CCCT with April Frakes from Aeroseal Video

CCCT with April Frakes, Director, Commercial Business Development for Aeroseal that is a climate tech company on a mission — reduce the world’s carbon emissions by 1 gigaton annually. How will they do it? With their leak sealing technologies. Small leaks are a BIG problem — The ducts and walls in buildings are inadequately sealed by manual solutions. Aeroseal’s technologies – HomeSeal Connect and AeroBarrier Connect – inject a fog of sealant particles into these pressurized spaces. Software tracks the entire process, creating a certificate of completion showing before and after leakage. Aeroseal is one of the fastest-growing clean technology companies in the U.S. and currently has a presence in 27 countries and all 50 states across the U.S. Our technology has sealed nearly 200,000 projects and saved nearly $2 billion in wasted energy. They were recently certified as a Great Place to Work for May 2022-2023. 93% of employees at Aeroseal, LLC say it is a great place to work compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company. Enjoy the conversation.

www.aeroseal.com

#hvac #efficiency #leaks #technology #software #cleantechnology #energy #climate

Transcription

Hey there, Commercial Construction Coffee Talk fans! Thanks for chiming in. My name’s David Corson, I’m your host, and also the publisher and editor of Commercial Construction and Renovation magazine. This is what it used to look like. I’m breaking out the archives, November/December 2014, Rockbridge U Capital. It looks like I’ve got the whole team on there, and there’s John Cooper, one of my buds, motorcycle dude on the cover. So, they were looking all dapper there. We took that picture, another great-looking issue way back when. This one was 146 pages. And oh, I always like showing where I was, so this is my picture in Philadelphia at one of our retreats right there on Broad Street, right in front of City Hall there, with Benjamin Franklin sitting on top of the building. But had a lot of hairware back there, and geez, you know, a lot more I have now, but much grayer, not as brown. But hey, I’m still standing, so that’s a good thing.

Anyway, I hope everybody had a great weekend. Myself, my brother-in-law passed away at 66. I just went over to Hilton Head, and it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies that I ever went through. Beautiful video, pictures everywhere. He was in facilities. His company was called Mr. Squeegee. He was on Hilton Head Island. He was an icon there. His father, father-in-law, started the business, then he took it over, and now his son just took it, so it’s now third generation. But was in residential, commercial window cleaning, got into some light commercial work, woodwork, etc. But he was loved by the community, and it was so nice to see so many clients show up and show their respects. It was just a really, really, it was a celebration of life.

But 66, young. I just turned 60, so he’s only a few years older than me, so it puts everything in perspective. We’ll miss him, and I’ll see him down the road. But it doesn’t have to be morbid when you pass. It was a celebration, and so that’s kind of what I had going on since last Friday. I know I came back this weekend, and now I’m starting the week off again. I’m in production mode for my magazine, and just, I am just slammed. I swear I get up at the crack of dawn, and then by the time I get to the end of the day, it’s time to catch a few Z’s, and you know, keep a positive mindset and then move on to the next day. That’s all you can do, you know, live one day at a time, and just take, make the most of your life because life is short. You just never know what’s going to happen.

So, that’s kind of where I was reflecting this weekend with my wife, you know, driving back on I-16 and between Savannah and Macon and then up to Atlanta. But all in all, it was good to see my in-laws, nephews, and nieces, and they’re having babies and all that stuff. It was just real nice to see everybody. And so anyway, but hope everybody’s having a great week. Today, once again, beautiful here in Atlanta. Humidity, it’s probably going to be about 75 degrees, 80 degrees, and the humidity’s going, Indian summer. The trees are just starting to lose their leaves, and they’re turning colors. If you’ve never been in the South during the fall, towards the end of October, before you get to Thanksgiving, all the trees are just all the colors. It is so beautiful. And there’s a place called Helen, Georgia, where everybody drives up. It’s really good if you have a motorcycle. It’s a great ride up there, but it’s an old antiquey town, and all the mountains are up there as you get in North Georgia. I mean, it’s just beautiful. So we’re just kind of in that mode. And then, you know, we get one good rainstorm with some wind, and then all the leaves go by Thanksgiving, and then I’m cleaning them up about it for a couple of weekends, throwing them in the refuse bags, and then, you know, we’re done. And then we go through winter for a couple of months, a couple of weeks of cold weather, and then boom, Spring’s here. It’s just like that. I can’t believe I’m even talking about Thanksgiving. I just thought I just started 2023 off, you know, yesterday. It just feels like time has just blew by this year, really, really, really quick.

