Dirty Jobs (2005) s01e22 Episode Script
Termite Controller
I'm Mike rowe, and this is my job.
Ohhh! I explore the country, looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty You having fun in there? hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
Now get ready to get dirty.
Ohhh! Coming up on "dirty jobs," I make the road not taken in Texas, pumping and pouring concrete to build a street.
There's not one easy job out here, is there? No.
They have to finish before it hardens, so time is the enemy.
And, once again, I have no idea what I'm doing.
I think I might suck at this.
Then, I revisit a group of trained killers Vexcon exterminators.
And this time, we're dealing with termites at a church.
Is that safe down there? I won't lie to you.
We're gonna be in a little danger.
Time for these bugs to say their prayers.
And later, wet concrete is bad.
But chipping it from the drum of a transit mixer after it's dried That is one Job.
A pro can clean one of these in about three hours.
How long will it take me? What I've seen so far, three or four months.
Captions by vitac captions paid for by discovery communications Today we come to lewisville, Texas, to build a road.
We're gonna be pumping concrete, pouring concrete, and chipping concrete, and probably getting filthy dirty.
This is Chad.
How are you? Just fine.
Good.
This is your crew in this general area? Yes.
And this is the beginnings of a road or a parking lot, or what am I looking at? It's an apartment complex.
And this is the paving and the streets that connect everything together.
First, we're gonna place the concrete in place, which is all this area we see here.
Then we are going to finish the concrete.
Right now, I got this pump that I suppose all this is gonna come flying out of the end of? Sure is.
Are you ready? Yeah.
Now what? Just keep shoving it around.
Foot stuck in the rebar.
Better to push Than to pull.
Are you kidding? More? Less? That's good.
You realize, I don't know what I'm doing.
Rowe: Why rebar? What's this do? It gives the concrete tensile strength.
It doesn't let it bend.
All right.
If I'm not careful, I'm gonna learn something.
So, there are a few things about the job you didn't really point out, like the fact that the rebar is laid out in this grid.
I mean, it makes it impossible to walk when you're trying to handle this hundred-pound It was like a grizzly bear.
It is.
It's exactly like wrestling a grizzly bear.
It's actually easier to push than it is to pull the thing.
And to really get it to go where you want, you've got to have a good rapport with the operator that's operating the pump.
Well, who's the operator again? Is it flavio? It's flavio.
Come here, flavio.
What are you doing here? You're basically Controlling the truck, the rubber hose.
And this is all done from this remote? From this remote.
But it'll be a lot better if you direct me.
All right, so, our cue will be, "flavio, I don't know what I'm doing.
" Or just give me a hand signal.
We could do that, too.
So, the reason these guys are sitting around right now is 'cause there's not concrete on the ground.
Yes.
And the reason those trucks are all backed up over there.
We need some curb, and we need some concrete on the ground.
Everyone around me right now is essentially waiting for me.
Exactly.
Right.
There we go.
Forgot to put my mask down.
Took one in the eye.
I think we need to go a little bit faster.
Let's crank it up a little bit, flavio.
When you're working with a material like this, time is the really important thing.
Rowe: Clearly, I'm doing something wrong, right? Well, I think you're spending too much time holding the hose.
You need to let it slide in your hands a little bit, because it bounces up and down so much.
You're telling me to let the hose slide in my hand.
That's good.
I used to think concrete hardened because the water in it evaporated.
But that's not true.
Concrete gets hard, because, when you add water, it actually hydrates the cement, creating a stonelike material.
It's science.
Basically, what I'm trying to do is make sure these guys always have enough concrete to move around.
If I don't give them enough, they call me over.
Sometimes they get cranky.
I'm out of control.
I'm out of control with the concrete.
Geez.
All right, I already had to shut the mud off once today.
They're stacking up out there.
I'm sorry.
I'm doing the best I can.
You just spread right on up to that stake.
And you got a whole bunch more than you need in there.
So leave a little gap.
You're gonna hurt those guys.
Now where do you want to go? Got too many men standing around.
It's a good thing they're going downhill.
Oh, we're going downhill all right.
Right over here.
Double grade.
You see how they're having to change the course? That's my fault, right? Right.
Right.
You keep running this all day.
You'll get the hang of it.
Great.
I got nowhere to go.
You've done about enough damage for right now.
Let's stop.
Kill that for a second.
I need a nap, a few kind words, and a gentle smile.
Okay.
Here's a couple of kind words.
You're getting a lot better at this.
I just don't know if you're dirty enough.
You got a little sweat on you, though.
Who are you? Well, this is my show right here.
I'm running this company.
You run the company? I got all these people standing around and Well, what the hell happened to Chad? He was such a nice fella.
Chad He's doing a pretty good job.
Nice, quiet, unassuming man.
That's right.
That's his style.
Mine's a little different.
I can see that.
I pay the bills.
What happened to your head? Well, I got attacked by an oven, so I'm having a little trouble today.
But I got all my stitches out.
I don't want to pry.
God knows what goes on in the personal life of a construction man with an oven.
I don't need to know all that.
This isn't too bad.
We've got Looks like about 100 yards on the ground.
And that only took about three hours.
Well, clear [ Laughs .]
Normally, we do that in about 45 minutes, but that's okay.
Well, clearly, I've slowed you down.
No, you haven't really.
You're doing okay.
Well, what I've learned, though, is I mean, seriously, from an efficiency standpoint, your whole business depends on those trucks getting here on time and whosever running this thing to lay the foundation, 'cause these are the This is your crew.
See, they're not even breathing heavy.
They're just standing around.
This is the best day they've had in god knows how long.
In a long time.
Yeah.
Excuse me, guys.
See that air? See that air under there? Kick it.
Kick some mud up there, Mike.
Mud? Aw, dang it.
I think I'm in the way.
You're gonna make me get dirty again.
What's happening now? Take your foot and sling it up there like that.
And slide it down the end of that stick.
Not in one spot.
Watch.
All right, I'm watching.
See there? Oh, you're trying to get it up there.
Now we're gonna fill that little spot.
Grab ahold.
Grab ahold of the stick? Shake it a little bit.
And make a line out on the end.
We're gonna draw a little line with it.
There you go.
Just like that.
Let's do it one more time.
Draw you a good line.
There you go.
Now, one more sweep, then step back.
All right.
Now, watch this.
When you step back, kick it with your foot.
Oh, that's a nice touch.
There you go.
All right, grab ahold.
Get you a good rhythm.
All right? Now, let's walk this out.
Come on out.
I don't know what I'm doing.
So far, everything I've seen is ridiculously brutal.
What else you got? Well, this is called a mop.
Doesn't look like a mop.
You wouldn't want to use it on your kitchen floor.
I guess not.
What I'm doing here is, I've got it cocked up a little bit.
If you get enough cock on it, then you can smooth it out pretty good.
So you turn it back the other way, and then you just want to plane it out.
You're pressing the large aggregate down, and you're bringing the cement and the sand to the surface.
What's aggregate? Rocks.
Is it because you're the owner of the company that you just can't say "rock?" You've got to go with "aggregate"? Was that too big a word? It's a pretty big word.
Okay.
Rock.
You probably need to go a little faster.
If you noticed, they're putting water on this.
Why are they doing that? Took so long to get this placed, they're having to help the mop guy a lot, 'cause it starts setting up.
Let's talk, but you keep moving while we talk.
