Let's Talk with Solar Detach & Reset

Send us a text

Tyler Hutchings, owner of Solar Detach and Reset, reveals the critical intersection of roofing and solar that most homeowners never consider until they face an expensive problem. With 15 years of industry experience, Tyler founded his specialized service after recognizing the disconnect between roofing and solar companies was creating headaches for homeowners and compromising roof integrity. Perhaps most surprising is the discussion about birds and solar systems. Pigeon nests under panels don't just create unsightly messes—they can cause serious damage. Bird debris creates dams during rainstorms that push acidic waste under tiles, eating through underlayment and accelerating roof deterioration. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another edition of the Harman Solar
Podcast.
I'm Rob Fromano, vp of Salesand Marketing at Harman Solar,
and with me, as always, is BenWalschlager.
Mr Everything is what we callhim.
Sometimes he's Mr Somethings,mr Other Things, but today he'll
be Mr Everything again.
Ben, how are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Good, good, it's good to be back.
Is it good it's good to be backon the podcast?
Let's do this, get our newseries here going.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, a bunch of new stuff coming down the pipe.
New studio coming soon, aswe'll have it's going to be a
whole new Harmon Solar podcast.
A lot coming up.
Stay tuned.
New year new everything, neweverything.
And speaking of new everything,today we have a new guest.
Yeah, we got a guy shirt yeahand I've gotten rid of all my

(01:05):
harm and stuff because you knowI don't know why.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, because you know.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, actually you don't know, I don't know so and
today we're going to talk umwith solar detach and reset.
So they're a company that wework with that does some
different things that we'll getinto what they do.
But we thought it'd be a goodidea to bring one or more of our
vendors in or somebody we workwith to kind of talk about what
they do and how they help us insolar and what they do in the
industry.
So today we've got TylerHutchins Hutchings.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
There you go, from Solar Detach and Reset.
What is up, gentlemen, I'mexcited to be here.
Yeah, the Hutchings that alwaysgets everyone.
Is there a G and an S in there?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Is it I and S so?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
yeah, don't worry about chopping it up.
And yeah, happy to be here.
I'm glad, you're happy, I'm not, yeah, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Just so you know.
If you do want to be on thepodcast, you have to have a
beard.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, that's like everyone here has a beard today.
It's very important.
It's a requirement.
Sorry, that's what my wife saystoo.
It's a requirement.
So now are you the owner ofSolar Detach and Reset five
years ago and a hundred percentowner on it?
Yep.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Five years ago, so you've been here.
Have you been in this industrythat long or longer than five
years?
Obviously yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
So my story goes back almost 15 years now.
I started off with Sun ValleySolar Solutions, oh okay, and
I've actually, through them,been recommending you guys for a
long time because, in mypersonal opinion, harmon Solar
and Sun Valley Solar are the twoleaders in the local Arizona
market when it comes to doingstuff right.
So even early on, when I was asupervisor for them, I'd get

(02:30):
questions all the time.
You know, who do you recommendfor solar?
Of course, sun Valley.
Well, give me one more option.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
You got to call Harmon too, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
So yeah, but yeah.
So I started off installing,worked up to supervising with
them and running the field teamsand started getting into the
service department with them.
And that's where we startedpicking up on a big need to get
all this stuff out of the wayfor the roofers and we we
ventured off to start solardetachment reset interesting.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I had no idea you were at sun valley yeah, yeah
some valley.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
So I, I trust me, I I love you guys, I've been, I've
been a big fan of Harmon for along time.
So yeah, I was working withRuss and Joe over there for
about 10 years before I left andstarted Solar Detection.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
They're good guys.
They're not as good as Harmon,but they're good guys.
Right, right.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
We call them our frenemies.
No, they are good guys too.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So I mean I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
If you're going to talk to anybody, it'd be us,
it'd be them, yeah, and we canget into the whys behind that.
If you want in a minute, butthere's a few key things that I
qualify for a solar installationcompany to be able to recommend
them, and you guys are checkingall the boxes.
Sun Valley does a pretty goodjob with that too, so hats off
to you there.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
I think we're going to talk about that.
Let's Solar Detach and Reset.
What do you guys do?
People are probably going.
Okay, that's an interestingname.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah, it actually hasn't always been called Solar
Detach and Reset because mybackground is in operations,
technical and so marketing,running a business all a big
learning curve over the lastfive years Branding.
You guys are coming from sales.
You're building a great brandwith this podcast.
You know what's up.
I've been picking up on a lotof that over the last five years

(04:07):
and so when I started thebusiness, we were actually
called solar restore and itdidn't really make much sense.
I didn't know how to market.
I was at home shows.
I was at I was just kind ofcasting a wide net everywhere to
try and get traction.
And I remember being at homeshows and people would come by
at the home show and they'd belike you know forget solar, you
know right.
You're trying to sell me solar.

(04:28):
I just walked by 15 guys tryingto sell me solar or I already
got solar, or I hate solar,whatever it is.
And so I was like man, I got toswitch my brand up to let
people know, right, I'm nottrying to sell new solar.
So we switched it and prettymuch put the name of what we do,
the description of what we do,into the name of the business.
We detach it and we reset it,yeah, and so we've been rolling

(04:51):
a solar, detach and reset forabout three years now and we've
been targeting, you know,relationships with roofers since
then, and so that's really ournumber one.
It's more of a B2B marketingstrategy.
It's building relationships tobridge the gap between the solar
and roofing industry.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, so when you say you detach it, let's, let's
talk about that so people mightbe going.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
So what they remove solar, yeah yeah, we always used
to call them removal andreinstalls.
Right, I figured I could savetime with a few syllables and
get a little shorter on the name, right, right um, yeah, shorter
, shorter domain name, but yeah,so we detach it.
Let me back up.
So when I was running theservice department, we started
getting calls hey, can you takemy solar off the roof?

(05:33):
Well, sure, I guess we can gotake it off.
So we started trying to figureout how to take it off and put
it back, and what we realizedwas there's so many different
systems out there and it wasmessy.
And there's so many differentsystems out there and it was
messy and so we wanted toreplace everything.
Every time at sun valley allnew racking, all new mids, all
new mounts on, we pull new wirefrom the inverter up to the top.
Oh wow, and we're we're goingto charge this much a panel.