So with that said, today I have someone from my hometown in Dayton, Ohio. Her name is April Franks, and she’s the director of commercial business for a company called Aeroseal, and they make HVAC systems more efficient, etc. I’ll let her tell her services and her products, etc. And you know, with the changing of the seasons from Summer to fall to winter, you know, you got to keep your HVAC units clean, you know, between pollen, dirt, you know, and the leaves falling and all that stuff. So I thought it was very timely to have April on to talk about Aeroseal and what they can offer. So, April, tell us about your, you know, say hello to our listeners out there in commercial construction coffee talk.

Good morning, everyone. I’m excited to be here, especially with someone else from Dayton, Ohio. Yeah, really exciting. Not a lot of us from the Midwest that are still out there, so really good to be here. I actually was, say, where are you in Dayton? Are you in Dayton the city, Dayton, or are you South, north, where are you?

Yeah, we’re south. We’re in Miamisburg, MIB 725.

Gotcha. All right, so that’s just out the day towards Cincinnati on I-75, for those of you who don’t know, going south. So, yeah. Well, the way this, the way that we’re gonna work our episode is, we do your interview in three parts. You’ll tell your story where you grew up, married, kids, dogs, what have you, where you went to school, and then how you ended up at Aeroseal. And then we’ll talk about the last three years of the roller coaster, Lessons Learned, and any new products that you have might coming out, etc. And then we’ll finish off with one positive thought or phrase and your contact info, and then we’ll close out the episode. So, with that said, the floor is yours. Tell us your story.

Perfect. So, I grew up just south of Dayton in a little town called Middletown, Ohio, and I actually stayed local, went to school at Miami University, and originally went to school to be a teacher, so not what I’m doing now, but a really great background for me. But my dad was in the construction business, so my dad is a heavy equipment operator, my grandpa poured foundations for basements and commercial buildings and things like that, so my entire life I was always on job sites. I have some of my earliest pictures of me standing up in front of the bulldozer that my dad was operating and showing how I was as big as the tracks, right? And actually, when I was in the summer of college, summer during college, I would work as a laborer on the job sites. So I was doing everything from checking grade to hammering in silt fences to sometimes I got to operate the rollers or the compactors, and every once in a while, I would move a bulldozer from one point to another. But you know, you have to be more skilled than me to do a lot more than that, but I can, there you go, to operate a bulldozer, I’m your girl. But that was a great way to earn money during college, and honestly, it was awesome to learn about hard work. It was motivation to stay in school as well and get on the other side of things. But I learned how to read blueprints, I learned how important it was to build strong foundations. Right on an excavating site, if you didn’t get that P completely plumb.
And level then you know everything else after that would be off. You would have puddles when it rained and things, and so that was just really great life lessons to do things exact and work hard and how important what you do impacts other people. That was taught from a very young age for me, just being around all my family. After leaving Miami, I actually ended up working at a couple of large corporations, F100 companies, and I ended up in the sales organizations. At the end, I was selling really large uniform contracts and facility services, and while it was really cool, I wasn’t really making much of an impact. These companies were worth billions of dollars, and while I had these huge contracts that were multi-million, I didn’t feel like I was really impacting things one way or another. I found an opportunity at AOS. They were looking for an engineer; I wasn’t that. They were looking for someone that had most recently worked in the construction industry, and I hadn’t done that since college. What I did have was excavating experience. Somehow, I got an interview, and I came in and met with the founder and our VP of commercial. I was immediately struck by the passion they had for our technology, something that makes existing buildings better, which is not a common focus. Once buildings are done, people tend to walk away, but there’s a lot about how you make an existing structure operate as designed, how you make it more efficient, and that’s what drew me to Aeroseal.

When I was at Miami of Ohio, I trained to be an elementary school teacher, which ties into my role really well. I educate people on why you care about ductwork, building envelope, and why those things matter in the world of building science. People don’t understand that leaky ducts not only cause you to lose excess energy and your fans to work harder but also lead to issues like mold in your bathrooms and doors sticking, especially now when everyone’s worried about air quality in commercial buildings. If your ducts are leaking, the fresh air isn’t making it into the space. So, I get to learn and then educate others on the importance of having your ducts sealed properly and operating as originally designed, and on the building envelope side, why it’s important to have a strong building envelope that acts as a barrier from the outside.