Swivel, push out.
You severely overestimate my capabilities.
How hard down are you pushing on this when you do it? Pretty hard.
Yeah, you're not gonna hurt it.
Well, you didn't tell me that.
If you hear 'em moan, you're pushing too hard.
It's just rocks.
Swivel it.
Swivel it.
Much better.
Hey, what about this technique here.
That's pretty good, if you don't want your arms to get tired.
I walk sometimes like that.
Now, you know some of the oldest structures in concrete? Tell me.
Well, how about the coliseum in Rome? That was concrete? Absolutely.
Man, the romans really had it down, didn't they? Aqueducts.
And they had really good cement, because there was a lot of volcanic ash and rocks.
And that enabled the concrete to have a lot of porosity.
Porosity? Porosity.
Holy crap.
That's better than aggregate.
Does that mean porous? Porous.
I know words.
Cement was actually patented back in england in 1824.
But this isn't cement.
This is concrete.
And we're not in england.
We're deep in the heart of Texas.
I didn't think the boss was supposed to get dirty.
He's not.
[ Laughs .]
It is a dirty business, though.
You've got to admit.
Yeah.
And some days, you know, you get dirtier than others.
I feel that way pretty much all the time.
So, what's this whole project worth basically? Well, I would guess somewhere in about $13 million to $15 million.
Not a bad day's work, really.
Yeah.
It takes about a year to construct one of these.
Good god, man.
What the hell you got going on there? That's my fall color for Halloween.
I think you're the only construction guy I ever met with a fancy seasonal pedicure.
I think I'd rather be known for Oh, you'll be known now.
nice feet.
Yeah.
Cover those up.
People do watch this show, you know.
Now, Mike, what this gentleman's doing is, he's finishing out the curb.
So he's planing it off.
He's creating a little sand-and-cement paste to pull up over the top of the curb.
And he's gonna plane it off the top.
If you look down through there, man, that's a clean line right down through there.
There's not one easy job out here, is there? No.
Can you imagine pulling about 300 pounds of weight while you're bent down like this? And, you know, if it's raining No, I can't.
Yeah, rain? Guess where the rain goes.
Oh, well, it would go right down your, uh That's right.
And plumbers are supposed to be known for that.
I can't believe you don't have a machine that does this.
Well, I do.
Where did he go? [ Laughs .]
I guess that would be me.
All right.
Now, you give it a try.
Dan: We're gonna let him come in behind us and kind of clean up our mess when we get through.
I think that's best.
Flatten that thing out this way.
There you go.
Pull it up.
Make a good turn.
All right.
Sliding back and forth.
Okay.
It's gonna be the same technique as that mop.
Yeah, but, as you recall, I was stunningly good with that.
You're gonna turn it up.
Now slide it back.
That way, you can grab some of that butter.
You call it butter, huh? Yeah.
Where did that machine go? We're gonna need him.
We really are, 'cause you know what? I think I might suck at this.
Well, you're not doing too bad.
But you realize that he's probably done 100 miles of this stuff easy.
His back must be steel.
His legs must be like pistons.
Yeah.
You don't want to make any one of these guys mad.
I really don't.
No.
They're pretty genteel guys.
I do want to tuck that guy's shirt in, though.
I mean, this is a family show.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I mean, honestly.
I think he's a part-time plumber.
So, Dan has brought me to the trowel machine.
And this is it.
And I see the guys working it over there.
It looks fairly straightforward.
But you're planing out a pattern, bringing up that paste again.
Right.
And then he's gonna finish it with that machine, and they're gonna broom it right behind that.
It's your job to get these footprints out.
Most of them will be your own.
You got about 10 horsepower here.
You're just gonna give it a little gas.
And then when it starts turning, give it a shot.
I want to go that way.
Don't let go.
I feel like it could literally whip around, cut me in half.
Easy.
That's why you have this centrifugal switch.
So, if it gets out of your hands, it'll shut itself off.
Well, you didn't tell me about the centrifugal switch, the lifesaving device.
Well, I thought that word was too big for you.
No, I understand what "cut in half" means.
Got it? Dan: Come on over here! Okay, I'm sorry.
Whatever you guys are doing, it's screwing it up.
Pretty remarkable what's happening here.
The boss is being yelled at by the employees, because he's well, actually, I'm slowing them down.
But I've just have never really seen this before.
Don't tell Dan.
This modest little church in bossier city, Louisiana, has a congregation of over a quarter million.
Unfortunately, only 90 of them are people.
The rest are termites.
They're inside right now.
And believe me when I tell you, they are not worshipping.
No.
The new beginning baptist church needs a miracle.
So today's lesson will come from the gospel according to vexcon.
Vexcon is an army of renegade exterminators, who are on a mission of biblical proportions.
They're led by this man Bill bretherton.
Rowe: The last time I saw bill bretherton, the scene was unforgettable.
Today, it feels even more Apocalyptic? Does that feel right? Absolutely.
This church is under a lot of stress by attacking termites.
How many termites, conservatively, would you reckon we're looking at here? I would say, conservatively, about a quarter of a million.
People congregate here to worship and keep the rain off their heads, and the termites isn't making this any easier for them.
Could they conceivably just fall through the floor? Reverend p.
J.
He did fall through the floor.
Get out of here? Yeah, he sure did.
When the reverend falls through the floor of a church, it's time to call someone.
Oh, absolutely.
To save this old church, we had to replace the rotten beam that was causing one corner of the building to sag.
You can see that the church is shifting this way a little, kind of moving over.
And it's because of the heavy damage on that girder.
But we had to get to it first.
That lumber girder I was talking about is directly below.
And we think this is where most of the damage is on the church.
We're gonna pull some paneling back and take off this fascia board, just to try to assess how much damage we have here.
Okay, how do we do that? Looks like it's barely hanging on as it is.
Oh, man, that's some real damage, though, isn't it? Termites cause more damage than hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, and hailstorms combined.
Kind of looks like cardboard.
Bretherton: Because the climates are so warm, we get the most damage out of all the 50 states.
Yeah.
So, we see more here than the other states do.
What's going on here is, when the termites get in there to feed on the cellulose, as they start to do the damage, it just gets more and more brittle, almost like toothpicks.
What's this dark stuff in there? That's the American-roach feces is what that is.
A lot of times, people will mistake them for mice droppings, they're so big.
So the American roach is the biggest roach on the block.
It certainly is.
Well, we're a superpower.
That's right.
With superpoo.
You can also see the little white specks in there.
That's all the feces and stuff, too.
Of course.
To replace the rotten beam, we had to Jack up the church.
Is that safe down there at all? I won't lie to you.
We're gonna be in a little danger.
The church was sitting on cinder blocks to keep the floor from collapsing.
How much worst could it get? It's [ Knock on wood .]
That's a hollow support.
Yep.
There's a lot of damage on this girder.
This is the main culprit right here this mud tube.
Termites have to keep their bodies moist.
They also hate light and air, so they travel around in these mud highways.
You can see one right there.
See the little guy? Oh, yeah.
Look at that.
I see a couple right here.
Right there.
There's a bunch right there.
A nasty little hunk of mucus.
Maggot.
Ugh! Look at that every time you crack a piece of this dirt open There's more of them in there.
Yeah.
Those are the steps we're gonna pull out so we can take this girder straight out.
But trying to get to the girder is the hard part.
