Send us your Questions for Jeremiah and Dan
How can a few affordable tools transform your spray foam insulation projects? Join us with industry expert Aaron Carden of Energy Fox Solutions as we uncover the secrets to avoiding common pitfalls like poor yield and shrinking foam. In this episode, you'll gain practical insights into managing temperature and moisture, using essential tools like infrared thermometers and moisture meters to achieve superior results. Jeremiah emphasizes the critical importance of these basic investments and shares tips to ensure every contractor is well-prepped for success and safety.
Don't miss our in-depth discussion on maintaining your equipment and ensuring safety, especially in extreme weather conditions. Learn how tools such as indirect heaters, barrel warmers, and ceiling-mounted heaters can save time and money while enhancing efficiency. Jeremiah offers invaluable advice on proper equipment maintenance and the benefits of community knowledge-sharing. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the trade, this episode provides actionable strategies to improve your spray foam insulation outcomes. Tune in and elevate your craftsmanship with practical, expert advice.
For comments, suggestions, safety shares and questions email us at sprayfoammafia@gmail.com
or find us on Facebook Spray Foam Mafia
We want to hear from you!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dan (00:00):
So circling back around through kind of everything we
did and kind of discussed onthis.
So best practices, optimaltemperatures are a big thing.
Jeremiah, what happens when youshow up and somebody calls you
and you said they're not gettingyield?
(00:21):
They said the foam's flat, it'snot growing, it's not.
I mean.
Besides look at me like I'm anidiot what's the next thing
you're going to do that?
Aaron (00:30):
would never happen.
Jeremiah (00:31):
No, no, never that's free Dan.
Dan (00:32):
That's free.
That's a free, look you getthat for free.
Aaron (00:37):
Well, it's.
Where'd you start?
That's my first question.
What was your temperatures whenyou started the day?
What's your liquid in yourbarrel?
What's the ambient temperature?
What's the substratetemperature like all the factors
on a job site that come intohow the product processes are my
questions.
You know, and they're, they getredundant and some guys, but at
the same time I'm not there soI have to ask the bare minimum
(01:00):
of annoying questions to figureout where you're at and why you
could possibly be having aproblem.
But, like, once again, it'salways preconditioning.
Yeah, every problem that a guyhas can trail back to the
preconditioning.
Oh, I don't have the yield.
Oh, it's shrinking.
Oh, like, either you overheated, you underheated, you didn't
mix, you have too much pressure,too little pressure, too much
heat, too little heat.
(01:21):
Right, there's not a lot offactors that come into play.
It's one plus one equals two,and if it equals three, then
you've done something wrong.
It's pretty straightforwardstuff.
Jeremiah (01:32):
What are your thoughts ?
So when you're going on, we'retalking about proper temperature
, proper storage, properprocessing of the material.
So when you're walking onto theback of a rig, say I've got
Energy Fox spray foam insulation, which I do not, I'm not a
contractor.
We are not competing with you inany way shape or form it's an
(01:53):
example only you walk on theback of my rig and you don't see
an infrared thermometer or youdon't see some of the basic
tools.
Where does your headspace go to?
Because, again, like you said,it's all pre-processing, it's
all the setup to get to the endresult.
We've talked about drumhandling, we've talked about
having barrel wrenches or pipewrenches or drum handlers, but
(02:20):
that's the big scale things.
Right, those are your higherdollar items.
But what are some of the itemsthat these guys can have on
their rigs to where, when youopen the back of it, you're
smiling because you know that atleast they're taking the steps
to get there?
Aaron (02:32):
Yeah, I mean that's fair, 100%.
I mean you look for a moisturemeter, the infrared temp gun.
You know these little things.
You know it's $30 a piece.
But once again I'm askingwhat's your substrate moisture,
what's your barrel at?
And everyone usually will go tothe machine no, no, that's
great, but I need to know whatthe liquid in the drum is.
(02:52):
I need to know what thesubstrate temperature is.
Like you said, a moisture meter, an IR temp gun, little things
like that is what you look for,because then you kind of know
where to start your training orthe demo at.
Okay, these guys have thesethings, they already care about
preconditioning in the beginning.
So we're already a little bit,a few steps ahead.
So you get on the rig.
Like you said, there's none ofthese tools, there's no spare
(03:12):
parts.
You kind of know okay, this iswhere we're starting.
We're going to start in thebeginning because it does help
and, like usually, like I said,I give those things away like
candy.
Sure they don't have one thereyou go, go Like please take this
, this is a very important toolLike this is like a slap hammer
for a helper, like if you can'tput up plastic, what?
Jeremiah (03:30):
do you do it's?
Aaron (03:30):
the same thing for an applicator.
If you don't have the moisturemeter and the IR gun, here you
go.
Let's explain why you should,and it kind of starts that
conversation.
But you're right, it's.
Those are the bare minimummoisture meter, ir temp gun.
It starts you off in the rightfoot.
Jeremiah (03:43):
Help me, help you, right?
So we're going to do everythingon our end you as a
manufacturer, me as adistributor.
We're going to do everythingthat we can to make sure that
when you leave here, you're setup for success.
At the same time, you have tohelp yourself too, and there's a
lot of cut corners,unfortunately, sometimes, and
they end up biting these guysright in the butt on simple
things that you could have fixed.
Like you said, a $30 IR gun, amoisture meter.
(04:05):
Ask your manufacturer.
I know, for example, upc sentout a bunch of those IR guns.
Does it cost them a little bitof money?
Yeah, but what it saves them asfar as tech calls.
Aaron (04:17):
It's an investment for the company and they understand
that that investment will helpthese guys understand the
importance.
Oh, if UPC's using this andspending the money on this, well
it's probably important becausethey know how much these cost.
They know that none of thisstuff is.
Everything adds up fast in thisindustry and every little bit
you can do to save time andmoney is important.
