Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Today I have the opportunity to share with you another incredible opportunity. This opportunity has the potential to save 20,000 lives in the United States every single year. If you're a contractor, you need to listen to every single word that is going to be shared in this episode where we can talk about how you can improve your bottom line by adding this incredible service to your portfolio.
So Jeff, you're out selling this product that some people might think is crazy.
You're right there.
I get that often.
Chapter 2: What is radon gas and why is it a concern for homeowners?
So tell me, what is this Radon stuff? I mean, frankly, never heard of it until a little bit ago.
Well, at home, sometimes they say that I invented it. This invisible gas. Is this snake oil or what are we talking about here? Yeah, we've been called snake oil salesmen as well. Yeah, definitely.
I mean, you did start off in car sales.
Nice. Nice tie-in. I like that. Yeah, it's true. I felt like I was going up the ladder a little bit, right? Car sales, real estate, and then I just went to snake oil. So I don't know. Took a side turn.
So, no, but it is a serious issue. We're talking about 16% of actual lung cancer is being caused by this. Yes. Tell me more.
You're as surprised as I was when I learned about it, right? It's an amazing thing. It's invisible, so that's the snake oil. That's where that comes in. It's an invisible radioactive gas that's natural. It's in the ground everywhere. Can't smell it. Can't smell it. Can't taste it. Nothing. All right. You can only test for it. Okay.
You have to use a tester and then you send that test away to the lab.
Sounds a lot like carbon monoxide had they not added a thing to make it be able to smell. Exactly right.
Yeah. Okay.
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Chapter 3: How does radon gas impact lung cancer rates?
And the demand stuff, the problem with that, obviously, is that the price keeps getting driven lower and lower. There's a cheap guy down the street that's willing to do it for X, Y, and Z. I need it now. Let's go. Versus these educational type products that are actually real, right? Like we're dealing with the consequences, but we don't know it. Right. Which is in my in my book.
I love that stuff. Right. Like that's why I love the solar industry, because a lot of people didn't realize like they had a choice outside of just paying their electric bill every single month. They didn't realize the pain that they're in currently, which I would say is akin to what you're speaking to.
Right. Yes.
No, they're dealing with it.
Most definitely. It's exciting for me to be able to educate. It goes right back to my why of teaching and serving. I can teach people about this thing that's an unknown that they didn't know about that could be causing them harm, them and their family, and they didn't know.
Can you explain what radon is?
Yeah, sure. No problem. Let's go right back to the beginning. Go back to the beginning. It's important. So radon is a radioactive gas. How is it created? And it's created by the breakdown of uranium in the ground. So wherever there's uranium in the earth, that uranium is breaking down radioactively.
Are there certain places in the world that have more uranium than others?
Yes, most definitely. Yeah, it depends on where it is. Now, 3% of the Earth's crust is made up of uranium. And then that spread, like you said, different areas. Now, North America is one of those areas that has a lot of uranium in the ground.
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Chapter 4: What opportunities do contractors have with radon testing and mitigation?
So it builds up under that house.
Can I just say how cool it is the way you say house? House. House. I was out and about in the house. Out and about. So clearly you're not from the U.S.
Correct. How did you know?
And you're like the president of this association, right? The radon in Canada.
Yeah, exactly. I've been involved in organized radon for nine years now.
All right. Sorry. I take you away from it. So you built the house on here. You built the house.
All right. And so your concrete slab is stopping it, right? It's like a cap on the earth. So the radon can't get out. Got it. Then you build your house in your house. Every time I say that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Now you sound Canadian.
So when you build that house and you make it nice and tight and the walls are insulated and vapor buried and we're in Canada, so we need to make them tight and insulated. Yeah. As you guys do here as well. So when you make that nice and tight heat and then you introduce heat. Right. What does heat do in the air? It rises.
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Chapter 5: How can contractors effectively sell radon services?
Right. So as heat goes up in your house, it creates a positive air pressure upstairs. Yeah. And a negative air pressure in the lowest level. So slab or basement, doesn't matter. But it's a negative air pressure right there.
What does that mean? It's sucking stuff up? Exactly right.
