Revolutionize Your Home's Drainage: An Expert Discussion with Barbara from Infinity Drain

Eric: 00:01:53

It's around the house.

Eric: 00:01:55

In today's episode, we are talking with my friend Barbara from Infinity Drain.

Eric: 00:02:00

We are diving into drains inside the shower, out by the pool, or even in your driveway for sure.

Barbara: 00:02:06

Our product line really started out with what we would call like a sight, sizable linear drain.

Barbara: 00:02:11

Over the years, waterproofing techniques have been evolving and improving.

Barbara: 00:02:17

Now you're seeing much more prominently methods like the Schluter system, which is a non woven fabric.

Eric: 00:02:26

Now let's get this show going.

Eric: 00:02:27

Around the house show is brought to you by pyramid heating and cooling serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon.

Eric: 00:02:34

They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

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pyramidheating.com Oregon CCB: 59382

Eric: 00:02:44

When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered.

Eric: 00:02:51

This is around.

Eric: 00:02:54

Welcome to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

Eric: 00:02:58

Thanks for joining me today.

Eric: 00:02:59

Hey, we are sponsored by Monument Grills.

Eric: 00:03:02

If you want to find out more about the next barbecue, you should be looking for, and they're under $900.

Eric: 00:03:08

Take a look@monumentgrills.com.

Eric: 00:03:09

dot we've got a special guest who I always enjoy having on the show, Barbara from infinity drain.

Eric: 00:03:18

The best people out there for controlling that water where you don't know where it's going to go and you need to do something cool with it.

Eric: 00:03:24

Welcome back to around the house.

Barbara: 00:03:26

Oh, thanks for having me.

Barbara: 00:03:28

I'm glad to be a part of it.

Eric: 00:03:30

You guys are, you have been the expert in my world for going to on linear drains and just basically controlling water, whether it's in a shower, a dog shower, your pool, your driveway.

Eric: 00:03:43

You guys are the kings of that in my book.

Barbara: 00:03:46

We are what we consider architectural drainage.

Eric: 00:03:50

Yes.

Barbara: 00:03:51

Which is a fancy way of saying you need a drain.

Barbara: 00:03:53

We got one that looks cool, it's going to last and it's going to function great.

Eric: 00:03:58

Absolutely.

Eric: 00:03:59

And what I think is cool is this trend now that we were seeing these full access showers with flat floors that are sloping correctly or sloping different directions, and you guys really came out with something that was going to be beautiful and have just built upon that over the decades.

Barbara: 00:04:17

For sure.

Barbara: 00:04:17

Our product line really started out with what we would call like a sight, sizable linear drain.

Barbara: 00:04:23

Over the years, waterproofing techniques have been evolving and improving.

Barbara: 00:04:29

Now you're seeing much more prominently methods like the Schluter system, which is a non woven fabric, liquid applied waterproofing within the shower which is a paint on roll on style of waterproofing.

Barbara: 00:04:43

So we've even had to adapt our drainage systems to the waterproofing technology and improvements that have come over the past decade or so.

Eric: 00:04:52

Yeah.

Eric: 00:04:53

Just because of all these different foam board technologies and all the different stuff like that.

Eric: 00:04:58

It's not just that.

Eric: 00:04:59

That mudset pan that we used to see 15 years ago that was pretty prominent.

Barbara: 00:05:03

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:05:03

And one of the really cool things about these newer types of waterproofing is this idea of the complete shower system and the warranty that comes with that, with most waterproofing manufacturers.

Barbara: 00:05:17

So you get the waterproofing, you get that pre pitched foam floor.

Barbara: 00:05:20

They have benches and niches and wallboard, and all these things really come together.

Barbara: 00:05:25

And that has made us adapt and pivot, and we make drainage systems that work with those complete shower systems that are compliant with those warranties.

Eric: 00:05:35

See, and that's what's, that's the key right there, because you're spending all of this time and money to put this shower system in.

Eric: 00:05:42

You want to have something that's going to work well with it, because the last thing you need is to put in something that you maybe grabbed off Amazon thinking it's going to work, and then all of a sudden, you get to tear the thing out, even though you spent all the money to do it right.

Eric: 00:05:54

You missed that one thing.

Eric: 00:05:56

That is kind of the Achilles heel of the system.

Eric: 00:05:59

And that's where that system matches up with the drain.

Barbara: 00:06:02

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:06:03

Yeah, that can definitely be a point of failure there.

Eric: 00:06:06

And the cool thing is, too, is that the functionality of that, there's one thing to go, oh, my gosh, this is beautiful.

Eric: 00:06:13

The drain matches the finish on the rest of my, my fixtures in the space, and it's awesome.

Eric: 00:06:18

But I love the linear drain system because if you've got dogs or if you've got long hair or whatever, but you've got a little tiny four x four drain in the middle of the floor, and it loves to get clogged up, but if you've got a long drain on there, you still have to maintain it, but you're not going to have that backing of drain so quickly.

Barbara: 00:06:38

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:06:39

You do have that reservoir, the channel, which can hold water.

Barbara: 00:06:43

We, a few years ago, we launched this product called the hair maintenance kit.

Barbara: 00:06:47

We decided shower drains.

Barbara: 00:06:50

Everyone wants to talk about the hair, but no one wants to talk about the hair at the same time.

Barbara: 00:06:55

Everyone has a horror story of cleaning out a drain at some point in their lives, but then everyone's, ew, hair.

Barbara: 00:07:02

Guess what?

Barbara: 00:07:02

It's on your head.

Barbara: 00:07:03

It's there.

Barbara: 00:07:03

So let's own it.

