Time to visit with Bob Jackman from LaValley Middleton Building Supply. Happy New Year, Bob. Happy New Year to you, too. And I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that have had made New Year's resolutions. And as we said last week, make sure you have a concrete way to verify that you are making progress on them. But more importantly, there's still some opportunities to be had within the LaValley family.
That's absolutely correct. And thanks for leading into it. Two stores within the sound of our voice, West Lebanon, they are seeking to revise their entire yard process. And they're going to need some more people to do it. So they're looking for approximately four motivated, positive attitude, attitude team oriented people. And you got to be willing to work with the team. That's the thing.
Yeah, help each other. Many hands make light work. And of course, we're looking for CDL and non-CDL drivers. CDL is a commercial driver's license. If you don't have one and just have a regular driver's license, you get a physical card and you can drive a commercial vehicle up to a certain weight. If you think you're interested, contact the West Living and Store. And our new board store is looking for a full-time
kitchen designer. And that is something that may even, you know, we may even be saying the same thing, even if we get one, we may be getting another one. Sure. Well, as you mentioned before, it involves a little bit more than just kitchens and countertops and stoves. That particular position also deals with media centers and things, other parts in the home that are just prefab and all put together. And it's about organizing and putting things together.
Yes. And I will tell you that kitchen designers really, really love the word closet because they will turn that into a pantry. Sure. And why not? And you will get 10 times the use out of it that you could have got out of that closet. Like any of us say, and I think, well, I would say many of us men folks say, you know, where's my hammer? Where's my where's my where's my this? Where's my that? And you know what?
If you have one of those things set up as a pantry, label it, put it all there. Oh, yeah, it's right here. You know, here it is right here. And, of course, the mind. The stereotypical answer to that is the only place where a man is going to be right in the home when you ask him where something is, is in their shop.
Well, you would hope. I know some guys that are so scatterbrained to think, I know one guy that the beginning of a project every single time is to go drive over to either Home Depot or your store to get something. Yeah, because he's got nine drill sets, but we can never find them. Yeah, I have lots of stuff that I put somewhere so I can't possibly lose it. And you never can't find it.
All right, let's get to our topic. The New Year's resolutions are passed. You've already made them. It's too late. Can't start now. We want to talk about ice. Ice? Yeah, ice is an enemy. It certainly is. Now, we're talking about the stuff that is water, that is below freezing.
That's the ice we're talking about. We're out of the political climate. Yes. We're talking about water. We're talking about water. Hard water. Very, very hard.
I don't know if a lot of the young people understand how strong water is when you freeze it. But that's the way they used to break cliffs apart so they could put in highways. Oh, sure. All they did was drill holes in the cliff, fill them with water, and let it freeze, and it just breaks the rocks apart. There's a lot of power in water. Yeah. And when it changes its phases. Yes. Yeah. So ice can cause roof leaks, foundation leaks,
garage doors to get stuck Or for that matter frost heaves, which is another whole thing all to itself. Oh, there's a whole science project on that. Yeah, that's nice. You could talk an owl asleep with it.
If you have gutters on a house, they can fill up and the weight of the ice will break them right off the house. Car locks and doors freeze, cars tend to slide. And when they do, guess what they find? Hard objects. Yes. Body shop's best friend is a nice storm. Oh, yes it is.
And of course, we talked about it last week. People tend to slip and fall and fall hard and fall harder and bring things. Yeah. Yeah. We don't want to have that happen. So number one, and most every town hands this out and that's sand.
Now, if you put sand on ice, you are number one giving immediate traction. That's true. And number two, the sand is a much darker color, so any sunlight is going to heat that sand up before it heats the ice up. Nice. So the sand can actually melt your ice. Yeah, it's slow, but it does melt.
Now, and we'll mention it later, but we sell sand in tubes. Right. It's just like a burlap bag with a liner in it. And we tell people, put one in your car trunk. Sure. That way you'll never need it. That's right. All right. So if you want to make your life safer by taking some simple steps and have an understanding of ice melting products is step one.
And caveat one with step one is always wear gloves when handling any salt products. Yes, absolutely.
My last winter took a shovel out of the bucket. I was storing it in because it was a spade shovel. That bucket happened to be full of salt and I thought it was full of sand. But when I pulled it out, all I had left was the handle and a jagged piece of metal at the end that didn't even resemble a shovel. Yep, it's amazing the power that has. So that's why you wear gloves. Alright, basically ice melting salt products will come in three varieties.
rock salt. And if you remember your, your chemistry class, then rock salt is sodium chloride, which is an ACL and ACL. Yeah. It's the least expensive one. It works down to about 15 degrees. If it's 10 below zero out there, don't throw it on the driveway unless it's going to get sunny and nice. Yep.
It is harmful to vegetation and concrete. And metal. And metal. It's especially iron. Space shovels specifically. Yes. All right. Number two is calcium chloride. That's C-A-C-L. That's right. And this stuff works very quickly. It's had its radish. It's all done within two to three hours at the most. It works down to 20 below zero.
It is minimally harmful to vegetation and concrete, but extremely corrosive to metal. Yes. So you don't. It's a good thing he wasn't calcium chloride. You put that shovel in. Yeah. That wouldn't have lasted a winter. Yeah. And then there's a product. Everybody has a different name. Last year it was called Polar Express, which is a potassium chloride and sodium chloride and calcium chloride mixture typically.
And by having all three, you can count on it to work down to zero. Some manufacturers will tell you it's good down to 20 degrees. But believe me, if it's got any calcium in it or any potassium in it, it's going to be working down to zero. That stuff has basically no effect on vegetation, concrete, or metals.
So that's why, you know, it's like the dilution process. You know, drinking vinegar is not a good thing, but if you dilute it, you know, it tastes totally different. Yes. So each one knows what it wants to do, but you need to know what it wants to do. More importantly, it's a tool. You need to use it the right tool for the right job.
You can't do that. We use the right tool for the right job. No, we use the hammer. We use a hammer. If that doesn't work, we get a bigger hammer.
You can use the hole. Sure. Or you can use an edger. I used to rake the other day. I had to go to one of our stations and somebody forgot to tell the guy that plows the parking lot to plow the parking lot and there was a big burn there and I wasn't about to drive. Even though my car's got enough clearance, I wanted to make sure at least I would make it over the burn without getting stuck on the top. And the only thing I could find was a rake but it worked and bashed it away and got
And as soon as I got most of it done, the guy that does the lawn mowing who also does plowing drove by and goes, hey, nobody called me, but you know, I'll do it for you. And I'm like, go ahead. There you have a perfect example of a male using the right tool for the right job. It worked, didn't it? If you got to, let's say if you have bicycles, you have a heat loss problem.
And if you have icicles, you need to get them off the roof. And you do that by taking the food away. And the food for an icicle is the snow above it. So you rake the roof. Yep, that's it. If you don't have a roof rake, get one. Yeah, they're cheap. They are cheap. And you should never be able to say this. Surprise of a tank of gas.
But get the ice, the roof clean of snow for four feet back at least. Right. All right. For your driveway, if you have a tar driveway, then rock salt, sodium chloride works great below 15 degrees. What I would tell you was you sand. Get some sand on there.
You know, I can't reiterate it enough to keep your driveways and walkways clean and clear. If you wait one storm and say, well, I don't melt next week because it's going to be warmer. I wish I had taken a picture of my driveway about three weeks ago. That's true. But being educated consumer
Read the labels. Yeah, man, we got to read the labels. Or have your wife freedom to you, your choice. But being educated consumer, please stay safe out there. We'll do Bob and we'll see you next week. Thank you.
