Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 116 Waterproofing Wizardry: How Greenfrog Keeps Charlotte Dry
Blair Burke from Greenfrog Waterproofing joins Regina League to uncover the hidden world of home moisture management in Charlotte. What began as Blair's teenage experience building trail systems in the New Mexico mountains evolved into a thriving waterproofing business built on comprehensive solutions rather than quick fixes.
Did you know Charlotte receives more rainfall than Seattle? This surprising fact shapes our region's unique waterproofing challenges. Blair explains that while Seattle gets constant drizzle, Charlotte's heavy downpours create intense water pressure around foundations. He shares critical warning signs homeowners should watch for: musty odors after returning from vacation, hardwood floors that begin to cup (edges rising higher than centers), and structural cracks appearing around doors and windows.
Perhaps most alarming is Blair's revelation about indoor air quality – approximately 40% of the air we breathe on our first floor comes directly from our crawl spaces. This "stack effect" means whatever mold, moisture, or contaminants exist beneath your home are being circulated through your living spaces. Green Frog Waterproofing stands out by addressing the complete water management picture, from roof gutters to yard grading to crawl space encapsulation.
"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," Blair explains, contrasting his comprehensive approach with competitors who offer limited solutions that maximize their profit through recurring maintenance. His team undergoes extensive training in mold remediation, stormwater management, and building science to develop customized solutions that might include gravitational drainage systems rather than mechanical pumps when possible.
Protect your home investment and family health by visiting greenfrogwaterproofing.com to schedule a thorough inspection of your property's water management systems. Blair's team services the greater Charlotte region with solutions backed by warranties up to 25 years.
Greenfrog Waterproofing
Blair Burke
Matthews, NC, United States, North Carolina
(980) 202-1222
Admin@greenfrogwaterproofing.com
GreenFrogWaterproofing.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina League.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm here in South Charlotte and my favorite thing is to introduce local business owners and chat with them about what they do, their journey and what sets them apart, and I'm super excited. I've heard about this company for a long time and I've got Blair Burke with us today. He is the owner of Greenf rog Waterproofing. Welcome, Blair.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Regina. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2:I love the name of your business and I'm super curious. Tell us a little bit about you, maybe growing up and how you got into this industry and, better yet, what inspired you to create your own?
Speaker 3:business, even as a kid. I'm one of four boys in my family and really enjoyed being outside all the time and grew up playing sports and was in Boy Scouts. And when I was 17 and 18 and then, even so, three summers in a row I went and worked on Dude Ranch for the Boy Scouts in New Mexico, and my job was to build hiking and riding trails through the Rocky Mountains, and so you got to learn a lot about grading and water and you may not think there's a lot of water in New Mexico we were in Northern New Mexico but when the water comes it comes fast and so we have to manage it rightly, so it doesn't cause erosion. And I really got into that. You know that was back in the late 80s, early 90s, and didn't think I would use it. I actually was a, but I was at that time a civil engineering major in college At that time a civil engineering major in college and then, through a series of events, changed my major from civil engineering to broadcasting documentary and did that for about 10 years. And then now, you know, years ago, decades ago, got back into civil engineering through construction.
Speaker 3:I started working for a firm and with the downturn they laid off a lot of people. They owned a lot of the market share in Charlotte, and so I was one of the ones laid off. But I knew people were staying put during the downturn and putting money that they did have into their houses because they couldn't sell them. So that's hence started Green Frog, and I actually got a lead from a plumber and they said so-and-so needs some work done in their crawl space. I put together a bid and then put together a letterhead on Microsoft Word and just some clip art. I love the name Green Frog because green's my favorite color and frogs are always waterproof, and so I thought it makes sense.
Speaker 2:I saw them at that way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so put that together and won the bid. And then the hardest thing is when you win a bid, now you got to go produce a job, and so for that first year I was the crew, along with a business partner, and so and since we've that was 14 years ago we've grown and right now we've got about five crews today that are working and at different levels of doing grading. We're doing inside the crawl space, basement work, also outside we're building retaining walls, we're doing riverbeds, so we're trying to stop the water before it gets to your house, and then we also handle the effects of when it gets into your house or under your house.
Speaker 2:What are the signs for a homeowner that there is potential water damage? Because I lived in a house and how we found out was we were having the I guess the AC replaced, and so he's under the house and he's like, okay, you've got a problem.
