How To Master Slurry Techniques and Learn Advanced Mold Building + RammCrete

Welcome to the latest episode of The Concrete Podcast! Join BG and Jon as they dive into the essential topic of "Mastering Slurry Techniques." While it may not be a regular practice for us lately, understanding the proper methods is crucial.

In the second half, gear up for exciting details about the upcoming Hero's Quest Workshop in Napa, CA, from May 1-3. Discover advanced mold building techniques and explore the world of RammCrete. Stay informed and elevate your concrete craft skills!

🔊 Listen now and level up your concrete game!

 

TRANSCRIPT:

0:15

Hello, Jon Schuler.

Hello, Brandon.

How are you doing, buddy?

I'm doing awesome.

I'm doing really awesome, yeah.

Good to hear.

Pineapple Express coming through my friend Pineapple Express.

Oh yeah, smoking a lot of weed, Is that what you're saying?

0:30

Yeah.

You guys, you guys want some drugs?

I love that movie you've seen, Pineapple Express.

No.

Well, I'm talking about something.

Related to it, that's why I always laugh about it, but.

Oh man, Danny McBride and oh God, I can't even think the two main guys in it.

0:48

Seth.

Seth.

What's his name?

He laughs like that.

I got to look it up.

No idea.

It's such a good movie, but I always think of Danny McBride.

He's so good in that movie.

But let's not let's not get started on the weather.

Although today it's going to be 70° here it was 2 weeks ago, it was like -30 and I don't know, 6 to 12 inches of snow and ice.

1:12

And today it's going to be 70 and sunny.

It's crazy beautiful.

And here I am sitting in my office doing a podcast.

I should be outside in a Speedo sunbathing, get my vitamin D, but instead I'm in here, right?

You might want to leave the Speedo buddy.

1:30

Got to get as much skin exposure as possible.

Yeah, right.

Legally, exactly.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

So I cast, we talked, kind of talked about a little bit.

I have these crazy projects been hanging over my head for months now it feels like and finally cast them.

1:48

I had my old employee Aiden in Arkansas drive up and help me out.

So we cast all the pieces we he helped me finish forming and cast and stripped and flipped everything in like a five day period hydraulic pressure.

2:04

Man, never underestimate hydraulic pressure and I always underestimate hydraulic pressure for some reason.

This is the lesson.

I don't know what I did in a previous life.

I did something, you know, Who knows.

But I just keep keep you know keep learning it.

2:22

So anyways, I thought I had way overbuilt the forms which is always kind of my my go to.

It's like I'd rather overbuild and underbuild.

I'd rather put an extra hour into building this and put five hours into remedy and you know a mess up.

So anyways, I felt like I overbuilt everything but there was a couple things as a little if feeling.

2:42

The problem was I had to put the forms on the floor and normally I tie in what would be considered strong backs into the table and then I have cross ties going across that actually you know help hold down the rest of the forming.

But this time I moved him to the floor and I can't unless I want to drill in the concrete, which apparently I should have done.

3:00

I couldn't do So I didn't have the strong backs and the additional supports I normally have, but I just did whalers like crazy thought I was, thought I was pretty good poured.

So it was 5 pieces total poured.

The first piece which is the 750 LB little pedestal sink, but it's it's you know it's thick as the, as the kids like to say today it's a thick little sink.

3:23

So, so poured that guy and that was one I was most nervous about.

So I've just poured it and I walked away.

I didn't tap it.

I didn't shake it.

I didn't do anything.

So poured to SEC, which by the way we also mixed this in the the drum mixer.

3:39

We we haven't done a podcast.

We talked about it last time.

No, I think we talked a little bit about loading procedures, but yeah, I don't think we went over them, yeah.

Yeah, so I I used the drum mixer, the barrel mixer, drum mixer, whatever you're gonna call it to cast this stuff and and we'll talk about that in a minute.

But this the first thing I poured, I just we did SCC, GFRC using maker mix.

3:59

I poured it and I was a little iffy on this one.

So I didn't tap it.

I didn't shake it.

Normally I take a little rubber mallet.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Get any air pockets that are on the surface because that's to work up, you know, 24 inches up a vertical wall, getting a little air pockets released or on the underside of a sinkhole, you know, air comes up and I'll hit that.

4:17

You want to slosh the form a little bit just to create a little agitation to get that air to work around and come up.

I didn't do any of that, and I knew by not doing that I'd end up with a few air pockets, not pinners because we don't have, we don't have pin holes with maker mix, but some air pockets that just because I didn't tap it or slosh it, I'm going to end up with that.

4:35

Some locks.

Yeah, it just is what it is.

You know you you, you pick your pick your poison.

So either you shake and and tap or you just say I'm going to live with it and I'll slurry those few air pockets when I demoled.

So anyways, that was piece number one.

4:51

Piece #2 was a what?

What was piece number two?

Piece #2 was this big.

I'm doing this giant fireplace, but it's the upper part of the fireplace goes around the actual firebox insert, which they sent to me to take measurements of because the company that manufactured it and wherever, I don't know where it came from, Germany, Switzerland, or whatever.

5:12

The measurements were all wrong.

Like their shop shrines were all different.

Every shop shrine they had was different.

So they just said, hey, we're going to send it to you and you measure it.

OK, fine, so they sent it to me.

I measure it anyways.

It's a surround that goes around that and but it's it's really big, but it's one inch thick, but it's 3 dimensional and it's like another, I don't know, 700 lbs of concrete.

5:32

Anyways, same thing.

It's like 24 inches tall, but it's got this inner form.

Think of like a boat.

Think of like there's a boat in the middle, right?

I'm going to pour concrete in and that boat wants to lift up.

It wants to float because concrete's coming underneath it for part of it because there's this opening, but concrete's going to come underneath and it's going to try to lift it right.

5:51

Tons of whalers, tons of cross ties going over the top.

I have like 3-2 by sixes going over the top.

I have clamps.

I screwed down that inner form with like 3 inch screws probably.

I don't know how many screws I put in there. 20-30 I screwed to the.

Bottom.

6:08

Dude, so we start filling it up, you know?

And it's always like the last couple inches that you see the problem, right?

So we get, I'm like, OK, OK, again, I'm not going to, I'm not going to tap this thing.

Like I'm just going to let it be.

So I fill it, fill it, fill it, fill it, fill it.

And we're getting close to the top and all of a sudden I see like the inner form is now coming up higher than the outer form.

6:26

I'm like, you know, so it's like Battle Royale.

We go into like, you know, crisis mode.

So we're like looking for more lumber, more clamps, straps and we're fighting and saying we get it back.

6:41

Actually we get it down.

I put more cross ties, more clamps.

I actually have to stack like 7 or 800 lbs of maker mix bags on the center of it just to help give it a little bit more downward pressure.

But we get it down.

It actually turned out turned out great.

So I'm like, OK, OK, well the next the next three pieces are actually pretty easy.

7:00

It's actually four pieces.

There's a small piece I'm not counting but and they're only like 6 inches tall, 6 1/2 inches tall, but same thing.

Backer form.

These backer forms are made of foam.

I wish I could say like, it all went Florida State because I thought it was going to go Florida State, every one of them.

7:16

That backer form gave me hell, right?

So, you know, one of them we got it was an erosion sink, a double erosion sink.

We got it done.

Who's calling me?

Scott Tilford is calling me.

I haven't talked to him in a while and I'll call him later.

