Plunge into the intricacies of home plumbing with the wisdom of Adam Deber from John's Plumbing, our guest who brings over four decades of experience to the table. As we chat, you'll unearth the secrets to maintaining your home's lifeblood – its plumbing system – and learn why that strange gurgling in your pipes could be a herald of something sinister. Adam's deep dive into the world of polybutylene piping will arm you with the know-how to prevent potential disasters in homes built during the late '80s and early '90s, ensuring you're safeguarded against the silent menace of water damage.
Strumming a different chord, we shift our conversation to the refuge found in the strum of a guitar or the swing on the fairway. Hobbies aren't just pastimes; they're essential for our mental well-being, offering solace from the storm of daily life. Through anecdotes and personal insights, we explore the dedication driving golf enthusiasts and how legends like Tiger Woods master the mental game, illuminating a truth even non-golfers can appreciate: the right mindset isn't just about hitting the perfect shot, it's about navigating the course of life with finesse and resilience.
Plunge into the intricacies of home plumbing with the wisdom of Adam Deber from John's Plumbing, our guest who brings over four decades of experience to the table. As we chat, you'll unearth the secrets to maintaining your home's lifeblood – its plumbing system – and learn why that strange gurgling in your pipes could be a herald of something sinister. Adam's deep dive into the world of polybutylene piping will arm you with the know-how to prevent potential disasters in homes built during the late '80s and early '90s, ensuring you're safeguarded against the silent menace of water damage.
Strumming a different chord, we shift our conversation to the refuge found in the strum of a guitar or the swing on the fairway. Hobbies aren't just pastimes; they're essential for our mental well-being, offering solace from the storm of daily life. Through anecdotes and personal insights, we explore the dedication driving golf enthusiasts and how legends like Tiger Woods master the mental game, illuminating a truth even non-golfers can appreciate: the right mindset isn't just about hitting the perfect shot, it's about navigating the course of life with finesse and resilience.
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:
Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, jeremy Wolf, and today I am joined by. We have Adam Deber. Adam is with John's plumbing. Actually, I remember I was driving the other day and I saw one of their service trucks in the area. I hadn't yet connected with them, so I reached out, spoke with Adam on the phone seemed like a really, really good guy, and so I invited him on the show to tell everybody a little bit about what he does in and around our great community. So, adam, thanks so much for joining us, brother.
Speaker 3:
Jeremy, thank you for having me. I'm, we feel, very lucky that you saw the truck and we're happy to help you. Know anybody out? Yeah?
Speaker 2:
Yeah well, thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in. So let's just get into this straight away. Adam, tell everybody a little bit about John's plumbing the background, and then we will sure there, sure?
Speaker 3:
So John's plumbing is in business. Gosh 45 years. I mean it's a long-standing business.
Speaker 2:
You got me beat by one year. I'm 44 years old.
Speaker 3:
Oh, are you, are you know what the day over, like 42? Oh, thanks, we get a little gray in the beard. You notice. You notice I keep mine close because I'm all gray. It's pretty, pretty, pretty. Yeah, it's happening fast. So yeah, the business, you know been in business 45 years, you know over 40 years Serving the tri-county area right, dade, broward and Palm Beach County and, and you know, about two years ago they became under new management, a new ownership and and gosh, it's been smooth sailing ever since.
Speaker 2:
All right. So how long have you been with John's plumbing?
Speaker 3:
I came on yeah, so I came on about the same time that the that the Acquisition happened. I worked for the for this owner, geno, at another very large plumbing company, and decided to to come here and help him build this and build it the right way and and be able to Really service the customers in a very, in a very personal way. You know in a less corporate way. You know in a, you know in a way that that they can count on us to Really keep their, their number one investment, safe. You know from water damage and and you know all these different things that can happen with plumbing. You know for the rest of their, you know as long as they own the home and beyond.
