← The Mulder Life Podcast
The Mulder Life Podcast
Ep 156. Mastering the Open Graded Base: Why We Never Have Patio Failures
00:58:56
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Today's episode is a Best of the Molder Life Podcast. While Andy takes a short break, he wants to make sure that you're still getting valuable insights to help you start the year strong. Live podcasts from the Incon Studio will return in February. In the meantime, if you're looking for resources, courses and training videos, visit molderoutdoors.com youm'll find an easy to use link in the description. Now let's head to the Incon Studio for today's Best of the Molder Life Podcast.
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Hey guys, welcome to this week's episode of the Molder Life Podcast, a live show featuring your questions about all things landscaping, equipment, business and life. Join our live show Weekly on Instagram molderoutdoors Sunday nights at 8:30pm Central Time to ask your questions or tune in here for the replay. Thanks for joining us. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Motor Life Podcast. We are live here Sunday night, 8:28pm and I'm excited to be here tonight guys. I hope you are too. Thank you all for tuning in tonight. Big shout out to our sponsors this week. As always, synced up project management software, synced up.com go check them out. If you have never checked them out, they can help you out with budgeting and job costing and all kinds of things to what they would say as knowing your number. So go check that out. Also, big thanks to Perma Perma Paver Edging Concrete Edge restraint. That's what we use on all of our jobs. And I'm super thankful for Permadge and their sponsorship of the podcast. Also as always, Albany's Candy Factory. The official candy of the Motorlife podcast. And today we have for the first time ever one of their brand new items. It's called True to Fruit American Favorite Flute fruits. These are brand new and they are amazing. As always you love to listen to me eat on the podcast here. I'm telling you these things are unbelievable. Bing Cherry white, peach, strawberry, Concord grape, banana, Mandarin orange, watermelon, Honey crisp, apple, red, raspberry and blueberry. Made with other natural flavors and colors from real fruits, vegetables and superfoods. Go find these at a store nearly near you. You can order them on Amazon. You can order them on their website Albany's candy.com or go check out them. Follow them on Instagram at Albany's Candy thank you for sponsoring the podcast Albany's guys. These these true to foods are amazing so we'll take questions live like we do every week. Got some good questions that were asked earlier today on my question box on my instagram that it'd be cool if we could get to those calco partners. What's going on, Sal? Thanks for being here tonight, buddy. Joe Harvey landscaping. What's going on, man? Tomi landscaping says hi. Derby city pool says I can't keep my eyes open. Well, sounds like maybe you need to go to bed or you should stay up and watch this and. And hopefully you don't regret it. Tomorrow morning, squash family outdoors. I'm sorry if I messed that up. Perma edge all the way. Absolutely. I'm experimenting with my iPad tonight so I can see everything even better. And I actually think it's. It works out kind of nice. So, Caleb Leatherberry, what are your favorite tires to run on a pickup truck? Let's see. On my Ford F350, which I recently sold. Well, I sold last year. Last six months ago I was running Cooper AT3s, I think. And I actually love those tires. They look nice and they were aggressive enough for snow plowing and they made no road noise, which was really nice. So I'm past the point in my life where I need bro tires and I need like all the loud noise. And now I'm getting the point in my life where I want it to be a little smoother, a little quieter. Put my seat up here a little bit. And so at one point in my life, I wanted the biggest, meatiest tires I could possibly find. But I'm past that point in my life. So now I have my at 4x and I have no idea what tires are on that from the factory. They do. They didn't make as much noise when I bought it, but I just turned 10,000 miles on that truck and they definitely are making a little bit of noise now. I'll run those until I need new tires and then I don't know what I'll get. I. I don't know if the 83s would look nice in there or not. We'll see. But I. I have had several sets of those Cooper AT3s and they're really, really nice. Pavs construction. Oh, no, he didn't say anything. Sorry. Well, pavs construction, thanks for being here. Yeah, Andy representing that true to fruit. Dude, these things, they're ridiculous. They're ridiculous. I may eat them the entire show and maybe it'll be the least listened to show we've ever had, But I don't care. They're amazing. The irrigation adjuster has a cameo tonight. Irrigation. You got it. So this table is in My shop. What happens is it becomes a catch. All during the week when we're working on stuff, I try to take like a sheet over the top of everything so it doesn't get all dusty. But then what happens sometimes is I forget. And then during the week when things are getting done in here like I had, I had scitech in here this whole week working on my Kubota, my KX57. That's a whole nother thing. But they were in here all week and so I needed some extra space and I ended up using this table and then somehow this water key got left here. Water sprinkler, head adjuster key. So good catch Joe. You know these things when you need them, you can't find them. When you can't, when you don't need them, they're literally everywhere. So let's see here. Promo landscape. What's going on? Any grading, any making a grade beam for my ncon. Any pointers? I guess it depends on what size machine and it depends what you want it to do. I have made a grade beam for both of my excavators. I used to have one from NCon with the roller on the back and the thing was God awful heavy and like I never used it because it wasn't my grading bucket was if I just don't quote me on this but I believe my grading bucket on my, on my Takahoochi was 43 inches and my grade beam was like 53 inches. So it was of course bigger than the bucket but I ended up just never using it because then when I used it it was so heavy it just. The roller is so heavy now that's only a four and a half ton machine. Maybe, I don't know. So anyways, my, my. I sold that when I sold the Takahuji and I built an Almost that's a 7 footer for my KX80 out of 6 inch I beam. I had somebody make that and frankly we haven't used