Jeremiah (04:37):
Yeah, and just not cutting corners where you
shouldn't be right.
You know tools, the equipmentthat you buy, it all matters.
No one ever cuts corners inthis industry.
No, what are you talking about?
Never seen it?
Moot point.
I don't even know why I broughtit up.
Dan (04:54):
Do not open Facebook.
No, we'll be disappointed.
Aaron (04:57):
Yeah, I mean yeah.
Jeremiah (04:59):
From my perspective.
We want the contractors to besuccessful.
That's how we stay in business.
We have things that we do todraw attention to ourselves, to
try to earn your business.
I'm not big enough to where, ifwe lose a customer, I've got 10
more coming in to take theirplace.
We're just not so.
We have to look at this as apartnership.
(05:20):
If we lose a customer, it's abig deal, so we have to drill
down, and then again that goesback to extra work.
What could we have done?
We could have made sure thatthey had that IR gun on there.
We could have made sure that wegot questions answered with
Jeremiah or whoever the tech repis.
We could have made sure that wehad somebody on site before you
spray a new product.
The benefit to all of us isit's seamless, right From the
(05:46):
end customer, that you just putthis product in their house all
the way down to the sprayer, tothe contractor, the owner of the
company, to the helper, back tous as a distributor and then to
you guys as a manufacturer.
If everything is in sync, itmoves the industry forward to
where, when we haveconversations, we're talking
about okay, what's the next stepand how do we grow instead of?
Okay, this is what everybody'sdoing wrong, so let's go back
(06:08):
and correct it.
And this is a perfect topic forthat, because you know
improperly handled materialswill cost you time and money,
can cause problems for the homethat it was installed on and all
of that falls back on us.
And then it rolls back to UPCor AccuFoam or Central or
whoever the manufacturer may be.
(06:29):
So getting everybody on thesame page and having educational
conversations like this, thatthey're actually full of
substance and not just guyssitting around a microphone just
goofing off, these are realconversations that somebody can
put this podcast on 30, 45minutes to their job site and
they've learned something.
So when they get out of thetruck they go back to the rig
(06:52):
and they see that they don'thave that thermometer, they
don't have the moisture meter,they didn't have the barrels
properly secured.
Now it's fresh in their mindand it's something that they can
grow with.
Dan (07:02):
Yeah, Okay, so you.
That's my favorite song, dan.
Thank you, I thought that wason mute.
I'm sorry, sorry, I'm gettingscolded over there on the other
side of the room Because sheasked you ten times and I did.
I hit the mute button.
Jeremiah (07:19):
Dan and Kristen like to make the jokes about how I
always have two phones and I'mconstantly juggling For make the
jokes about how I always havetwo phones and I'm constantly
juggling For this.
Dan (07:25):
I actually set them on the ground where I can't see them.
So there's like three of us inthe room and I think there's
five or six cell phones going onright here all at once.
And there it goes, super Mario.
Jeremiah (07:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Dan (07:42):
Super Mario.
Click on the hand.
Click on the hand.
Okay, back on task.
Here people Look serious.
This is important.
You have to listen to the laughtrack, okay.
So you go to a job site, you'regetting ready from the
applicator guy's standpoint.
You open up the doors to therig and something has happened.
(08:04):
You froze overnight, youoverheated overnight, whatever
has gone on, depending on whatseason it is, what part of the
world is in, what's the firstthing you should do?
And we'll just start right now,with hot Barrels are swelled up
, what's the very first thingyou're going to?
Aaron (08:23):
do.
Well, you want to know thetemperature.
So you got to know how hot thatdrum is, because if it's in a
certain parameter we're going totell you not to touch it.
You know, if it's a certaintemperature, you know that that
thing is diet coke and mentos ifit's closed cell, open cells, a
little less strict when itcomes that stuff, but we'll
always, if you have that typetype of condition okay, man,
you're gonna have to let thatstuff calm down for 24 to 48
(08:45):
hours, depending on how hot itis, especially if it's closed
cell.
Dan (08:47):
Because you pop that and by calm down, you want us to cool
it down.
Cool it down.
Aaron (08:53):
Take it back to a central location that you do have
control over the condition soyou can bring that temperature
down safely before you open it,because once again you open that
bung.
Dan (09:04):
You don't know?
Aaron (09:05):
It's the Bellagio fountain going on right and I
know you're on a job site andthings, and if you're trying to
get the job done.
Yes, this can be frustrating,but once again, it's a chemical.
You can't just hope that itdoes what you want it to do.
It's going to do whatever theheck it wants to do when it
comes to those conditions.
So of course, you take safetyinto account and we try and help
.
Like you said, Everyone laughsat the ice bags, but ice bags
(09:27):
have saved my day many, manytimes.
When I know, I was like, okay,I'm just going to surround it
with ice bags, give it a littlebit of time and go about my
thing.
Jeremiah (09:36):
Disclaimer on that make sure the drums are
completely closed before youstart ice bagging.
Yeah, you know, don't put icebags on top of
Dan (09:43):
your ISO and things like that, of course, guys.
Aaron (09:46):
But you know it's more of an example.
But yeah, you do what you gotto do within the parameters.
Once again, the tech team oryour distributor is going to
tell you what to do.
Don't try and go it alone.
That's the great thing rightnow, guys, you don't have to go
it alone.
There's definitely a phonenumber for every person, whether
it's your distributor or thetech for the manufacturer that
you buy from.
There's no shortage of thatanymore, which is great.
(10:07):
Or even, like I said, go onsocial media.
There's guys that want to helpwith these type of questions.
There's no reason that youshould go it alone, or?
Oh well, I'm just gonna popthat drum and cross my fingers
and hope for the best.
Dan (10:17):
No, you're gonna get the worst you're gonna get every
time, I promise, ask thequestion along that line.
Jeremiah (10:24):
You know, everybody knows that you can pop that drum
open coke style and try to letit breathe out a little bit.