Barbara: 00:07:05

Let's make the best hair basket catcher that we can.

Barbara: 00:07:09

And we did and patented it.

Barbara: 00:07:11

And so really we, we want to talk about those things that are going to help with the functionality of the drain and then also make it really easy to maintain.

Eric: 00:07:20

Right.

Eric: 00:07:21

Because nobody likes dropping down to a knee in the shower, pulling the cap off the little thing, and then sending some plastic piece down there to try to snag out the, the large dogs full of hair that's down there.

Eric: 00:07:33

And it feels like you're pulling out a small animal out of that because the drains not working correctly, if you can catch up beforehand, that's like the easy button for maintenance.

Barbara: 00:07:42

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:07:43

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:07:43

I have one of these haircut.

Barbara: 00:07:45

The hair basket that we have is about three inches deep.

Barbara: 00:07:47

It's got graduated holes, so the flow rate just keeps going even if it's filling up.

Barbara: 00:07:53

And it is very rare that I have to clean it out.

Barbara: 00:07:56

I love it.

Eric: 00:07:58

See, and then it just eliminates those plumbing problems, like down in the trap and stuff where the stuff that I never have it in my problem with my event, my, my drain cover, but it's all getting down in the system.

Eric: 00:08:10

It's not catching it.

Eric: 00:08:11

And then now you're in there with the plumber trying to get that unplugged because you wouldn't get it yourself, especially.

Barbara: 00:08:17

If you live in an older home with cast iron pipes.

Barbara: 00:08:20

Love those rough edges, like that rough surface on the side.

Barbara: 00:08:23

Loves to catch hair and anything else that goes down that draindeh.

Eric: 00:08:28

Yeah, we just, it's funny, I love cast iron as a, as a product.

Eric: 00:08:31

But, for instance, my brother and I were just working on a house that we picked up out at the coast here on the Oregon coast.

Eric: 00:08:37

Problem was, it had been abandoned for 20 years.

Eric: 00:08:39

And the problem was, is those old cast iron pipes had just a little bit of water sitting them over 20 years.

Eric: 00:08:45

And so all the bottom, when we run a camber down, it was like, all tore up and it was like, ah, okay, we're just going to have to cut it all out.

Eric: 00:08:53

And we did.

Eric: 00:08:54

But it was so amazing to see when I started cutting on that cast iron pipe at the top, how thick it was.

Eric: 00:08:59

Then I got down about three quarters of the way, and I'm like, this is cutting like butter.

Eric: 00:09:02

There's nothing left of it because water was just rusting away in it.

Eric: 00:09:06

So it's almost like the more the house was abandoned, the worse they get.

Eric: 00:09:10

Versus, and then again, how many drain cleaners people pour down there, but why not fix it at the drain versus have to fix it later?

Barbara: 00:09:18

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:09:19

Catch it early, be more preventative, be proactive.

Eric: 00:09:22

Yeah, absolutely.

Eric: 00:09:24

And you guys have some new styles come out.

Eric: 00:09:26

I cant really talk about this, but I was looking at some new products and well just say it that way.

Eric: 00:09:32

And boy, you guys have that new drain out that is so gorgeous with that pattern on the outside.

Eric: 00:09:39

Lets talk about that a little bit.

Eric: 00:09:41

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:09:41

So one of our big product launches for this year is a collaboration that we had with Gensler, which is a worldwide renowned architecture firm.

Barbara: 00:09:52

They have multiple offices all over the world, work on incredibly well known high end projects.

Barbara: 00:09:59

So they have a product design group who we collaborated with on a new design called adhesion.

Barbara: 00:10:06

And the inspiration for this decorative top grate style or pattern was how water adheres to different surfaces.

Barbara: 00:10:16

So through surface tension, water droplets will adhere to a surface, glass, metal, whatever that is, in different ways.

Barbara: 00:10:23

So they looked at that and then created a pattern out of it that we can laser cut into our stainless steel.

Barbara: 00:10:31

It's cool because you can't really see where the repeat is.

Eric: 00:10:35

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:10:36

And then it also has this kind of techie yet organic feel to it, which I think is really cool.

Barbara: 00:10:41

So I've really enjoyed it.

Barbara: 00:10:43

I think it's a cool pattern and just something that's different from other drain manufacturers.

Eric: 00:10:48

Super fun and different.

Eric: 00:10:49

And I love that because that just adds that little bit of just that kind of finishing touch on a beautiful shower system where you're using it.

Eric: 00:10:57

And I think it's just a great way to go.

Eric: 00:10:58

And I saw that, I was like, oh, somebody finally changed up the patterns a little bit more.

Eric: 00:11:02

It's.

Eric: 00:11:02

It was definitely.

Eric: 00:11:03

It's definitely something different, but cool.

Eric: 00:11:05

Different and natural looking.

Barbara: 00:11:07

Yeah, absolutely.

Barbara: 00:11:08

Our most popular products.

Barbara: 00:11:10

People love the tile insert frame.

Barbara: 00:11:12

We also have a wedge wire, which is like the long metal wire strips, which is really popular.

Barbara: 00:11:19

But it's really fun to introduce these new perforated patterns.

Barbara: 00:11:22

So just to have different styles out.

Eric: 00:11:24

There around the house.

Eric: 00:11:25

We'll be right back after these important messages with more from infinity drain.

Eric: 00:11:29

Don't change that tile.

Eric: 00:13:59

What's up?

Eric: 00:14:00

This is stixitinia and Satchel from Steel Panthere, and you are listening to around the house with Eric G.

Eric: 00:14:08

Yeah, we love Eric G.

Eric: 00:14:11

And you should, too.