7:33

So this double erosion sink has a backer form made of foam and I have, you know, 22 by sixes going across like a bridge holding it down, and those are tied down to the table with vertical plywood pieces that are screwed down And anyways, fill it up.

7:51

Done.

Beautiful, great.

And it's black concrete.

Done great.

Literally, we're getting ready to turn around, go clean the mixer, go clean buckets.

And just as I'm turning, I just looked for whatever reason, I looked back at it and I see all the concrete along the edges go down.

8:09

It just drops.

Like somebody pulled a plug, like the bathtub plug.

You just see the the edge, you know, because it's filled up to the top, just goes poof.

And I'm like, where'd the concrete go?

It came out the back, right?

So that that foam popped up.

It like, had so much upward force.

It pulled the the screws out of the table, popped them and it floated and concrete came out the back because of the way I built it.

8:35

Anyways, same thing, went to war, got it down, got it flat, got it, you know, reinforced.

And then luckily we had enough leftover.

I just poured it again and it was totally fine.

But anyways, Jon, all this to say, it was quite the day, you know the Benny Hill theme song I told Aiden because Aiden's too young to know the Benny Hill theme song, but I'm like we should have just had that plane the whole day.

8:59

It would have been the perfect theme music for this day, 'cause there's like 12 hours of hell, 12 hours of hell and it was it was self induced hell.

Like it shouldn't be like that.

It should have just, you know, I literally we finished the forms on like Tuesday, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.

9:16

We finished the forms at like 3:00 in the afternoon, 330.

And I'm like, man, maybe we'll just pour these something gonna take, like, you know, to pour these pieces a couple hours, 'cause we're pouring SEC.

That's fast.

It's really fast.

But I had like a migraine building, right?

I'm just like, dude, I just, I can't concentrate enough to do this.

9:34

We'll do it in the morning, right?

Thank God I pushed pause because I can't imagine trying to, like, deal with all the hijinks that happened with a migraine but end up instead of taking three hours, end up taking 12 hours again, not because it was difficult with the concrete.

9:51

I made it difficult on myself by not taking enough time to reinforce for hydraulic pressure.

It was just self induced, self induced pain and that's usually what it is.

It's it's almost always self induced pain.

But you know, I say I learned my lesson, I haven't learned my lesson.

10:08

It's gonna happen again.

I can.

Guarantee it again.

Just like, you know, the sun comes up each morning.

I'm gonna underestimate hydraulic pressure again.

I can guarantee it.

But everything turned out.

But anyways, the point I'm telling you all this Jon, is is kind of the point of the the podcast today is because I did not do any of the wiggle, wiggle, the shake, shake the tappy, tappy like I always do with SEC.

10:31

To get any air pockets that might have been stuck on the surface to come up.

I knew I was going to have to deal with slurry, right?

Not a lot.

But there's like little spots, little spots where there's a air pocket I have to deal with now and I have not slurried in forever.

I think it's been honestly 5-6 years since I've slurred anything.

10:50

Like I have not slurred anything, nothing but it.

It's not a difficult process to do.

And so I think it's something we should talk about because even though you don't need to do it that often with these materials, you have to do it all the time with a polymer base material.

I mean, that's when I say I haven't done it in like 5 years.

11:08

We started moving towards Kodiak Pro probably about four or five years ago and I moved away from using polymer base materials and that's when the slurry stopped for me.

That's when I stopped having slurry pieces.

But that being said, a lot of people still use those older generation products and slurrying is something they have to do.

11:28

So I think it's a good thing to discuss and you know some tips and tricks that might make their life a little easier.

So is that something you want to talk about today?

Sure, let's do it.

OK, well, let me tell you what I did and then you can tell me the right way to do it, OK?

Because I'm sure I didn't do it the right way, but.

11:45

What makes you think I know the right way but?

Anyway, yeah, go ahead.

I don't know.

I mean, we should really actually talk to somebody like Dusty.

Because Dusty, he doesn't slur him because he needs to.

He does it because of his looks.

He adds all that texture intentionally, and he has to fill it back in.

So Dusty's like, he's a pro at slurring.

12:02

That's that's his jam.

I'm not.

I'm like a newborn baby fawn learning to walk for the first time.

You know, it's been five years since I've had to do it.

So anyways, here's what I did.

I sifted Maker Mix through two different sieves which I've had forever.

Essentially they go in a 5 gallon bucket and get them on Amazon or use for like mining for geyser gold panning that fits right into a 5 gallon bucket and you can stack them.

12:23

So the one takes out like the, you know, 30 mesh sands and next one takes out like 80 mesh sands.

So you're really only left with the fines and with the poz lens and the cement.

And so it's it's good for that.

So you load in there, you shake the bucket, everything sieves out, all the sand sieve out and you end up with just all the fines.

12:42

So the first thing you want to do is you want to, you know hopefully have rad mix and you can talk about using rad mix for slurry because that's what you told me to do, but I didn't have any.

If you don't, then you can go the route that I went and that sieving maker mix.

Something that is very helpful is to not completely seal the pieces but to do a couple ceiling steps before you start to slurry to minimize or completely eliminate any potential staining of spot slurry because of the issue.

13:13

The issue when you spot slurry, if you're if you're using a polymer based product, you're going to end up with millions of air holes so you end up slurrying the whole piece.

OK.

But if you're using something like this and you only have an air pocket here and air pocket 4 feet away and air pocket way down there, you're not going to slurry the whole piece.

13:31

You're just going to spot slurry those little, those little spots.

And the problem with spot slurrying raw concrete is when you remove the slurry, it can leave a stain where the slurry was.

And so the way you mitigate that is you apply a couple coats of sealer before you slurry and that's just going to protect the concrete from absorb any of that staining from the the slurry.

13:53

So what I did was I did the three, well, two parts actually.

Two parts water, one part prime.

It's the new, the new generation.

See the other primes in it.

What are you, what are you calling it by the way?

The new generation?

I'm just leaving it protect.

Yeah, it's just protect.

14:09

But the prime is built in now, so the the correct.

Yeah.

So anyways, but I did two parts water, one part protect, and went through the whole process like normal.

So I torched the surface.

I rolled it on, rolled, rolled, rolled, rolled, rolled, let it dry, torched it again and then did a vinegar wipe and let that dry and then I did one to one one part water, one part protect exact same thing again.

14:36

Once that was done then I took my slurry that I have sitting over here and I had a little bit of water to it mixed up to like a peanut butter consistency and then just spot slurry.

Everything overfilled it slightly.

Next day come back with a sanding block with some 320 sandpaper, take it down, Yep, take it down, wipe the surface down, blow it off of there and then just start sealing.

14:59

And I that's where I'm at today 'cause I slurred yesterday.

So today I'm gonna start back.

I already sanded the slurry this morning.

I'm gonna start back with with doing another one to one and and then continue through the sealing steps.

15:15

But that's what I'm going to do.

What?

What is the right way to do it?

Sean, what would you recommend?

Well, I don't.

I mean, as you very well know, 'cause you hit me on it, I don't recommend seething the mix.

Not that it can't be done.

The downside is there's there's no, there's no way to avoid pulling out some of the dust, meaning the cement and the fine particles and etcetera through the seething process.

15:38

And clearly there's no way to do it wet, meaning just to just to pull the sands out alone.

So what you're ended up with as a powder, you know, may or may not be strong enough to pull off what you want.

So in my opinion, the best thing to do even for people doing SCCS either a when you order some materials just get one bag of rad mix.

16:02

I mean that's going to last.