Speaker 2:
So, safe to say, you guys are bringing quite a bit of experience. We are background from what you've been in this industry for for quite some time. So I wanted to get a little bit into Some tips, maybe clear up some common myths or misconceptions that folks have Surrounding the plumbing. I know me personally I had to go through the whole polybutylene re-piping.
Speaker 1:
In my city.
Speaker 2:
So I was hoping you could kind of share a little bit with our listeners. Some again, some tips. Clear up some misconceptions.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and that polybutylene situation is no fun and re-pipes are no fun to half right have done to your home because it certainly, you know, put some stress on the family unit, right. So polybutyline lines were something that were, that were used gosh, between about 1989 and about 1996. So if your home was built between now and between 89 and 96, you may have polybutyline lines and not even know it. And the thing about these lines is, you know, look they may. You may never have an issue, right, but but when you do have an issue it's going to be a serious issue. And they outlawed those pipes very quickly in 1996 and and and they're no longer you know code or able to be used. So if you do have that situation, you can certainly contact us and we're happy to help yeah.
Speaker 2:
So, speaking of that very issue, like I said, I had to go through that. I was out of town on vacation and I got home and thankfully my neighbor turned off the valve. It was leaking and it wasn't going in the house, it was going out into the street, but it was rushing water out yeah my burst.
Speaker 3:
We tried to kind of override it and fix it and right didn't work and it just, yeah, it was time for no, what happens is yeah, what happens is, as you fix you know you might try to fix one leak that you have right, and then, as you fix that, you're putting pressure on the system again and it's going to blow out in the you know, in the next place that was suspect, which is going to be one of those, one of those connections yes, I did learn this along the way.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we're sure. So what? What are some other? What are some other tips, or sure? So?
Speaker 3:
so the number one thing I think that I could tell a homeowner is you know, if you're in your bathroom and you flush your toilet and you hear a loop, you hear some kind of bubbles coming up, right, that is a sign that you have a what's called a soft clog and the water is not able to move past it. It moves past it very slowly and then, when it does, air bubbles come up through that water and that's the noise you're hearing. That's a warning sign telling you that you're going to have an overflow, right. So don't keep testing it and flushing it and doing all those things people do. It's, it's really funny. A lot of people will tell me yeah, it almost overflowed, so I flushed it again and then it overflowed, right. So when you hear that, just call us, don't mess around with it, because the last thing you want is you know those things that come out of a toilet, right? Blood, urine, feces. It's just, it's not a. It's not a pretty picture for your home yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:
What is it?
Speaker 3:
an ounce of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of beer, I think, is saying especially in this, especially in this business, you know we find common misconception, right is a lot of times people will say, oh well, you know what, I can just have my handyman do it. And I always say, you know, we know a lot of yeah, and we know a lot of great handyman and we actually use them right. If a customer might need, you know, their baseboard replaced because of water damage, you know we might say, hey, call this guy, he's very good, right. But when it comes to plumbing and electrical, you want to call a company that has, you know, that's a fully insured, that has plenty of experience, that's licensed and that has a financial wherewithal that, god forbid, something happens while they're in your home, they're going to take care of it, they're going to fix it right.
Speaker 2:
So yeah yeah makes a lot of sense and I got to say we all learn things as we go through this journey. My issue with my pipes, I remember, like I said guilty as charged, not with the handyman issue, but they're not taking action. When it was recommended to me, I had the house I'm in right now. I had a tenant in the past and they moved out and I was doing some work in the house and I had a plumber come by and they said hey look, you really need to change the pipes in the house because of XYZ and I wasn't listening to the time I said, well, I don't wanna make the investment, let's just fix this, and now I'm dealing with why I live here, and it's become a bigger project altogether.