it very much. I just being perfectly honest with, I thought we use it a ton. But what we've had to do with that machine over the last couple of last since I had it made, I just haven't needed it. That's not to say I don't think it's awesome because I think it's awesome. It's light, it's wide, it's just. It's very simple. You can look back on my Instagram, I think I have some pictures of it. And then I had one made for my KX57 which is. Looks exactly the same. And it has like a. It has. Both of them have kind of like a flat bottom side that you can scoop dirt with, which is actually really nice. And I wanted that on it. And I think the One for my KX57 is 5 or 6ft. I'm pretty sure it could have been wider. But when you make them like if you make it out of a. Out of like 6 inch channel or 6 inch I beam or whatever you're going to make it out of, you can go wider than you think because it's not near as heavy as the one with the roller. If you want a roller, that's totally fine. Some people want the roller. I didn't want the roller. I didn't really see the point in it for what I use it for. But there's other people that swear by it. So it really comes down to what you want it to be. Pabst Construction. Are you going to wrap the other machines or change the wrap on? Change the wrap on the trucks? I'm not gonna change anything on my trucks or trailers. I love what we've done. I don't need it to be any flashier. I like it to be clean and simple. I am strongly considering it doing it on my KX57, which is sitting right behind the camera here, actually. Yeah. So for those of you that don't know, this week I finished wrapping my. I didn't finish. I started and finished my SVL 97 2. I think it is. Whatever it is. Anyways, I ra. I got a wrap from Dirty Graphics. So big shout out to them. Thank you very much. I am so thrilled with that wrap. It is. I didn't know the millimeter thickness, so I learned later it's like 16 mil thick. I think it is so heavy duty. I was so impressed with the fit. We had to do minimal trimming and the trimming that we did have to do, most of it was because I was off a little bit. But I had to do very. The most place. The hardest place in that machine was the back of the machine where the radiator fan blows out through all the slats. That was really hard to get that to all line up. And also my wrap like the way my logo, the M on my logo was. It was cutting through the side and turning the machine and I needed all those lines to match up and it. It. That took me the longest time and I did half of the machine by myself and the second half with somebody else. And I would highly recommend having somebody else with You. Because it took me way longer to do the one half by myself than it did the second half with a helper. So, yeah, I, I cannot speak high enough of Dirty Graphics and the quality of the rap and the. Just, I don't know, it. It fit really well and it looks crazy cool. I. I did not anticipate liking it as much as I did. I'll. I'll just be perfectly honest with you. I've kind of gone back and forth on doing them because I don't know, I just. Should I do it or not? Is it worth it? But now that I see it, it's like, dude, that is so cool. So I very well may get one for my KX57. I don't think I'll do the 75 or the 80 yet because I've that 75. I'm hoping to trade that in for the dash 3 maybe this year. I don't know how long I'm keep it is what I'm saying. So. I don't want to wrap. I don't want to spend that much money on a wrap. They're like 13. They're anywhere from 1200 to 1500 bucks for the wrap on on average for one of these machines. And I'm. They go up. The bigger machine gets. I'm just giving you an idea. Everybody asks, how much is it? Well, just go. You can ask Dirty Graphics how much they are, but everybody always seems to want to know exactly how much anything costs. So there you go. So I don't think I want to spend whatever it would be, say 12, 1300 bucks on a wrap for the 75. If I'm going to sell it within the next year to 18 months when I get the Dash 3. I would definitely, probably do that and the KX80. I. I don't know. That's why I want to do the 57 first. Because if I do it and depending on how it looks and what I think I want, you know, I, I don't know. I. I do anticipate keeping the 80 for a while. I don't really see a need to trade it in. Maybe, maybe next year. I don't know. I guess it depends how many hours we put on it this year. I know for a fact pretty much from now, maybe the end of this week until the end of June, unless something different, something special comes in, I won't be using that machine based. I. I just sold a big job that we will start in May and finish in June. Start the beginning of May and finish mid. Around Mid June. I'm hoping that site does not have big enough access for the 80 and so we'll be. Have the 57 will be there the whole time. So that's. I know that we won't be using it for that time. You know, it just depends how, you know, what we end up getting for the end of the year and toward, you know, middle for the summer and end of the year. So we'll just have to see how things go. But I do think I'm interested in wrapping the 57. So I, like I said, I was very impressed with it. And yeah, I. I just. It's really cool. So it is a little like over the top, but at the same time, like it's eye catching. I. Part of me thinks it's kind of a theft deterrent because it's this giant wrap on the machine. And so maybe it would be a theft deterrent. I don't know. Could be wrong. But if it was me and I. If I think like a criminal, I'd be like, no, that one looks like it would be easy to see going down the road while I try and steal it kind of a thing. So, yeah, very impressed with the wrap from Dirty Graphics. So go check them out if you haven't already. How do you sell hardship heart? How do you sell hardscape jobs when you're barely starting out? You got to start small. I started small. There was a question that came in earlier about how did I get started building patios and why. I don't know if Vista. Vista Verdone, Verdona Maha. I'm probably completely butchering that. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Vista Verde, Omaha. I think I got that. How do you start out selling hardscape jobs when you. How do you sell hard skip jobs when you're barely starting out? So the thing I started with was literally a small front sidewalk. So. So let me back up. In case you don't know. I worked for another landscaper for 13 years before I started my own company. This is going on April 1st. It'll be 10 years since we've been in business. So I've been in this industry for about 23 years now. We did some hardscape work at the old. At my old company and it was not near the quality install level that we're doing now. It was not. It was usually simpler things. A lot of Holland stone, very simple. And we did not install it the right way. I just, I know for a fact, looking back now, knowing what I know now, what the Way that we were installing things was not the way to do it in my opinion. I learned a little bit there, but it was just that nobody taught me anything. I just. We just kind of did it. And like I said, not always the best install. But now when I started my company, I got a small front sidewalk for a lady from one of my wife, a lady that went to my wife's church and we did her front sidewalk and it was a holland stone paver sidewalk which fit within her budget. I didn't really know any different. That's pretty much what I knew. I had never laid a herringbone pattern before. So that was the first time I had done a herringbone pattern. This was the first year we were in business. I rented a compactor, we dug it out by hand, literally by hand. We used crushed concrete for the base and screenings for the betting. And that's all I knew at the time. Fast forward to the second year in business. I don't know how much man, I'm trying to think that first year, if we did much other hardscape work, maybe some little stuff here and there. The next memorable thing I I remember is doing. I know it sound like a hundred year old man, why can't I remember? But you do a lot of projects in 10 years and you can't remember exactly when each one was. So I'm 95% sure this was not our first year in business. I'll need to go back. But anyways we got a job for somebody that worked with my wife at the time. And it was a big hardscape job. It was a hundred foot long sidewalk and it was a patio in the back that was just like a half moon. Again they chose Holland stone. I don't know why, just thinking about that, it's kind of funny. And we dug the whole thing out. I had, I had dug it out with our case machine and it was in all clay. It was in the area by us, that's all clay. And the night after we dug it out, it poured rain literally filled the excavation with water. And there was mud everywhere and lots of water. And I remember going to my supplier and just tell him what was going on. He wanted to know when I, he wanted me to deliver the brick. I said, well, honestly I'm struggling a little bit right now. I don't have any experience with this, but it's full of water and I don't know how to get it out and I don't know what to do now with the water. And it's supposed to Rain more. But if we don't get stone in there, you know, we can't work. And again, remember, I had no, no experience using open graded bass. I only knew crusher run and screenings. That's all I knew. And he goes, you know, you might want to look into doing an. What's called an open graded bass system. And I'm like, what is that? He goes, well, you use three quarter clean. You put fab, obviously you put your geotextile fabric, then you put your three quarter clean. Water drains right through it. And then you, you screed off a layer of 38 chips. I had no idea what that was. And so he pretty much told me all about that kind of system. This was, yeah, nine, about nine years ago, I would say. I had no idea what he was talking about. I'm like, are you sure? Like, I don't know. This is all I ever knew and this is what I see people doing all the time. And he goes, no, I've heard some really good things about this. I think it might work well for this situation, this and that. So we pumped ever all the water out, we lined the whole thing with geotextile, and I brought in three quarter clean and screeded off three eight chips. And that was the beginning of open graded base for me. And it was that patio that I believe that people have sold the house now. But I saw that patio five years ago and it still looked like the day we put it in, it needed probably new poly sand by then. But. And that was. That was the first time I ever did open graded base. And I have never done a patio. Yeah, I've never done a hardscape patio without it since that day. And it was all because my supplier told me about it. And I was like, this seems really cool. And, and, and I also have never had a patio failure ever on a job that we've done open graded base. That sidewalk, that first sidewalk that we put in, we have had to. That patio heaves every winter from. We fixed it. We fixed it twice. It's this little front sidewalk going to her house. And the downspout is by it. And in the winter it heaves by the downspout because the water drains out on top and it just heaves from the winter. And later, this was several years later, we went and did another sidewalk for her around the other side of her house to go to her back, her back patio. And we did that all in open graded base. And it has never moved an inch since we put it in. So that is kind of a little story time, I guess. But how do. So go back to your question. How do you sell landscape jobs, Hardscape jobs? When you're starting out, you need to find something small to do. Just something small. A garbage can pad. Ask your family, do it for your mom, do it for your dad, whatever. Something small to start doing some of these little jobs. Somebody in your church, somebody in your family circle that needs something small. And then you can take pictures of that and learn from that and advertise for some things like that. And so again, 10 years in business, it started with a little sidewalk from somebody that we knew. I don't even. I wish I could go back and find out what we charged for that. But it just starts from something small and, and I wouldn't recommend going into some massive hardscape project the first time. You have way too much to learn and you got to get your numbers figured out and you gotta, you gotta learn how long things take and all this stuff. Start small, really small, and, and work your way up from there and go to classes and go to training things and, and there's just so many different kinds of training things in the industry now. It's. It wasn't like that when I started out. It was the Unilock seminars that I would go to. It was talking to other contractors, it was talking to my Unilock rep, it was talking obviously to my suppliers, like I said. And I mean, I don't even know what other training stuff was available then that I could have learned more from. Now there's massive amounts of opportunities that you can go to to learn about things. There's that Hardscape mentor that he has all kinds of stuff that, that you can go and check out. Caleb Almond has the Hardscape Academy. Incredible training classes in person training classes. We're doing the Hardscape Mastery with Caleb Almond. We have another one coming up. What is the date of that? April 26 and 27. That's a little, that's more advanced, but more on the business side. But you could still ask questions about install stuff like what else Pave Tool puts on a class. I saw Craig Scheller recently put on a class there. There's tons of opportunities to learn how to do this stuff the right way. And so that is super important. I didn't have that opportunity and I only did what I knew from before. And then I have since learned and changed my ways and improved our install methods and we have almost zero warranty calls. I, I literally won a year maybe and it's almost never on hardscape work. So yeah, I. I just. It's you got to start small and it all builds on itself, so I hope that's helpful Are you looking for