Speaker 3:There's water.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so if you don't have another subcontractor that goes under the house like a termite company or HVAC who could ring the ring, the alarm for you, you might have so much water. It may have been in your case where it actually can shut off the air conditioning or heat. That's a possibility. But there are other signs that show a lot of times. If you go away for a day or a few days for a vacation, to come back in and your house smells musty, then you probably it doesn't. Then you what we call it the nose test or the smell test that you probably have some kind of water issue going on, and so you want to go to your kitchen and start checking into the cabinets, because those tend to. If you have a crawl space, the crawl space is going to come up through those cabinets and hang out there.
Speaker 3:Another sign is if you have hardwood floors and they start to cup not crown but cup then you know you have moisture on the bottom side, and so that means where the edges of each of the hardwoods start to push up and the center is lower, that's cupping. So those are signs, and then if in general, you're actually seeing water damage around the baseboards, whether you're a slab crawl space or if you're in a basement. It's a little bit easier to see that. But then I would even say, go outside your house and if you see your gutters are full and it's causing erosion next to your house, chances are that water's not just staying there or draining away, it's coming under your house. So we'll take a look at all those things. We start at the roof, look at the gutters, look at the side, look at the grade and then go under and then even come inside the house and evaluate there.
Speaker 2:What are some of the most common waterproofing issues you see in Charlotte?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say probably and most people don't know this that we actually get. Charlotte gets more rainfall than Seattle Washington, and so the Seattle Washington gets it in drips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was about to say we get it all in a few days.
Speaker 3:We get it in buckets, right, and so because of that, your roof produces a lot of water and most people don't clean their gutters, and so then the gutters dump next to the foundation and then the water settles next to the foundation and will cause structural issues, and then you can even notice that's. Another sign you can notice is that you're starting to get cracks around doors, windows, or the windows aren't opening. Then you probably know you have a structural issue, because every house moves, because if the ground is wet it's going to swell and your house is going to lift up, and if we're dry it's going to contract, and that's not a problem. It's just that when your house moves unevenly, that's when you have structural issues. And so we need to come and take a look at what's happening with your gutters. What's happening once the water hits? Is it running away from your house or is it running towards your house? And then where's it going from there?
Speaker 2:Well, you've got a great website. It's very, very informative. And one thing I read that I never even tied the two together is the air quality in your home, where you stated that 40 of the air you breathe on your first floor comes from the crawl space. That's.
Speaker 3:I had no idea yeah, yeah, that that is as air. There's something called the stacked effect and as air heats up, it travels through your house and winds up in your attic the hottest air does. So a lot of people have vented crawl spaces, and that was for 100 years. That was the building science that you could open the crawl space for air to flow through, and the prevailing thought was it's like opening windows in your house. You can get a cross ventilation. The problem is that doesn't happen. Air comes into your crawl space and as it heats up, it goes through the floor insulation and comes inside the house through tiny cracks in your floor or pipe penetrations and that's how you're breathing the air from the crawl space. So out of every 10 breaths you're taking four of those is like you're in the crawl space and so whatever condition that is down there from the mold to animals to the water that's under there and the old insulation, the dankness that's why it can smell inside your house when you come back from vacation.
Speaker 2:So walk us through the process. Someone calls you and says I don't know, tell us how it works.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. We would encourage them to go to our website and there's a form you can fill out. It's pretty simple, and then we have someone that will follow back up with you through email, get your information, see where you are in charlotte, assign you to myself or some another technician or salesperson on the north side, and then we'll come out. After we make that. We want you to be there so that we can ask you some more interview questions about the house and your experience with what the perceived problem is. And then we go and take about an hour around the house and and check it, go through checklist and and taking pictures, taking readings of the wood, moisture level, the relative humidity, whatever it may be, or if it's yard drainage.
Speaker 3:We also take gps of your yard so we can see the, the topography of your yard, the flow of your yard, see what your neighbors are doing all those are factors that are affecting. And then we put put together a quote, usually a multi-page quote, with pictures, a description and prices that and try to give you an option. We don't just say hey, we don't show up and say here's what you need Now, what's your problem. We try to find out what your true problems are not just the manifesto problems, and then give you a good, better, best approach so that you can enter in. If you're trying to sell the house or if you want to be there forever, then you can enter in at whatever price point or whatever scope that's best for you.