Speaker 3:
Sure, yeah, and we can understand that. I'm gonna tell you a lot of plumbing companies, I don't think understand that. What we understand is when you call us because you have a small leak, you're thinking, hey, man, this is a three, four $500 fix and I'll be back in, I'll be at work by 11 o'clock and we'll be fine. You don't wanna hear that you need a whole house re-pipe and that if we do this repair, this is gonna be all for naught, right, because we're gonna do a repair here and it's gonna happen again and then you're gonna have more damage to the home. The last thing you wanna do is file another claim with your insurance for water damage. So a lot of times we get on the scene and they're not expecting that. So we give them kind of both options, right, give them the option of the fix and then give them the option of the re-pipe, which is something that we normally would suggest if we don't think the fix is gonna last.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean more often than not, adam. From my experience is whenever I've had a decision to make that required a significant investment that I've deferred doing because I wanted to save money at the time, it always turns into being more of an investment later and more of a problem later. So sometimes, if you could swing it at the time, if it makes sense, for you obviously get several opinions from companies that you work with or you're getting the right advice, but ultimately, if you get a consensus probably makes sense to move forward and do something.
Speaker 3:
Correct, correct. We're actually at a customer's house now where he had a shower pan laid and did once you lay a shower pan and you redo your bathroom, it's a lot of money and he had the shower pan laid by the handyman that did the tile, which is great. But here we are now he's got two leaks in his ceiling, his file to claim and now we've gotta rip up his entire the floor of his shower and the walls of his shower going up about two and a half feet to to relay a shower pan. He had mold now and it's a whole now. It's a whole situation, right. So you say, trying to save a couple of hundred dollars cost you upwards 10, $15,000.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I guess with hindsight, looking back, yeah, everything seems so clear, but I still, from my own perspective, I still tend to make those decisions. In the moment it's not not as clear as it should be. Yeah, I've gone through some of these experiences. I think we all suffer from that in the moment right, we're all looking to save in the moment.
Speaker 3:
Sure.
Speaker 3:
You have to, you know, put it in A lot of times what we'll do is, you know, we'll maybe cap it for them so that there's no leak and we'll say, look, don't do anything today, why don't you sleep on it? Right, we'll sleep on it. Give us a call tomorrow, Let us know what you think. If you've had time to, you know, talk to your family and you're you know, whoever is your person, that you get your advice from other than us, right, because we can only offer our professional, you know, expertise. But you know, a lot of times the customer really they really need to make their own decision and feel good about it and we're happy to you know, help them do that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely One of the things that I've started trying to be more conscious of. I found that every time I do have an important decision to make, not like ridiculously important but, a decision that, whatever it is like to move forward with a project, whatever it is, yeah, 15,000,.
Speaker 3:
what do you? You know yeah.
Speaker 2:
Oftentimes, when I go through that process, I say in the moment like yeah, I'm going to go, need to think about it and do this and that, and I end up spending a heck of a lot. Oftentimes this happens. I spend a lot of mental bandwidth and anguish going back and forth over the different options. And I inevitably land at the same option I would have had in the first place. So I've been trying to be more decisive about things in the moment when I present them with something.
Speaker 2:
I've been trying to be more decisive decisions and actions moving forward, just so I don't, you know, torture myself over the next week, month, two months, and still do the same thing anyway, right, 100%, yeah.
Speaker 3:
And especially when you're talking about, look, for most people, the home they live in is their largest. You know investment, right? Not everybody has five and six homes spread out through the country, right, we live in our largest investment and the fear, you know, of something happening to that investment can cause a lot of stress, so just get it taken care of right away.
Speaker 2:
Sleep better tonight.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and just make sure that you're using you know, if you're not using John's plumbing, make sure that you're using a licensed you know insured contractor with plenty of experience in doing what you need done in your home, because not everything is as simple as changing out a garbage disposal. Right, yeah, if you do a lot of re-pipes, you start to learn how to how to rewrite, reroute the pipes in such a way that you're doing minimal damage in a customer's home, right, which is super important, because that's the difference between $3,000 in putting back the drywall and $12,000 in doing and putting back the drywall is how the plumber makes his cuts and where he cuts right.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, Having quite a few holes. Yeah, they might still have some of them.