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a reliable and efficient alternative to black plastic edging? Would you like to complete your hardscape job and know the integrity of your work will last? Do you want to offer a product that stands up to the test of time? Then you need permaedge. Scientifically engineered and formulated using silica stone, silica sand and added mixtures, permaedge is water resistant, prevents cracking and lifting, and strengthens the integrity of any Paver project. PermaEdge offers many amazing benefits. It's quick to install, it minimizes or eliminates edge and field repair, and it saves money by decreasing material cost. If your clients are looking for a long lasting paver, patio walkway or driveway without those loose edges and that hideous black edging, then let Permaedge work for you. Andy has used Permaedge for over four years and loves it because it works. It's faster to install than other products and he has yet to have a single edging failure in any of his Hardscape work. Visit permapaveredging.com or use the link in the show description Better product, better project permapaveredging.com.
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OR Ch 5.9 what have you found to be the best concerning tax time? Spend as much as you make or save everything and pay a bunch of taxes. Don't spend everything you make. That's a terrible way to think about things. You're only paying taxes if you're making money. And I never first of all, this is not tax advice. So please no one hear this as professional tax advice. I'll just tell you what I do. I don't spend money on just to save on taxes. I spend money to save on taxes. When it's something that I spend money on things that the business needs and as a result it helps save on taxes. I do not spend money just to save on taxes. I do not. I do not think that's a good thing to do. And there's nothing wrong with pay. You know, you pay taxes when you make money. So if you want to make money actually make money owning your own business, you better get used to paying taxes. So and I'm sure there's plenty of people that will disagree with me about that. But that's okay. Mountain strong landscape I should stay under the border, not edging. What did I miss? Mountain strong what did I miss? Dude, did you ask something that that one Came in first. I should say under the border, not edging mountain strong man. I don't know what I'm missing but I only see that part of the question. Let's see as far as tires. Yokohama. Yeah. There's some other options it looks like if you're interested in some other people's recommendations for tires. B. Wanamaker with the potential new property being raw land, have you given thought to the size and construction style of the sh? I have. I have plans to build a pole barn or a post frame style building. I'm not going to share the size or specs about that because frankly it's constantly change. It's not constantly changing but it's up in the air and what I'm going to say now could change four times before it actually happens. When I get closer I'll be. I'll share all kinds of stuff about it. I actually hope to make a YouTube series about the whole development of the property if I can make the time to do that. But I really want to. I want to do it for myself, I want to do it for the business. I think it'd be cool to have that video series and I want to do it for my kids. I think one day they will be able to go back and watch that and I think it. I just think it'd be cool. So I'm. I'm hoping to do. To video do some kind of YouTube series on the entire property development. So we are still working with the county to try and get them to give us some answers and to answer their emails and their phone, their phones. It is quite possibly the slowest thing I've ever seen in my life. But it will be a pole barn. It will be bigger than what we are in now. This is a. What this building is, is a 30 by 40. Yeah. I think that's all I can probably say. There'll be offices in it. There will be 14 foot tall doors and everything else is up in the air basically right now I have an idea. I've met with two different builders already. I haven't decided who I'm going to go with. So if one of them is watching here, I haven't decided yet and who knows, I might talk to one other person. I'm not sure yet but I don't need to get a million numbers. I am just. I want to find somebody that is going to make the process easy for me and going to build me a nice building. And the amount of work that I spend project managing that job is going to depend on the time of year that we build. I love the idea of doing a lot of quote unquote, sweat equity, but at the end of the day, I make money doing landscaping and I don't want this building to pull me away too much from my business. I am totally fine if, if we are busy, super busy, and I need to be focused on my business more than I need to be project managing that job, then I'm gonna just hire a GC or I'm gonna have some, you know, somebody help me do it all, because I, I don't have time to be there six times a day checking on things or answering questions. But again, it just depends on when, when all this actually happens and the time of year that we actually start the building. I am not, I, I'm pretty sure that we won't put up a building this year. I, I just don't. The way that the permit that, that this planning commission process is going, like, seeing how slow that is, I just, there's just, I, I don't see how it's possible because I'm going to close on the property and then there's just so many things you have to wait for in the septic permit. And again, I have to decide do I want to do it this year or do I want to push it