TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Well, it’s the trade show of trade shows for home improvement. We’re broadcasting today from the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
And this show has, I guess you can say, defined the products you see in home centers, Leslie, and hardware stores for almost 70 years.
And we are so excited to be here once again. We’re surrounded by several thousand of our closest, personal friends in the community.
LESLIE: I mean truly, we are surrounded by the most amazing things in the entire home improvement industry and we’re seeing what’s coming out and what’s first. You know, we really do love this show. So this is the place where we get to bring you an inside look at the info, products and trends that you’re going to be seeing at your home center – your favorite home center – right by you very soon.
TOM: Now, I think I should clarify that it’s called the Hardware Show, right? But it’s so much more than nuts and bolts.
LESLIE: It’s not like nuts and bolts. (inaudible)
TOM: Right. Everybody thinks, “Hey, we’re going to the Hardware Show. Gee, sorry I missed that.”
LESLIE: “Ooh, hinges.”
TOM: No, no. This is everything that you would see in a home center or a hardware store. Everything that you need for your house is here. And I tell you what, not only is it here, it’s here in droves. And what also amazes me is the fact that they can – they take the simplest of tools, right, and they make them better and better and better.
LESLIE: Well, it’s interesting. You’re constantly getting feedback and this is a great opportunity for the manufacturers to sit with the buyers and to sit with the store owners and find out more about what their buyers are doing and what the consumers are doing. So, ultimately, when you guys get your hands on a product, it’s the best possible product.
TOM: Right. But you can’t be here because these are all industry insiders, over 20,000. But somehow, they actually did go ahead and let us in, so we’ll keep that kind of quiet.
LESLIE: And even our location here – we’re in the Las Vegas Convention Center. It’s hugely impressive. And as we broadcast from an area called the Ultimate Backyard, it’s 5,000 square feet in this area. It highlights the best products and trends in outdoor living, tailgating, grilling. You name it, it’s here.
TOM: Yeah. And speaking of tailgating, we’re also announcing a brand-new opportunity for our listeners to win some very cool home and hardware products by entering The Money Pit’s Power Your Summer Sweepstakes. We’re giving away the Cat INV2000. It’s a portable inverter generator. It does it all. It’s worth 749 bucks and 99 cents. It’s great for everything from tailgating to the job site. You can enter today at MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: And it’s amazing seeing how many tailgating products are out here in this outdoor exhibit. It’s huge, tailgating. What a great trend.
TOM: Alright. So let’s get to it. To kick off the program, we welcome the man who makes this show happen every year: Rich Russo, the National Hardware Show’s industry vice president. I like to call him Mr. Hardware.
Welcome, Rich.
RICH: Thanks, Tom. I appreciate being here.
TOM: So, when we tell our friends and family that we’re going to the Hardware Show, the reaction is one of, “Gee, hardware, huh? Sorry I missed that.” People don’t get how exciting this is. Everything that you would see in a home center or a hardware store is here: here in Las Vegas at the National Hardware Show.
RICH: Who doesn’t love to go walking through their hardware store and just find the next latest, greatest product out there?
TOM: Right?
RICH: There is so much innovation. There’s so many new products. There’s so many new exhibitors. And this is just like a playland for adults.
TOM: It is. It’s Disneyland for us, that’s for sure.
LESLIE: It really is.
Now, it seems to me that there’s a lot of new, little areas that are popping up. I know that, a lot of times, we end up in this outdoor-yard area, which is for outdoor living. But truly, to see that outdoor living, outdoor furnishings, tailgating has just boomed. You’re really seeing that here, right?
RICH: Oh, this particular area of the show floor has just exploded as people have brought their living outside and they make outdoor-living spaces.
TOM: Right.
RICH: They’ve really just shown the innovation that they have and the number of products and the number of amazing things that are going out, out in the outdoor/tailgate area.
TOM: Well, you’ve got 5,000 square foot of space here just showcasing all sorts of outdoor-living products. And it really is pretty amazing. But you’ve got some other new product areas, as well. One of the things I’ve always loved about this show are the inventors. You see a lot of guys come here, basically, with a table and an idea and they stand at a booth. And some of them are now just doing amazingly well. These are products that have become standards in the industry and they all started here with a 10×10 booth and a table and an idea.
RICH: Absolutely. It’s funny because I always say this is where innovation meets perspiration.
TOM and LESLIE: Yeah.
RICH: You’ve got these guys that have these amazing ideas. Some of them are scratched down on a piece of paper or a napkin. And they’ve come to the show with the concept to get this product launched, get help to get this product launched. We’ve got a number of programs that are designed to do that. And then they basically can bring these products to market and have success and make their dreams come true.