(05:54):
I'm like we were sitting therethrowing away unirack racking so
that we could put iron ridge on, and anyone in the solar game
knows those two are almostidentical.
You can buy parts for them.
All the hardware is good,customers already having to
panic, wrap them for the roof,and now we're adding extra cost
because we can't reuse stuff.
So I was like man, if we canjust figure out how to put a

(06:14):
plan on what is reusable andwhat's not and and try and save
some money for the customer butalso build a relationship with
the roofers to provide a betterexperience to the customer.
Because one of the other thingsI noticed in that service
department at Sun Valley is itwasn't Sun Valley's number one
priority, right?
They wanted to sell solar, newsolar, and so there just seemed

(06:35):
to be occasional schedulingissues, like all these different
roofers.
Like we'd show up, roofers arestill on site, or you know
roofers coming in behind andsaying, hey man, were you going
to replace these broken tile?
Oh yeah, we were.
You know it's on our plan.
You got to let me know.
Like communication breakdowns,there's a lot of roofers in the
state and they weren't athousand registered Right and so
to start building relationshipswith them.

(06:58):
I'm sure you guys know SunValley also has a sister roofing
company, azul Roofing, and so Ireally started talking to the
guy that was running Azul.
He now owns Eco RoofingSolutions, a gentleman named
Eric Perry.
Hey, how do you want thesemounts sealed up?
Like, are we doing it right?
How do you want to becommunicated with?
What are your guys' needs?
And I started figuring out thatroofers really hate solar guys

(07:24):
and I'm like, okay, it makessense, like these guys been
around since homes have beenbeing built here come all these
electricians, yeah putting holesin my roof, breaking tile, not
communicating, not taking theblame if there's a problem.
And so, man, how do I startbuilding some trust?
Because if these two industriesare so close together, like
what would happen if we startedworking closer together, what
kind of experience would that befor the homeowner?
And that was really thefoundation of the model we were,

(07:45):
we were after when we startedsolar detection reset, solar
restore let's go, let's, let'stake a step back for the
audience.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
So, um, I'm sure people are sitting there going.
Well, why is he taking solarpanels off a roof?
Right, right, what's thepurpose of that?
So you do you want to talk?

Speaker 1 (07:59):
yeah, so we were talking about roofing.
So the the obvious is you takethe panels off the roof for
roofing, but you know why doesit need to be re-roofed?
Or are there other reasons whyyou take modules off a roof?
Yeah, you know, besides roofing.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Great, great question .
So yes, occasionally.
Most of the time it's forroofing issues.
So, the primary roof here inArizona is a concrete tile roof,
so most of our customersprobably have some type of
concrete tile up on the roof.
Looking at these picturesbehind me, it's just a sea of
concrete tile roofs, right.
And so a lot of customers orhomeowners don't understand that

(08:35):
there's an underlaymentunderneath that tile and they
see the tile and then that'sgoing to last longer than me
it's a piece of concrete.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, roofs in good shape, we're good yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
But the truth is, and what people oftentimes find and
learn the hard way, is that alifespan of a roof is 25 years
on that underlayment especiallyif it was a tract house, new
build, the type of material theywere using you're going to get
about 25 years on thatunderlayment, which is a piece
of paper underneath the tilethat actually keeps the water
out of the home.
Concrete tile is going to shed80, 90% of the water, but it's

(09:08):
not 100% waterproof and so whenthat underlayment dries out, it
begins to crack and get brittleand it allows water into the
roof.
So that's one thing that cancause a new roof or roof
replacement.
The other thing that can causeit is there are a lot of people
out there that leave broken tilewhen they install some solar or
don't seal up mounts correctlyor cause damage to that roof,

(09:30):
and so what starts to happen iswe take a 25 year old roof and
now that solar slope maybe thelifespan got cut in half on that
roof underlayment because therewas some broken tile that was
allowing debris and water inlong-term and it expedited the
lifespan.
I'm sorry.
The roof got shortened up from25, now it's maybe 15.
So we detached some systemsthat have been installed one

(09:51):
year.
We detached some systems thathave been installed 25 years,
and so it's always a shame ifsomeone just put solar up right
and no one explained that roofcondition on the front end and
now they have to incur thisextra cost.
But essentially, to get back toyour question, yeah, it's.
Someone looks up after a bigrainstorm and they notice a
water spot on their ceiling andthey call a roofer and the

(10:11):
roofer goes out and says, hey,you got a bad underlayment, but
all those panels are in my way.
And they can either say, hey,go find someone to get them out
of the way, get with youroriginal installer or Google
someone.
Or they can say, hey, I gotthis guy that I know like and I
trust.
Uh, because we've been workingwith him, I know he's not gonna
break tile on your roof, he'sgonna seal mounts up.

(10:31):
Let me have him come out andget you some options on getting
the solar out and we come in asa team so the roofer won't touch
it.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
The modules, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, do you
really want a roofer touchingyour?
Probably, not, probably, not,probably not?

Speaker 3 (10:42):
yeah, and there's also some legality to it.
Right, there's licenseclassifications, so we want to.
I've got a cr 11, which is acommercial residential
electrical license.
I'm sure you guys havesomething similar on your end
installing solar.
Um, yeah, these roofers aresubbing out the roof work,
oftentimes to a sub crew, andthese guys are just swapping
underlayments all day long so ifyou threw them a curveball to

(11:03):
try and wire something up.
It's going to void the warrantyon anything and usually we're
going to void a warranty ifthere's one still intact too,
and we can get into that in aminute if you want and what
happens with that but yeah,they're not going to be able to
get it back up and operating andfunctional every single time
like we are so watching this athome.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I want you for a second.
So we talked about this, we'vedone our roofing podcast and
we've gone over this.
If your roof is 20 years old,um, probably want to do
something with it before you putsolar on it, right, it's a
valid point.
You're saying you're seeingstuff that's one year and now
all of a sudden, it needs are-roof.
I mean, the incurred cost thatyou're going to have for that is
kind of ridiculous yeah,because your services aren't

(11:41):
free, right, right.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
What yeah so?

Speaker 1 (11:45):
it's one of those things.
If you have the modules on yourroof and you have to take them
off and put them back becauseyou have to re-roof, that's at a
cost.
That's not a cost that you want.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
So let's get the roofing done first, it's a good
cost too, yeah, but it's usuallynot a cost that's discussed
when the solar is sold.
I know you guys are but mostpeople they want to sell the
solar and it's a shame becausethere's an opportunity to sell a
roof and solar together andhave some additional benefits
there.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
We talk about this.
We've talked about roofcondition and solar.
We've talked about it until webeat the dead horse right.
One of the things we talk aboutat Harman is we put a 30-year
roof penetration warranty onyour system.
Now that is three inches aroundthe penetration for the rails
of your solar system.
That's it.
It's just a three inches.
It's not saying that your wholeroof is warrantied, just the

(12:32):
holes that we're making in threeinches around them.
Now we're not going to go aheadand put solar on a roof that we
feel is not going to hit that30 years.
We feel confident that we'regoing to make that warranty, but
most people out there um and wecan talk about that don't care.
It's about selling you thesystem, getting it on your roof
and getting the commission intheir pocket that's it they're
done there are certaininstallers that are not around

(12:54):
anymore.
I could think of one behemothand we all know who that is that
would install on any roof theydidn't, a roof could be bowed
they didn't care, they werenever going to put it on that
roof because they were going toget that system done and get
paid for it.
Yeah, and that's where harmonand then a couple other guys are
different, where we just won'tdo that?