Dan (10:30):
You mean the dollar sign?
You're trying to let all thedollar signs go flying right out
of it.
Jeremiah (10:34):
That's exactly what you're doing.
You're trying to save time byagain shaking Coke, bottle it
and let all that out.
But all you just did was youjust cut your yield down, Right.
So you're setting yourselffurther back by trying to save
some time, and it goes again,cutting the corners.
If you're going to cut corners,cut the right corners.
Don't cut corners when it comesto your material.
Don't cut corners when it comesto your tools and your
(10:55):
equipment.
Dan (10:59):
So let's go the other end of the spectrum.
It's cold.
It's one of those days whereyou're right on the fine line of
whether we're going to be ableto spray or not at all, and the
heater didn't work in the rig,or it was parked in a shop and
that heater went out overnight,and so the diesel indirect
heaters are blowing and whateveryou're about to spray, um,
(11:21):
you're rolling, you're ready togo, and that rig is ice inside
well, I mean like, like, likethere's.
Aaron (11:30):
No, the machines aren't going to.
Cold is a little different.
If you have highly viscouscolocell or roofing foam.
The machine is just not goingto pump it, it's just not going
to work to a certain level.
Jeremiah (11:43):
You're pumping a problem into your equipment.
Aaron (11:44):
Yeah, you're going to cavitate, you're going to have
issues Like.
Cold is a little bit different.
You know, hot, if it's verythin material, the machine is
going to try Frost.
Closed cell it's going to readit differently in the sensors,
but with cold it's hard to getaround it.
Open cell, of course, is alittle easier.
You can recirculate, you canmix, you can slowly bring it up.
(12:05):
If it's, it's definitely moredifficult.
Once again, we always talkabout preconditioning.
That's again where we try andsave our butts.
Here is, you know, thepreconditioning.
Like you said, if everythinggoes sideways, what do you do
exactly?
It's going to take long.
You have to heat it up properlybarrel blankets, barrel blazers
, things like that that you'regoing to have to use to get it
up, um, to temperature that youneed it at like the
(12:27):
clarification.
Dan (12:28):
I paused for a little too long oops, oops.
But yeah, I mean, sometimesthere's no, there's no corner to
cut right, there's the the longway at that point to get it, to
get to it well and I thinkthat's why I wanted to bring
that point up and talk aboutthat is, if you get to that
point, no matter what layer ofthis industry you are, sometimes
(12:54):
you have to stop.
Yeah, and it's hard to be theguy that stopped.
It is.
Aaron (13:00):
But there's.
That's why you have a group ofguys.
You know Aaron myself, you knowwe're the ones you call it like
man.
It just it's not happening likeclothes selling saying you know
the heat a lot of guys rightnow.
There's a stopping point.
There's a point when thatbarrel gets so hot, you're done,
you can't do anything about it.
It's a chemical reaction.
No matter how much you wish itnot to be, it's going to happen
and you've got to stop.
Jeremiah (13:23):
With us at the previous location when we moved
in there.
I guess it was one of thecoldest winters that Arizona had
in quite some time, likeseveral days below freezing.
I have a duty, I have anobligation to protect our
customers.
I have an obligation to makesure that when product leaves
our shop that it's at thosecorrect temperatures, right.
(13:43):
So that was me getting to theshop at four o'clock in the
morning making sure we've gotthose heaters turned on, making
sure that you know the tempsdidn't get below 50 degrees, or
if they got close, we've got tobring those back up to
temperature.
So again, a lot of that fallsback onto the contractor, that
business owner, to check it atnight before you go to bed.
You know, check it as soon asyou get up and you know if
(14:03):
you've got two hours to get tothe job site, getting those
indirect heaters on there forfor an hour before you get there
.
Little steps will save you aton of time, but it's the time
you spend in the preventative.
Like you said, jeremiah, on theback end it makes up for it,
instead of fighting your machine, fighting your phone, fighting
(14:24):
your equipment all day longnotice how everyone keeps saying
indirect heaters too, guys, Idon't like getting on a rig and
seeing a tube heater pointed ata drum Because you know you got
in, it was 45 degrees.
Aaron (14:36):
You know, once again, like Dan said numerous times,
you know you're going to try andfix the situation as quick as
you can, but there are certainfixes that are going to make
your situation worse down theroad.
And you know, blazing a heateron the side of the drum because
you know you slept in a littlebit long or you're trying to get
it done a little faster, onceagain, that's going to create
more issues down the road.
Jeremiah (14:53):
You're only heating up the area that that that heater
is pointing, or?
Aaron (14:56):
the paint or there's exactly once again, you can.
There's a, there's a proper wayto get yourself to the goal,
right guys?
And there's corners that, onceagain, like aaron said, you
shouldn't cut, that are going tocreate more problems, and
that's why we keep saying theselittle things like indirect heat
.
There's these little littlethings we can teach you and you
can let you know.
You do that, get the job donecorrectly.
And there's these little thingsand other things that some guys
(15:18):
do that will get you not tothat goal.
Jeremiah (15:21):
Right Back to the tools, though.
I mean making sure that okay,yeah, you know barrel warmers,
uh, drum blankets.
They're not cheap You'relooking at $800 to $1,000, but
what's that worth to you?
On your time in the mornings?
One of the things that I'vealways liked when I see on a rig
is the ceiling mounted heaters.
(15:41):
They're not going to use themall the time.
They rattle around, they make alittle bit of noise, but at the
end of the day, when you gethome and you know what the
temperatures are supposed to beovernight and all you're doing
is running an extension cord outfrom the garage to make sure
that your product stayssprayable the next day, well,
those are days that you're outthere spraying that your
competitors aren't, so that youcan keep moving.
So those, those investments will.
At the time they seem like alot to bite off.
(16:03):
They're worth it and they helpyou do things the right way and
again going back to that endresult, which is the customer
being happy with the productthat you just put in their walls
or that you just put in theirroof line subfloor, wherever.