TOM: That’s called the Inventors Spotlight, right?
RICH: Absolutely.
TOM: The show attendees can actually get a chance to look at that whole process.
RICH: Yeah. We have over 170 inventors that are participating. It’s the biggest we’ve ever had it, so the Inventors Spotlight is – just keeps growing each year.
LESLIE: That’s really amazing that it sort of lends itself to the next area, which is the New Product Launch. So here, you’ve got folks here who have a product that’s never been sold before. It’s brand-spanking new. It’s about to hit the market. And this is really the place where they can find the buyers.
RICH: Absolutely. So, we’ve got about 60 products represented that are brand new to the industry. No pre-negotiations. They’re not currently in stores. So people that are coming to the show to see brand-new stuff, they need to stop by the New Product Launch, because that’s where they’re going to see the latest and greatest products.
TOM: And then one of my favorite areas is New Product World. As a media person that needs to cover this – and it’s a massive show – we need to be efficient with our time. I love going through New Product World right away because you see all the new stuff that’s out there. Maybe it’s already in distribution but it doesn’t have a lot of advertisement or promotion behind it. We get to see it first.
I remember this was the place I saw my very first robotic vacuum ever, just over a decade ago. And now, there’s dozens of companies making these things.
RICH: Right. There’s over 3 – actually about 500 products represented in that area alone. And again, as you mentioned, it’s a lot of products that are – have been launched within the past 12 months. They’ve had package changes, they’ve had upgrades or something new about them. So, they might not be necessarily 100-percent new to the market but they’re new to a lot of people that are coming to the show.
TOM: Rich Russo, the National Hardware Show industry vice president, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit Radio Show and thanks for hosting us here at the 2018 National Hardware Show.
RICH: Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Leslie.
LESLIE: Well, if you’d like to join the conversation today, you can call in your home improvement or your décor question, 24/7, to 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-MONEY-PIT is presented by HomeAdvisor, where it’s easy to find top-rated, local home improvement pros for any home project. Go to HomeAdvisor.com.
Well, as lighting has become more efficient, so have the options to find better-quality light, as well. GE has been a leader in that space, with LEDs available now for every socket in every room of the home. With us to talk about that is Rochelle Hartigan, GE’s retail marketing manager.
Welcome, Rochelle.
ROCHELLE: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.
TOM: You know, as light bulbs have changed so much in the last 10 years, I think sometimes consumers are a little bit confused. And they don’t …
LESLIE: A lot confused.
TOM: They’re a lot confused. And they don’t understand how much better the light is right now.
LESLIE: Some of us are holder-oners. It’s OK.
TOM: Right. The choices are – there’s more choices and it’s a little more difficult to find a basic light bulb. But you have so many options right now and I think that’s a space you guys have really dug into by improving the quality of the light. Because until we had the kinds of light quality and colors that are possible today with LED technology, it’s like you don’t know what you don’t know. So you didn’t know what you were missing, right?
ROCHELLE: Yes. Yes.
TOM: With just the basic, old, incandescent bulbs, you took what you took, you got what you got. But now, there’s so many more opportunities available. And one of the bulbs that you guys have done a lot with is your LED high-definition line. So talk to me about Reveal.
ROCHELLE: Sure. So Reveal is really the big hero in that high-definition line. But as you said, consumers have so much to choose from when they get to the shelf. It can be so confusing.
So the high-definition series was built to be a shop-right-by-room solution. So, the entire line of products gives you higher color contrast. So colors look more vivid and beautiful.
Reveal specifically creates whiter whites and even more bold colors, so it’s really great for places were clarity matters. So, rooms where you put a lot of focus, like your kitchens, your bathrooms or where you’re working on hobbies and crafts and you want to see it with great clarity, even for reading spaces. So Reveal really does a great job of highlighting beautiful places in your home and giving you exceptional clarity.
LESLIE: Now, for me, I always tend to pick – especially with a ceiling fixture – things where I want to see a very specific bulb. I like a certain shape.
TOM: Yep.
LESLIE: I like the look of an Edison bulb.
ROCHELLE: Yeah.
LESLIE: Now where does that leave me when I’m looking for something that’s still efficient and gorgeous at the same time?
ROCHELLE: Yeah. So there are a couple of options. Within Reveal that we just talked about, there are some all-glass and beautiful filament bulbs. We’ve also just expanded into a new line of vintage bulbs, with lots of shapes and sizes, with globes and tubes and the classic ST19 that we kind of call the “Edison bulb.”
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Gorgeous.
ROCHELLE: There are new – yeah, so beautiful. And there are so many beautiful light fixtures out there that let you see the light bulb that why not have a beautiful, spiral filament or a beautiful amber-glass bulb that’s really visually appealing? And you can do that now in LED, which is also really energy-efficient. So you get the best of both worlds: beauty and energy-efficient.
