.jpg)
On Tap Podcast
On Tap is the podcast that celebrates the heart and soul of blue-collar working class culture. We'll be hosting some amazing folks from the blue-collar world and beyond. Listen in as we chat with industry legends, unsung heroes, and experts in their fields. Their stories, experiences, and insights will inspire and entertain you. Comedy is our secret sauce. Kody & Sam have a knack for turning everyday work stories into side-splitting anecdotes. Prepare for laughter, hilarious work-related mishaps, and a good dose of humor to brighten your day. Whether you're clocking in for your shift or winding down after a hard day's work, "On Tap" is your go-to podcast for a dose of blue-collar pride, a taste of the finest brews, a good laugh, and a fresh take on the world's current events. Subscribe now and be part of the working-class revolution!
On Tap Podcast
From Oil Fields to Entrepreneurship: Building a Construction Business
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
When Dayton Rivera looked around at his colleagues in the oil and gas industry, he noticed something troubling – out of thousands of workers, only a handful maintained solid relationships with their families. That observation changed everything, propelling him from a traveling heat treatment specialist at nuclear plants to the founder of his own construction business, Leaf and Lumber.
Dayton's entrepreneurial journey breaks all the conventional rules. With no formal business education, he turned to YouTube to learn everything from creating an LLC to generating invoices. "YouTube is the number one tool I have at my disposal," he explains, highlighting how accessible knowledge has transformed career possibilities for anyone willing to learn.
His resourcefulness extends to creative business strategies – like using his ice fishing trailer (from his Two Scoops podcast) as both a construction materials storage unit and mobile office, allowing him to legitimately write off expenses. While building decks and fences throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, he's developed a reputation for meticulous craftsmanship and clear communication with clients.
The conversation explores practical wisdom for aspiring entrepreneurs in the trades: the importance of calling Diggers Hotline before excavation, navigating building permits across state lines, managing seasonal transitions from construction to snow removal, and knowing when to walk away from jobs that don't feel right. "Trust your gut, trust your judgment, trust yourself," Dayton advises, highlighting why proper insurance and business structure are non-negotiable from day one.
Whether you're considering starting your own construction business or simply appreciate authentic conversations about entrepreneurship, Dayton's story demonstrates how success comes from balancing technical expertise with smart business practices while never losing sight of what matters most – family and relationships.
Have you been thinking about starting your own business? What's holding you back? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments!
0:06 Introduction to Dayton Rivera
5:31 Tax Write-Offs and Ice Castle Uses
14:40 Diggers Hotline and Utility Safety
24:20 Starting a Construction Business
38:10 The Art of Deck Building
47:48 Working With Permits and Inspectors
54:20 Trade Rivalries and Concrete Work
Check out our sticker packs at OnTapWithTheBoiz.com
Introduction to Dayton Rivera
Speaker 1Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the ONTAP podcast. Today we have a wonderful edition of Blue Collar Happy Hour. You got me, my good friend Sam and our new friend Dayton Rivera. What's going on, man?
Speaker 1Not much, guys, thanks for having me on. So, dayton, you do a lot of stuff. You are host of the Two Scoops podcast, ice fishing podcast. You have your own videography company, vx media. You do a little bit of construction, a little bit of carpentry with leaf and lumber. Let's let's dive into the leaf and lumber man. What do you? What do you do exactly?
Speaker 2so it's. It's just me leaf and lumber. We started doing our own thing last year, um, just navigating the business side of it, which melts my mind. But we I focus a lot on decks and fences around our area. We'll do doors, windows, some siding projects, but mostly within the scope of a one-man job, not to say I've got buddies that can come help me. But for the most part we're keeping it pretty small, taking my time between both the video production stuff and construction stuff.
Speaker 1Totally yeah. So you're a small business owner. I want to get right into it and talk tax evasion. How are you using your right? I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I actually I had heard on another podcast that you were on you talk about. You wrote off your ice house for that. You use for the two scoops podcast because you use it as a trailer for leaf and lumber.
Speaker 2Yes, so I talked to my certified tax guy.
Speaker 2This is not just me, he's like well, at first he's like I need, I need a list of all your tools, equipment, you know, truck trailer tools, batteries, whatever. I need a hard list of this. And I had my dump trailer on there. And then I'm also like you know what I use my? I use my ice castle as a trailer totally, because like I'm not gonna put trim in my dump trailer and have it all rained on and stuff totally, so slap it in there also, use it as my office. Really, like my house is pretty small, it's like 800 square feet, so like I pop out to my shack at my whole like editing studio and do all my book work and stuff in there. So he's like but you do use it for personal use. I'm like, obviously, yeah. He's like, oh, we can do half of it.
Speaker 3I'm like perfect, awesome half is better than zero.
Speaker 2Yeah, I would have never thought about it honestly, like, yeah, the tax game is something like I'm super curious about because it is a game I'm not good at it, right now totally I will be good at it, but well.
Speaker 1One thing that we've learned, I think, while doing these blue collar happy hours, is finding out like a lot of these really successful construction guys, or just guys in the trades, are the people that learn how to navigate those small little things really well. Like these are the guys that have these huge navigate those small little things really well. Like these are the guys that have these huge cabins. That's like this cabin also has a big shed and that's where I keep my material or whatever you know. Like there's all these little things that you can kind of play the game. You know Right, so you just got. Next you can upgrade to a full-size cabin. That's your office.
Speaker 3Yep, do you drive the ice castle up to job site, sometimes if it's cold enough yeah used as a worm shack, motherfucker sleeping out here.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's cooking, cooking in there, that's brilliant. Yeah, a job site kitchen. Yeah, dude a bathroom.
Speaker 2I mean, if this was like if some dude brought his ice castle to like a whole construction crew, the thing would be destroyed in a week.
Speaker 3I can't even imagine I'm sitting here thinking about I work for a masonry company On the job site. If you got to go take a piss, you just go into the trailer, lock up the doors. It's dark as fuck. It's hot as fuck in there. You feel like you're going to die.
Speaker 1But holy fuck, if I could go sit up in the ice castle for a little bit. No one's leaving there. You got heat, you got ac. Yeah. You got a fridge, probably. Yep, oh my god that's a full rv.
Speaker 2There's a fancy one.
Speaker 1Does it have a fireplace in it?
Speaker 2no, it doesn't have a fireplace.
Speaker 1It's not that fancy okay rising bed, you hit a button. No, okay, if I did.
Speaker 2There are things like me and my wife want to upgrade this in the future and, yes, that is like the number one thing like before, like the hydraulic lifts. It's that freaking bed in the back, like I hate making the bed.
Speaker 1I want it to just yeah, that's the first time I ever stayed in one of those. I was like how reliable are these things? Like am I gonna crash down onto this person?
Speaker 2sleeping on the bed below me.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I was a little hesitant, but yeah, they're.