Speaker 3:
I believe it?
Speaker 2:
Yeah there are 20, 30 holes throughout the house.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I believe it. Yeah, yeah, I believe it. No doubt. And it's never fun, you know it's stressful for the customer.
Speaker 2:
Indeed, indeed. So shifting gears for a second. Yeah, what do you like to do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3:
Adam Tell us a little about that. Well, I mean, I don't know if you could see, I do play guitar, I'm a musician.
Speaker 2:
I've been a hold on, Just lost your, just lost your volume there for a second.
Speaker 3:
Sorry about that. Yeah, you're back, you're back.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, I see the guitars on the wall back there. Yeah, we have that in common. Yeah, it's great right.
Speaker 3:
A lot of fun.
Speaker 2:
It's fantastic Talk about a stress reliever Whenever I'm having a tough moment I can pick up the guitar and just start to play and all my stresses go away for at least temporarily.
Speaker 3:
Right, well, for me it was a profession for many, many years. You know, I was a musician, touring, recording artist, and then, you know, you get older and it's a young man's game, right, and I kind of transitioned my life and, you know, went from that to. You know, you're talking about things I love to do. I love to play guitar, I love music right, I play a lot of instruments, but I love playing golf as well. I'm an, I'm an avid golfer. Any given afternoon, you know, after work, you can catch me at my local golf course either chipping and putting or playing four or five holes with my buddies a little skins game, you know.
Speaker 2:
What's your local golf course where you play?
Speaker 3:
Long Beach National PBN, the Place to Be the Nash. Shout out to my boy, mikey D.
Speaker 2:
What's your handicap? I'm about a six.
Speaker 3:
Oh my God it's a real deal, golfer, when you got going. I very very best.
Speaker 2:
That was in the single digits, but you know, eight-ish. I guess Six is that's legitimate.
Speaker 3:
I mean, you know it's a, it's a. Six is a tricky number. I'll tell you why it's a tricky number. Any given day, right I I mean I might shoot even par. I might shoot 12 over. So it's a tricky. You know, I play with a lot of guys who are scratch golfers and the scratchies they don't vary too much. He's going to shoot two under, he's going to shoot three over, that's it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Maybe four over, five over, but you know, when you're in that six range it's hard to break through and get down. The difference between a six and a and a three is oh, it's incredible.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean the people that are at the highest level that are on on the tour. Oh gosh, the difference between them and the people that are kind of scratching the edge to try to get into the tour they're talking about, like what a one stroke, a half a stroke difference, or one show.
Speaker 3:
It's funny you talk about that because I just read something the difference between a professional golfer on the PGA tour and a scratch golfer that's a guy who shoots under par all the time. Right, it's not birdies, it's double bogies. Really, it's damage. Right, all right, it's damage control.
Speaker 2:
So it's all it really is. I mean here, it's all mental.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you know, to a certain point, right once we get to it, to a certain skill level, it's really just got it. It's a very zen thing, it's, it's all I. I almost. I'm not a karate guy or a martial arts guy, but I would think that somebody into martial arts could really, you know, take that mindset to golf.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. I mean, I think that's what made Tiger Woods so so great. Yeah, he obviously was operating at a very, very high skill level, but there's other golfers that are their best maintain the same skills that he has. He was able to control his mind yeah effectively that he created such an unbelievable consistency. He won like 25% of the tournaments he started in which is, I read.
Speaker 3:
I remember when he came to play in the Masters and Curtis strange was interviewing him and he said so what do you think he's like, I'm gonna win, I think I'm gonna win, I'm here to win and Curtis strange really kind of. It's a very famous video. If you anybody out there wants to look it up, it's fantastic. He went on to win the Masters that year and Curtis strange became, you know, very is one of his better, better friends. But it really taught him a lesson. You know that this guy was serious and his son, incidentally, is trying to qualify today. He's actually in Palm Beach right now trying trying to qualify for this next PGA tour event his son, charlie.