Having those having done itcorrectly goes a long way, and
the benefits that you'll get outof it are more than that, that
(16:24):
800 bucks that you just spentwell, and show a piece rate
sprayer a way to spray an extrahour a day, sure that guy will
be all over it.
Dan (16:31):
Show an owner how you know an extra quarter set a day gets
sprayed.
Sure everybody can put a numberon that very fast.
And if it's, you know, a 50space heater that gets you done
with an extension cord.
That's what it takes, sure, butyeah, any day you show me how I
(16:52):
can spray a tenth of a set more, a quarter of a set more,
absolutely without extra effort.
Jeremiah (16:58):
It's worth every penny we're jeopardizing your quality
, and you know you spent that 15or 20 minutes or hour, whatever
it is, to make sure that youyou are processing your material
correctly.
Like you said, there's thatquarter set, there's that extra
hour spraying for your sprayerDown the line.
It's a benefit to everyone.
In addition, look at it fromthe homeowner standpoint.
(17:22):
You guys have all had to makethat call hey, I've got to push
your job a day, I've got to pushyour job a week back.
Or hey, the weather is doing,is that doing this?
Dan (17:34):
well, yeah, it could be the weather, but it's also, are you
conditioning your stuffproperly where you can get that
job done in time, exactly?
All right, uh, call to action.
What guys are going to do outhere?
We're talking about all thisstuff.
Check your rig for some tools.
Jeremiah (17:45):
Ask for a few tools if you don't have them, ask, and
if you don't know which tools tohave, call us, call, yeah, I
have a list I give out to guys.
Aaron (17:52):
I'm sure Aaron has a list of tools that you minimally
need to be on your rig to startoff and you know we're happy to
hand that stuff out.
You know, ask a friend, ask a.
You know a coworker Like mostpeople know, like hey, get this
stuff and shameless, plug here.
Dan (18:06):
hit us up on the old Spray Foam Mafia Facebook page and
just say, hey, what are youusing?
Jeremiah (18:11):
I'll snap a picture of what I have in my rigs.
Well, and on your rig on thecontractor side, have an
inventory sheet right.
Make sure that your guys arechecking that off every day.
Do we have our infraredthermometer?
Do we have our drum barrelheaters?
Do we have our depth gauges?
Do we have organize?
Aaron (18:28):
your stupid toolbox, so you know where it is job site
calling your boss like hey man,no, every morning before you
leave, you should haveeverything.
This is there, this is there.
Jeremiah (18:37):
This is there, and you should have everything on that
rig you need.
This is there.
This is there.
This is there.
On our side, when a productleaves, it doesn't matter if
it's a pin, vice or a set offoam all that goes back into our
inventory system so that we cantrack it For you guys, all
right.
Well, there was a pipe wrenchon here yesterday.
You signed off on it.
Where the hell is my pipewrench?
So the time you save gettingout there to it and knowing what
(18:58):
you're supposed to have again,that's priceless for you guys.
Dan (19:00):
And if that tool breaks, say something so we can replace
it.
Don't just go.
Oh well, ignore it and hope itreappears, I don't know.
Two weeks ago we broke thehandle off of that.
Jeremiah (19:08):
We're done.
Aaron, we're an hour and a halfaway.
Can you run us up a foamscraper?
Dan (19:12):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
So yeah, jeremiah, what do youhave to add on all this stuff?
Aaron (19:21):
Well, I mean, like I said , you know we were talking about
this, the SDS guys and realizedtoo that the SDS is a
requirement to be on your rig.
It's not a recommendation fromAaron or myself, it is a
requirement, like you said, ifOSHA unfortunately comes on your
job site and checks, there'snot just a way of the finger,
there's a fine to not have thaton your rig.
So it is required by law tohave it on there.
(19:43):
It's not only for your safetyand health, of course, but it's
also because, once again, worstcase scenario, someone comes to
the job.
Yeah, cya guys, I say it all thetime.
It's there for a reason.
Please have it Once again.
It's.
Epc has an app.
There's apps everywhere.
Every manufacturer has an appon your phone.
It's very readily availablenowadays.
Jeremiah (20:05):
There's no reason not to know what you're working with
and how to be safe around it.
They're on our website, easy tofind as well.
Um, like I said just, you'reprotecting your investment, and
this is a simple way to do it byjust having the bare minimum.
Aaron (20:16):
Right, the goal is always , guys to wake up, come to work,
go home in the same conditionyou came to work in and that's
you know.
Stay safe and you know, takethese recommendations for what
they are, guys, yeah.
Dan (20:28):
Very good, aaron, sure appreciate your time.
Yeah, glad you came out andtalked to us about this a little
bit.
Jeremiah (20:34):
It was a long drive.
Dan (20:35):
It was a long drive, yeah.
Jeremiah (20:41):
From your desk to this table over here.
Last thing I'll say stopstoring your chemical in direct
sunlight, For the love of God,stop.
Dan (20:46):
Well, I got this really nice tree that I can just back
the trailer underneath it, and agood 12 hours of the day it's
in the shade.
There you go, yeah.
Jeremiah (20:56):
Yeah, no, this was fun .
I appreciate you guys invitingme to do this and you go yeah,
yeah, no, this was.
This was fun.
I appreciate you guys invitingme to do this and, like I said,
my only goal with this is I hopeit's impactful and, like I said
, exactly, you can listen tothis on the way to the job site.
You know, you, this is maybe,maybe things you already know.
You've heard, um, but ifthere's just one little smidge
that can help out, then it helpsus all advance what we're
(21:17):
trying to get done here.
Dan (21:18):
And if you have any questions about anything we
talked about today, get ahold ofus.
There should be links to all ofour contact info.
We'll throw Energy Fox'swebsite up there.
If you have questions aboutsome of this, aaron will be glad
to talk to you about it.