Speaker 1They're a lot more sturdy than I would have thought, honestly, but uh, so you, you store a lot of material in there. What is when you're not using it for fishing? Are you just storing material in there all the time?
Speaker 2no, no, I'm you're like camping.
Speaker 1It's my office like yeah, I suppose do you literally treat it like an office, like you got your laptop in there, oh, dude, I've got my laptop, I've got my external monitor up there, my speakers.
Speaker 2So you know, I've got kind of like your setup a little bit, your main computer, hdmi to a bigger screen, whiteboards everywhere, like so I can keep my schedule right, dude that's so much.
Speaker 3Literally it's a job trailer Like you see at the corporate. You know the union jobs, except on crack.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I love it, dude it's great, you got my mind fucking twisted. Okay, listen, now that the tax guys are done listening. Do you actually use this thing as an office?
Speaker 2I do.
Speaker 1I'm not even kidding. I I'll send you a picture. No, I'm just kidding, and it's kind of.
Tax Write-Offs and Ice Castle Uses
Speaker 2I don't know if I could play this, but you know, with filming Two Scoops in there, like it's kind of marketing for Leaf and Lumber, 100%.
Speaker 1Yeah, not only that, but like Two Scoops is its own business itself, especially if you start doing ad reads yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2So it's sponsored a little bit. If you make any money from that, that's a business.
Speaker 1Yep, that's a business, yep. You know, dude, you're onto something here. Right off those DGI mics, you read off the scoops already.
Speaker 2I didn't read all the fishing gear because you're fishing $5.
Speaker 1You're buying rods and reels on the tax man's dollar next year.
Speaker 3And I think it's more than fair.
Speaker 1It's all. It's all showbiz, it's all part of showbiz. So, um, it's all part of showbiz. So you say you primarily focus on decks and fences. Now I think when I think guys that do decks and fences by themselves, I think someone who's had to learn the hard way and has hit into some sort of utilities. Have you ever dug into power lines, water lines, septic, anything like that?
Speaker 2I have line septic, anything like that I have.
Speaker 1I have dug into a cord which I use my gas ice auger to drill.
Speaker 2Some of them posts dude, it's fucking terrifying at times because if you do not anticipate it like catching, it'll rip your fucking arms off oh, I bet bet.
Speaker 1So like you hit a tree root and this thing is ripping, yeah, it's violent man, it sucks.
Speaker 2But so before I do any drilling or anything, call Digger's Hotline, you know, do the right thing and make sure you stay within their parameters, you know, because there's. Yeah, I would hate to actually hit a live wire, just you know. Know for my safety too.
Speaker 1Like that'd be a bad day, dude, that'd be crazy especially you're using a ice auger, like you're getting every bit of that electricity ice blades on it, so usually it cuts the small roots pretty good.
Speaker 2But I did hit this, this line, this wire, and like, immediately saw like oh, that's not a root, that thing is might be spicy. I'm looking at it, I'm like nothing's marked out over here and it just ended up being a I don't know weird telephone line or some thank god, extension cord some bullshit.
Speaker 1You gotta like when you see that your heart's got to drop a little bit oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just an old landline, yeah I like, went to the homeowner I'm like is your internet working?
Speaker 2is any power breakers?
Speaker 3like no, we're good, I'm like is your internet working?
Speaker 2Is any power breakers like no, we're good. I'm like okay, cause your car's extended warranty still intact.
Speaker 3I'm not asking because anything happened. I'm just curious.
Speaker 2But no, I haven't had really any like horror stories with striking like a gas line or anything.
Speaker 1Well, dude, good on you, because I feel like there's been some people that have had to learn the hard way.
Speaker 2I mean, just call Digger's Hotline, it's free, it's a free service.
Speaker 1Just do it Peace of mind, save your ass, even if you're going to do this yourself at home. I just built a deck at my house last summer and I had someone come and market out themselves. What's the process of calling Digger's Hotline? You say like, hey, I'm going to be digging in this spot. Do they come out and market, or do they give you coordinates where shit is?
Speaker 2Nope. So the process with that is, if you get some paint like they use on football fields, or normal spray paint, just roughly spray paint on your yard where you want your fence to go or anything you're digging, and then you call 8-1-1 I think it's 8-1-1, just google diggers hotline you'll get a number, then they'll. They'll ask you some questions. You know, are you a homeowner, are you a contractor? Are you blah, blah, blah? Where are you located? At what's your address? When's a good time to come out? They'll get all your information like how far are you digging down? Okay, then they'll have all this data about you. Know what utilities are in that area, and they'll be like we're gonna send a guy out there. He'll mark where those lines are. Oh, they do, okay, and you can. You can be like can you mark the safety zones within like five feet of this line? So they get out there. They mark where their lines are. They'll put flags down too.
Speaker 1So yeah, see I, I was really bad about that. When they came out marked mine, I literally mowed the next day and didn't move a single flag, shot the flags all over my yard. So thank god they spray paint, because I would have never known where my stuff is at and it's totally free.
Speaker 2Like you don't give them a credit card, you don't give them anything.
Speaker 1That's insane it's so when they, when they first call you know and they ask you know, are you a contractor, are you a homeowner or whatever I mean, my first thought is like what are you a cop? Why do you need to know that? What kind of a database am I?
Speaker 2on right now. I'm sure it goes somewhere. I mean weirdos tracks. That's why it's free they're tracking your data I think they're free because they just don't want any dipshits like swiss cheesing. That probably makes more sense. Yeah, that probably makes more sense.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, we have a buddy who's a lineman, who he fucks up all the time he's taking down power lines embarrassing embarrassing.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's terrible. He barely made it through line school. So that's why I asked you know, he said he went through the trenches in line school. So you know it's kind of the the running joke. He's just kind of the the hack of the lineman industry. So I'm glad to hear that you do things the right way, because I've always actually really wondered about that. When I did my deck, I I don't even think I even set it up for them to come and do it I think my electrician did.
Speaker 2Yeah, sometimes they'll take care of that too yeah okay, well, that's good.
Speaker 3So I was just curious before you started your company, where did you get your experience? Did you pick it up growing up?
Speaker 2Did you work for somebody else.
Speaker 3I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2So right out of high school I went and worked. This is kind of off topic, but I worked in the oil and gas industry doing heat treatment. So I'd work at, like nuclear plants and gas refineries all across the country and so I'd have the busy like turnaround seasons where they'd shut these plants down. We'd come in, we'd do our job and on like the off seasons I'd come back and work with some construction crews here, just kind of pivoted between the two, and then finally I was like I told myself, out of the thousands of dudes that I've worked with, only a couple of them had pretty solid relationships with their wives and kids, and that was super important to me.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2To to not have that. Okay, Let me preface it To not have that.
Speaker 1I don't want to be close to my wife and kids.
Speaker 2It was super important to me that my relationship with my wife and kids are going to be like rock solid. So I was like I can't. I can't do this being in this industry, so promised myself when I got married that's it done.