Who knows how long or you know, get a hold of Joe and just, you know, keep 5 or 10 lbs on hand to make some slurry out of.

Basically that's what I do and that's what I recommend.

One part rad mix, one part cement, I mix in, you know, .03% plasticizer into that and then I keep a, it's basically A10 pound, 10 LB batch of that in a bucket for whenever I need it.

16:32

Well, how often I need it anymore?

Not very often, but still, you know what I mean?

It's there, it's ready to go, and it doesn't go back.

Yeah, I.

Guess, unless you you put plasticizer in your slurry.

Just a touch, yeah.

Why do you do that?

16:48

Just helps it wet out a little quicker otherwise I mean with any slurries, I mean they will wet out, but I I don't use very much water.

If I remember right it's been so long, probably 25% of the total.

So if I was weighing up say 100 grams of slurry, I put in 25 grams of water and and when you do that, mixing it with a little, you know, a little drill mixer, hand drill, mixer, it just takes a lot to wet it out, you know what I mean?

17:15

But if you've just put a touch of TBP in there, it wets out very quickly, very easy.

And I'm one of those that I would kind of like slaking.

I would rather mix it so it's wet out, set it aside, let then the plasticizer die off, you know what I mean?

17:34

Still, you know, 5-10 minutes and then the same, get it into that kind of paste like consistency.

That's what I prefer.

But I mean, you tell me otherwise, but for me mixing it with a hand mixer or you know, excuse me, the little drill mixer and just water man, it just it just it's harder.

17:53

How about that?

It's just more difficult.

Just a a touch of plasticizer in there instead wets out very quickly.

You set it aside and it's ready to rock'n'roll.

I just use.

Honestly, I just use a tongue depressor and plastic cup and I just, you know, a couple drops of water, stir, a couple drops of water stir until I get to the right consistency that that's just how I do it.

18:15

But again, I this isn't my thing, This isn't what I I typically do.

It's been a long time.

But even way back in the day when I did a lust slurry, I found that the drill mixer, I just couldn't.

There's always like clumps that didn't mix, like in the corners.

18:30

Oh really?

Yeah, for me it was just quicker just to do it by hand.

The only the only time I'd ever use a drill mixer is if I had pigments to just get it a lot more.

Even so I didn't end up with like streaks or like a little ball of pigment that didn't mix.

But otherwise if I'm just doing straight white or back then I'd I made mine with white Portland or Gray Portland straight Gray.

18:51

I would just do it with a a little tongue depressor and you know, that's just how I did.

It let's see if I was to add a tip and I think I told you the same thing I'm just going to use the tip was add a little sealer to your water.

Yeah, three parts water, you know, three or four parts water, one part protect.

19:12

And that way you're going to utilize mostly all the combination colloidal technologies, which just helps your sealer be a little more robust.

It'll open up its working time a little bit, but more importantly it actually it hardens it a little quicker.

Yeah it was.

19:29

What can I do to speed it up because I'm not using polymer.

Back in the day I used polymer which is a glue.

And you know when you're not using polymer what can I do to help kick this and move along.

You're like dude just put 25% of your water protect and you were you're right.

19:45

I did that boom.

It was dramatically different.

I don't understand why.

I don't care why.

I just do.

I just do what Jon tells me and.

As Jon said, but no that that would be the tip.

Yeah, keep keep a little bit of your protect mixed in with the water and mix that in entirely and it'll be a very different animal.

20:05

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep, Yep.

Well, the same, I mean, you know, over all these years with the upright cast and the and the kind of looks that I do the same, I don't, I don't do slurry.

I just don't do it.

Yeah, it's it's not necessary.

20:22

So, but yeah, the best maybe we ought to look into that.

Maybe we just need to have like a small package for people to have on hand rather than a 30 LB bag.

I don't know.

Yeah, dude.

I mean I I don't, I don't keep radmix because I use maker mix.

20:38

But it would have been nice to have just a little bit of that product to make slurry.

And so maybe something we talked to Joe about, we actually might have an East Coast distributor coming online here soon too and maybe talk to them about stocking, you know down packing, stocking A slurry pack that people can buy.

20:57

What else, Jon, what else concrete do you want to talk about?

Anything come to mind?

Well, I mean we could talk about some of the current things going on.

It seems like it's I hate to say recycles or goes in cycles, but I will say I don't know and maybe it's coincidental.

21:15

The last couple weeks I've again, I've gotten a lot of messages and I've phone calls and tech support.

What usually starts, you know how I do this right?

It's always a story.

Remember when we did Hero's Quest not that long ago and videos of people who were at the hero Quest posted videos of the flow.

21:37

And if anybody doesn't remember that particular time frame or you know there was a lot of, I don't even know how to describe it.

How about tension around information and loading procedures and fiber loading and etcetera etcetera, which I think we moved past but and that's a whole another story in its own but so it happened again.

22:02

Martin posted a video a minute ago on a on his forum page.

Artwork, concrete and artwork perform.

And I started getting some calls from people like, hey, I'm not getting that flow.

You know, what is?

What is Martin maybe doing different than what I'm doing?

You know, typical of me.

22:17

I don't know.

You know, hit me with what you're doing.

So they sent me the recipe or the formula.

They're using them like nuts.

That looks good to me.

What?

OK, let's keep going, keep going, keep going.

Then when I found out with most of these guys were following a procedure in which I'm going to say you know, the The Sands first and follow that with some liquid and then you know, follow that so forth.

22:41

So now these were guys using radmix too by the way.

And I was like, oh, no, yeah, no, that's that's from a chemistry point of event that's very backwards.

I mean that's not the way plasticizers work.

You know, plasticizers were not made to put, you know, stearic repulsion on sand particles.

23:01

You know they're made for cement and fine particles and puzzlins and etcetera etcetera.

So I had them change the loading procedure and each one of them called me back like ha holy moly but where am I going with this?

You know I again it just recently, yeah some now I saw where the information was coming.

23:20

There's some individuals putting that information out as proper procedure based on their years of you know die hard experience and etcetera etcetera and where am I going with this, where?

Are you going with this, Jon?

I've.

I've been sitting a rack of my brain.

23:36

Where am I going?

Where are you going?

I guess what I'm saying is again, once again, how to load mix and your liquid and your plasticizers.

So I just very quickly, you guys, anybody listening?

Plasticizers, I'm gonna take it from a liquid plasticizer point of view, the best way to get any plasticizer the most efficient is to or would be to disperse it into the water first.

24:05

That's number one.

So the more dispersed your plasticizer can be in your liquid state is by far you know the best way to get your plasticizer efficient.

And then #2 is to get that dispersed plasticizer in direct action with the cement particles, pozzolanic particles and so forth.

24:27

And so again, first, not sans, not if you're using a polymer that happened to be these particular people who are using polymers.

It's none of that kind of stuff.

And so that's going to be completely inefficient.

And it's not just going to be inefficient in a mix procedure, it's going to cause problems like you're going to be over mixing your mix.

24:50

You know it's going to be difficult to mix.

So you're probably going to mix it too much.

You may end up whipping air into it and all these kind of things that can be avoided, which is as we talked about, I mean loaded perceivables in a barrel mixer like yourself, right.

25:06

You put the liquids in first and then the plasticizer, and now in your case you're using maker mix but your dry material then went in and lifts.

But still the general principle.

You were trying to get your liquids in and then your plasticizer, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

Oh, before I say right and have you come back like, no, Jon, that's not what I did, that's.

25:25

What I do?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So I mean and that's the proper way so that you you know, so I'm going to take it a next, a next step.

