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Insulation Advice with Larson Keeney Home Services · Ask The Experts

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  Speaker 1: 806-1310-WIBA. Little macho man, macho man, Andrew Larson from Larson
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Keeney Home Services joins us this morning. We're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk attic insulation in just a moment, but Andrew, something
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  Speaker 1: pretty amazing you've accomplished.
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  Speaker 2: I was wondering where you're going with that song. I
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  Speaker 2: was like, wow, this, Sean's in a different type of
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  Speaker 2: mood this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, you know, the fall air, yeah. What have you
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  Speaker 1: been up to lately, my friend?
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  Speaker 2: Are you talking about my Facebook post? Yes. Yeah, so
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  Speaker 2: I set a crazy goal. I had thought about doing
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  Speaker 2: a bodybuilding competition for quite a while. As you know,
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  Speaker 2: we talk about I train almost daily, five to six
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  Speaker 2: days a week. And I said, you know, why don't
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  Speaker 2: I train with a purpose? And so I hired a coach,
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  Speaker 2: a friend of mine, Lisa Fernand, who I've known for
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  Speaker 2: many years. She's got a gym kind of on the
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  Speaker 2: west side of Madison by the West Town Mall. And
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  Speaker 2: she trains fitness athletes and bodybuilders and just regular people.
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  Speaker 2: But anyway, I signed up for it. And I completed
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  Speaker 2: that last weekend. I got on stage in a, we'll
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  Speaker 2: just call it a European swimsuit. A little snug, yeah. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, a little snug and a little small and
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  Speaker 2: very awkward. But yeah, it was quite the accomplishment. I've
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  Speaker 2: never trained that hard or focused on anything that hard.
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  Speaker 2: Probably since I started my company have I focused on
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  Speaker 2: anything that hard. But anyway, yeah, I did. I put
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  Speaker 2: some pictures out there because... I was proud of myself, Sean,
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  Speaker 2: as you should be that way.
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  Speaker 1: That's you know, and that isn't a, you talk about
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  Speaker 1: dedication is it's one thing to, to just, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think for a lot of folks, I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to include myself in this, but a lot of folks,
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  Speaker 1: you know, maybe have a regular gym routine or, or
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  Speaker 1: eat healthy, but that's literally, you've got to have a
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  Speaker 1: very strict regimen of every aspect of your life. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's a, you should be really proud. It's pretty amazing.
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  Speaker 1: And it really shows that dedication you have. And speaking
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  Speaker 1: of that, The dedication you have, you mentioned about things
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  Speaker 1: that you've worked really hard at. Larson Keeney Home Services
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  Speaker 1: has been a passion project for you for a number
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  Speaker 1: of years and really something you've put a lot into.
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  Speaker 1: You put your name right on the company as well.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the areas that you guys really accelerate
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  Speaker 1: at at Larson Keeney is insulation. And people think, well, insulation,
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  Speaker 1: you're just basically, what, just throwing a layer of insulation
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  Speaker 1: in an attic and everything's good to go?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it really....
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  Speaker 1: Works on its own without really much intervention. And that
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  Speaker 1: could not be further from the truth, Andrew, could it be?
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  Speaker 2: No, that could be further from the truth. And there
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  Speaker 2: are a lot of companies out there that, listen, we
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  Speaker 2: call them blow and go. They blow insulation and then
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  Speaker 2: they go. And not knowing what the real problem is,
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  Speaker 2: not knowing if they're actually fixing anything or making anything better.
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  Speaker 2: And one thing that we know that Since 2013, when
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  Speaker 2: we first started doing insulation 13 years ago, man, time flies,
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  Speaker 2: is home science. Like we delve into home science and
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  Speaker 2: how your home heats and cools and breathes to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that we can do things the right way. Interesting
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  Speaker 2: story about this. We recently hired a new sales rep
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  Speaker 2: who came from the pest control industry. And I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if a lot of people realize this, but a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the big pest control companies, if you do
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  Speaker 2: have any sort of pest things going on in your attic,
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  Speaker 2: mice get up there, rats get up there, squirrels get
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  Speaker 2: up there, raccoons get up there, they wreck it. So
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  Speaker 2: they actually sell a lot of insulation. I would say
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  Speaker 2: actually that's the biggest ticket item that they do sell,
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  Speaker 2: along with getting rid of said pests is... putting cellulose
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  Speaker 2: insulation up there because like we know as well, the
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  Speaker 2: cellulose insulation that we use is actually coated in a
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  Speaker 2: chemical that makes it non-flammable. It cannot burn. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: we can hold it in our hand and put a
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  Speaker 2: torch on it and it will not burn. It will
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  Speaker 2: not start on fire. That same chemical basically makes pests
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  Speaker 2: go away. They don't like it. They get it on them.