Family-wise, we have a lot in common. On my mom’s side, we’ve been in construction, demolition, steel recycling since 1888. I was named after my great-grandfather, David Poock. When we all turned 16, we had to work in the scrapyard. I shoveled asbestos, laid railroad tracks, welded. Every summer, all the grandsons had to go in there. My Uncle Frank was the super and scared the heck out of me, but he taught me a lot. I’m a builder now; I just build a magazine. I use technology, but I built this, and every month I build another one. Everything I’ve learned along the way, I’ve taken bits and pieces of things that I did, and molded myself into who I am today as the publisher/editor. Now, my cousins are running the company, the Molic Steel. It really drew me to Aeroseal because I knew I could make a difference. I was employee number 38 at Aeroseal’s commercial division, which had three people working, and now at AOS, we have over 200 people. Because of the contracts and the education that I’m bringing to the industry, people have jobs because of me. Coming from a family of construction workers, I know that if there’s not somebody selling those jobs, then you’re laid off.

And you don’t have that was our life. If there wasn’t a job, then you know you had to deal with that and the impact that had on our family. I take that very personally and make sure that all those guys out there are busy working because of what I’m doing. It’s a passion for me. I really believe in our technology and what we’re doing to make buildings better, but also I believe in making sure that those guys are getting paid every week. That’s an important part of it for sure.

We have a Women in Construction column where we profile a lady professional once a month, regardless of what part of construction she’s in. It’s awesome to see women over the years playing in a man’s sandbox, gaining respect. I never understood why men were designing stores when most of the shoppers are women. They probably know how wide the aisles need to be, where the fixtures should go, and how the dressing rooms need to be done. Someone asked me why I don’t put more women on your cover, so I looked at my circulation and realized half of it is female. I might as well put that column in there and feature more women. I always try to alternate between female and male guests for podcasts because the audience is basically split right now, and eventually, there might be more females than males in construction. It gives me a good feeling when I see a woman carrying a big bag of concrete over her shoulder, taking it to the elevator. It definitely gives me instant credibility with my team. I’ve been on these job sites; my dad only had daughters. When we were working for him in college, we had to be exactly like the men because we were his daughters, so we weren’t getting special treatment. We had to work even harder just to prove that. My first week at Aeroseal, I was at a trade show, but my second week, I was at a job site at a federal base in Mississippi, above the ceiling, on a ladder. That helps me. I’ll go on the job sites, be on the roof, do all the things, not afraid at all. It’s wonderful to see more women in our space, feeling more comfortable coming into our space. My daughter’s gymnast friend is going to school to be an equipment operator, just like my dad, so I hooked her up as her mentor. It’s really cool to see so many young girls going into the trades.

Let’s transition into the last three years of the roller coaster that we’ve all been on. Now, kind of out of it, but we’re still talking about it and there are little bumps that we’re all going through. Talk about how your company weathered the storm and maybe some lessons learned. Having that strong foundation was really key for us surviving through those tougher years when things were kind of put on hold. We pivoted, focusing on energy, which is an important part of our business, but we really looked at what other impacts we have on buildings. We make the indoor air quality better in buildings. Learning to talk about not just how cool our technology is but what impact that has on the buildings and the projects was really key for us during that time. Focusing our efforts on things like health care and universities where people care about fresh air and healthy buildings have been really important for us. That’s really what we’re learning the most: focusing on where we have the greatest impact and marketing not just our really cool technology but how it actually makes buildings better.

Aeroseal was developed about 25 years ago at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. It’s an aerosolized sealant that we send into the HVAC ductwork that seals up all the holes and gaps. We pressurize it and, for example, when doing that medium pressure duct from the air handling unit to the VAV box, we send it in. It starts as a liquid, we add heat and hot water, and it becomes an aerosol. It travels through the duct system, and when it feels that change of pressure from a hole or gap, it starts to scab and solidify, filling up all those holes and gaps. It doesn’t line or coat the duct in any way; it only goes to where the holes are. When you plug up all the holes, it’s like fixing a leaky straw; air doesn’t flow when it’s leaking. HVAC systems, whether shooting hot or cold air, definitely don’t want to have leaks because you’re just losing energy and paying for it. HVAC hasn’t changed much; the units operate pretty much the same way, it’s just about making them more efficient.

Efficient cleaning, just taking out your filter every three months, can help your unit run much smoother and give it a longer-lasting life. If you maintain it correctly and keep it clean, and obviously plugging the holes up in your duct, your bill will go down, but your house or facility will feel much more comfortable. There was a study done by the building commissioning agency that said that $2.9 billion is lost every year just from duct leakage, and ASHRAE says that 75% of your ducts leak 25% to 30%. Those are significant numbers that nobody really talks about because you can’t solve it with traditional methods. Once your building is constructed, there’s no good way to get to those ducts, no good way to figure out where it’s leaking, and so we solve those problems.

We have developed Aeroseal Envelope as well. This is really cool for new construction or renovation projects where we pressurize the entire building envelope and send around the sealant inside the space to plug up all the holes and gaps. If you’re trying to meet a certain air changes per hour, you know immediately when you get there because we’re doing a blower door test while we’re sealing. If you’re trying to meet a certain code requirement, we know immediately when the air changes per hour have been met. This is different from existing buildings to new construction, but we’re super excited about the impact, especially in the residential new construction space. If your windows have a little hole in them or there’s a draft coming in under your door, all of that affects your energy bill and your HVAC. It’s kind of like Scotchgard on a sofa; you want to make sure it’s covered because you don’t know where the spill is ever going to happen, so you might as well plug up those holes.

For a while, a lot of people were focusing on renewables and solar, but if your buildings aren’t as efficient as they can be, you’re still wasting energy. Don’t come to me with a project unless you’re making the structure better first. It’s really cool and the new sexy thing to add renewables and solar, but if your buildings aren’t operating as efficiently as possible, it’s still wasting energy. Keeping your HVAC units running more efficiently is sexy because when you get the bill and it’s not what it was before, it is cool.

If someone wanted to reach out and talk HVAC efficiency or this new product for the exterior, they can go to our website www.aeroseal.com or email me directly at april.frakes@aeroseal.com. We come out, do an inspection, look at everything, and give you all the information you need. What you don’t know can really hurt you, so you might as well call an expert if you think something’s wrong. Some HVAC technicians might not even know some of this stuff exists, so give her a call and see if she can help.

As we finish up, I’d like to quote Miss Dolly Parton who has all the wisdom and say, “Storms make trees take deeper roots.” With the past couple of years that we’ve all had in the construction industry and all the things we’ve had to weather, just remember we all have stronger roots now, and we’re all ready to bloom. Deep roots don’t get blown over; keep standing.

Be a warrior, not a worrier. You can’t worry about stuff you can’t change, but you can change your HVAC and how it can be running efficiently. So be a warrior, pick up the phone, get an inspection done, and you’ll find out where you’re at. Worrying is not going to get anything done; it’s called to action. Go ahead, get it done. If anybody wants to get in touch with me, I’m at David C at ccr-mag.com. April’s publicist sent me a press release, and we decided to talk HVAC. Send me stuff; we look at everything. They just had the $1.4 billion lottery this weekend. I didn’t win, but if you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t win. So if you don’t send me something, I can’t look at it. Believe me, we look at everything. It’s very tough getting in the magazine, but we look at press releases on new personnel, new products, charity, anniversaries. We have plenty of social media channels to put that stuff. I’ve got content coming out of my ears. We’ll post it, send you the URL, and you can share it. It’s good for SEO, helps your Google ranking. Let me judge the book by its cover; send it to me, we’ll look at it, we’ll share, and it’s a win-win for all.

Hit that like button because we want to get the algorithms up so we can hear about Aeroseal and all the great things they’re doing to keep your buildings safer, healthier, and cooler or hotter depending on what season you’re in. If you’re on that construction site, we want you to be safe. Safety is the number one thing so you can go home at night to see your kids or your spouse. We want you to be able to have dinner, talk about your day, catch some z’s, and go do it another day when the sun rises. Being safe is number one. Even though it’s getting a little cooler at night, it’s still hot out there, so make sure you stay hydrated. Dehydration is the worst; it gives you headaches, and that’s when accidents happen. Stay hydrated; it’s one of the best things you can do for your body. Keeps everything nice and liquidy and you so stay safe, drink lots of water.

April, I look forward to meeting you one of these days when I come up to Dayton, right down the road from my mom in Springboro, and get a tour of the space and see what’s going on. What a great story. Tell your dad he did a really good job with you and your sisters. I would have loved to see him coming in with the crew with their helmets on way back when. It had to be a great picture.

As we finish up here, just a couple of things. Number one, hit that like button so we can get those alerts out. Number two, if you’re on that construction site, we want you to be safe. And make sure you drink lots of water. Stay safe, drink lots of water, and hit that like button so we can spread the word about Aeroseal and all the great things they’re doing. April, say goodbye from south of Dayton to our listeners. Thank you so much. Goodbye, everybody. And I’m going to sign off from Sugar Hill, about 25 miles north of Atlanta, just below the Buford Dam on Lake Lanier, and we will see you all next time on another episode of commercial construction Coffee Talk. April, pleasure, thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, and I’ll see you when I get up to Dayton. Go Flyers and go Red Hawks too. Alright, thank you so much. See you later.