We've talked about the fundamentals class, right.

Yeah.

OK.

25:42

I'm a big believer in fundamentals.

So when one of the guys called me, who's in Mexico, by the way, and did the same thing, I It's just the picture of me.

I'm like, you know what, Give me a minute, man.

Let me just give me a minute.

25:57

Because I'm also a believer when when all of us and some people pretend to be professionals for a period of time, I think a lot of us can lose sight.

You kind of put up your blinders, you get stuck in your way of doing things, and, you know, maybe you even made-up your own way of doing things.

26:16

So I went down to the shop and I mixed up two batches.

I mixed up one batch, let's say per other information and one batch per the way.

Chemistry wise, I know how to do it or and and then I took each of those mixes and did a spread test.

26:38

So #1 mix blended the way we described had, you know, just over a 15% higher flow or a higher spread based on flow with the same amount of water, same amount of plasticizer, fiber mix, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

26:57

So that was #1.

And that was an obvious one.

But #2, which wouldn't be so obvious except to a person who does it, is, Oh my goodness, mixing the one with the, I'm going to call it the secondary procedures.

It was so difficult.

27:14

I mean, like, literally, man.

It was like wrestling a gorilla.

Yeah.

Trying to mix up 50 lbs and that's all it was.

It was 50 lbs.

Go crazy.

And I actually did three of them because the other thing I wanted to see is some of that information.

27:33

And this again, just the nature of me.

That information was a person using a dual paddle mixer, the handheld cola mix dual paddle mixer.

So I'm like, OK, I mixed up one with my cola mix single Paddle XO 6, OK, That's when I was wrestling the gorilla, you know?

27:50

And I'm like, I don't know who's it.

It reminded me of that story I I told long ago, when I don't even think he's in it anymore.

A guy named Mike Cook.

Remember Mike?

Cook, Tommy Cook's brother.

Yeah, when Tommy's brother.

Yeah, and now Tegan's brother.

I'm guessing Tegan brother is still around, but he had talked me into using the H paddle.

28:09

Remember that H?

Paddle like.

This is used a lot for mortars and stuff.

My God, I remember calling him, cursing him out because it, you know, beat came out the bucket.

I had a big divot in my shin.

I mean that thing was catastrophic, but that's what it reminded me of when I was trying to do So then I'm like, OK, I get it.

28:32

Still did the spread test still mix them up.

Clear clear differences in in let's say mixability and clear differences in the amount of spread and it was totally obvious.

Then I pulled out the, I think it's called the XO 55, right?

Yeah, the Dual paddle one.

28:49

And I don't use it a whole lot.

So I think my one paddle's still red and green.

I don't know if you red and.

Blue or green, it's kind of a teal color.

Anyway.

Or maybe it is blue.

Yeah.

Tealish color.

Yeah.

OK.

So I'm like, well, that that must be it, you know, Maybe.

29:05

Maybe that's it.

Oh, heck no, man.

It's still, It was like it was like wrestling a gorilla.

It was crazy.

So.

And then a couple other things that were obvious to me that may not now again this is with maker mix because I'm not using the polymers and stuff, but I would still say that mixed prop, let's say Jon Schuler proper procedure.

29:33

The other thing is was fairly dramatic besides the much better flow was there was a definite difference in time mixing that was pretty obvious too.

It took took much longer to mix the other way, and obvious it had to burp a lot more, meaning I clearly had whipped a lot more air into the mix.

29:58

Just simply trying to, let's say, wrestle the hand mixer and keep it at full speed, you know what I mean?

To really get the materials integrated versus the one that, yeah, not so much.

You know, I might have the trigger at half speed, you know, maybe pulled the trigger full here or there, but it was very dramatically different.

30:20

And the same thing when I use the dual paddle, the tool paddle, I could see, you know, differently pumped it up a little bit more from a volume point of view, which then I had to set it aside.

But like I said, I think a lot of it was, you know, I think it would like egg, you know, beating egg whites, you know, if it took me longer, higher speeds etcetera, etcetera, then you know I'm just pumping more of what I don't want in there and that's air.

30:47

Yeah.

Yeah.

So anyway I I guess that's my long way of saying once again I I think everybody should do that.

You know run run your procedures side by side, be realistic about the chemistries of the materials that you're using and and then you know I guess take anybody's information with a with a significant grain of salt no matter what, you know heading they put over themselves.

31:16

Yeah, they actually put this on Martin's page the other day.

You know, we, we live in the the Internet age and people can literally identify themselves however they want to.

And I think that's a.

Giraffe.

A Furby.

A concrete professional.

31:33

Yeah.

Like, what was your pronouns, Jon?

What's your pronouns?

Are your pronouns concrete professional?

So.

Jon, just this is a Chappelle thing he talks about.

But I feel very similar on this is people can be whatever they want to be.

31:52

You can be whatever makes you happy.

Be a butterfly, Mr. Butterfly.

I don't care.

You do what you want to do.

As long as it doesn't affect me, I don't care.

You do what you want to do, but at what point do I have to be complicit in your charade?

That's that's the punchline in in the bit that he does.

32:10

But it's very true.

So people can present themselves.

I've been a concrete professional for 20 years.

No, you haven't.

I know you haven't.

You've been sitting in a little shop writing papers about things you don't know about casting little squares.

You haven't done anything.

You don't have any clients.

You don't have any real world projects.

32:26

So you can label yourself whatever you're gonna label yourself, but we don't have to be complicit in that charade.

You've talked about this.

But I want to tie this to something that I think is important to hit really quick and that is, and this has come to light because the people are calling you, they're using maker mix and they're saying I'm not getting that flow that they're seen in videos that I post at Martin Post.

32:46

And then when you, you know you're like, what's your TVP, what's your water?

Nah, it's all sounds good.

That's all that.

Sounds fine, yeah.

What are you doing?

They tell you how they're loading.

You're like, no, no, no, no.

Where'd you hear that?

And it turns out two different material supplier vendors, one's a a quote, UN quote.

Trainer has been disseminating this information.

33:03

And this is what we talk about.

Experience matters.

The companies that are disseminating this information on YouTube, in classes, whatever, is completely wrong.

But they don't know that it's wrong because they don't do it.

And that alone is enough to completely wreck people's success.

33:22

Something as simple as how you load your concrete, what your order of operations are for loading is critical.

But the people that don't know don't know, and they don't know that it's critical.

And so I guess my point is these companies have been putting out this information because they don't know what they don't know.

33:39

They don't have any experience.

Mark my words, Jon.

And we've seen this happen before numerous times.

Now mark my words, it won't be but a week or two before they're gonna be saying exactly what we're saying now.

Hey, guys, the correct way to do this is this because you heard it from us.

33:56

You heard it on our bus.

The whole.

Time.

We just discovered America.

You know, they they just well.

But Jon, my point is, anybody listen to this, please let that be the confirmation.

You need to understand that the people you've been getting your information from do not know what they're talking about.

34:15

If they change their tune 2 weeks later after we come out with a podcast talking about something, that should be your confirmation that these are not the people you should be listening to.

If they change what they're recommending based on what we say, they're listening to us because we know what we're talking about.

34:30

So anyways, I I just I hope.

I know we got on that and I didn't want to get too off track because then I love to go back to the whole I love to get on track fiber load thing, which is.

That's what I'm saying.

Hilarious.

Anybody out there listening?

If you're aware of any of this stuff, which you probably aren't, and I hope you're not, because it's stupid.

