Watch THIS before buying SOLAR - cheaper and more effective ways to make your home more efficient

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Nobody's watching this right now, it's fine.

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Yeah, so we'll do an official countdown intro and then I trim it off.

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Why is that so live stream?

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That would be very funny if like we recorded the pre thing and then put that out as a
separate thing later.

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I'm not sure if that's possible.

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Well, you know, we're fixing to find out.

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mean, people might be watching for all I know, but you know, we're just gonna go with it.

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Okay, we about ready to start this thing for real?

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Let's do it.

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be anymore ready.

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I am so freaking excited.

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right.

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Where are my video uploads?

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You actually don't seem ready.

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Yeah, right?

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Yeah, that's fair.

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listen, there's upload media.

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Come on now.

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I had done uploaded this last time.

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All of this gets turned off, guys.

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Here we go.

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All right.

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Learn that.

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Here we go.

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This will be the official start right here, and I will trim it in three, two, one.

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It is another day, another episode of the Ride Along here today.

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And Matt, how you doing?

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Welcome back on.

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Travis, how are you doing as well,

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Doing good, man.

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It's been a busy couple of days.

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We a big windstorm in Dallas, Fort Worth.

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So yeah, it's been crazy.

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So you're in Dallas, Matt, obviously you're down in Houston.

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Houston just arriving back from Las Vegas actually.

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we got to talk a little bit about that because we talked in the last episode about it for
sure.

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want to hear whether or not you and Beau got into a fight.

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We did not actually.

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was a very, it was a very, it was a bromance to say the least.

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Actually, I mean, that's not the least.

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I don't want to get anybody like too excited or whatever.

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was just, it was just, we're bros, man.

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You know, if there's, you you meet people online.

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I've been talking to Beau on the phone.

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I've talked to him online or whatever for like three years.

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You sometimes wonder like if these people are going to be the same in person as they
actually are like, like, you know, their, their virtual self.

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I actually didn't ever question that really with both and and it was it was exactly what
you would expect.

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Now he's my brother from another mother man.

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We're just we're buddies and we had a real good time stomping around Vegas and really I
mean like I can't think of anybody else I'd rather walk around that show and try to learn

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about stuff with.

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He has a really you know he's got a we're much different in the way we think and so.

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When we're walking through the show and seeing all this new and cool stuff, he's like,
wow, let's go, go check this out.

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And then we ended up in a booth.

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would have never gone in.

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And then next thing you know, we're making videos.

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And so we've got content for days, probably weeks because of it.

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See, I get to all that out and it was a bromance where we went into a booth that I wasn't
thinking about and we were making and I can just make it say whatever after that.

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This is some special, I'll see you guys on the ride along here.

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See, this is why you guys need to subscribe to the show if you haven't already, definitely
do because the conversation with Beau last time was fantastic.

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And we're having a good conversation here today.

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with Mr.

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Travis as well.

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So first of all, Travis, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, what you do up in
Dallas, kind of what your specialty is.

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Because before we jump into the topic, after you introduce yourself, we got a little new
segment that we're going to be kind of doing here.

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first, tell everybody who you are, man.

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Yeah.

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It's Travis Jones in Dallas, serving all kind of Dallas Fort Worth market.

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But, my company is called Smart Roof and Home Performance.

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And then on Instagram, I'm Travis builds it.

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And so we do roofing, home performance testing, insulation, and then kind of within that.

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I like to drill down on for residential roofing.

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do fortified roofs, which is kind of the next standard for how to do a better, more
resilient roof.

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And then on the insulation side, I do blower door testing and blower door assisted air
sealing to try to tighten up the envelope, make, give people a more comfortable and

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healthy home.

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No, I love it.

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Definitely.

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you know, kind of in, in talking with Matt a little bit leading up to this, one of the
things that we really want to dig in on today, and I think for everybody watching, this is

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what's going to be interesting.

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We're not just talking home inspections.

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We're not just talking roofs.

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We're going to be talking a little bit about building science because in your dealings
with roofing, it's not just roofing material shingles or anything of the nature that you

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specifically deal with, but you also deal with solar a little bit as well, don't you?

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I do.

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Yeah.

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So we, I've dabbled in solar, you know, solar was kind of when interest rates were low,
solar was a little bit more attractive to people.

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I think it was a better value, but as interest rates have gone up, you know,
unfortunately, solar can be a, one of those industries where people over sell what it can

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do for you and over promise.

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And, it was really because of seeing some of the failures of solar, I got interested in
building science and figuring out.

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Can we make a home better first before we put solar on it?

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And that's what led me to get a blower door and start doing home performance testing and
trying to just make the house better so that solar, if it's appropriate, it's not

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appropriate for every house.

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Especially some of the ones with you.

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If all the panels are in the shade, you know, you're not, it's not really doing anything.

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And unfortunately, I mean, down the street for me, I've got someone who's has just a full
array, just always shaded.

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It's like, that's just not how solar works, but.

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Let's assume you get the house really fine tuned and working well.

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Solar's a great cherry on top, but it's something we have to be a little more cautious
about as I've learned a lot more about building science.

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I love it because when I first met you, at least in person, Travis, this is actually what
kind of fascinated me and wanted, said, man, we need to talk about this, like on a podcast

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or on some form, we need to have this conversation because it was intriguing to me that
you were, I think, selling solar equipment and you were walking to these houses and

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realizing these people did not need solar equipment.

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They needed better energy efficiency.

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And that...

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You know, motivated you to start your business.

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If I have that storyline, correct.

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Is that, is that right?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean, it was kind of when I started smart roof and home performance a little over, um,
we're in our third year.

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So October of 2022, I've been selling solar for about a year and a half.

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I've been selling roofs for other companies.

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And then I just kind of saw an opportunity to bring it all together and, really do a
little more of a high touch.

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I'm not a volume churn and burn guy.

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I like to do a little more high touch with the client, figure out what do they really
need?

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And then solar kind of fits into that discussion.

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Some people come to me wanting solar and we're like, Hey, let's do a few other things
first.

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And then we can get to solar later on.

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that's, started my own company so I could do things the way I wanted to do them.

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yeah, yeah, I understand that.

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So let me ask you a question about that.

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Like, so I think we're probably going to bounce a little bit from solar to energy
efficiency and really with a core topic being building science.

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you know, solar in Texas is not very popular.

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And I want to know, like, your take on this.

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So how do you feel about once we get a house in better energy efficient condition, once we
address some of these issues where you're losing efficiency?

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You actually think even in Texas that solar is still a good option.

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think it can be, but it's all about like, are your goals with solar?

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if you have, let's say your house, we've tightened up the envelope, we've improved the
insulation, we've gotten better, more efficient HVAC.

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Once we do all that, we say, okay, now we need solar.

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Well, if you were to analyze that house.

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before you did all the improvements and then after you did all the improvements and put
the numbers on all these solar proposal tools, after you do all the improvements, you

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would need a lot less solar.

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So that's a good starting point.

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You need fewer panels, which means it's less cost.

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So now it's less that you're even risking on it.

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Okay.

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And to the extent that it can offset your electricity bill a little bit, that's, that
could be a good thing, but the real

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What we really need in the whole energy space is better storage options, i.e.

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batteries, because right now they're really expensive and they don't make financial sense.

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So I, in our market, they make sense in markets where there's much higher electricity
costs, but

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But the battery's not gonna pay for itself in Dallas, Fort Worth.

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It's just not going to.

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But if you get outages and you wanna have a battery so that you can keep your freezer and
all the meat you got from hunting season from staying frozen, or if you wanna keep your

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CPAP machine running at night, maybe that's good reason to do it.

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But it's not right now.

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Here's the question I ask people.

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I say, why do you want solar?

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And if the first thing they say is to save money, I'm like, then we need to have a serious
conversation.

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Because you're not most likely going to save much money in Texas because our energy costs
are still pretty low.

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And when they buy back whatever you send to them, they buy it kind of at a discount.

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there's just a lot of hype.

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lot of it, Smithy.

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Yeah, there's a lot of hype with it.

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And then the whole thing of like, it adds value to your house.

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mean, really how many, how many realtors are like, take that off so we can list your
house, you know.

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whether or not it adds value.

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A lot of people in Texas don't really want it yet.

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And I think that a lot of that has to do with the fact that our energy is not very
expensive as compared to some other areas.

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And that's the reason why I wanted to know like in Texas, if it made sense, what you're
saying makes total sense.

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So like, you know, just lower the amount of energy you actually need, uh, by making your
home more efficient, put your money into those areas and then, and then let's see if we

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even

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want to go that direction after all of that, because I think you probably see a lot more
direct benefits by handling these issues.

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Whenever you have somebody such as yourself, go through there and really pick the house
apart and start finding areas where you're missing efficiency.

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Now, with that being said, because I've seen you with the smoke pen and everything going
through and finding areas where houses are leaking.