Sure, absolutely Anytime.
Jeremiah, me, everybody.
Talk to your buddies, talk toyour competitors, talk to the
(21:41):
guys you know.
Look at the phone number on hisrig running down the street.
Ask him about what's up,because most all of us will
answer our phone for everybody.
If you don't ask the question,we can't answer it exactly.
That's right, so cool, verygood again.
Like and share us on facebookspray foam mafia.
We'll have this up.
Please subscribe to anything onwhatever your favorite podcast
(22:01):
channels are, and we will pickup again with a new topic next
week and a new guest star.
So circling back around through kind of everything we
did and kind of discussed onthis.
So best practices, optimaltemperatures are a big thing.
Jeremiah, what happens when youshow up and somebody calls you
and you said they're not gettingyield?
(00:21):
They said the foam's flat, it'snot growing, it's not.
I mean.
Besides look at me like I'm anidiot what's the next thing
you're going to do that?
Aaron (00:30):
would never happen.
Jeremiah (00:31):
No, no, never that's free Dan.
Dan (00:32):
That's free.
That's a free, look you getthat for free.
Aaron (00:37):
Well, it's.
Where'd you start?
That's my first question.
What was your temperatures whenyou started the day?
What's your liquid in yourbarrel?
What's the ambient temperature?
What's the substratetemperature like all the factors
on a job site that come intohow the product processes are my
questions.
You know, and they're, they getredundant and some guys, but at
the same time I'm not there soI have to ask the bare minimum
(01:00):
of annoying questions to figureout where you're at and why you
could possibly be having aproblem.
But, like, once again, it'salways preconditioning.
Yeah, every problem that a guyhas can trail back to the
preconditioning.
Oh, I don't have the yield.
Oh, it's shrinking.
Oh, like, either you overheated, you underheated, you didn't
mix, you have too much pressure,too little pressure, too much
heat, too little heat.
(01:21):
Right, there's not a lot offactors that come into play.
It's one plus one equals two,and if it equals three, then
you've done something wrong.
It's pretty straightforwardstuff.
Jeremiah (01:32):
What are your thoughts ?
So when you're going on, we'retalking about proper temperature
, proper storage, properprocessing of the material.
So when you're walking onto theback of a rig, say I've got
Energy Fox spray foam insulation, which I do not, I'm not a
contractor.
We are not competing with you inany way shape or form it's an
(01:53):
example only you walk on theback of my rig and you don't see
an infrared thermometer or youdon't see some of the basic
tools.
Where does your headspace go to?
Because, again, like you said,it's all pre-processing, it's
all the setup to get to the endresult.
We've talked about drumhandling, we've talked about
having barrel wrenches or pipewrenches or drum handlers, but
(02:20):
that's the big scale things.
Right, those are your higherdollar items.
But what are some of the itemsthat these guys can have on
their rigs to where, when youopen the back of it, you're
smiling because you know that atleast they're taking the steps
to get there?
Aaron (02:32):
Yeah, I mean that's fair, 100%.
I mean you look for a moisturemeter, the infrared temp gun.
You know these little things.
You know it's $30 a piece.
But once again I'm askingwhat's your substrate moisture,
what's your barrel at?
And everyone usually will go tothe machine no, no, that's
great, but I need to know whatthe liquid in the drum is.
(02:52):
I need to know what thesubstrate temperature is.
Like you said, a moisture meter, an IR temp gun, little things
like that is what you look for,because then you kind of know
where to start your training orthe demo at.
Okay, these guys have thesethings, they already care about
preconditioning in the beginning.
So we're already a little bit,a few steps ahead.
So you get on the rig.
Like you said, there's none ofthese tools, there's no spare
(03:12):
parts.
You kind of know okay, this iswhere we're starting.
We're going to start in thebeginning because it does help
and, like usually, like I said,I give those things away like
candy.
Sure they don't have one thereyou go, go Like please take this
, this is a very important toolLike this is like a slap hammer
for a helper, like if you can'tput up plastic, what?
Jeremiah (03:30):
do you do it's?
Aaron (03:30):
the same thing for an applicator.
If you don't have the moisturemeter and the IR gun, here you
go.
Let's explain why you should,and it kind of starts that
conversation.
But you're right, it's.
Those are the bare minimummoisture meter, ir temp gun.
It starts you off in the rightfoot.
Jeremiah (03:43):
Help me, help you, right?
So we're going to do everythingon our end you as a
manufacturer, me as adistributor.
We're going to do everythingthat we can to make sure that
when you leave here, you're setup for success.
At the same time, you have tohelp yourself too, and there's a
lot of cut corners,unfortunately, sometimes, and
they end up biting these guysright in the butt on simple
things that you could have fixed.
Like you said, a $30 IR gun, amoisture meter.
(04:05):
Ask your manufacturer.
I know, for example, upc sentout a bunch of those IR guns.
Does it cost them a little bitof money?
Yeah, but what it saves them asfar as tech calls.
Aaron (04:17):
It's an investment for the company and they understand
that that investment will helpthese guys understand the
importance.
Oh, if UPC's using this andspending the money on this, well
it's probably important becausethey know how much these cost.
They know that none of thisstuff is.
Everything adds up fast in thisindustry and every little bit
you can do to save time andmoney is important.
Jeremiah (04:37):
Yeah, and just not cutting corners where you
shouldn't be right.
You know tools, the equipmentthat you buy, it all matters.
No one ever cuts corners inthis industry.
No, what are you talking about?
Never seen it?
Moot point.
I don't even know why I broughtit up.
Dan (04:54):
Do not open Facebook.
No, we'll be disappointed.
Aaron (04:57):
Yeah, I mean yeah.
Jeremiah (04:59):
From my perspective.
We want the contractors to besuccessful.
That's how we stay in business.
We have things that we do todraw attention to ourselves, to
try to earn your business.