TOM: Yeah. And you’re using about 25 percent or less of the electricity that you would have used with an incandescent bulb, by doing this, at the same time. And you’re getting the longevity. What’s the expected life of one of these LED bulbs?
ROCHELLE: Yeah. So we rate the life a little over 13 years, with an average use of 3 hours per day. So, they’ll last for years and years. They’re just beautiful.
LESLIE: Now, on your vintage bulbs, I always find that when I have a true, old-fashioned vintage bulb or a replica of and sometimes just traveling from the home center to the job site, the bulb doesn’t always make it. Does the LED give it a little bit more durability?
ROCHELLE: Yeah, so, LED filaments are certainly a little sturdier than an incandescent filament was. But we do – we’ve done a great job in packaging, so it’s easy to get them to and from and get home from the store and put a beautiful bulb intact.
LESLIE: That’s perfect.
TOM: Now, what about – what’s going on in the category of smart lighting?
ROCHELLE: Sure.
TOM: How are folks automating their lighting in a practical way and really taking advantage of that technology?
ROCHELLE: Yeah, so we’ve introduced a line of C by GE bulbs. And there are a few things that are really interesting that are starting to happen. So one is that you can optimize your choice of color by time of day but you can automate that. So in the morning, you wake up to the right kind of light for yourself and at night, you go to sleep to the right kind of light to get ready for bedtime.
But also, you can integrate your lighting into a voice-controlled system. So if you’re a house that has an Amazon Alexa or a Google Home or an Apple Home system, you can integrate and voice-control your lights. So simply say, “Turn off the bedroom,” and you’re ready to sleep.
TOM: Fantastic.
LESLIE: That’s fantastic.
TOM: Rochelle Hartigan from GE, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit’s broadcast here from the 2018 National Hardware Show.
ROCHELLE: Thank you.
TOM: To check out all of GE Lighting’s products, head on over to their website at GELighting.com.
LESLIE: You are listening to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show broadcasting from the stage at the Ultimate Backyard at the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. You can post your home improvement question or call it in, right now, at 888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor. Get instantly matched with top-rated pros for any home project and book appointments online, all for free.
TOM: And to see what we see while covering the show, all you need to do is follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, #NHShow.
Still to come, are you getting your outdoor furniture ready for the summer season ahead but maybe you notice that it looks a little worse for wear? Well, we’re going to highlight a brand-new product that can strip away mold, mildew and more in minutes, after this.
Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Show broadcasting from the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas.
We are thrilled to be here checking out the best of the best in home improvement products hitting the market.
LESLIE: That’s right. This is like Comic-Con for those home improvers out there. I mean it really is the greatest place to be. And it’s only open to industry insiders, so we are bringing the show to you.
TOM: Now, one thing that’s really fun to see at these shows is the products that maybe we’ve been using our whole lives but they keep getting better and better. And QUIKRETE has now done that with their Fast-Setting Concrete Mix in the red bag, right?
LESLIE: That’s right. You know, it’s great for setting fence posts, even mailbox posts, deck footings or even just a small slab. It’s super easy to use and it’s for projects like setting posts perfect, because there’s no mixing. You just pour the dry mix into that hole and then soak it with water. And then you can set the post.
TOM: Yep. And it sets hard in about 20 to 40 minutes. It’s that quick and that easy. You’re going to find the QUIKRETE Fast-Setting Concrete Mix in the red bag at select home centers. So look for it in that red bag.
LESLIE: Well, if you’ve ever noticed those nasty, outdoor green and black mold, mildew and algae stains on your house, the roof, the deck, even the fence, you know they can make your outdoor spaces look pretty unwelcoming and well, gross, quite frankly.
TOM: Well, that’s right. But Spray & Forget is a product that can help make those stains disappear. And now, they’ve introduced a product that can do the same for patio furniture. Scott Dudjak is the company president and joins us now with more.
Welcome, Scott.
SCOTT: Hi, Tom.
TOM: So, you guys have done a great job with your House & Deck Cleaner because it’s such a terrific product and so easy to use. And it does a great job of keeping those stains that we talked about off of those surfaces. But patio furniture is really a different animal, isn’t it? Because not only do we have those same sorts of stains but you get tree droppings and resins. And we’re really dealing with some other stain-causing elements there that have to be treated a little bit differently.
SCOTT: Yeah, that’s exactly right. You’ve got – it’s a challenge because you’ve got a lot of different surfaces that you’re treating on an outdoor furniture. You’ve got glass, you’ve got metal, you’ve got vinyl, plastic, you name it, a lot of different – and even fabric.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: And even fabric.