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By the way, I have one of those coming, not that one.

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okay.

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another company that actually manufactures a product called flue blocker.

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And it's something that goes inside your chimney flu when you're not using it out of like
big thick wool.

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And it's there to keep drafts from coming in through that area.

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It's really cool.

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let me see.

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What's that?

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I've seen some people like stuff vacant chimneys or vacated chimneys with insulation.

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the same thing except it's thinner, but it's like a it's a it's more like a mineral wool
or something like that.

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And it's got handles on it.

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So and it's sized specifically for the area.

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I mean, I think it's a really good idea to block that area when you're not using it.

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Right.

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And so I'll I'll I'll let you know what those are.

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But anyway, they also manufacture a smoke pencil or smoke pen or something like that.

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And so they're they're sending one over and I'm going to I'm going to take a look at that
and see how I might be able to incorporate that as well.

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Because I've seen you use it and it seems like such a great tool, especially

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conjunction with the blower door.

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where are the areas that you're seeing, let's say existing homes, what are the areas that
you are seeing that are failing the most often in terms of energy efficiency, things that

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are like that.

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I want to call it like low hanging fruit.

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Like you walk into a house and you're like, okay, well, first of all, we do this, this and
this.

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Yeah.

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You know, and first, just so you kind of understand the way I think about a house, a house
is a system, right?

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It all works together and in building science, you kind of have the four pillars of that
system, durability, comfort, health, and efficiency.

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Right?

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So if it's, if we're not going to build it to last, why are we building it?

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If we don't have the most durable approach to shed water and all that, right.

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But then what do we do to make a house more comfortable and healthy, mainly air quality,
but that's also sound and light, you know, it's environmental quality.

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Here's the cool thing.

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If you make a house durable, comfortable, and healthy, it will be efficient.

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Now here's a question that I want to kind of pivot off of that specifically because I did
an episode of the ride along last year.

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We kind of got two, two different tacks with the show here.

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One is the podcast as we're doing now, but there was also kind of a video series that I
shot last year and I got to do a, episode with an inspector just outside of Austin.

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And one of the things that, we have here in Florida is something that's happening out in
Texas as well, which is that they are

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throwing up new homes faster than you can blink, right?

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So when it comes down to durability, what standards are you seeing or what are things that
people can do to improve upon durability in houses that are being chucked up as quickly as

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they are these days?

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Well, in my opinion, it always starts with the roof, right?

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Your roof is your umbrella and it's supposed to, and I always tell my guys, I'm like, Hey,
what's the roof's job to keep the water out, right?

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Water destroys buildings.

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So we just have to have, we need to do better roofs.

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And that's why I do, you could look at the whole fortified standard.

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It's a, it's a better than code approach.

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And we do it when we're reroofing.

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We're doing one tomorrow.

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In fact, where.

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It's things like taping the seams on the deck, re-nailing the deck, making it more secure
and then doing everything to keep the water out.

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So you start with a better roof, siding, you know, people have, I'm sure more people are
getting familiar with the concept of a rain screen on siding where, know, you have your

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sheathing and then you, you don't just put your siding against it, but you create a number
of ways to do it, but you're creating a gap for draining and drying so that

213
00:14:42,927 --> 00:14:45,788
moisture gets behind the siding, it can drain dry.

214
00:14:45,788 --> 00:14:48,779
it starts with that for sure.

215
00:14:48,779 --> 00:14:53,260
And then, you know, if you have issues with drainage, you got to deal with that.

216
00:14:53,260 --> 00:14:55,220
So, but we start with the roof.

217
00:14:56,081 --> 00:15:07,994
I think unfortunately the code, you know, for it's interesting fortified is a better than
code way to do a roof, but most of the time, the roofs that are being built and re roofed,

218
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which happens a lot, especially in my market, it's like the biggest hail market.

219
00:15:12,337 --> 00:15:15,399
Those, they're not even being built to code to begin with.

220
00:15:15,399 --> 00:15:18,862
People don't change the flashing, which leads to failures.

221
00:15:18,862 --> 00:15:20,584
People don't have the ventilation right.

222
00:15:20,584 --> 00:15:23,025
That's one of the things we fix the most.

223
00:15:23,426 --> 00:15:31,692
Even when someone doesn't need a re-roof, we'll go in and say, man, you're
under-ventilated, which may mean you need more exhaust, but it often means you need more

224
00:15:31,692 --> 00:15:35,956
intake, soffit vents or other types of intake vents.

225
00:15:35,956 --> 00:15:37,925
So we want to ventilate it right.

226
00:15:37,925 --> 00:15:40,626
And once we do that, that helps the performance.

227
00:15:40,826 --> 00:15:47,549
And then I think from a low hanging fruit standpoint, Matt, as you mentioned, like a
homeowner could do this.

228
00:15:47,549 --> 00:15:50,565
And I've got some videos of me doing it at my own house.

229
00:15:50,565 --> 00:15:53,622
A lot of times after a renovation, right?

230
00:15:53,622 --> 00:15:58,834
Contractor goes in, cuts a bunch of holes and puts what kind of, we love recessed lights,
right?

231
00:15:58,834 --> 00:16:04,306
All those recessed lights, but if they don't air seal around those lights, it's kind of
crazy math.

232
00:16:04,306 --> 00:16:06,717
If you take a six inch can,

233
00:16:07,205 --> 00:16:18,113
and cut the drywall and you don't seal that gap between the drywall and the can, it's
basically the same thing as putting a golf ball size hole in your sheetrock.

234
00:16:18,113 --> 00:16:28,320
And if you multiply that times 20 lights, right, that's a big hole connecting your attic
air you don't want to be breathing to your inside air.

235
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:35,765
so go in and getting a tube of big stretch and pulling off the trim and if it's not
sealed, just

236
00:16:35,803 --> 00:16:38,711
big stretching around your lights or around your AC grills.

237
00:16:38,711 --> 00:16:43,721
That's a weekend project that most people could do and that's low hanging fruit.

238
00:16:43,721 --> 00:16:44,101
Right.

239
00:16:44,101 --> 00:16:44,711
Definitely.

240
00:16:44,711 --> 00:16:47,243
Like I like the sash coat plug there.

241
00:16:48,465 --> 00:16:49,816
That's a fantastic company.

242
00:16:49,816 --> 00:16:52,018
But and Big Stretch is the tool for that job.

243
00:16:52,018 --> 00:17:02,296
But yeah, I mean, that's an area where not only are we talking about like thermal energy,
but also like dust and things are coming through those holes as well, especially when the

244
00:17:02,296 --> 00:17:09,382
house is pressurized and depressurized, whether it's using fans or whether it's opening
and closing doors or whatever.

245
00:17:09,382 --> 00:17:13,245
Like you said, you know, a lot of times, you know, whenever

246
00:17:13,405 --> 00:17:24,028
you'll get those situations where a home will depressurize whenever you're using an
exhaust fan because they don't have makeup air or something like this.

247
00:17:24,028 --> 00:17:33,491
I see this in homes every now and again, and you can just imagine what's happening
whenever things are moving from the attic space into the house and all the stuff that's in

248
00:17:33,491 --> 00:17:39,793
your attic, not only just the air and the temperature, but all the dust and debris that is
bringing with it.

249
00:17:40,017 --> 00:17:42,008
Here's like quick, like simple example.

250
00:17:42,008 --> 00:17:46,460
So I was at a person's house and they said, man, this tiny little hallway.

251
00:17:46,460 --> 00:17:49,861
like main living space hallway into a bedroom.

252
00:17:49,861 --> 00:17:50,191
Okay.

253
00:17:50,191 --> 00:17:56,724
That hallway each, there were doors, a door from the living room into the hallway and a
door from the hallway into the bedroom.

254
00:17:56,724 --> 00:17:58,455
said, gets so hot in this hall.

255
00:17:58,455 --> 00:18:00,325
Why does it get so hot in here?

256
00:18:00,686 --> 00:18:02,887
So I'm, you know, looking at it.

257
00:18:02,887 --> 00:18:08,549
It's like, well, first of all, you have a return, an AC return at the bottom of the
sheetrock in the hallway.

258
00:18:08,773 --> 00:18:12,132
And right above me was the attic stair.

259
00:18:13,807 --> 00:18:18,519
And so I actually just closed the doors, turn on the air conditioner.

260
00:18:18,519 --> 00:18:26,403
had my little manometer and I stuck a hose under the door and it depressurized by eight
Pascals that little space.

261
00:18:26,403 --> 00:18:36,367
And I'm like, it's just sucking air from your, every time your air conditioning kicks on,
it's sucking air from around that attic stair into your living space.

262
00:18:36,367 --> 00:18:40,315
So you need to air seal your attic stairs or we're

263
00:18:40,315 --> 00:18:45,120
We're going to start installing, we're doing our first one next week, the FACRO Attic
Stair.