Speaker 2:
It's gonna be interesting to see how that unfolds. It really is. It's exciting. Before we wrap up here, adam, why don't you share with our listeners the one thing that you'd like them to know about your business and maybe, maybe also what's on the horizon, right looking for what do we have to look forward? You know, what would you like everybody to know about John's plumbing?
Speaker 3:
sure. Well, one thing about us is we don't subcontract stuff out. If we're doing the work, we're doing the work. We have our own truck.
Speaker 3:
So any cast iron replacements we specialize in that we we tunnel underneath the home has to not disturb the home, right. So you're, you can live in your home while we change out your cast iron below. So anybody that's you know got got cast iron in their home. It's probably timing out Right and it's probably corroding and we can take care of that. We can also.
Speaker 3:
We do at literally everything when I say soup to nuts, I mean from charge, changing your garbage disposal to, you know, a whole house, repipe sewer lines, gas lines and supply lines. So we can, we can do everything, run the gamut there. And we also have we have a, a Program right where we come out to your home twice a year. We do inspections right and we do this very. It's very inexpensive and you also, you also get to the top of our list which is a preferred customer. So you have guaranteed service today Without a surcharge, right.
Speaker 3:
So a lot of times, let's say, you called me at seven o'clock at night you had a leak. We're gonna have to charge you some kind of a service charge to come out there right. But if you're on our, on our list, we're coming out there for free, there's no service charge, and you're gonna get 10% off all of your service. So think about that. If you have a whole house repipe that you need done and let's just say it's a $15,000 repipe you can get $1500 off that repipe Just by being a VIP customer of ours.
Speaker 2:
Now it makes a lot of sense to have a company that's gonna have to come back and perform routine or maintenance not routine, but service from time to time make sense to have a company that you could work with and that you trust that's kind of there for you and have a relationship with.
Speaker 3:
so yeah, One thing I will tell you also about our whole house repipes for the supply lines, right like you had, we give a lifetime warranty on all labor Right and that's also transferable. Should you sell your home, you're gonna be able to transfer that, that warranty and that guarantee, right to your, to your buyer.
Speaker 2:
That's smart yeah adds value to the client, it keeps your relationship consistent and if they ever have another issue outside the service, they're gonna obviously default by going to you.
Speaker 3:
so, yeah, relationships, yeah, back where you can and we'll know more about that home than they do. Right, if you're a new buyer and they call us out there, we can tell them the entire history of that home that we have. Right, because we record everything that we do with photos and notes, and so we'll already know the plumbing history of that home. Love it.
Speaker 2:
Love it you also do inspections.
Speaker 3:
If you're buying a home as well, you can contact us and say hey, you guys want to go out there and perform a plumbing inspection for us. We're happy to do it.
Speaker 2:
Nice, good to know, good to know. So for anyone out there listening Adam anyone that's, I don't know, maybe maybe they know they have the Polly and, like me, they're right kicking the can down the road and they don't want to. Or maybe it's that leaky toilet, that's, that's his, and they're looking every day, but they want to take care of it. Now they listen to this. A look at how do they reach you, how do they get a hold of sure.
Speaker 3:
Well, they can read they can reach us at nine five, four, nine two, three, four, one, eight, four, or they can. They can certainly go to johns plumbing dot com and reach us that way. Right, the best ways to just call us.
Speaker 2:
Very good. We will, of course, link in the description to all of your contact information. Adam, thanks so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 3:
Jeremy, I appreciate what you're doing for your community.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, man, thanks. Thanks so much for tuning in and we will catch everyone next time. Take care, have a great day, thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to G N P Cooper City dot com. That's G N P Cooper City dot com, or call. Nine five, four, two, three, four, two, three, one, three, one, seven, zero.