Episode 1567
We talk insulation with Spray Foam Genie
We sit down with Spray Foam Genie and Kevin Longe, CEO and Founder Chris Ryan about spray foam insulation, how they have a system to make sure you get what you are paying for and how they are expanding across the US. We talk about the benefits of spray foam and the different types and where to use it in your home. If you are looking at doing some insulation work check this one out.! For more information head to: https://www.sprayfoamgenie.com/
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Mentioned in this episode:
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
Baldwin Hardware
Transcript
[00:00:23] Eric Goranson: Not me. I think I saw that on Breaking
[:[00:00:30] Chris Ryan: And not knowing nothing about it, which cause the, the, this, um, mark market's not, it's not regulated. So that, that, that's, yeah. Sad part about it is you can go out there and get into business, um, very easily and start doing this business. One thing about our system when, when we even are launching a new franchise is, is if you got inexperienced guys that really don't know what they're doing, our system will ask you to pick up on that.
[:[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. We are gonna get into a hot topic right now, which is something we've never really covered on around the house before.
[:[00:01:27] Kevin Longe: friends. Thanks for having us. We're looking forward to
[:[00:01:36] Eric Goranson: Let's talk about your role with. Spray foam genie so people can put that, uh, voice to the name, if you know what I mean.
[:[00:01:52] Kevin Longe: Um, a little bit about me. I, I've, I've grown up in the franchising industry. Uh, my dad had been in franchising for about 40 years. Um, [00:02:00] and so. I, I got into some different things after college, uh, worked with him kind of coming up in the industry and those types of things. And I was in, uh, packaging for about a decade.
[:[00:02:28] Kevin Longe: And so, I got on a plane. I, I headed down to Tuscaloosa. I met Chris and his brother Keith. And, uh, right from the, the beginning we, we hit it off. Um, and, and we knew that we had something special here. When, when you, when you start to look at the, the system that Chris built, um, I knew this was something we could franchise and, and take it to, to the next level and, and becoming one of the fastest growing franchise companies in the country.
[:[00:03:10] Eric Goranson: So you're herding cats all day long, then
[:[00:03:15] Eric Goranson: I love my contractor brothers, don't get me wrong. Yeah. But they all got their own personalities. And that's a, that's a, that's a handful, my friend.
[:[00:03:26] Eric Goranson: Nothing wrong with that.
[:[00:03:36] Chris Ryan: Yeah. Right. Um, um, been in the spray farm industry now for over 16 years. Um, like I said, I'm Chris Ryan, one, one of the founders, along with my twin brother, Keith Ryan. We've got a heavy, um, construction background.
[:[00:04:12] Chris Ryan: Um, to the industry, um, grew it, um, for all these years, um, started out very slow, but every year in this business, it's grown. Um, every, every single year we've been in it, um, figured out some things, um, d during the process that there, that there had to be an easier way. Just like any business anyone gets in you, you're always thinking, man, there's gotta be an easier way to.
[:[00:04:52] Chris Ryan: Wonder, I mean, is stuff working? I mean, it's, it's like after we encapsulate an at that's been a hundred and, you know, 20 degrees plus, [00:05:00] and we, we bring that down to 10 degrees difference in the inside of the home, you know, they notice that immediately. And, and you know, if you've been living in any hou in a house in any amount of time, you kind of know what goes on with that heating and cooling and, and how it operates.
[:[00:05:41] Chris Ryan: Nice. Then we built a software around that. Um, Um, that rig and then how we moved, how we, you know, our people, how we worked, our people and everything. Had an app added, added in so we could, um, our guys could use an app and communicate back through us. Um, so now we've got an awesome [00:06:00] rig. We've got an awesome software that we had built this proprietary up to us.
[:[00:06:23] Chris Ryan: Met had a buddy that traveled all over the world, explained to him and said, man, I've got a great franchise model, man, if, if you could ever get me tied in with some guys that knew something about it. And I, I'm telling you, if they'd hear me out and just let me break this thing down of what we do and what makes us different, um, they'd see what we have.