264
00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:46,462
Did you see those at the build show?

265
00:18:46,462 --> 00:18:47,783
Dude, those are amazing.

266
00:18:47,783 --> 00:18:52,438
They lock, they have like a little key lock them and it's an air sealed Attic Stair.

267
00:18:52,438 --> 00:18:54,880
Cause how are they?

268
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,707
simply using like weatherstripping around the hatch?

269
00:18:57,723 --> 00:18:58,694
It's the way they build it.

270
00:18:58,694 --> 00:18:59,064
Yeah.

271
00:18:59,064 --> 00:19:00,485
It's a, you know, they're not cheap.

272
00:19:00,485 --> 00:19:05,099
It's, think we're getting one that's a, it's a, about a $700 door.

273
00:19:07,081 --> 00:19:08,422
and you know, there's different prices.

274
00:19:08,422 --> 00:19:13,916
They, this one we're getting has a cool like metal stairs, but, you can maybe get them as
low.

275
00:19:13,916 --> 00:19:25,626
wooden stairs, maybe as low as like 350, but basically because there's weather stripping
and the way they built it, when it shuts and you turn the key and it latches, it's

276
00:19:25,626 --> 00:19:26,737
airtight.

277
00:19:26,779 --> 00:19:31,537
And they also make a cover you can put on it to have another layer that has an airtight
deal.

278
00:19:31,537 --> 00:19:31,992
know,

279
00:19:31,992 --> 00:19:36,842
encapsulated foil contraptions that go around the top of the attic access.

280
00:19:37,029 --> 00:19:39,750
Yeah, the funny thing about those, I've got some funny videos about those.

281
00:19:39,750 --> 00:19:42,141
Everyone thinks, I'm insulating.

282
00:19:42,141 --> 00:19:44,112
It's like, yeah, but you're not air sealing.

283
00:19:44,112 --> 00:19:50,394
So I was in an attic and it was a great friend, Evan, who's a mold inspector.

284
00:19:50,394 --> 00:19:54,536
He's part of our BS and beer group here in Dallas.

285
00:19:54,536 --> 00:19:58,177
And he's done his own, like a lot of DIY stuff at his house.

286
00:19:58,213 --> 00:20:01,967
And he thought he'd done a good job of sealing that attic stair and he had the little
silver.

287
00:20:01,967 --> 00:20:04,289
And so we go up in the attic.

288
00:20:04,289 --> 00:20:11,736
have the blower door running and I've got my little retro tech air tracer running along
the seam and it's just sucking air into the house.

289
00:20:11,736 --> 00:20:16,122
It's like even Evan, who's a very conscientious knows what he's doing.

290
00:20:16,122 --> 00:20:19,164
It's just, it's just not the sometimes just not the right product.

291
00:20:19,164 --> 00:20:22,747
You just need a better product to serve that purpose.

292
00:20:22,872 --> 00:20:32,867
I've got a question on this simply because again, you know, when I got into the home
inspection field almost 10 years ago, a lot of what you heard people talking about was

293
00:20:32,867 --> 00:20:35,708
that you wanted the house to be able to breathe, right?

294
00:20:35,708 --> 00:20:38,750
You wanted the house to be well ventilated, be able to breathe.

295
00:20:38,750 --> 00:20:42,612
And yet a lot of the modern language is about air sealing.

296
00:20:42,612 --> 00:20:46,224
Like, do you actually want the house to breathe or do you want it to be airtight?

297
00:20:46,224 --> 00:20:47,174
Which is it?

298
00:20:47,655 --> 00:20:54,878
So, Allison Bales has been writing this blog for years called Energy Vanguard.

299
00:20:54,878 --> 00:20:55,988
He's out of Atlanta.

300
00:20:55,988 --> 00:20:59,770
He's a brilliant guy, brilliant building science guy.

301
00:20:59,770 --> 00:21:04,151
And he wrote a book called, A House Needs to Breathe or Does It?

302
00:21:04,392 --> 00:21:05,468
And he talks about it.

303
00:21:05,468 --> 00:21:10,114
said, look, if you're inside something that's breathing, you better get out.

304
00:21:10,574 --> 00:21:17,069
No, he said, a house does need to breathe only to the extent that we make it breathe.

305
00:21:17,069 --> 00:21:18,746
Controlled ventilation.

306
00:21:18,746 --> 00:21:19,616
it's controlled.

307
00:21:19,616 --> 00:21:25,910
it's like, and another phrase you'll hear the building science guy say is build tight,
ventilate right.

308
00:21:25,910 --> 00:21:28,882
So it's cause where do you want the air coming from?

309
00:21:28,882 --> 00:21:33,694
Do you want to breathe naturally from like who wants to spend time in their attic?

310
00:21:33,694 --> 00:21:37,017
If you have an unconditioned attic that you don't want to breathe that air.

311
00:21:37,125 --> 00:21:39,346
So we want to air seal all of that.

312
00:21:39,507 --> 00:21:46,383
if you get tight enough to where you need the highest end fresh air, like an ERV, you do
that.

313
00:21:46,383 --> 00:21:51,938
But maybe you just need a ventilating dehumidifier just to get some fresh air in there.

314
00:21:51,938 --> 00:21:59,245
And if it's an older home, you may never get it so tight in a retro that you need fresh
air coming in.

315
00:21:59,245 --> 00:22:00,025
It can't hurt.

316
00:22:00,025 --> 00:22:04,601
But yeah, I think you have to, it's a

317
00:22:04,601 --> 00:22:07,063
An attic, an unconditioned attic needs to breathe.

318
00:22:07,063 --> 00:22:12,368
We want good ventilation, but a house only needs to breathe to the extent that we are
controlling it.

319
00:22:12,368 --> 00:22:13,708
It's about control.

320
00:22:13,827 --> 00:22:23,531
Now, I think like to add something to that and to like kind of expand upon what your
question was, Brad, like, you know, when you're talking about these old houses, I think

321
00:22:23,531 --> 00:22:26,102
you should kind of compare them more to an attic.

322
00:22:26,102 --> 00:22:26,542
Okay.

323
00:22:26,542 --> 00:22:32,515
Like the fact of the matter is like we are building houses to try to achieve better energy
efficiency.

324
00:22:32,515 --> 00:22:34,986
This has been going on for a long time now.

325
00:22:34,986 --> 00:22:43,769
And while we're, we were making advancements like into like passive houses and houses that
have like crazy energy efficiency.

326
00:22:43,769 --> 00:22:51,129
There's this space where like, you know, we, we have the old houses that like basically
weren't efficient.

327
00:22:51,189 --> 00:22:57,229
And then we have the houses like in between the high performance that are like somewhat
efficient.

328
00:22:58,069 --> 00:23:06,829
you know, anytime you get past that old house where like it was completely, I mean, you'd
have a 2000 square foot house with like a four and a half ton AC on it.

329
00:23:06,829 --> 00:23:11,209
Cause they had barely any, if any insulation, they had single pane windows.

330
00:23:11,209 --> 00:23:12,137
There was like,

331
00:23:12,137 --> 00:23:15,139
no R value anywhere going on in these things.

332
00:23:15,479 --> 00:23:18,371
You don't want to encapsulate that, right?

333
00:23:18,371 --> 00:23:20,840
Like you don't want to eliminate air movement.

334
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:28,439
Like you have to, and that was the reason why you think like, okay, well how we didn't air
seal things like back in the day, like why were houses not just completely filled with

335
00:23:28,439 --> 00:23:29,329
mold?

336
00:23:29,429 --> 00:23:31,991
Well, they compare them to an attic.

337
00:23:31,991 --> 00:23:40,897
mean, air was literally moving through them the whole time, you know, but now, but there
was also costing a lot more in energy because you know, you had to have much bigger units.

338
00:23:40,897 --> 00:23:44,301
and you had to run them a lot more to cool them or heat them.

339
00:23:44,301 --> 00:23:47,664
You you're constantly losing heat in these houses.

340
00:23:47,664 --> 00:24:00,396
And so, you know, as we get into more modern construction, we're getting more energy
efficient and then it becomes more important to manage ventilation and to have everything

341
00:24:00,396 --> 00:24:06,137
be air sealed and control what is going through the house.

342
00:24:06,137 --> 00:24:15,757
Because I mean, that's where the danger happens is whenever we get into this zone where
we're getting energy efficient and we lose control of ventilation, that's when all of a

343
00:24:15,757 --> 00:24:20,857
sudden the stuff from outside starts making an inside where when and where it's not
supposed to.

344
00:24:20,857 --> 00:24:27,037
And we end up in situations where we have mold, where we are not just uncomfortable, but
we have a health concern.

345
00:24:27,897 --> 00:24:31,057
I'm sorry, Travis, you're the building science guy.