Speaker 1 (13:09):
yeah, we can't do that.
We'll walk away from a deal,you know we have walked away.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's what you have to be willing to do.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, we take a look at a roof in a situation hey,
we're not gonna put modules onthis roof unless you replace it.
You know, we'll give you aquote for it and everything.
And the homeowner's like no,just put it on there.
Nope, we won't do it.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
They said they'll do it.
I remember a specific customeron there.
Forget this, the exact scenario.
We walked away.
We said we're not doing it.
They said, well, they'll saythey do it, they're going to do
it.
So they went ahead and had itdone with them.
They gave us a bad reviewonline.
They started having leaks andissues.
Did they call us to fix?

Speaker 1 (13:42):
it?
Oh no, yeah, they did.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
They called us and we're like we told you I hate to
say it we said it for a reasonand now they had to pay all this
expense to get this thing fixedwe should have an.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
I told you so, department, we do.
It's your phone number.
It's my number.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
No, it is but it's it's so critical when you say
that I'm like, I'm like I'mthinking of my own house, like I
, I have hip and ridge seals.
Yeah, I put on there just tomake sure that I don't have a
lot of that leakage issue.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
So a lot of people don't know what that is.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
We've talked about that in a roofing podcast too.
It's just basically like agasket seal on the hips and the
ridges that doesn't allow waterto get underneath the concrete
stuff and hit the underlayment.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, to break it down even farther.
You guys, you said 10 years old, 15 years old.
What do you look for like?
What's that cap for?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
you guys, when you're like, is it just based off the
looking at that lap and actuallyinspecting the other thing,
we're looking at the condition,yeah and, and that's the best
way because some people don'thave a true way.
Some people buy a house fiveyears ago they didn't know that
it was in.
It was re-roofed maybe twoyears before that and they have
no idea.
Maybe it's in really goodcondition, yeah but some been
sitting there for 20 years inthe phoenix heat and we know
what.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
So if the lifespan of a roof is 25 years, what would
you guys say?

Speaker 1 (14:43):
the lifespan of a solar system typically is Solar
hasn't been around as long asroofs, but Right, but they have
25-year warranties, 25-yearwarranties.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
So we have both.
These things have the samelifespan.
So if we can start thelifespans together and replace
them at the same time.
That's in the best interest.
I had one guy who had a10-year-old roof, put solar on.
That solar lasted him I thinkhe called me 10, 12 years after
he had the solar installed.
So now the roof is 22 years old.
Solar had paid for itself andbeen a net positive for this guy

(15:11):
for a few years.
But he still needed to pay fora detachment and reset at year
10, which pretty much sucked upall of his savings into paying
for that detachment, reset andthe new roof.
And he's starting over againnow with 12-year-old panels
getting reinstalled onto hisroof.
So we try and upgrade thepanels but really starting these
things together at the sametime ensures they're going to.

(15:32):
They're going to die together.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What would you say?
And I've heard people say thisbefore, so let's, let's get your
opinion.
Um, people try to sell the.
They sell the fact that if youhave solar on your roof, it
actually enhances the lifetime,the life of your roof.
It makes it last longer becauseyou have panels up there, so
it's deflecting the heat.
You're not having the samebeating that you would have if
you didn't have it.
What do you think about thatstatement?

(15:53):
Because people make thatstatement.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Um, I'd say not true for tile roofs.
Uh, because it's not affect thetie, the tiles already shading
the underlayment.
Um on a shingle roof.
Um, I you're going to see alittle bit Some shingle roofs
you go on that are north andsouth facing roofs.
The north side roof is reallygood condition and the south

(16:15):
roof looks like crap.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
Why.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Because it's taking the beating on that sun.
So there is something to that.
So on a shingle roof you pullthe panels, we're going to see
better condition directlyunderneath the panels for the
shingles.
However, all around theperimeter of those panels it's
still been hitting sun and so ifyou're still taking damage
outside the perimeter of thatsolar panel array, you know
you're not going to just gopatch and redo the roof around

(16:38):
the solar.
You're going to do the wholeslope anyways, right?

Speaker 1 (16:41):
yeah, right.
So so take us through thatprocess of what you guys do,
like you know yeah, it'sprobably not cut and dry of just
I'll just come up there andunscrew some things and throw
some panels on the ground, justhigh level, like what goes
through you guys' process oftaking them off, obviously in
the roofing aspect, and thenputting them back on.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah.
So I think one thing that's keyto us is we have a project
coordinator on every job.
That's managing communicationsbetween the homeowner and the
roofer and ensuring everything'sgoing smooth, and so setting
expectations on the front endabout where would you like these
stored in your garage, in yourbackyard, putting a plan in
place, letting them know of anymaterial that needs to be
replaced on the front end,making sure there's not going to

(17:19):
be change orders, so getting agood plan.
After that plan's in place, wewill schedule very closely with
the roofers to minimize downtimefor the solar.
So how long do you need for theroof?
We'll come in a day or twobefore.
We'll come in a day or twoafter.
We'll make sure this thing isscheduled nice and tight so the
solar is not down, especiallyduring the summer.
It's a big concern for thehomeowner, and, and so after we

(17:42):
get the schedule, we're pullingeverything off.
First thing we're going to dois a performance verification
and system inspection with lotsof pictures and to document
everything.
If there's an issue on this job, we don't want to get blamed
for it.
We want to be the one providingsolutions on the front end.
Hey, this is a code compliantissue we noticed as we're
pulling it off, let's show thehomeowner, let's talk about it

(18:03):
as soon as possible so we'llmake sure the system's working
properly.
If it is a leased system, wewill get a third party agreement
with that leasing company.
Make sure there's additionalpaperwork filled out,
certificates of insurance,whatever needs to be done to
make sure everything's legit forSunrun, tesla, solarcity

(18:23):
systems, things like that.
So after we start, we do theperformance verification, we, we
, we document everything reallywell.
So, exact location of thepanels on the roof, so they're
going back in the exact samespot, um, where all the home
runs out.
We're going to make a customstring diagram where we build
out location of J boxes, jumperwires, all the wiring schematics

(18:47):
, um, and then we are going toorganize everything that comes
off, so all the the certaintypes of clamps will go in one
bucket and other types of clamps, t-bolts, in another bucket.
Um, and so it's.
It's super clean and organizedand we we know um what we need
to bring out next time ifanything does need to be
replaced.
Um, when we pull the mounts, wewe put some some sealant down