Eric: 00:14:19

Welcome back to the around the ash show, the next generation of home improvement.

Eric: 00:14:23

Thanks for joining us today.

Eric: 00:14:24

This episode is brought to you by my friends over at Monument Grill.

Eric: 00:14:27

If you want to get some serious value of a barbecue that's gonna last a lot longer than the ones you usually get at the home improvement store.

Eric: 00:14:35

Check out monument grill@monumentgrills.com.

Eric: 00:14:37

dot now let's get back with my friend Barbara from infinity drain and continue talking.

Eric: 00:14:42

Drains.

Barbara: 00:14:43

Yeah, absolutely.

Barbara: 00:14:44

Our most popular products, people love the tile insert frame.

Barbara: 00:14:48

We also have a wedge wire, which is like the long metal wire strips, which is really popular.

Barbara: 00:14:55

But it's really fun to introduce these new perforated patterns.

Barbara: 00:14:59

So just to have different styles out.

Eric: 00:15:01

There for wedge wires, a cool look, you know what I mean?

Eric: 00:15:05

That's what, yeah.

Barbara: 00:15:06

You know, we use the wedge wire.

Barbara: 00:15:07

: 1612

Barbara: 00:15:14

So both for indoor and outdoor applications, we love to use that wedge wire.

Eric: 00:15:19

Yeah, it's super tough.

Eric: 00:15:21

Before we talk about outside stuff, I want to talk about how people process, go through the process of building a shower and working with you guys so they understand that process, because so many people go, hey, I want to do this shower.

Eric: 00:15:32

They're calling up their tile person or their contractor, and the tile person's going to do their thing.

Eric: 00:15:37

But I want to make sure that our builders and homeowners out there know to use the right products in this and how they work with you guys to make sure they're putting the right drain system in for their indoor project.

Barbara: 00:15:50

Yeah, absolutely.

Barbara: 00:15:51

I went through a bathroom renovation about a year ago, and I found it incredibly interesting, obviously, being in the business.

Barbara: 00:15:59

And I also gained a huge amount of empathy for our homeowners and designers and everyone that we worked with, having gone through it myself.

Barbara: 00:16:08

One thing that I found was really interesting in this process was at no one time was our tile setter and our plumber on the job site at the same time to talk to each other.

Barbara: 00:16:19

We just always assume, oh, yeah, have the plumber talk to the tile setter.

Barbara: 00:16:23

Guess what?

Barbara: 00:16:24

They're not there on the same day.

Eric: 00:16:26

Never, never talk to each other.

Barbara: 00:16:29

Yes.

Barbara: 00:16:30

So the first things you want to think about are, what are your design goals with your bathroom and your shower?

Barbara: 00:16:35

If you're doing a.

Barbara: 00:16:37

You want to do a zero entry, curbless shower, this is something.

Barbara: 00:16:41

We got to talk to your contractor, whoever you're working with.

Barbara: 00:16:45

We got it.

Barbara: 00:16:46

We got to get that on the table really early on.

Eric: 00:16:48

That's the first box to check in my mind, because that can change everything from framing to plumbing to everything else.

Barbara: 00:16:54

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:16:55

And if you're doing a remodel.

Barbara: 00:16:57

Oh, okay.

Barbara: 00:16:58

Get ready it can be really challenging.

Barbara: 00:17:00

If you're doing new construction, then you can plan for it.

Barbara: 00:17:03

There's a lot of things that you can do ahead of time in order to make that achievable, but that's number one.

Barbara: 00:17:11

Do you want a curbless shower or a shower with a curb?

Barbara: 00:17:14

Make that decision.

Barbara: 00:17:16

Talk to your tradespeople or your contractor immediately.

Barbara: 00:17:19

This is a shower goal.

Barbara: 00:17:20

This is our goal.

Barbara: 00:17:21

This is what we want.

Barbara: 00:17:21

Can we do it?

Barbara: 00:17:22

Is it possible?

Barbara: 00:17:24

Number two.

Barbara: 00:17:25

Okay, so you've decided you want to do either a curbless shower or shower with a curb.

Barbara: 00:17:30

Let's figure out the layout of the shower.

Barbara: 00:17:32

What's the size going to be?

Barbara: 00:17:33

Do you want a bench?

Barbara: 00:17:34

Where do you want the fixtures?

Barbara: 00:17:36

This is all important things to figure out.

Barbara: 00:17:38

What's the layout of the shower going to be and how is it going to relate to the rest of the fixtures like the toilet and the sink in the space.

Barbara: 00:17:45

So I would say that's number two.

Barbara: 00:17:47

And then you got to start thinking about your material selection.

Barbara: 00:17:51

So your contractor or installers, they may have a waterproofing product that they prefer to use.

Barbara: 00:17:58

You don't want to be the guinea pig.

Barbara: 00:18:00

Go with whatever they love using.

Barbara: 00:18:02

That's, it's on them as long as.

Eric: 00:18:04

It'S a current system.

Eric: 00:18:06

Right.

Eric: 00:18:06

That's how I look at it.

Eric: 00:18:07

If you've got, that's maybe way off in left field.

Eric: 00:18:10

And, and one of my favorite lines that I get from contractors is I've been doing this for 30 years and, and I'm like, awesome.

Eric: 00:18:20

And I heard we had, I had an interview with my buddy Andrew Pace, who's the green building expert the other day, and he goes, hey, I've been trying to play golf for 30 years.

Eric: 00:18:27

I'm not any better at it.

Eric: 00:18:28

But let's talk about the real things about getting this done.

Eric: 00:18:31

And I really push people into using the newer systems to get a more reliable shower system in there versus doing the tile board and the muds head pan or in California hot mopping that thing out.