I'm not big enough to where, ifwe lose a customer, I've got 10
more coming in to take theirplace.
We're just not so.
We have to look at this as apartnership.
(05:20):
If we lose a customer, it's abig deal, so we have to drill
down, and then again that goesback to extra work.
What could we have done?
We could have made sure thatthey had that IR gun on there.
We could have made sure that wegot questions answered with
Jeremiah or whoever the tech repis.
We could have made sure that wehad somebody on site before you
spray a new product.
The benefit to all of us isit's seamless, right From the
(05:46):
end customer, that you just putthis product in their house all
the way down to the sprayer, tothe contractor, the owner of the
company, to the helper, back tous as a distributor and then to
you guys as a manufacturer.
If everything is in sync, itmoves the industry forward to
where, when we haveconversations, we're talking
about okay, what's the next stepand how do we grow instead of?
Okay, this is what everybody'sdoing wrong, so let's go back
(06:08):
and correct it.
And this is a perfect topic forthat, because you know
improperly handled materialswill cost you time and money,
can cause problems for the homethat it was installed on and all
of that falls back on us.
And then it rolls back to UPCor AccuFoam or Central or
whoever the manufacturer may be.
(06:29):
So getting everybody on thesame page and having educational
conversations like this, thatthey're actually full of
substance and not just guyssitting around a microphone just
goofing off, these are realconversations that somebody can
put this podcast on 30, 45minutes to their job site and
they've learned something.
So when they get out of thetruck they go back to the rig
(06:52):
and they see that they don'thave that thermometer, they
don't have the moisture meter,they didn't have the barrels
properly secured.
Now it's fresh in their mindand it's something that they can
grow with.
Dan (07:02):
Yeah, Okay, so you.
That's my favorite song, dan.
Thank you, I thought that wason mute.
I'm sorry, sorry, I'm gettingscolded over there on the other
side of the room Because sheasked you ten times and I did.
I hit the mute button.
Jeremiah (07:19):
Dan and Kristen like to make the jokes about how I
always have two phones and I'mconstantly juggling For make the
jokes about how I always havetwo phones and I'm constantly
juggling For this.
Dan (07:25):
I actually set them on the ground where I can't see them.
So there's like three of us inthe room and I think there's
five or six cell phones going onright here all at once.
And there it goes, super Mario.
Jeremiah (07:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Dan (07:42):
Super Mario.
Click on the hand.
Click on the hand.
Okay, back on task.
Here people Look serious.
This is important.
You have to listen to the laughtrack, okay.
So you go to a job site, you'regetting ready from the
applicator guy's standpoint.
You open up the doors to therig and something has happened.
(08:04):
You froze overnight, youoverheated overnight, whatever
has gone on, depending on whatseason it is, what part of the
world is in, what's the firstthing you should do?
And we'll just start right now,with hot Barrels are swelled up
, what's the very first thingyou're going to?
Aaron (08:23):
do.
Well, you want to know thetemperature.
So you got to know how hot thatdrum is, because if it's in a
certain parameter we're going totell you not to touch it.
You know, if it's a certaintemperature, you know that that
thing is diet coke and mentos ifit's closed cell, open cells, a
little less strict when itcomes that stuff, but we'll
always, if you have that typetype of condition okay, man,
you're gonna have to let thatstuff calm down for 24 to 48
(08:45):
hours, depending on how hot itis, especially if it's closed
cell.
Dan (08:47):
Because you pop that and by calm down, you want us to cool
it down.
Cool it down.
Aaron (08:53):
Take it back to a central location that you do have
control over the condition soyou can bring that temperature
down safely before you open it,because once again you open that
bung.
Dan (09:04):
You don't know?
Aaron (09:05):
It's the Bellagio fountain going on right and I
know you're on a job site andthings, and if you're trying to
get the job done.
Yes, this can be frustrating,but once again, it's a chemical.
You can't just hope that itdoes what you want it to do.
It's going to do whatever theheck it wants to do when it
comes to those conditions.
So of course, you take safetyinto account and we try and help
.
Like you said, Everyone laughsat the ice bags, but ice bags
(09:27):
have saved my day many, manytimes.
When I know, I was like, okay,I'm just going to surround it
with ice bags, give it a littlebit of time and go about my
thing.
Jeremiah (09:36):
Disclaimer on that make sure the drums are
completely closed before youstart ice bagging.
Yeah, you know, don't put icebags on top of
Dan (09:43):
your ISO and things like that, of course, guys.
Aaron (09:46):
But you know it's more of an example.
But yeah, you do what you gotto do within the parameters.
Once again, the tech team oryour distributor is going to
tell you what to do.
Don't try and go it alone.
That's the great thing rightnow, guys, you don't have to go
it alone.
There's definitely a phonenumber for every person, whether
it's your distributor or thetech for the manufacturer that
you buy from.
There's no shortage of thatanymore, which is great.
(10:07):
Or even, like I said, go onsocial media.
There's guys that want to helpwith these type of questions.
There's no reason that youshould go it alone, or?
Oh well, I'm just gonna popthat drum and cross my fingers
and hope for the best.
Dan (10:17):
No, you're gonna get the worst you're gonna get every
time, I promise, ask thequestion along that line.
Jeremiah (10:24):
You know, everybody knows that you can pop that drum
open coke style and try to letit breathe out a little bit.
Dan (10:30):
You mean the dollar sign?
You're trying to let all thedollar signs go flying right out
of it.
Jeremiah (10:34):
That's exactly what you're doing.
You're trying to save time byagain shaking Coke, bottle it
and let all that out.
But all you just did was youjust cut your yield down, Right.
So you're setting yourselffurther back by trying to save
some time, and it goes again,cutting the corners.
If you're going to cut corners,cut the right corners.
Don't cut corners when it comesto your material.
Don't cut corners when it comesto your tools and your
(10:55):
equipment.