But if if, if you're aware of any of this, let that be the confirmation you need, That there's people out there that are complete idiots.

34:51

Complete idiots.

Complete dummies and you're wasting your time well.

But to to Samantha, how to So you didn't get too far down to the rabbit hole at this.

I love the rabbit hole.

Jon the.

Rabbit hole is, so anybody listening.

35:06

What I would encourage you to is mix your materials both ways.

And if you happen to be one of those peoples using a pre blended mix, whatever that pre bended mix might be, then I still encourage you to take your plasticizer liquid or powder and in some way get it dispersed into your liquids first and then take that pre blended material and then add the material in lifts.

35:34

So that's in a pre blended situation and whether we're talking a bucket, the only one that makes that more difficult is the vertical shaft mixer or the pan mixer.

But even under that, you know, put the least of material in first, then just all liquid.

35:51

Just 'cause you don't want the liquid you know, leaking out the chute.

Yeah, yeah, that's all.

But anything else, your barrel mixer, your bucket, your muck bucket, whatever the case may be, you know, that's definitely the the best way to do it if you're using add mixtures.

Now again, let's say regardless of your add mixture, if you're using a mad mixture that happens to have again powdered plastic in it.

36:17

Jon.

Go ahead.

You just came up with a phenomenal name and you don't even know you did it.

You're like the Don King of Concrete.

You're always just speaking your own language over there, totally unaware.

And I love you for it.

You just said if you're mixing your mad mixture.

Yeah, I love that name.

36:33

We should come up with a product called Mad Mixture.

There you go.

Max mixture like Mad Max, Mad Mad Mix.

So what I say the the same philosophy applies even if you're using add mixtures.

And that is if you can, if you can disperse your plasticizer to the best of its ability first, that's number one.

36:56

And then #2 that really wants to get around the cement particles as much as possible, not last, but as much as possible to begin with.

So in that case, the least amount of sand to begin with.

And then of all things, if you happen to be using an admixture like Radmix, well that could actually be added at the same time as your cement because you don't have some of the, let's say, hindering products in there such as powder puzzles and so forth, or excuse me, powder polymers and stuff like that.

37:32

If you're using a liquid powder, that's a different conversation.

But if you're using one with a powder polymer that that should not go in prior to your cement particles, that would definitely come in afterwards and then and then finish your last lifts with your sand.

37:48

I mean that.

Now again, here's what I'm going to say.

I'm not saying Jon Schuler is telling everybody wrong.

What I would say is this, as I just did myself, go to your shop and run your own fundamentals, OK?

Mix up whatever you're using side by side.

38:07

OK?

And then you make the determining factor cuz like I said, I actually posted this on Martin's page.

If the end result that you get using whichever procedure is what you're looking for, then myself or anybody else can't tell you that your loading procedure was wrong.

38:28

Like I I recently saw a sink that was cast this way.

And let's say for me personally, the end result of that reveal sink pulled out of the mold is just not something that I would be confident or comfortable standing behind or sending out or giving to a client or whatever.

38:46

And to answer, so the people like, what's he talking about?

Well, it had a lot of air in it.

I mean jokingly.

I actually made the to me.

I thought it was funny that it was.

There was more air holes in that than in my breathable underwear.

And your underwear in the store office is breathable.

It's just developed holes over the years, right?

39:02

Right.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, right.

There seems to be one major breather hole, but oddly.

Stained oh God.

Always keeping it classy on the Concrete Podcast, right?

39:19

But and again and and if that's what somebody's looking for, that's OK, then you know how to do it and and follow those procedures and stand behind them and champion them and and and that's all right.

And if that's not then you know there's a few things that I would say to avoid like I would avoid again using powdered polymers.

39:43

There's.

Literally a liquid polymers.

Recently, yeah, wants to do floor tile.

Happens to be using a product and again with a polymer and they're having a lot of curling issues.

And so she's like, yeah, you know, maybe I need to submerge them and, you know, cure them in water And I'm like, you know, maybe you just need to get away from the polymer.

40:04

But anyway, that's a whole different conversation.

So if you happen to be doing that kind of thing, you know, run them side by side and then make your decisions, you know, and make your products stand behind what you want to do.

To me, that's the easiest thing to do.

And legitimately, that's what I did.

40:21

Sean Schuler took a moment, went to a shop, mixed them up various ways.

Because who knows, man, You know, maybe somebody did show me something different, OK?

And then you realize like, Yep, no, I remember what that was.

That's horrible.

40:36

And you just don't do it again.

I saw the sink you're talking about.

Several people text it to me with the the laugh and emoji tied to it.

And yeah, it's just, it's just chock full of error.

And this is we've talked about this, but this is the unfortunate aspect of greed and people selling products.

41:00

They're taking technology that is 20-30 years old, actually older than that because it goes back to the 70s.

So 50 years old, 50 year old technology and trying to package it as new, innovative, comparable to to, you know, the products that we've developed and look at the photos, decide for yourself if that's a product you think you want to use and again, like you said, if you want to use it, great.

41:24

If that's if that's what you like, then by all means you should use.

Our product, that's what I just say at the end of the day that's what it really boils down to that's when the rubber hits the road and and then anybody can call them whatever they want, you know, high performance concrete craft, concrete, I mean whatever.

41:41

That's all semantics of what I call noise at the end of the day.

If if that's what the end result that someone's looking to attain, then I think that's great.

Yeah.

And that's what you know and that's what that information is for and that's what those products are for.

42:00

And that's awesome, you know, But on the flip side, if that's not what you're looking to attain, then you know, I mean just as important.

Then there's other ways you probably want to go about this and other products to follow.

42:16

And then ultimately maybe you're in a shop or a small environment where you have both, you know what I mean?

Like, hey, this is where I want to make this because I have this kind of style or look or whatever and and I want to keep these other products on hand the to achieve these end goals and that's OK, Yeah.

42:35

That's OK.

Hey, before I forget because I just got a text from Joe Bates confirming some dates we are on now because I got a confirmation from him on to do a hero's quest May 1st through the 3rd at Joe's Shop in Napa, CA.

42:55

But this is going to be a breaking.

News breaking news?

Dude, this is actually his breaking news because I got this text just a few minutes ago while you were talking.

This is going to be a new hero's quest.

So the previous hero we've done two heroes quests and that those have been doing large upright cast post tension.

43:12

OK, so we've done two of those and and ramcrete.

This hero's quest is going to be advanced mold making and ramcrete.

So this is going to be rubber mold making making molds with epoxy and ramcrete and we might have a special guest instructor.

43:29

I haven't announced it yet, but I reached out to him and he's on, so we just got to work out the details.

Put a special guest instructor on the advanced mold making as well.

And materials, right.

I think we're going to try to get Polytech.

Yeah, and and rubber as well.

So yeah.

So anyways, it's going to be a fun class.

43:45

It's going to be a new hero's quest if you've been to the previous ones that we've had.

This one's going to be new information.

It's going to be great.

So we're going to get that loaded on the website here in the next, I would say within the next week on concretedesignschool.com, but save the date May 1st through 3rd Napa CA Joe Bates shop.

44:05

It's gonna be a hero's quest.

So there's that.

So anyways, before I forget.

But except you didn't do the breaking news.

Isn't there always like that?

An alert or something like that?

Yeah.

Well, when I was a kid, it was the like, that was the breaking news.

44:22

Now it's just in, you know, it's always like Fox News or CNN or whatever it is, but it's like a anyways, I can find that sound effect and throw it in there.