SCOTT: Yeah, that’s exactly right.
And as you said, Tom, you’ve got different types of stains. You’ve got bird droppings and leaf tannins. And then …
LESLIE: And a tree sap is the worst.
SCOTT: Tree sap, as well.
TOM: Ugh, yeah.
SCOTT: So yeah, exactly, exactly.
TOM: So how does Outdoor Furniture Cleaner work?
SCOTT: So, it’s – we still have the no-rinse capability on fabric, so what we call “soft surfaces” for the mold, mildew and algae. So you can still spray and forget, just like our traditional projects, to remove those mold, mildew …
LESLIE: On your cushions, awnings, umbrellas, all of that.
SCOTT: Exactly. And a cleaner and a preventative in one. So at the end of the season, maybe spray down those cushions, those pillows. That way they’re nice and clean for you in the spring.
And then the other side of this formulation that’s nice is you’ve got some UV protection in it, which is going to protect those surfaces from sun-fading and those types of things. And then you’ve also got just a kind of a rejuvenating quality of the formula, so kind of a shine, if you will, to shine up those dull surfaces and make them look nice again.
TOM: Now, does it have the same residual protection that the House & Deck Wash does, in terms of once you put it on, it gives you some ongoing protection?
SCOTT: It sure does, yes. It’s going to continue to work over time, long after you apply the product and give you those preventive qualities.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: Now, you mentioned that when it comes to those soft goods, you can spray and forget. But when it comes to the harder surfaces, what do you do there? Do you have to wipe it? Do you rinse it? How do you sort of apply Outdoor Furniture Cleaner there?
SCOTT: Yeah. So you do need to wipe it down. So on the hard surfaces – like the frame of that furniture, if you will, the kind of the more non-porous types of surfaces – you can spray it and then wipe it down with a wet rag or a damp rag.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. OK.
SCOTT: And just wipe it down. And the stains will come right off when you wipe it down and then it’s also going to shine that surface up a little bit and give you the UV protection.
LESLIE: That’s great.
TOM: And speaking of fabric, I would imagine this would be also great for flags and banners. Because sometimes, they look great for about one season, don’t they?
LESLIE: Oh. And then they just fade and they look terrible.
TOM: Yeah.
SCOTT: Yeah, it works great on that. Actually, everything from barbecue-pit covers, awnings, umbrellas – the outdoor umbrellas – that we see quite a bit. It works great on all those types of surfaces.
LESLIE: And it’s interesting. I always forget, you know. It’s like I’m constantly taking care of all of my outdoor stuff but it’s the grill cover and it’s the furniture covers that I never think about maintaining.
TOM: Right. Yep. Until they get really gross.
LESLIE: I just – you put them on and then they’re gross and then you kind of chuck them.
TOM: Yep.
SCOTT: Yeah.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. Well, this gives you a lot of opportunities to keep that clean and fresh before the season, during the season and then, of course, after the season so it’s good to go next year.
Got a minute or so left. Let’s talk a little bit about the House and the Deck Wash. Still a very important product and something that people are really taking advantage of, as we get that question all the time. Folks are really confused by how to get rid of those mold, mildew, algae, lichen stains that land on the grooves and the deck surfaces and the siding surfaces.
SCOTT: Yeah, that’s right. It’s mold, mildew and algae. It’s not just on outdoor furniture, right? It gets on just about anything that it can and it’s attacking that surface.
So our House & Deck product family was designed to work on all different types, a multitude of different surfaces from the brick, stucco, stone, really any exterior surface. And that is back to our strictly no-rinse type formula. It’s going to remove any of those ugly green and black stains that you see a lot.
TOM: Well, I’ve got a fence behind my house that was covered with moss. And I mixed up some Spray & Forget and I applied it and then I ran out and had to stop – it’s the end of the day – and I didn’t get back to it for a few days. And I went out there, now I’ve got a two-tone fence.
LESLIE: Right.
SCOTT: Yeah.
TOM: So it works great and it works quickly.
LESLIE: And I think the best part is that – to mention is that Spray & Forget is environmentally friendly. So many times, there are harsh chemicals involved and you have to worry about the garden and the pets and the kids.
TOM: Yep.
LESLIE: And Spray & Forget really has taken care of that and you don’t have to worry.
SCOTT: Yeah, that’s right. We take a lot of pride in that. We try to make all of our formulations where they’re eco-friendly. We don’t use harsh ingredients. There’s no bleach, there’s no lye, there’s no acid, there’s no phosphates or heavy metals in our products. They’re all biodegradable – 100-percent biodegradable – and we try to make them as eco-friendly as possible.