(19:12):
where we yank that mount out,even though the roofer is coming
in a day or two later.
It might monsoon, right wemight pop up shower.
So sealing that roof well, wherewe yank the mount out, is
important.
And then communicating with theroofer, getting everything
stored where the customer wantsit, nice and clean and organized
.
Um, allowing the roofer gettingeverything stored where the
customer wants it, nice andclean and organized, allowing
the roofer to come do their job.
Now, through this process,we're checking in with the

(19:33):
roofer and the homeowner hey, isthat roof done?
When he said it's going to bedone, how is our crew doing?
Some outbound calls Make sureeverything's going smooth from
that project coordinator.
Then once we confirm roofcomplete, we're on track for
that reset.
We'll go out.
Uh, typically get a newmountain there's.
Usually the mounts are gettingreplaced because there's too
much sealant or it's a bad typeof mount that we want to reuse

(19:55):
and we're sealing it back up um,better than before.
Usually you guys seal yourmounts well.
I've seen your house, but youknow how most people are sealing
them out there.
So that's what we find, um, andso we're upgrading that.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
You know we're giving them a bottom flashing and
putting some more stuff on thesemounds to give them peace of
mind when you, when you run intoa job that someone used a tile
hook on, yeah, do you go back tothe tile hook or do you do
something different?

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Uh, you know.
So the thing we want to filterthrough is is this okay with the
roofer, is this okay with thehomeowner, is it secure?
And is it secure and is itsealed, and you know?
And so a tile hook does checkthose boxes.
The downside to the tile hookis, um, it hooks out from
underneath the tile and it canpop tile up slightly.
And so if if you have the wrongtype of tile hook or a tile's

(20:41):
not sitting well on it, youmight just shave those tiles
down, make sure it's proper andwe're not popping tile up.
The tile replacement system isnice because you get extra tile
on the roof that you can use toswap out any broken tile with.
So it can be smooth, eventhough it's a little bit more of
a I don't want to say pain toinstall.
There's a learning curve.

(21:01):
It might be an adjustment, butit's still not as fast as the
tile hook.
So I'm not opposed to the tilehook.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
So you're putting it back to what it was, but trying
to make it even better than itwas, if you can.
It's all about this.
Way it's sealed, yeah yeah it'sall about what, how.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
What are you doing where those holes are going
through the roof, whether it's atile hook or a tile replacement
?
How?

Speaker 2 (21:18):
long.
I know there's gonna bedifferent sizes and different
systems, but a typical, let'ssay a 10k system, how long does
it take you guys to do yourprocess?
I mean just your process?
I know the roofer has to dotheir work, but what do you?
How long does it take you?

Speaker 3 (21:28):
yeah, I mean we're, we can detach.
One crew can detach up to 70 80panels in a day and you know if
we're resetting.
There's a lot of variables.
Right, two-story, multi-array,right, isn't one of those solar
city tesla jobs that take alittle?

Speaker 2 (21:41):
bit longer, because there's a skirt and some.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
So of course there's factors, but typically 30 to 40
panels on a reset and and in aday.
So we go above that 30 to 40mark.
It'd become a two day at thatpoint okay okay, yeah, so you
figure that again they're about.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
There are two to three days in roofer is going to
take however long they take, sothis could be a weak process I
feel like the putting it back isprobably one of the most
crucial aspects, because thelast thing that you want is a
homeowner going.
You know, know, if some issuecomes up and well, they're the
ones that put it back, and thisis so.
Obviously you're probablymeticulous with taking it off,
but putting all the modules andeverything back is probably, I

(22:17):
would say, even more crucial,because that's like your stamp
on the job, like this is notonly back the way it was, but
it's a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Yeah, I mean we give a new workmanship warranty on
every nut bolt or electricalconnection that we touch.
We offer a two, five or 10 yearoption on that workmanship.
So if someone's out of theirwarranty they can get put back
into a new warranty with us atthe time of detached reset.
Or maybe they have two yearsleft on their existing, we'll
extend it up to 10.
But we also give 100 money backno leak guarantee.
So you're talking about threeinch radius on all your mounts.

(22:52):
Yeah, that's what's warranty.
If any of my mounts leak withinthat three inches, I'm going to
refund them every penny for thesolar detach and reset, because
I'm selling peace of mind right, I'm selling peace of mind.
I'm so confident my ceiling, Ihaven't had to do it once that
was gonna be my next questionhow long is that warranty?

Speaker 2 (23:06):
it's two, five or ten years?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
that's two, five or ten also yeah, wow, and so it's
because, when, when, whensomeone's calling me, they're
not thinking about getting newsolar.
It's not a want, it's like man.
This thing is unexpected neat,there's water coming in my house
.
Sure they want peace of mindthat these a couple hundred
holes that are going back againare going to be solid and
they're never gonna have toworry about this, this 20, 30

(23:29):
000 roof and this detach andreset for a long time to come I
would think the downside may beum, let's say somebody has a
system installed and it's beeninstalled for two, three years,
right, and they need and theyneed this service.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Um, like for instance at harman right, we provide
that service as well.
We do remove and reinstalls aswell.
We do the same thing you do, um, so we, but it's our work, so
we warrant, we continue towarranty our work.
I'm assuming let's say there'sa company that puts their system
up and then two years later itneeds an issue.
They go to you.
That would that impact.
It could impact the warrantiesthey're getting from that solar
company.

(24:01):
Yeah, their workmanship, theirleak warranty, that all probably
goes away.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, like if you guys install the system I don't
want to use you guys as a badexample, but if another company
installed a, system and twoyears goes by and they need a
detach and reset and thatcompany never explained that
this was a thing oh bad on them,right because they didn't look
at like going back to notlooking at the roof.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
Right, right man, you didn't tell me about that.
And then a roofer goes andlooks at it and they're like you
got got like seven broken tileunder those panels.
Just so you know too, they'renot going to, they don't trust
that company anymore, Right andso trust.
They're going to go looking forsomeone else and that roofer is
going to recommend us, and sowe are going to void a warranty,
if it is existing.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
And that's why we offer a new one.
That's good that you do thatbecause I know if it was a
Harmon job, we warranty for 30years If someone else were to go
in there and touch it obviouslythat voids all that warranty,
yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Cause I'm going to loosen up everything.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
We have a 25 year workmanship warranty, a 30 year
penetration warranty, that wouldbe gone.
Yeah, you would pick that up,which I think that's great that
you do that, cause I bet youthere's companies out there that
don't do that.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah there's definitely a lot of companies
that don't do it and, as youguys know, you talked about some
behemoths out there in theindustry that aren't around
anymore, like these companiesthat are going out of business
left and right.
They need homes for someone tohelp service this stuff.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
You know to that point.
So this is a really good thingto take away from, just if
you're going to lose all yourwarranties.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
They're gone.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Right.
Another way to lose them is byyour serial installer going out
of business.
Yeah, and there's a stat outthere that I talked about last
week from 2022, the top 10installers in the country,
they're all out of business.
All 10 from 2022.
That's insane.
Yeah, right of business.
All 10 from 2022.
That's insane, right.
But that's what this industryhas gone through.
And then us that are leftstanding are, for there's a