Speaker 3So got married, quit that traveling job, started with the company out of luck, and then worked with them for one or two years and then was like I didn't do my own thing yeah, absolutely, and that's why I was hoping that that was your origin story, because that's what I love about the world we live in today is, with our access to google, anyone can start a company. You know, you get your, you go. You gotta learn the trade, don't get me wrong. Get some experience, but you gotta self-teach yourself. It's the availabilities there.
Speaker 3You don't have to go to the fucking library yeah, dude, that's the crazy thing.
Speaker 1People think it's a joke that, like you know, literally you can learn on YouTube. People call it YouTube University. I love YouTube University, dude. I completely agree with you I never would know how to run cameras, how to do half the things I do, if I didn't have access to something like YouTube. Absolutely, it's insane.
Speaker 3Dude, I just bought a Traeger pellet grill the other day. I have looked up. Here we go every single thing that I've. I've looked up multiple recipes. I've watched youtube videos.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I would have been just fucking dead in the water, oh yeah well, it's a little bit different, obviously, than what you're probably used to cooking on and yeah, but like yeah, dude, it changed my life youtube is the number one tool.
Speaker 1I would say my number one tool, like hands down, that is, the most valuable tool that I have at my disposal is youtube 100 because the thing is too like people are out there trying to make a living just teach, just showing you how to do what you want to do, and they get money by you viewing it anyway. So like it's just a full circle thing, like how could you not before that?
Speaker 2when, when I tell you guys that I I split from my, my construction crew and was like I'm doing my own thing, it was literally like this I had no idea. No idea how to start a business, how to make an llc, how to create invoices, how to everything, and everything was like all right, I need to buckle down for like a week of straight of just like researching how to set up a business and get my insurance and everything. And it was literally on youtube. That was it. So it was like I love youtube so much dude.
Diggers Hotline and Utility Safety
Speaker 3100 mean you know, if you're anything like me, sometimes I need to put myself in a position where it's like, if I don't figure this out, I'm fucked, and that's when I succeed, and so I can only imagine you're like fuck it, I can't do this anymore, I'm going to start my own, and it's go time from that very second, how was that received from the crew that you left?
Speaker 1because I know this is like a very common thing that people don't do what they want to do on their own in fear of like, oh these guys are gonna hate me or I'm gonna leave on bad terms or they're gonna make fun of me, um, I think I don't think we left on the best terms, but I will say this has never been like really publicly.
Speaker 2So I used to work with bio builders ryan bile was his name been super great to me. We left on kind of rocky terms but I will say, like that dude and him in austin I don't know if there's anybody else there they are solid carpenters like even though I branched away with them, I would, if there's something like I do not know how to do, I would send them to him every single time because they're so good.
Speaker 1And I think that's rare. I think a lot of times what happens when people break off. They're like fuck those guys. They're dead to me Because a lot of times they don't receive it well that you're trying to do your own thing as well.
Speaker 2I don't think it was received well or anything. It was not the best situation, but I've got a lot of respect for him and he was very, very good to me too.
Speaker 1That's sweet. So what? What were some of the hurdles that you had to overcome? Quitting your thing Like how did you navigate? Okay, I need to do an LLC. I need to figure out how to get how to source materials. I need to figure out how to do billing. Did you go for the first steps to learn?
Speaker 2youtube. We just went over youtube. Yeah, of course but, I didn't know.
Speaker 1Like a lot of times there's like someone that you know that's done it in the past or that you look up to.
Speaker 2That's like, hey, let me see if I had me on game. Yeah, if I had any like mentors or oh, let me think, killer question, yeah, no, yeah, okay, so youtube.
Speaker 2Youtube was a big, big help with that. I mainly just was like all right, I can't just take cash jobs and just under the table everything I need to make this legitimate, yep. So the first step was creating an LLC, which in the past it was daunting thinking about going through the legal process of actually making an llc. Well then, I mean, it's just, it's just like everything it's. It's extremely like scary or whatever. Just it's only because it's unfamiliar, like once you're familiar with something like second nature. So once we just got the first steps rolling then it was like all right, this is manageable, like this is actually not that bad. And yeah, youtube helped a lot with it, with the steps and processes. But then after that, insurance was not super hard because my wife's an insurance agent.
Speaker 2Oh, jensen sunquist, so like everything insurance is like this is your department, honey.
Speaker 3You help me with this please Do you have the wife help you out with your business? Does she have a role that she plays, or is it mostly something you handle?
Speaker 2No, it's mostly me Actually. No, she's like the schedule keeper. I'll be good. I love Google calendars. Yeah, I don't put like notifications on there, so she will be like hey, did you realize you have this meeting? I'll be like yes, I did, but honestly I didn't. She catches me quite a bit with that, oh yeah.
Speaker 1No, I get that. I get that. I'm a big fan of using the calendar on my phone because if I didn't, I'd be so screwed Right. I'm so bad at keeping that in the front of mind. Also, like when you're doing actively doing a job and trying to schedule a job look, those are two totally different things. Yeah, it's like while you're doing it you almost forget about the scheduling aspect and then like to have to come in and out of that role. That's tough for a lot of people.
Speaker 2It's. The tough part for me right now is from being on a job and then like trying to find the time to pull away for just just a little bit, pull away from it to kind of get the ball rolling for the next project. Like I always in in the first year, that was kind of my main struggle was I'm on a job, I got the bid, whatever customer likes it, I'm gonna knock this out and be done with it, then onto the next one. But that's really not super efficient because then I'm scrambling, like I got this lag time of like getting materials to the next one. So I think this year is more of like a scheduling hurdle for me is where I need I'd be on a job, take a step back, plan for the next one, get materials running for the next one and just roll, roll, which seems on paper. It's simple, like just do it, but it's not always easy. It's like running five miles. The concept is simple, like just put one foot in front of the other, but it's not easy.
Speaker 3Especially once it starts getting hot as fuck.
Speaker 2For sure, dude, I'd rather work in hot than cold. I hate working out in the winter, and if anybody tells you they do, they're fucking lying to you.
Speaker 1Yeah God, I hate that, yeah 100%.
Speaker 3Dude. Especially I always feel for the framing guys, Seeing them put their fucking car, hearts on. Yep. It's like holy fuck. The only time they get a day off is if it's fucking negative 40. They don't even get the snow off.
Speaker 1No rain days in the winter we were talking with our buddy bode. He's a framer and or he does framing and uh, he was telling us one time about we actually had him on for blue collar happy hour. He was talking about the different layers that he'll put on if it's cold out yep, and like layering up and it's like damn I didn't realize how much thought went into just what you're wearing when you're outside all day and it's like zero degrees.
Speaker 2That would would suck and you think you'd wear like negative or zero. Most guys don't wear below zero, I think, as like a standard.
Speaker 3It's a good rule of thumb, yeah.
Speaker 2But I think most people think that everyone's super bundled up but really like, once you get moving and stuff, you don't really need that. So that's why we have layers.