346
00:24:31,057 --> 00:24:32,234
How did I do on that?

347
00:24:32,234 --> 00:24:32,684
yeah.

348
00:24:32,684 --> 00:24:35,516
That's I think what, what has happened is.

349
00:24:35,656 --> 00:24:38,658
So it's like, think about an airplane.

350
00:24:38,959 --> 00:24:40,599
Some of the early airplanes.

351
00:24:41,421 --> 00:24:45,794
There was like, you know, you had a little windshield, but it was open to the air, right?

352
00:24:45,794 --> 00:24:48,776
You weren't worried about getting fresh air in the airplane.

353
00:24:48,776 --> 00:24:49,887
just breathe.

354
00:24:49,887 --> 00:24:55,891
And then as airplanes got more sophisticated and wanted to climb higher, now you have to
do more things.

355
00:24:55,891 --> 00:24:58,109
You got to, it's got to be more airtight.

356
00:24:58,109 --> 00:25:01,729
But once it's airtight, now we got to make sure we're filtering it.

357
00:25:01,729 --> 00:25:15,489
And then if you want to go to space in a rocket ship, the higher performance the airplane,
the more you need things like the right kind of ventilation and airflow and filtration.

358
00:25:16,169 --> 00:25:17,289
It's the same thing with a car.

359
00:25:17,289 --> 00:25:25,069
It's one thing to ride in a convertible, but when you get in your car, we think of how
much we've improved the way climate zones and air and all that.

360
00:25:25,069 --> 00:25:27,329
But those all have filters and all that.

361
00:25:27,461 --> 00:25:36,563
What's happened is with our homes, as we've gotten them tighter, we don't always bring in
the right, technology, the right mechanicals.

362
00:25:37,124 --> 00:25:37,424
Right.

363
00:25:37,424 --> 00:25:42,745
So Corbett Lunsford is one of my mentors in the, in the home performance space.

364
00:25:42,745 --> 00:25:46,146
He's got an incredible YouTube channel, home diagnosis.

365
00:25:46,146 --> 00:25:53,238
They, he's got three seasons of a TV show where they talk, they go in and figure out how
to solve these problems with, with a home.

366
00:25:53,238 --> 00:25:57,199
And he says his, his kind of model is very simple.

367
00:25:57,725 --> 00:26:01,465
Air seal, insulate, mechanicals.

368
00:26:01,545 --> 00:26:10,105
So I do the air seal, insulate part, and then I have a great HVAC contractor to come in
and say, all right, now that we've air sealed and insulated, what do we need to do on the

369
00:26:10,105 --> 00:26:11,325
mechanical side?

370
00:26:11,485 --> 00:26:13,865
Dehumidification, fresh air, filtration.

371
00:26:14,165 --> 00:26:16,853
And then sometimes, how many times, you know, or...

372
00:26:16,853 --> 00:26:21,978
You go to a house and they had, they knew they needed by code some fresh air.

373
00:26:21,978 --> 00:26:28,584
So they're just pulling a duct from a soffit and they have a motorized damper going into
the return.

374
00:26:28,584 --> 00:26:31,646
And it's, and it's basically been disabled, right?

375
00:26:32,127 --> 00:26:34,728
Why, why did they disable it?

376
00:26:36,090 --> 00:26:37,241
Well, but what's happening?

377
00:26:37,241 --> 00:26:40,314
There's a reason that they came out and said, let's disable this fresh air.

378
00:26:40,314 --> 00:26:43,826
It's cause they have too much humidity, right?

379
00:26:43,826 --> 00:26:47,351
that is the culprit, but oftentimes that is not the culprit.

380
00:26:47,351 --> 00:26:49,634
That is controlled ventilation.

381
00:26:49,634 --> 00:26:55,441
And where the culprit is, is the areas where they slipped up and we have uncontrolled
ventilation.

382
00:26:55,601 --> 00:26:57,592
Well, it can be though.

383
00:26:57,592 --> 00:26:59,383
Here's the thing.

384
00:26:59,523 --> 00:27:12,570
If you dump fresh air in Texas into your return plenum, what are the chances that air is
gonna be a lot warmer than the air that's in your house?

385
00:27:13,231 --> 00:27:14,411
Pretty good.

386
00:27:14,512 --> 00:27:24,577
That warm air coming into that plenum is now gonna hit that evaporator coil on your AC and
it's gonna increase the humidity.

387
00:27:24,869 --> 00:27:26,189
in the system.

388
00:27:26,410 --> 00:27:32,432
So I think they disable it because it's every time the fresh air comes on in the summer,
it just makes it more humid in the house.

389
00:27:32,432 --> 00:27:39,855
Well, there's a reason it's cause that hot air coming in is warming up the coil and adding
moisture to the air.

390
00:27:39,855 --> 00:27:42,096
So that's just not a good way to do fresh air.

391
00:27:42,096 --> 00:27:42,896
It's a shortcut.

392
00:27:42,896 --> 00:27:51,220
It's acceptable, but that's where doing it through a Santa Fe ventilating dehumidifier so
that you're not or an ERV.

393
00:27:51,220 --> 00:27:54,491
So you're not dumping hotter air into the return.

394
00:27:54,801 --> 00:28:01,544
You know, so that's part of the problem is it's as we get tighter and the code requires
some things and not others.

395
00:28:02,064 --> 00:28:04,545
Guys don't understand how to, they don't know what to do.

396
00:28:04,545 --> 00:28:05,906
had a, talking to a guy.

397
00:28:05,906 --> 00:28:08,557
I'm not, I won't name the builder, but they do really nice homes.

398
00:28:08,557 --> 00:28:12,449
And he was telling me, yeah, we put a fresh air.

399
00:28:12,669 --> 00:28:15,555
We build tight enough that we have to put fresh air in all of our houses.

400
00:28:15,555 --> 00:28:17,261
It's like, well, do you put dehumidifiers?

401
00:28:17,261 --> 00:28:19,482
He's like, no, why not?

402
00:28:19,482 --> 00:28:21,113
Well, the code doesn't require it.

403
00:28:21,113 --> 00:28:22,363
It's extra.

404
00:28:22,799 --> 00:28:24,872
You know, they're like a high end production builder.

405
00:28:24,872 --> 00:28:29,397
And he said, they keep getting callbacks for if they're lucky, people say it's too humid.

406
00:28:29,649 --> 00:28:32,410
But if it's really bad, they say, I have mold.

407
00:28:32,411 --> 00:28:39,605
And it's like that we should be putting dehumidifiers in, but we don't, especially at that
level of air tightness.

408
00:28:39,605 --> 00:28:41,376
Because now the air conditioner is more efficient.

409
00:28:41,376 --> 00:28:42,617
It doesn't run as much.

410
00:28:42,617 --> 00:28:45,008
It doesn't pull out as much humidity.

411
00:28:45,008 --> 00:28:46,899
So you need dedicated dehumidification.

412
00:28:46,899 --> 00:28:50,281
It gets very complex.

413
00:28:50,281 --> 00:28:52,943
we need great HVAC contractors.

414
00:28:52,943 --> 00:28:56,591
We need more of them to help solve these issues.

415
00:28:56,591 --> 00:29:03,156
I, I start to wonder if we're introducing some of our own problems to fix down the line,
right?

416
00:29:03,497 --> 00:29:11,723
you know, for example, it's, and I'm not, I'm not advocating against more efficient homes,
but down here in Florida, you've got, houses that have weathered everything from

417
00:29:11,723 --> 00:29:15,037
hurricanes to termites to everything in between.

418
00:29:15,037 --> 00:29:18,009
And they've been here for over a hundred years, right?

419
00:29:18,009 --> 00:29:24,454
I mean, every, every part of the country where you've got ancient homes and it's like, so
what, what has allowed those houses to hold up?

420
00:29:24,890 --> 00:29:35,679
without modern efficiency codes over the years and still be relatively durable, still be
relatively sound to have aged gracefully in such a way, whereas with the sophistication

421
00:29:35,679 --> 00:29:45,218
that we have now with some of these new systems, we have to now think extra hard about,
for example, like you're talking about air sources, how much humidity?

422
00:29:45,218 --> 00:29:49,030
It's like, okay, we solved one problem, but by doing that, we just created another one.

423
00:29:49,078 --> 00:29:55,358
And this to me is now so regionally specific that, you know, one specific building code is
not going to solve for it.

424
00:29:55,358 --> 00:29:57,744
You're going to have to do this by region, right?

425
00:29:57,744 --> 00:30:00,646
You guys have a lot of humidity in Dallas.

426
00:30:00,646 --> 00:30:08,591
Imagine building things that tight in Florida where humidity is just, we have air you can
wear, right?

427
00:30:08,591 --> 00:30:11,623
So how do you solve for that?

428
00:30:11,623 --> 00:30:18,806
You know, something that I kind of was thinking on as you were talking about sealing
things.