Dan (10:59):
So let's go the other end of the spectrum.
It's cold.
It's one of those days whereyou're right on the fine line of
whether we're going to be ableto spray or not at all, and the
heater didn't work in the rig,or it was parked in a shop and
that heater went out overnight,and so the diesel indirect
heaters are blowing and whateveryou're about to spray, um,
(11:21):
you're rolling, you're ready togo, and that rig is ice inside
well, I mean like, like, likethere's.
Aaron (11:30):
No, the machines aren't going to.
Cold is a little different.
If you have highly viscouscolocell or roofing foam.
The machine is just not goingto pump it, it's just not going
to work to a certain level.
Jeremiah (11:43):
You're pumping a problem into your equipment.
Aaron (11:44):
Yeah, you're going to cavitate, you're going to have
issues Like.
Cold is a little bit different.
You know, hot, if it's verythin material, the machine is
going to try Frost.
Closed cell it's going to readit differently in the sensors,
but with cold it's hard to getaround it.
Open cell, of course, is alittle easier.
You can recirculate, you canmix, you can slowly bring it up.
(12:05):
If it's, it's definitely moredifficult.
Once again, we always talkabout preconditioning.
That's again where we try andsave our butts.
Here is, you know, thepreconditioning.
Like you said, if everythinggoes sideways, what do you do
exactly?
It's going to take long.
You have to heat it up properlybarrel blankets, barrel blazers
, things like that that you'regoing to have to use to get it
up, um, to temperature that youneed it at like the
(12:27):
clarification.
Dan (12:28):
I paused for a little too long oops, oops.
But yeah, I mean, sometimesthere's no, there's no corner to
cut right, there's the the longway at that point to get it, to
get to it well and I thinkthat's why I wanted to bring
that point up and talk aboutthat is, if you get to that
point, no matter what layer ofthis industry you are, sometimes
(12:54):
you have to stop.
Yeah, and it's hard to be theguy that stopped.
It is.
Aaron (13:00):
But there's.
That's why you have a group ofguys.
You know Aaron myself, you knowwe're the ones you call it like
man.
It just it's not happening likeclothes selling saying you know
the heat a lot of guys rightnow.
There's a stopping point.
There's a point when thatbarrel gets so hot, you're done,
you can't do anything about it.
It's a chemical reaction.
No matter how much you wish itnot to be, it's going to happen
and you've got to stop.
Jeremiah (13:23):
With us at the previous location when we moved
in there.
I guess it was one of thecoldest winters that Arizona had
in quite some time, likeseveral days below freezing.
I have a duty, I have anobligation to protect our
customers.
I have an obligation to makesure that when product leaves
our shop that it's at thosecorrect temperatures, right.
(13:43):
So that was me getting to theshop at four o'clock in the
morning making sure we've gotthose heaters turned on, making
sure that you know the tempsdidn't get below 50 degrees, or
if they got close, we've got tobring those back up to
temperature.
So again, a lot of that fallsback onto the contractor, that
business owner, to check it atnight before you go to bed.
You know, check it as soon asyou get up and you know if
(14:03):
you've got two hours to get tothe job site, getting those
indirect heaters on there forfor an hour before you get there
.
Little steps will save you aton of time, but it's the time
you spend in the preventative.
Like you said, jeremiah, on theback end it makes up for it,
instead of fighting your machine, fighting your phone, fighting
(14:24):
your equipment all day longnotice how everyone keeps saying
indirect heaters too, guys, Idon't like getting on a rig and
seeing a tube heater pointed ata drum Because you know you got
in, it was 45 degrees.
Aaron (14:36):
You know, once again, like Dan said numerous times,
you know you're going to try andfix the situation as quick as
you can, but there are certainfixes that are going to make
your situation worse down theroad.
And you know, blazing a heateron the side of the drum because
you know you slept in a littlebit long or you're trying to get
it done a little faster, onceagain, that's going to create
more issues down the road.
Jeremiah (14:53):
You're only heating up the area that that that heater
is pointing, or?
Aaron (14:56):
the paint or there's exactly once again, you can.
There's a, there's a proper wayto get yourself to the goal,
right guys?
And there's corners that, onceagain, like aaron said, you
shouldn't cut, that are going tocreate more problems, and
that's why we keep saying theselittle things like indirect heat
.
There's these little littlethings we can teach you and you
can let you know.
You do that, get the job donecorrectly.
And there's these little thingsand other things that some guys
(15:18):
do that will get you not tothat goal.
Jeremiah (15:21):
Right Back to the tools, though.
I mean making sure that okay,yeah, you know barrel warmers,
uh, drum blankets.
They're not cheap You'relooking at $800 to $1,000, but
what's that worth to you?
On your time in the mornings?
One of the things that I'vealways liked when I see on a rig
is the ceiling mounted heaters.
(15:41):
They're not going to use themall the time.
They rattle around, they make alittle bit of noise, but at the
end of the day, when you gethome and you know what the
temperatures are supposed to beovernight and all you're doing
is running an extension cord outfrom the garage to make sure
that your product stayssprayable the next day, well,
those are days that you're outthere spraying that your
competitors aren't, so that youcan keep moving.
So those, those investments will.
At the time they seem like alot to bite off.
(16:03):
They're worth it and they helpyou do things the right way and
again going back to that endresult, which is the customer
being happy with the productthat you just put in their walls
or that you just put in theirroof line subfloor, wherever.
Having those having done itcorrectly goes a long way, and
the benefits that you'll get outof it are more than that, that
(16:24):
800 bucks that you just spentwell, and show a piece rate
sprayer a way to spray an extrahour a day, sure that guy will
be all over it.
Dan (16:31):
Show an owner how you know an extra quarter set a day gets
sprayed.
Sure everybody can put a numberon that very fast.
And if it's, you know, a 50space heater that gets you done
with an extension cord.