[:[00:06:59] Chris Ryan: And, [00:07:00] and, and we've, we've added a lot of great people to our network and one of our biggest competitive edges is the, is our, um, is our people. The people that we're bringing into this thing is really vetting those people out and bringing in good people. People that, you know, you, you want, you, you're okay with spending, you know, the next.
[:[00:07:33] Chris Ryan: So we definitely wanna pick people that, you know, we, you know, we don't mind getting on the phone with and, and, you know, and going, hanging out with, you know, and doing life and doing business together.
[:[00:07:49] Eric Goranson: That's right. Like it or not. Uh, good times and bad times. And, and this is construction, right? So there's always gonna be a. What happened here or whatever. [00:08:00] Every day is not perfect. And if somebody's gonna give you those kind of roses, then uh, they're not telling you the whole story. But having a great team is a key.
[:[00:08:07] Kevin Longe: right. It is, it is. We, we definitely tell that as our, our number one advantage with both our franchise partners and, and our home office staff as well.
[:[00:08:29] Eric Goranson: I don't know cuz I wasn't there. But you look at it and go, what happened in that attic space? Right? What did somebody get cans from the Home Depot and go in there and try to do it? I mean, it just looked. Absolutely like a hot mess. And you can see how even for somebody that's not trained, my, like me went, oh, that must have been somebody's first day.
[:[00:08:50] Kevin Longe: That's right. Right. And, and that's, that's part of the reason we, we, we knew that when we had something here because of the way that we, we spray foam the way that Chris put that rig and that software together. [00:09:00] Um, Chris, if you wanna talk a little bit about how our software system allows us to always be spraying quality foam.
[:[00:09:08] Chris Ryan: One thing about our rig and our system set up is, is like you said, the problem is, is that anybody, even yourself, could go out today and, and buy a rig and you can be outside somebody's house tomorrow with this science project, mixing chemicals together and, and putting into someone's house.
[:[00:09:26] Eric Goranson: that on Breaking Bad ones, but that's a whole other story. That's right. Exactly.
[:[00:09:44] Chris Ryan: And start doing this business. One thing about our system when, when we even are launching a new franchise is, is if you got inexperienced guys that really don't know what they're doing, our system will last you pick up on that. Like if [00:10:00] our chemical gets off ratio. Our system will shut down if it gets below a 99.1% ratio.
[:[00:10:25] Chris Ryan: Um, this company monitors our data, so man, we have no control over that company. They monitor that data. If it was off ratio and we don't pass that, then hey, we have to go fix that job. Um, so we pretty much what we've done, we've regulated ourselves in a market that's not regulated. And so, um, That way. We don't have none of our franchisees or no one out there.
[:[00:11:17] Chris Ryan: Um, and, and, and really, really, Zoom in on the problems out there, but we really, with our ace and with our rig, we've set that up to where we're not spraying off ratio where everyone, if you're paying us, you're gonna get a quality job. And we're not just gonna say that. We're gonna back that up with data that we're gonna give you to show you that our rig was on ratio every gallon that we sprayed while we was at your house.
[:[00:11:55] Chris Ryan: You know? Exactly. And, and you don't, you don't see that, you know, [00:12:00] with our company and our guys, cuz we, we are definitely homed in on quality and we're definitely homed in on. Having ourselves, um, held accountable by a third party so that we are regulated in a market that's not regulated.
[:[00:12:16] Eric Goranson: Uh, because, you know, it's not that I want government regulations to get involved with this stuff cuz it never seems to work out exactly as planned. But when you can create a system like that to make sure that every job is done with quality, you've kind of got. You know, the, the end consumer in mind there, which is nice.
[:[00:12:53] Eric Goranson: So I thought we'd talk a little bit about here just for a minute and see what, uh, You know, little education on spray foam 1 [00:13:00] 0 1 for our listeners. Yep.