Yeah, throw it in there.

So the other thing Jon that if we're talking about like things have been going on in the last week.

44:44

So there was there was a question on one of the forms about a guy that had a sealer failure and well, he had, he had an issue.

He had like map cracking, crazing in the sealer.

And there was all these responses.

Oh is your concrete, oh is the way you cured it.

Maybe it was the sands, maybe, but nobody, nobody would say maybe it's a sealer, right.

45:04

Maybe it's a sealer and he used the topical sealer.

And anyways, so why?

I agree.

This person made multiple mistakes in the casting process.

Casting too cold, not getting things up to temperature, all that kind of fun stuff.

45:21

The the end of the day, whatever those failures were, that maybe even led to the sealer failure at this point, the sealer has failed.

It's cracked open, water's gotten underneath, it's turning white.

Yeah, and so whatever caused the sealer to fail, We don't have a time machine, you know, 1.21 gigawatts.

45:39

I don't got it.

You don't.

Got it.

So you're going to have to deal with the reality of today, not yesterday.

In reality, today is the the sealer has failed.

So how do you fix the sealer?

And if nobody will acknowledge that the sealer has failed, regardless of what caused the sealer to fail, then you're not going to have.

45:57

A resolve.

It's a trigger word.

It will do.

It is, it is.

But unless you acknowledge it, you're not going to resolve it.

And I think that was my point with this, with this discussion was like or maybe it's this like I know nobody wants.

Everybody's dancing around it and trying to come up with all the other reasons.

But maybe this is what is going on here.

46:15

But what I found interesting, Jon, with that whole thread was the manufacturer of that sealer never once offered any advice, input, guidance.

Here's how to address it.

Nothing but they would acknowledge comments or liking comments.

46:30

So you know they saw the post, but they never chimed in.

And for me, No, they.

Were clearly engaged with the post.

Yeah, just not.

Not.

Once.

Yeah.

I mean, that's just.

I don't know, that's weird to me.

Now, don't get me wrong, I even wrote this.

46:47

I think in all fairness, maybe they, you know, reached out outside an open forum, you know, to to give some guidance.

So I mean that's my let's say worst case scenario that's that's my hope.

But the downside of that is on an open forum situation like that, that was a perfect opportunity.

47:08

In fact, if I I could be exaggerating, but I think there was at least six or eight people that just said following, following, following like they were hoping for some helpful advice because of potentially some similar situations that they're dealing with.

47:24

And there's nothing wrong with that, at least not from my point of view.

You know, I mean he's not.

I mean this person wasn't going to go in and just replace the countertops because you know this happened.

It just was asking for some help to to repair and there was, there was, you know, some material providers that we're trying to be very helpful.

47:45

But the weird thing or maybe the telling thing is that the actual people who represent those products weren't helping at all.

And like, you know, maybe they have no intention of helping.

I don't know.

Or maybe they just quite frankly don't know that's possible.

48:01

What's the problem when you repackage a product when you're not the actual chemist manufacturer of a product?

When you repackage a product, there's probably a lot you don't know about that product.

There's probably a lot that you don't know about it.

You know, it was, it was something that wasn't that long ago.

48:20

We were hung out to dry because, you know, we talk about how in the raw materials industry, materials come online and offline constantly.

It's just the nature of raw materials.

You know, it's it's one of these things that it's just as well it's out of your control.

It's out of your control as a materials, as a true, as a true manufacturer of materials.

48:39

When you're dealing with raw material providers, it's a constant thing and it has been since the beginning of time.

Hey, we're not mining that product right now.

OK, great.

And you have to find a replacement.

Hey, that's that's we're currently out of production.

48:55

You know, it's not gonna come online for another six weeks.

OK, great.

It's just the nature of it.

But we got hung out to dry, you know, because we, we, we talked about that.

Or like I said before in the previous or you know, EPA standards or some, you know, some updates come get, you know, pulled.

49:11

Off the market these are time available these.

Raw materials and yeah, I mean, these are the things that just happened.

But Jon, me and you, we were crucified.

We you know this is what we heard like other materials companies saying or well I say materials companies, other retailers of pre repackaged products.

49:32

We will never change our materials, right.

It was just like a week ago.

Somebody sent me a screenshot of some of these people that had said that.

Hey guys, we we changed our materials and this is a really common thing in the Chemistry World, you know?

Oh man, I love when people eat crow.

49:50

I love it.

I love.

It or they don't.

I mean you know I don't know because again I'm going to say it's it's all possible coincidentally that because and I do think I believe things go in cycles and and why it happens I don't know.

50:07

So it seems like at the moment, I've been reading a lot of posts with people having, let's say, difficulties or or whatever challenges, whatever, want a nice way of putting it with some certain products.

And one of them coincidentally has changed their name recently.

50:26

And when and when they got called on it by somebody, it was like new, new, new.

I mean, we only changed it because we like the word Pro.

Yeah.

OK, well, so again, maybe the challenges happening around it are completely coincidental.

50:42

That's OK, to be honest with you, just because we're having this conversation openly now between me and you, I I kind of shy away from that.

As nice as that sounds to say it's coincidental because to me it's a little telling that on an open forum they would those same individuals would shy themselves so far away from from just helping someone who wasn't bashing.

51:06

I mean the whole I didn't read one bashing post anywhere, just people asking, you know, essentially for advice.

Yep.

Which, and you know, kudos to Tom Fisher for jumping in.

He he gave some like, you know, you may have sanded down and yadda yadda yadda, but yes, I do love those posts and love, I'm saying sarcastically, the people who you know, like Gandalf with his, you know, plunging his staff though shall not pass.

51:39

And that's that's what they were doing.

They shall not blame it on the sealer.

Let's move on.

All right, enough of that, Jon Schuler.

It's time.

It's.

Funny.

It's time to move on.

It's time to move on.

We're being, we're being petty Betty's.

51:56

Now we need to.

Sometimes you have to, man.

Come on, it's.

Just sometimes it just needs to be said, you know, sometimes things just need to be said out loud.

And so there we said it.

Done.

Done.

One under the bridge.

Hey, it's still funny though.

52:11

Oh.

I do find it funny.

I do find it funny myself.

And I think everybody else does too, yeah.

We have the Fundamentals Workshop coming up in what it was today.

Today is February 1st, so the 10th, so nine days that's coming up.

Coming up pretty quick.

52:27

So if you are unaware, we have a 1 1/2 day class, the Concrete Design School Fundamentals Workshop and that is the first step in your concrete journey.

If you are new to concrete and you want to learn the right way to get it started in this industry and the right way to do things and not waste a lot of money and time making an ultimate mistake in training and learning things the wrong way from people that don't do it, you might want to take a look at this workshop, Concrete designschool.com, the 1.5 Day Fundamentals Workshop.

52:55

Low Cost Class, low low time investment.

We're doing it on a weekend and in and out so hopefully you can make it.

What else, Jon?

Well, just the breaking news, I guess now we got to like, like I was talking to Joe this morning.

It's like he's like, yeah, if we going out far enough, we'll just procrastinate.

53:13

But if we do it too soon, we're like be spinning our wheel.

So the Hero's Quest, man.

I love the Hero's Quest.

Me too.

May May 1st and 3rd.

And did you?

Do you want to say who the guest might be?

Who's the guest?

Yeah, go ahead.

You want to say it?

53:29

I don't know who is it?

Oh, you don't know?

I copied you on a text.

Jon, do you not look here?

Really.