Speaker 3That's how you know. He knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 2Dude, that's exactly what bode said my, my thing was it. It's all about your outer shell like it just needs to be windproof.
Speaker 3That's it, I'm 100 oh my god, dude, even like, I think of like my hunting gear, because that's when I bundle up the most during deer hunting, and none of my shit is waterproof. So I'm warm, I'm good. As soon as it starts raining, my day is fucked.
Speaker 2I turn into an instant bitch when I get wet.
Speaker 3Instantly. I can co-sign that all day.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's not fun. Especially you add cold to wet and then it's double F-less. I did security for a little bit for this company. That was like a contractor for security, and I did the red bull crash dice when I was a kid.
Speaker 1Oh, that sounds fun I was right, like 16, you know, but I all I had was my hunting boots like these, just irish setter hunting boots. They're not insulated. It was like negative 20 and my feet got wet as I'd stepped in a puddle. This was when it was downtown st paul stepped in a puddle. This was when it was downtown St Paul. I stepped in a puddle. My feet are soaking wet. My boots are rock hard. There's no insulation. I started feeling like I was having hypothermia because I'm so cold and so tired. Dude, it sucked. I legitimately kept walking back to this job trailer that they had there and I was like I just got to warm up.
Speaker 2It would have been nice if it was an ice castle. Yeah, it would have A little drop down bed, take a little snooze Dryer in there.
Speaker 3Light a cigarette off the electric fireplace. Yeah, dude, that's cold feet, that's my kryptonite right there, I'll just call it a day. At that point, there's nothing worse, especially I used to rip like rubber, insulated boots, like 800 grams of insulate, huge rubber boots, and it got a hole in them. And so these, these motherfuckers are already heavy as fuck. And then all of a sudden, you're trudging through some bullshit, you think you're good to go, and now that boot's filled up, now you're cold and it's three times as heavy.
Speaker 1It's not the move no, that's like uh, I don't know if you're hunting at all. Do you ever wear waders? Do you ever go duck hunting?
Speaker 2Dude. No, I actually I think I might have an opportunity to film some guys' duck hunts and that's the one thing I was worried about. I'm like I don't know if I want my filming gear to be all in the marsh you got insurance.
Speaker 1It's worth more damage than it is working.
Speaker 2Yep, no, I've never been duck hunting. No, it is fun.
Speaker 1The only reason why I ask is because the only thing that I can think of worse than getting regular work boots hunting boots wet is getting water in your waders.
Speaker 2No, that's happened to me. I used to fly fish down at clam falls and I I got into a hole, oh, and all the water seeped in there. I thought I was gonna die yeah, I got to the bottom and did like the spring up. Thankfully got above it out of that hole. But I thought that was it for me.
Speaker 3Oh, dude, yeah, there's nothing worse, I wonder how many people a year die by way of waiters and no, because it literally will weigh you down when it starts getting a lot of them they float. Now that's like a big selling point is that they float and it it. I don't know if it's true, but it makes people buy their shit I mean, yeah, I would hope.
Speaker 1I guess I've never there's been. I can count on one hand how many times I've been in deeper than the waiters, but I can tell you all five times. I remember very distinctly because, dude, you do not forget that it's cold, it's wet, it's like okay, now this sucks and usually duck hunting, it's never warm.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You know, sometimes you're breaking ice out there to go grab a duck that's just like close enough, you guys are dedicated. So, yeah, that sucks, but anyways, back to the, back to decks and fences, right? So now, um, I've we have a couple friends that do decks that are always very particular about how level that thing gets. Yeah, like, how do you, how do you keep these things perfectly level? Like, are you very meticulous with your details?
Speaker 2on it meticulous okay, most guys are.
Starting a Construction Business
Speaker 1That's why I asked yep most deck guys are, like in my experience, a different breed of you know, maybe on the spectrum a little bit because it's like the attention to detail it's like so crazy, just just in my business too, it's like I don't.
Speaker 2I don't want to have this broad range of things that I do. I want to be absolutely like the best at this, so that's, that's super important to me. Like, if one, if one board is like crowned or something, I will snap a line to see how it planes out and I will hand plane it out.
Speaker 1So it's flat, I don't want to see any humps in there as a person who builds decks, what is your thoughts on getting lumber from menards?
Speaker 2totally fine, really. Um they're, yeah, I use a lot of their cedar cedar tone yeah, cedar tone, damn. Okay, I mean so you sift through a lot of bullshit yeah, okay.
Speaker 1So, like I said, I just built the deck last summer. I made the mistake of doing the deck builder on menardscom. Right, so I I had all the things delivered to me oh yeah, no, okay, caveat to this.
Speaker 3I I am going to go there and pick out every single board, yeah you literally gotta hold them up, look down, you gotta really give it some time yeah, so I did not do that.
Speaker 1I'm assuming some minimum wage 16 year old kid was probably picking out my stuff. Yeah, because I have never seen boards shaped like this in my entire life. So we put my deck together, me and my father-in-law, and dude this thing was was bad whippy. He luckily he's really good at fixing this kind of stuff and he's really handy. But we like we had to saw so much of this and sand so much of this to make it somewhat level. And then we're like compensating the boards by like screwing different parts down so it looks level what does this tree have?
Speaker 2scoliosis?
Speaker 1yeah, dude this thing was like whoa and it didn't help. That like from the time it got delivered to the time we put up the deck was like, let's say, two weeks and it was raining, oh, when they dropped it off and none of it was covered and so, like the sonal tubes got messed up in the rain, the lumber all was sitting there wet, and then it dried, and then it got wet and then it dried.
Speaker 2That's bad. Yeah, dude it was really bad.
Speaker 1Some of it was not even sitting on level ground.
Speaker 3See, that's why you need an ice castle.
Speaker 1I know you can put it all in there, I gotta talk to my accountant.
Speaker 3I'm gonna get an ice castle it's a storage shed?
Speaker 1yep, it's a storage shed with an electric fireplace I wish my mind had the drop down because, like everything like the toy hauler ramp everything that I fit into.
Speaker 2It has to like go through the door I didn't even think about that I ripped off when I drove my ice castle down to my house like a little driveway with the woods and I I rented a tree trimming thing because I knew there's some branches that might take off the awning like oh no, and I ripped my whole awning no oh yeah
Speaker 1boo luckily you got a good in with your insurance agent oh, I'd never even thought about the insurance claim. You should do it that's what you got insurance for, yep I might just tell her, hey after this hey, listen, this deductible better not go up.
Speaker 3This is your thing too okay let's let's figure something out here so, when it comes to the decks, do you do just new construction decks or will you do repair work?
Speaker 2I'll do repair work.
Speaker 3Yeah, get all the landmines out, and yeah do you ever walk up to a deck where you they want it repaired and you're like buddy, this thing is so fucked yeah.