until the spring. And if I push until the spring, the building's going to get done when we're heading into our busy season. And am I, you know, I, I don't know. So, so many things are up in the air on that and I plan to talk about it a lot as things are going on. I, I, I think people enjoy hearing about that stuff. I know I do. And hopefully whatever things that I go through can be helpful for somebody else. So I actually am hoping to try. And there's three people shops that I want to go and look at. Most of them are driving distance that I want to go and look at and walk through and see if I like the way that they have things laid out. My good buddy Jeremy Swirehart is building one right now, and I'm, I've seen some of the things he's doing and trying to decide if I like that or how would I change it or whatever. Obviously, I've been to Caleb's shop a bunch of times and so I've been able to see that and decide what I like or dislike about his shop and what would work for us. And so I have some, some dreams or things that I really want to have in our building that nobody none of those guys have and. But that's just something that I want and they don't want. So it's just. It's just different. Right. But. But I. I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about it until I actually own the property. I think because it's potential maybe that this property doesn't work out. I don't know. I mean the county may say no way, man. You're not doing that on there. And so then the deal is over. I don't know. So then I start all over again. So. And then any I. I haven't. I stopped meeting with people for building the building because there's no sense in us wasting each other's time right now until I have the property because I have an idea, I have some renderings, I have a price of what it would be now. But if I buy a different piece of property and I need to change the size of the building because the way the layout of the property is then all. Everything we did was a waste of time.
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Johnston Construction Company what's next on the equipment other than trading in the 75? I'm been. I don't. I don't. I would like to. I've been on the a waiting list for a new ditch which 1550 for two and a half two going on two over two years now. I have no idea what number I am in line but I have been waiting for a new 1550. It will be the 1750 version now I guess which I don't care. So at some point maybe that'll happen this year and then I would sell my 1550 for the new one. That's gonna happen at some point. I would like to get rid of our. I have a 2008 Ford F250 pickup with a flatbed that we use for salting and plowing primarily. Still great truck. It's running pretty good. It runs great actually. I've spent too much money fixing it. I had a brand new transmission three years ago and I fixed all the exhaust manifolds. And every year it's something I. It's fine because I don't. It's not like we use it a ton, but it's really handy in the winter and we love it for that. So. But I would like to replace that this year, I think. And I don't know if I want to get a. On a 3500 pickup like a four door. I would really like to have a four door pickup of some kind for different types of things and running around and, and, and doing things with the guys. And right now we have three dump trucks. One of them is a four door which is really handy. But I, I think I want another shop truck. And then obviously we would use it for snow work. But I don't know what I want. I, I go back and forth maybe a 3500dually with a flatbed. Maybe it's a dumping flatbed. I don't know. I, I don't know what I want. But at some point I hope this year to upgrade that truck. I've had that truck for a long time now and like I said, I've put. Spent too much money on that truck. But at the same time it, you know it for as much as it gets used. You know, do I really need to. What do I need to. What is an appropriate amount of money to spend on something like that that doesn't get used as much? So I have to kind of work through that in my mind and decide what I really want. So I would say that's something I'd like to upgrade. I would like to possibly upgrade one of our towmaster trailers this year. Maybe I have a tow master tilt deck trailer and I might upgrade that to a new one. I've had that trailer for probably seven, seven years now. I'm either gonna sell it and get a new one or I'm going to send it to the. Send it to get sandblasted and then repainted. Potentially do that. It's been a great trailer. There's nothing wrong with it. I just, I, I'm, I'm. I try to cycle some of our equipment and so that trailer is the old. At this point, it's the oldest trailer we have. And so, again, always trying to upgrade a little bit as we move along here, but all these things, I'm telling you, none of them have to happen. So maybe I do none of it. So I. I'll decide that as the year goes along. Yeah. So how much is the wrap like yours on a machine? I think we covered that already, but if you didn't hear it, it was like, well, 1300 bucks, I think. Mason Farrell, where do you see your company in 10 years? In 10 years? Well, that is hard to say because I wouldn't say, you know, when I started the company 10 years ago. Now, I don't know if I would be able to say where we are now. I just wouldn't. I will be in a new. We'll be in our own facility. I hope to have some other buildings for rental by then, like commercial rentals, potentially other contractors, whatever. That's a huge goal of mine. That's the one of the reasons I'm trying to buy the property I'm trying to buy is it's big enough to do that in 10 years. My oldest son will be. How old will he be? 21. And would he be in college by then? Yeah, he would be in college. Yeah, he'd be in college for sure. If he goes to college. If he decides he wants to go to college, he'd be in college. If not, maybe if by chance he's working for me. We're starting that whole process and I don't know if he, you know, that all of this is just like, it'd be cool if he worked for me, if he worked for the company and maybe was the next generation. I have no idea. Maybe he'll want nothing to do with it, but that could be really cool. I hope to have salesmen and project managers by then. Where I am not in the selling. Maybe I'm still selling, maybe not. Maybe on select jobs. And I'm more the visionary and running the company and not so much, you know, running the yard. And I hope to continue to grow this podcast, frankly, into something really, really cool. I will have a podcast studio in the new building. At some point, we'll build