more information, our estimates are complimentary. I love that. So if there is something that you think might be of concern in your home, you can give us a call and we can send a technician to come look at it and see if it's something that you should be concerned of, or if it's something that.

You know, you just, mm-hmm. In what area do you service Raleigh? So we have another location [01:04:00] in Raleigh. Um, there is a location in Durham. Okay. Um, and then we are in Holly Springs.

Mikki: Okay. So you personally only service Holly Springs? No.

Maribel: So from, or you service all carry down to. I mean pretty much lillington.

Mikki: Oh, okay. Mm-hmm. Alright. Alright. That's fast. Yes, that's fast. Okay. And what we will do is we'll put her contact information in the show notes mm-hmm. So that you can click on that more, you know, after you hit the like and subscribe button. 'cause you're gonna do that 'cause you're here for my cheeky chat.

You're here and it's free. So once you do that, click down in the show notes and we'll have all of her contact information. Of course. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Maribel: Thank you for having me.

Mikki: We absolutely, what a joy. We'll probably have to have her back for round two of questions we didn't ask because I was too busy.

Yip yapping. Um, and Brad did too many things. Ron and Brad has been really tearing into the house up as of boy. He's been busy. He's been busy. He's been busy. Not listening to Jess. No, but we love Brad. Okay. We do hashtag love bread. Joe was like, [01:05:00] why would the hashtag, I don't know, Joe, we don't know. Uh, please go to the website, chicks and construction.com, share your homeowner horror stories with us, uh, as we've discussed.

Not at nauseum yet, but we'll get there. Please do put your real email address. We won't share it with anyone, nor will we spam you. But sometimes we have follow up questions and it's helpful if we can ask you. So we, we, we appreciate you being anonymous, but we wanna represent you fully on the show. So if you could put that, that'd be great.

Mm-hmm. Uh, Jess, where can they find us on the socials?

Jess: So at LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. It's at Chicks Construction podcast and we're also on TikTok. We talk guys at Chick Construction.

Mikki: Yeah. And I've seen it. It's good stuff.

Maribel: So yeah, and you can find us at Benjamin Franklin plumbing.com/holly Springs dash nc and you can book directly from our website.

Ooh. Or from Google. Yes.

Mikki: That's amazing. I love that. Alright guys, thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you guys next time. Bye bye.

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