Your house is like a vacuum cleaner on the air. It sucks in humidity. It's why we need dehumidifiers in basements sometimes. It follows the same pathway. Got it. So it's coming in through your sump pit. It's coming in around your plumbing pipes. The cold joint between the concrete floor and the concrete wall. That little gap. That's where the radon's all being sucked in.
But the problem is we can't see it.
So is this mainly an issue with newer homes or older homes?
I get that question all the time. So it's a geological lottery. Okay. So it doesn't matter how old the house is. It matters what ground it's sitting on.
But I mean, older homes are less airtight, windows, those type of things. So probably less of an issue. Most definitely.
Okay. Because you have dilution, right? Natural dilution coming in through those.
And as we... So high electric bill, no radon. You're feeling good.
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Chapter 6: What are the basic requirements for radon testing and mitigation?
No different than mine in your house.
Right. So when we talk about 20,000 Americans that are dying a year from radon. Yes. Is it all associated with cancer or are there other things that radon shows up in your health?
That's a great question. And it's one we get fairly often. The studies have all been done on the lung cancer. It's really the lung cancer. We have feelings about what else could be causing it or what else it could be causing. We don't know until we start really fixing it on a large scale. But we will see lung cancer rates reduce as we test and mitigate homes.
So really, I mean, it's a minimum of 20,000 Americans are dying per year. That's just associated with cancer. We have no idea the other ways that it's impacting our health and showing up in our energy and those type of things.
That's right. There's more studies being done now that are seeing correlations. We're not yet ready to say causation. but the correlations with some other pretty serious illnesses.
So does it work that when you're breathing in the radon, then something in the radon gas changes some chemistry in your lungs, and then that's what causes cancer?
Sort of. I'll explain it. So radioactive, and I've learned a lot about radioactivity. Before, it was all in comic books, right? That's all we knew about radioactivity, and your skin's melting, right?
Or radioactive, and you become a superhero.
It's both ways. Those are the better comics right there that you're reading. So when radon, anything radioactive, when it radioactively disintegrates, it breaks down and forms the next thing. It's kind of cool. Radon actually is not the thing that hurts you. Radon's a sexier word. But radon, when it breaks down and goes through its disintegration, it turns back into a metal, polonium or bismuth.
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Chapter 7: How long does a typical radon mitigation project take?
Yeah. How much is a tester? So retail, 50, 60 bucks. Wholesale? Yeah, wholesale. How much am I paying as the dealer? You're going to pay half of that, probably. $25. I would think so.
So if I'm giving some away- You buy them in bulk, you know what I mean, right? Okay, so if I'm paying $20, and we're talking CAD or USD? Good question.
So I'm talking CAD in my head, right? Oh, CAD is $25. That's like $5. So it's almost $3.
It's pretty much $3. It's- cheap. Oh my gosh. Testing is not that expensive.
All right.
Yeah. We're giving that crap away for free. All right. Good. Good. All right. Always good to know. Okay. So we're talking about, yeah. So like 15, 20 bucks that I can go and I can give a test away for free. When am I charging the customer? What's my cost actually? Because say, you know, not everybody charges the right way.
No, exactly. And it really depends on your business model. Right now, what I'm seeing in the States is a lot of the radon business is geared around real estate transactions, right? Because they see that as a great time to have a test. They do the 48-hour test.
But what happens with the pricing in a real estate transaction, from my experience, is that the seller is now having to fix that to stamp the deal as good. The seller doesn't care about value, right?
It's hard to sell the- So wait, are they doing radon testing in real estate? But is it required?
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Chapter 8: What are the costs associated with radon testing and mitigation?
No idea.
No, I don't know myself. Yeah.
I always like to see, okay, hey, what in the market, who's doing the best? At least that is possible.
Yeah, exactly.
And so, yeah, that would be interesting to find out. Who do you see adding this type of service to their product offering? Are you seeing guys that are just like only radon providers?
Yeah.
Right now, we're seeing just only radon providers, but I can see the future of what this is going to be.
So this isn't currently being added on as like HVAC for electrical, none of this?
A few guys, right? Once in a while, you'll see, but not like the big companies coming in and adding it as a service. And that vertical you can add, I mean, those contractors have a database. The database is the goldmine, right? So now you're not going to real estate transactions. Now you're going to your database of people that love you. They've already dealt with you.
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