Plumbing 101 with Mitchell's: Year-End Review & New Year's Challenge

• Welcome back to the Plum Delusional Podcast with host Daniel Mitchell. As we approach the end of the year, the conversation covers several key topics:
• Company Updates:
  • The plumbing company has experienced significant growth this past year, expanding from 2 crews to 6 crews. They've taken on larger residential and commercial projects.
  • Mitchell's Plumbing aims to provide quality, affordable services and be known for their expertise and professionalism in the North Georgia area.
  • The company has obtained various licenses and certifications to ensure they meet regulatory requirements and can offer a wide range of services.
• Industry Trends:
  • There have been some recent code changes and inspections becoming more stringent in certain areas, impacting builders and homeowners.
  • The podcast host encourages the use of licensed, insured general contractors to help navigate construction projects smoothly.
  • Plumbing system components like water lines, sewer lines, and vents are discussed, along with maintenance tips for homeowners.
• Audience Engagement:
  • The podcast is looking to increase audience involvement, including a "worst plumbing picture" contest where winners will receive company swag.
  • Viewers are encouraged to submit questions that will be answered on an upcoming Q&A episode.
  • The host is open to addressing any plumbing-related questions or topics, expressing a desire to educate and inform the audience.
• Overall, the podcast provides insights into the plumbing industry, the company's growth and services, as well as an invitation for the audience to engage and learn more.

Welcome to Plumb Delusional, the podcast where Daniel Mitchell, owner of Mitchell's Plumbing in Lafayette, Georgia, takes you on a journey through the pipes and problems of modern plumbing.

Each episode dives into the nitty-gritty of the plumbing world—addressing common issues, uncovering surprising myths, and sharing memorable stories from decades of experience in the trade.

https://www.mitchellsplumbingga.com/
Phone: (706) 523-3201
Address: 206 N Duke St, LaFayette, GA 30728

Transcript

I appreciate you. Hello and welcome back to Plum Delusional Podcast with their host here Daniel Mitchell. It's the last day of the year today. We want to thank everybody for a great year and we're looking forward to even more successful next year in 2025. Going to start off this morning with a little bit of solo action from yours truly. We're going to we're going to cover a few topics that I want to cover and then we're going to jump into the second half with some I think chatting and Seth's going to come up and join us in a little bit but just going to go over the year in review. We've started out this year pretty strong and we've had a good year down around our plumbing company. We've done a lot. We've done a lot of big builds. We've done a lot of commercial stuff, a bunch of residential plumbing. We've partnered with a couple of new colleagues to bring some better choices out to our clients. Once we started this the podcast was new for 2024. We've done this will be our seventh episode and if you haven't get on your major platform Spotify, iHeartRadio, your iPhone, iPodcast and look us up. It's Plum Delusional and we cover anything. We cover anything it has to do with plumbing. If it floats, sinks, goes downhill, has to do with plumbing or if we can connect it to plumbing we'll talk about it. Sometimes we get off subject we chase a few rabbits but you know hey that's what makes things interesting on these podcasts is the information you get and the time you get to spend learning about it. We've actually had a pretty good couple of weeks. We just got done with our Christmas. We was off for a couple of days for Christmas. We had our Christmas party with the guys, had a real good time with our family but now we're kind of getting focused back in on a new year. Getting ready to start pushing along getting some of these new projects started. A lot of people have waited till the first of the year to do their projects and we're thankful that we've got a good backlog of projects for the first of the year. One thing that we're going to do in the next upcoming episodes is kind of do more audience involvement. I think we want to you know what we want to do is we're going to put out I'm going to put out a post and we're going to have some question and answers. Y'all send in all your questions you want answered on a podcast. We'll answer those questions on one podcast and I want to I want to challenge all my plumbing brothers out there. If you're in the plumbing trade, if you're working for a plumber, if you're a helper, an apprentice, if you're an owner, if you're you know you're it don't matter if you if you work in the plumbing trade, send me your worst plumbing nightmare pictures you know and get get get them and send them to Mitchell's M-I-T-C-H-E-L-L-S-P-L-U-M-B-I-N-G at winstream.net. That's Mitchell's Plumbing at winstream.net. That's my email. Send them there. What we'll do is we'll go through them. We'll have a podcast where we do you know nightmare plumbing pictures and that that that the best plumbing picture for that that that episode we'll go through there and then we'll have we'll let people vote on it. We'll we'll let people vote on it and the winner of that I'll get them I'll get them uh uh you can come down into the shop and we'll get you a new coffee cup a hat and one of our dry fit or one of our pullovers for uh winter and uh that way you'll have you you can say you know I won the worst plumbing picture disaster ever on uh Plum Delusional Podcast from Mitchell's Plumbing and then you'll be able to wear be able to drink coffee. I have a nice coffee cup with my logo on it and stuff like that who knows might get you make you a better coffee drinker but um now we're going to try to do that we'll do that we'll do the the worst plumbing pictures if y'all guys really do send them in to that's Mitchell's Plumbing at winstream.net that's M-I-T-C-H-E-L-L-S-P-L-U-M-B-I-N-G at winstream.net and uh we'll get them on here and then don't forget I'll get a I'll get just watch our social media our Facebook our TikTok and our uh Instagram for you know uh the question and answer I'll I'll put it on Facebook because uh we get a lot of we got a a lot of our clients a lot of our followers are on there I think we've got a few on uh TikTok at plumbers prime and uh then we've got uh Instagram at Mitchell's Plumbing uh and then uh which we've got our uh we've got our we've got our Facebook page Mitchell's Plumbing Facebook page we've got our pots on the spot Facebook page and then we've got uh our website and that's Mitchell's Plumbing g-a.com that's Mitchell's Plumbing g-a.com and uh we'll put a we'll try to get a link on there to send some question answers I know there is a link on there you can text uh in a call if you get on there and text us in one of your questions on there just make sure you put podcast question uh and then text your question to the the website we'll get them all put together and we'll go through them and we'll answer all the questions you want to know I mean I don't care what you want to know you know ask ask me it'd be plumbing about you know about that about me about the company about what we do why we charge what we charge how we come up with this stuff I mean I I'm going to go out there put myself on a limb and say I there's not a question I'm afraid to answer or make up the answer too if you know me I'll I'll dazzle them with the bull crap if I don't know the answer so I mean or YouTube it till we get it right so let's do that coming into it but uh as we start the end of year we want to we want to uh kind of touch on a few things we've had uh we've had some code changes and stuff like that that we've had to deal with uh we've had some new inspectors come into light in different areas they're inspecting more in Walker County now so we're at we're seeing more uh stringent codes in Walker County uh a lot of and uh they're requiring they're requiring if you're building the house to sell within the first two years you've got to have a general contractor you know you just can't go out here and get your own permits anymore uh stuff's the changing I know it's it's it's for it's to protect the consumer stuff like that it makes it a little harder more expensive on the the builder or the buyer or the or the homeowner uh if you're building a custom home to live in you can still pull your permit uh I do suggest I've always suggested that you get you a general contractor um we work on a bunch of con we work on a bunch of jobs where the jobs that we have the worst part to turn out and be difficult are ones that don't have a general contractor general contractors keep things going a good general contractor make sure you vet your general contractor make sure you vet your plumber your heat and air your electrician make sure they got license make sure they got insurance make sure they got comp because all that stuff protects you uh I guess it's on my mind because we get down here at the end of the year we go through audits they come in make sure we've got all this stuff to be able to to be able to hang my my name on my building have a building and have trained technicians and everything I have to carry workman's comp liability insurance I have to train my guys continuing education we've got we've got we've actually got general contractors license we've got plumbing license we've got electrical license in our stable we've got a septic tank and onsite sewage management license in our stable so there's there's there's several aspects of our company that we have to keep going to be able to bring you a great affordable service and give you all the options that we can give you as a a widely dynamic plumbing company we uh our our goal is to bring some of the most cutting edge the best bath kitchen plumbing remodeling new construction uh stuff to the to the to this north georgia area to be able to give it to our clients uh when you uh I want I want Mitchell's plumbing and pots to be names synonymous with quality I stay you know I tell my guys all the time you know cross your T's and dot your I's because we're under such a microscope you know if you've got your names on your vans your names on your shirts people watch you a little bit harder than some of the guys that's running around here with a blank truck or I like to call them chucking a truck you know they don't expect them to be you know professional so they there's a they're a lower standard for people that don't have license and that don't have the the building but neither here