[:[00:13:10] Chris Ryan: Like, but doesn't, don't really know the details of spray foam. Really know that, hey, that about how many different manufacturers out there and that, how many companies are out there that have a product that's really not even been approved yet, but are, are letting guys go out there and test it. Like I said, it's, it's, it's a market's not regulated, so you could easily get.
[:[00:13:50] Chris Ryan: I wanted to, to track the yields of the product. I wanted to see what was going on out there. And I, and I found so many things over the years that [00:14:00] were, I was a Guinea pig and that I was having a, um, people, they were, they were making products and send to me, how am I supposed to know, man? I'm just the installer.
[:[00:14:11] Eric Goranson: But then I, and you weren't, you weren't the chemist sitting there playing with it, right? No.
[:[00:14:23] Chris Ryan: And over the years, I, I, I, I caught many manufacturers and, and it's crazy how many guys will call, your companies will call you. That's just got in the business and says, Hey, I, I'll give you this product if y'all try it out. And I'm like, you'll give it. I'm not putting that in someone's home until we do.
[:[00:15:02] Chris Ryan: Well, you better be, you know that, that's a warning right there, that hey, um, there, there, there may be something going on that may be a product that's not approved. So for a customer base, you really wanna find out who's the manufacturer. You least wanna get the technical data sheets of the product that's being put in your home because that's very important to know what is, what is going in my home.
[:[00:15:44] Chris Ryan: Cause all phones not the same. If you look at it and you don't know what you're looking at, you don't, you don't know what you don't know. But, um, as correct us as experts, you know, we'll look at it, we'll tell you, Hey, that's off ratio. And I'll tell you, the scar thing about it is you can't see foam when it's off 20, when it's 25% [00:16:00] off ratio.
[:[00:16:20] Chris Ryan: Producing these products and not, it's just some off name or somebody just might have been in, in the business in the past nine months and there's a good chance you're using a product that really hadn't been tested, um, out there. But guys will jump right on that because they'll jump on that for that price.
[:[00:16:54] Chris Ryan: You know, you need something to hold the manufacturer accountable for what's going on, and that is something that we can [00:17:00] always hold the manufacturer, uh, uh, accountable. I'll let Kevin even speak on our, with spray foam Genie, our relationship with, um, rhino Linings. Cause everybody knows who, who Rhino Linings is,
[:[00:17:12] Kevin Longe: Yep. Yeah, no, we, we have a great partnership with, uh, with Rhino Linings. In fact, the, the founder of Rhino Linings is, is one of our partners at Spray Foam Genie. He's, he's one of our investors. Oh, cool. Um, and he's, he's our fifth partner here at, at Spray Foam Genie. So it affords us the opportunity to be very tight in terms of their r and d team and their innovation team.
[:[00:17:53] Kevin Longe: Um, we also use eco-friendly and, and sustainable products as well. So not only are we. Huge on the energy efficiency side of things [00:18:00] in terms of re reducing your energy consumption on a monthly basis with the foam. Uh, but we're also using water-based closed cell and, and open cell foam to, to again, go back to that sustainability and energy
[:[00:18:12] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I think that's one of the biggest consumer concerns is they just don't know and they look at it and, okay, what, what is this chemical that I'm putting in my house? Right. And I think you just answered that really well, is for some people you just don't know, but you guys have a. Of a, uh, a water-based system.
[:[00:18:28] Kevin Longe: That's correct. Yep. Yep. And so we, we mandate that in, in all of our locations, uh, across the us. Um, right now we have, uh, we have several locations that are open. We have another about 35 that are getting ready to open in the next few months here. Um, and, and continuing to grow.
[:[00:19:01] Kevin Longe: Yeah, we
[:[00:19:19] Eric Goranson: I know that's one of the confusions for many people.