Unfortunately for bill and his cousin, bump, and me, we had over a thousand pounds of concrete steps blocking the way.
Looked like you moved it a little bit there.
Basically, we're kind of stuck on step one.
We're trying to get three steps pulled away from the foundation and from the actual structure.
We don't know really how deep they go or how much they weigh.
But, you know This was plan "a.
" Yeah.
Yeah, we're about to move on to plan "b.
" It's pretty clear that these steps are not going anywhere.
We'll have to get to the girder by simply going through the wall.
Aah! What a nightmare.
So they put aluminum siding over wood.
Open one present, you get another.
It's like Christmas morning in this job.
Well, that explains the termites.
Bump, I think we're gonna have to go to my original plan.
Dynamite? Let me get the sawzall.
Okay.
That'll definitely get it.
Do you know how to do siding? When you say "do," what do you mean? Make it aesthetically pleasing when we get done.
I'll be honest with you, bump, i, uh We may have to learn together on that one.
Yeah.
We probably don't have that kind of time.
No.
Wouldn't it be easier just to build them a new church? Yes.
[ Sawzall whirs .]
Wow.
There's that main lumber girder right there.
Look at all that damage.
Should have called you about 20 years ago.
Now that we've gotten to the beam, things should be moving right along.
I don't know a great deal about termites or church.
[ Crack .]
I do know that that was an alarming sound, though.
Oh, the brick broke.
Oh, yeah.
The cinder block snapped in half.
Yeah, that's what happened.
I'm gonna go get a couple more slabs, some brand-new ones that won't snap.
These Jacks are precision designed.
They're the perfect tool for jacking up a car.
This is a church.
Okay, but at least we got it up.
See where it's starting to separate here? Yeah, that's what we needed, right there.
It's a miracle.
The church is off the ground by a quarter of an inch.
And this thing is just falling to pieces.
Now it's time to cut out the termite-eaten wood.
[ Whirring stops .]
Uh-oh.
Looks like bump has spotted a problem.
We lose all our support if you cut right there.
That's the heaviest part right there, holding the roof up.
Since we'd rather not have the entire roof collapse On us It's time to repo the Jack and cut the beam in a safer place.
Jack this up and get some supports under that beam right there.
That way, we can pull this out and make our center cut.
And then we'll be able to measure, and, uh We don't use tapes.
We just eyeball it, normally, here.
I-I can see that.
This time, everything is in the right place and should work.
By sliding support bricks underneath, we should be able to transfer the weight off the rotten beam.
Bretherton: There it goes.
Good job, bump.
Got it.
Time to release the Jack and finally cut the beam.
Think we sunk back to where we were.
I think we did, too.
There's just one problem The weight of the church has pushed all of our support bricks right into the soggy Louisiana soil, putting all of the weight right back on the beam I'm no expert, but I'm thinking that's not normal.
Not good at all.
No.
bringing us right back to where we started.
Challenge you got here, bill.
Yeah.
Don't build it on Sandy soil.
Build it on rock.
Little too late for that.
We got some more Jacks coming.
Bump's gonna work on this.
And maybe we can start doing some termite work and stuff while they try to figure out how to fix this massively vexing problem here.
Now, in this area, what we're gonna have to do is we're gonna take the soil out and put it on a tarp, treat the soil on a tarp, and then backfill it in.
And the reason why we're doing that is they have a septic here that we don't want to contaminate or get the chemicals in.
Just gets better and better, bill.
Step one Dig a trench around the church.
Let the poison saturate the soil.
How come you don't put a tent over this church? Because these termites are coming from the soil.
They'll come up, spend a few hours and head back down, so we know they're going through our barrier.
So you're just making mud.
Yep.
Oh, yeah.
Think some of the toxic water just went in my mouth.
Oh, no! Ha! We're making a moat, basically.
Bretherton: You're digging their grave, Mike.
Digging my own.
Start taking the soil and throw it on the tarp here.
Because we've got to treat this on the tarp so we don't get the leaching from all of that septic there.
All right.
Dry soil is like a sponge.
So it'll take the chemical, and then the water will evaporate off.
The water has not evaporated over there, because it's a low spot and a septic backup.
Right.
If we try to put chemical in there, the soil will not absorb it like a sponge.
It just is gonna sit there.
Basically, we're gonna take this and turn it into a weapon.
Because when they come to feed on it, they're gonna get a lethal dose of the fipronil.
We need to poison the buffet? Yes.
Before we could inject the poison, we had to cut down any termite avenues abutting the structure.
What were you like as a kid? Did you collect bugs and stuff? Yeah, I did, actually.
I was a pretty bizarre kid, actually.
You think? Yeah.
I was a Always wanted a pair of gold pants, just like rod Stewart used to wear.
You mean we could be out here in shiny gold pants, killing bugs? I thought about that before.
I'll check back.
What would you do with yourself if there were no more vexations? Probably dance around in Eden.
In your gold pants? In my gold pants.
You're the most unusual exterminator I know.
Got it.
Now we needed to drill a hole so we could inject the poison and treat the soil below.
We're gonna go ahead and treat these piers, the stump.
And then we'll go check on bump and see how he's doing on the Around the corner there.
We'll get back on it.
Just pull the trigger, and Off we go.
Instead of this being a hindrance, now it's like a bait station, in a way.
Yeah.
It's a delivery system.
Poison is injected everywhere The ground, old tree stumps, even concrete.
So this is soaking into the concrete? Yeah, it's filling up the hollow void in there.
And sometimes it goes where you don't want it to go.
Do termites do Pfft! This is how it ends for me By a church, with a mouthful of poison.
[ Chuckles .]
I guess the lesson there is to keep your big, stupid mouth shut while you're administering the toxin.
Now, clearly, this can't be safe.
Let's go ahead and switch rods.
Truly, there must be another rod we can play with.
In order to be safe, we're going to replace the rod.
Oh, my.
Perfect.
Let me kill the engine.
Bad day to be an apprentice.
Ah! Okay.
Back to the killing.
[ Engine turns over .]
I'm not sure, but there appears to be a small leak.
What now? Well, again, I'm no expert, but I think some of the highly toxic poison was flying onto my most sensitive of areas.
All right, let's see.
What the heck is going on here? Almost as though a higher power is attempting to thwart us.
Okay.
That's the problem.
Yes, your knibbling pin is jacked up to the Johnson rod, and thereby prohibiting all I'm gonna grab some tools.
Yeah, get some tools, 'cause we got a torque, uh, issue here.
All right, Mike.
I'm absolutely positive that I have no idea if this is gonna work.
Well, I'll second that to the nth degree.
I'll try it again.
Okay.
Well, nothing's coming out.
[ Engine turns over .]
Tell you what, it comes out in virtually every direction.
Yeah, it shoots four ways.
I see that now.
Yep.
Did you notice that? Went right in your mouth there, didn't it, Doug? Yeah.
You'll be dead, too.
We'll all be dead by morning.
I had such a nice career going two years ago.
Voice-overs, a little writing.
We just had everything go wrong on that one hole, didn't we? Yes, we did, bill.
Well, the church didn't fall on us.
Not yet.
[ Laughs .]
That's the grand finale.
After injecting poison everywhere, we're going to check in with bump.
Well, I can't say for sure that we're killing termites, but I'm pretty sure we've made a mess.
We have definitely done that.
Bump, how you doing? Good, good.