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  Speaker 2: They lick themselves. It makes them sick. They don't like it.
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  Speaker 2: So they leave. So these pest control companies, they sell
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  Speaker 2: a lot of it. And this guy, was really excited
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  Speaker 2: that we did insulation because he was great at it.
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  Speaker 2: And after his first boot week, boot camp, we have
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  Speaker 2: a boot camp with training because there is a lot
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  Speaker 2: to learn when you work for us. I was talking
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  Speaker 2: to him after the day we started talking insulation and
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  Speaker 2: he was like, you know, I have a really, he
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  Speaker 2: like had a sick feeling in his gut. And I
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  Speaker 2: was like, why, what's that? And I said, I thought
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  Speaker 2: you loved selling insulation. And he goes, I do love
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  Speaker 2: selling insulation. But he goes, I realize... that I just
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  Speaker 2: sold millions of dollars of insulation wrong. And I wasn't
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  Speaker 2: actually doing any good for the homeowner except getting rid
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  Speaker 2: of the pests. I thought I was helping their home
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  Speaker 2: be more efficient and it wasn't. So we take pride
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  Speaker 2: in that. And that's why we came up with the
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  Speaker 2: ultimate addict solution where it is a solution that covers
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  Speaker 2: all bases. Because what a lot of people don't realize
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  Speaker 2: is that You think of insulation once it starts getting colder, right? Oh,
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  Speaker 2: it's getting colder and the furnace might start running at
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  Speaker 2: night because it's dipping down low. Not in my household.
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  Speaker 2: We still crack the window. I'm taking free energy as
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  Speaker 2: long as I can. But what we know through home
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  Speaker 2: science is that people think about insulation in the winter,
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  Speaker 2: but it's truly more important in the summer because heat
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  Speaker 2: transfers different ways. And in the summer, when your attic
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  Speaker 2: is 140, 150 degrees... your ceiling turns into a radiant
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  Speaker 2: oven and it bakes the rest of your house. We
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  Speaker 2: need that good 16, 17 inches of cellulose, which is
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  Speaker 2: going to give you an R 60 to keep that
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  Speaker 2: heat from baking your attic. But then we take care
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  Speaker 2: of the air ceiling through spray foam. That's going to
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  Speaker 2: spray foam and seal the attic floor. So that's going
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  Speaker 2: to actually stop stack effect or drastically slow it down.
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  Speaker 2: So in the winter, when we're heating our house up
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  Speaker 2: and that warm air is rising and it's trying to
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  Speaker 2: push through every crack and cranny and electrical outlet hole
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  Speaker 2: and all of that stuff, it's sealed up from top.
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  Speaker 2: So it slows it down drastically. So we've got you
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  Speaker 2: covered in the summer. We've got you covered in the winter.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to make your home much more energy efficient
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  Speaker 2: and much more comfortable. We're going to stop the air
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  Speaker 2: conditioner and we're going to stop the furnace from kicking
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  Speaker 2: on every couple minutes it's going to slow that process
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  Speaker 2: so your home is going to be more efficient it's
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  Speaker 2: going to be more comfortable and kind of a byproduct
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  Speaker 2: is that we're going to save on energy so we
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  Speaker 2: cover all bases and we make sure that we do
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  Speaker 2: it right we go have a lot of homeowners that
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  Speaker 2: we go to and they're adamant all i want is
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  Speaker 2: more insulation thank you mr and mrs homeowner we understand
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  Speaker 2: how you feel that's just not what we do that's
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  Speaker 2: just not what we do We'd be better off saying, hey,
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  Speaker 2: we can put insulation up in your attic for $ 3, 000.
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  Speaker 2: How about you just give us $ 1, 500 and we won't
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  Speaker 2: do anything? I'm going to save you $ 1, 500 because the
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  Speaker 2: insulation I'm going to put up there for three grand
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  Speaker 2: isn't going to do anything anyway. So we take that
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  Speaker 2: very seriously.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the things, Andrew, as we talked this
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  Speaker 1: morning with Andrew Larson of Larson Keeney Home Services Online, LarsonKeeneyHomeServices.com.
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  Speaker 1: That's L-A-R-S-O-N Keeney, K-E-E-N-E-Y, HomeServices.com. If you have LarsonHomeServices.com online.
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  Speaker 1: bookmarked as well. That'll still get you to the website. Also,
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  Speaker 1: their telephone number 608-535-4343.