[:[00:19:46] Chris Ryan: Um, closed cell foam is a very dense product. Um, I mean, if you tapped on, it's like tapping on a metal. You, you, it's got a r value of seven. Um, Per inch. So a lot of times you can get by with just using two inches [00:20:00] of the product. Yeah. Um, but from a insulation standpoint, neither one of the products is, is, uh, outperforms from an insulation standpoint.
[:[00:20:30] Chris Ryan: And so whatever you are spraying that against, you know, you wanna know one thing about attics. The, the attics reason you wanna use open cell foam is cause if you have a leak, you need to know it. You, you need that water to come through. You need to fix the leak. You don't need to mask the leak because that's wood.
[:[00:21:08] Chris Ryan: We're not looking at it as, oh, let me say you closed sale because we're gonna make more money. Um, we're not, we don't look at it. We let, let me explain to you about the two products and why you'd want to use each one. At the end of the day, you, you're the customer. You make the ultimate decision, but we're gonna give you the education on it and we're gonna educate you on, uh, educate the customers on ratio mixes.
[:[00:21:49] Eric Goranson: So my question is, for the consumer out there, if that ratio of the mix is off, does that mean that the R value is not gonna be the same as what, what it should be with that? Or what is the, what is the end [00:22:00] result of that ratio being
[:[00:22:07] Chris Ryan: That means I'm gonna make that product the best it can be made. So if I make the product the best it can be made, that means it's gonna hold up for the, the longest long haul. It's not it, it's gonna be the best it can be. So if it's off ratio and just say it was like way off ratio, you know. Yeah, you may not have no r value.
[:[00:22:46] Chris Ryan: They have something to go off of, um, that they're gonna give you something paperwork wise. To prove that what they've done is right. This ain't a product that you wanna look at and just say, ah, that company's been doing it for X amount of years. I mean, [00:23:00] No problems yet. Cause you might be the one problem, you know, and you, this is a product that you don't wanna have a problem.
[:[00:23:22] Chris Ryan: That's what caused the problem. It's an installer problem most of the time. Not the manufacturer or the equipment. It's the, it's the guys installing, just being inexperienced and really not understanding about the ratio mixes
[:[00:23:43] Eric Goranson: I've seen it where somebody went in and did that, sprayed it in there, thought they were doing the right thing, and they get that roof leak, and all of a sudden that foam did a killer job on stopping moisture coming through there. Right. But man, you got some plywood issues because that must have, that's like being an underwater [00:24:00] dock.
[:[00:24:08] Kevin Longe: right.
[:[00:24:13] Eric Goranson: So is there, are there places that, um, But you don't recommend putting spray foam or does it work pretty much, uh, on all exterior places within a home?
[:[00:24:45] Chris Ryan: Now that unit's doing what it's designed to do. It's draw the air in, dehumidify it, put it back out, condition the air. So once I've conditioned the air in a, in a spray foam home, it's conditioned. What happens in a traditional home is you're constantly got [00:25:00] all this. I'll tell you like this fiberglass insulation and the other types is all about ventilation.
[:[00:25:26] Chris Ryan: That's why. When it's summertime, you, you have that unit set and you can't never get it down to the temperature well's cause you're bringing out in so much outside air inside that you're constantly having to condition that over and over and over. But if I could encapsulate that, now I can control what's in my environment.
[:[00:26:02] Chris Ryan: Now during the wintertime, that heat rises up. What's happening in a traditional home, it's just going right out of the house. And so, yep. Now I've got it encapsulated so that heat rises up, pushes it back down. So if you jumped in your attic during, in the wintertime it, you'd say, oh, the heat's running in here for sure, you know?
[:[00:26:37] Chris Ryan: I mean, the house is so much more comfortable to live in too. I mean, there's nothing like living in a foam home. Um, I can tell you once you lived in one, you know, you can get that temperature where you want it. Um, you ain't going back living in a traditional house where you gotta, you gotta get back to dealing with insulation problems.
[:[00:27:00] Eric Goranson: business. Oh yeah, Chris, I was, uh, out, uh, doing a segment for my TV show here about a month ago. And I was out at this old, uh, oh 1920s house here in Portland, uh, Oregon where I was at.