Eric: 00:18:46

Let's, let's get out of the: 1970

Barbara: 00:18:54

Absolutely.

Barbara: 00:18:55

Especially if you're looking to do a more luxury shower with a steam unit and some of these other features where the newer methods of waterproofing are also approved as a vapor barrier.

Barbara: 00:19:05

So you can have it with those types of systems.

Barbara: 00:19:07

But yeah, have those conversations with your tradespeople or contractor.

Barbara: 00:19:12

So what type of waterproofing do you all like?

Barbara: 00:19:14

To use on your projects that will give you an immediate insight into, is this someone who found a way to do, was trained on something 30 years ago and they're still doing it, or someone that's keeping up with the latest and greatest drywall up and glue the tiles on it.

Eric: 00:19:29

They'll be fine.

Eric: 00:19:30

It's lasted me forever.

Eric: 00:19:31

It'll be great.

Eric: 00:19:33

It won't be great when I go, I hired the wrong contract.

Eric: 00:19:36

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:19:36

Very telling.

Barbara: 00:19:37

And especially when we're talking about linear drains versus center drains, someone who, you know, if they are completely against using a linear drain, maybe they just don't know enough about the product.

Barbara: 00:19:47

They haven't taken time to learn about it, or they're just not working on projects that are at the level where, okay, we are going to spend a significant amount of money for this piece that's really going to help the other elements of the bathroom bring up the whole level of the space 100%.

Eric: 00:20:07

Because there are some tile setters out there that make great money doing commercial and spec homes, where they come in, slap it down, get out the door, and that attention to detail of tile layout of a shower design is not their cup of tea, nor will it be.

Eric: 00:20:24

And maybe you hired the builder guy because things are a little slow in the area at the moment.

Eric: 00:20:30

You want to have that luxury tile setter that really understands that.

Eric: 00:20:34

Well, on my trims, I can either put a metal trim here or I can miter the corner.

Eric: 00:20:38

And I don't want to be doing this, but I want to be doing that.

Eric: 00:20:41

And here's how I like to set up my drains when I do this.

Eric: 00:20:45

Now you've got the right person, right?

Barbara: 00:20:47

Absolutely.

Barbara: 00:20:48

I know from personal experience, our tile setter that.

Barbara: 00:20:52

That our contractor used, I felt like we had the Leonardo da Vinci of tile setters.

Barbara: 00:20:57

Everything just, like, down to the millimeter.

Barbara: 00:20:59

This guy did double waterproofing with infinity drain.

Barbara: 00:21:02

We make specialized drains for that specifically.

Barbara: 00:21:05

But this was.

Barbara: 00:21:07

I was really impressed.

Barbara: 00:21:08

And having seen a lot of showers, a lot of great showers, a lot of shower failures on the.

Barbara: 00:21:14

On the other side of that coin, it really.

Barbara: 00:21:16

You want to make sure you've got the right person doing the right job, Trey.

Eric: 00:21:20

Yeah.

Eric: 00:21:21

And that's where that, that really good detail to craftsmanship comes in on that project.

Eric: 00:21:27

Like, I wanted to do a linear drain of mine.

Eric: 00:21:28

My house was actually one of the only ones in my 30 years of design that I've looked at and went, it's on the second floor.

Eric: 00:21:35

When I did my steam shower, I looked down, I went, I'm barely gonna get a drain in this, let alone anything else.

Eric: 00:21:42

, I had the vent hood for the: 1200

Eric: 00:21:55

And it was just like, there's no room at the end here.

Eric: 00:21:58

I can't jam anything else in here.

Eric: 00:22:00

It's going to be tough getting the shower drain in.

Barbara: 00:22:03

Oh, for sure.

Barbara: 00:22:04

I totally feel you on this.

Barbara: 00:22:06

We live in a craftsman home in a historic district in Dallas that's over 100 years old.

Barbara: 00:22:12

When we did our remodel, I had great ideas about where I wanted the shower niche and all this thing.

Barbara: 00:22:18

And then we did the demo and it's like there's actually no studs in the wall.

Barbara: 00:22:24

It's like, it's like the hull of a pirate ship in here.

Barbara: 00:22:27

It's just around the house.

Eric: 00:22:29

Be right back with Barbara crowdis from infinity drain.

Eric: 00:22:32

We're talking drains just as soon as around the house returns.

Eric: 00:24:31

Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keele, the Ron Keel band and Steeler.

Eric: 00:24:37

We are rocking around the house with Eric G.

Eric: 00:24:41

Raise your fierce welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

Eric: 00:24:48

We've been talking with my friend Barbara from Infinity Drain.

Eric: 00:24:51

She is their leading expert on everything about controlling water.

Eric: 00:24:56

Architectural drains that really make things look beautiful and function really well.

Eric: 00:25:02

Now let's get back to the conversation.

Eric: 00:25:03

There's no room at the end here.

Eric: 00:25:05

I can't jam anything else in here.

Eric: 00:25:07

Here.

Eric: 00:25:07

It's going to be tough getting the shower drain in.

Barbara: 00:25:10

Oh, for sure.

Barbara: 00:25:11

I totally feel you on this.

Barbara: 00:25:13

We live in a craftsman home in a historic district in Dallas that's over 100 years old.

Barbara: 00:25:19

When we did our remodel, I had great ideas about where I wanted the shower niche and all this thing.

Barbara: 00:25:25

And then we did the demo and it's like there's actually no studs in the wall.

Barbara: 00:25:30

It's like, it's like the hull of a pirate ship in here.

Barbara: 00:25:34

It's just, we've just got.