TOM: Terrific line. Scott Dudjak, President of Spray & Forget, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit Radio Show and filling us in on the brand-new product, the Outdoor Furniture Cleaner.
If you’d like to learn more about all the Spray & Forget products, go to their website, which is simply that: SprayAndForget.com.
Thanks again, Scott.
SCOTT: Thank you, Tom and Leslie.
LESLIE: This is The Money Pit broadcasting from the Ultimate Backyard for home improvers, the 2018 National Hardware Show. We’re on the road this week but coming up in the next show, Kevin O’Connor from This Old House is stopping by with tips on how to avoid mold inside your house.
TOM: And This Old House on The Money Pit is brought to you by ADT. Introducing ADT Go, the new family mobile safety app and service. Go to ADT.com to learn more today.
Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit coming to you today from the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, where we’re highlighting some of the best of the best innovations in home improvement and DIY products.
And we’re also launching a brand-new way for you to win a very cool prize that can power your summer. We’re giving away the very clean, very quiet and very powerful Cat INV2000 Inverter Generator.
LESLIE: That’s right. You can enter The Money Pit’s Power Your Summer Sweepstakes today at MoneyPit.com for your chance to win. The Cat INV2000 Inverter Generator delivers 1,800 watts and it’s really the perfect size for tailgating, camping, bringing it with you to the job site. Whatever else you need power for, it’s portable and ready to go.
You can enter now through June 10th and you’ll be able to power your entire summer with ease.
TOM: Well, one of the fun things we get to do at the National Hardware Show is discover where we are highlighting some of the best of the best innovations in home improvement and DIY products. And we found one that’s perfect for the scorching day that we have today and all those that will follow this summer. It’s the Dometic CFX, a powered cooler that can easily be taken anywhere on the go without the need for ice.
LESLIE: To learn more about this very cool product, we welcome Derek Laninga, the national sales manager for Dometic.
Welcome, Derek.
DEREK: Welcome. And thank you. Appreciate it. Good to be here.
TOM: So, this sounds like a very versatile product. And you say that it doesn’t need ice. How does it work?
DEREK: Well, it works off of AC power, so your home plugs or it can operate being a mobile product off of your car battery. So a 12-volt DC plug.
LESLIE: Yeah.
DEREK: They’re made to be portable. They’re made to be very efficient, so they – very low draw off of your battery so you don’t run it down and you can’t restart, you can’t drive home.
LESLIE: And then you can’t drive home.
DEREK: Yep.
TOM: That’d be bad.
DEREK: And they’ve got a lot of technology built into them. So if it is like today and you’re running on a DC or your car battery-type power, if it does consume a lot of power it’s going to shut itself off so it doesn’t restart …
LESLIE: How long does it take to cool?
DEREK: Depends on the ambient and depends on what you’re setting it at. But typically, it can get down below freezing in well under an hour.
LESLIE: I mean that’s amazing.
TOM: Yeah, yeah.
DEREK: Yeah.
TOM: Now, what if you don’t have power accessible to you? Does it run off of solar?
DEREK: You can run off of solar, yep. It can run off solar. Like I said, off your DC power off your battery. So most people have power these days.
TOM: Right. Right.
DEREK: They’re either going to their adventure in an automobile, an RV, an off-road vehicle, something like that.
LESLIE: Right.
DEREK: So they’ve all got power at hand and they all want to be connected to the internet and to post about their adventures. This is the day of Instagram and Snapchat, so they all have power.
TOM: And apps, too. And apps, too. I understand you have an app for this.
DEREK: Correct. We have an app built in on some of our units that have – give you the ability to control the temperature, set alarms for it and basically monitor it.
LESLIE: That’s fantastic.
TOM and DEREK: Yeah.
LESLIE: So now, you cool it – you pre-cool it.
DEREK: You can. Mm-hmm.
LESLIE: You go to your site, you put everything in it. Say you’re driving somewhere. Do you have to keep it powered in that 30-minute car ride or the hour – it’ll hold that temp until you can re-plug it back in.
DEREK: Yes, it’s very heavily insulated, much like most of the coolers are – the higher-end coolers – are today. So it’s going to maintain a temperature and hold that cooling in there for – and until it gets back into power, if you don’t have it plugged into your car or into the wall unit or it’s a solar.
TOM: Yeah. Well, maybe you figure, well, “OK, I’m 30 minutes from the campsite. Alright, honey, go ahead and turn on the refrigerator so when I get there, everything’s nice and cold, including the beer, right?”
LESLIE: That’s fantastic.
DEREK: Yep. So we’re all about mobile living made easy. We try to give people the products to be able to have a great time out there and adventure.
LESLIE: And I know that you’ve come up with some really heavy-duty design. And to make sure, you really gave this some rigorous testing.