[:[00:27:30] Eric Goranson: That air had to been moving 30 miles an hour Yeah. As it was going past because it was just whew. Flying right past. And I'm like, wow. The, the, the air leakage of that house was epic and it just showed you back in the day, especially in those older homes where, you know, they had no control of the air in that and it didn't have attic insulation.
[:[00:28:11] Eric Goranson: Like a chimney.
[:[00:28:32] Chris Ryan: And they're gonna be like, oh my God, yes, that's gonna be awesome, but we're not gonna put a front door or a back door on the house. And how, how do you think that's gonna work? Well, when you take all the air leaks in a house, like you said, and you put a blower door test, that's what it's like. It's like having a door just wide open.
[:[00:29:07] Chris Ryan: Well, cause that's tradit, that's traditional thinking that a house has to breathe. What it is that, oh yeah. That unit breathes for the house. That unit's taking that air and in and, and, and dehumidified and putting it back out. It's doing the breathing. For the home. So a home doesn't, I hear that all times.
[:[00:29:39] Chris Ryan: I mean, you're bringing fresh air in, in the home. So, yeah. Um, that's just, uh, and then, you
[:[00:29:57] Eric Goranson: That's right. Even though it has nothing to do with my [00:30:00] kitchen. It's just kind of the new way of doing stuff. That's right. And because we are making homes tighter and tighter and. And not wasting energy like we've been doing. I mean, that's great example. I was working last weekend on my house here, which is a 19 77 1.
[:[00:30:39] Eric Goranson: It's just what it is. It is. Yep. It is. It's so common. You know, it's, and that's in a newer house. I mean that's, you know, yeah. 60 years difference from the one I was talking about before and it was still moving through. And so that's where I think the spray foam really has its application for really trying to tighten that stuff up.
[:[00:31:13] Chris Ryan: now. There he is. Um, one thing about the foam too, if you have hot spots, cold spots, and home, once you are using, get that attic encapsulated, it, it, it usually fixes those, um, problems in homes, um, immediately.
[:[00:31:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Is, uh, how does that stuff, I know one of the fears that I've had for people that have brought it up to me is, uh, how does it work with a fire, if you have a house fire? Is that
[:[00:31:48] Chris Ryan: Like I said earlier, you got so much ventilation that's drawing in from the, um, From the eaves to, to your ridge vent. Yeah. So it's got that [00:32:00] flow of air. So what happens with that when, when a fire hits that attic, it's ignites cuz of that air? Well, with a spray foam house, it's encapsulated. So when it hit, if it comes up in there, hits that it's, it's not gonna burn near as quickly as the traditional home would.
[:[00:32:34] Chris Ryan: You know? And so it, it does have to, I mean, that makes sense. It fits from, from that standpoint there. And, and you could look it up, there's several stories where, you know, houses are caught fire, and when it's hit that attic, it's, it's just gone out. Um, cause of, yeah, usually
[:[00:32:55] Eric Goranson: Right. You're just Right. Smoking it out and trying to put the fire out that way. That's
[:[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: It makes sense. Yeah, makes sense. So if somebody wanted to, let's say we've got, I mean, we've got a lot of contractors that'll listen to this show a lot. Uh, if somebody wanted to become a, um, one of the, you know, one of the franchisees for you guys, what's the process
[:[00:33:17] Kevin Longe: Yeah, the, the process is, it's very easy. Um, you just go to our website, there's a franchise opportunity section, fill out a form. Um, we'll get in touch with you and, and kind of take you through the entire process o of what it takes to become a franchise owner. Um, we'll walk you through our investor model, which is, is very exciting for the marketplace right now where.
[:[00:33:51] Kevin Longe: Um, but that's a, a great advantage for somebody that's looking to, to get into franchising without having to spend. You know, nine to five every day running the business. We'll help run that [00:34:00] business for you from, from that standpoint. Um, and so yeah, you just go to our website, spray foam genie.com, there's a franchise opportunity section, fill it out, and, uh, then you'll be on a, a Zoom call with Chris and I learning more about the business.