Speaker 2There has been a couple where homeowners are like there's a couple landmines in here, and then I'll kind of peek in there and look at the joists and I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, hey, man, I can fix this, but I've got to fix everything. It's easier to just go with a new deck.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's safer too, when you look at it and you almost want to tell them hey, you probably shouldn't even walk on this motherfucker until I do this work.
Speaker 2It hasn't been that bad, but just get it taken care of the right way the first time and just be done with it.
Speaker 1One thing I think that people don't think of when they're starting their own companies like this too is dealing with the homeowners Having to put that customer service hat on. Have you had any nightmare clients that you've built extra fences for?
Speaker 2No, I've honestly have never had an issue with someone paying. There's never been a communication issue. I think that's that. That has been one of my, my main priorities and I'm not the best of this. Who any customers who kind of drop the ball and but like I strive to be a better communicator with my customers because I feel like that's somewhat lacking in the industry. It's like, hey, I'll get you a bid and you never get a call back, which I have, unfortunately done this, but I do try to fucking get better at this yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 1Like it's that's something you can always improve on, for sure, like communicating with these people on their expectations, and I think that's where a lot of people get caught up, you know, because they promise everything and then deliver half of that, and then that's when it gets messed up yeah it's like oh dude, you said you're gonna do a good job. These boards look like they have swoleosis.
Speaker 2Did you get this from menards dropped off?
Speaker 1you didn't pick these. Yeah, did cody hughes pick this deck wood out? What the hell is going on? Yeah, no, I I will say I. I'm very surprised about your answer about the menards thing, because a lot of the other deck guys that I know are like never get it from Menards.
Speaker 3When I told them that they're like why would you do that?
Speaker 1I'm like dude.
Speaker 2Because it was cheap or cheaper, I guess yeah there's circumstances, I will say I primarily use ABC in Siren. I know they're a chain, but if it's any like the TimberTech Trex, the composite decking material, any of the Westbury Tuscany rails, I go with them, that's it.
Speaker 1That's what I got also.
Speaker 2You got.
Speaker 1Tuscany no.
Speaker 2Trex, trex, yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 1Yeah, but again it's like maybe the Menards version.
Speaker 2But again they're like I'm holding these things up and there are so many waves in this, I'm like god damn, I will not get menards composite. I will get menards like just regular deck boards, like their green treat or their cedar tone, but I don't push for any of the composite stuff with menards yeah, I wish I would have met you a year and a half ago.
Speaker 1Yeah, because I really screwed myself. It looks good now. It's not actually fully finished yet either.
Speaker 2A good, phrase we have is like I don't know, man, if something's iffy, they're like it looks good from my house.
Speaker 1You live like 50 miles away.
Speaker 2I'm like I know, yeah, what do they?
Speaker 1say Good, from far good. It's a. It's a 30 foot deck, for sure. It's a 30 foot like it looks good from 30 feet away. Yeah, you know, it actually looks really nice now but it took took took some work to kind of get it to look that way and also, like I said, it's not fully finished yet either. Some stairs and some railing some railing gone, so we'll maybe have to chat afterwards about maybe having you come look at this thing and finish it up for me.
Speaker 2But oh my God, Don't walk on this. Yeah, no, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's going to come look on it and he's like God damn dude, you said Menards, what the? This looks like some Step 2 Rainbow Playground work here.
Speaker 3So I was just thinking about going back to YouTube University and with having the ability to use Google. One big part of my job is I'm consistently pulling permits and I'm sure that's something that you're doing a lot with your deck building and needing to get a ship permit to go get your inspections. And I've only had to do one permit old school and that's because it was a historical one so I had to go in to the off the main office in saint paul. Go get, go get the permit, fill it up, bringing it in person. But any other permit I look it up online. I find exactly where to get it. Grab it.
Speaker 3It's a fillable pdf, send it an email, send my payment in, approved, and that has changed my life so much, yeah, and so like it's it's all the simple things that that change up small businessmen's mind and like I would have never even known where to go or how to do anything and I just it. It changed everything, yeah, and I was just wondering, with with your work, to figure out all the technicalities of it how, how did you know, like, when do you need to pull a permit for this or when do you need to get that inspected?
Speaker 2And a lot of the cool things too is like, if the deck frame is solid, like I don't have to touch it, so I'm keeping the same footprint of the structure, like I don't need to pull a permit for that. If I do have to pull a permit with that, um, if I do, if I do have to pull a permit with it, like it's just you just go to the town hall and stuff and just fill it out. But there there are places, like by koiland, where you don't need any like building permits, which is great oh damn okay cool, it's crazy.
Speaker 3City to city, it changed every single fucking city's never thought about that with like code wise too.
Speaker 2Like, the only really code that I have to really deal with is your stair height, how it can't differ from three-eighths from each tread. The balusters can't be more than four inches apart. Just simple codes like that. I'm not getting into the huge home building, it's fine. No fire blocking code, nothing like that.
Speaker 1So yeah, it's cold side is very minimal I would imagine too, like the guys that are issuing the permits are different in every place. When I did the permit for my deck, it was literally like the guy showed up and he's like where's it gonna be well?
Speaker 3did you call diggers hotline? No, no, I didn't. Fucking bullshit, dude oh, they are heated because it's like what are we're paying you?
Speaker 1just to be like yeah, you can do that well, the guy asked me he's like, do you have the plans? And I'm like the plans like what? What the blueprints? And I'm like what do you? Mean he's. He just hands me a piece of paper and a pen. Can you draw it out? Yes, drew like a top-down square, stares off the side. He's like all right, here's your permit, okay.
Speaker 3Okay, it's fucking bullshit Sounds good, Especially like, so. A lot of the permits I have to pull are for chimneys. They're obviously up on the roof and most of the inspections you don't even have to be there for and I know this motherfucker is not bringing his ladder with his shirt and tie and going up on the roof. They just walk up.
Speaker 1Yeah, looks good, that's awesome yeah, I mean I would say that's probably the easiest thing to go through. Then I mean, you would think that that's such like a nuanced process and it's very official. But I imagine they probably deal with so much that they just don't care. They want to like get it going as long as it doesn't seem like something's off they probably won't even dig into it.
Speaker 2there's I know that there's a lot of trust too with some builders where, if they had a good relationship, like did you get this done? Yes, that inspector can be like all right, I trust this guy. Like that's kind of nice.
Speaker 1So get in with the inspector.
Speaker 2Oh for sure it did.
Speaker 3You definitely don't want the inspectors to not like dude.
Speaker 2I've been on a job where the inspector did not like my boss.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2It was so bad.
Speaker 1Like he's going through everything with a fine-tooth comb. Like check this, check this, check this.
Speaker 3It's like bad cops where they like will run through, like how can I get this motherfucker? It's the same thing. How can I ruin this?
Speaker 1motherfucker's day. Yeah, I would imagine they got the ability to really change up the job pretty quick, oh yeah, oh yeah. By the way, this is wrong. Somebody need you to tear it all out, Yep.