DEREK: Absolutely. Yeah, everything goes through testing. We design, engineer and test things that really – made for the Outback in Australia. That’s where one of our bigger markets are for these products. It’s life or death out there. There’s no 7-11s, there’s no ice machines.
LESLIE: Right.
DEREK: You can’t go to the hotel and fill up your ice chest from the ice machine. It doesn’t exist. You have to have portable cooling to keep your food fresh, your – and of course, your beer cold.
TOM: The company’s called Dometic. You can check out their website at Dometic.com – D-o-m-e-t-i-c.com. Or take a look at the brand-new launch Shop.Dometic.com to buy directly.
Derek Laninga, National Sales Manager for Dometic, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
DEREK: Thank you, folks.
LESLIE: You are listening to The Money Pit coming to you today from the Ultimate Backyard for home improvers, the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can join the conversation: call in your questions to 888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor. Find top-rated home service pros, compare prices and book appointments online, all for free.
TOM: Still ahead, do you want to create your own ultimate backyard on a budget? We’ll tell you how to achieve an upscale look without an upscale budget, after this.
This is The Money Pit coming to you from the Ultimate Backyard for home improvers, the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, where we’re surrounded by every outdoor-living product imaginable, from fire pits to hammocks to furniture.
LESLIE: And if all this talk about cool backyards has you thinking about the improvements you’d like to make to your own, here’s some good news. You can create your own ultimate backyard with an upscale look that doesn’t have to cost a lot. And it doesn’t have to sacrifice comfort.
TOM: That’s true. From entertaining guests to sitting around the fire pit, the design and functional possibilities with outdoor resin furniture are unlimited. With us to talk about just that is Daniel Stainer from Adams Manufacturing.
Welcome, Daniel.
DANIEL: Well, thank you. Thank you for having me.
TOM: So, we are surrounded by Adirondack chairs and rocking chairs and stack chairs with high-back chairs. You guys got pretty much every imaginable type of chair around us today in the Ultimate Backyard. And the thing is, they’re all beautiful and very affordable.
DANIEL: Well, they really are. And you can really fix up your backyard on a budget without having to spend a lot of money. These things are really versatile. They’re easy to clean. They’re stackable, so they’re – you can move them out of the way during the season.
LESLIE: Easy to store.
DANIEL: Absolutely. And they look really, really nice and they hold up very well.
TOM: And I like the fact that you’ve got some innovation built into these. I noticed on your Adirondack-style chair that you’ve got, actually, a cup holder that swings out from under the arm. Holds not only a can, it also handles the stem of a wine glass.
LESLIE: Listen, that’s important.
DANIEL: Absolutely. Well, absolutely.
TOM: Yeah.
DANIEL: I mean we know that Money Pit listeners are – love to entertain in the backyard.
TOM: That’s right.
DANIEL: And when you’re entertaining, you have water, you have coffee, you have beer, wine, what-have-you. And you want a place to put your glass. So, now, if you’re sitting around the fire pit, you can put your beer in the cup holder if you’re on the patio or the porch. So it really kind of extends the whole idea of entertaining in the backyard, by having furniture that is beautiful but functional that isn’t a lot of money, as well.
LESLIE: And it’s interesting because in addition to the cup-holder swing-out, you’ve thought about some other innovations there. Because people always have their phone handy and they always have little things with them but nowhere to put them.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: And so one of your swing-outs has a phone holder, a place to put your sunglasses. That’s truly fantastic. It keeps things from falling in the sand.
DANIEL: That’s right. Our brand-new Big Easy High-Back Chair has a built-in cup holder, smartphone holder and accessory holder that will even work with your keys and your sunglasses. So that’s going to be hitting the market very, very soon. So, take a look at the big boxes and the hardware stores for the Big Easy High-Back Chair. That’ll retail for around 19.98. But it has all the places that you want for your smartphone and keys and sunglasses, so …
LESLIE: And Dan, truly, that’s the ultimate way to claim a chair. You go like, “Ah, I’m sorry. That’s mine. All my things are there.”
TOM: Yep, exactly.
And you were telling me an interesting story, before we went on the air today, about your start. And it all began with a 1976 Chevelle and suction cups. So, two things that have nothing in common but basically fueled the growth of what is Adams Manufacturing today. Tell us the story.
DANIEL: Well, our founder and chairman, Bill Adams, returned from Vietnam. And I believe it was a $10,000 inheritance from his dad. Used that to start up the suction-cup business and he literally sold door to door at the various hardware stores along the East Coast. And from there, he just kept on growing and growing. And eventually, he decided to get into folding and stacking furniture. And that pretty much launched the modern version of Adams Manufacturing.