We're making some progress back here.
We got it jacked up and secure and went ahead and cut that beam in the center where it'll have support for the next one.
And then under the steps, cut the other one the same situation back here.
Finally, with the church officially jacked up, it's time to remove the wooden beam.
We're gonna take the main supporting beam out? Yes.
All right? You're gonna crawl Yeah, Mike.
I don't know what's happening.
I'm not too healthy in the brain, I tell ya.
Good god, man.
Ooh! That didn't feel good.
This is the new beam? This is the new one.
Look at these cartons that have fallen out, Mike.
I'm gonna hand these to you.
This is all termites from the This is the beam.
Good grief.
Yeah.
Mild to moderate termite damage.
From the looks of the damage, the only thing keeping this church standing was faith.
I think it's too long, bump.
Oh, no.
How much too long? What do you think? Yeah, that looks too long to me.
The beam's too long.
So an entire church is being held up in the air by a couple of bricks and two car Jacks.
The main support beam has been demolished, and our replacement beam is too long.
Perfect.
That's pretty straight.
Well, you know Finally, it worked.
All right, that's as good as it's gonna get over here.
Okay, I'm good over here.
Mike, you ready for the grand finale here, the christening of the boat? I'm getting out of here.
This is where we find out if the actual load-bearing If it's gonna work or not.
Yeah, okay.
Judging from the rest of the day Oh, I don't see what could go wrong.
Wow.
Ooh.
All right.
That one's set.
I think it's kind of working.
Yeah.
We got another Jack over there Good.
We've got to drop.
All right, so this Jack's off.
That Jack should be gone.
Here we go.
Looks good over here.
If I can push this, is it a bad sign? Yes.
All that's left here is mud and termite crap.
This is a giant termite turd.
Yeah, pretty much.
So, how'd we do? I think we did good.
We definitely stopped the attacking legions.
[ Chuckles .]
But the damage, I mean Severe.
Real, real damage, for sure.
But on the positive side, we, uh Well, I figure a quarter-million termites are down there dying right now.
That's something good, right? That's the wages of sin.
What is it Deuteronomy 32:35? "Vengeance is mine," sayeth the lord.
I will repay.
In due time, their foot will slip.
The day of disaster is at hand, and doom will fall upon them.
That's one of my favorites.
Bad day to be a termite.
I would say so.
I'll see you next time.
All right, Mike.
Trucks like these are known in the construction business as transit mixers.
Most concrete consists of gravel, sand, cement binder, and water that is mixed in a dedicated plant.
Once mixed, it remains fluid for four to six hours, until the water and cement chemically react and harden the concrete.
Transit mixers carry the concrete from the plant to the jobsite in a rotating drum that helps this reaction, which is called hydration.
Over time, hardened concrete residue builds up inside the drum.
That's where companies like Jim's chipping service come in.
Take a look.
This was just cleaned.
Took them three days to do it.
Cleaning a concrete truck is a highly specialized profession, which means Nobody wants to do it.
Well, this is Dave, and, uh Dave works for Jim.
According to the hat, Jim has a chipping service.
What's a chipping service? Well, what we do is, when the concrete trucks start accumulating buildup inside, we send crews into the truck with jackhammers and clean them out.
Is this a complicated process? It's not rocket science.
I mean, it seems pretty straightforward.
Go in, get the concrete, and get out.
Right.
That's exactly it.
How much concrete are we talking about that gets accumulated? Well, it varies from a full load, which is 10 yards, down to the least Our minimum is 800 pounds.
I just always figured you went in there with a hose and just blew the concrete out.
No.
I'm sure my crews would love it if that was that easy.
Well, typically, what do your crews do? When do they work? How many do you employ? There's four men to a crew.
We're running eight crews.
The concrete company will park the truck at night.
We'll work through the night and have them ready for them in the morning so they don't lose any time.
So you don't work during the day? No.
Too hot, and it's economical for our customers.
Yeah.
Tough break for me.
[ Laughing .]
Yeah.
The only thing you want turning in a concrete mixing drum is concrete.
So, before I begin chipping, the drum has to be immobilized with safety chains.
You ever been on the inside of a concrete truck before? I appear to be in.
Dave: All right.
Here's your hard hat, respirator, earplugs.
Respirator goes like this, I think.
All right, Mike.
Here's your hammer.
Holy cow.
Operated by air? Operated by air.
All right.
And where do I start? Right here? You just start right here and kind of work your way down.
I'll go start the compressor.
There's a compressor, too? There is a compressor.
How will I know when the compressor is on? Trust me, you'll know.
Geez! Ha ha ha ha ha! I got a little bit more to do.
Now, how close can I get to the drum? When you hit the drum, you're gonna hear a A distinctive different sound.
I'm not gonna hit the drum.
Well, I mean, you've kind of got to get to it, but I don't want you to follow through with it.
It's really hard.
You've got to put some weight into it.
It typically does the job itself.
But, I mean, you have to lean into it.
This stuff's like concrete! Good god.
How you doing, Mike? Great.
How you doing? I'd be doing a lot worse if you were on my payroll.
Huh.
Whew! Concrete chipper That is one Job.
Oh, look, more concrete.
Oh.
Working alone, how long would this take me, you reckon? You or one of my guys? Well, let's start with me.
What I've seen so far Three or four months.
Two guys knowing what they're doing? Three hours.
Hey, Mike! That's when you hit the metal.
We got some pretty big dents out here.
Oh, crap.
I'm sorry about that.
You're tearing up the drum.
I'm sorry.
The drum has torn me up.
I need you to clean up your mess, though.
Look at that Got my head Eyes Ears nose, and throat.
Your truck kicked my ass.
I can give you three concrete reasons why this job is a drag One, it's dirty Two, it's dangerous And three I suck at it.
My safety gear can't help me now.
Oh! Oh! Aah! Little help? Hello? Hello? They think I'm joking.
I'm [bleep.]
I can't believe it.
Try again, Mike.
Can't get out of the [bleep.]
damn truck! Seriously, how do you get out of here? Man: Go out the end and out through the end of it.
Well, that's a hell of a tip.
There's a ladder back there.
Could have used that maybe an hour and a half ago, for god's sakes.
[ Chuckles .]
Are you kidding? Dave: Hand me your hard hat.
I think I need my hard hat.
Lay on your Can you get on your back? On my back? Yeah.
Sure.
Here, stick your hands up above your head.
Right.
There you go.
Beautiful.
Oh, man.
Great job, huh? I'm king of the dirt! Hey, why couldn't we have gotten in this way? I swear, if you don't go to discovery.
Com/dirtyjobs right now and give me a brand-new idea for another dirty job, I will squeeze the poo out of this duck on national television.
I won't do it.
I swear, I'll do it.
No, I won't.
Concrete truck? That's what I thought.
All right, then.
Just trying to clarify.
God knows, I screw up a fact, get all fired from the network.
That chemical reaction forms a mechanical some [bleep.]
thing and then you got your [bleep.]
concrete.
Got your [bleep.]
on my leg, man.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was awkward for me there, too, at that point.
My name's Mike rowe, and I've put a pig on a pedestal.
Why? Because even though he works in the dirt, this noble creature is the embodiment of hard work, self-sacrifice, and a good-natured willingness to get the job done, no matter how dirty.
Day after day, he goes about his business without complaint.
And night after night, he brings home the bacon.
[ Pig snorts .]