Speaker 2:What are some of the biggest misconceptions that homeowners have about waterproofing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think they think a French drain encompasses everything, and a French drain is typically it has a limited, it can handle a few things. It's meant. The best way I can describe a French drain is just a sponge in the ground. So if you have some area that's wet, it's constantly drying that area out for 24 hours a day. But you may also have a gradient issue. You may also have a downspout issue with your gutters. You may have a landscape issue that you have trees and plants growing too close to the house. You may have a humidity issue in your crawl space, and so a lot of people say, hey, just come over and put a French drain in. Maybe they've watched too much HGTV, whatever it is, but you know whenever I bring on a sales specialist.
Speaker 3:it takes them about 18 months of training, so it's not a quick. I'm trying to teach them on. They're going to become certified in mold remediation. They're going to be certified with a state on stormwater movement. There's other certifications with pavers, retaining wall, blocks, building science that are bringing them on, and so let us come out and just assess what the issues are and then we'll build that. Here's what ought to happen. And you may say well, we have a lot of customers say can I do that this year and then do whatever else you say next year? So we try to give you a master plan of having a dry, healthy house.
Speaker 2:Do you offer any kind of financing solutions?
Speaker 3:We do. We offer our financing through WiseTac, which is a pretty easy procedure. Whenever we send a quote through WiseTac, which is a pretty easy procedure Whenever we send a quote, you can right then apply for a loan amount and get approval within a minute.
Speaker 2:Well, I love all of this. I can tell you really know your business. Well, what do you think sets you apart from other waterproofing companies in Charlotte?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's the expression if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and most companies pare down what they do so that they can make it easy on their salespeople and maximize their profit. A classic example is most companies in Charlotte will say, oh, you need a sump in the crawl space, a sump and a pump. Well, that's something electrical that that can go out, that's something mechanical that needs to be replaced. But it's really good for the company because they they now have a revenue stream that they've got to replace that sump pump.
Speaker 3:But if we, if you live in a lot that we can gravitationally drain that water out of your crawl space and trench a pipe going out so that it's constantly draining out of your crawl space or around your house, then we will do that. And because we keep machinery that we can do outside work and so we have a bigger toolbox than everybody else. We don't just have a hammer, we have screwdrivers, we have other things that we can can multiple tools. That is best for the customer and it's good for our company. But we try to give you a lot of different options without overwhelming you, but also just gives you a choice yeah, I'm sure, and do you offer any kind of warranty?
Speaker 3:we do. We offer warranties from one year workmanship all the way to 25 year performance warranties that are renewed every year. Yeah, so we come back once a year and inspect the our work and whether it's outside or inside that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, you sound like a very busy man. Do you ever have time off and if so, what do you like to do?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah. So I've got three kids. One of the things I do for fun is I stay. I like to play in the mud with my job, but we also we do a lot of Spartan races, and so that's a. That's a pretty dirty race where you're, you've got all these obstacles in the mud, and but it's fun, it's. I can do that with my kids, and then I live on about 10 acres and so I literally on Saturdays I love Saturdays they're they're kind of my rejuvenation day where I can experiment with things here at my house and my land that I will actually then roll out to customers. So if you come to my house, it's like a giant showroom. I have retaining walls, I have riverbeds, I'm actually experimenting with a recirculating creek and pond that I'm working on. So there's lots of things going on here that are in process from A to Z. So some things are unfinished, but I'm trying to do some work.
Speaker 2:I love what you're exposing your children to. That's a game changer when they get to see all of that firsthand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well, they actually all of my kids have worked for me. My daughter's done some social media and then both my sons have been, have worked for me currently and ongoing.
Speaker 2:Wow, I love it. It has been a pleasure getting to know you, blair, so tell our listeners how they can find Green Frog Waterproofing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, greenfrogwaterproofing. com. You can go to our website. You can find us pretty easy. You can Google Green Frogaterproofing. com. You can go to our website, you also. You can find us pretty easy in Google Green Frog Waterproofing. And so sorry, I've got it. Not only do I have three kids, I've got three dogs. Oh, wow and so. But that's the best way to reach us and then from there we'll follow up with you.
Speaker 2:How far out fromlotte do you guys cover?
Speaker 3:well, as charlotte's gotten bigger. We brought our territory in, but I've just brought on another sales guy so that we will, we will go up to the peninsula, up in davidson, mooresville, and then we go out to belmont, we also, we all of south char, and then going to Alba Mar tomorrow.
Speaker 2:So how about South Carolina Indian land, fort Mill yeah?
Speaker 3:Indian land, rock Hill, where I consider that Charlotte.
Speaker 2:I know, I know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's been such a pleasure getting to know you and congratulations on your. You're going on 15 years as a business center, yeah. That's amazing, so thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Regina.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.