So now our chairs, if you look on your – most decks and patios and porches in America. If you go to the beach, you’ll see our chairs everywhere. You’ll see them by the pools. You’ll see them on the decks, on the patios.
TOM: Right.
DANIEL: So they’re everywhere. Our colorful Adirondacks are put in front of stores – like Lowe’s and Walmart and Target and Home Depot – to attract people to come into the stores.
TOM: Yeah.
DANIEL: And they’re very affordable.
TOM: And they’re very beautiful, so …
LESLIE: You know what I love with the Adirondack chairs? There’s so many great colors but then there’s also kid-size ones that coordinate. So the whole family can sort of gather in an appropriately-sized seat.
TOM: Yeah. And they’re available everywhere. So take a look for the Adams Manufacturing Adirondack chairs and resin furniture.
Daniel Stainer, thank you so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
DANIEL: Well, thank you. It was my pleasure.
TOM: If you’d like to learn more, their website is AdamsMFG.com.
LESLIE: Well, now that spring is in full swing and summer is just a couple of weeks away, we hope that you’re taking time to enjoy a beautiful, healthy green lawn.
TOM: What? You’re not? Well, it might be that you’re not using the right products to take care of that lawn. There’s just one line of products you need to know, though, to start turning the tide on getting the kind of green lawn you only see on golf courses. And that’s those from Bonide, a company that’s been helping homeowners and landscape pros get green lawns and gardens for, I think, over 80 years or something. Rick Speer from Bonide joins us now with some tips.
Welcome, Rick.
RICK: Well, thank you. Thank you very much.
TOM: How many years has it been?
RICK: It’s been over 90 – 92 years.
TOM: Over 90, yeah. Wow.
LESLIE: That’s amazing.
RICK: Yes.
TOM: Man, I tell you what, it’s a great company. An American company. And you really have been helping folks get those green lawns.
I want to ask you about a couple of the products that we’ve covered before but are hearing a lot of interest in right now, more than ever before. Weed Beater Ultra. Everybody wants to get rid of those darn weeds. And the problem is you have to use so many different products, typically, to control them. But your product actually controls over 200 weeds.
RICK: It does. And over 200 weeds. And Weed Beater Ultra will even get the very difficult, hard-to-get or control weeds, such as ground ivy, Creeping Charlie. Not only the dandelions and so forth. A lot of them.
LESLIE: What?
TOM: Creeping Charlie.
LESLIE: That sounds like my son.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: It’s Creeping Charlie. He just happens to be named Charlie and he’s also a little creepy.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: But Rick, tell us, when it comes to applying the Weed Beater Ultra, I think people worry about what the timeframe is. Is it too early? Is it too late? How do you know when is the proper step to take to apply it?
RICK: Well, that’s a great question. Because what you want to get is you want to get the application of the broad-leaf weed killer – Weed Beater Ultra – applied early so that it can have time to go into the plants and work effectively, systemically, to control the weed from top to root.
TOM: OK.
RICK: Weed Beater Ultra, one of the other good points about that is it works not only in weather that we have in spring and summer but also in early spring or down to 45 degrees. Not many other broad-leaf weed killers will work.
LESLIE: And that’s really when you want to apply it: when you do get those big fluctuations in temperature.
RICK: When you see the weeds coming up, that’s a great time to do it right now.
TOM: You get more flexibility that way, in terms of actually getting it done, you know?
RICK: You do.
TOM: You get it done early – we all want to get it done early but sometimes we can’t. But it really doesn’t matter. If you miss that window, you’ve got a lot of time to work on this.
RICK: You’ve got a little margin to play with, you’re right.
LESLIE: And I think what’s so interesting is that with other products, you have to wait such an extreme length of time to reseed. And that’s not true here.
RICK: No. With Weed Beater Ultra, you can reseed after seven days. By doing that, Weed Beater Ultra has already worked on the weeds. So it’s good to go ahead and reseed shortly after.
TOM: Wow. That shortens up the whole time.
LESLIE: And that’s a quick turnaround.
TOM: Now, I want to ask you about another product that you guys have called BurnOut. And this is terrific because even if you do a good job with your lawn, you’re sitting there on your patio and you start to notice all of these weeds and grass that are coming up between the seams of the brick or the cracks in the driveway. And you just want to make it go away. And if you pull it, it just comes right back.
RICK: It does, it does.
TOM: Yes.
RICK: And BurnOut – with BurnOut, it’s an all-natural, organic, non-selective herbicide. So by non-selective is meaning it doesn’t differentiate between grass or weeds.
TOM: Right.
RICK: So it’ll get them both. And being organic, it also breaks down right away. It’ll kill the grass and weeds organically and away it’s done.
TOM: And it’s a great product. The company is called Bonide. You could check out their products at Bonide.com.