I am sorry I said that.
What's on your pedestal?
Ohhh! I explore the country, looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty You having fun in there? hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
Now get ready to get dirty.
Ohhh! Coming up on "dirty jobs," I make the road not taken in Texas, pumping and pouring concrete to build a street.
There's not one easy job out here, is there? No.
They have to finish before it hardens, so time is the enemy.
And, once again, I have no idea what I'm doing.
I think I might suck at this.
Then, I revisit a group of trained killers Vexcon exterminators.
And this time, we're dealing with termites at a church.
Is that safe down there? I won't lie to you.
We're gonna be in a little danger.
Time for these bugs to say their prayers.
And later, wet concrete is bad.
But chipping it from the drum of a transit mixer after it's dried That is one Job.
A pro can clean one of these in about three hours.
How long will it take me? What I've seen so far, three or four months.
Captions by vitac captions paid for by discovery communications Today we come to lewisville, Texas, to build a road.
We're gonna be pumping concrete, pouring concrete, and chipping concrete, and probably getting filthy dirty.
This is Chad.
How are you? Just fine.
Good.
This is your crew in this general area? Yes.
And this is the beginnings of a road or a parking lot, or what am I looking at? It's an apartment complex.
And this is the paving and the streets that connect everything together.
First, we're gonna place the concrete in place, which is all this area we see here.
Then we are going to finish the concrete.
Right now, I got this pump that I suppose all this is gonna come flying out of the end of? Sure is.
Are you ready? Yeah.
Now what? Just keep shoving it around.
Foot stuck in the rebar.
Better to push Than to pull.
Are you kidding? More? Less? That's good.
You realize, I don't know what I'm doing.
Rowe: Why rebar? What's this do? It gives the concrete tensile strength.
It doesn't let it bend.
All right.
If I'm not careful, I'm gonna learn something.
So, there are a few things about the job you didn't really point out, like the fact that the rebar is laid out in this grid.
I mean, it makes it impossible to walk when you're trying to handle this hundred-pound It was like a grizzly bear.
It is.
It's exactly like wrestling a grizzly bear.
It's actually easier to push than it is to pull the thing.
And to really get it to go where you want, you've got to have a good rapport with the operator that's operating the pump.
Well, who's the operator again? Is it flavio? It's flavio.
Come here, flavio.
What are you doing here? You're basically Controlling the truck, the rubber hose.
And this is all done from this remote? From this remote.
But it'll be a lot better if you direct me.
All right, so, our cue will be, "flavio, I don't know what I'm doing.
" Or just give me a hand signal.
We could do that, too.
So, the reason these guys are sitting around right now is 'cause there's not concrete on the ground.
Yes.
And the reason those trucks are all backed up over there.
We need some curb, and we need some concrete on the ground.
Everyone around me right now is essentially waiting for me.
Exactly.
Right.
There we go.
Forgot to put my mask down.
Took one in the eye.
I think we need to go a little bit faster.
Let's crank it up a little bit, flavio.
When you're working with a material like this, time is the really important thing.
Rowe: Clearly, I'm doing something wrong, right? Well, I think you're spending too much time holding the hose.
You need to let it slide in your hands a little bit, because it bounces up and down so much.
You're telling me to let the hose slide in my hand.
That's good.
I used to think concrete hardened because the water in it evaporated.
But that's not true.
Concrete gets hard, because, when you add water, it actually hydrates the cement, creating a stonelike material.
It's science.
Basically, what I'm trying to do is make sure these guys always have enough concrete to move around.
If I don't give them enough, they call me over.
Sometimes they get cranky.
I'm out of control.
I'm out of control with the concrete.
Geez.
All right, I already had to shut the mud off once today.
They're stacking up out there.
I'm sorry.
I'm doing the best I can.
You just spread right on up to that stake.
And you got a whole bunch more than you need in there.
So leave a little gap.
You're gonna hurt those guys.
Now where do you want to go? Got too many men standing around.
It's a good thing they're going downhill.
Oh, we're going downhill all right.
Right over here.
Double grade.
You see how they're having to change the course? That's my fault, right? Right.
Right.
You keep running this all day.
You'll get the hang of it.
Great.
I got nowhere to go.
You've done about enough damage for right now.
Let's stop.
Kill that for a second.
I need a nap, a few kind words, and a gentle smile.
Okay.
Here's a couple of kind words.
You're getting a lot better at this.
I just don't know if you're dirty enough.
You got a little sweat on you, though.
Who are you? Well, this is my show right here.
I'm running this company.
You run the company? I got all these people standing around and Well, what the hell happened to Chad? He was such a nice fella.
Chad He's doing a pretty good job.
Nice, quiet, unassuming man.
That's right.
That's his style.
Mine's a little different.
I can see that.
I pay the bills.
What happened to your head? Well, I got attacked by an oven, so I'm having a little trouble today.
But I got all my stitches out.
I don't want to pry.
God knows what goes on in the personal life of a construction man with an oven.
I don't need to know all that.
This isn't too bad.
We've got Looks like about 100 yards on the ground.
And that only took about three hours.
Well, clear [ Laughs .]
Normally, we do that in about 45 minutes, but that's okay.
Well, clearly, I've slowed you down.
No, you haven't really.
You're doing okay.
Well, what I've learned, though, is I mean, seriously, from an efficiency standpoint, your whole business depends on those trucks getting here on time and whosever running this thing to lay the foundation, 'cause these are the This is your crew.
See, they're not even breathing heavy.
They're just standing around.
This is the best day they've had in god knows how long.
In a long time.
Yeah.
Excuse me, guys.
See that air? See that air under there? Kick it.
Kick some mud up there, Mike.
Mud? Aw, dang it.
I think I'm in the way.
You're gonna make me get dirty again.
What's happening now? Take your foot and sling it up there like that.
And slide it down the end of that stick.
Not in one spot.
Watch.
All right, I'm watching.
See there? Oh, you're trying to get it up there.
Now we're gonna fill that little spot.
Grab ahold.
Grab ahold of the stick? Shake it a little bit.
And make a line out on the end.
We're gonna draw a little line with it.
There you go.
Just like that.
Let's do it one more time.
Draw you a good line.
There you go.
Now, one more sweep, then step back.
All right.
Now, watch this.
When you step back, kick it with your foot.
Oh, that's a nice touch.
There you go.
All right, grab ahold.
Get you a good rhythm.
All right? Now, let's walk this out.
Come on out.
I don't know what I'm doing.
So far, everything I've seen is ridiculously brutal.
What else you got? Well, this is called a mop.
Doesn't look like a mop.
You wouldn't want to use it on your kitchen floor.
I guess not.
What I'm doing here is, I've got it cocked up a little bit.
If you get enough cock on it, then you can smooth it out pretty good.
So you turn it back the other way, and then you just want to plane it out.
You're pressing the large aggregate down, and you're bringing the cement and the sand to the surface.
What's aggregate? Rocks.
Is it because you're the owner of the company that you just can't say "rock?" You've got to go with "aggregate"? Was that too big a word? It's a pretty big word.
Okay.
Rock.
You probably need to go a little faster.
If you noticed, they're putting water on this.
Why are they doing that? Took so long to get this placed, they're having to help the mop guy a lot, 'cause it starts setting up.
Let's talk, but you keep moving while we talk.
Swivel, push out.
You severely overestimate my capabilities.