a podcast studio. I'm really excited about that. And I have no idea where what we're doing right now ends up in 10 years. It's hard to even imagine what it will possibly be by then. I don't know. I mean, maybe it's virtual reality or something where you guys can be in the same room as me while we're talking and. But you're not, you know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So mountain, strong landscape. Oh, man. I remember digging out jobs by hand. My second year in business, my brother and I dug 500 square foot out patio out by hand. Took us two weeks with shovels and a wheelbarrow. Oh my word, man. That's hardcore. Yeah, I'm trying to think now. I think what we did, it was wet when we had done that first job and I know I had my bobcat. I think we did a little bit with the bobcat, but I think we just didn't want to destroy her grass to get the sidewalk done. And so we like shoveled it in the wheelbarrows and then wheelbarrowed it down the driveway. I don't know. I actually it's hard for me to understand why we, why we didn't dig it out with the skid loader. Maybe we did some of it because I had a skid loader from the beginning. So I don't know. But all I know is we had dug it out by hand, so. So thoughts on gator base? I don't really have any thoughts on gator base. I did a patio out with it maybe four or five years ago and it's held up pretty good. I. It was a good use of it. I don't know. I don't really have any thoughts on it. I. I don't think it's the next best thing, but I don't think it's a bad product either. So Coastal Land Works. We started open graded base building because of following you. That is really crazy. That's so cool. Potted luck. What's going on, man? Well said. That's how we got started with Hardscape. Three by five pad outside a rear exit door. There you go, man. Scroll up here a little bit more. I think I'm pretty far behind. Bijornson Magnus. I was talking about gravel specs, man. I don't know what what you were asking. Sorry, man. Oh, mountain strong. I was asking about permadge on driveways. When you have done it, did you pull grid through the perm edge? Yes, I did. TNT premier. From a customer standpoint, do you think new trucks change the way customers see your company over an older super clean truck? No. Maybe some clients. But I will tell you that we did a lot of work for a lot of people. A lot of nice jobs with older trucks. I had a 2000, 2001, 2005 maybe. I don't remember the year F350 dump truck and we had 2001 Chevy 2500 and I had a 2005 GMC Sierra 1500. And then I bought a 2012 Ford F350 from another landscaper. And we've done lot. We. I had all those trucks for more than half of the business's life. And we did lots and lots of work with older trucks that were presentable. They didn't leak oil in the client's driveway. They didn't sound like they were going to blow up. They had mufflers that worked, but they were presentable. And like I said, there's many years where we had used trucks, more used trucks, whatever, than what we do now. Things are a little different now and that's fine. But I never lost a job because my trucks were not brand new. So I don't want anybody to look at what I have or what other landscapers have and think that the key to our success is the new trucks and the new equipment. That is not what it is. So do not take that from anything you see on my page or anybody else's. There's different ways to run your company. And when you're starting out, you can't do some of this stuff and you shouldn't be doing this stuff. You should be paying cash for stuff and staying out of debt and growing slow. And eventually you can start changing that in your company as you grow and as you build up cash and as you have, have some more wins and this kind of, this and that kind of thing. I've done plenty of six figure jobs with used trucks. I've done plenty of four figure job, four figure jobs with used trucks. And we grew our business from nothing to what it is today with, you know, not to what it is today. Obviously I have newer equipment now. I started buying. I think my first new dump truck was, was. It's a 2019. So what is that? That's four years ago, five years ago, I guess so half of the company's life was built on used trucks. And then we slowly moved into newer trucks as we could afford it and as it made sense for the company. But I please also hear that if you have a truck that leaks oil like crazy, you shouldn't be driving it on your client's driveway. You should stay on the street. And if the muffler sounds like it's falling off, you should go get that fixed. Okay. In my opinion, some of that is an image thing too. And, and, and it's, it's way more visual. Like if you don't have something that sticks out like a sore thrum or super loud or whatever. Like the client looks in my. Most of the time, they just look right past it. Right. But you. That. None of that stuff changes how you can present yourself to them and doesn't change how you can sell a job. It doesn't change how the install looks. It doesn't change how you finish strong on a project and leave a lasting impression. None of that changes. Right. So keep that in mind, especially when you're starting out. White Willow Design. Have you ever invited clients to come look at the hardscaping? You did it at your house? No, I have not. I have never opened up my house to a client to come look at. I can show them plenty of pictures online if they'd like to see it. I don't think I have. Only one time did I have a client ask for references to call. And I don't know if they ever actually called. It's possible. I've offered to take people to see some of our projects if they'd like to go see. I've never had anybody take me up on that aching acres. What's going on, Dan? Hope. Hope you're doing good, Matt. We need a road trip to go see Dan Fuquay. Dude. Okay, that is like, one of the main things I want to do is go see Dan Fukui and go look at his. His enormous landscape yard and his operation. That's a big goal of mine in the next year for sure. Dan says if it's commercial, you better be ready for lovely state of Indiana issues. Yeah, that's. That's exactly what. That's exactly what I'm dealing with, so. Well, actually, I'm dealing with the county right now. We haven't started with the state yet, so. But yeah, I really want to go down and see Dan's operation sometime soon. So, Bob Dietz and Sons. What's going on, buddy? How about sharing some of those gummies? You can get some of your own gummies to store you near you. In fact, I might have some right now. They're just so good, I'm telling you. These are unbelievable, these new ones.