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  Speaker 2: That's 535-4343.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking of sharing photos on social media as well, something
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  Speaker 1: that I have become obsessed with, and this is all
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  Speaker 1: your fault, is you guys share attic before and after
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  Speaker 1: and actually during photos as well of folks' attics. I
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  Speaker 1: never thought in a And then once it's all cleared out,
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  Speaker 1: and then after the work, until I saw the work
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  Speaker 1: that you guys do at Larson Home Services, not only
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  Speaker 1: does it perform well, we're talking about really expert installation.
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  Speaker 1: This is not just like, you know, it's really actually,
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  Speaker 1: you guys are very detailed as far as how that
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  Speaker 1: stuff all gets put in there, the right type of
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  Speaker 1: installation for the right spots, and really kind of do
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  Speaker 1: like a complete clean out and clean up of some
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  Speaker 1: of the mistakes that were made in the past.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we find it all the time. I mean, we
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  Speaker 2: go to houses and they say, hey, we'll get there
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  Speaker 2: for an estimate and be like, you know, we actually
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  Speaker 2: just want you to check. We just had some insulation
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  Speaker 2: done last year. Okay, we're here. We check on it.
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  Speaker 2: Missed air sealing. Like, well, we had it air sealed.
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  Speaker 2: We had it insulated. We get up there, we check. Well,
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  Speaker 2: the one thing that they didn't have is they didn't
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  Speaker 2: have the old insulation removed. And... A lot of people
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  Speaker 2: don't want to do that they find it unnecessary but
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  Speaker 2: if we're going to do your attic properly the only
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  Speaker 2: way to do it is to remove the existing stuff
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  Speaker 2: that's up there so we can air seal and take
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  Speaker 2: care of the critical details properly critical details meaning all
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  Speaker 2: the penetrations, your chimney coming through the attic, that is
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  Speaker 2: a huge heat loss spot. huge. And they're, they're hardly
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  Speaker 2: ever done properly or done at all. Can light covers.
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  Speaker 2: Are we covering can lights? Those have to be done properly.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we just, we just went and inspected a
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  Speaker 2: job for an estimate a couple of weeks ago and
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  Speaker 2: whoever did it, They had had some spray foaming done
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  Speaker 2: on their attic floor. Well, they spray foam directly over
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  Speaker 2: an old can light. It was burning. It's a very
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  Speaker 2: good possibility that we found and stopped a house fire.
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  Speaker 2: That's scary. It was all black. The drywall was charred.
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  Speaker 2: The roof joists that it was attached to was starting
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  Speaker 2: to burn. It could have been very, very serious. So
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  Speaker 2: taking care of those critical details and doing them properly
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  Speaker 2: is of the utmost importance, not only to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that now your house is working properly, but to make
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  Speaker 2: sure like you can really, really make stuff worse. And
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  Speaker 2: in this case, it was going to make stuff really worse.
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  Speaker 2: So those critical details, like you say, I trained so
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  Speaker 2: hard for this, this bodybuilding event, training our sales reps
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  Speaker 2: to recognize issues and training our installers to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that it is done properly and If it is not
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  Speaker 2: done right, it is done wrong, and it can make
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  Speaker 2: bigger problems. that training never stops. It never stops. We
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  Speaker 2: never stop talking about it.
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  Speaker 1: Something you often talk about as well with us, and
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  Speaker 1: I know you talk about with the team, is that
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  Speaker 1: phrase you use, service to a fault, and that's some
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  Speaker 1: of the great benefits of working with the team at
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  Speaker 1: Larson Keeney Home Services. Great day to get on the schedule.
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  Speaker 1: Great day to have them come on out, take a
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  Speaker 1: look at your attic, take a look at your house,
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  Speaker 1: and they will definitely do a full inspection for you,
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  Speaker 1: let you know what you need. That's the great stuff
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  Speaker 1: about working with Larson Keeney Home Services. Give them a
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  Speaker 1: call today, 608-535-4343. That's 535-4343. Hate to be the bearer
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  Speaker 1: of bad news. It's going to be bitterly cold in
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  Speaker 1: no time. You definitely want to make sure you have
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  Speaker 1: that insulation. And, of course, your house with the ultimate
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  Speaker 1: attic solution taken care of with Larson Keeney Home Services online, LarsonKeeneyHomeServices.com. Andrew,
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  Speaker 1: it's always great chatting, my friend. You enjoy this great day,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll talk real soon.
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  Speaker 2: All right. See you next week.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Kevin Ham, Ham's Arbor Care comes your way next right
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: here on 1310 WIBA.