Aron Delong

We’re back for another great episode of Keepin It Rio. This week, our buddy Aron DeLong with Lomanco stops by to chat about a topic that doesn’t get enough love. Yep, Attic Ventilation. From years in Distribution to becoming the new guy in a niche industry, Aron has stepped up and become a Leader in Ventilation. We talk about the importance of proper balance for efficiency and energy savings, as well as uncovering some really bad things that can happen if you don’t understand how to properly vent a home. Plentiful amounts of value in this one.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back once again. It's your favorite time of the week. This is the 252nd time in a row that I'm going to tell you your favorite time of the week is keeping it Rio time because this is episode 252. And ladies and gentlemen, I got myself a really amazing guest on tap for today. We're going to learn some stuff together and hopefully we're going to solve problems that homeowners all over the world are facing and maybe just bring a little bit of evidence or a little bit of education and uh bring a little bit of light to a problem that's going on in the world. And I sure did make that sound like it was going to be a lot more important than it is. So nothing but uh nothing but high expectations to start off the show, ladies and gentlemen. It's an absolute honor for me to welcome to the program today, Mr. Aaron DeLong of Lamanco. Um, I'm a Lamanco guy, so I know all about Aaron and I know all about Lamanco, but I know a lot of people don't. So why don't we just start off by me saying, Aaron, welcome to the show. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll just run with it?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Man, Chuck, thank you so much for having me on, man. It's it's such an honor. Um, a little bit about me, man. I've uh the the condensed version, I've been with Lamanco for three years. I cover South Texas, so I'm Beaumont to Georgetown, down to the border, and then circle back to Houston where I live over here in Katy. Um prior to that, spent 12 years on the roofing distribution side where I did everything you can do from work the counter, ran some branches, ran some regions, was a salesperson, just been in roofing for about 15 years, and man, I can't imagine doing anything else. I I just I love the business, I love the people in it. Um, I'm I'm gonna spend the next 30 years here and then I'm gonna shut it down and go fishing.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

That's the plan right there, and I love that. And I'd like to hear a little bit about your your prior career because I also was in distribution for about 15 years prior to getting into the contracting side. I opened a branch one time. I used to be a branch manager of a roofing supply company. So I love to know that there's you know that kind of a background and that we share that in common. But much like much like what happened to myself, I got a little crazy because it was uh it was almost like being a caged animal. I was stuck in there all the time and I couldn't leave the office. And I am definitely not a uh sitting in the office for eight hours a day kind of guy. So what uh what was your decision maker that said, you know what, distribution's fun and all that, but uh I'm gonna go sell ventilation products. What what uh what what influenced that decision in your mind?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Man, I I think we've seen distribution change quite a bit, right? It yeah, it used to be, and I think there's still aspects of it, but it used to be a ton of fun. Um, it wasn't so saturated with distributors in every market. And you know, I was mainly focused in Houston as a branch manager and a salesperson, but even when I was a regional leader, it was Texas and Oklahoma. And man, everywhere you go, it it's just wildly inundated. So the competition's a little stiffer, which I'm not I'm not afraid of a challenge. Um, but my last opportunity, I was really kind of a square peg trying to be fit into a round hole, and we just we looked at the business differently. Um, and I know a lot of friends of mine who had success on the manufacturing side, and man, I wanted to make the jump over there, and I really thought I wanted to be a shingle rep. And so I was actually interviewing with a large shingle company looking for a regional manager at the time and bailed out of that to go sell vents. And never in a million years would I have thought I'd be selling vents because it's such a small part of the business. But hey, here I am, I've learned more than I ever thought I could, and I'm having a blast doing it.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah, and at the end of the day, you stay in the industry, you're having fun. I agree with you. I think being a manufacturer up would be amazing. Um, I'm I probably tried a little bit later in in life than I should have, and I didn't uh I didn't get any opportunities I was looking for on that end, which is why I'm still doing my contracting. But I love that about it, and I think it's interesting that you landed in ventilation because, like you say, this isn't something that you probably dreamt of as a kid. Like, you know, one day I'm gonna go out to explain to roofing contractors where they're messing up, how they're ruining people's homes, and how they could, you know, solve these problems. But Lamanco, from what I understand, is a pretty interesting company. So tell me a little bit about the decision-making process when you thought, okay, I'm gonna go do something else, think I'm gonna be a shingle rep, but here's this appealing opportunity. What appealed to you about Lamanco that made you look at that and say, hey, you know what? That looks pretty dang cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah, it's it was man, until I was 26 years old, I was gonna be a football coach. I went, I played football my whole life, played college football, coached at the college level, and got out of that to go get a real job for a little bit. Um, but as I'm I'm looking to make the change, fast forwarding, um, man, I'm praying real hard. And it it's a prayer of like, God, don't nudge me, shove me. Like, slap me in the face in the direction I should go. Um, and so I have an old friend of mine that I worked for back at Allied Building Products, which is now part of QXO family. Yep. Um, called me and said, Hey, dude, you should talk to LaManco. I was like, Yeah, right. Um, you sell Vince, dude. I can't believe you took such a step back. But then I go up there and I meet our leadership. And the two guys that I work for, like, you couldn't ask for better bosses. They're almost as competitive as I am. Um, and they would argue that they're more. Uh of course. And then we go to barbecue uh up in Arkansas for lunch that day, and it's not Texas barbecue, but it's it's close enough. Um, and the owner of the company was like, hey, I think I'm just gonna join you guys. And he comes in like an Arkansas razorback fishing shirt and is like runs this enormous company, and he is just the coolest guy, and his daughters are in the business too, and and like the whole Belden family is involved. It's still family-owned and operated, which I think is really cool. It's three generations with four and five in the business, and I really like how being a family-owned business that is focused on one thing, and that one thing is ventilation, makes us very nimble and it makes us focused on putting out the best possible product and solutions for the customer. So it's not, I don't get pulled in 12 different directions because I got 12 different lines I'm offering. It is ventilation is what we do, and ventilation is all we're gonna do. So we better be damn good at it, or we're all gonna be promoted to customers.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Right. And I I love that because to me, I think it's very important to focus on one thing and to be a specialist. And there are a lot of people in our industry that have these little niches that they fall into and they end up, you know, completely dominating and becoming one of the industry leaders in that sector. So I definitely see that heading your way, and I feel like you're already in that area. But let's talk a little bit about this early stage as a ventilation rep. Obviously, you've got a good network to fall back on. You've been in the industry, you've known a lot of people over the years, but ventilation, again, it's not one of those things. It's even probably harder than shingles to get someone to say, you know, I'm gonna switch to a different vent product because, you know, I was in distribution. I know how that works. I would have guys that no matter what shingle brand they ordered, they were gonna get this very specific vent, and they didn't care if it had any warranties or anything like that. So tell me a little bit about your experience getting in some of the feedback that you received from some of your uh, you know, your compatriots here in the industry when you come to them and say, Hey, let's talk vents.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