That's what it takes, sure, butyeah, any day you show me how I
(16:52):
can spray a tenth of a set more, a quarter of a set more,
absolutely without extra effort.
Jeremiah (16:58):
It's worth every penny we're jeopardizing your quality
, and you know you spent that 15or 20 minutes or hour, whatever
it is, to make sure that youyou are processing your material
correctly.
Like you said, there's thatquarter set, there's that extra
hour spraying for your sprayerDown the line.
It's a benefit to everyone.
In addition, look at it fromthe homeowner standpoint.
(17:22):
You guys have all had to makethat call hey, I've got to push
your job a day, I've got to pushyour job a week back.
Or hey, the weather is doing,is that doing this?
Dan (17:34):
well, yeah, it could be the weather, but it's also, are you
conditioning your stuffproperly where you can get that
job done in time, exactly?
All right, uh, call to action.
What guys are going to do outhere?
We're talking about all thisstuff.
Check your rig for some tools.
Jeremiah (17:45):
Ask for a few tools if you don't have them, ask, and
if you don't know which tools tohave, call us, call, yeah, I
have a list I give out to guys.
Aaron (17:52):
I'm sure Aaron has a list of tools that you minimally
need to be on your rig to startoff and you know we're happy to
hand that stuff out.
You know, ask a friend, ask a.
You know a coworker Like mostpeople know, like hey, get this
stuff and shameless, plug here.
Dan (18:06):
hit us up on the old Spray Foam Mafia Facebook page and
just say, hey, what are youusing?
Jeremiah (18:11):
I'll snap a picture of what I have in my rigs.
Well, and on your rig on thecontractor side, have an
inventory sheet right.
Make sure that your guys arechecking that off every day.
Do we have our infraredthermometer?
Do we have our drum barrelheaters?
Do we have our depth gauges?
Do we have organize?
Aaron (18:28):
your stupid toolbox, so you know where it is job site
calling your boss like hey man,no, every morning before you
leave, you should haveeverything.
This is there, this is there.
Jeremiah (18:37):
This is there, and you should have everything on that
rig you need.
This is there.
This is there.
This is there.
On our side, when a productleaves, it doesn't matter if
it's a pin, vice or a set offoam all that goes back into our
inventory system so that we cantrack it For you guys, all
right.
Well, there was a pipe wrenchon here yesterday.
You signed off on it.
Where the hell is my pipewrench?
So the time you save gettingout there to it and knowing what
(18:58):
you're supposed to have again,that's priceless for you guys.
Dan (19:00):
And if that tool breaks, say something so we can replace
it.
Don't just go.
Oh well, ignore it and hope itreappears, I don't know.
Two weeks ago we broke thehandle off of that.
Jeremiah (19:08):
We're done.
Aaron, we're an hour and a halfaway.
Can you run us up a foamscraper?
Dan (19:12):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
So yeah, jeremiah, what do youhave to add on all this stuff?
Aaron (19:21):
Well, I mean, like I said , you know we were talking about
this, the SDS guys and realizedtoo that the SDS is a
requirement to be on your rig.
It's not a recommendation fromAaron or myself, it is a
requirement, like you said, ifOSHA unfortunately comes on your
job site and checks, there'snot just a way of the finger,
there's a fine to not have thaton your rig.
So it is required by law tohave it on there.
(19:43):
It's not only for your safetyand health, of course, but it's
also because, once again, worstcase scenario, someone comes to
the job.
Yeah, cya guys, I say it all thetime.
It's there for a reason.
Please have it Once again.
It's.
Epc has an app.
There's apps everywhere.
Every manufacturer has an appon your phone.
It's very readily availablenowadays.
Jeremiah (20:05):
There's no reason not to know what you're working with
and how to be safe around it.
They're on our website, easy tofind as well.
Um, like I said just, you'reprotecting your investment, and
this is a simple way to do it byjust having the bare minimum.
Aaron (20:16):
Right, the goal is always , guys to wake up, come to work,
go home in the same conditionyou came to work in and that's
you know.
Stay safe and you know, takethese recommendations for what
they are, guys, yeah.
Dan (20:28):
Very good, aaron, sure appreciate your time.
Yeah, glad you came out andtalked to us about this a little
bit.
Jeremiah (20:34):
It was a long drive.
Dan (20:35):
It was a long drive, yeah.
Jeremiah (20:41):
From your desk to this table over here.
Last thing I'll say stopstoring your chemical in direct
sunlight, For the love of God,stop.
Dan (20:46):
Well, I got this really nice tree that I can just back
the trailer underneath it, and agood 12 hours of the day it's
in the shade.
There you go, yeah.
Jeremiah (20:56):
Yeah, no, this was fun .
I appreciate you guys invitingme to do this and you go yeah,
yeah, no, this was.
This was fun.
I appreciate you guys invitingme to do this and, like I said,
my only goal with this is I hopeit's impactful and, like I said
, exactly, you can listen tothis on the way to the job site.
You know, you, this is maybe,maybe things you already know.
You've heard, um, but ifthere's just one little smidge
that can help out, then it helpsus all advance what we're
(21:17):
trying to get done here.
Dan (21:18):
And if you have any questions about anything we
talked about today, get ahold ofus.
There should be links to all ofour contact info.
We'll throw Energy Fox'swebsite up there.
If you have questions aboutsome of this, aaron will be glad
to talk to you about it.
Sure, absolutely Anytime.
Jeremiah, me, everybody.
Talk to your buddies, talk toyour competitors, talk to the
(21:41):
guys you know.
Look at the phone number on hisrig running down the street.
Ask him about what's up,because most all of us will
answer our phone for everybody.
If you don't ask the question,we can't answer it exactly.
That's right, so cool, verygood again.
Like and share us on facebookspray foam mafia.
We'll have this up.
Please subscribe to anything onwhatever your favorite podcast
(22:01):
channels are, and we will pickup again with a new topic next
week and a new guest star.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.