429
00:30:18,806 --> 00:30:28,743
is like how does air tightness better affect or negatively affect things like stack effect
in the wintertime because in Dallas you guys still deal with winter to a small degree.

430
00:30:28,904 --> 00:30:30,386
Can you speak to that at all?

431
00:30:30,663 --> 00:30:31,103
Well, sure.

432
00:30:31,103 --> 00:30:36,125
mean, if you have the more air sealed your attic is in the winter, right?

433
00:30:36,125 --> 00:30:38,096
That hot air is wanting to push up.

434
00:30:38,396 --> 00:30:39,957
Well, you're keeping it.

435
00:30:39,957 --> 00:30:46,079
You're trying to cut off the path for the air to get out of the conditioned space.

436
00:30:46,119 --> 00:30:46,900
Right.

437
00:30:46,900 --> 00:30:51,652
And so, there's a, I call him building science Yoda.

438
00:30:51,652 --> 00:30:54,143
name is, Ken Allison.

439
00:30:54,143 --> 00:30:59,805
He's coming to speak at our BS & beer next next or this month, but he likes to say,

440
00:30:59,929 --> 00:31:06,582
If you stop the flow of air, you don't need much insulation.

441
00:31:06,582 --> 00:31:11,214
A lot of the heat transfer is air transfer.

442
00:31:11,214 --> 00:31:16,125
And so I think getting it air sealed is going to help that.

443
00:31:16,125 --> 00:31:20,458
And I think maybe to zoom out and say, why do we build to begin with?

444
00:31:20,458 --> 00:31:25,480
What is the purpose of the built environment?

445
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,001
We're trying to separate ourselves.

446
00:31:28,029 --> 00:31:31,609
from the outdoor conditions, right?

447
00:31:31,609 --> 00:31:41,609
And if you've ever been, if you've ever had the privilege of on a warm night, being a
camping, on a camping trip and you're in a tent with another guy.

448
00:31:43,227 --> 00:31:45,598
It's not a pleasant night's sleep, right?

449
00:31:45,899 --> 00:31:47,809
It is not a pleasant night's sleep, right?

450
00:31:47,809 --> 00:31:49,240
And you gotta roll those, right?

451
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:58,005
It's like we've cut off the outside, now what's, the thing is as humans, we create a lot
of stuff.

452
00:31:58,005 --> 00:32:03,388
We have humidity, we have smells, we have skin that sloughs off methane.

453
00:32:03,388 --> 00:32:09,331
Yes, we cook, like the act of cooking in your, you're throwing off all kinds of VOCs and
pollutants.

454
00:32:09,331 --> 00:32:12,813
So we've enclosed ourselves so we can stay,

455
00:32:14,309 --> 00:32:15,359
out of the elements, right?

456
00:32:15,359 --> 00:32:22,331
mean, the whole, South really grew after the air conditioner was invented when Carrier
invented the air conditioner.

457
00:32:22,331 --> 00:32:25,852
Cause people are like, well now we can, now we can live in this stuff.

458
00:32:25,852 --> 00:32:32,454
But the more you live in it, it's like, what else is happening in the space and how do we
deal with it?

459
00:32:32,454 --> 00:32:35,145
And you're right, the tighter we, there's always a consequence.

460
00:32:35,145 --> 00:32:38,456
It's a, there's, and maybe it's a way of thinking of it's just trade-offs.

461
00:32:38,456 --> 00:32:41,797
You know, the tight, like think about it with roofing.

462
00:32:42,287 --> 00:32:47,661
We see a lot of houses that originally had a wood shake roof on it.

463
00:32:47,982 --> 00:32:54,827
And they were a big gable and they just have two little gable vents on the end and they
had wood shakes.

464
00:32:54,928 --> 00:32:57,353
Well, eventually we couldn't do wood shakes anymore.

465
00:32:57,353 --> 00:32:58,420
So we took those off.

466
00:32:58,420 --> 00:33:02,033
We decked the house and now we have an asphalt shingle.

467
00:33:02,073 --> 00:33:08,018
So that whole assembly used to breathe really well with just these two little gable vents.

468
00:33:08,359 --> 00:33:10,750
It does not breathe well anymore, right?

469
00:33:10,750 --> 00:33:11,557
Because

470
00:33:11,557 --> 00:33:13,258
Just the shingles themselves.

471
00:33:13,258 --> 00:33:15,599
It wasn't airtight all around.

472
00:33:15,599 --> 00:33:18,120
So that whole assembly could breathe.

473
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:25,883
But then we changed the surface, the primary surface and didn't change the ventilation.

474
00:33:25,883 --> 00:33:27,464
like, let's put whirly birds.

475
00:33:27,464 --> 00:33:28,544
Let's put Ridge vent.

476
00:33:28,544 --> 00:33:32,286
Let's put, you know, I there's a house I've been working on that there is no soffit.

477
00:33:32,286 --> 00:33:35,647
There's just not any to pull air.

478
00:33:35,647 --> 00:33:39,449
And it has gable vents, Ridge vent and whirly birds.

479
00:33:40,065 --> 00:33:41,846
They have basically three different kinds of exhaust.

480
00:33:41,846 --> 00:33:43,087
It's not working.

481
00:33:43,087 --> 00:33:43,367
Yeah.

482
00:33:43,367 --> 00:33:46,429
But the house wasn't designed to work like that.

483
00:33:46,469 --> 00:33:49,131
So we have to say, okay.

484
00:33:49,512 --> 00:33:50,973
It's we've changed something.

485
00:33:50,973 --> 00:33:53,214
What are the unintended consequences?

486
00:33:53,274 --> 00:33:59,708
How do we need to, and now what do we need to do to update the design, change the roof
assembly, et cetera.

487
00:33:59,708 --> 00:34:00,219
Right.

488
00:34:00,219 --> 00:34:02,580
So I think we have to do that with everything.

489
00:34:02,901 --> 00:34:09,935
And, we, does, it's going to be a, it takes time to evolve into how we need to handle all
of that.

490
00:34:09,971 --> 00:34:15,327
You know, everything from the wall and roof assemblies to the inside to all of it.

491
00:34:15,384 --> 00:34:17,136
We're just continually losing.

492
00:34:18,857 --> 00:34:24,637
you're, you're asking like, you know, basically like, why don't we build like we used to
like things were fine.

493
00:34:24,637 --> 00:34:25,717
Why do we had to go mess with it?

494
00:34:25,717 --> 00:34:35,437
I think some of it comes down to like changes in code, um, that, know, kind of like what
you were saying, you know, some things that we are not allowed to do anymore for other,

495
00:34:35,437 --> 00:34:36,897
for various reasons.

496
00:34:36,897 --> 00:34:39,717
I mean, we used to do all kinds of crazy stuff.

497
00:34:39,717 --> 00:34:45,593
They used to put asbestos in homes, lead paint, galvanized water piping, you know, we come
up with.

498
00:34:45,593 --> 00:34:49,293
better ways of doing things because we learn more.

499
00:34:49,293 --> 00:34:56,133
And then I think, you know, the, becomes this gray area because you want to, uh, you know,
well, okay.

500
00:34:56,133 --> 00:35:02,693
If, if, if we can, if we know this now, if we have this knowledge now, let's use this
knowledge to create something a little bit better.

501
00:35:02,693 --> 00:35:04,853
And then, so, so we do that.

502
00:35:04,853 --> 00:35:13,113
But I mean, yeah, every time you try to get some, make something a little bit better,
there could be something else to, oh, well, we did this, but we didn't do that.

503
00:35:13,113 --> 00:35:13,825
And this is.

504
00:35:13,825 --> 00:35:21,917
really what's happening in production building right now because they're kind of like, got
a toe in building science because people want energy efficiency and that's the other

505
00:35:21,917 --> 00:35:22,768
driver, right?

506
00:35:22,768 --> 00:35:23,928
It's people.

507
00:35:23,928 --> 00:35:26,049
People want energy efficiency, right?

508
00:35:26,049 --> 00:35:27,349
The people want that.

509
00:35:27,349 --> 00:35:32,560
And so builders have to build this or the people are going to buy the houses or at least
they have to sell them on it, right?

510
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:36,972
So production builders are selling them on the energy efficiency, but they're not
delivering.

511
00:35:36,972 --> 00:35:41,673
They're not meeting the expectations and there's not really a whole lot of people that

512
00:35:41,847 --> 00:35:46,123
know what those expectations are, how to achieve them, not in construction these days.

513
00:35:46,123 --> 00:35:50,830
And man, it is seemingly a dying breed, construction, people in construction.

514
00:35:50,830 --> 00:35:52,880
We need people in the trades for sure.

515
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:53,682
we do.

516
00:35:53,922 --> 00:35:58,005
Now, Matt, you hit on something interesting there, which is the consumer demand as well.