(25:53):
reason.
We're left standing, right,it's how we do business, it's
what we do.
We're not going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Right and that's and that and that's huge.
But you have to overcome apotential trust issue with the
homeowner that sees all thesecompanies going out of business.
You have to build trust thatyou're not like them.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Right.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah, and and, and we do that similarly by, by
positioning ourselves as like,like we're not trying to sell
new solar.
You know we're different.
We were here to service all thesolar already installed.
You know, on the back end here.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
It's important and we talk about this all the time
it's important to make sure thecompany's been around.
Do you do diligence on thecompany?
This is our 50th year at Harman.
Right, we're doing our 50-yearanniversary this year.
That's a big accomplishmentthat we've been around for 50
years four generations of Harman.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
It's not a coincidence.
It's not a coincidence that thecompanies around are doing
things the right way.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
When it got really bad two, three years ago and
everybody was dropping likeflies, I mean we were still fine
, we're fine.
It's not an issue, right.
We just keep going becausewe're so diversified.
We've talked about this as well.
We do so many different things.
We're not just in one part ofthe business.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah, so we as a company have lasted longer than
our warranties that we offer.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
That's important.
I wonder how many people cansay that yeah, and we put that
tagline out there, right?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
You should check and see is the company the company?
They haven't we offer a twomonth warranty?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah Well, there's you talk about like the I almost
want to call it like thewarranty race that happened.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
It happened in the roofing industry too.
It's happening.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Now it happened.
It's oh, I got a 10.
Now the next guy's got a 12.
Then we got a 15.
Now we got a 20.
Now we got a 30 and someone'sgoing to come out.
But so to that's great.
Someone comes in with somelifetime or 50 year and you have
to really get them tounderstand.
What does this truly mean?
How long have they been around?

Speaker 2 (27:32):
What does that think of a big installer that had a
lifetime their life?

Speaker 1 (27:36):
is over.
It's their lifetime.
The warranty is of theirlifetime, not your life.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
That's exactly it.
You get this man.
It doesn't.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
It's not worth the paper, it's on right, you got to
look at the company, so worththe paper it's on.
Right, you gotta look at thecompany, but you gotta, you
gotta explain this to the, tothese customers.
Right, as you're going upagainst these guys, I'm sure all
the time.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
So one of the things that we partner with with you is
so.
This is important too.
So I'm going to give theexample right in my house, I
have solar on my house, I have a10k system, and I live in a
neighborhood that has a lot ofdarn pigeons in it yeah, you do.
There's, there's a ton ofpigeons out here, and I didn't
have any protection from thatfor my system for the first two
months because of whateverreason I don't even remember

(28:12):
what it was, but I had pigeonsnesting under my system.
I had bird crud all over mysidewalk.
It was ridiculous.
And so we, as a company, weused to do a lot ourselves.
We installed bird proofing orwhatever you want to call it,
and I don't have the issueanymore, and it's been 10 years.
That finger, whatever you wantto call it, and I don't have the
issue anymore, and it's been 10years.
You, that's what we partnerwith, you, you guys, actually do
all of that for us right now,yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
So when I left Sun Valley I asked Russ.
I was like, hey man, you knowthe only way I can pick up all
your bird guard contracts justto help me get the ball rolling
with this new business.
And he's like yeah, we'll startusing you guys for all our all,
our all, our bird guard, and sowe were getting some jobs from
that, you know.
And I was like man I really likeharman, I'm gonna go stop in
over there and I believe uh talkto uh brad yep and uh, I talked

(28:56):
to brad and and kind of droppedoff my card and some
information, told him I did birdguard, seeing if I can get in
with you guys.
And he called me about a monthlater.
He's like hey, you know theguys were using something
happened.
I won't't get into it, butsomething happened.
We're looking, wondering if wecan meet down, sit and talk.
And so I went and sat down withBrad and I was like, hey, yeah,

(29:17):
let's, we went and finishedthat job.
They couldn't finish it.
And since then we've beenworking with you guys to install
bird guard on a lot of your newsystems and you know, I know
you guys have a solid servicedepartment.
So even on some customers whoare calling in who already have
the bird issue, like you did,we'll go clean all that debris
off the roof.
It's important to get it outfrom underneath the panels
before installing the bird guardtalk about that so what?

Speaker 2 (29:38):
what problems can birds and critters cause for a
solar system?
What?

Speaker 3 (29:41):
do you run into?
Yeah, who cares of the nestright?

Speaker 1 (29:42):
yeah, I do well.
Yeah, it's like, why ty you?

Speaker 3 (29:44):
do solar detach and reset?
Why even mess with bird guard?
And it's it.
Yeah, it's like why, ty, you dosolar detach and reset?
Why even mess with bird guard?
And it's a needed service.
But also it's causing roofingissues, the birds.
It's taking away from peace ofmind for the customer.
Right, you got poop coming offthe roof into your yard.
You can't go barbecue and walkbarefoot back there.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
You're worried about the dog getting in.
It's all in one spot usuallyright.
Yeah, it's all in one spotusually right.
Yeah, it's bad.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
So you're losing peace at your home.
But also when debris getsunderneath the panels, the bird
debris and they start buildingnests.
Those nests will dam up waterduring heavy rains.
And that dam will push wateruphill under the tile.
When it does that, it takesbird debris with it.
Now you have wet bird debrissitting on that underlayment and

(30:31):
the poop, the bird debris, isacidic and so that moisture of
that acidic poop will eatthrough the underlayment and
cause a roof leak and the needfor a detachment reset.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Really good.
Wow yeah, didn't even thinkabout that yeah, I knew nesting
under there was a problem.
But then the like oh yeah, whenit rains it forms a dam and
water and this.
And I'm like, oh, that's a bigproblem now.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
I didn't even think, yeah that's crazy so if we look
at it from that perspective,these birds, if you don't take
care of them, can cost a lot ofmoney, yeah, and cost of a new
roof and a detached reset.
That maybe isn't needed quiteyet, but you expedited, you
expedited the lifespan of thatroof again now, from a-year roof
to now a 15, 10, because birdsare chilling out there.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
So tell us what you do to fix that problem.
What do you go up there and do?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah, I know you clean it, yeah, so if you got to
, depending on how bad it is.
Sometimes we have to get thepanels out of the way to do a
thorough clean out, and it'simportant to get all of the
debris out, because pigeonsthere's a pheromone in their
debris, they're a homing pigeon,so they will return to the
scent of their poop, essentially, and won't leave the house.