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You're listening to the Molder Life podcast because you want to get better at your craft. Andy is always working hard to improve himself and pass on that knowledge to you. He's even improved his molderoutdoors.com website to make it easier to use and to give you several ways to support the podcast. When you visit molder outdoors.com, click on the Shop link to pick up some of the coolest merch around. Choose from camo hats and beanies to fluorescent work shirts and super warm hoodies. While on that page, scroll down and check out the video courses, contracts and worksheets. To make you and your company highly effective and profitable, I recommend the Everything bundle which gives you access to all the training and forms while saving you money. If you need to book a one on one consultation, you can do that as well@molder outdoors.com support the show while growing your business. There's also a link you can use in the show description
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Aunt Max says what do you think about the Yukara mounting system and what is the purpose? Personally I think it's just for looks of the new style of pavers. What do I think about it? I think it's cool. I did it on my house actually. I used the rails on my house and then mounted the Yukara panels to it. I think it's awesome. I don't know how often it gets used on houses because you have to get to the builder at the building stage and most of the time we're called in after it. So it. You have to catch it early to be able to utilize it like that. But in, in rare cases you can do that. I think it is more of a modern thing, but I mean I was able to do it in my house and it doesn't look modern at all. I don't think we did the pitched panels and the color is the same color as the main field of pavers and I think it looks really cool. I want to do it on my building, on the Wayne's Coat of the building. I think that'd be really cool. I have done some walls with it, nothing crazy. It takes a little bit of care and work to make the lines look really good. If it's a. If it's a like one of the squared off or flat panels like you got to really spend some time, a little bit of time here and there, especially with the corners and maybe they've got some of that stuff dialed in. I haven't used the product in. I haven't used Yukara in over three or four years now. But it's cool and I would say it is more on the modern side. But like I said, I've used it on my house and my house is the farthest thing for modern. So gls Boston east coast me. There you go man. You have an outdoor kitchen coming up soon. So the Yukar system is cool for kitchens, especially if you use One of those aluminum boxes that they have, I have never been able to use one. I've bid on them twice. And then that was when I. They were first started to come out and I. They couldn't get me the one I wanted in the time that I needed. And so I just built it out of regular backing blocks. But this, I think it's a little more difficult to, to estimate because you gotta understand the system to estimate it properly. Just important that you make sure you get all the pieces that you need to do it. So I've learned it now. Initially it was extremely overwhelming, but I've learned the whole system now and I know what I need to actually do it. So. Hillside landscape. What do you say to all the haters of concrete edge and insist on using plastic aluminum edging? I say you do you. And I have over seven years, or probably six. Yeah, six or seven years of experience using concrete edging. And I don't have edge failures. And if you want to stay with the aluminum or plastic edging, you do you man. Like, I don't. It's your business, not mine, so I don't really care. How do you plan for skit? See some. Sometimes you just can't like anything that you do, especially on the Internet. The minute you do it, the minute you show it, the minute you talk about it, you open yourself up for criticism. And everybody's a keyboard warrior and everybody knows what you're doing, knows how to do what you're doing better than you do. And there's always somebody out there that is going to say you're an idiot. And if you're not getting critiqued or if, if, if you, you have to know that when this is things, that these are things I've had to learn. If you're going to open yourself up to the Internet, you're gonna, you're opening yourself up for the haters or whatever you want to call it. But that's okay. If you're getting criticized for something you're doing or whatever, it. It means you're doing something. So. And obviously that quote unquote, hater watches your stuff. And so he's, he or she is still watching. So if they want to not watch anymore, they can unfollow me and move on. But I've just learned that the way that I do things is not the way that everybody else does things. And just because I, because, and because I show a lot of what we do, I have to be okay with lots of different criticism and people calling, saying what I'm doing is wrong or whatever, and that's okay. You need to have a little bit of a thick skin and make sure your shoulders are rounded enough to let all the junk roll right off. So if that makes sense. Matthew B4:1 how do you plan for and scheduling schedule having trucks haul your excavated materials? What is your process? That's usually a very fluid thing. We try. I try my best to schedule some of that stuff. I have some good relationships with different vendors and trucking companies that are very responsive in a short amount of time. You know, the day before if I need to. Sometimes the day of, if I really procrastinate or if something happens to come up. But it's very hard, especially this time of year to make like for sure schedules because of the rain. Like, I really need to schedule delivery for mulch for next week Monday, but it is so that's so far out. Like I just. And I see two days of rain and I'm worried if I get it delivered that it's going to sit there in the street too long because it's just I need. There's