Yes, Yes, yes, Yes, Yes, yes, Queen.

Yeah, you know, give me a minute.

Let me turn my.

Phone back on?

Yeah, get your reading glasses.

Yeah, awesome man.

53:46

No.

So who is it?

Sean Albright.

Sean, Yeah, Sean Albright.

So Sean is a master of making molds.

He's extremely talented and gifted and he's a he's a great instructor teacher as well.

So I reached out to Sean and asked him and I copied you on the text but asked him if if he would be interested and he said he would and those dates work.

54:10

So we might be having Sean Albright join us for this.

It would be great if he if he's able to make it, yeah.

But this class is going to be really focused on mold making and more advanced mold making.

I'm actually excited about it because I've seen the molds that Joe makes with the epoxy coatings and they look phenomenal and I wish I could make molds that nice.

54:31

Personally, there's so many times that I wish I had the skill set to make molds as nice as Joe's molds.

So I'm personally actually excited about seeing some of Joe's tips and tricks that he does and incorporating incorporating those into my workflow as well.

And same with Sean, Sean has a lot of great techniques that I'm interested in learning as well.

54:50

So, so it's going to be fun class all the way around.

So again, you know, if you've been to a Hero's quest, we have a lot of repeat attendees.

This Hero's Quest is going to be new information, so it's the first time we're going to be doing this curriculum and so hopefully you can make it, but anything else is that it and we're going to wrap it on.

55:07

That I think that's it for today, buddy.

All right, well, I'm going to get to ceiling.

I sanded that slurry this morning and now I'm going to start ceiling so.

Awesome, man.

Yeah, well, I saw that vanity.

Were you going to take some pictures?

Because you took a really distant picture, but it looks like a pretty neat 3 dimensional cast.

55:24

Man, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, it it's cool.

It's cool.

It's cool.

I mean, it is a tank of a little vanity, that thing you could literally put in front of a tank and probably stop a tank.

It is.

It's a chunky little beast.

But yeah, it's it's for a client.

55:39

I've worked with this client now for dude, I want to tell me this little story because I think it's kind of funny.

I've worked with this designer now for at least 15 years on a lot of different projects, and I love the designer.

Phenomenal designer.

But you know, there's people at work at the design firm that I don't know if they understand physics.

56:00

The shop drawings, you know, we, we went through 20 or 30 iterations on shop drawings because things kept changing.

They would send me the dimensions and then I'd send them shop drawings.

I'd say no, no, no, no.

We went and field measured.

We need to adjust this to be this dimension and then this dimension and no, no, we, you know, actually we want to adjust at this.

56:16

Oh, we want to move the seam line 6 inches this way.

And I just kept redrawn, redrawn, redrawn, redrawn, which that's a whole other lesson is you should charge your time, which I did not do on this client.

Charge your time for shop drawings because you can eat up.

I probably ate up 5060 hours on shop drawings on this project.

56:32

But anyways, we finally get to the end of the shop drawing.

Everybody signs off, You know, the contractor approves, the designer approves, the client approves, everybody approves.

Great, so I build everything and I I build the crates and I have a video.

If anybody's interested in seeing my creating process, it's on kodiakpro.com.

56:49

Under paid tutorials, there's a tutorial on how to build crates.

But I have AI, have a video and I go through my process, but I build my crates to fit the piece exactly like the crate is built to the piece.

I don't just build an arbitrary size and then block out the inside for the piece.

57:05

No, I build the crate to the piece to fit it perfectly.

There's zero tolerance.

I mean I build it to like you know, a 32nd of an inch, so it's super tight.

Anyways, so I build the crates.

After I build the pieces, I build the crates, the crates are all done.

And after I build the crates, the client reaches out to me and says or not the client but the the designer.

57:25

Not even the designer, but a person at the design firm, like one of the lower level people reaches out to me and says, hey, do you need to know the size of the elevator to build the crates?

No, I don't need to know that they're like, but don't you need to build them to fit in the elevator?

57:41

And I'm like, well, no, I build the crates to fit the pieces.

So the crates are the crates.

The crates are designed for the pieces.

So whatever that is, is what it is.

And they're like, yeah, no, I understand, but but we also need to make sure it fits an elevator.

I'm like, you know, I understand.

57:56

But what I'm saying is I cannot shrink the crate to fit in the elevator and somehow get a piece that's six inches longer to fit in that crate.

Right.

So like the crates are the crates and this conversation just went around and around and around.

And I I told him, I just finally said like, listen, if the crates don't fit in the elevator, you're going to need a crane or a Tele handler or some other method to get these up to whatever floor you're going to.

58:19

But I cannot change the size of the crates.

The crates are literally built to fit fit the pieces that everybody signed off on.

So that's what I built.

And then the crates are built to that.

And and then I I I got a call like 2 days ago, I was at my here at my shop working and I picked up and it was, it was the person at the design firm.

58:39

And I'm like, yeah, I'm just really concerned about the size of the crates.

I'm like, I was like, OK, what's the dimensions of the elevator?

And so they tell me and I get a tape measure, everything's going to be fine.

Right.

Great.

OK, great, great, great.

And they're like, can you e-mail us the the crate size and then the weight of the crates just so it's on the same page to the builder and everybody involved, I'm like, yeah, that's fine.

59:00

So I've already calculated the weight of the crates with the concrete in it, even though I haven't loaded them yet.

I know within probably 15 lbs what they're going to be and and I've already reached out to a freight broker to get quotes.

I have all the dimensions and weights and everything, so I just cut and paste that into an e-mail and say here's the here's the size of the crates and here's the weights.

59:18

And then I got an e-mail back from the builder, which I haven't responded to yet because I don't.

I'm not even sure how to respond.

I got an e-mail back from the builder of the of the this project that says essentially wow, these weights are are a big surprise exclamation point.

59:35

I thought this was lightweight concrete, which first of all, nowhere on my website do I say lightweight concrete.

Nowhere in my quote do I say lightweight concrete.

Nowhere have I ever said lightweight concrete, right.

I've never said this term.

I've never promoted a product of lightweight concrete.

59:53

I started to write a response that lightweight, like quote, UN quote, lightweight concrete was an oxymoron.

That's why I started my e-mail with I'm like, I'm just gonna push pause in this e-mail right now.

But but again, it's like what?

What are we talking about here?

The pieces are done.

Everybody signed off on this.

1:00:09

I mean it has this builder.

I've never worked with the builder before.

This builder has this builder never installed granite or stone or solid surface or.

I mean these are all huge pieces.

If this was made out of marble or granite, it would be the same white if not heavier.

So what are we talking about here, you know?

1:00:25

So that's essentially, I'm going to write back a response that says, you know, your lack of awareness of my material is not my issue.

I've never once marketed my products as lightweight.

Everything is as thin as we can make it, usually one inch thick.

There are sections that are thicker because of of whatever, because we can't get foam in there because it's too small.

1:00:42

But but you know, the weight is the weight.

Like what?

What do you want me to do?

What are we even talking about?

Like the weight is the weight.

Another thing that I think this, this builder is losing sight of is I build my crates out of three quarter inch plywood.

Well a sheet of three quarter inch plywood, 75 lbs.

Some of these crates are three sheets of plywood plus four by fours.

1:01:01

So there's easily 200 and 52160 lbs just in plywood and and you know wood for the crate.

So, So I just don't think I don't know.

It just makes me really question the experience of the builder.

But they'd have to be experienced before this project.

It's ridiculous.

1:01:16

It's ridiculous the scale and level of the project.