What was that initial foray like for you? Dude, you're exactly right. I I went and sat down in front of people and was like, hey, benefits and features. And the most common kickback I got was Ridge Vet is Ridge Vent, contractors don't care. And it's like, no, but we've got a three baffle system and a lifetime warrant, we got all this stuff, right? And everyone's like, okay, cool. What's it cost? And I'm like, okay, yeah, we've got that part covered. So that that was very difficult. But anyone who knows Ian and Jay knows them well because they're, I mean, they're the the men in this industry. So I took it and and when I first started, my whole goal was to start and do my own my independent thing, which I'm doing now. Um and so I said, if I'm gonna have any success in this, I better be the Ian and J of ventilation. Like I better be the person people call when they don't know what to do. So I invested a ton of time with our engineers and doing my own research, um, and then comparing that research to what the engineers have tested and found and decided that if I'm gonna do this thing, I need to do it all the way and I need to become the expert so that contractors and distributors can lean on me when they need something and I can find them the answer, even if it's not my product, and I do it all the time, where we'll come up with a challenge and maybe I don't have a solution because you're not re-roofing the house, you're just fixing the ventilation, and I got to point them in another direction, but I know those people from my time and distribution. So now it's come to me, I will point you in the right direction, even if it's not my stuff, we'll get you squared away. And I feel like that brings a little more value than me trying to shove Lamanco down your throat all day. Because at the end of the day, you need to get your homeowner taken care of. And in the long run, I think we win a good relationship and a good opportunity to work together if you can trust me from that standpoint.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yeah, absolutely. And you hit the nail on the head right there. This is about the homeowners. This is about us doing the right thing, taking care of people. And we're in Texas, you know as well as I do, Texas, you know, they use the old term the Wild West, but with roofing, a lot of people don't realize that there are no licenses. Literally anybody can start a roofing company on a Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday they can go out and say, hey, you know what? I'm an expert. I'm a roofer. I have a company. Check this out. So a lot of bad things happen because of this. A lot of people are maybe, you know, not as well versed, not as well educated. I hate to say this, but a lot of people think, well, it's just roofing. It's easy. Any moron can do it because a lot of morons do it, but that's not that's not the point of the situation. The reason we have a bad reputation is because of things where people may have good intent, they may have evil intent. But one of the most common things that I see here in San Antonio is there are issues with the roof and they're related to the improper ventilation of the home. So I try to go in and explain to homeowners you've got to have a system. It's not just about going in there and, you know, if it's not venting right enough here, we'll just throw a couple more of these square ones on, or maybe we'll put a circle one over here and do whatever we do. So as a homeowner, let's let's look at it from that lens for a second, Aaron. I've got a homeowner and they don't know anything about roofing, they don't know anything about ventilation. Take a couple of seconds and explain to the homeowners why proper vents and proper ventilation systems are so crucial to their homes because most people are getting taken advantage of and they just don't even know it.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, it's it's really a problem with we're very convicted in the things we think we know, right? And so we've been taught the wrong way, but we're very convicted in the wrong way. So we think it's right. Getting a homeowner to react to ventilation is is comes down to one question. How's your electric bill been? My electric bill sucks. Of course it does. Your attic isn't exhausting any of the heat, so all it's doing is sitting there and cooking your home. It it burns out your shingles, it's gonna wear out your windows, it's gonna wear out your HVAC system, and it's gonna cause you an increased electric bill. What if I could fix that? And I think if you can walk down, yeah, if you walk down that conversation with your homeowner, they're gonna be all in.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

I I agree with that and I love that. And and it's kind of funny because one of those things that I get the most is the calls for people that say, you know, my my so-and-so did my roof, and I don't feel like it's right because things are going wrong and stuff's falling off, and so on, so forth. You go over there and you find a complete disaster, and it's like, man, okay, let's figure out how to do this properly, guys, so that we don't have to continue to get, you know, homeowners get screwed over on this and and end up losing hundreds or thousands of dollars. So a proper ventilation system looks like what as far as the components that are required to get air flowing. Because I like what you just said, it's it's not leaving the attic. So, what do we need to do to get air out of the attic space that's just sitting there stagnant and doing nothing but harm?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah, that's it, it's really you need to have your intake in the bottom third, and then your exhaust within three feet of the highest point, and that's it. You don't mix anything at the top because it works just like a straw. So that air or your soda sits at the bottom of the attic space. I need to have one exit point at the top that's all at the same height, so that I can pull that soda up. As soon as I put a vent here and a vent here, now I got a hole in my straw, and that soda is not gonna come out. All you're gonna do is pull in air through the lower hole, push it out through the top. And that's I see that more often than not, um, especially throughout my territory, is we mix ventilation too much, um, and then we don't put any math to the intake. And the really the scary part is not just the heat, but you're I mean, you're getting the call as a contractor when it's a mold issue, and now it's not cheap because they let the heat sit there long enough, and this warm, moist air that we have is gonna sit there and accumulate, it's gonna sit in the insulation and soak into the wood, and then you got mold spores and mill doing all that showing up. That's when you get the call, and it's a complete soup sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Indeed, it is, and I have been there on quite a few occasions. Not fun to explain to a homeowner, yeah, you're kind of screwed here, but it's what we end up having to do because people do go in and they're not responsible and they're not as professional or proficient as they need to be. And at the end of the day, the consumer is the one that suffers. So we're looking to do something to help people to eliminate this situation. And I know this is a fight that we're gonna be fighting probably 50, 175 years after we're dead, Aaron, because I think you like you said, people are stuck in their ways. And it's like, well, my grandpa taught me that, he taught my dad, my dad taught me, and that's the way it's gonna be, regardless, because that's how it's always worked. And, you know, okay, fine, I guess. But in order to separate yourself from a, I hate to even use the term because I have this name, but we'll call it a uh uh stand in a van. He is just a random guy that's gonna drive up there and he may not be super qualified. Uh, the funny thing is, I don't even drive a truck, but this is a homeowner that's unsuspecting, doesn't know what they're what they're looking for. What are some of the things that a contractor should look for when they go to the home so that they can provide the best service so they can provide the best system? I know that this is an educational uh podcast today for homeowners, but I'd like to help some contractors out as well. So you go to a house, you're getting ready to look at a roof system, and ventilation is one of the key components. What are some of the things we need to take into account when we're calculating airspace and a type of ventilation that we need to put on a specific home?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah, it's first if you got the address, it takes no time to jump on Google Earth, trace the perimeter of the home, get an idea of the attic area that you're working with. Now you've got that in mind. Then you can take a look at the ridges and see, okay, do I have enough for ridge vent? Because my my default is always going to be ridgevent. If I can put ridge vent on a house, let's do that. Absolutely. It's cost effective, it looks good, and it's really effective. Yeah, heat rises. It does. And as the wind moves over it, it becomes a pump. I mean, you saw the smokehouse when we do the demonstration there. That air turns that air vent or that ridge vent into a pump. Um, but as a contractor, Jim Johnson preaches giving a whole house diagnostic, right? So we're not just gonna go look at the roof and show you some pictures about, hey, here's some hail or not, here's some wind or not. Check out the windows, check out all that, but then climb into the attic space. This is something I really hammer on is as a contractor, you have to get a whole idea of what's going on. But when it comes to educating your homeowner, that's a big deal because a lot of people don't get into the attic space every time. You're getting in there because you got to figure out what kind of decking do we have. Are there AC lines and where are they at? Um, and then you need to be looking around that intake to check do we have daylight showing through or is it all blocked up with insulation? And do we have baffles present where we don't have daylight? That way we can, when we do our math, looking at the perforated sulfate, which is gonna be on most houses, we can put some math to it and say, okay, we have 300 linear foot of perforated sulfate, that's 1500 square inches. Okay, now I have a lot of options when it comes to how I'm gonna exhaust this house. Where if you only have perforated sulfate on the sides and back, or maybe just on the back, that reduces your intake a lot. Now you can have a conversation with your homeowner, explain to them what they need. This is what code says, this is what the science says. And now when you go to fight for it with the insurance company, your homeowner is in the fight with you because they understand it's something they need. So you can go supplement for it, and your homeowner can be in the corner screaming, we need this, we need this. And then it helps cover your bases too, just in case insurance doesn't pay for it, but you got to protect yourself. The homeowner is aware, and now they're not gonna be as mad at you, they can be angry with the insurance company because you've made them aware from the very beginning that, hey, this is what we're looking at. Bold mildew are real, allergies are real. I got a 12-year-old who has horrible allergies, and until I got my turbines put on my house and my house configured the right way, she struggled with allergies year-round. If they got little kids, maybe in the same scenario. You don't you don't want to see that. So I think having that conversation, explaining why you're doing everything that you're doing, you're now educating the homeowner, and you become a little bit more than a shingle off, shingle-on guy. Um, and I think that really is what can separate you from just, hey, we got weatherwood and black.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Right. Yeah, we we've got enough weatherwood and black uh contractors out there, that's for sure. And I always tell people, you know, if you do everything the same way, you're gonna look exactly the same, even if you're the best, if they can't differentiate between you and the other five people that have come out and told them that they need a new roof and that their shingles are the greatest and they're gonna tear everything off and do all that cool stuff that, you know, everyone acts like we're the only ones that do it. But uh I think ventilation is a it's a differentiation point for contractors. And I think understanding the the aspects of what you need to take into account and being able to actually figure it out and present that to a homeowner is huge because, like you say, not only am I going to extend the life of the roof, not only am I gonna make everything much easier up in your attic on your equipment, I'm gonna end up saving you a ton of money on your energy bills. And I think a lot of people don't really think in those terms. I know for me, um, I'll use a I'll use a product here, Aaron, just because I believe in this product, but I use attic breeze a lot. And I tell people the same thing, you know, the benefits of the attic breeze far outweigh the price. Once this attic breeze has paid itself off in savings, you're gonna have another 10 to 12, 15 plus years, whatever of energy savings that you're gonna get from that. And people don't really take that into account until you start getting these three, four, five, six hundred dollar bills. And there's a substantial amount that you can save by putting the proper ventilation on your house. So let me ask you this is kind of a different offshoot of a question, but you get to go out and you get to see some of the some of the issues, some of the problems that people are having. I know as a manufacturer rep, if someone's got a warranty call or something's just not right, you're the first guy that gets the call and you get to go look at some of these things. Tell me a little bit about some of the common errors that you see that are causing major, major problems for people that could be easily avoided if we just took a couple minutes and did what we needed to do. And then we'll kind of we'll break that down a little bit. But some of the most common mistakes that you see on roofs as far as ventilation goes, and we'll solve those problems here in a moment.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yeah, I got most common is going to be ventilation at different heights. I live in Houston, I've worked in Houston for a long time. We put Ridge Vent on everything, and so I see that a lot. Um, in the new construction side, I see Ridge Vent mixed with box vents. That's a no-no. Um, just had a very lengthy conversation uh with a uh builder up in a municipality where we saw code differently and we ended up agreeing on something where we can come up with a solution. Their initial solution was well, we'll put ridge vent and then we'll add other vents to get to that NFA number. Like, yeah, it satisfies the language of code, but it doesn't satisfy the application practice. So we were able to work through that, work with the city, and got it squared away. But I if I can, I'll give you the worst example I've ever seen of this bad practice. Please do. Man, I went to a house where the contractor didn't like whirly birds. I was in that group until 2023. Didn't like whirly birds. This house had turbines on there. I don't know if they were ours, but they were turbines. And so he put ridge vent way up high. There's about six foot of ridge, and then ridge vent down below. So from a linear foot standpoint, there was enough ridge vent, but it all wasn't within three feet. Um, and it didn't have any intake except for about four feet in the very front.

unknown 21:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Well, those turbines being the pumps that they are. We were able to draw in enough air that it exhausted out whatever was in the attic space. As soon as they got rid of those and went to the ridge vent, and this was an elderly couple who got super sick. We ended up they had stuff growing inside of them. It killed one of their dogs, and they were having to live in a tent in their garage while their house was being fixed from all this mold that had grown from it. So it's man, it it's it's it was heartbreaking to see that. And it but you see it all over the place. Is we the the most common one is putting multiple different kinds of vents on a roof and put them at different heights.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Yeah, and you know, you don't think unless you know, and conventional wisdom would always tell you, well, just add another one and that that'll eliminate the issue. But in reality, it makes the issue a million times worse. And you get to the point where you're, you know, you're living in a tent in your garage as an elderly couple because you can't breathe anymore. And I don't assume that it was intentional. I never do. I always figure, you know, I'm a good-hearted person, so I assume everybody else is. I can't imagine that a roofer went into a senior citizen's home and said, you know, watch what I'm about to do here, wink, wink, you know, like I'm gonna really screw these people and I'm gonna uh, you know, almost kill them. But it happens far more often than we would like to believe. So I think that um educating the contractors is hugely important. And I know that that's something that you're very, very good at. I went to one of your presentations the other day here in San Antonio. So let's talk a little bit about that aspect of your career. You get to go out and you get to teach these guys who do stupid things like that, intentionally, unintentionally, whatever. And you get to, you know, travel around and and learn different people's mentalities and mindsets. So tell me a little bit about that dynamic of what you do, setting up events, going around, talking to contractors, explaining to them. And then uh I've got a good question after after we answer this one.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Okay. No, it that's the most fun part of the job. Like going to see distribution, that's fun. I've made a lot of friends on that side, guys that used to be the competition. That it was awkward the first couple of times I'm walking into an ABC or a QXO or a someone like that, and I'm like, man, this I'm on enemy territory right now. What am I doing? But that part's been fun. But the the best part is sitting in front of contractors. There we go. Sitting in front of contractors and having them engage throughout these trainings. I love it when they challenge me. Um, because I'm real honest, if I don't know the answer, I don't know the answer. But I know someone who does. And so that is probably what's helped progress my learning and growth throughout the last several years was the questions that I get from contractors that I don't know, I gotta go back and find out. And they always have a good answer for me. Um, but the training aspect, man, the coolest thing that happens, it happened at an ABC Crawfish boil. I was just happened to be at the one in Stafford last year, I think it was, and I had a young contractor who had been to my training I did earlier in the year at Rudy's over in Katie. And he came up and he said, Hey man, you told me to get into the attic space. I left your training to go to an inspection, happened to be an engineer, and I was the only contractor who got into the attic space. And so I got the job because I could speak to this is how much intake you have, this is how much exhaust we can use. We're gonna accomplish these air exchanges that we need to accomplish, and it's gonna preserve the life of your roof, it's gonna give you some relief on your electric bill, like all you know, the whole spiel that I go through. And to have a young cat doing the game come and say, Hey, I got a deal out of it, like that's what this is about is helping people. And I know I there was a time where I tried to be a contractor for like 30 days, and I realized your job is really, really hard, and I'm scared of heights. Um so it didn't work out for me. But the scariest part is that first 90 days until you get your first check. And man, to have a kid be able to say, Hey, I I closed a job and I got something coming in. I'm like, I did something good finally after 40 years.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Right. And you know what? That's a game changer for a young person that's just getting into this. That's a positive impact on the industry. Hey, maybe there's hope for the future. We're gonna get ventilation squared away. And this is a prime example of that. And that was actually gonna be my awesome, amazing question was tell me about one of the contractors that came up to you after an event or reached out to you after the fact and said, Hey man, I didn't know what I was doing. I went and I learned this from you, and I've gone out and I've applied it, and it has separated me from the competition because I agree. That's exactly why we do what we do nowadays. I love to um, I love to help people in our industry. I get calls from roofing contractors all the time. And if I can't help you, then I'll tell you I can't help you. But I try my best because I think it's my turn to give back to the industry that's given me so much. Um, I've tried to get out of this damn thing 50 times over the last 28 years, and I guess I'm meant for it. So it's all good and I love being a part of it, and I love doing what we do. Let me ask you about some of the products you guys are carrying. Um, like you said earlier in the program, I think the common misconception is you know, a 750 vent's a 750 vent, man. Like what's what's the big deal? We just want to put the cheapest possible thing on there, keep some money in our pocket, but I know that there's quality differences. Tell me a little bit about some of the things that separate Lamanco from the competition in the ventilation space. I won't mention any names, but I know that there are some that are really good. There's some that are not that great. But what makes you guys the best?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah, I I think uh one thing that attracted me here is is we're Americ, everything we make is American made. Um, and that's been to the detriment of the PL for a long time. Uh, but that it was a pillar the company was founded on. Um, everything we make is is made here. Um, and and we have two plants, Jacksonville, Arkansas, and Kingman, Arizona. Um, but the the thing that makes us different is what we call the Lamanco balance. So we don't just produce a product to get to the market. We were working on a flat tile vent forever because there was a big competitor who owned that market for a long time. We spent a long time researching and developing how we can make a similar product that is not only going to have the NFA that we advertise it's gonna have, but also is going to not let weather get in. And so every product that Lamanco makes goes through not only the exhaust, um, getting the air and the moisture out, goes through that testing, but it goes through a rigorous uh weather infiltration testing where we put it on all kinds of houses with wind-driven rain and snow and all that, and spin the houses in it's 180 degrees in two directions, so it's 360. But we do it to make sure that no matter what, even in a category three hurricane, we're not getting water into the house. And so we put a ton of effort into the design of that. And our engineers, Jake Pfizer is the guy who comes up with a lot of this, does a fantastic job of making sure that when I tell you we got a lifetime warranty, I'm not gonna get embarrassed. Um, I don't get warranty claims except for the occasional turbine. I think I've had three in my career, um, turbine that stops spinning because you know they're they were made in the early 90s. Um so it it for me, it yeah, there's a ton of peace of mind because we do what we say we're gonna do as far as the exhaust goes. There's some people that you can't rely on that. Um, and then we make sure that there's no weather that's gonna get into your home. And that's I mean, for whatever that's worth, to me, I would assume to a uh in a contractor's eyes, that that's kind of an important thing, is you don't want to go back there because a vent's leaking.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Yeah, there's nothing worse than explaining to a homeowner after the fact everything's cool, it's just this cheap vent that I used. And you know, now I got to come back and make make myself look like an even bigger idiot because I use the cheap vents, and then you got to admit to the homeowner that you were trying to use the cheap stuff. So it it never behooves you to do such. Um, with the Lamanco products, I know you guys are, you know, like you said, you're all American made, everything is here in the USA. Distribution channels. I know that you know, when I was in Charlotte, I carried Lamanco. Um what what do you guys look like as far as distribution across the country?

SPEAKER_01 30:34

That is uh we're in every distributor you're gonna find, any, especially the big three. Um, but it's man, we were in our meetings last week, and we have a top 25 distribution list that doesn't encompass everybody. So if you want LaManco and you're gonna use a rooping distributor, you're gonna find our product. It's our our reps do a really good job. It's for me, it was so cool to be in a group. There's 28 of me's across the country. And I'm looking around like, man, I'm I'm the little guy. I got to catch up to these suckers. They've been doing it forever, they're really good at what they do. Um, and then that part excites me. Um, they do a great job of getting into distribution, creating partnerships, but then we really focus on the contractor side to make sure we're equipping you with the knowledge and then walking with you, especially as you get your feet wet into okay, I'm gonna be a ventilation expert as a contractor. Um, we walk beside you to make sure that that you're out there to win.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

I love that. And you know, if anybody's watching this right now and you're still like on the fence saying, well, whatever, it's just ventilation. My CRM automatically calculates the pieces that I need and it knows everything because you know it's way smarter than I am. This is this is pretty good stuff, guys. And I think y'all should take into consideration that a lot of these issues can go away pretty easily and it can solve you a lot of headaches down the road. It can solve your reputation a lot of issues. Uh, because again, like there's nothing worse than telling a homeowner that your crap event failed. There's nothing worse than getting a negative review because your crap event failed. And that's 100% your decision. So don't be buying the cheap stuff, buy the good stuff, American-made. If you don't uh if you don't support that, I don't know what to tell you. We're in America, but that's pretty amazing. Um, let's talk a little bit about uh I you said something there that really caught my my attention. I wasn't gonna mention this at all because it almost seems like it's kind of a negative question, but I know you're gonna put a positive spin, and that's a huge pun, on this question. I've been around since the late 90s in the industry. I have seen, you know, just about every product that's that's come and gone that was gonna save the world, that was gonna be, you know, the next big thing. And they're there have been constants throughout the course of time as well. And I love what you just mentioned about a turbine vent because I am one of those people, and I'm gonna say right now that I'm willing to change my entire perspective on this. I'm one of those people that doesn't really like putting turbines on because to me, they have historically not lasted as long as the roof system. So I like what you said about having just a couple warranty calls because they were made way back in the 90s. And that begs the question, Aaron, what has improved on turbine whirly bird vents since the 90s that make them now a better, more confident type of option for a contractor and not one that scares you where you're thinking, oh my God, you know, it's it's gonna stop working and then I'm gonna have problems and I'm gonna remember these people 10 years from now when they're suing me. What what kind of evolution have we had in uh in the the framework and and inner workings of those vents to uh prevent that from happening?

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah, it's I think a lot of it's in the design of how we make ours. One of the issues, and I'm not knocking anybody, but the turbine vent has been duplicated, but it's never been, or it's it's been um imitated, but it's never been duplicated, right? So the way we make ours, we have it's all aluminum inside and out. It's not gonna rust. As soon as that shaft on the inside rusts, that's when it starts to seize up, and that's when it does this and come gets knocked off the roof. The other part that we do is we have two sets of permanently lubricated ball bearings, one at the top and the bottom, that are designed to spin forever. That's why we put a forever guarantee on it. The two that I replaced, one was made in 1990, and then the other was made in 1992, but it had been spray painted green, so that might have affected it a little bit, but who cares? Forever is forever, and it's two vents. Here's your new vents. Um I gotta tell you, I was the guy in distribution, I hated Warly Birds and turbines. And it's because I was told that they only exhaust the first couple feet of the attic space, they only spin because of convection, they wear out, they squeak, they rust, they do all these horrible things, right? And I just haven't seen that. Then I start doing some math to it because I'm like, eh, it's a whirling bird, it's big and bulky, it's kind of ugly, you know, it's exactly like I am. Um but then we get I get into the engineers and we start digging in. And so we use seven miles an hour as our kind of our baseline. That's a national average for wind speed in the US. Um, down in South Texas, it's a little bit higher at different parts of the year, but whatever, we'll stick to seven. When you look at a 12-inch whirly bird, which is the most common turbine you're gonna find out there, you're gonna get 540 cubic feet of air that it moves every minute. That's how much it's pulling up through the attic space. When you go to the 14-inch, which is the one I always encourage people to go to, you're at 720 cubic feet per minute. Now, as that went, this is the difference, is as the wind picks up, the CFM picks up. And so now you're getting more air drawn out. Um, I made a uh video, I guess it was back in the fall. We had like 22 mile an hour winds blowing through Katie. And I took a video of the whirly birds that are on my house. Remember, I'm a guy who hated them. I now have three, um, hated them, got up there, did the math on it with 22 miles an hour, and I'm like 1980 CFM. It's outperforming a solar vent um on their max output that they advertise. That I'm like, man, this thing's kicking butt. Then uh with the Lamanco whirly bird, we test them. We have a wind cage, uh, and we have to put it in a cage because some of them we've tested before exploded when it gets too fast. Um, but we we run that air at 144 miles an hour, and it just spins that whirly bird. And all it does because of the design of ours is that it's gonna condense as that centrifugal force pulls out, and then when it slows down, it expands right back out. So it's able to adjust to the wind speed so that it doesn't just stay big and bulky and then explode as soon as the wind gets too fast.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

It's that's pretty awesome. I did not know that, and now I'm hoping that I can see 144 mile an hour wind. I'm gonna go find some houses with some uh they're gonna be whirly birds, they're not gonna just be any random turbines because I know some of the other ones would be laying somewhere miles down the road. But I think that's fascinating. And to me, in my time, I I I learned to hate whirly birds from distribution too. I'm gonna be honest. I was a conveyor truck driver for 12 years, and those things were the biggest pain in the ass to transport to a job site with a huge truck because they were so fragile back then. And it was like, man, these things are just not my cup of tea, but I think you've done something to change my mind. And hopefully, people that have been watching this that are either contractors or homeowners have realized that there's a lot more to this than just slapping on a couple vents and letting the air do its thing because it doesn't work that way if you don't do it right. So I appreciate that very much. Um, I do want to ask, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

I think I think that's a way to separate yourself, is because you mentioned the CRM before, right? Where it just automatically spits out what you should do. That's the guy who's gonna go in and tell you how great the shingle is that they use. Yep. And I think when you when you take that approach with anything, and don't do it with Lamanco either, but when you walk in and you talk about how great a product is, now they can go to the next six contractors that knock on the door and say, I'm gonna have this product because I became sticky to that product. Yep. But when you go in and you do a whole house diagnostic and you say, Hey, this is where we're at, this is what you need for ventilation, what you have up there right now is not gonna work. Oh, and by the way, we use a shingle that does this, that, and the other. But this is how we put things down and how we address your valleys and your penetrations. And like when you can talk about the way you do things versus what you use, you're less of a price and more of a solution. And I I had to learn that the hard way through what I have to do now because ventilation, shingles, everything in this business has been commoditized to where it really often boils down to price, right? Yep. So I gotta do things a little bit differently than everyone else that's out there in order to bring some kind of additional value to make me a little bit more different, hopefully a little bit more desirable. And now that's how you start to make make inroads. And I think if contractors do that, I know there's a bunch that do it really good, but if people really take that and embrace it, and ventilation can just be a small part of it, I think you win more jobs that way than having to be the 280 bucks a square that we hear, uh, the nightmare that's running around right now.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Especially in Houston. I've been hearing a lot about that lately. So we want to avoid that at all costs because that is the quickest way to bankruptcy and horrible memories for your life moving forward. So don't sell stuff at 280 a square, guys. That is just stupid.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

You feel bad for the homeowner because the homeowner is going to have an issue when it's done that way. And the company that they got that great deal from ain't gonna exist anymore. And now they're gonna have to buy a whole new roof again.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yeah, it's it's a never-ending cycle, unfortunately. But we're here to do what's right, we're here to help prevent that from happening. And I'm convinced 100%, Aaron, that at least I'm gonna say 50,000, 60,000 people are gonna watch this episode today and they're gonna say, you know what? I need to learn more about ventilation. I need to learn more about what's going on with Lamanco. So if a contractor's watching this, or even if a homeowner who potentially wants to educate themselves prior to a contractor visit, what are some of the tools available through Lamanco that contractors and homeowners can help educate themselves through?

SPEAKER_01 40:44

Yeah, no, we've we've got first we got an area market manager in every market of the country. So you've got hands-on right there with us. Um, and and I'm at by far the least of those. Um, but if you go to the Lamanco.com website, we have vent resources to where um we're gonna give you a little bit of education about each vent that we use. Um, we've got some stuff on there in our knowledge base tab that's gonna tell you why you got to do what you need to do, the importance of having balance. And then on that website, we also have a uh event calculator. So if you take the square footage, your attic space, pop it in there, then you can see all your options there. And it's gonna it's gonna address not only the exhaust, but based on the exhaust you pick, it's gonna tell you what you need for intake. And that's an important part because it's not once I have intake, I can do whatever I want up top. You still got to double check to make sure you have that balance. So we have that available on the website, and it's also available on the Lamanco Vent Selector app that just went through a rehaul last year, and it's a little bit more user-friendly, and man, it's ready to go. But doesn't matter what part of the country you're in, if you're a South Texas guy or whatever, you get a hold of me, I'll point you in the right direction. Um, we'll I'm happy to help and happy to get you to the guys that can help you out.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

Absolutely. So there it is, folks. There's no excuse. If I see you guys putting the wrong vents on a house now, I know you're not watching the podcast, or you're just not paying attention or you don't care. So there's no positive uh outcome from that. Let's all get it together. Let's help these people, let's extend the life of these roofs so we don't have to replace them every couple years, which again, I know that's some folks' mentality and that's how they stay in business, but I'd rather just go out and and have one person tell me that I didn't have to do the roof the the second or third or fourth time because it was done right the first. And uh that's pretty awesome. One final question I have for you, my friend. Um, I went to your training event here in uh San Antonio, not last week, but the week before. I know you travel around, do the uh the road show, do the presentations popping up in different cities. What do you have on the uh on the schedule moving forward if anybody's watching uh and they'd like to maybe catch you live with the smokehouse?

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Yeah. So I got one uh Wednesday this week at ABC AirTex in Houston. Um, and then I have a couple individual ones for contractors because I'm I'm very happy to come to your office and do one for you there. Um and I'm gonna work on a couple coming up in in April, May, and June uh to make another run through Austin, San Antonio, and then Corpus in the Valley. So, man, if anybody wants to catch me, just hit me up. You can hit me up on Facebook, Instagram, call me, write me a letter. Uh whatever you want to do, I'll I'll come to you and we'll make it happen. Um, albeit several events coming up. Uh ever it's kind of crawfish and golf uh tournament season. So that's time of the year, baby. I'll as an eaterologist, I can appreciate it. So I'll be out at those. Um, and and one thought is man, as you're doing this, I just had to do this research because it was time for me to renew my electric bill for the next three years. Electric electric rates are projected to increase on. Almost 20%. It's a great conversation when you're sitting in someone's house and they're looking at the roof they're gonna have for the next 10 or 12 years. This can be a way to curb that increase that we're all gonna experience for the next several years. So there you go, value add.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

There it is. We're here to solve the problems of the world, and I think we've done it today, folks. Before we say goodbye, I have my favorite part of the episode that I love to do every week, and that is my shout out to my sponsors at Roofer. I know earlier you mentioned that it's very easy to uh to go on one of those other computer programs and draw an outline of a roof, but I'll tell you what, if you're not using Roofer, it's probably not gonna be as good. So use Roofer for those instead of using the other thing, even though the other one's probably easier. I shouldn't be saying that, but it is what it is. Use Roofer. Roofer is your all-inclusive program from initial contact with your client all the way to the final payment and follow-up for years to come. You guys know I love Roofer. I had the CEO on last week's episode. So thank you to them for the four years of sponsorship. I love it. And uh hopefully we'll be working with Roofer for years to come. For everybody that watches keeping it real, thank you guys. This is 252 episodes deep now. And I never anticipated that when we did episode one. I thought uh maybe we could get to three or four. So 252 is pretty awesome. My goal's 2500. We're we're closer to that now than we were yesterday. So life is good on this end. I appreciate everybody watching. Aaron, thank you for taking the time to be here today. Shout out to Jay Rodriguez and Ian Wilson as well, because their names were just randomly mentioned in this episode, and those are some pretty badass dudes. So, and Jim Johnson, all you guys are my friends. So I appreciate you guys for watching. Aaron, stick around after I end this, and you and I can end our conversation after the fact. But until next week, ladies and gentlemen, y'all know the drill. Keep on keeping it real, and we will see you next Thursday at 7 p.m. Central. Later on.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

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