a lot of things that I need lined up and I just don't have. I can't make that call yet. So then sometimes what I'll do is I'll call some of my vendors and tell them this is what I anticipate us doing. Can you put me on the schedule and the day of. Can I. If I need to cancel, I'll let you know. Or touch base with me in the morning or touch base with me on by end of day Thursday and we'll confirm for sure and those kinds of things. So that way whoever you're using kind of has an idea of what is in mind and so they can prepare a little bit, but they also know that they know what we're doing and they know that our schedule is dependent on the weather. And so things change all the time. And so you have to. But. But I'm not just calling them out of the blue the day of and saying, hey, I need two semis here today. They're like, well, you didn't tell me that. But if I told them that three days ago, they're like, okay, no problem, we'll have it on the schedule. We'll touch base in the morning before we send it out or if, if we don't hear from you, we'll call you first before we load or, or whatever. Like, you have to be a good communicator and you have to be thinking many steps ahead all the Time, especially as a project manager when you're doing that kind of thing. So I hope that answers your question. Mountain Strong Landscape Landscaping says I'm thankful I've decided to stay debt free in my business for the past seven years. I have a six real six week old baby. Congratulations. That's amazing. And my wife is able to stay home with her. We thank, Thankful, thankful we have done that. That is so cool, buddy. Congratulations on the baby and on doing that. So Clifford, have I switched over to Synced up yet? I have not switched over to Synced Up. I still am using LMN in my business. There's a bunch of different accounting reasons for that. One of them being that we still are using QuickBooks Desktop and synced up does not sync with QuickBooks Desktop and it syncs with QuickBooks Online. That's one reason. And we just haven't decided to make that switch yet. And there's a few other things that we do differently that won't work with Synced up, but I thoroughly enjoy. I think that's the program Synced up is phenomenal. And I think that Weston's, Weston's passion for the industry and how much he cares for his customers and his customer service is second to none. And that's why I am a proud supporter of their program and talk about it and share it and thankful that they're shared that they're. They care enough about the industry that they're supporting what I'm doing here to help all of you guys. And so just because I, I don't personally use it doesn't mean that I don't think it's a good program. There's just some things within it that we are doing differently. Long before Synced up was a thing. And I'm not ready to make that switch yet. So that's, that's the honest truth. So, Matt, yeah, this summer we'll make it happen. We really should. Matt. That would be a really cool trip. Thanks Dean. Dean Richie says my house looks good. Thanks, man. Appreciate that. Hope you're doing good, buddy. Little Bear earthworks says I'm in Australia. Love your pod here in Australia. That is so cool. I love your podcast and if you're ever in Melbourne, please let me know. Please let me buy you a beer, Charlie. Well, that's a first. Thank you so much, Little Bear Earthworks. I really appreciate you, you tuning into the podcast all the way from Australia and that's one of the coolest things about it, about social media and the Internet is stuff like that. So Next time I'm in Melbourne, I'll. I'll have to keep that in mind. That's so cool. Let's see here, let's see here. Opal. Opal. Lent gta. I'm sorry if I'm messing up. However your name is supposed to be pronounced. Do you have any tips for recording man hours? I write it down every day. As little as a little. I write it down as every day is a little different. But sometimes I slack and it gets messy. End of week. So we have a time tracking app much like synced up. They have time tracking within their software and we have the foreman or project managers punch in the crew every single day to whatever job that they're doing, even a task within that job, and calculates their lunch. We punch them out every single day and we keep our time tracked perfectly. And it is tied to a job. And even shop work is tied to shop work. And you could be as specific as drive time. Like you can do all kinds of stuff and I. You don't have to have, you don't even have to have a landscape management software, project management software to have a time tracking app. There's tons of apps out there that will do just time tracking. So look that up, Google it. You don't. There's many, many great ways to do it without just writing it down on a piece of paper. Because I know what you're talking about and I've done that and it does get messy 100%. So we're going to take one more question here. I'm going to scroll through and see what are the question. Oh, here. I guess I'm at the end. Which one do I suggest? So I don't, I don't know any of them, top of my head. I just know that there are just Google it. Google time tracking app or something. And I just can't think of them off the top of my head. There was a post the other day on Hardscape Contractors of America or something that somebody asked the same question and somebody had listed out like four different apps that were not a full project managing app. And you could just download that app and use it as a time tracker. I'm sure there's stuff inside of that will sync to your QuickBooks and for payroll like that there's just Google it or you can even search your app store for time tracking app or whatever. I don't know them off the top of my head. I'm sorry. So guys, we're gonna wrap this one up. I want to say a big thanks to Permadge for being a sponsor this week. Also synced up project management software as always. Albanese Candy. The official candy of the Motorlife podcast. And guys, we're gonna catch you on the next one. Thanks so much, Sa.