[:[00:34:26] Eric Goranson: And of course they see your bid and, uh, what, what should they be looking at? I know we talked, talked about the foam and stuff a little bit earlier, but, uh, What should people be looking at if they're out there shopping for spray foam and thinking about calling you guys
[:[00:34:46] Chris Ryan: Who's their manufacturer of their chemical? Where's that coming from? And making sure they're not just jumping from company to company to company. They're doing that. That means they're just chasing pricing. Um, and I know to your stand, to a [00:35:00] customer standpoint might, well, I want a better price. I'm glad they're jumping around that that's not good, because you're trying to find a product that's consistent that you can stand behind.
[:[00:35:27] Chris Ryan: Does he have any, are you gonna get anything at the end of the job other than just an invoice? Um, or is he gonna be transparent with you and let you know how many gallons he put in your home? How many gallons the job calls for? And, um, was it done right? It, it is. The most important question to ask is how are you tracking your ratio mixes of how this chemical is being mixed?
[:[00:36:05] Eric Goranson: I've been doing it wrong for 20 years. Watch me.
[:[00:36:10] Chris Ryan: I'm not saying these guys are just like, they're, they're, their products not close enough on ratio where it's not a good product. I'm out here trying to knock on every company that's doing No, no, no. Not at all. All I'm saying is, is that, You need to know. Um, cause you might, what if you're the one that there's a problem with, you know what if you're the one?
[:[00:36:46] Chris Ryan: How we're doing it. We're, we're not just gonna, we're not just gonna tell you all this information and not back it up. We do have the paperwork to back up what we're doing. Our, our, our rig keeps up with that data. Our third party keeps up with that [00:37:00] data. That data comes in on our software. I mean, it's really how we track everything.
[:[00:37:24] Chris Ryan: We have ways to track that with the numbers that the, it'll throw a flag up so we'll we know, uh, know that. We're really, that's cool in sync on what we're doing to make sure that hey, you're, you're spending a lot of money on your home. We, we wanna make sure it's done right. We wanna be able to back that up, that there was ever an issue that the manufacturer would've to stand behind what we're doing.
[:[00:38:06] Chris Ryan: How much you spray, what the temperatures was? Did y'all keep up with anything? Nah, Manny know, I've been doing this a long time. I know what I'm doing. Okay. No big deal. They're gonna call the customer back and say, Hey, um, well, I'm sorry. Um, you're, The guy that installed it didn't keep up with no data.
[:[00:38:37] Chris Ryan: Nobody wins. You wanna know that I'm covered at the end of the day.
[:[00:39:02] Eric Goranson: well.
[:[00:39:17] Eric Goranson: That's right. That's exactly right. That's right. So guys, where do people track you down? What's, uh, what's the best place to find you
[:[00:39:32] Kevin Longe: Uh, we will be in Oregon hopefully very soon as well. Um, but, uh, but yeah, you, you go on there, you fill out your form. Our, uh, we have a call center and then a, a, a lead estimator in each one of our locations, um, that's local to the area. And so they'll come out and, uh, and get you that estimate and we'll take it from there.
[:[00:39:52] Eric Goranson: All right. Is there anything we missed today, guys, that we didn't talk
[:[00:39:59] Kevin Longe: I think we did. [00:40:00] And we really appreciate the time. Eric, we appreciate you having us on. This was a lot of fun for us to, uh, to jump on with you today and, and talk spray foam.
[:[00:40:07] Eric Goranson: I appreciate it, Chris. Ryan, Kevin, long spray foam genie. Check these guys out and uh, maybe if you need to have a franchise here in Oregon, guys, you know who to call now. So I think that's right. There's a great business opportunity that's in my backyard
[:[00:40:25] Kevin Longe: That'd be great. All right guys.
[: