Insulation Insights: Keeping Your Home Cool in Phoenix Heat

Since the dawn of time, mankind has searched for ways to shelter themselves from the elements.

Over the centuries, these shelters have evolved from bamboo huts to concrete towers. The last few years, there's been a push to save the planet. Are you ready to embark on a more sustainable lifestyle? Look no further. You're about to enter the adventures of Container home living and now contractor, radio and tv personality, and your host for Boxcar Universe, Steve Dubell. Hi, I'm Steve Dubell, host of Boxcar Universe, along with my co host, Erica Thompson.

Here's what's coming up on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe.

We are introducing the Boxcar Universe energy team. Duke Moseley, owner of iPhone the most older homes never have enough insulation to adequately protect your home from the summer heat. Duke will share with us his company's information and what he can do to correct this problem. Also with us is Janet Ferraro, the executive director from Phoenix Tool Bank, a 401 non profit organization. Learn what they are doing to help the community.

Also, if you are a DIY person that needs tools, the tool bank has a special sale for you. All that and more on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe, your source for remodeling and renovating your world. And I'd like to welcome all our listeners to Boxcar Universe as we get started here at September 2024. And it's, it's, it, you know, we're in Phoenix and I, people ask me, is it still hot there? Well, if it's still hot by you, it's surely hot in Phoenix.

And a lot of times, you know, I have a very good friend that's a home inspector, and when he goes, inspects the home, he clearly checks to see if there's enough insulation up in the attic. And I would say a good majority of the time there isn't. A lot of times older homes have different kinds of insulations, and over time, it compresses and it loses its efficiency. So we're going to be speaking with Duke, talking about what his company does and how he can help you get your home up to speed.

And I know we're coming down towards the end of the summer here, hopefully. And hopefully, I mean, today temperatures are over 110 here in the valley of the sun. Not good golf weather right now when it comes to heat. Maybe at 07:00 this morning, it might have been pretty good, but not right now or definitely. You know, another good friend of mine I met this morning at my network group said she was out at 05:00 a.m. this morning doing her morning run.

And that's how we live in the valley of the sun. You know, when it's so hot, we do things early in the morning and we get them done. And if you're committed to your, you know, doing physical, physical activity, going to the gym, doing a run, going out, playing maybe nine holes of golf before 09:00, before the temperature starts, gets to be a little unbearable. That's, that's what we have to do.

But once your home is built, you can't do much except live with your utility bill unless you want to become aggressive about it. Take a look at the, the problem that exists in your home, not just that utility bill that you see every month, and you say, oh, my God, what am I going to do? And then you just, and I'm sure there's just so many people out there that are just writing a check and they pay the bill, and then after it's paid, it's out of sight, out of mind.

But if you add up the money that you could save by getting your home re insulated, or if you're building a new home to make sure that it's insulated properly and also you can add solar to your home, you're going to be able to do a lot for the environment as well. Do a lot for the environment of your wallet because that's going to be important. You want to keep all the greenbacks in your wallet while you're going and doing the green thing when it comes to your energy.

But right now we want to welcome Duke Moseley into the show. Duke, thank you for being on Boxcar Universe for the first time. Welcome. Thank you. It's good to be here. Yes, it's good to have you here. And as I said before, it's hot outside. It's very hot outside, which is good for, it's good for your business.

I mean, tell us a little bit about your business and how you got started and your mission statement, because I'm sure a lot of people are interested in getting this area, I think, of their home. Like I always say, you know, if you get, if you buy a new car and you get an owner's manual and what do you do with it? You throw it in a glovebox. Right? When's the last time you took it out and looked at it? Probably never.

Okay. So if that's the case, but when you get information about from your builder, you, it doesn't get into the nuts and bolts about how to maintain your home. It just tells you how the home was built, and, you know, it has this. This thinness. It doesn't give you any instructions on maintenance. And I think that's the thing that people need to know about. That's what we try and do here every week on boxcar universe. Educate the homeowners on how to take care of their home properly, how to.

What to do if they're looking to build a new home. So tell our listeners a little bit about. About iPhone. Yeah, so iPhone has been around for over 15 years. We are relatively new to Arizona. We opened the doors about three months ago. So we're not a new company, but we're new to Arizona. Our mission is really to build lasting relationships with our customers based on integrity, a strong sense of duty and quality work.

And our goal is really to listen to the customer, educate them on insulation issues and solutions, and then provide them with whatever they need or want to solve their insulation problem. We are based out of Scottsdale, but we service all of Phoenix. And I'll tell you that this time of year, if you have bad insulation, it's noticeable. We hear a lot of folks tell us that their energy bill is higher this time of year than it was a year ago. Same time some people have dust in the home.

There's just a lot of issues that can point to a problem with insulation. And so our team comes out, we do free estimates. So we go to the home, we get up in the attic, we take some temperature readings, some photographs, we look at with thermal cameras to see where the conditioned air may be leaving the building. And so that's all free.

We come out, it takes about 30, 45 minutes for our team to get up in the attic, look around, take some pictures, obviously listen to the customer to see what issues they're having. And then we will make a suggestion based on what we think is right for their. Their insulation needs. Our team comes out, we do the work, and then afterwards, we do a final inspection to make sure that the quality is there and the home is left in a better condition than it was before we got there.

Yeah. Do you find that homeowners, when they ultimately call you, what do you find that they. Why do you think they all of a sudden said, I need to look at my insulation? Yeah. I think this time of year, it's because their home is really hot, or they may have some rooms in the home that are hotter than other rooms. We hear that quite a bit. The back side of the house with the two bedrooms over here, it's just warmer, and the air conditioning is working harder. We're leaving it on longer.

And so we hear that quite a bit. Or maybe they have some work done in the attic. Maybe they're getting their air conditioning replaced or fixed. And the air conditioning, the h vac folks come down and say, hey, you've got some old insulation. It's not up to code. There's some spots. And so then they'll give us a call. And it's funny, last week, we had our guest, Barbara Riveras, from her company, ascent heating and cooling, and I was telling her about this situation that my friend had had.

He had a. He had his house over on the west side of Phoenix in surprise. And I couldn't understand. When I walked in his house, he had a fan in the living room, in the dining area, and he's got the temperature set at, like, 77. The living room's okay. All the bedrooms are in the hallway are fine, but the other area is still, too. It's warm. That's why he's got the fan running. So I just happened to do something in his bedroom for him.

I walk out, I went to use the restroom, and I closed the door, and what do I feel coming out the latch? It was cold air. And I'm like, where is this coming from? It's got to be coming from the attic. And then he was telling me that he had some new ductwork put in a cup about a month or so earlier. So I said, let me go check something. So I went on a ladder. I popped a the lid over in the laundry room up. And as soon as I set the door aside, I get hit with this cold rush of air. Okay?

So now this is an afternoon in July in Phoenix. Okay? You know. You know damn well the temperature is, like, 140 up there. I died. And I kid you not, it gets that hot up there. Okay? And now we got hit with cold air coming from the attic. So something's wrong with this ductwork because he's cool in the attic. No wonder his bill was close to $500 that last previous month. Turns out they went out, and he does need some. He does need some insulation.

But again, the insulation, along with the air conditioning, is so vitally important for keeping your home at the temperature that you want. The other air conditioning came out, man came out. Who from the company had did the ductwork was not the same person. And as soon as he did the same thing I did, he said, oh, no problem. I'll get this taken care of. It's not hot up here. So he went and did it. But, yeah, he didn't secure the ductwork to the.

To the metal part of the duct that was on the handling unit. So therefore, it was blowing. It was just blowing out into the attic. Cooling your attic. Yeah, it was cooled your attic, and it just happened to find its way down between the framework. And he came out the latch in the bathroom. So it was pretty intense. But do you find that a lot of the homes you do, do you find that they have the old paper insulation, or do they have the. Or are they dealing with fiberglass?

It's a little bit of both. It just depends on where the house is at, who built the home, and how old the home is. But we do see a lot of blown in cellulose, which is essentially ground up newspaper and blue gene. We see a lot of bats, a lot of fiberglass, and it's good insulation. It's better now because, you know, they've just. They have better technology, and there's better, fewer chemicals, and so it's a very good product. But like anything else, cellulose and fiberglass has a lifespan.

Normally, it's 2025 years. And so if it's an older home and somebody's been there for a while or they just move in and they recognize some of those symptoms, it may be time for some new insulation. The good thing about foam, we also do foam. Foam is our specialty. We do all types of insulation, whatever solution you need. But the foam is the most efficient and has, it just requires less energy to cool or heat your home.

If you have foam, it's essentially, and you're going to build an igloo, you're going to seal everything off, and it will last longer than your home, likely. That igloo. That sounds good in here. And we're in the middle of summer here in Arizona. It does. It does. Yeah, absolutely. And again, that's why we talk about, we call it the Boxcar universe energy team, because combining insulation with solar, you're attacking it from a couple of different avenues, because it's not just one or the other.

This is why I always promote when to tell people, take a walk around your house and observe, okay. And see what's. See what's going on. If there's anything that seems out of the ordinary, you know, if you feel that, you know, like my friend Ernie, he just, you know, all of a sudden, one day, you know, he's like, you know, it's too hot in here. You know, light bulb goes on, and then you realize, okay. You start thinking about, okay, so what causes that?

And a lot of times people see commercials on tv and they're like, oh, I need that. But they're not looking at the big picture. They're looking at it with blinders on. So they may get Mel, you know, like, you know, oh, well, I need new windows. Well, that might be true, but maybe. Is that, is that, do you want to attack everything at one time? Because a lot of people cant do that, especially in todays economy. They dont have the money.

And I dont care how much government assistance you get back on tax credits, sometimes everybody cant do it. So sometimes youve got to get someone to come out to take a look at the big picture and say, okay, what are things that affect your situation that youre concerned about? And then go back and say, okay, well, it's this, this and this. Okay, and it's going to cost this much on each of these items. Okay, what is the best way for, for the homeowner to attack it?

To be able to go back and say, okay, well, you know, even now they're saying, you know, everybody used to say, well, yeah, change all your windows. We get all the tax credit. Now, you see, the commercials are out there now. They say, you know, well, you don't need to get them all changed at one time. Change the worst ones first, okay. Because they're starting to realize that people don't have that amount of money to go just do all their windows. But again, you got to take it and look at it.

What's the best thing for you to be able to do? And I think that should be something that you or I or anybody in the energy field should be able to go back out and help the homeowner make the decisions on which ones to do first. Because, I mean, unless, of course, you own a bank and you've got just all kinds of money, but you got to be able to do that. Sure. It's a system of things that work together.

And so I would recommend, before you go in one direction, like you said, I'm going to replace all my windows, my doors, the air conditioning unit. I'm going to get brand new insulation everywhere. I would have those folks come out and take a look. It's very difficult to make a judgment or a call if you're not in the home listening to the, to the homeowner asking some of the issues that they're faced with to make sure that you're solving the right problem.

And our team will go in and if we go up there and we look around and the insulation is great, but the air conditioning is not. As much as we would love to give them new insulation, we will let them know that, hey, it might be your ac. We have people tell us that, you know, this wall is really hot, and so I want to insulate the walls. And so, you know, we can ask some questions and we can take some pictures with thermal cameras.

And we know that 70% of your conditioned air is you're losing through the ceiling. 30% of that is through the walls. And of that 30%, it's generally around the windows or the doors or under the doors. But you just don't know that until you get out there and take a look.

So I would encourage folks that if you have an issue or you think you have an issue, have an insulation, we'll come out for free, do a free inspection, have the H vac folks come out, have the windows folks come out of and really find out what you need the most before you start making decisions and replacing things out. That's absolutely right. And an informed homeowner is a smart homeowner. Be able to do all that.

But we're going to take a short break, and when we come back, we're going to be talking more with Duke about the services of iPhone and his company. So let's explore all that energy work when we come back. You're listening to Boxcar universe. Don't go away. When you buy a car, you want to see that car's history, whether it's new or used. Why should buying a home be any different? Dec inspections can provide you with the inspection you need to have peace of mind when purchasing your next home.

Need a home energy audit? Call today 623-329-9330 that's 623-329-9330 looking to transform your space with over 30 years of construction experience and featured on radio and tv, ideal home improvement and legacy custom homes AZ does it all, from repairs, remodeling and restorations to new builds, container homes and container pools. Plus cutting edge solar systems to help homeowners save money on their utility bills. Hi, I'm Steve Dubell.

Let us help you design and build your dream home with the expertise that comes from decades of experience in the business. Call me today at 602-332-6203 or email me@steveidealhomeimprovementaz.com to get started. Remember ideal home improvement and legacy custom homes azhorte, where your dream home becomes reality. Don't wait. Call today roc number 332512. All right, we are back and you're listening to Boxcar universe.

And we are here today talking with Duke Moseley from iPhone, and we want to try and see what we could do to cool down the homes of Phoenix. And that's, I guess we could say we could do that one home at a time. That's all we can do. We're only just, you know, just a couple of guys here talking about getting your home more energy efficient. And that's something that's so important to be able to do.

And I'm sorry to say there are a lot of people that are clueless when it comes to taking care of their home. And, you know, for years and years and years, I always promote that and say, you know, sometimes when home repairs and DIY projects go bad, well, the homeowner with tools could be a dangerous thing because it's the truth. I mean, people laugh, but it's true.

I mean, I know a very good friend of mine that is well known here in the media market in, in Phoenix, and I love him to death, but, you know, he is, as they say, all thumbs. So. But his wife knows a lot. I mean, she's very Andy. So, I mean, people are going to laugh with doing this. And I could see it now, all the yddeh, all the people that are married or their significant other who doesn't know anything about tools, they got to take this to heart. Go to staples and get a pack of post its. Okay?

She took post its and wrote the name of the tools and put it on every tool that was laid out in the garage. And so, like, when she was doing something, she says, well, honey, go in the garage and get a channel lock. And he goes inside and he, he doesn't know what a channel lock. He's just looking for the post it note. It's this. Channel locks. He goes, oh, this is a channel lock. But that's what it is. But this is what we're trying to do. We're trying to educate people to be able to do that.

That's why they need to know that what's going on. You know, when you say you need insulation, I think it's great that your company goes back out and you have that consultation in that time to be able to let them know, hey, this is what's going on. This is what we found, you know, and it's like, I'm sure you ask them somewhere in your consultation, like, well, how old's the house? Did you ever have your insulation, you know, up to upgraded before or things like that?

So this way you have a basis to start your consultation on? Sure. Those are generally the first two questions that we ask. How old is the home? How long have you lived in the home, and how long do you plan on living in the home? If this is your forever home and you want a permanent solution, then spray foam might be the answer.

If this is a home that you're about to move from and you want to make sure that it's properly insulated and you want a more, I would say, temporary, solution, we also offer that. So it would take someone to come out, take a look around the attic, see what. See what issues they may be having, and really talk to the customer and see what they want and what they need. It's just very difficult to do without that. I see people today saying, hey, here's what it's going to cost to insulate your home.

And it's just very difficult to do without being in the home and asking those questions to the customer because they may want or need different things. But regardless of what that need is, again, I foam. We specialize in spray foam insulation. We do both open cell and closed cell foam, but we also do bats, cellulose, fiberglass. We do all of it. So it just depends on what they want and need. We can provide that solution.

Why don't you tell our listeners the difference between open cell and closed cell foam? Sure. That's a common question that we get. I would say that one is not better than the other. It just depends on what you need that foam for. For instance, closed cell is really good in a small area, so it goes on thinner. It's a little more rigid, so it will increase the durability of the structure, and it can achieve two times the r value in a standard wall.

As another type of insulation, it's a little more expensive, but it's a very good spray foam. It also has a higher resistance to moisture. So if you're in an area south Florida where there's a lot of condensation, a lot of humidity, you may spray a lot of, you know, we would spray a lot of closed cell foam. Open cell, on the other hand, also good for areas like Arizona, we spray about 95% open cell foam. When you spray the foam, it expands tremendously.

So if you've got nooks and crannies and you want to make sure those are properly filled and insulated, you hit it with some open cell foam, it's going to expand and give you good insulation. It's very good for soundproofing, and it's generally less, less expensive than, than closed cell so we do both depending on what you need. But I would say we use about 95% open cell here in Arizona. Yeah. I know a lady who had a home down in Maricopa that her actual house, it was kind of unique setup.

It was a very nice home, about, must have been about 2800 sqft, but it had like, almost like an extra casita that was attached to the house. And she said a lot of times when she went and she was living in the casita, so what she used to do, she used to have a Vrbo out the rest of the house.

But the problem is when she had people over and they had this long wall between both units, I mean, the sound, because it's an interior wall, has nothing in it, you know, the sound just was annoying after a while, you know, and it was just like, oh, what could I do? So, I mean, I went down to, to look at it and I'm thinking she wanted to show it to me. I'm looking at this and her side of the wall is all got, you know, it's divided up into three rooms, bedroom, kitchenette, living room.

And there's stuff on that whole wall that divides it. But on the Vrbo side, it was just like one open wall. And it was like the, when I first looked at it, I'm like, this is, this is a natural, let's foam the wall all on her side, on the Vrbo side, because we're never going to get all of your nook and cranny on the other side.

And plus, it's going to be easier for me to fix the drywall and then just repaint the wall so it, again, it's figuring out the right course of action for the best amount of money for the, for the homeowner. Yep. And that's something that, you know, she's, she's still thinking about it. So I know when she decides to call me, the first call I'm going to make is to you, okay. But it is much easier to insulate before the drywall is up.

We get a lot of calls asking us, can you come insulate the walls of our home? That is, one service that we do not provide is injection foam. That's when you drill holes in and you inject the foam, it goes in wet, it goes in blinden. Um, it's just not something we do. We're not 100% confident that we're not going to drill into something we shouldn't drill into. And that if that drywall is already on the other side and it goes in wet.

If it's not in great shape, you could have some bowing or some, some sinking. There are companies that do it. Um, I would just recommend that people do their own research on injection foam. But what, the only way we would do a wall is if it's not drywall, or some people choose to take the drywall off. We spray it properly with foam and then put the drywall back. Yeah, we did that. We did that with.

It was a two story garage a couple of years ago, and I've got pictures and video of them when they come in and doing the spray foam. And then once it expands, and then the guy behind him comes in and scrapes it all off and then gets it even. So this way we can put the drywall up, but it makes, you know, it's a little more money than bad insulation, but it surely going to save you a lot more money in the long run on your utility bill.

Yep. It's a properly insulated home, we found, uses about 40% less energy than a home that's not insulated or very poorly insulated. So we're not going to come in and say, if you do this, your energy bill is going to be x amount of dollars less. We don't know what people pay for their energy, but we can tell you that you will consume less energy if you have a properly insulated home.

Yeah, I mean, it's, again, you know, dealing with, with solar a lot of times I see, you know, we're talking about. What's one of the first questions I asked people, too. I was like, okay, so how old's your roof? Because I'm not going to put a solar system on top of a roof that's 15 years old. And like some people say, well, you know, the tiles and getting any, you know, older, I mean, you know, a tile is a tile. It's going to last 50 years.

I'm like, yeah, but the underlayment's not going to last that long. And that's where the problem is. So you want to put that up there and great, I want to see people save money on solar, but I'm not. If I could get them a break on redoing their roof and a solar, because we can combine both of those packages together and get the 30% tax credit from the government, then we'll save the money on a new roof. And again, how long have you lived here, you ask? And how long are you going to live here?

Is it going to be your forever home? Or if you're going to be there another ten years. How much do you want to invest in your home? Because there's only so much you could do, not just in what we're talking about, but in a lot of different areas. And you can only put a band aid on so much before even the bandaid gets too old. Yep. One of the services that we offer that I didn't mention, and you reminded me of it, is removal. And so we go to some of these homes. They're older homes. They've been.

They're 30, 40, 50 years old sometimes, and they've never had their insulation replaced. They have cellulose blown in. Cellulose up in the attic. It's. It's very thin. It settles over time. And so a common question that we get is, do you just spray in over the top of that, which in the industry would be called a top off, or do you take the bad insulation out and put new insulation in? We do both of those. We prefer to take the bad insulation out because spraying over the top of it is like.

It's like putting a new sweatshirt over an old thin sweater. Just, it's. It's not optimal. And so we have a high powered vacuum cleaner, so to speak, and we suck all of the old insulation out, and then we blow in new insulation. Yeah. I mean, sometimes. Sometimes that's. That's important, you know? And the other times, and I'm going to get into this a little bit on the other side of the break, is that a lot of times.

You'd be amazed how many times my home inspector has done infrared with looking at the house, and he'll go out and do an inspection on an existing house and where there are big sections of no insulation in the ceiling or in the walls, because it'll show up like. I mean, like a big. Different than the other. Again, it's via colors. If you've ever. If you ever watch Predator, that's what the infrareds look like. So you'll see cooler spots are blue, hotter spots are red and orange.

And then a lot of times, the walls are cool, and all of a sudden, you see this big, huge square in the roof. And I said, I can imagine what those conversations are going to be like when he sits down and talks to them. And then the homeowner has to decide on what does he want to do. I mean, sometimes you can't get to those, like you said, unless you remove the drywall. So you've got to make a decision. Either, you know, you.

You. You know, you go back and do injection foam or you take the drywall off and have you come in and foam it, put the drywall back on, you know, so it depends on how big, how big the area is. But, but there are a lot of different things and we've got a lot of different variances in types of homes built here in the valley. So we want to, we want to get it. Talk a little bit about that when we come back. So I want everybody to hang tighten. We'll be right back.

And you are listening to Boxcar Universe. Stardust building supplies is your home improvement thrift store. Find salvaged and gently used cabinetry, doors, windows, appliances, lighting, plumbing and much more. Save money, be green and support the community. Shop and donate at Star building supplies valley locations. For more info, visit stardustbuilding.org dot discover.

The future of sustainable lifestyle living with Boxcar Universe your go to source for cutting edge Container home and container pool information. Want a dream? Container home or pool? We can build it for you. Hi, I'm Steve Dubell from Boxcar Universe. For the latest in container innovation and expert insights, tune into our weekly podcast, Boxcar Universe. Ready to start your project?

Call us today at 602-332-6203 or email us@steveoxcaruniverse.com remember Boxcar Universe, where your Container dreams come to life. Listen, learn and build with us. What's the weather like out there? It's hot. Damn hot. Real hot. Hotter than things is my shorts. I can cook things in it. Little crotch pot cooking. It's damn hot. You can be a little thing. I saw it so damn hot. I saw one of those little guys. In the orange robe burst into flames. It's that hot. You know what I'm talking about.

All right, and we are back and you are listening to Boxcar universe. And you know, Duke, I feel cooler already. Just talking about foam and keeping that heat out in the Arizona heat, it is just amazing. And, you know, the last thing that you want to do is obviously not have all these different components about keeping your house cool in place.

So that's why I think one of the things that I would encourage all our listeners to do, if you're in the Phoenix metro area here in Maricopa county, please make sure you contact us here at Boxcar Universe and you want to schedule a home inspection for see where, you know, your energy is.

Maybe if you're trying to cool, cool the Arizona, you know, skyline or something like that, we can come out and check out to see exactly where your cool air is going and what's the best way to approach to fix it based on your own personal situation. So I want to encourage all that. And remember, you could always. We'll get at the email address and contact information at the end of the show, but you could always get us here at Boxcar universe.

You could call me at 602-332-6203 and email us at Steve at boxcar universe.com and tell us a little bit about what you need done and where you are. And Duke and I will come out and we'll check out your home and see exactly what you need. But, you know, I have to share this with you, Duke.

You know, when I moved back, when I moved out here to Arizona in 1989, I remember when I went up in the attic of my house that I bought, I go up, and all of a sudden, I look, and I said, what's wrong with this picture? All the insulation is above the lid between the rafters. There's nothing up on the roof. Okay. And I'm like, what happened here? Because I remember my dad taking me up in the attic of my house when we lived in New York.

And I remember all the bad insulation was stapled between, you know, the rafters up on the roof up above. And there's a, you know, one fell down here, one fell down there. But, you know, it was. It was up on. Underneath the roof. There was nothing down on top of the lid. So I'm like, okay, thinking about this. Okay. So. And then, obviously, the builder, I got informed when I came out. Well, yeah, they insulate the lid, but they never do your garage. Okay? So I'm like, why is that?

And, well, it's not actual living space. I'm like, okay, well, that makes. I guess it makes sense. I mean, that's the way the builders work out in the southwest. So it's something I had to accept. But again, if you are, like, when you want to do something, so a lot of guys like to tinker in their garage, and in the summertime sometime maybe when it's not 110 outside, but still in the early mornings sometimes, that you want to be able to have some kind of protection up there.

So it would probably be a great idea to have you come out and insulate, you know, 400, you know, above your double two car garage space to at least give you some kind of protection, you know, as well as putting fans in the garage or a mini split. That would be. That would be the ideal thing to do. Sure. I think that's one of the most common symptoms that we hear is my garage is like a furnace. It's like a, it's like a steam. It's like a sauna.

My garage is no different, and we're actually spray foaming my house today. And I think I am most excited that we're going to put some foam on the, over the garage. There's nothing in there. Now that's very common for places in Arizona. It is super hot all the time in our garage. And so for me, I have to have something above that. So we're including that in our house. We're going to do the whole house, but we're also going to do the garage. That's normal.

Most, most of the homes that we see don't have anything above the garage, and it's just super hot. So, yeah, we can come in and a lot of times we'll spray in cellulose because there may be, it just may be a crawl space. So there may not be the space to come in and stand up or crawl in there and spray foam because it takes a little bit of space to be able to do that. Another important, another reason why it's important for somebody to come out and make that assessment.

But, yeah, that's common, that there's no insulation over the garage. But it's the first thing you'll notice. We did, actually did my neighbor's house yesterday, and the first thing I noticed when I went over to do the inspection was the garage was cooler. And so it's. It makes a difference.

Yeah. I mean, you know, and a lot of times, people, we were talking about windows earlier, what some people like to try to, and, you know, they're grasping at straws because they'll either do a couple of things I've seen, they'll go to Home Depot and they'll get a piece of inch foam that has the aluminum, or I should say the metal foil on one side.

They'll cut it and they'll just jam it between their blinds and the window to keep the sun out because if they're getting that afternoon west or southern exposure sun, that house could really get toasty. So again, it's, it's stuff that you. Or they'll just go out and get, you know, some kind of window tint just to take the glare off. And, you know, again, that's why I always say, you know, if you've got single pane windows, I feel sorry for you because they, it's going to really be hot.

So dual pane windows, obviously, we've had around now for a long time. I mean, very rarely will I come across a home that we go in and remodel that has a single, single pane windows. But again, taking advantage of what do you want to do? What's your. And, and I think sometimes you have to, like you had said, you wanna go in your garage and work. Okay? So you wanna be able to tailor all this stuff that we're talking about to your lifestyle. And I think that's so important.

And once that's done, you know, you know, you're a happy, cool home is a happy owner. Absolutely. And then you can go out and play golf. That's it. And we try. You know, we wanna make sure we offer the homeowner the right solution for them. And like we talked about earlier, it may just be a top off, it may be some extra insulation in addition to what they already have, and it may be removing all of their cellulose insulation and putting in foam. Just depends on what they want.

But we're able to do all of that. Whatever solution they need, we normally provide them with a good, better and best option that we call it. But we will treat their home like it's our own. Yeah. And that's the way I treat all my customers, because I want to. I want to treat them like it was my home. And I want to have. I want to go to sleep at night knowing that I did my best for them. And that's the, that's the way all businesses should run. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

That's why we have good businesses and maybe not so good businesses. So. But again, doing the best, you know, doing customer, customer service is good when you think about what you need to do for follow up. But doing a. Doing it, you want to be able to make sure that you, you leave your work with a good impression on the homeowner. And again, you know, a happy homeowner is a happy referral. So you want to be able to do that. So that's really good.

Tell our listeners a little bit how they can contact you. So we are on Instagram, we're on Facebook. We've got a website. It's iPhone ifoam of greaterscotsdale.com. you can get to us via Instagram and Facebook there. Or you can give us a call at 623-401-3622 or another number we have is 623401 foam. Foam. If that's easier to remember, we'll come out, do a free estimate.

Again, we'll take some temperature measurements, some moisture measurements, some heat thermal pictures, and recommend a solution to you as if it were our own home. That's great. That's great information for all our listeners. But I've got one more question for you before I let you go. When we go to break, who does in your logo? Who designed the gnome? The gnome. So iPhone is a franchise and so the horsepower brands is the father brand that owns iPhone.

So they're the ones that came up with knowme for iPhone. And the colors, obviously, you have pink and blue. Pink for the old school kind of pink panther insulation that you kind of grew up with and then blue for the coolness. And so that's how we came up with our colors. I think the gnome guy looks pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. He's unique. Can we put one of the, hey, that's what you should do for every house that you, that you foam. Put a gnome in the, in, in the front yard.

Yeah. You know, we have started taking pictures with the gnome and so we'll, you know, if we go into a neighborhood or a city, we'll take a picture of the gnome on the city sign and we'll put that. So we're going to, going to start posting that on our Instagram and Facebook page. So watch, watch for the gnome. Know me. That's great. Duke, thanks so much for being on the show today. It's a great, great information and we're looking forward to being on the show again.

As we said, we know we are the Boxcrow universe energy team.

So make sure if you want to come out and get your home assessed for your energy usage and what you could do to help save on your energy bill. Foam, solar, stuff like that. Get your roof done. Please give us a call and or email. So, Duke, we'll work on the next home that we're going to plant, the nomad. All right, thank you, Steven. I appreciate you having me. I enjoyed it. All right, sounds good. All right.

Right now we're going to go to break and when we come back, we're going to be speaking with Jennifer from the Phoenix tool bank and she's going to tell us about what her company does and how they are helping the community organizations and your DIY, you know, homeowners. So I want everybody stay tuned. You're listening to Boxcar universe. Hi, I'm Sean with Mister Electric and I have a tip to help make your life better.

One important reminder is to call a qualified electrician when you have frequent problems with blowing fuses or tripping circuit breakers. When a circuit breaker trips or a fuse blows, it's indicating that you have a problem with some other part of the circuit. If your breaker trips more than once, you should have a qualified electrician come out and take a look at it.

Contrary to what may be acceptable, you really shouldn't try to continuously try to reset the breaker because there may be a problem somewhere else down the circuit and you could be causing a fire hazard. There could be a loose connection or some other form of problem on the circuit, and every time you reset the circuit breaker, it could be causing a spark at the other end.

We recommend having a qualified electrician come out and check on the condition of the circuit and make sure that the circuit does not have any problems and it could just be a bad breaker also. But you definitely want to have qualified electrician check that out. To have someone come out from our team may only take a portion of a day, but it could potentially save you a lot of money for your life. And that's just another way Mister Electric has the power to make your life better.

Hi, I'm Steve Dubell from ideal home improvement. The uncertainty of our economy is very troublesome. Interest rates are rising and inflation is high. The utility cost of energy is forever rising. The good thing is that we as homeowners can do something about our energy bill right now and in the future. Solar energy is literally the best investment you can make at this moment and the most likely to steady your finances through uncertain times. Think about this.

If you could have locked down the cost of your energy bill ten years ago, would you have done it? I think your answer would be yes. Think of the savings you could be enjoying right now as your neighbors who don't have solar are at the mercy of the utility companies. Let ideal home improvement review your energy bill and see what a solar system on your home can do for your family and budget.

Just give us a call at 602-332-6203 or email us@steveidealhomeimprovementaz.com let me help you start saving today. All right, we are back in your listen to Boxcar universe and it is our energy special today. We're talking with Dick Moseley from iPhone and we want to thank him for giving us sharing his wisdom with us. And we want to go to now our next guest, jennifer from the Phoenix tool bank. And she is helping community organizations and something that's near and dear.

I mean, what would I do without having tools? I mean, tools I couldn't have my business. Welcome to the show, Jenna. How are you today? Good. Thank you for having me. Great. Tell our listeners a little bit about Phoenix toolbank. Sure. So we are a nonprofit that loans tools and equipment to other nonprofit schools, neighborhood associations, government departments. I kind of like to say anybody doing anything good in our community, anything positive, has access to our tools and equipment.

How did Phoenix toll bank all get started? Where are its origins? So we're actually a national nonprofit. We started over 30 years ago in Atlanta. That was the initial tool bank. And then in 2008, we became a national nonprofit. We've been open here in the Phoenix market for ten years. And so over the last couple of years, we've seen a huge spike in our growth, which is really exciting, and it means the words getting out more.

But that's what's great about coming and doing things like this, is it just gives the community an opportunity to know that we're here. That's great. Now, tell us, what kind, what kind of community projects have you helped them with your tools? Oh, my goodness. Everything. So, as I mentioned, we've been open. Give me a couple of highlights. So, as I mentioned, we've been open over ten years, so we've seen almost, I think, all.

But then something will come across our path and I'll be like, oh, that's new. But obviously your major ones. We do a ton of kaboom builds. So that's a national nonprofit that will help schools and community centers build an entire playground in three days. Usually takes about 200 volunteers and about ten to $12,000 worth of equipment and tools.

I like to use that example because that's a perfect example of what makes the tool bank beautiful, is a school shouldn't have to go out and buy $12,000 worth of equipment to be able to equip these 200 volunteers to get this playground. What they can do is come and borrow everything from us, and that's usually like 15 wheelbarrows, 20 drills, 50 shovels. What is the school going to do with that after?

Even if they had the budget, even if it was a charter school or whatever, even if they had the budget to go buy that stuff, what would they do with it afterwards? Then they're going to have to store it. They're going to have to maintain it. And so that's where the tool bank can really come in and provide a large number of tools for a short project. But playgrounds, community gardens, community cleanups, festivals, fundraisers, you know, garden builds, all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, I mean, I know what you're talking about regarding the school. The school builds and stuff. Years ago, when we were doing my previous show, I used to do periodic NASCAR specials, and when they when NASCAR came to Phoenix a couple of times, and actually, I was involved in the. There was a Home depot coupled with Tony Stewart when he was driving years ago when he was driving for Home Depot, actually came to Phoenix. We did. It was right in central Phoenix. I think it was like 12th street.

Somewhere down in there there was a school and they had all the, a whole ton of Home Depot employees, I want to say a bunch. And now I'm talking about a lot. There was at least 20 to 30. They were there and they had a whole ton of tools that they brought and they literally assembled this whole outdoor playground for all the kids there. And it was just like a one day thing. I mean, normally, I mean, if you didn't have the 20 or 30 people, it was going to take a lot longer.

But they had a ton of tools, which I'm sure Home Depot donated. Now, you do get some tools. Where do you get the bulk of your tools from? Yeah, so it's funny you mentioned Home Depot. They're one of our national sponsors. The majority of our tools are donated either from retail stores like the Home Depot or direct for manufacturers. So Stanley, Black and Decker, who also owns DeWalt, is one of our national sponsors as well, which is really great.

So they make a one time investment into the tool bank with these in kind donations. And that can triple and multiply into our community by being used over and over for everything. You know, it can go from a playground to a community garden, build the same shovel and just be reused, and then nobody has to store it, nobody has to maintain it. But their donation, instead of going and making an impact one time, it can be made over and over.

Usage again and again, is going to save so much money in the long run because, I mean, tools haven't gotten any cheaper. Especially, I'm sure all the homeowners are out there knowing they need this or they need that. It costs a lot of money. Great. Now, granted, there are a lot of new, innovative tools that have come out over the last, say, ten years, which makes my life a lot easier. They come from all walks of manufacturers. I know a lot of people love DeWalt.

That's some of their major things. You know, that's not taking anything away from Milwaukee or Ryobi or any other tool manufacturer that's out there. But again, they're all competing.

But it's great to see these organizations being able to give you these in kind donations to be able to help the community and see what they're doing, because those are things that you don't hear about, a lot of times all you hear about is people complaining about, well, this costs so much, you know, and it's like, well, wait a minute.

You know, they're, yes, they're in business, they want to make money, but when they're doing stuff to help the community, those, sometimes those things are, don't come out in the media. So I'm very glad that we're here today. We're talking about these things, being able to get the word out and help change people's attitudes and minds about, you know, that these companies are actually being involved in their community.

That's why, I mean, like in NASCAR, you see, you know, a lot of these, the drivers and a lot of these companies that are sponsors, they're all involved in the NASCAR, in the communities that they, they race in or where the drivers are, have their shops in. They're all doing something. Help the community, whether it be for, you know, like you say, community projects, helping, helping kids learn how to be a trades person, which is so very important.

And I know there's a lady I know who was involved in that down in Tucson where she used to have a nonprofit where she'd bring young adults in to learn how to refinish furniture, and then they would resell the furniture to get money for the nonprofit. So all that is important, and that's all we ever want to do is give back and make a difference. And I think that's what I've always tried to do with being able to do the show as well as recycle anything that I can recycle, you know?

So, and we do a lot of that with stardust building supplies, you know. So the other thing that I know you shared when I came down and you gave me the tour, one of the things that I used to do years ago is work with Arizona Shelter Services, where they had a temporary work program. So basically they were, you know, sending out people on projects for people that did temporary help, and they had a similar issue where they didn't have tools.

So we actually went out and partnered with Maricopa county home shows, and we used to collect, every time they had a home show, we would collect a good, usable tool. They would get in for free. We'd collect all the tools and bring them to the shelter, and then they would distribute the tools as they needed them to the people that worked, and then they would recycle them, because when they gave the tools out to these individuals, they had to give them back. This wasn't, hey, give it.

And you keep it because they keep recycling them. As, as those people got on their feet, the next person would be able to use it. So the tools they use as well as the tools that yours using and loaning out have a great longevity as long as, you know, people don't abuse them. So. So I think there's probably some things that, you know, again, some tools are more fragile than others, but other ones, you know, like shovels.

Shovels would last pretty long time, I would think, unless somebody decided to, you know, got frustrated and took their frustration out on a curb or something. But, um. So does the tool pack have any projects that are. That are coming, you know, coming down the pike here, coming down this fall that is going to be big that you'd like to let the listeners know about? Yeah. It's funny you mentioned NASCAR because we have our upcoming fundraiser November 7.

It's called hammers and nails, and the DeWalt NASCAR race car will be joining us again this year. It's a donation that DeWalt gives to us every year, as well as the car. The car. It will be at our event. Can I take it home for a night? Please, please, please. I'll get my helmet. They will let you look under the hood, but they will not let you get in the car. They won't let you sit in the car? No, they let kids sit in it, but they won't let the adults sit in it.

I didn't know until it started coming here that race cars. So we've had the Dewalt race car the last couple years to get our hammers, nails, and I didn't realize that they don't have keys. Oh, yeah, they just start. They just start. They just punch the button. Yeah, they have starter buttons, right? Yeah. Right. So, yeah, that's coming up on November 7. It's our signature event. It's how we raise funds for our nonprofit. Home depot is also bringing heavy equipment.

So there'll be a boom left there that you can go up. It's really cool. You'll be able to see, like, all of Phoenix and take some awesome photos. And then the other thing that we'll be doing in fall is having a tool sale. So we do get excess tools donated sometimes. And so what we do is sell those to reinvest into inventory that we do need. And so fall, we'll have another yard sale, tool rush sale coming up as well. Okay, so that's coming up soon, too.

So, yes, we want to let all our listeners know about that, too.

And maybe what we could do is maybe I could send in a special press request form to DeWalt and maybe they'll let me stand on top of the car like I won the race. I think I could do that. You could put the request in. I'll connect you with my guy. All right. Yeah, no, we definitely want to come. No, seriously want to cover that because that's important. And again, it shows exactly that they are, you know, what DeWalt is doing to give back to the community.

So that's something we definitely want to let our listeners know about. That'll be really great. But how can our listeners contact you and get in touch with you, especially for the community work that needs to be done or the individuals, when they want to be able to contact you when your sale is? Yeah, so our website is www.phoenixtoolbank.org. o r g. There is a contact page on there where you can send an email directly to me. Or my email is jana. Jana dot Ferraro. Ferrar oolbank.org dot.

If you visit our website, we have lots of great information about how to get registered. If you do have a project and you need tools, we also have the information for our hammers and nails up there. It talks a little bit more about our history and what we do in some of our member agencies and projects and pictures, because they always, pictures tell a thousand words, right. So there's some really great photos of past projects on our website as well. That's really great.

Jana, thanks so much for being here with us today. And it's great to see the good work that you guys are doing and look forward to working with you and getting the word out of going forward. It's going to be great. It's going to be a great fall. Gonna be really good.

And we're gonna do our best to help you raise as much funds as we can and find as many people that need tools when you have that sale, too, because, you know, any, any good homeowner with DIY skills who is not dangerous with tools, we're gonna send your way. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Jan Ferraro from the Phoenix tool bank. And we want to also thank all our listeners for listening to Boxcar Universe today.

Remember, we are your source for cutting edge information on container homes and container pools, remodeling and renovations. And remember, let us design and build your dream container home. And I want to remind all our listeners, don't forget coming to a location near us very soon, later this month over on the west side of Phoenix. You are able to going to be able to see a container model home and a container pool home that you're going to be able to go over there.

So if you want to get a home and a pool for your property, we can build it for you. And we're going to have models there for you to come and see. So I will keep you posted on, on social media as well as on the show when that date and when the models will be there and ready for you guys to come and check it out. And you can come see us here at Boxcar Universe. We will be there as well.

And if you have any questions at all, make sure you contact us at boxcarliving mail.com or steve@boxcaruniverse.com dot don't forget, Boxcar Universe can be heard on any podcast player.

And always remember Boxcar remodeling and renovating your world. Have a great weekend. You're a great american. I love.