(31:34):
So we have some customers thathave a clean out done or bird
guard installed and they don'tdo a clean out.
You leave a lot of stuff underthe panels.
The pigeons poop all over thepanels and circle the panels and
still stay at the house andthey're still trying to get in.
So you got to clear everythingoff the roof.
Um, so what we do is we get onthe top side of the panels, we

(31:54):
push everything out with waterand these long plastic PVC
sticks and we work it all outuntil there's no debris
underneath.
Now where's it all going?
We don't want it going in therocks or the artificial grass or
in the AC unit, and so thewhole landscape downstairs has
to be protected with a.
We put a landscape fabric downso it'll catch all that debris.
That way we can roll it, bag it, take it away and then, after

(32:17):
the clean-out's done, we installa steel material.
It's been dipped with a blackPVC coating so it matches the
panel frame.
It goes all the way around theperimeter of the panels.
We don't void any warranties onthe panels because we use a hook
to hook the panels, not a screwto go into the frame of the
panels.
Nice, yeah, um.
So it's super clean, doesn'tvoid any warranties.
We give a no bird guarantee, umon all those systems.

(32:39):
So if something happens, a birddoes make it past our stuff,
we'll come, of course, addressit and fix it um and get it, get
it, get it dialed in um.
But even after we installBirdGuard, it's going to take a
couple weeks for those birds toleave because, again, they're
going to circle those panels andlook for those nests and look
for their home, and theneventually they're going to go
okay, it's too hot and I needsome shade and they're going to

(33:00):
look at your neighbor's houseand they're going to head over
there and they're going to go towhat they know which is back
underneath some more panels.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
That's the best referral right there.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Well, and they're multiplying.
The pigeon problem as a wholeis increasing over time.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Because they don't migrate, they stay here year
round and they multiply likerabbits, and so, and there's not
enough hawks, there's notenough.
You know, look at New York City.
Like you know, that's thedirection we're going.
When it comes to like the birds, um, uh, getting worse as the
population grows, and so if weknow it's getting worse over
time, uh, we, we reallyrecommend getting bird guard

(33:34):
installed, or at least educatingthe customer on things to look
out for, so we can catch itearly.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
I will be.
I will tell you it absolutelyworks.
Um, I had the issue.
It solved my problem.
I don't have the issue at alland it's been years.
So the don't have the issue atall and it's been years.
So the stuff makes a ton ofsense.
It's not, it's not just a bunchof bs, it's real.
It absolutely works and if youneed to take a look at your
neighborhood, you see pigeons.
Do this, do it, yeah, yeah, doit up front when you buy this
system.
Just get it.
It's not a big ad.

(33:59):
Get it done and be done with it.
I know you're doing all of oursright now, I believe yeah, and,
like you said, it's not thatexpensive.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
it's expensive, it's a cheap insurance policy.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
It's a lot cheaper than removing your panels and
doing the roof again, versusjust do the bird guard.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah, because we will charge extra if we have to
clean out bird debris and sothat's an extra time, extra work
and it's a messy job.
The cheapest time to do it isjust when you get the solar,
just tack it on.
I'd say if you are in asuburban area, tract, home area,
anywhere in the Phoenix Metro,just get it installed.

(34:33):
If you have a S tile or W tileroof, especially flat tile roof,
there's a little more airflow.
You still want to keep an eyeon it.
It can happen.
But I'd say, if you've got ashingle or roof or if you're on
the outskirts of town, the hawkpopulation is maybe a little
thicker.
Keep, just keep an eye on it.
You might not need to pull thetrigger right away, but you
definitely want to know signs tolook for.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, I've seen it on the commercial side as well.
Um, like you know those parkingcanopies and you have a lot of
birds will nest on, like thecolumns, and you see that, you
know they're right by the homeruns and everything.
So obviously those birdssometimes, will you know,
disconnect a wire here or thereor you know, mess with things.
Do you guys do stuff on thecommercial side?

Speaker 3 (35:11):
yeah, yeah, yeah, we've done a few large
commercial projects where we'rerunning, instead of like, a
metal screen around theperimeter of panels, maybe it's
a uv rated mesh that is like ahundred by hundred section that
we're putting up and attachingskin tight underneath or above a
surface.
Um, we did a big detachmentreset for boys and girls club

(35:32):
over the last year and it wasone of the worst bird problems
I've ever seen.
There was probably two to threehundred birds, I'd say just
flying they were swarming aroundus.
You know, as we're doing thedetach and so getting all that
debris off was just a quite ajob in itself.
But afterward this this wasjust a ballast tilt system with
probably two 300 panels on likea gymnasium.

(35:53):
Right, how do you bird guardthat?
It's not easy.
So we have to like go over thetop of this entire 150 foot by
200 foot roof and secure to theperimeter with a cable and
stretch it and then support itabove the arrays.
And I'm like man, this is kindof shading the panels, but if we
don't do it like it's going tomess.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
So you went over the entire array.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, because usually with the net, oh, you want to
use an exclusion method andyou're going underneath it right
um, but this one, the way thatit was set up, this ballast,
there was no way, there was noway to work in between all the
ballasts of of the blocks.
It was the way, way it wastight and the jaggedness of it,
and so we offered it to as asolution for this guy.
We're like, hey, we can go overthe top of this whole thing and

(36:37):
that's really all we're willingto do in order to ensure birds
don't get back in on this roof.
And they pulled the trigger onthat.
What a big cage.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
I gotta say that's interesting.
I've never seen.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Three to five feet in areas above where the panels
are, because it was attached tothe parapet wall and supported
above.
So you're going to get littleshade spots from that net and we
explained all this to thecustomer on the front end, of
course, of the risk of that side.
But the risk of the birdsgetting back in was heavier.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
I'm sure it impacted a little bit.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Really small though.
Yeah, because of the shade.
Yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
I've never heard that .
Yeah, I mean we're talking.
It's like a.
It's like an inch and a halfsquare holes with really small
like uv rated nylon that we'retalking here in terms of the
material.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
So do you come across like other pests besides?
Bird like cats or like a bee'snest wasp nest.
We were on the I got.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
So I got a picture from one of my field guys a
couple months ago.
Um, there was a we we've seenraccoons foxes cats.
Yeah, an actual fox.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
A fox in town.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Oh yeah, guy got a video of a fox running out of
the panels and taking off on theroof you know, fox proof your
solar system.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Wow, call Harmon for a quote.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
Yeah, yeah yeah, I mean, I think there's even
there's a guy out there rightnow that has a a few hawks that
he's trained and he'll go out.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
oh nice, and he's taught them to catch these
pigeons too, so can we add thatlook for him on social media,
bring him in here.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Yeah, the harvard hawks he drives.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
He drives around, yeah, in his car with the window
down oh, I've seen him.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
I've seen him, the hops go out and sick inside of
him.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
That's crazy, come on , yeah, I want to pay just to
see it.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I don't know if it works or not, but yeah, I'd like
to see a hawk come and kill abird.
I've seen more hawks herelately all of a sudden?
Yeah, because I guess there'sagging out pigeons and dropping
them and eating them.
There you go, and I was likewow, this is kind of crazy
because the population hasgotten so bad.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, yeah, you know the job security for you, though
right it is.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
You know, the worst case scenarios when it comes to
bird debris really comes fromneglect from the homeowner.
Yeah like you did the rightthing by noticing, calling
having something done.
People will just live with the.
Let it get to the point where Imean it's.
It's bird debris from the tileall the way up to the underside