517
00:35:58,005 --> 00:36:01,648
I remember seeing these were new construction homes.

518
00:36:01,668 --> 00:36:10,674
Gosh, like I said, almost about 10 years ago when I first started inspecting and
Washington, DC was going through a new construction boom where I was at the time.

519
00:36:11,556 --> 00:36:21,554
you know, the guy that I kind of learned under, he pointed out a few things as I was going
through on a few phase two inspections and he pointed out some of the some of the caulk

520
00:36:21,554 --> 00:36:24,066
work that was being done around

521
00:36:24,522 --> 00:36:27,483
exterior joints in the wall framing.

522
00:36:27,563 --> 00:36:35,297
And he's like, yeah, so if you look at this corner over here, if you look over these
windows here, a lot of these builders, we didn't use to caulk these areas, but they're

523
00:36:35,297 --> 00:36:38,748
doing that now to sell it as being more energy efficient.

524
00:36:38,748 --> 00:36:41,749
You really think that that little bead of caulk was really doing anything?

525
00:36:41,749 --> 00:36:50,173
No, but the buyers coming on site and they're going, well, this separates them from this
guy down the road, this builder down the road over here in this division.

526
00:36:50,173 --> 00:36:53,656
And for them, it was just that one little thing that they could do that made them.

527
00:36:53,656 --> 00:36:56,368
more valuable than the other builder, right?

528
00:36:56,368 --> 00:37:00,211
But from there, you started to see fully encapsulated basements.

529
00:37:00,211 --> 00:37:03,944
You started to see closed cell foam, spray insulation, things like that.

530
00:37:03,944 --> 00:37:10,479
so, you know, I guess maybe consumer awareness does help to drive some of this to a
degree.

531
00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:13,482
Travis, how have you really seen that affect your roof business?

532
00:37:15,325 --> 00:37:18,565
Man, the roofing business, it's the wild west out here in Texas.

533
00:37:18,565 --> 00:37:21,285
So there's no, there's no license.

534
00:37:21,285 --> 00:37:23,565
There's no mandatory license in Texas.

535
00:37:23,565 --> 00:37:29,125
The only roofing license is voluntary and it's through RCAT.

536
00:37:29,125 --> 00:37:39,005
And what I got, I was able to get it last year and became one of literally 350 roofers in
Texas with a license.

537
00:37:39,675 --> 00:37:45,927
We have like 15,000 roofing companies and now some people like, the license doesn't mean
anything, but, okay.

538
00:37:45,967 --> 00:37:47,938
It's marketing, you know, whatever.

539
00:37:47,938 --> 00:37:51,209
Hey, I went through the, I want the accountability.

540
00:37:51,209 --> 00:37:59,312
want to keep getting better, but the incentives, if you ever heard the phrase, show me the
incentive and I'll show you the outcome.

541
00:37:59,532 --> 00:38:01,733
Like, what are we incentivizing?

542
00:38:01,935 --> 00:38:07,707
So unfortunately the way most people, especially in DFW get new roofs is insurance pays
for it.

543
00:38:07,707 --> 00:38:09,337
So they're always like, I get a new roof.

544
00:38:09,337 --> 00:38:10,725
My insurance is going to pay for it.

545
00:38:10,725 --> 00:38:17,389
Well, as deductibles have gone up, that becomes a problem because guys used to just eat
the deductible.

546
00:38:17,389 --> 00:38:19,350
And then how do they do that?

547
00:38:19,350 --> 00:38:20,460
How do they do a roof for less?

548
00:38:20,460 --> 00:38:22,030
Well, they cut corners.

549
00:38:22,050 --> 00:38:26,001
So people are used to this idea that, well I can, I shouldn't have to pay for a roof.

550
00:38:26,001 --> 00:38:28,372
I've been paying my insurance premiums, which are high.

551
00:38:28,372 --> 00:38:29,993
They feel justified and I get it.

552
00:38:29,993 --> 00:38:30,873
Right.

553
00:38:31,073 --> 00:38:31,953
But.

554
00:38:32,955 --> 00:38:37,746
Because the roof, like I said, is this umbrella for your house, and it's important to
re...

555
00:38:37,746 --> 00:38:43,488
to do it correctly, to protect your home, protect your investment, protect your family.

556
00:38:44,268 --> 00:38:46,109
really, to me, it comes back to the consumer.

557
00:38:46,109 --> 00:38:52,150
They have to get educated about what kind of roof do I want?

558
00:38:52,491 --> 00:38:53,771
I'll give you an example.

559
00:38:53,771 --> 00:38:58,373
So we've been out doing repairs the last couple days after this big windstorm.

560
00:38:58,373 --> 00:39:00,213
And in fact, I just went to one.

561
00:39:00,445 --> 00:39:11,189
my last call before I came back to do this podcast and I get there and he's got three
little hip and ridge cap shingles in his hand.

562
00:39:12,069 --> 00:39:13,720
It's the only thing that happened to his house.

563
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:15,430
It's the reason he had to call me.

564
00:39:15,510 --> 00:39:16,289
And I look at it.

565
00:39:16,289 --> 00:39:19,331
was like, well, this is three tab.

566
00:39:19,612 --> 00:39:20,872
It's not a ridge shingle.

567
00:39:20,872 --> 00:39:23,490
It's three tab because

568
00:39:23,490 --> 00:39:24,744
Low wind rating.

569
00:39:25,851 --> 00:39:36,807
To save a couple hundred bucks, so many roofers around here will buy, instead of buying
ridge shingles, they'll buy three-tab, they'll cut it, and they'll create their own ridge.

570
00:39:37,428 --> 00:39:44,571
Okay, a three-tab shingle, at best, on a roof is at a 60 mile per hour wind rating.

571
00:39:44,972 --> 00:39:49,394
A ridge shingle, you can get 110 mile per hour wind rating.

572
00:39:50,095 --> 00:39:53,557
And ridges and hips are the most vulnerable to wind.

573
00:39:54,051 --> 00:39:57,482
Like, why would you take this cheap product and put it here?

574
00:39:57,482 --> 00:40:00,401
And so he paid me more to fix it.

575
00:40:00,401 --> 00:40:04,984
I was like, look, I'm just going to reattach these and nail them.

576
00:40:05,084 --> 00:40:05,524
them.

577
00:40:05,524 --> 00:40:07,345
Here's another shout out for Sacha.

578
00:40:07,345 --> 00:40:11,906
Use them through the roof to seal it and, and you'll be good.

579
00:40:11,906 --> 00:40:12,376
Okay.

580
00:40:12,376 --> 00:40:13,687
And so I had to charge him.

581
00:40:13,687 --> 00:40:15,887
I went out there, did the work.

582
00:40:15,947 --> 00:40:21,819
What I charged him is more than it would have cost to buy the right product to begin with.

583
00:40:23,373 --> 00:40:24,798
That's ridiculous.

584
00:40:25,769 --> 00:40:26,376
It's, is.

585
00:40:26,376 --> 00:40:27,932
doing it all the time.

586
00:40:28,547 --> 00:40:29,638
And I guess that's the deal.

587
00:40:29,638 --> 00:40:34,820
you you carrying that license and that means something, right?

588
00:40:34,820 --> 00:40:43,723
It means, Hey, I, I, there's, there's something here to say, I am trying to give you
value.

589
00:40:43,723 --> 00:40:54,728
I'm trying to bring the best, you know, possible product to you as, the client, you know,
and this is, and I'm licensed to do so I went out of my way when I didn't have to, to

590
00:40:54,728 --> 00:40:57,629
achieve this, to try to give you that level of comfort.

591
00:40:58,587 --> 00:40:59,218
Yeah.

592
00:40:59,218 --> 00:41:08,397
You know, and then what I do, Brad, too, is part of why I, in my, on my Instagram,
especially, I'm just trying to, and I made, I didn't just do the repair.

593
00:41:08,397 --> 00:41:14,913
I made a couple of videos I'll post later because I'm trying to educate homeowners.

594
00:41:15,234 --> 00:41:18,857
And I'm, and, I can't remember who said this.

595
00:41:18,857 --> 00:41:19,977
It may have been Matt Rice here.

596
00:41:19,977 --> 00:41:20,419
was talking about it.

597
00:41:20,419 --> 00:41:23,011
He's like, look, educate your competition for free.

598
00:41:23,778 --> 00:41:24,901
That's good, man.

599
00:41:24,901 --> 00:41:29,284
And so I have literally tomorrow we're doing a fortified roof.

600
00:41:29,725 --> 00:41:34,088
And I think at least one guy's coming down from Oklahoma to see it.

601
00:41:34,088 --> 00:41:42,894
But I have, I've invited three of my competitors to come and learn how to do fortified
roofs while I do one.