So I assume they're experienced.

But again, it's just a you Never.

Know, man.

Well, the Can you can you build the crates to fit the elevator?

No, I can't.

You know, it's like I was talking.

Actually, you could I.

1:01:33

Was talking to you could it's like you just.

Don't put the pieces in a.

Well, it was like the cartoons where they paint the tunnel on the side of the Cliff and then like Bugs Bunny would go in it and then the, you know, Coyote tried to do it but he'd hit the wall.

Slams right into it.

Yeah, it's.

Not the way it works.

I can't just make it smaller and then put the bigger thing in.

1:01:52

It just doesn't work that way, dude.

So another story.

I'm going to sound like a real Dick for this, but I'm just going to tell you because I have a hard time with these types of situations.

I lost a massive project in Phoenix years ago.

Massive project.

So this designer that I've done a lot of work with, landscape designer, landscape architect had specified me to make these custom benches and wall sections all precast for all the bus stops in Phoenix.

1:02:20

It was thousands of pieces.

It's a project that has taken me years and years to do and I would have retired from this one project, right?

Like the amount of money you'd make on a project like that is insane.

Those budgets, you know, City of Phoenix budgets, Maricopa County budgets, it's incredible.

1:02:37

You do the math.

It's it is truly life changing money.

But unfortunately I don't do things strictly for money.

Like if I did, I'd have gone into being a lawyer or a doctor or some other profession.

But that's not what I want to do.

So this, this landscape architect specified me.

1:02:55

I did the designs, I did drawings and then the city of Phoenix, the officials, and these are like elected officials, wanted to come down and meet me at the studio and talk about the project with the landscape architect.

So they came down to my studio in Tempe and it was landscape protect.

My wife Aaron.

And like four or five officials, I was in the back working when they showed up.

1:03:13

So Aaron, you know, comes back.

I don't.

I hate these meetings.

I hate meetings.

Like, I can't stand meetings, so I don't even want to do the meeting.

But Aaron's like, you got to do it, you know?

So she opens the door.

Like, Brandon, they're here.

I'm like, so I come up there, I'm like covered in concrete.

I'm like, hey, how's it going?

Blah, blah, blah.

We all sit down.

And so we're we're having a nice enough conversation.

1:03:31

We're talking about design.

And one of the things they wanted to work into the design is making the benches. 2 things, Skate proof.

And they wanted to reduce the likelihood of homeless people sleeping on the benches, right?

1:03:48

So they just want to make them uncomfortable enough that people would not want to, like, set up camp on the bench.

And so my solution was to do, like this kind of scalloped surface, this top surface where it just curved down and then up and down and up and down and up.

And that does a lot of things.

It it tells people this is where to sit.

1:04:05

So everybody knows this is a seat, this is a seat, this is a seat.

It keeps anybody from skating it without putting those stupid stainless steel fins every three feet, you know?

And also it prevents me from wanting to sleep on it because it wouldn't be that comfortable to try to sleep on.

It'd be like sleeping on a, you know, a wave.

So it solves a lot of issues and it did it very organically and it was all part of the design.

1:04:24

It was intentional and it just solved all the problems.

So anyways, so I'm in this meeting, I've done all the design drawings and this lady, this elected official for the city of Phoenix goes well, 'cause they're we're talking about the the scallop top surface.

1:04:40

I'm I'm explaining to them like how it's just a really good solution that solves all the problems without these extra pieces of hardware and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

And she's like, well, don't you think it'd actually make it more fun for the skaters?

Like it'd be like a roller coaster?

1:04:57

We're like woo.

Woo woo.

And that's what.

They'd end up doing.

My head about exploded like Aaron looks at me and she's like, like with her eyes saying don't do it, don't do it like she's because she sees it.

Like I I just, I have this gene within me where I cannot tolerate stupid questions like this.

1:05:16

Right.

And I said no, no, no, no.

I was like there's a thing called physics.

This isn't the cartoons.

This isn't.

You know, if you hit that with a skateboard, you're not going to ride it like a roller coaster.

You're going to go woo right off one time and end up over in the dirt.

You're not going to ride it up and down.

It's a thing called physics.

1:05:33

And the lady goes, OK, then, well, I don't have any more questions.

Anybody else have any questions?

And they're like, Nope, she's like, great.

Well, we'll let you know.

And she gets up in the errands like, you blew it.

I'm like, I don't care.

And I cannot tolerate these kind of questions.

And I did blow it.

We didn't get the project.

But yeah, dude, I just, I have a hard time.

1:05:52

So God bless this junior designer at this design firm thinking that I can shrink a crate down magically but put a massive piece in it to get it in an elevator.

But that's just not the way it works.

It's just not the way it works.

So the good thing is, it's all been via e-mail.

1:06:07

So I can, I can delay my response, which is good.

It's good to take some time, you know, put some time on it.

That's what I think I've told you in the past.

I mean, especially with something that really hits me hard.

I do a 24 hour.

Yeah, at least.

At least.

Yeah, just take a breather.

1:06:23

Don't jump in right back at it.

Because, you know, maybe you read it wrong or meaning, like whatever emotional state you're in at the moment and so you just like, just take, dude, you need to walk from this one for a minute.

Well, I got that e-mail yesterday from the builder.

Like, the weight's a surprise, right?

1:06:40

And I start, literally.

My first line was Lightweight Concrete's Oxymoron.

And then I just deleted that, close my computer, and I went home and he sent me another e-mail this morning.

Another.

But I'm like, I'm going to wait.

I'm going to.

I'm not.

I do not.

1:06:56

I'm not obligated to respond to this immediately and I'm not going to respond.

I'm going to give it some time.

I'm going to come up with a level headed response and and let that be that.

But anyways, on that note Jon all.

Right buddy.

All right.

1:07:11

Well, until next week.

Yeah, hope the rest of your day goes well.

It's going to go great.

I can feel it.

Seriously.

It's going to be great.

It's going to be a good day.

I love.

I actually love ceiling.

I like the process, so I'm going to put my headphones in.

I'm listening.

I I got to do the same thing, yeah.

1:07:28

So yeah, I I don't mind that at all.

Dude, I I haven't listened to an audio book.

It's called One Second After.

It's about an apocalyptic post into the world type thing.

You know, light, entertainment, light and fun.

Light and fun.

Dude, I'm, I'm way down that rabbit hall right now bro.

Way down there.

1:07:44

I'm not going to tell you how far down the rabbit hall I'm like wearing like a tinfoil hat right now, peeking out my my windows.

But yeah, yeah, yeah.

If if something comes to fruition, I'll tell, I'll tell the podcast that I'm working on.

1:08:03

But yeah, I mean, I I've gone down the rabbit hole for sure.

So but one second after and the one I just listened to was called Going Home, which is a good one.

I like that one, but that was like a 19 hour novel.

But yeah, so anyways, just, you know, some light fun entertainment while you're ceiling.

1:08:20

So.

You know, I'm having trouble light fun into the world kind of stuff.

Well, I think the guy's getting ready to kill his dogs because he ran into dog food.

Like, that's that's where I'm currently at in the story.

And I'm like, dude, don't kill the dogs.

You got.

Yeah, that.

Does sound.

Like you got 2 golden retrievers and his daughter has diabetes and she's like 12 years old and they don't have any, they don't have any insulin.

1:08:40

Like bro, this is getting dark pretty quick, but you know anyways.

All right, all right.

Until next.

Week.

Talk to you later.

Bye.

 

 

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