How hard down are you pushing on this when you do it? Pretty hard.
Yeah, you're not gonna hurt it.
Well, you didn't tell me that.
If you hear 'em moan, you're pushing too hard.
It's just rocks.
Swivel it.
Swivel it.
Much better.
Hey, what about this technique here.
That's pretty good, if you don't want your arms to get tired.
I walk sometimes like that.
Now, you know some of the oldest structures in concrete? Tell me.
Well, how about the coliseum in Rome? That was concrete? Absolutely.
Man, the romans really had it down, didn't they? Aqueducts.
And they had really good cement, because there was a lot of volcanic ash and rocks.
And that enabled the concrete to have a lot of porosity.
Porosity? Porosity.
Holy crap.
That's better than aggregate.
Does that mean porous? Porous.
I know words.
Cement was actually patented back in england in 1824.
But this isn't cement.
This is concrete.
And we're not in england.
We're deep in the heart of Texas.
I didn't think the boss was supposed to get dirty.
He's not.
[ Laughs .]
It is a dirty business, though.
You've got to admit.
Yeah.
And some days, you know, you get dirtier than others.
I feel that way pretty much all the time.
So, what's this whole project worth basically? Well, I would guess somewhere in about $13 million to $15 million.
Not a bad day's work, really.
Yeah.
It takes about a year to construct one of these.
Good god, man.
What the hell you got going on there? That's my fall color for Halloween.
I think you're the only construction guy I ever met with a fancy seasonal pedicure.
I think I'd rather be known for Oh, you'll be known now.
nice feet.
Yeah.
Cover those up.
People do watch this show, you know.
Now, Mike, what this gentleman's doing is, he's finishing out the curb.
So he's planing it off.
He's creating a little sand-and-cement paste to pull up over the top of the curb.
And he's gonna plane it off the top.
If you look down through there, man, that's a clean line right down through there.
There's not one easy job out here, is there? No.
Can you imagine pulling about 300 pounds of weight while you're bent down like this? And, you know, if it's raining No, I can't.
Yeah, rain? Guess where the rain goes.
Oh, well, it would go right down your, uh That's right.
And plumbers are supposed to be known for that.
I can't believe you don't have a machine that does this.
Well, I do.
Where did he go? [ Laughs .]
I guess that would be me.
All right.
Now, you give it a try.
Dan: We're gonna let him come in behind us and kind of clean up our mess when we get through.
I think that's best.
Flatten that thing out this way.
There you go.
Pull it up.
Make a good turn.
All right.
Sliding back and forth.
Okay.
It's gonna be the same technique as that mop.
Yeah, but, as you recall, I was stunningly good with that.
You're gonna turn it up.
Now slide it back.
That way, you can grab some of that butter.
You call it butter, huh? Yeah.
Where did that machine go? We're gonna need him.
We really are, 'cause you know what? I think I might suck at this.
Well, you're not doing too bad.
But you realize that he's probably done 100 miles of this stuff easy.
His back must be steel.
His legs must be like pistons.
Yeah.
You don't want to make any one of these guys mad.
I really don't.
No.
They're pretty genteel guys.
I do want to tuck that guy's shirt in, though.
I mean, this is a family show.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I mean, honestly.
I think he's a part-time plumber.
So, Dan has brought me to the trowel machine.
And this is it.
And I see the guys working it over there.
It looks fairly straightforward.
But you're planing out a pattern, bringing up that paste again.
Right.
And then he's gonna finish it with that machine, and they're gonna broom it right behind that.
It's your job to get these footprints out.
Most of them will be your own.
You got about 10 horsepower here.
You're just gonna give it a little gas.
And then when it starts turning, give it a shot.
I want to go that way.
Don't let go.
I feel like it could literally whip around, cut me in half.
Easy.
That's why you have this centrifugal switch.
So, if it gets out of your hands, it'll shut itself off.
Well, you didn't tell me about the centrifugal switch, the lifesaving device.
Well, I thought that word was too big for you.
No, I understand what "cut in half" means.
Got it? Dan: Come on over here! Okay, I'm sorry.
Whatever you guys are doing, it's screwing it up.
Pretty remarkable what's happening here.
The boss is being yelled at by the employees, because he's well, actually, I'm slowing them down.
But I've just have never really seen this before.
Don't tell Dan.
This modest little church in bossier city, Louisiana, has a congregation of over a quarter million.
Unfortunately, only 90 of them are people.
The rest are termites.
They're inside right now.
And believe me when I tell you, they are not worshipping.
No.
The new beginning baptist church needs a miracle.
So today's lesson will come from the gospel according to vexcon.
Vexcon is an army of renegade exterminators, who are on a mission of biblical proportions.
They're led by this man Bill bretherton.
Rowe: The last time I saw bill bretherton, the scene was unforgettable.
Today, it feels even more Apocalyptic? Does that feel right? Absolutely.
This church is under a lot of stress by attacking termites.
How many termites, conservatively, would you reckon we're looking at here? I would say, conservatively, about a quarter of a million.
People congregate here to worship and keep the rain off their heads, and the termites isn't making this any easier for them.
Could they conceivably just fall through the floor? Reverend p.
J.
He did fall through the floor.
Get out of here? Yeah, he sure did.
When the reverend falls through the floor of a church, it's time to call someone.
Oh, absolutely.
To save this old church, we had to replace the rotten beam that was causing one corner of the building to sag.
You can see that the church is shifting this way a little, kind of moving over.
And it's because of the heavy damage on that girder.
But we had to get to it first.
That lumber girder I was talking about is directly below.
And we think this is where most of the damage is on the church.
We're gonna pull some paneling back and take off this fascia board, just to try to assess how much damage we have here.
Okay, how do we do that? Looks like it's barely hanging on as it is.
Oh, man, that's some real damage, though, isn't it? Termites cause more damage than hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, and hailstorms combined.
Kind of looks like cardboard.
Bretherton: Because the climates are so warm, we get the most damage out of all the 50 states.
Yeah.
So, we see more here than the other states do.
What's going on here is, when the termites get in there to feed on the cellulose, as they start to do the damage, it just gets more and more brittle, almost like toothpicks.
What's this dark stuff in there? That's the American-roach feces is what that is.
A lot of times, people will mistake them for mice droppings, they're so big.
So the American roach is the biggest roach on the block.
It certainly is.
Well, we're a superpower.
That's right.
With superpoo.
You can also see the little white specks in there.
That's all the feces and stuff, too.
Of course.
To replace the rotten beam, we had to Jack up the church.
Is that safe down there at all? I won't lie to you.
We're gonna be in a little danger.
The church was sitting on cinder blocks to keep the floor from collapsing.
How much worst could it get? It's [ Knock on wood .]
That's a hollow support.
Yep.
There's a lot of damage on this girder.
This is the main culprit right here this mud tube.
Termites have to keep their bodies moist.
They also hate light and air, so they travel around in these mud highways.
You can see one right there.
See the little guy? Oh, yeah.
Look at that.
I see a couple right here.
Right there.
There's a bunch right there.
A nasty little hunk of mucus.
Maggot.
Ugh! Look at that every time you crack a piece of this dirt open There's more of them in there.
Yeah.
Those are the steps we're gonna pull out so we can take this girder straight out.
But trying to get to the girder is the hard part.
Unfortunately for bill and his cousin, bump, and me, we had over a thousand pounds of concrete steps blocking the way.