602
00:41:43,435 --> 00:41:46,077
Because at the end of the day,

603
00:41:46,809 --> 00:41:49,730
I like, I'll tell them, I'm like, look, we need more good guys.

604
00:41:49,730 --> 00:41:53,372
know, the race to the bottom, that knows no end.

605
00:41:53,372 --> 00:41:57,633
And I'm not interested in competing and I'm not competing with the guys that are racing to
the bottom.

606
00:41:57,693 --> 00:41:59,994
The guys that are doing it well.

607
00:42:00,354 --> 00:42:03,915
I would love to lose a job to one of those guys.

608
00:42:03,915 --> 00:42:05,514
Cause there's so much work.

609
00:42:05,514 --> 00:42:10,356
that's a whole nother episode altogether because we deal with this from the homeless
fraction front, right, Matt?

610
00:42:10,356 --> 00:42:15,457
I mean, it's dealing with guys that are trying to undercut the competition.

611
00:42:15,457 --> 00:42:21,439
I had a hopefully she's not listening to the episode because I'm doing a home inspection
for tomorrow.

612
00:42:21,439 --> 00:42:27,740
But you know, there's a an agent north of me, who I used to do a lot of work with up in
DC.

613
00:42:27,740 --> 00:42:31,702
And she said, Hey, I've got this client for you, but you better not charge me those DC
prices.

614
00:42:31,702 --> 00:42:33,870
I'm like, I'm going to charge you what I charge you.

615
00:42:33,870 --> 00:42:39,772
Because I just had somebody that was just up north of Tampa call me and goes, hey, what
did you charge for this job that you last did?

616
00:42:39,772 --> 00:42:40,893
Yeah, we raised our rates.

617
00:42:40,893 --> 00:42:43,194
We would have charged $200 over that.

618
00:42:43,214 --> 00:42:44,914
You should probably do the same.

619
00:42:44,914 --> 00:42:48,616
And it's and he's one of the leading guys in the area.

620
00:42:48,616 --> 00:42:56,919
But I had lost work in that neck of the woods before because an agent goes, yeah, I'm
sorry, a standard inspection, a four point and a win.

621
00:42:56,919 --> 00:42:59,921
I can find somebody that could do that for 375 all in.

622
00:42:59,921 --> 00:43:03,722
I was like, then you can use them because I'm not making that drive for that money.

623
00:43:04,887 --> 00:43:09,370
You know, but it's there's always, yeah, there's always going to be those scalpers.

624
00:43:09,370 --> 00:43:19,379
So you're bringing value, you're adding value, and you're doing it in ways that are going
to be much more noticeable and realizable to a consumer than, you know, just making a jump

625
00:43:19,379 --> 00:43:23,222
to something that is a massive upfront cost in the form of something like solar.

626
00:43:23,222 --> 00:43:27,195
These are practical things that they could do to really improve upon their home.

627
00:43:27,195 --> 00:43:28,626
That's that's huge.

628
00:43:28,626 --> 00:43:30,137
So, dude, we could talk about this all day.

629
00:43:30,137 --> 00:43:32,859
But there's a couple things that I want to talk about before we wrap up the show.

630
00:43:32,859 --> 00:43:33,590
One.

631
00:43:33,710 --> 00:43:35,750
because I've only got a little bit left here.

632
00:43:35,750 --> 00:43:41,118
I wanted to reintroduce a segment that I used to do on the show back in the day called the
drink of the day.

633
00:43:41,118 --> 00:43:44,882
And this would be at some point in the future where we have a really cool little cutaway
thing.

634
00:43:44,882 --> 00:43:47,705
let's go left to right on my screen.

635
00:43:47,705 --> 00:43:49,576
Matt, what are you sipping on tonight?

636
00:43:49,883 --> 00:43:55,018
tonight I have got a cup of Eagle rare.

637
00:43:55,018 --> 00:44:02,645
I, I poured the, yeah, I went, I went, semi special occasion for this one.

638
00:44:02,645 --> 00:44:04,096
I was feeling good about this podcast.

639
00:44:04,096 --> 00:44:07,309
So I went, with a 10 year Eagle rare.

640
00:44:07,309 --> 00:44:08,299
Cheers.

641
00:44:08,556 --> 00:44:08,981
I love it.

642
00:44:08,981 --> 00:44:09,763
Cheers to you , Matt.

643
00:44:09,763 --> 00:44:11,024
Travis, How about you buddy.

644
00:44:11,024 --> 00:44:11,645
All right.

645
00:44:11,645 --> 00:44:13,747
So this is funny.

646
00:44:13,828 --> 00:44:16,773
It's a little embarrassing, but I was inspired by Matt's green light.

647
00:44:16,773 --> 00:44:17,954
You know, we talked about St.

648
00:44:17,954 --> 00:44:20,018
Patrick's Day is coming up, right?

649
00:44:20,018 --> 00:44:21,977
And so I have my little green light.

650
00:44:21,977 --> 00:44:25,437
It almost looks like I'm my like from the three person view.

651
00:44:25,437 --> 00:44:28,597
looks like my screen is bleeding into Travis's screen.

652
00:44:29,037 --> 00:44:30,897
That's pretty awesome.

653
00:44:30,997 --> 00:44:31,777
Totally.

654
00:44:31,979 --> 00:44:39,043
I have a son in law and I have a son in law to be my middle daughter is getting married in
May.

655
00:44:39,504 --> 00:44:42,395
My son in law to be his, he lives in Colorado.

656
00:44:42,395 --> 00:44:49,689
His name is Dallas and he bought me a bottle of that Eagle rare and I would have poured
it, but I finished it.

657
00:44:50,818 --> 00:44:52,477
Congratulations, it's important to do.

658
00:44:52,477 --> 00:44:57,909
So my other son, my son-in-law currently, God love him, Zach, he's a good old boy.

659
00:44:57,909 --> 00:45:02,640
And he brought this over and cause there was some green in it.

660
00:45:03,521 --> 00:45:05,341
You'd see that not quite the color.

661
00:45:05,341 --> 00:45:06,722
It's a little light.

662
00:45:07,202 --> 00:45:10,023
Guys, this is the Jim Bean apple.

663
00:45:13,424 --> 00:45:15,105
This is, you know what?

664
00:45:15,105 --> 00:45:16,585
Hey, it's a.

665
00:45:16,697 --> 00:45:19,890
Apple liqueur infused with Kentucky straight bourbon.

666
00:45:19,890 --> 00:45:24,865
So, you know, it's a little on the sweet side, but hey, cheers.

667
00:45:24,998 --> 00:45:26,393
had relatives

668
00:45:26,393 --> 00:45:27,823
a Thursday kind of drink.

669
00:45:27,823 --> 00:45:28,910
Yeah, that's right.

670
00:45:28,910 --> 00:45:39,710
That's it cheap stuff on there is you know somebody told me before you know what the
difference between a nine dollar bottle of wine and a 90 dollar bottle of wine is About 90

671
00:45:39,710 --> 00:45:41,250
91 something like that.

672
00:45:41,250 --> 00:45:42,590
Yeah, they're $89.

673
00:45:42,590 --> 00:45:46,230
I can't do math Yeah, yeah, it's that's all it is.

674
00:45:46,230 --> 00:45:51,790
Hey, whatever gets the job done, you know, but Yeah, it's you know, whatever way it gets
tough

675
00:45:51,790 --> 00:45:57,470
So for me over here, I am wrapping up a little Sazerac, which I made with an ice cube
tonight.

676
00:45:57,470 --> 00:45:58,630
You're not usually supposed to do that.

677
00:45:58,630 --> 00:46:03,350
You're supposed to use a chilled glass, but I cheated and I wanted it cold fast because we
were recording this show.

678
00:46:03,350 --> 00:46:13,970
So I whipped up the traditional New Orleans cocktail, the Sazerac, which is a great plug
because Inspection Fuel 2025 will be in New Orleans this September, I believe.

679
00:46:13,970 --> 00:46:18,850
So stay tuned for dates on that because the show will definitely be live there too.

680
00:46:18,850 --> 00:46:20,723
But Matt, let's wrap it up here.

681
00:46:20,723 --> 00:46:24,698
Dude, what were some key highlights from the Builders Conference,

682
00:46:25,613 --> 00:46:26,734
man, key highlights.

683
00:46:26,734 --> 00:46:32,618
You know, I, when I go into this thing, I mean, I really never know what I'm going to see
whenever I go through the expo.

684
00:46:32,618 --> 00:46:36,201
And so, I did find a few really cool products.

685
00:46:36,201 --> 00:46:40,754
There is a product made by, you know, the, the cassette tapes, Maxell.

686
00:46:40,754 --> 00:46:43,216
Okay.

687
00:46:43,216 --> 00:46:48,209
They have, a, I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but I made a video on it, but
they make up here.

688
00:46:48,209 --> 00:46:49,110
have one right here.