Speaker 2What happened?
Speaker 1Did they ever find anything?
Speaker 2So we were fastening the bottom plates to this house, to the concrete slab, and when you drill those, we had to use, like I don't know, a 5-8ths drill with these tapcons or redheads and so fasten them down, bolt them on you know what I mean the bottom plate right to the concrete. And he gets there and he goes. Did you blow out the holes before you put those bolts in? And he's like, well, I didn't see it. I'm like I I need to redo all these no way yeah, dude, he did this like three times.
Speaker 2Then he's like did you use epoxy in them? No, you need to do that and redo the second time, like the whole house and like I was like oh my god, he really doesn't like you man. Like I'll keep doing this.
Speaker 1I get paid by the hour yeah, just in labor alone he start. He starts adding on to that cost of that job pretty quick, I would think. But it's done. Yeah, that sucks, or?
Speaker 3dude like osha can pull up to your job and ruin your life in one stop I've heard that, like we, we use scaffolding and you put pins in all the legs of the scaffolding. Every pin that's missing is $10,000. Sometimes you pull up to sites they've got 40 different sets of scaffolding up. They're not using pins.
Speaker 2It's a bad day to be that guy Dude scaffold at my other job with the heat treating. They do not joke around with scaffold tags. Do you have tags on yours? Yeah, every morning shift comes in checks every single square inch of it signs off, done If there's anything wrong with it your whole crew, shut it down, fix it.
Speaker 1Okay, if they find something, who's liable? The company or the person who signed off on it?
Speaker 3That's a damn good question actually.
Speaker 2I would never.
Speaker 3That's a good way for the business to be like hey, it's that guy's fucking fault, Right.
Speaker 1We'll take it out of your check for the next two years buddy.
Speaker 2Oh man, I mean, I would think.
Speaker 1Probably the company. If it's coming from OSHA, I would think it's the guy Really.
Speaker 2I would think it'd be the guy.
Speaker 1I suppose it would depend on the company because they could probably put it on you. I mean it's like okay in my head I know this is nothing similar, but if you're a bartender and you serve someone who's underage, the bartender's liable and the establishment, I think, is liable too.
Speaker 2Is it kind of both yeah?
Speaker 1Or it could I guess.
The Art of Deck Building
Speaker 3Yeah, no, it does affect both. Oh, you had a situation you worked at a gas station so embarrassing. I young kid still in high school, I work at a gas station liquor store.
Speaker 3Like one side liquor store, turn to the other you were the teller, yep, and I was it was like probably my third day ever working there and the owner, he's he's now like actually a friend. At the time it was just like this guy I knew that was really nice to me, gave me a good job opportunity and uh, so I I wanted to impress him. You know, I didn't want to fuck up. Third day on the job. Guy comes in big ass beard I was too scared to ask for his id, pays cash, walks out immediately.
Speaker 1The school cop like the one that I would sit at school watching he's like hey, how's it going?
Speaker 3sam, did you just sell this alcohol? Yeah, he sets it down. He's like well, that man right there was 20 years old and he didn't check his ID and I was like fuck, and luckily because I was young, it was my third day and it was the first strike on this place. He gave a warning, but if you get three of them, you lose your liquor license.
Speaker 2Really that's tough. They only have a certain amount of those. That's a huge fucking deal.
Speaker 3And so I got off easy. I thought I was going to get fired and. I did the right thing. I called my boss, shout out Red right away and told him and he's like you, fucking idiot, I never fucking messed it up again, that's for sure.
Speaker 2I can't believe you did that.
Speaker 1I'm mess it up again, that's for sure you did that. I'm kidding dude. I went to I live right by a speedway and I went in there the other day and I asked to buy a tin. And I I go in there at least once or twice a week. The lady knew me and, as a joke, she's like can I see your id? And I was like, oh my god, I don't have my wallet on me, like all I have is my apple pay and I was gonna pay with apple pay. She's like well, now I can't sell it to you. I was like well, you know, I'm like, I was literally just here a couple days ago.
Speaker 1She's like no, I can't sell it to you like fuck, what if I would have been a part of a sting? I wish I was and I wouldn't.
Speaker 3I wouldn't have felt as bad I think you'd have been an easy call. I would have sold it to you. What are? You trying to say I wouldn't have been too worried on that one.
Speaker 2I just feel so like when I get carded. I'm 31. 29., 25. I just feel kind of good. Can I card you?
Speaker 1You don't look 31. Would I look older, I would say you don't look a day under 42.
Speaker 2Okay, perfect. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3I would say upper 20s for sure. When it comes to getting carding. So I obviously still have a baby face, 25 years old. When I first turned 21, people were looking at me like, hmm, all right, motherfucker, let's see, and I didn't kick that probably until about a year ago, where I can confidently give it to them and they don't think I'm trying to pass a fake id. Yeah, it was, or forever it would be. I was, I'd be 21 for eight months. Oh, just made it fuck you bitch I'm a 99.
Speaker 1I actually I kind of fucked myself on. The last time I got a driver's license is I I had shaved the top of my head like just kept the sides like an old man look, and I had mustache. Yeah, and so I just thought it was funny for a video that we had did.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1And went to get my driver's license renewed right after we had did it and I didn't shave the rest of my head, so that was how my driver's license photo looked and it definitely it never stopped me from getting anything. But there was a few times that's like wait, hold on. Like hey, you know, they call someone else over. Like look at this, look at this guy. Like all right, you know. But there was definitely times where they're like should we even serve this guy?
Speaker 1this looks nothing like that's hilarious, though I came in originally with like these big old guy glasses on too, and the lady was not having it at the dmv, so this was in fargo, so it's like one of the real dmvs. You pull a number and you wait. I was in there for like an hour and then I get called up and the lady's like do you wear those glasses normally? I'm like no. She's like if you don't take those off, I will put on the back that you need glasses and if you get pulled over you will be in trouble for not having glasses.
Speaker 3I was like damn. Seems like a very friendly lady. I was like damn.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was like a real DMV, Like we're spoiled at a small town DMV here because everyone here is nice as hell, dude, you get a smile.
Speaker 3How's your morning?
Speaker 1Everyone here is nice as hell. This lady was taking no shit.
Speaker 3This place was packed.
Speaker 1She was going slow, I was low, oh my god. Yeah. So anyways, I don't know how we got on. You know driver's license talk, but yeah. So anyways, back to decks and fences. Yeah, um, if you had some advice for someone who wanted to start their own carpentry company or just construction job in general, if they wanted to branch off on their own, what's some of the best advice that you could give that you wish you had known?
Speaker 2it's like a really good question, best advice I would give someone who wants to start out go on youtube definitely youtube. Maybe you know reach out if reach out to me. If you hell, I'll try to help you out the dms are open yeah, the dms are open.
Speaker 2um, youtube works a lot, you know, get your ducks in a row with your insurance and get your llc started up, so you know that's kind of a part of insurance too. It's where, you know, keep the liability off of you. And then I would focus so much on like trying to learn the business side, cause I'm assuming most people that start out with trying to do their own thing is like I need to be on the tools. But really that's like half the battle when you're doing your own thing. Like it's the scheduling, it's the keeping track of your money after that, like it's not just a you clock in, you clock out. You don't have a set time. Like you're, you're always figuring some problem out.
Speaker 2So just roll, roll with the punches, be be malleable, flexible with what works and doesn't work, and like just look for the signs that this doesn't work, that something doesn't feel right. Don't do it Absolutely. If there's something, you know what. Here's a good thing too. It's like I'm a huge fan of like just trusting your gut. There's a couple jobs where I'm like something doesn't feel right with this. I'm just I'm not going to like sky this bid. I'm just not going to take it.
Speaker 3Yeah, don't be afraid to walk away.
Speaker 2That's a, that's a really good Yep.
Speaker 3We at Unlimited. We say that all because we'll go to some jobs where it's like holy fuck, this is way over our head, right.
Speaker 2And honestly so. When you're starting out you almost take everything you can get, but it might. It might fuck you. It might fuck you. If you take that job you don't feel good about. You're like something's not right here. It you might end up like low balling the bid and then you dig into something and it costs you x amount of dollars more. And now you're under like trust.
Speaker 3Trust your gut, trust your judgment, trust yourself yeah, absolutely I agree with everything you said, and especially going off of insurance. That's one thing I tell a lot of people is. Especially if you're starting a small company, they think, oh, I'm just going to start doing a few jobs, I'll worry about the LLC and the insurance later, once I get my money built up. Insurance doesn't cost that much. And it is very, very worth having because if something happens, you just got to make a couple phone calls, your life isn't over.
Speaker 1So I mean the other hack to it. The little cheat code is just marry your insurance agent yeah you know? Second piece of advice then you get it a little bit cheaper even yet you don't get any discounts I just thankful like that.
Speaker 2That's her world, like she knows the ins and out of it, not my world, I don't have to deal with it. Very thankful for that.
Speaker 3Oh, absolutely, Sam you should start doing insurance. Dude, there was a period in my life where I was pretty set that I was going to be an insurance salesman and didn't end up going that way, but it's not out of the question. I think I would kill.
Speaker 1it didn't play baseball and or football at a high school or college level, so kind of takes you out of the qualifications to be an insurance agent well, according to my grandpa with dementia, I played baseball my entire life I would be damn. I didn't even realize 23.
Speaker 3how's baseball going? Haven't played since I was eight Gramps, Damn.
Speaker 1Oh, that's tough. Well, congrats on the extended career.
Speaker 3Yeah, I actually just re-signed with the twins. You know it's a big contract. Took the family out, bought my mom a house Good time.
Speaker 1You ever just run with it.
Speaker 3Dude. Every time I'll be like going good, Thanks for asking, Hell yeah, that's why I'm hurt right now.
Speaker 1I actually took a ball to the leg here, grant, excuse me. Yeah, dude.
Speaker 3I don't even know, dude. It's crazy Because it's like consistently, every time I saw him up until he passed, it was baseball, awesome Does he live around here. Yeah, good, grandpa he lived in Hudson, wisconsin, over in fucking Cheeseheadville.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, sir.
Speaker 3Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1Yeah, so when you cross over you're a Wisconsin guy but you're really close to Minnesota. Do you do jobs in both states or no? Yes, is it tougher doing jobs across state lines? Is there any like nuance to like doing jobs in different states?
Speaker 2no, no, I haven't really had any. The, the people that I've done jobs for, are literally friends yeah, okay yeah, well, that helps. Yeah, I don't know if this, this is illegal or something, but they're my friends. I help them with no money and a legend.
Speaker 3All right, we got them. Boys, come on in.
Working With Permits and Inspectors
Speaker 1Ah shit the tax man's waiting outside the door yeah, um, I would say that's definitely something that I would have thought would would be a lot different, like you'd have to have different insurance or different permits, different qualifications if, if, what is it?
Speaker 2oh man, my tax guy said this to me if your income it doesn't come out of minnesota, he obviously we're specifically talking about wisconsin, minnesota. He's like if you're, if 40 or less comes from Minnesota, you're fine. Otherwise.
Speaker 1Oh, you probably got to pay a different tax rate.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's something weird with that. I'm no expert, but I know, there's some percentage there. If you are primarily working in Minnesota, then we have to set up something different for you. But that's not the case. I don't really work in.
Speaker 1Yeah. So basically your accountant said if it don't make dollars, it don't really work in. Yeah, so basically your accountant said if it don't make dollars, it don't make sense. Yes, he's good, I like him. He's a finesser.
Speaker 3It sounds like so with your work does it basically shut off when the winter comes, or are you able to stay busy with different projects?
Speaker 2So I shot myself in the foot this year because Leaf Lumber also does snow removal and I banked on quite a bit of that because this past winter I wanted to film a bunch of ice fishing content, so I wanted to keep the schedule a little clear. I doubled my plow accounts, thinking we were going to just get destroyed with snow. But not the case. Yeah, and that's kind of my business model in in the winter is I want to film a bunch of content, ice fishing wise, try to get into that scene. More snow plow. That's it. But next year we're gonna have, we're gonna try to get some construction stuff, hopefully some interior stuff on the books Hell yeah, what are you trying to get into?
Speaker 1Are you trying to get into, like, flooring, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 2Whatever?
Speaker 1you can get your hands on. I'm just trying to figure out how we can send some business your way. I know, I know. I know If we got to redo the floor in the studio, we just know who to call now. Yep.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1It's definitely, definitely, definitely can help with that. It's like the hesitation in your voice makes me think you're really.
Speaker 2Let me just watch a couple videos and I'll get back to you.
Speaker 1Yeah, so back to youtube yeah, no, I, I completely understand. But you're right, though there is a fine line between wanting to take on as much work as you can to stay busy, but also maintaining that quality, maintaining that good reputation and being able to deliver a good quality project. Yes, and I definitely am guilty of that. You know, when it comes to like the photography, videography, graphic design stuff, like I feel like it's helped me now after doing it for so long, but at the beginning, like if someone hit me up, it was like, hey, I want to do this animation, I'm like, yeah, I well, I've never done that.
Speaker 1Like I have no clue what to do, so literally how to do this and that has saved my ass a lot of times. But sometimes it's like whoa, I didn't realize how many steps I'm missing. Like, oh wait, I gotta learn this whole of the program too. Shit, yeah. So I would imagine it transfers over to that world from the standpoint of like yeah, I'll do that. And then knowing like okay, I'm gonna have to buy these new tools, but yep, I don't know how to use that. I don't know what. I don't know what the best practice is to use a floor sander. Do I rent one? Do I buy one? You know? Yeah, um, do you ever do any concrete? You ever do any concrete?
Speaker 2I've I've worked with concrete, with a buddy, but I don't know.