Looked like you moved it a little bit there.
Basically, we're kind of stuck on step one.
We're trying to get three steps pulled away from the foundation and from the actual structure.
We don't know really how deep they go or how much they weigh.
But, you know This was plan "a.
" Yeah.
Yeah, we're about to move on to plan "b.
" It's pretty clear that these steps are not going anywhere.
We'll have to get to the girder by simply going through the wall.
Aah! What a nightmare.
So they put aluminum siding over wood.
Open one present, you get another.
It's like Christmas morning in this job.
Well, that explains the termites.
Bump, I think we're gonna have to go to my original plan.
Dynamite? Let me get the sawzall.
Okay.
That'll definitely get it.
Do you know how to do siding? When you say "do," what do you mean? Make it aesthetically pleasing when we get done.
I'll be honest with you, bump, i, uh We may have to learn together on that one.
Yeah.
We probably don't have that kind of time.
No.
Wouldn't it be easier just to build them a new church? Yes.
[ Sawzall whirs .]
Wow.
There's that main lumber girder right there.
Look at all that damage.
Should have called you about 20 years ago.
Now that we've gotten to the beam, things should be moving right along.
I don't know a great deal about termites or church.
[ Crack .]
I do know that that was an alarming sound, though.
Oh, the brick broke.
Oh, yeah.
The cinder block snapped in half.
Yeah, that's what happened.
I'm gonna go get a couple more slabs, some brand-new ones that won't snap.
These Jacks are precision designed.
They're the perfect tool for jacking up a car.
This is a church.
Okay, but at least we got it up.
See where it's starting to separate here? Yeah, that's what we needed, right there.
It's a miracle.
The church is off the ground by a quarter of an inch.
And this thing is just falling to pieces.
Now it's time to cut out the termite-eaten wood.
[ Whirring stops .]
Uh-oh.
Looks like bump has spotted a problem.
We lose all our support if you cut right there.
That's the heaviest part right there, holding the roof up.
Since we'd rather not have the entire roof collapse On us It's time to repo the Jack and cut the beam in a safer place.
Jack this up and get some supports under that beam right there.
That way, we can pull this out and make our center cut.
And then we'll be able to measure, and, uh We don't use tapes.
We just eyeball it, normally, here.
I-I can see that.
This time, everything is in the right place and should work.
By sliding support bricks underneath, we should be able to transfer the weight off the rotten beam.
Bretherton: There it goes.
Good job, bump.
Got it.
Time to release the Jack and finally cut the beam.
Think we sunk back to where we were.
I think we did, too.
There's just one problem The weight of the church has pushed all of our support bricks right into the soggy Louisiana soil, putting all of the weight right back on the beam I'm no expert, but I'm thinking that's not normal.
Not good at all.
No.
bringing us right back to where we started.
Challenge you got here, bill.
Yeah.
Don't build it on Sandy soil.
Build it on rock.
Little too late for that.
We got some more Jacks coming.
Bump's gonna work on this.
And maybe we can start doing some termite work and stuff while they try to figure out how to fix this massively vexing problem here.
Now, in this area, what we're gonna have to do is we're gonna take the soil out and put it on a tarp, treat the soil on a tarp, and then backfill it in.
And the reason why we're doing that is they have a septic here that we don't want to contaminate or get the chemicals in.
Just gets better and better, bill.
Step one Dig a trench around the church.
Let the poison saturate the soil.
How come you don't put a tent over this church? Because these termites are coming from the soil.
They'll come up, spend a few hours and head back down, so we know they're going through our barrier.
So you're just making mud.
Yep.
Oh, yeah.
Think some of the toxic water just went in my mouth.
Oh, no! Ha! We're making a moat, basically.
Bretherton: You're digging their grave, Mike.
Digging my own.
Start taking the soil and throw it on the tarp here.
Because we've got to treat this on the tarp so we don't get the leaching from all of that septic there.
All right.
Dry soil is like a sponge.
So it'll take the chemical, and then the water will evaporate off.
The water has not evaporated over there, because it's a low spot and a septic backup.
Right.
If we try to put chemical in there, the soil will not absorb it like a sponge.
It just is gonna sit there.
Basically, we're gonna take this and turn it into a weapon.
Because when they come to feed on it, they're gonna get a lethal dose of the fipronil.
We need to poison the buffet? Yes.
Before we could inject the poison, we had to cut down any termite avenues abutting the structure.
What were you like as a kid? Did you collect bugs and stuff? Yeah, I did, actually.
I was a pretty bizarre kid, actually.
You think? Yeah.
I was a Always wanted a pair of gold pants, just like rod Stewart used to wear.
You mean we could be out here in shiny gold pants, killing bugs? I thought about that before.
I'll check back.
What would you do with yourself if there were no more vexations? Probably dance around in Eden.
In your gold pants? In my gold pants.
You're the most unusual exterminator I know.
Got it.
Now we needed to drill a hole so we could inject the poison and treat the soil below.
We're gonna go ahead and treat these piers, the stump.
And then we'll go check on bump and see how he's doing on the Around the corner there.
We'll get back on it.
Just pull the trigger, and Off we go.
Instead of this being a hindrance, now it's like a bait station, in a way.
Yeah.
It's a delivery system.
Poison is injected everywhere The ground, old tree stumps, even concrete.
So this is soaking into the concrete? Yeah, it's filling up the hollow void in there.
And sometimes it goes where you don't want it to go.
Do termites do Pfft! This is how it ends for me By a church, with a mouthful of poison.
[ Chuckles .]
I guess the lesson there is to keep your big, stupid mouth shut while you're administering the toxin.
Now, clearly, this can't be safe.
Let's go ahead and switch rods.
Truly, there must be another rod we can play with.
In order to be safe, we're going to replace the rod.
Oh, my.
Perfect.
Let me kill the engine.
Bad day to be an apprentice.
Ah! Okay.
Back to the killing.
[ Engine turns over .]
I'm not sure, but there appears to be a small leak.
What now? Well, again, I'm no expert, but I think some of the highly toxic poison was flying onto my most sensitive of areas.
All right, let's see.
What the heck is going on here? Almost as though a higher power is attempting to thwart us.
Okay.
That's the problem.
Yes, your knibbling pin is jacked up to the Johnson rod, and thereby prohibiting all I'm gonna grab some tools.
Yeah, get some tools, 'cause we got a torque, uh, issue here.
All right, Mike.
I'm absolutely positive that I have no idea if this is gonna work.
Well, I'll second that to the nth degree.
I'll try it again.
Okay.
Well, nothing's coming out.
[ Engine turns over .]
Tell you what, it comes out in virtually every direction.
Yeah, it shoots four ways.
I see that now.
Yep.
Did you notice that? Went right in your mouth there, didn't it, Doug? Yeah.
You'll be dead, too.
We'll all be dead by morning.
I had such a nice career going two years ago.
Voice-overs, a little writing.
We just had everything go wrong on that one hole, didn't we? Yes, we did, bill.
Well, the church didn't fall on us.
Not yet.
[ Laughs .]
That's the grand finale.
After injecting poison everywhere, we're going to check in with bump.
Well, I can't say for sure that we're killing termites, but I'm pretty sure we've made a mess.
We have definitely done that.
Bump, how you doing? Good, good.
We're making some progress back here.