689
00:46:49,110 --> 00:46:50,751
They make a product.

690
00:46:50,811 --> 00:46:53,823
MAP is another company that they have same company.

691
00:46:54,017 --> 00:46:57,918
makes this product right here, which is a piece of flashing.

692
00:46:57,978 --> 00:47:01,009
is basically just rubber, it is self.

693
00:47:01,009 --> 00:47:03,560
It's got an adhesive on it, self adhesive.

694
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:06,330
And so, you know, they make these with different size holes.

695
00:47:06,330 --> 00:47:07,461
They make them brown.

696
00:47:07,461 --> 00:47:09,181
They make them square as well.

697
00:47:09,181 --> 00:47:13,122
And a couple of different things that you can use for flash wall penetrations.

698
00:47:13,242 --> 00:47:20,657
Obviously, you know, we've got companies like quick flash and green skin that make
products like this, but they are made with a lot of material.

699
00:47:20,657 --> 00:47:24,141
Well, the one thing about like quick flashes, they make a big

700
00:47:24,141 --> 00:47:34,139
Plastic piece which is great and easy to tape but that same plastic base is used for every
one of them So they have that same wasted material that's used for every one of these You

701
00:47:34,139 --> 00:47:42,236
know if you got a small hole like this They just use this small amount of material and
it's just the self adhesive so you don't even have to have any tape So I think that's a

702
00:47:42,236 --> 00:47:53,724
super cool product I also ran into a company called Hydro block which I think is out of
Utah I think they're out of Utah

703
00:47:54,229 --> 00:47:57,952
And they make a product that can be used for drywall.

704
00:47:57,952 --> 00:48:01,906
I've got a sample of it somewhere here, but it can be used.

705
00:48:01,906 --> 00:48:04,538
It's completely 100 % waterproof.

706
00:48:04,538 --> 00:48:08,421
Now I've not used this, so this isn't a plug for them, but it's completely 100 %
waterproof.

707
00:48:08,421 --> 00:48:10,763
It can be used in place of drywall.

708
00:48:10,883 --> 00:48:14,587
It can be used for sheathing.

709
00:48:14,587 --> 00:48:17,649
It's structurally rated and can be used for sheathing.

710
00:48:17,649 --> 00:48:20,371
It can be used under stucco.

711
00:48:20,632 --> 00:48:22,593
So you know how they were doing like,

712
00:48:22,649 --> 00:48:28,269
Therefore a little while they had like a hardy backer or a hardy board they would use and
put a stucco material over it.

713
00:48:28,269 --> 00:48:32,769
I haven't seen this in a while now, but, uh, because there's so many problems in like our
area.

714
00:48:32,769 --> 00:48:37,309
So humid, it's, we have so many problems with, with moisture and stucco, right?

715
00:48:37,309 --> 00:48:39,549
Uh, not just humidity, but just rain period.

716
00:48:39,549 --> 00:48:41,109
Uh, we have so many problems with that.

717
00:48:41,109 --> 00:48:43,029
And so they were trying to find solutions to that.

718
00:48:43,029 --> 00:48:51,509
So they had this time type of fiber cement board product that had like a cement, uh,
coating on the outside that looked like stucco, but it wasn't, this can be done very much

719
00:48:51,509 --> 00:48:52,287
in that way.

720
00:48:52,287 --> 00:48:59,423
only the board itself is completely 100 % waterproof, super duper light, but yet super
durable.

721
00:48:59,423 --> 00:49:08,100
I feel like it's got like a, like a, it was like an hour or two hour fire rating or
something like that.

722
00:49:08,100 --> 00:49:10,892
Like it is a long time before it actually burns.

723
00:49:10,892 --> 00:49:17,307
It's almost like everything the guy told me, and again, I have no experience with it, but
everything the guy told me was like, wow, like this is a pretty spectacular product.

724
00:49:17,307 --> 00:49:19,999
So Hydro Block, that was another one that I thought was pretty cool.

725
00:49:19,999 --> 00:49:22,385
Those are probably the two takeaways that I can really remember.

726
00:49:22,385 --> 00:49:25,398
I mean, I got a bunch of material, a bunch of things that I filmed.

727
00:49:25,398 --> 00:49:37,478
Also, Dyken, I visited the Dyken booth and didn't even realize that they have a large
facility out here and real close to me and invited me over to take a look at some of their

728
00:49:37,478 --> 00:49:39,139
equipment and do some videos over there.

729
00:49:39,139 --> 00:49:40,680
So I'm looking forward to that as well.

730
00:49:42,333 --> 00:49:42,708
Cool.

731
00:49:42,708 --> 00:49:43,269
awesome, man.

732
00:49:43,269 --> 00:49:44,160
Good stuff.

733
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:46,562
So well, Travis, we got to have you back on the show, man.

734
00:49:46,562 --> 00:49:49,204
Seriously, this has been an awesome conversation.

735
00:49:49,204 --> 00:49:49,615
Truly.

736
00:49:49,615 --> 00:49:55,830
And honestly, I think like next year, that we need to just have you podcast live from the
builders conference.

737
00:49:56,851 --> 00:49:58,132
That'd be pretty awesome, too.

738
00:49:58,132 --> 00:49:58,543
Truly.

739
00:49:58,543 --> 00:50:00,735
Yep.

740
00:50:00,735 --> 00:50:08,174
But no, Travis Matt warned me he's like, Hey, look, this might be the easiest episode that
we've done, just because look,

741
00:50:08,174 --> 00:50:09,935
Travis can rip on so many different things.

742
00:50:09,935 --> 00:50:11,325
Seriously, I mean, we're at 50 minutes.

743
00:50:11,325 --> 00:50:12,858
This is gonna be one of the longer episodes.

744
00:50:12,858 --> 00:50:15,059
I hope you guys are stuck around for the whole thing, seriously.

745
00:50:15,059 --> 00:50:17,101
But Travis, where can they go follow you?

746
00:50:17,101 --> 00:50:18,721
Seriously, where can they follow you on social media?

747
00:50:18,721 --> 00:50:21,581
So I do most of my stuff on Instagram.

748
00:50:21,581 --> 00:50:28,321
Travis builds it and, um, would love to interact with people, comment, you know, ask
questions.

749
00:50:28,321 --> 00:50:29,721
I, you know, I love it.

750
00:50:29,721 --> 00:50:33,841
You know, my, uh, I'm, I'll be 52 in June.

751
00:50:34,301 --> 00:50:47,921
And one of the things I've liked to say is, um, a couple of phrases that had become a part
of my life more so in the last, I don't know, 10 years than before is.

752
00:50:48,357 --> 00:50:53,142
I changed my mind about that or I was wrong about that.

753
00:50:54,124 --> 00:51:03,113
And I think that's part of, part of my journey in being able to share stuff is it's not
all cause I just know everything.

754
00:51:03,113 --> 00:51:04,395
It's cause I want to learn.

755
00:51:04,395 --> 00:51:05,396
want to grow.

756
00:51:05,396 --> 00:51:10,020
And if, if I get new information, I want to, I want to change my mind.

757
00:51:10,741 --> 00:51:13,001
And we get too stuck, I think, in our way.

758
00:51:13,001 --> 00:51:16,121
So I loved the whole Instagram world.

759
00:51:16,121 --> 00:51:18,121
That's kind how Matt and I connected.

760
00:51:18,561 --> 00:51:21,441
And I've connected with so many others that way.

761
00:51:21,581 --> 00:51:25,621
And the great thing is there's a lot of people out there trying to do some good.

762
00:51:27,441 --> 00:51:28,621
So I appreciate that.

763
00:51:28,621 --> 00:51:31,081
Matt, super appreciate all your stuff, man.

764
00:51:31,441 --> 00:51:33,621
It's inspiring to a lot of people.

765
00:51:34,081 --> 00:51:35,971
And we love it,

766
00:51:35,971 --> 00:51:37,988
Likewise, my friend, likewise.

767
00:51:38,988 --> 00:51:39,528
That's awesome.

768
00:51:39,528 --> 00:51:46,581
Well, you guys go follow Travis, follow Matt, follow the show to definitely make sure you
subscribe because there's going to be a whole lot more of this coming down the road.

769
00:51:46,581 --> 00:51:55,864
Honestly, Travis, I feel like for our first long term, like if we're to go full three hour
Joe Rogan show style, like we're just got to bring you back because this was easy.

770
00:51:55,864 --> 00:51:59,505
The easiest, you know, we've done truly.

771
00:51:59,505 --> 00:52:00,995
So thank you guys so much for watching.

772
00:52:00,995 --> 00:52:03,526
We'll see you right here next time on The Ride Along

773
00:52:03,869 --> 00:52:04,694
awesome.

774
00:52:05,224 --> 00:52:07,196
All right.

775
00:52:07,718 --> 00:52:09,459
I'm hitting end here.