How an Honest Builder Defied Death and Built Trust

break for how long for two days. This elderly nurse came in and asked my wife. Do you

“want him to wake up? And my wife irritated, irritated, said yes, we want him to wake up.”

I'm awake. My wife goes to get the ICU doctors and they come in and they're they's what happened. And so my wife perceived dumb about the elderly nurse that came in and I woke up. And they said, we don't have an elderly nurse on this floor. As the doctors just said, it's a miracle. There have no other way to explain it. And I knew at that point nothing could stop me.

My canica is a dedicated community minded in solutions driven construction executive in the

founder of Pit Foundation Repair and Constructement LLC. Leveraging his expertise, he helps property owners safeguard their investments through high quality structural solutions, building a foundation of operational excellence and lasting peace of mind. We come in. We give an honest assessment of what's going on with your own. How we're going to fix it. And most importantly the cost which is not what most people think. The living your legacy podcast for

those who live to live a legacy. Hey, welcome back everyone through another episode of

Living Your Legacy Podcasts. I'm your host again Jay Slanger and we're adhered in the quarter finals of the World Cup right. I've been kind of bringing you and all the clients that are having podcasts through the Miami and the downtown studios during the World Cup. But yeah, we got a special special special special guest today that shouldn't even be here and you'll find out all about that

“as we get to know him. But yeah, introduce yourself. What's your name? Where you from and what's your business?”

I am Mike Hanukkah. I have pit foundation repair in Pittsburgh, Kansas. Yeah, Pittsburgh, Kansas. But you also operate in four states, right? Yeah, we're in the four state region of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. All right. So you guys do foundations, right? So what's what's what's the biggest issue with people's foundations? Why do they contact you? Because in the area that we're servicing, it's an old mining area. Okay. And the soils are

terrible that a lot of clay that swells and shrinks and and just moves structures. All right. All the time. So they build a house, they build a foundation, right? These big cement basements. Yeah. Is that how they build them out there? Yeah. Yeah. So they and then after is it usually older houses? 10 years or it just changes. It could be three years. Yeah. I've worked on two year old houses all the way to 125 year old. Wow. So the it's temperature shifts and the soil just

changes and it could make the house go from perfectly level to having a slant. Correct. Leaning tower of pizza. Exactly. Yeah. All right. So actually, that's that's kind of issue here with Miami. I mean, right now we're at South Beach. I hear the Porsche tower is kind of stinking, you know, maybe a few inches a year or two inches a year or so. Wow. Yeah. So yeah. I guess really, really deep. There's a foundation. But yeah, I mean, come on. We're on this small island of sand.

“And you know, yeah, you might have to go quite ways to end it. There's also San Francisco, right?”

Yeah. A famous tower over there. And it's becoming the leaning tower of pizza, right? Yeah. Have you heard anything about that? No. I did see something on the internet this morning of a of a building that's kind of given on one side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's a major issue. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They evacuated the building. Yeah. Yeah. So what's a what's the biggest problem

diagonal? Yeah. Oh, I know. What's the biggest issue you see? It's usually slight. And we set up a

laser and check the floor to see what because sometimes the the floor can bridge. Okay. And

“the foundation is the only thing that's fallen. So what we essentially have to just bring the”

foundation back up to it's original position. But other times they're not so lucky. Yeah, you know, the whole what's that mean they're not so lucky with just raising up the building. Like the floor of the home and the rim joists, the windows are all coming down with the foundation. Oh, so there's already been damage and it's not just, yeah, hey, we'll just lift it up and you're all

good. Yeah. Yeah. It's oh, you're experiencing issues with the windows with the floor and because

you didn't call us in time and it's been maybe, you know, you let it kind of lean for several years. Yeah. It's it's just a lot. It's like the gateway into more issues with the house. Correct. Yeah.

“But generally, when we lift the house, you know, sheet rock clack cracks, we can we can close them.”

We can get the windows work and right indoors work and back to normal. Okay. So, but, you know, there's some cosmetic issues that the issues that they're going to have to deal with. So are you guys working a lot of lasers now? Do you guys still use the old school level or would be out? Yeah. But mainly we use a laser. Yeah. Yeah. We can, you know, it's hard to cover the complete floor with just just a level. Yeah. Yeah. So now you, you point the laser and you get 10 readings in a

in a few shots, right? Right. Yeah. We can set it up where a good elevation and then we can measure the drop, you know, wherever we want to. Oh, gosh, I got you. Yeah. So is it like usually just a few

inches or yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's never really been more than three, four inches. Okay.

And is this something because you said, okay. Well, it's bad soil and then the house shifts and then they fix it. But the system soil. So is this something that they should be checking every couple of years or well, they just need to monitor. If they see it crack, they need to monitor it and make sure, you know, it's not just a movement because structures move in different weather conditions and seasons. Yeah. But main thing is it should it, the cracks open up very much. It's good

time to give it a check. Yeah. Yeah. So it couldn't just be like, yeah, weather extreme weather changes. There could be a few things that cause the cracks. Yeah. Right. So in like, if you've got a crack and you roll a marble and the marble's rolling too. Yeah. It might be a tip. Yeah. Yeah. You're talking about like, there's a trifecta. Right. So the trifecta is, you got a crack.

“You got a slanted floor and then I think that rhyme was a stick and door. Right. So all right,”

that people, you got a home. You got the trifecta. Right. You know, give a foundation guy a ring, right. And it's honest when at that. And honest one like that. So yeah, you're talking about what was really nice is, you know, your answer for what it means to be one of America's best buildings. Right. Now everyone can relate to they got a car problem. You know, you go to the mechanic and and what you're like, man, this slimy dude, you know, why is, you know, I come in for a

tire rotation and then he says, I need ABC and D or, you know, I come in to change my oil and he says, oh, I saw what I opened up that food, you know, problem with this, does that and it's just like, oh, man, I know I'm getting fleece right now. I got to call my uncle Eddie and my brother, you know, everyone that knows something was something to see it to double check this dude if I'm getting fleece or not. Right. Right. So you kind of related that to what you do. Correct.

Yeah, kind of expand on that. Yeah. Well, there's slime. Not in now what you do in terms of you're the slime ball. Right. Right. But what you do in terms of you're not the slime ball. You're giving your honest honest opinions and yeah. So tell us about that. Well, I mean, we come in,

even if I didn't have enough work, but people do that. And we come in, we give an honest

assessment of what's going on with your own. How we're going to fix it. And most importantly, the cost, which is not what most people think that it's going to be. Yeah. They, there's a stereotype that if you're going to fix the foundation, it's going to be tens of thousands of dollars. And sometimes it's, you know, as little as a couple of thousands. Yeah, you know, what's crazy is that like

“in today's world, there's so many scammers. Honestly, I'm still sick of scammers. You know,”

and you're getting scammers everywhere at the, at the mechanic, you know, my mom, right when

when she was building the house, like, you know, she, like, you know, last year I was out home.

Right. And I'm, and I'm cooking, right. And then I'm, I'm like turning on the fan. And then I turn on the fan. It's like, okay, why, you know, the fan above the oven, right? Right. And my mom's an older woman when she was building her house, right? And I was like, why is it still stinkin' here? You know, I go up and I check above the cabinets. And I'm like, there's no exit to the fan. It's just blowing it into the house. And that's something where she got fleeced, you know? And there's other

things, right? Like with like the geothermal, right? There was a dude where it was like, you know, there was four houses in the area with a geothermal. They just didn't stop thinning, right? But now it's guy, she's got a cool house now, you know? Yeah. But yeah, it's just, I'm just so sick of scammers. And then you got people calling you, you can't trust anyone, you know, right? I just want to say, thank you, right? You're being one of the honest dudes, right? Because we just need more of that.

And then when you said, you know, what it means to me to be one of America's best builders, yeah, it's to be the, the trustful guy. Yeah, you know, and I don't have enough of that in our society.

“And I kind of just want to thank you, man. You're welcome. Yeah. And that, and I don't think you should”

thank me. I think it should be a practice that everybody, that it should just be the normal. Yeah. And that's what we do. And, and you know what's kind of unfortunate these days is that everything's getting more expensive and more expensive. Yeah. And the dollar just doesn't have the same value of what it used to back in, right? Because you were saying back in the day, it was, everyone was more, was more trustful, right? You know, in the, in the A's, the 90's, right?

Yeah. And then it's, it's just seems like it's a bigger, it's like a root cause of the bigger problem with society. Yeah. Of, of what's going wrong with, you know, I'm not going to get into a but like government, and just like, yeah, it's like, it's like the culture, it's the trickle down fleecing. Yeah. Exactly. Now we're getting fleece up for the top and trickles down. So now everyone's fleecing and everyone's got to look for a buck here and there. Yeah. But it's, it's tough times, you know?

“Right. But that's why it's nice to have these stressful guys. That's, I did a, an estimate,”

and I ended up getting the work. It was in a lawsuit on a real estate sale. And I was bidding against

two other companies, the highest company was 64,000. Yeah. The second was 58,000. Is this a blind

bidding? Like, no, you don't see the other people. You're kind of just bidding for the, for the gig. Yeah. I didn't see their bid. Yeah. Okay. But the lawyers wanted three quotes. Yeah. And so I went in and did a complete laser setup and thorough assessment. Yeah. Yeah. And we came in at $12,000. She's, and you know, even that's labor costs. Yeah. Yeah. And material costs paying your guys hourly rates, but no overhead. You and your expertise saying, hey, look, I can still make a profit

off this. Right. Yes. Of of, you know, it's usually three times labor and materials and all that stuff. Right. So, but with that in mind, you go into the job. You give your expert opinion on what it would cost. Yes. And then the cheapest one was still three times more than three times when you were offering. Yeah. And the, and the attorneys called me. Yeah. We're, um, in the lawsuit, both of them,

Yeah. And I said, I'm not sure if you're familiar with this industry, but there's

companies that'll, yeah, oversell and thunder to people in the industry get mad at you. Oh, yeah. They're, they, when they bet a job, they tell them what a, actually, what a scam I am. Oh, yeah. I just laughed. I did, I got a job in, in our town and that the homeowner actually kicked the company out of their house. Yeah. Yeah. Because they were using that kind of sales tactic. Yeah. You know, do it, speak for yourself.

And mind, I speak for myself and, and what we can do. And yeah, if you, if you want savings and a good job, yeah, and, and in the trades industry, where to mount this is still important.

“Oh, you bet. You know, and that's what, that's what I tell a lot of my customers is, you know,”

I have to do a good job for you, because a lot of my elderly, and I, I don't want to see your Walmart and you throw a can of peas at me or something. You know what, I had another episode of America's best builder where the father kind of passed down the company to the son. Yeah. And he was telling you got to be truthful and all this because you, you service the community. And yeah, you don't ever want to have fear of walking into the grocery store. Right. And then he didn't

really understood what that meant until he was running the business later. And he started seeing people in his community in the grocery store. And he's like, you know, everyone, hi. Yeah, right?

“Because you are that scammy or whatever. You should write. So yeah, you're saying almost the same thing.”

Exactly. It's a, I'm trying to hide from somebody is not a good practice, nor a, oh, yeah.

Yeah, something you, I don't want to do it. You know, you had another incredible, incredible,

kind of like you, you experience almost, you know, one miracle, but don't pretty much two murals in life. You know, one, one is like, I'm a people listening, hear me out now. This is a certified genuine miracle that this dude, he experienced, right? And it was like the second one, right? The other one is like, okay, I, you know, not as much of a miracle, but still a miracle. But yeah, tell, tell us why it's, it's two miracles. So the first was like, almost a practice miracle.

“Right. Leave you up. Yeah, getting, getting me ready for the second. Yeah, yeah, it's more”

amount. But to the real mirror. Exactly. What was the more amount miracle? The warm up miracle was when I couldn't walk and went to neurologist after neurologist and they kept coming back with the rock diagnosis. Yeah, we don't know. Yeah. All right. And so how many experts did you see before you got diagnosed? Probably, I'm going to say five or six. Oh, wow. Yeah, that doesn't, and this was from the Mayo Clinic to experts. Yes, big hospital. And then it's

almost like every time they can't get a diagnosis, they're probably like, well, this guy's the expert.

Yeah, and this guy's the more of an expert. No, they never referred to me. They just kept, oh, okay,

given, you know, thinking drugs is going to be the Gacha. They're always trying to be some what kind of drug. Yeah. So we did you, did you actually try some drugs? And it was often if it's never working? Yeah. Okay. So it's still not working. So not walking, I go to a neurologist in a town of about 10,000 people. He's a traveling neurologist. He retired from one of the big hospitals. And, and so he had told me about the backlip and pump, which, uh, there's a catheter that

goes to your spine, shoots muscle relaxer. Yeah, into your legs and stops the spasticity and to where it helps people walk. Wow. Well, sounds like, sounds like back laughing pump. Yeah, backlip fun. Yeah. Yeah. And it, you don't get the side effects of, you know, the medicine in your system. And yeah, you found a feeling all walking. Yeah. Yeah. Even if those drugs made you walk, you'd be, yeah. You know, yeah, you're still in, but it just wasn't an accurate. So you got this back laughing

pump backlip and pump. And, and then I got it installed. It's, it's implanted in my side here. Okay.

is there like a chip that that disperses something? Yeah. It's all set up, like I go in every three

“months to have it refill out. And they do everything with an iPad that, and they're the only ones”

that can control it because you don't want somebody who, you know, so they're, they're physically going in there and controlling. Well, and it's released of whatever. Well, through the iPad, through the, like, through a half or something. Yeah. Okay. And so it took, how long did it take for when they surgically implanted this thing? And then how long did it take for it to kind of having a thing? About 24 hours, 24 hours. Yeah. And I was at a rehab hospital. Yeah. And you were

not walking for like three years. Yeah. I mean, pretty much I had to use either crutches or a wheelchair. Yeah. And so I'm using a walker at the rehab going around and it had kicked in and I'm walking and I'm like, I don't need because I felt the strength just come back. And yeah. And it was like, I've pushed the walker aside. And I went, just walked and they were in rehab hospitals. They freak out if you just started walking. Yeah. Well, and I was so happy I started dancing. I was, I'm sure.

Oh, it was the, one of the most joyful days of my life. Wow. Yeah. And I knew at that point nothing could stop me. Yeah. And so that's the warm up miracle. Yeah. Yeah. The, not a laughing matter at the back laughing that got installed. But it's game time. The miracle time. The real deal. Right? Yeah. I was, you could see the look on my face and I was given the interview. And I was like,

“I was like, what? So, yeah. Uh, you literally died. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So that's how this miracle”

goes. Uh, yeah. I died. Right. So yeah. So tell us, how did you die? We drove from to pick Kansas, which was elevation 1,000 roughly 900 to a thousand. We drove to Colorado Springs to see my oldest

son, Joe, uh, when we got there finally, uh, my wife said, oh, you look terrible. And I

she said, I was purple. And I said, I was tired. I just need to go to bed. Yeah. So I went to bed, went to sleep. And that was the last thing I remember. Yeah. Yeah. And then the late night. Right. Yeah. Who comes in? Well, it was actually my son, Luke, came in to wake my wife up. Because I was having like a death rattle. Yeah. What's that? I mean a death rattle. It's just like spasms. Your air just to spelling from your. Yeah. It's just a miracle. Like, oh, God. And so I was

and so my wife takes me to an urgent care, which I give her a lot of trouble. Yeah. Not a bad marriage. I carry. I gotta stop this one. Yeah. And so when we and she actually, they, the urgent care, then called the ambulance, which, um, you know, put innovative me and get all the stuff to kind of keep me alive to get to the hospital. So I'm in the hospital a couple days. And like I said, during that time, I, I remember looking up my wife and telling her that the, you know,

everything's going to be fine. Yeah. Blood, blood. And I've always told my wife,

don't ever take me off his life. Yeah. I'll come back. So how, why, why do you say dead? Because these people were just like, you're on life support. You were flatlining or you were brain dead. It was brain dead. There was no heartbeat. There was no. Wow. For how long? For two days.

“For two days. Yeah. For, well, I mean, that's why they, they had to put life support on me to keep”

my organs. Okay. Yeah. Go on. Okay. And, uh, and that at least my lungs, you know, oxygen. Okay. So now you're living by a machine. Yeah. On life support. Okay. And then what happened, man? Some crazy shit. Yeah. Well, this, this, this there's a little, you know, so craziness. Okay.

uh, she needed to call family and friends and, uh, because they've never seen anybody come out of this.

So she does, she calls everybody and then, um, her and her best friend are in the room.

“And, uh, this elderly nurse came in and asked my wife, do you want him to wake up?”

And my wife irritated, irritated said, yes, we want him to wake up. And she's the nurse that asked again, you know, you sure you want him to wake up. Yeah. And her best friend who's a little feisty, Stacy, she said, you know, if you're not like you, well, wake him up. So there's your wife and her friend, Stacy, talk to this nurse. Yeah. Talk to the elderly nurse. I asked him twice. Hey, you want him to wake up? Yeah. And then what's his elderly nurse, do? She lifts my

gown. Yeah. And this is my wife, down the story. Yeah. And lifts my gown gives me a 360 degree

“titty twister. Yeah. And that's when I, uh, and I was tied down to the, um, excuse me,”

restrained to the bed. Yeah. And, uh, you know, and the elderly nurse says, hi, honey, do you know who these people are? Yeah. And I'm looking at him and I know, I mean, it's my wife and her best friend. And I look out the wind, there's a four by eight window there. And all they could see is pikes peak. And I thought is the most beautiful side I ever saw. I'm awake. My wife goes to get the ICU doctors and they come in and they're, they's what happened. And so my wife proceed to tell them

about the elderly nurse that came in gave me a titty twister. And I woke up and they said, we don't have

“an elderly nurse on this floor. The oldest person is 40. Yeah. And not elderly. No. And the,”

the nurse, the elderly nurse left and never to be seen again. Wow. So that was my angel.

Yeah. So you think, and see, you would think that you would be in contact with this woman over time to thank her for sitting your life. But you never saw her again. There's no word, nobody knew the hospital that no one knew who this, you know, something that just came in. Titty twist. This is true. Well, yeah, brought you back from the dead, which is not a medical in any medical records. Yeah. Yeah. As a resuscitation doctor has taken, no, yeah, should be. You know, you may

keep his failed twist, twist a little nip, you know, and that would learn. Yeah. All right, man, I mean, that is that is crazy. Yeah. And then the doctors even, I mean, it's in my medical records. As the doctors just said, it's a miracle. Yeah. No other way to explain it. Wow. Yeah, and miracle. And I had no repercussions of being brain dead and on life support for that long. Right. Wow, man. That is crazy story. Well, to to bring it back, right? First of all,

the lesson here is never underestimate the power of a T-t twist. That's right. All right. That's right.

Yeah. Or the elderly woman. Okay. Yeah. And then going back, right? What are you most excited about right now? I could be business, could be personal life, but I always ask everyone, what do you most excited about? Oh, I love my family. I've got five kids. My wonderful wife. Yeah. And kids. Yeah. 10 grand kids. Yeah. That you were really living life after. Yeah. And you got me. Yeah. And just enjoy and life outside of work, but I enjoy every bit of work as well.

Yeah. Yeah. And and that was one of the reasons I started my business with help homeowners that don't understand, which, you know, and I use this percentage, you know, the homeowners I run into 98% of do not know. And the other 2% do not know either. Yeah.

why the experts like you. Yeah. So yeah. So how how to like, what are the four states you operate in?

“And how do people find you? It is Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. All right.”

And you can find me on my website, www.pitfoundationrepaired.com. And that's a PI. One to your

two teas, two teas, PIT. Okay. And then pit foundation repair. All right. You hit foundation

“repair.com. Yeah. You heard this. It's email, heavy. Is this guy call? He's one of the good guys,”

but thank you so much for sharing your story coming here today. It was a privilege talking to you. It was great. And the work that you do, man. You bet. All right. Thank you. And thank you guys for

“tuning in again. And you know, listen to all these stories that we're privileged to tell here”

the living your legacy podcast and on inside success. You know, I'm very happy to have this job

and speak to so many amazing people. And hopefully you guys enjoyed listening to it. So thanks again.

Cheers everyone.