Barbara: 00:25:37

Then you have to, you have to pivot.

Barbara: 00:25:38

You have to, on the fly, decide.

Barbara: 00:25:40

Okay, now here's what we, how, here's how we're really going to do it.

Barbara: 00:25:43

Now that we know what's going on behind the wall, and that happens so frequently.

Barbara: 00:25:48

Until you do the demo, then you really know what you're working with.

Barbara: 00:25:52

Can you do this type of drain?

Barbara: 00:25:54

Can you put these elements of your shower or your bathroom where you thought you were going to put them before you saw what was under the floor in the wall.

Eric: 00:26:03

And the cool thing is you guys do offer customization, so you guys are really good at that.

Eric: 00:26:08

So when you go, oh, my gosh, I can only do X, Y and Z.

Eric: 00:26:13

Get on the phone with you guys and you go, all right, what size do you want?

Eric: 00:26:16

X, Y and Z.

Eric: 00:26:17

And you can figure it out.

Barbara: 00:26:18

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:26:19

here if we get an order in by: 10:00

Barbara: 00:26:25

we can turn that around to ship out following day.

Barbara: 00:26:28

And it was for that very reason we've opened up the floor.

Barbara: 00:26:33

We need to move on with this project.

Barbara: 00:26:35

Okay.

Barbara: 00:26:35

Now we know the exact dimensions that we need and exactly where the waistline is going to be able to be located.

Barbara: 00:26:42

And now we can turn around your drain super fast.

Barbara: 00:26:44

So we do all of our manufacturing in Amityville, New York, and that allows us to be super flexible and manufacture very quickly and get it to our homeowners and end users.

Barbara: 00:26:56

Fasten.

Eric: 00:26:57

Nice.

Eric: 00:26:58

That is cool.

Eric: 00:26:58

And that's that level of service you need for that, because there's nothing worse than opening up the wall and you're in the middle of the remodel and the contractor's going, oh, no, the drain that I have isn't going to work.

Eric: 00:27:10

Now, how do we fix this?

Barbara: 00:27:16

Yeah, but we need it.

Barbara: 00:27:17

It was feedback from the field, from our customers, from our installers that we work with.

Barbara: 00:27:22

We need to be faster on the turnaround with custom drains.

Barbara: 00:27:26

And so we were like, how's 24 hours?

Eric: 00:27:30

Pretty good.

Eric: 00:27:31

Yeah, we'll take it.

Eric: 00:27:34

We'll take it.

Eric: 00:27:34

I'll get everybody working on other parts of the room for a few days and we'll get it taken care of and dialed in.

Eric: 00:27:40

That is awesome.

Eric: 00:27:41

I want to talk about an important part of your business, and a project that I just did as well is, you know, controlling water, whether it's out by the pool, the hot tub, or, or rainwater coming down a driveway that's steep.

Eric: 00:27:53

You guys have that covered really well.

Eric: 00:27:55

e, when they designed this in: 1977

Eric: 00:28:12

And we'd have heavy rains.

Eric: 00:28:13

All of a sudden I've got water creeping in underneath the, underneath the garage door because no one planned the drainage correctly.

Barbara: 00:28:22

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:28:23

And we see that a lot.

Barbara: 00:28:24

So we do a lot of outdoor applications both for new constructions and new construction, and also for retrofitting either existing drainage where the top grade has disintegrated or doesn't look great anymore, or people who need to add drainage because they have found out over the years that we do have water pooling here when we have a heavy rain or even a light rain.

Barbara: 00:28:46

So our technical team gets very deep into those types of solutions for our clients.

Eric: 00:28:52

Yeah, and mine was tough only because I have all these protected trees around my house.

Eric: 00:28:57

So I've got, like, 13 of them.

Eric: 00:28:59

So I had literally had to have.

Eric: 00:29:01

Just to cut the drain in the driveway, seven asphalt driveway.

Eric: 00:29:04

So it's like this.

Eric: 00:29:04

It's all humped and cause the roots pushing up.

Eric: 00:29:07

These are big 200 plus 300 year old trees up here that are 150 plus feet tall.

Eric: 00:29:13

However, comma, I couldn't cut the roots too much because I could damage the tree.

Eric: 00:29:19

So I literally had to have an arborist come out and go, okay, you can do this, this, this, and this just to keep that drainage problem, which good part of keeping trees.

Eric: 00:29:29

I want to keep those trees.

Eric: 00:29:30

I don't want them falling over by any means.

Eric: 00:29:32

But, boy, talk about getting into a drainage project that seems to be a little bit more than what it should be.

Eric: 00:29:38

But it happens that way, so that's the challenge of that.

Eric: 00:29:41

But it works so well.

Eric: 00:29:42

We get downpours now, and.

Eric: 00:29:44

And I used to have a little nine by nine grate is what they designed it for, and four leaves would get over the top of that thing, came out of a tree, and it's plugged up, and now I got 100 gallons of water sitting over there.

Eric: 00:29:56

And now that's that.

Eric: 00:29:58

That whole problem with that is over, which is awesome.

Eric: 00:30:00

It gave it a really good place, and it looks killer, too.

Barbara: 00:30:04

That's awesome.

Barbara: 00:30:05

Yeah, that's when I think that is a huge benefit to using linear drains for outdoor applications.

Barbara: 00:30:11

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:30:11

Just what you said about the leaves.

Barbara: 00:30:14

So on a point drain system outside, those can get covered with debris, leaves, whatever that might be.

Barbara: 00:30:20

It could be a plastic bag, you know, it could be anything.

Barbara: 00:30:23

And now your drain isn't draining anymore, and no one wants to go outside with a broom or a rake and, you know, get all that off in the middle of a downpour, big storm.

Barbara: 00:30:32

So having that linear drain allows you to have so much more surface area with your, what we call grate free area that's going to allow the drain to continue to perform even if a portion of it is covered.

Eric: 00:30:45

And what was cool was, too, is that unfortunately, because of the, the roots that were pushing up on the driveway, which is going to cause another issue down the road when I go to pave it.

Eric: 00:30:54

That's a whole other issue.

Eric: 00:30:55

But the problem that I have is, is that I also had these kind of ripples where the water was draining.

Eric: 00:31:00

And so id have these basically little ponds that were in that space that would collect dirt.

Eric: 00:31:06

And so if you walked across that to go in the front door, you always got dirt on your shoes, which tracked it inside the house.

Eric: 00:31:12

And so it was this whole thing.

Eric: 00:31:14

Now it created this nice straight trough that, of course, all that dirt is no longer there.

Eric: 00:31:19

So it was just a great solution for a very kind of challenging application with it.

Eric: 00:31:24

It wasnt just this perfectly flat driveway that I could cut into that would have been so easy.

Barbara: 00:31:29

It never is.

Eric: 00:31:31

It never is.

Eric: 00:31:34

And what I like is that that's something that can be driven across.

Eric: 00:31:39

It's something that can take the abuse of an exterior application.

Barbara: 00:31:45

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:31:46

And when we do those types of specifications, we always ask, okay, what type of vehicle or what type of mission?

Barbara: 00:31:53

What is getting driven over this?

Barbara: 00:31:55

Great.

Barbara: 00:31:55

Okay, is it just a car that me and you would have?

Barbara: 00:32:00

Is it?

Barbara: 00:32:01

Another thing that we have learned along the way is to ask during, especially for new construction, during the construction phase, what type of machinery is going to be driven over this?

Barbara: 00:32:13

Great, because we've come up to that before where they said, oh, nothing's going over this.

Barbara: 00:32:19

It's real easy breezy.

Barbara: 00:32:21

And then lo and behold, why is the great all crumpled up?

Barbara: 00:32:25

Oh, because they had this piece of heavy machinery rolling over it while they were building the pool or whatever that was.

Barbara: 00:32:32

So it's all about the questions you ask and the questions you learn to ask.

Eric: 00:32:38

Right.

Eric: 00:32:38

It's.

Eric: 00:32:39

Yeah, it's.

Eric: 00:32:39

It's.

Eric: 00:32:40

Nothing's destructible when it's made of metal.

Eric: 00:32:42

Indestructible that way.

Eric: 00:32:43

So you got to use a little common sense on that.

Eric: 00:32:46

Maybe some protection, just like you do everything else on a project that, that still needs to be protected.

Eric: 00:32:51

But I hadn't thought of that.

Eric: 00:32:53

Yeah, you're good.

Eric: 00:32:54

Until the excavation company comes out and starts driving over the top of it with the trackhole or something.

Eric: 00:32:58

And now you got a bigger issue.

Barbara: 00:33:00

Exactly.

Eric: 00:33:01

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:33:01

And over the years, these are the questions we learned to ask, being the experts and having a lot of projects under our belt.

Barbara: 00:33:08

So it's all about asking the right questions.

Eric: 00:33:11

And then literally, you could make that as big and long as you need to with that.

Eric: 00:33:15

It's literally an infinity product because it can go as long as it needs to.

Barbara: 00:33:20

Absolutely.

Barbara: 00:33:21

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:33:21

Either through stock components, custom fabrication kind of joke.

Barbara: 00:33:25

If you can sketch it out on a cocktail, cocktail napkin or a piece of scratch paper, we can figure out how to make it.

Eric: 00:33:31

Yeah.

Eric: 00:33:32

And it's awesome.

Eric: 00:33:32

And you can decide where you need to put the outlet.

Eric: 00:33:35

Is the drain going down?

Eric: 00:33:36

Is going out the end?

Eric: 00:33:37

Where are these things going to be hooking into it so you can get the proper water flow as it exits the drain?

Barbara: 00:33:43

Absolutely.

Barbara: 00:33:44

This year we launched a new component piece for our PVC drainage systems with a PVC channel.

Barbara: 00:33:51

And it is.

Barbara: 00:33:52

It can be rotated and used either as an end outlet or a side outlet.

Eric: 00:33:57

To find out more about infinity drain, go to infinitydrain.com.

Eric: 00:34:01

we'll be right back after these important messages.

Eric: 00:34:03

Don't change that tile.

Eric: 00:34:22

All right, it's the end of the show now.

Eric: 00:34:34

Drinking down the people.

Eric: 00:34:35

It's time to go.

Eric: 00:34:36

It's that time again.

Eric: 00:34:38

It's last call.

Eric: 00:34:41

Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

Eric: 00:34:45

We've been talking with my friend Barbara from Infinity Drain.

Eric: 00:34:48

She is their leading expert on everything about controlling water.

Eric: 00:34:53

Architectural drains that really make things look beautiful and function really well.

Eric: 00:34:59

Now let's get back to the conversation.

Barbara: 00:35:01

And it is.

Barbara: 00:35:02

It can be rotated and used either as an end outlet or a side outlet out of the bottom of that channel for outdoor applications.

Eric: 00:35:11

Okay.

Eric: 00:35:12

That's super cool.

Eric: 00:35:13

That, that leaves a lot of options in the field.

Barbara: 00:35:17

Absolutely.

Barbara: 00:35:17

And that was the feedback that we got.

Barbara: 00:35:19

We're like, we can't line up these outlets perfectly along this 30, 60 foot run, whatever that is.

Barbara: 00:35:26

We need more flexibility there.

Barbara: 00:35:28

And so this is a component part that we launched in response to that.

Eric: 00:35:32

Yeah.

Eric: 00:35:32

That is awesome.

Eric: 00:35:33

That is awesome.

Eric: 00:35:34

And then colors.

Eric: 00:35:36

You guys do a ton of finishes.

Eric: 00:35:38

We talked about the style and the.

Eric: 00:35:40

In the, in the function of it all, but you guys have a ton of colors, which is nice because that lets you match everything else in the room or the exterior of the house.

Barbara: 00:35:50

Absolutely.

Barbara: 00:35:51

We've got stocked finishes.

Barbara: 00:35:53

Two years ago, we launched a specialty finishes program which added an additional five finishes.

Barbara: 00:35:59

We can also do custom finishes.

Barbara: 00:36:01

So let's say you order a faucet or a shower system from completely different manufacturer and antique rose gold brushed, whatever.

Barbara: 00:36:12

If we have a finished, we've got a chip from that company.

Barbara: 00:36:15

We can match that finish.

Barbara: 00:36:17

So, and I always tell people things to consider when you're choosing your finish for your drain.

Barbara: 00:36:23

And this can be interior or exterior.

Barbara: 00:36:25

A lot of people choose to match their fixtures for interior, for showers.

Barbara: 00:36:30

And that's a great way to do it.

Barbara: 00:36:32

But you could also think about matching your flooring material.

Barbara: 00:36:37

So if you did, like, a white marble, why not do a matte white drain?

Barbara: 00:36:41

That way it's just going to blend into the floor.

Barbara: 00:36:44

Matte black.

Barbara: 00:36:44

There's a ton of different ways to make the drain disappear even more versus always matching your shower fixtures.

Barbara: 00:36:51

And even on exterior applications using those oil rubbed bronze gunmetal matte black, those can give a really beautiful luxury look to your drain.

Eric: 00:37:03

Absolutely.

Eric: 00:37:04

And the one thing that I think people forget about in shower design is that the least matchable hardware is always the door hardware on the shower door.

Eric: 00:37:13

Right.

Eric: 00:37:14

And so, yes, that is the one that the technology has not caught up with yet.

Eric: 00:37:20

And so people go, oh, maybe they picked a brizo color that's different than everybody else.

Eric: 00:37:26

Those cats are known for that, right?

Eric: 00:37:28

That, oh, it's like this, but different.

Eric: 00:37:30

And so nothing ever matches.

Eric: 00:37:31

So maybe try to think about how you're going to select that.

Eric: 00:37:36

The drain's easy.

Eric: 00:37:37

Now, how are you going to make that work with the shower door?

Eric: 00:37:39

So maybe make the shower stuff match and everything else go over here if you're all matchy matchy like that.

Eric: 00:37:45

But that's always that catch 22 of, oh, we can do that.

Eric: 00:37:48

But, yeah, the shower door hardware comes in four finishes.

Eric: 00:37:51

Which one would you like?

Barbara: 00:37:54

That's where you get into the mixed finishes category, where you're like, no, we totally planned it like this.

Eric: 00:38:00

Yes, yes.

Eric: 00:38:02

I think that's half the reason why I went matte black in my bathroom a few years ago, because I just went, at least it's not going to match.

Eric: 00:38:08

Like these seven different oil rub bronzes you can get.

Barbara: 00:38:12

Exactly.

Barbara: 00:38:12

Yes, I did polished nickel.

Barbara: 00:38:14

And I was like, I can find that.

Eric: 00:38:16

And they're gonna match.

Eric: 00:38:18

They're gonna look good between the brands.

Eric: 00:38:19

And that's the thing, is you can make it work, but that's part of the stuff that's interesting.

Eric: 00:38:24

So how do people get ahold of you guys, Barbara, and start that process when they're working on starting the design of that shower?

Barbara: 00:38:33

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:38:33

So we are located in Amityville, New York, which is about an hour east of New York city on Long island.

Barbara: 00:38:39

Call our customer service office.

Barbara: 00:38:41

Real person answers the phone.

Barbara: 00:38:43

How about that?

Barbara: 00:38:45

Email as well, social media website, all the stuff.

Barbara: 00:38:49

We also are sold through decorative plumbing and hardware showrooms locally.

Barbara: 00:38:55

So you can check our dealer locator to see who those dealers are.

Barbara: 00:38:59

Your local plumbing showroom, hardware, all of that.

Barbara: 00:39:04

Those folks, those sales associates are a wealth of knowledge.

Barbara: 00:39:08

They design and specify products for bathrooms every day.

Barbara: 00:39:13

Lean on them, especially if you're not working with a designer or an architect.

Barbara: 00:39:17

Lean on those folks.

Barbara: 00:39:18

They can really help you find the right products to make your bathroom dreams come true.

Barbara: 00:39:25

Highly recommend going through a brick and mortar showroom.

Eric: 00:39:29

There we go.

Eric: 00:39:30

And for all you guys out there listening on Li news radio in Long island, these guys are local.

Eric: 00:39:35

Why not use them?

Eric: 00:39:39

Little shout out to one of our newer stations out there so they're not that far away from you.

Barbara: 00:39:44

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:39:45

On Long Island.

Eric: 00:39:46

Long island, yes.

Barbara: 00:39:47

Yeah.

Eric: 00:39:48

So what have we missed today, my friend?

Eric: 00:39:51

Have we not touched on anything you guys are doing?

Eric: 00:39:53

You guys have so many little facets in the world of architectural drains.