(39:06):
of the panel so we're talkingeight inches thick under the
entire array, and so it'sshoveling, it's moving all the
panels all the way and it'sshoveling the stuff into buckets
right.
And so we got, we got full, wegot masks, we got eye protection
, we got, and it's 120 out.
It's just a nasty, dirty job,man.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Do you guys ever work with insurance companies?
I know you do the R and R's andstuff and then do you ever work
with insurance companies tokind of you know?
I know that some of them will.
Actually, if the roof's in badshape for whatever reason, if
there's damage for hail orwhatever, they'll actually pay
for it.
Yeah Right, so have you guysdone?

Speaker 3 (39:39):
insurance work?
Yeah, absolutely so.
The roofer that specializes ininsurance is usually a little
bit different model, differentanimal than a retail roofer.
We serve both of them.
The insurance companies do payfor the detach and reset if
they're paying for the roof.
Insurance companies do pay forthe detach and reset if they're
paying for the roof, and sothat's good that they are paying

(40:00):
to get it out of the way forthese customers.
So we will do some insurancework.
There's some variables to it interms of what that customer
that's filing an insurance claim.
Right.
They're usually paying maybe$1,000 deductible deductible
right, and so just getting itdone quick and easy.
A thousand bucks it's.
It's a.
It's not selling off value asmuch in terms of, uh, the

(40:21):
guarantees and the warranties,it's just it's.
It's a fast moving thing whenthose guys are door knocking and
pushing, detach and reset whilethey're doing it.
But yeah, absolutely we'll workwith with any insurance company
out there, okay nice.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah, that's.
That's good.
Yeah, it's a peace of mind forthat homeowner peace of mind,
but it's got to be it's.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
It's only for a shingle roof though.
So if you've got a tile roof,it's going to be really hard to
file a claim on that, becauseyou know their insurance is only
going to approve it if it'sstorm damage.
If it's natural wear and tear,they're not going to approve it,
and it's hard to get stormdamage on a tile roof.
The only time you're going tofile a claim is if you had a
microburst that came and pulledtile physically off your roof

(41:00):
and exposed that underlaymentand allowed the underlayment to
be damaged.
You might have a shot then, butyou ever run into any system?

Speaker 2 (41:06):
I'm sure you have you ever run into any systems where
they're just the installationis just, I want to say, wrong,
oh yeah, just, and you have toput it back the way it was.
You run into a bad installation.
There's a lot of badinstallments, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah, there's so many man.
I mean, what do you do?
We've got some bad, bad storiesout there.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
I'm just curious, like what's your process If you
run into just one of thosesituations?
What do you do?
I mean, you've got as well asinform the customer.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah.
So it's all about communicatingon the front end, like we want
to be sympathetic to thecustomer in that situation, but
we want to be the hero in thatsituation.
We want to be coming down withphotos of everything and
explaining any risks of the badinstall that might be up there
and then saying, hey, this isn'thow we're going to put it back.

(41:53):
This is how we're going to putit back, and it's either we're
going to do that at no costthat's an easy fix or man,
they've like free aired thisTHHN wire all the way through
your attic and no conduit, and Icannot put my name on this.
You have to get this in a pipeto be code compliant right.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
So is it?

Speaker 3 (42:09):
a code compliant issue, or is it maybe like they
forgot a couple end clamps andground lugs and something like
that?
But we've seen.
I mean I've got a lot ofstories of weird, bad, nasty
stuff like panels being helddown with like copper ground
wire going through the panel andwrapped around the rail right
for an end, Because it lookslike they didn't have enough

(42:30):
material or something right.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
We'll make it work yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
But then the thing is is a lot of this stuff is.
I can't believe how long itactually is sitting up there
like that, and sometimes it'llblow off.
You know, we get a call, hey,there's panels in my yard, but
yeah, some of the stuff I get upthere and I just cannot believe
.
The biggest thing that shocks me, though, is just the lack of
care of the sealing process onthose mounts yeah and and I
don't know how they're gettingaway with just some gunk out of
a caulking tube underneath thebase plate and walking away from

(42:58):
it.
It just seems like there's toomuch risk there to not put some
type of housing over where thoselag bolts are going on.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Well, they just don't care.
I mean they're going to do itas cheap as possible.
It's time and material.
Yeah, I mean, the cheaper theycan do it, the more money they
can put in their pockets.
So that's how they.
Harmon's not the cheapestoption out there.
It's just we can't be.
I mean we got to do it theright way because we're going to
warrant it 30 years or whateverwe're warranting.
You get what?

Speaker 1 (43:19):
you pay for Right.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
We talk about that all the time.
I mean, you get what you payfor, so you can work with a
quality company like you guys orus or yeah, there's a lot of
other guys you can work withthat a quality company.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
for me, it's what's their sealant process looks like
?
Yeah, what, what?
Do they have a servicedepartment in-house?
are they servicing the start tofinish where they're selling it,
installing it and servicing it,um, and it's not like, uh, I
know you guys said you work withsome outside sales reps, and
I'm sure we do, you know, butthere's got them as well.
A lot of times to the homeowner.
They get an outside sales repand they don't even know who's

(43:52):
doing the install yeah, you knowso, um, that that's key, uh,
but then also, what's theircommunication?
and have they stayed the test oftime?
Yeah, and if we check thosethree boxes, like you guys have,
you're on the right track, youknow no, I agree.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
I mean, like we do work with sales companies.
There's a lot of salescompanies out there that go and
sell solar, knock door-to-doorand stuff and, like you're, they
use whoever they can get that'sgoing to do it really cheap,
right, that may be there todaymight not even be in the state.
We see a lot of that as well.
So we do a good job of vettingwho we use and we make it a
point of you need to make surewe have all the customer

(44:26):
communication once a job's sold,because we want them to know
who they're dealing with.
Now they are our customer.
They may have bought the systemfrom somebody else, but really
they're our customer.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
I like asking worst case scenarios.
When I vet out a company, I'llask you I guess you have a
system on a two-story home.
Obviously you're getting upthere removing panels.
As a homeowner, I'm thinking Igot this guy taking my modules
down this ladder.
What happens if somethingbreaks?
What is your process?
What do you do if you drop amodule?
Something breaks A lot of it isjust how is right?