Rick Speer, thank you so much for stopping by The Money Pit and filling us in and for keeping all those lawns green all spring and summer long.
RICK: Great. Thank you for having me.
TOM: You are listening to The Money Pit Home Improvement Show broadcasting from the stage at the Ultimate Backyard at the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. Join the conversation: call us, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor, where it’s easy to find top-rated local home improvement pros for any home project. Go to HomeAdvisor.com.
Where home solutions live, this is The Money Pit coming to you from the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. Following all the trends here, including the growth of tiny houses. And part of that growth is due to the work of our next guest: Zack Giffin, the host of Tiny House Nation on A&E.
ZACK: Yeah, well …
TOM: Welcome, Zack.
ZACK: Thank you so much for having me.
TOM: It’s great to have you here. Man, I tell you what, the – booming market in tiny houses, isn’t there?
ZACK: Yeah, it’s insane how the interest just keeps growing, you know?
TOM: Right.
ZACK: And when I first got into it, there was maybe 10 actual tiny-home builders. Now, there’s hundreds. And there’s a lot of builders that are – used to build full-size homes that are just looking at this as kind of the future and they want to get into it.
TOM: Now, are your customers folks that are downsizing? Or are there folks just looking for an alternative vacation home, home-away-from-home kind of thing?
ZACK: It’s kind of all over the place.
TOM: Yeah.
ZACK: But the big one I really think is people that are looking towards having a space that’s not going into assisted living.
TOM: Right.
ZACK: Something in between having a full-size home for a family, in the retirement years, before assisted living. They want to downsize on their expenses. They want to free up available funding and can actually just live those last years of their life in a capacity they really enjoy.
TOM: So the words that every parent would like to hear as they’re getting on in their years is from their kids: “Hey, we built a house for you.” Great. You show up and it’s a tiny house.
LESLIE: Yeah. But let me tell you, I mean these are not what you think.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: What Zack does is so impressive. Because I imagine that the questions you must ask of your clients to figure out – where is the space you’re saving? What is multifunctional? What’s sort of sneaky underneath something else? So I imagine your process must be completely unique in how you determine what goes into these tiny homes.
ZACK: Yeah. I’ve built custom homes all my life. I’ve been a carpenter.
TOM: Right.
ZACK: But what I think of what we do is we’re doing hyper-customization.
LESLIE: Completely.
ZACK: And what my process really is look at somebody’s plans, try to identify the human needs that are left out. If they’re leaving out a decent bathroom or a shower, these are human needs.
LESLIE: Right.
ZACK: And I try to encourage everybody to have a home that doesn’t require sacrifice.
TOM: Right.
ZACK: Then after that, it’s learning who these people are, learning exactly what their tastes are, what their passions are and really trying to carve in space in their home to facilitate those passions.
TOM: And you guys are partnering with the National Hardware Show for Operation Tiny Home. What’s that all about?
ZACK: Operation Tiny Home is a fantastic organization I’ve been pouring my life into. And we’re all about being an incubator source for local organizations who are looking to build tiny-home villages for homeless veterans.
TOM: Wow, that’s great.
LESLIE: That’s amazing.
TOM: Yeah.
ZACK: And we travel around the country and I teach workshops. So we go to these locations and basically we’re building a home and we’re inviting veterans from the community, that are interested in learning the process, to come in. I’ve got a group of professionals that teach it with me. And we build a home and we teach it and we have a good time. At the end of the whole thing, there’s a house that’s actually going to change someone’s life.
TOM: Wow.
LESLIE: That’s amazing. How many markets are you doing that in? Do you go to as many states as you can?
ZACK: Yeah. I think that this might be our 14th home and we’re kind of all around the country. And we’re not slowing down.
TOM: Ah, that’s great.
LESLIE: That’s a great service.
TOM: Hey, before we let you go, I want to ask you about a new tool that you guys – that you actually have invented, based on a problem that you had. It’s called the Zack Rabbit and it’s a quick-draw holster that enables you to basically do your drilling, your countersinking and your screwing all with one movement.
ZACK: Yeah. This is the world’s best countersink. Quick-change countersink system is really what it is. I’m not just saying that. It’s a fantastically durable tool and it cuts the time required from drilling and driving in about half.
LESLIE: Finally, an option to go against the two-drill method.
ZACK: Exactly, exactly.
TOM: Alright.
ZACK: There’s other quick-changes out there and this is the one to end them all.
TOM: Zack Giffin from Tiny House Nation, thank you so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
That about wraps up this edition of The Money Pit Home Improvement Show coming to you from Las Vegas, Nevada at the National Hardware Show.
I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself …
LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.
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(Copyright 2018 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.)