Barbara: 00:39:57

We do.

Barbara: 00:39:58

Last but not least for anyone out there who's listening, who works on commercial projects, this year we launched elevator drains.

Barbara: 00:40:07

This is turning into a code requirement in some municipalities to have a drain before you get into an elevator bay for fire safety.

Barbara: 00:40:18

This is becoming a code New York City.

Barbara: 00:40:21

We're finding this on the west coast in places as well.

Barbara: 00:40:24

It's going to be spreading.

Barbara: 00:40:25

So this is a big project that our engineering team has worked on for the past few years, and we've designed a, a drain to drain 100 gallons of water per minute.

Barbara: 00:40:37

And that is the minimum for code for these elevator drains.

Barbara: 00:40:42

So.

Eric: 00:40:42

Holy smokes.

Barbara: 00:40:43

Get ready.

Eric: 00:40:44

Yeah, no joke.

Eric: 00:40:47

That is a lot of water.

Barbara: 00:40:49

Yeah.

Barbara: 00:40:49

So it's a really cool product.

Barbara: 00:40:51

It's beautiful.

Barbara: 00:40:53

But also it's got to have that function, and especially in these cases where really people's lives depend.

Barbara: 00:40:58

Depend on it, man.

Eric: 00:41:00

No kidding.

Eric: 00:41:00

I hadn't thought about that.

Eric: 00:41:01

But you're right.

Eric: 00:41:01

If you've got a fire and fire sprinklers are going off, last thing you need is water rushing down the common hole in the middle of the building.

Eric: 00:41:09

That is getting people out of it.

Barbara: 00:41:12

Exactly.

Eric: 00:41:13

Makes sense.

Eric: 00:41:14

Barbara, thanks for coming on today.

Eric: 00:41:16

I just always have a great time chatting with you about this stuff because you guys just keep pushing the envelope on the cool stuff when it comes to moving that drain water.

Barbara: 00:41:25

Thanks for having me.

Barbara: 00:41:26

It's always a great time.

Eric: 00:41:27

Thanks again.

Eric: 00:41:29

You know, Barbara is such a great resource.

Eric: 00:41:31

I love chatting with her.

Eric: 00:41:33

I just did one of their drains across the front of my driveway because as we were talking about earlier, I just had this water that was coming all the way down my driveway, and it would hit kind of this low point right in front of my garage door.

Eric: 00:41:47

And because of those roots, I'd get this whole muddy situation right there.

Eric: 00:41:51

And the little nine by nine drain just couldn't handle all of that coming in there because if I had four of those maple leaves, it's plugged up, and now I got water coming in the garage.

Eric: 00:42:00

And the last thing I need is wet tools.

Eric: 00:42:03

So it's really a great thing to sit down, design out what you need, whether it's around the edge of a pool or it's in your shower or anywhere else you're doing this.

Eric: 00:42:13

It is really smart to take the time, design it out, and it makes it so easy.

Eric: 00:42:17

And it is built super durable.

Eric: 00:42:19

And that's one of the things I like about this, you know, and especially when you're working with shower systems and things like that or some of these elevated decks that you're now putting stone or tile on.

Eric: 00:42:31

And there's all these different new applications.

Eric: 00:42:33

These drains are the way to go because they've built the flanges in that will work with all of these waterproofing systems.

Eric: 00:42:41

And so it really makes it a very foolproof way to go.

Eric: 00:42:44

And I really appreciate that because thats going to make that long term system stick and work well.

Eric: 00:42:49

And youre not tearing it back out again because youve got some kind of a crazy water leak.

Eric: 00:42:53

And thats where those benefits really are.

Eric: 00:42:56

So take a look at that, plan it out.

Eric: 00:42:58

And when youre doing a shower, these are the things that take you from a just a basic shower system all the way up into something thats very designer and something thats going to be much easier to maintain.

Eric: 00:43:09

And like we were talking about earlier, with that hair filter on it, to be able to cake that out and not have to worry about a plugged up drain, that is pretty cool.

Eric: 00:43:19

So really, if you're working on a shower inside, having that drain system, having your waterproofing, make sure that you're not hanging tile on just regular concrete board.

Eric: 00:43:29

That you've got a waterproofing system behind it is really the key to a successful one.

Eric: 00:43:34

And then, of course, making sure that you've got the right mortar and everything else throughout the project and using one of the next generation grouts, my favorite company that I work with, and they don't pay me a dime to say, this is when I do tile projects around the house, I use everything that Ardex does.

Eric: 00:43:51

I use their products.

Eric: 00:43:52

And then when I can, I use either their board or wheaties because when I do a shower system, it's really cool.

Eric: 00:43:59

You can use their vapor 85 for a steam shower and keep that so it's really dialed in, and that's what's really cool.

Eric: 00:44:07

I've got some great videos going to be coming up on our YouTube channel.

Eric: 00:44:09

I want you guys to keep a look for that.

Eric: 00:44:11

I'm doing some fall lawn care that'll be coming out shortly, as well as some shower system stuff.

Eric: 00:44:17

So I'll have a new upgrade here coming up soon on my shower system on YouTube that you don't want to miss.

Eric: 00:44:24

All right, if you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouseonline.com dot.

Eric: 00:44:29

As always, everyone, thanks for tuning into around the house.

Eric: 00:44:32

We'll see you next week on the podcast or next weekend on the radio show podcast.

Eric: 00:44:37

Thanks for tuning in to around the house.

Eric: 00:44:40

Stay safe out there somewhere unseen and undiscovered, anywhere beyond the me love is a love song.

Eric: 00:44:58

Let's be lovers.

Eric: 00:45:00

We're all over the race.