Speaker 3Dude, concrete sucks. I don't know why people like doing it so much, Because around here it's a big concrete community. People get fucking hyped up for Crete.
Speaker 1It's fucking Crete boys.
Speaker 3And it's hot as fuck, especially on poor day, because the concrete's hot and it just sucks dude. It can go so wrong too.
Speaker 1That's one thing.
Speaker 3We do a lot of chimney work. If you fuck up one of your courses of the chimney, you can just tear it down easily, rebuild it back up. If you're pouring Crete and you're, let's just say, one of your form boards busts out in the middle of the pour.
Speaker 2Oh, my goodness. All of a sudden also you're trying to do whatever you can to get it back. You can't. Now you got this. The only thing you can guarantee with concrete is that it'll crack and it's gonna get hard, and no one's gonna steal it.
Speaker 1No one's gonna steal it. Yeah, I suppose it's probably not walking off with a lot of decks, but definitely easier than concrete, yeah yeah, I do fuck concrete.
Speaker 1No, I fuck guys, I do it as as a carpenter, you know this kind of a bit that we do on the blue collar happy hours. Is there any other trades that you got beef with? That's like okay. Like if I'm on a site and I know these guys are here and it's a new builder, whatever, like what. What are your thought process, that going through your mind? What trades do you not want to see in the same place as you?
Speaker 2okay, all right, so with me. Personally. I don't work with a lot of other trades right now, but when I was working with other crews and it was and was working with heat treating, it was always the electricians it seems like those guys get a lot of the hate these motherfuckers?
Speaker 3did the electricians always get the stink? Yep, so we've gotten the electrician answer a lot of times, but a lot of times they have different reasonings on why they hate. What is the reason why you hate?
Speaker 2because sometimes they're just leaving shit everywhere.
Speaker 3That's it, and their attitudes are shit wires and they smell weird.
Speaker 1Nah, they smell weird. I know a couple. I know a couple electricians that don't really smell normal.
Speaker 2I was working with heat treating in Superior on a union job, which was weird because I couldn't be on the tools, I was mostly just like a supervisor. Which was really strange Because me as heat treating the company I was with was non-union, so I was on a union job so I couldn't touch any tools. But those guys were all electricians and the crew that I was working with up there. They were freaking great. I love those dudes. I miss those guys a lot.
Speaker 1I don't know if you'll see this, but so you don't want to necessarily see electricians on the same spot you're in, you don't want to see those little cable ties, little wrappers, everywhere or when they cut those zip ties at an angle.
Speaker 2I'm going to fight someone?
Speaker 1Do you know what I mean when you cut?
Speaker 2them square.
Speaker 1Because it gets sharp as hell. Stab yourself on one of those things.
Speaker 2God, you pricks.
Speaker 1And you're in the thick of it.
Trade Rivalries and Concrete Work
Speaker 2You're rubbing up against the framing. I'm not saying I hate them or anything. There's always beef. No, let's stand on business.
Speaker 1Fuck those guys. I'm just kidding. We know a lot of electricians. Personally, we've been trying to get on the podcast, so we're trying to just make it as as much. Uh, you know beef there, that there can be so that we can finally get these guys on, because there's a couple of our friends that we've been trying to convince for a while that they just won't come on like no, eventually they're gonna have to answer they're gonna have to speak for the whole electric community and we're gonna have to find the perfect one because, like you said, not only are they speaking for the whole community, but there's a lot of heat coming on them.
Speaker 1That's a good point. That's a really good point. So if there's any electricians that are listening, um, we need you to reach out because we need someone to represent, because we're getting a lot of give and not a lot of take.
Speaker 3Yeah, dude, I mean, it only backs up the claims even more that electricians suck because we know, like you said, a handful of them. We can't get one of them to come up.
Speaker 1I like that I can see the episode now.
Speaker 2Like the most hated, I will say. When I was on Framing Cruise, everything led, shit rolled downhill. If something wasn't square, it would always land on the dudes who poured the concrete at the end. Their job. They get there, they pour the concrete. They're never coming back. Good point Even if you shit on them, they're not there to defend themselves. Everything went oh, this is not square because of this. And then it boils down Fucking concrete guys.
Speaker 1That's what you got to respect for the concrete guys though, Because they get a lot of the flack for stuff not being level whatever, but also these guys are the ones that are 20, 30 years old, looking like they're 50.
Speaker 3These- guys are ruining their body off cigarette hanging off, just dangling there these guys living off of caffeine and nicotine and beers in the lunch cooler nicotine and a fucking dream baby yeah, heard that you ever see like so concrete finishers? They're always bent over, like you're either on your knees or you're bent over. And you can tell when you see a guy that's had 50 years of finishing experience because they walk like all hurtled over I feel like concrete guys have the biggest johnsonville sausage fingers. They're just all muscle around their bones yeah, just calloused as fuck for sure, like all concrete dude's hands are just like catcher's mitts're huge.
Speaker 1That's one thing I have learned about brick guys too.
Speaker 3Lifetime brick guys have so much hand strength that it is crazy. Dude, even Bean Boy's little bitch ass. He grabs my wrist. I'm fucking done. He can make me his bitch dude.
Speaker 1This guy's like five foot, nothing as well. It's crazy to watch a man handle Sam around.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, he knows what he's doing, Sam go over there with a smile. I like to be a little spoon sometimes. Stop it, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1I don't like it so well, dayton, while we're at the tail end of this thing here, is there any knowledge bomb that you want to drop on the listeners? Anything that you want to shout out before we head out of here?
Speaker 2Man, just this is cliche, but it boils down to something like I really believe in is like you just treat people how you want to be treated. That's it Like be respectful, like you might not know what someone's going through. And, yeah, just treat everyone with respect, be kind, try to do something good for somebody.
Speaker 1Except electricians.
Speaker 2No, we'll, we'll throw them in there. All right, he's too nice. These electricians aren't getting fired up enough yet, right, all right.
Speaker 1Well, where can people find you on socials? You got a couple of things to plug I got a couple leaf and lumber.
Speaker 2Where can they find leaf and lumber, leaf and lumber, leaf and lumber facebook, I think it's just leaf and lumber and then youtube you got a youtube channel so youtube? My youtube is dayton rivera.
Speaker 3My instagram is dayton rivera vx media I never mind vx media is we're growing that okay.
Speaker 1It's in the early stages.
Speaker 2I'd say most of the stuff I post is on my personal Instagram, dayton Rivera. All the longer form YouTube videos is on YouTube, dayton Rivera boom Dayton Rivera.
Speaker 1Yeah, check out Dayton's pod. Oh yeah, two.
Speaker 3Scoops Podcast.
Speaker 1Ice Fishing Podcast cool concept the microphones are on Two Ice fishing scoops. Go listen to it. Go check it out. Dayton, thank you for coming on today.
Speaker 3I appreciate it guys absolute pleasure.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