nor there I still want quality coming out of our stables you know if we if if if you've got us coming out know that you're going to get one of our great technicians we've got chanting he's been with us for a while that's my son-in-law we've got Seth he is doing great he's he's he's shanning's helper we've got uh James Titsworth he's running a truck he's running a truck for me and his partner uh Zach Mitchell he's doing great we just uh hired on Brody Wallen he's getting he's doing some of our running and stuff and then there's there's uh Lonnie Gilreath he does he takes care of our on-site portable restrooms him and Gene Mitchell my dad he started my dad he started this company back in 1976 uh he worked you know all over this area people know him all over he uh he started this when he was 16 17 years old uh been doing it ever since and then when I got old enough to to get in a truck I got in a truck with him he taught me everything you know I took what he taught me I expounded upon it and as I got through school I went to college got me a degree went out come back uh done some liaison work up at Erlanger come back learn a few things come back put it all into uh how many times have I said I've come back I've said I've come back a bunch sorry about that anyway when I came back for the last time uh I got in me and him partnered up uh and now I'm I'm pretty much so the sole uh runner of the company right now he kind of turned it over to me because he's kind of slowing down want to take it easy but his slowing down taking it easy he's working every day um I do commend him for that he is I would do you know we're big guys me and my dad is big guys I mean I've seen some of the guys on my podcast uh episodes they'll make comments where is your dicap bro or dude how you get under a house well I get under them I can still get under them you asked him my guys if they wanted anybody under a house with them it'd be me because I know what we need to do how we need to do it and I may not be able to get in the tight spots but I can I can probably figure out how to do it easy easier faster and more efficient and you know it's just it's been one of them things where I've paid my dues my dad's paid his dues and we're bringing up the second or the it's probably the fifth generation of plumbers that I've had something to do with and as a as a company Mitchell's has been around for a long time I hope are around for a whole lot longer uh that's one reason I like for y'all to get to meet my son-in-law I've uh let him start taking some of the forefront of this stuff and he's really really impressed me him and my daughter both are great they're great together and my daughter she she's a nurse but she don't want to work in the plumbing right now and that's that's understandable but Channing has took a lot to it he's become a real good technician anytime you have Channing out you're going to definitely get quality work uh we have uh we've plumbed uh several new houses this week a lot of them's on slab we're seeing a lot more uh turn towards slab on this uh right now because of the material they they saving money on the the the slab material in the woods so a lot of people's pouring concrete slabs in which that's great and everything it's just slabs are when it comes to plumbing it's hard to keep plumbing out of the slabs because if you ever go to do any remodeling anything you got a bus slab but uh they do last a long time my house is blown on slab uh it's you gotta worry about it rotting you ain't gotta worry about something getting in the crawl space uh we got uh new year's coming up uh we're gonna take off new year's day and then we'll be back at work uh we hope everybody has a great new year's hope everybody enjoys their family starts off the new year with uh good health and uh good wealth and if you could decide that you want to get into that project after the first year you know give us a call down at Mitchell's Plumbing we're down at 206 North Duke Street in Lafayette um a red red top building with the big sign on it it says Mitchell's Plumbing uh come in say hi to the girls uh Keela or Heather will be down there they can take your uh information get you on the schedule get somebody out to give you a free estimate we'll do free estimates uh then uh we can go from there get you know we can get you dream dream kitchen your dream bath uh started from uh stud to stunning so I say I mean we can we can take it from any aspect and make it into a beautiful bathing oasis or kitchen I'm gonna call the kitchen an oasis because that's gotta do the cooking in there but I mean I know there's some people that just love cooking we've done some really you know extravagant kitchens with the vikin stoves uh the cook tops you know pot fillers industrial sinks stuff like that if you really want to get into it I mean there's ways to to upgrade your kitchen to be able to make it super efficient to be able to cook and they're entertained I know a lot of people like to entertain at their house now it's hard to get good quality food when you go out there's restaurants are hit or miss sometimes but you know that's what you get when you go out I'm not gonna get into uh that but uh we just we know that uh during this podcast we want to cover some of the you know the things that we want to to get to convey a process crosses we want you to understand your plumbing system the better you understand your plumbing system the better though you understand what we have to do to maintain it you know you've got you've got three aspects of plumbing in your house you've got water sewer and vent uh a lot of people sometimes if a call toilet starts gurgling they think first thing they think vent but very seldom do we see any vents that stop up most of the time if you got a gurgling toilet it's a blockage in a line if you're out in the county it's probably going to be septic we see a lot of septics fail around this time of year because of the wet cold damp temperatures that you know you've got if you live in the city you probably own sewer mains your own uh commercial or a public sewer you ain't gotta worry about a septank if you're out in the county you you kind of have to have a septic system septic systems are good for about 30 years if they're maintained correctly about every seven years you need to dig them up have them pump check the filter and uh re-reboost the enzymes inside the septatank uh not as much a big deal with sewer you just really have to keep everything flowing good if you're on if it's a newer home built from the 20 you know from from 1998 up you probably got PVC good PVC probably actually from about 88 up you got PVC you don't have to worry about the lines as you got a four inch PVC line going to the street and uh as long as you don't flush nothing crazy you'll be good water lines from uh about prior to 2000 you probably got copper or piece CPVC or galvanized uh if you got galvanized it's about it's probably time to start looking at doing a repot if you got CPVC and it's not giving you no trouble you you're uh doing all right and uh but if you got copper copper has the tendency to break down and get pinholes in it we'd love to give back give you a price on repiping your house with new uh PEX A uh piping or we can redo it in copper we don't I mean if you want to do it in copper again that's fine copper is just a real expensive material but it's still a good material we do the whole house filtration we do the uh the uh mowing flows or the uh the electronic valves to be able to turn it on and off with your phone check make sure you got lit you know monitor your leaks your water usage stuff like that and that's pretty much so the this your systems in your house is the water sewer and the vent most of the time we see people have trouble with the water or the uh uh vent uh it's usually not something we have trouble with and uh but the water will see leaks but most of the time it's we we see a lot of clogs um um you know and then you step up into the house you've got toilets toilets they're good they're they get the most use in the house so we say the mode we work on a toilet or a kitchen sink one would do anything uh you know just keep an eye on them make sure they're not uh uh they're not driven through themselves that way you ain't getting no uh uh high water bills stuff like that and then uh that's pretty much so it we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break get chanting and Seth in here and see if we can't get them rolling on a second half of this podcast like