Speaker 3 (44:56):
yeah, you know, you want to.
You just want to do right bypeople, and if you make a
mistake, or if anyone on my teammakes a mistake like I'm, going
to own it every single time.
And I think that's one of themain disconnects that happen
between the roofing and solarindustry is when a mistake would
happen.
It turned into a fingerpointing contest, oftentimes
between the solar company andthe roofing company, and so my

(45:20):
my perspective is of it is ifit's my mistake, I don't care
how much it costs, we're goingto fix it and we're going to
move on fast and we're going toget to the next job together, mr
Roofer, but if it's something,where is the roofing issue?
We're going to go out and lookat it together and get on the
same page with what actually iscausing the issue and work it as
a team.
So I mean we've made mistakes.
We've made mistakes that havecost $10,000, $15,000, $20,000

(45:44):
over the last year, and thoseare hard pills to swallow, but
the truth of the matter is therelationships are worth more
than that, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
No, we always talk about.
We're a instruction company andwe're going to make mistakes.
It's how we react to themistake, it's how you react,
right?
So as long as we take care ofthe mistake, then that's great.
A lot of companies will runaway from it, like you said, or
finger point finger into theirplaces.
Yeah, we won't do that.

(46:17):
I'm glad you don't do that.
I think it's interestingbecause in one, in one point of
it, where the bird blocking andall that stuff, you're, we're
we're utilizing you we'repartners, right, and it's
important that we have thatrelationship together.
But then in the other section ofit, with the R and R stuff,
we're kind of competitors.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Right, but there's a place for what you do in a place
for what we do, because ifyou're a Harman customer, you
know, know.
I would say again it's a30-year warranty and if someone
else touches it, right we're out, let us take care of it, right
yeah.
So that's why we take, that'swhy we have a huge service
department and we handle ourbusiness that way.
But there are so many companiesthat are out of business.
There's so much business outthere for guys like you that are

(46:51):
doing it right.
I consider you like, just likeharman that goes and does it the
right way for people, versusyou don't want any roofer or any
joe blow touching your solarsystem right.
I've seen too many situationsand I'm sure you have too where
the guy goes up there, touchesit, doesn't know what he's doing
and just destroys it I've seenit.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Yeah, I've seen quite a few horror stories like oh my
my uncle's an electrician.
He can take a look at it likeokay, it's not that simple.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
There's so many different types out there.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah yeah, no, I agree.
So it's just kind of funny howyou're anywhere talking about
your business, but I'm yourcompetitor of ours.
Yeah, yeah, and I knew thatcoming into this and I love it
because I one compliment to youguys is I.
I see your systems the leastand you should, which is a good
thing, that means your customersare calling you to get it done
because they still trust you andthey want to maintain that, and
we have.
We have a thing in our, ourcontracts too, where we it's a

(47:39):
benefit for our customers tocome back through us yeah,
because don't you guys do alittle bit of roofing or work
with we do?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
yeah, we do roofing ourselves so we have those
things together so we have allthat built in-house.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I mean that's just how we're set up, but yeah, but
there's so many of you out therethat just haven't worked with
Harmon or have systems outsideof Harmon, especially that your
guys are out of business.
I mean you want to call acompany like you because you're
doing it right.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
Yeah, right, you're doing it like we would do it.
Yeah, it's either they're outof business or the homeowner
doesn't trust them anymore.
Those are our two.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
And it's very common to hear those two things.
It's very common.
That's exactly out of businessor they don't trust them and
those two things are continuing.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
If we look at the trajectory over time there, the
amount of trust I believe is isdecreasing just because of the
bad reps.
Solar's doing it's stuff likethis.
It's fighting back against that, right, it's talking about the
right way, um, but yeah, it's uhgetting out there, getting them
a new warranty, getting themsolutions, streamlining
everything, getting a goodcommunication it's I mean,

(48:35):
you're validating what we talkabout all the time, right?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
that's why we could bring a competitor on and talk
about the right way to do things, because we this is about.
Our podcast has always beenabout educating you, the
customer, on how things shouldbe done the right way.
Yeah, so we'll bring acompetitor on and you're also a
partner of ours to talk about.
Hey, we're on.
We're a common ground here.
We both agree, this is how youdo stuff right yeah's why we do
this.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
There is a right way to do solar.
It starts with finding someoneyou can trust to explain the
right way.
Don't just take anyone off thestreet.
Do your homework.
Check for those three things Italked about.
Give Harman Solar a call to getthe right answers.
Check out this podcast.
If you're thinking about solar.
That's how you get peace ofmind.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
How can?

Speaker 3 (49:14):
people find you Check me Thinking about solar.
That's how you get peace ofmind.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Well, how can people find you?
So check me out.
Tythesolarguy on Instagram.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
TyTheSolarGuy On Facebook yeah and Bridge the Gap
Podcast on Spotify, apple Play.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Yeah, let's push that , so you have a podcast.
Bridge, the Gap yeah, so yourroofing side.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
maybe, come on, we could talk a little bit on there
one day.
Yeah, we'd love to come on Okay, cool, and then yeah,
solardetachprocom, if you wantto check out the website.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
All right, all right, you guys need special promos
going on discounts or anythingyou want to plug.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you know I won't push anyone, you know, in terms of
referring roofers and those guyslike we try to keep an even
playing field there on that, butI'd say the one, the one tip
I'll give on the way out here isget a free inspection done If
you haven't had your roof lookedat or your solar looked out in

(50:03):
the last year.
Call Harmon, get a freeinspection done and just stay on
top of it.
Don't let it get to the pointwhere it's too late and it's an
unexpected cost for you, whetherit's birds, whether it's roof,
get a proactive plan rolling.
And so I'll just push that asmy last comment.
Okay cool, sounds good yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Thanks for joining us .
Hey, I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Great time yeah yeah, thanks so much for having me on
.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
We've got some new stuff coming up and it's funny
that you mentioned, you know,getting free inspections and
stuff.
We're going to start gettinginto there to to kind of help
you with peace of mind and someand some other stuff.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
So yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Ben, it's always a pleasure to see you, more than I
ever need to.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
It is a pleasure to see me, isn't it?
I wake up every morning sayingthe same thing.
It's really not, but anyway.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Hey, thanks for joining us on this episode and
we'll see you again real soon.
All right, thanks, thanks, guys.