We got it jacked up and secure and went ahead and cut that beam in the center where it'll have support for the next one.
And then under the steps, cut the other one the same situation back here.
Finally, with the church officially jacked up, it's time to remove the wooden beam.
We're gonna take the main supporting beam out? Yes.
All right? You're gonna crawl Yeah, Mike.
I don't know what's happening.
I'm not too healthy in the brain, I tell ya.
Good god, man.
Ooh! That didn't feel good.
This is the new beam? This is the new one.
Look at these cartons that have fallen out, Mike.
I'm gonna hand these to you.
This is all termites from the This is the beam.
Good grief.
Yeah.
Mild to moderate termite damage.
From the looks of the damage, the only thing keeping this church standing was faith.
I think it's too long, bump.
Oh, no.
How much too long? What do you think? Yeah, that looks too long to me.
The beam's too long.
So an entire church is being held up in the air by a couple of bricks and two car Jacks.
The main support beam has been demolished, and our replacement beam is too long.
Perfect.
That's pretty straight.
Well, you know Finally, it worked.
All right, that's as good as it's gonna get over here.
Okay, I'm good over here.
Mike, you ready for the grand finale here, the christening of the boat? I'm getting out of here.
This is where we find out if the actual load-bearing If it's gonna work or not.
Yeah, okay.
Judging from the rest of the day Oh, I don't see what could go wrong.
Wow.
Ooh.
All right.
That one's set.
I think it's kind of working.
Yeah.
We got another Jack over there Good.
We've got to drop.
All right, so this Jack's off.
That Jack should be gone.
Here we go.
Looks good over here.
If I can push this, is it a bad sign? Yes.
All that's left here is mud and termite crap.
This is a giant termite turd.
Yeah, pretty much.
So, how'd we do? I think we did good.
We definitely stopped the attacking legions.
[ Chuckles .]
But the damage, I mean Severe.
Real, real damage, for sure.
But on the positive side, we, uh Well, I figure a quarter-million termites are down there dying right now.
That's something good, right? That's the wages of sin.
What is it Deuteronomy 32:35? "Vengeance is mine," sayeth the lord.
I will repay.
In due time, their foot will slip.
The day of disaster is at hand, and doom will fall upon them.
That's one of my favorites.
Bad day to be a termite.
I would say so.
I'll see you next time.
All right, Mike.
Trucks like these are known in the construction business as transit mixers.
Most concrete consists of gravel, sand, cement binder, and water that is mixed in a dedicated plant.
Once mixed, it remains fluid for four to six hours, until the water and cement chemically react and harden the concrete.
Transit mixers carry the concrete from the plant to the jobsite in a rotating drum that helps this reaction, which is called hydration.
Over time, hardened concrete residue builds up inside the drum.
That's where companies like Jim's chipping service come in.
Take a look.
This was just cleaned.
Took them three days to do it.
Cleaning a concrete truck is a highly specialized profession, which means Nobody wants to do it.
Well, this is Dave, and, uh Dave works for Jim.
According to the hat, Jim has a chipping service.
What's a chipping service? Well, what we do is, when the concrete trucks start accumulating buildup inside, we send crews into the truck with jackhammers and clean them out.
Is this a complicated process? It's not rocket science.
I mean, it seems pretty straightforward.
Go in, get the concrete, and get out.
Right.
That's exactly it.
How much concrete are we talking about that gets accumulated? Well, it varies from a full load, which is 10 yards, down to the least Our minimum is 800 pounds.
I just always figured you went in there with a hose and just blew the concrete out.
No.
I'm sure my crews would love it if that was that easy.
Well, typically, what do your crews do? When do they work? How many do you employ? There's four men to a crew.
We're running eight crews.
The concrete company will park the truck at night.
We'll work through the night and have them ready for them in the morning so they don't lose any time.
So you don't work during the day? No.
Too hot, and it's economical for our customers.
Yeah.
Tough break for me.
[ Laughing .]
Yeah.
The only thing you want turning in a concrete mixing drum is concrete.
So, before I begin chipping, the drum has to be immobilized with safety chains.
You ever been on the inside of a concrete truck before? I appear to be in.
Dave: All right.
Here's your hard hat, respirator, earplugs.
Respirator goes like this, I think.
All right, Mike.
Here's your hammer.
Holy cow.
Operated by air? Operated by air.
All right.
And where do I start? Right here? You just start right here and kind of work your way down.
I'll go start the compressor.
There's a compressor, too? There is a compressor.
How will I know when the compressor is on? Trust me, you'll know.
Geez! Ha ha ha ha ha! I got a little bit more to do.
Now, how close can I get to the drum? When you hit the drum, you're gonna hear a A distinctive different sound.
I'm not gonna hit the drum.
Well, I mean, you've kind of got to get to it, but I don't want you to follow through with it.
It's really hard.
You've got to put some weight into it.
It typically does the job itself.
But, I mean, you have to lean into it.
This stuff's like concrete! Good god.
How you doing, Mike? Great.
How you doing? I'd be doing a lot worse if you were on my payroll.
Huh.
Whew! Concrete chipper That is one Job.
Oh, look, more concrete.
Oh.
Working alone, how long would this take me, you reckon? You or one of my guys? Well, let's start with me.
What I've seen so far Three or four months.
Two guys knowing what they're doing? Three hours.
Hey, Mike! That's when you hit the metal.
We got some pretty big dents out here.
Oh, crap.
I'm sorry about that.
You're tearing up the drum.
I'm sorry.
The drum has torn me up.
I need you to clean up your mess, though.
Look at that Got my head Eyes Ears nose, and throat.
Your truck kicked my ass.
I can give you three concrete reasons why this job is a drag One, it's dirty Two, it's dangerous And three I suck at it.
My safety gear can't help me now.
Oh! Oh! Aah! Little help? Hello? Hello? They think I'm joking.
I'm [bleep.]
I can't believe it.
Try again, Mike.
Can't get out of the [bleep.]
damn truck! Seriously, how do you get out of here? Man: Go out the end and out through the end of it.
Well, that's a hell of a tip.
There's a ladder back there.
Could have used that maybe an hour and a half ago, for god's sakes.
[ Chuckles .]
Are you kidding? Dave: Hand me your hard hat.
I think I need my hard hat.
Lay on your Can you get on your back? On my back? Yeah.
Sure.
Here, stick your hands up above your head.
Right.
There you go.
Beautiful.
Oh, man.
Great job, huh? I'm king of the dirt! Hey, why couldn't we have gotten in this way? I swear, if you don't go to discovery.
Com/dirtyjobs right now and give me a brand-new idea for another dirty job, I will squeeze the poo out of this duck on national television.
I won't do it.
I swear, I'll do it.
No, I won't.
Concrete truck? That's what I thought.
All right, then.
Just trying to clarify.
God knows, I screw up a fact, get all fired from the network.
That chemical reaction forms a mechanical some [bleep.]
thing and then you got your [bleep.]
concrete.
Got your [bleep.]
on my leg, man.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was awkward for me there, too, at that point.
My name's Mike rowe, and I've put a pig on a pedestal.
Why? Because even though he works in the dirt, this noble creature is the embodiment of hard work, self-sacrifice, and a good-natured willingness to get the job done, no matter how dirty.
Day after day, he goes about his business without complaint.
And night after night, he brings home the bacon.
[ Pig snorts .]
I am sorry I said that.
What's on your pedestal?