Disinfecting Your Home with Living Safe At Home

This is episode number 128 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig. William.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you can join us this week.

We—

what are we doing this week, kids?

Are we, are we We having a show?

We are having a show!

We're live on the Facebooks.

Of course, always.

On all the ways that you can be live on Facebook.

Right.

Yep, as live as you can be.

We have made ourselves available.

Yeah, so we haven't gotten kicked off there yet.

Not yet.

So we're working on that.

Yep.

We really would like to be kicked off.

No, no, because that's where our esteemed listeners come to find us.

I need that badge on my sash.

Do you?

Yeah.

Like the whole Facebook jail thing, you want that?

Absolutely, yeah.

Okay.

I need a good 48-hour— I mean, it would just force me to not talk to people. It'd be a good excuse to take a couple of days off.

Man, muzzling you, that would be—

Somebody spread a really dirty rumor about me or something. I don't know.

Oh, yeah.

I can work on that.

Kevin, were you at the Capitol on January 6th?

I really can't talk about that. But I will tell you this, Craig.

But you have made some other mistakes.

Of course. Plenty of mistakes.

But that wasn't one of them. No.

Okay.

Well, we're not— I can't talk about it. Um, but here's the deal. Like, you know, there, there are these days where you wake up and you think, you know what, like, my life's pretty good. Like, I'm, I'm doing, I'm doing well. I got a good job. My wife loves me today.

Right?

I got, I got—

Was it Tuesday?

Yeah, it was.

She told me that's the only day she agreed to.

It was. Uh, actually it's Friday because that's pizza night.

Ah.

Uh, but I got a good job, I got a nice house, I'm smart. Dadgummit, people like me!

It sounds like an SNL sketch.

Yeah, I think it is. You think you're doing really good, and then you find out that you've lived in your house for almost 4 years, and the hot and cold water on your washing machine are backwards.

That was my favorite phone call this week, by the way. You know, to be fair, I had some crappy phone calls, but it was my favorite phone call this week.

So, uh, well, you, you laughed a good while, but so, so here's the deal. So my— we've been having some trouble with our washer and dryer.

Uh-huh.

Uh, dryer's been weird for a while because it just doesn't ever shut off. It'll go until you open the door, um, like till kingdom come. So, uh, you have to set the timer separately. It's just frustrating. So you're like, eh, whatever, but we can do that. Well, then our washing machine just kind of stopped working. And we're like, what? My wife's come back and she'd say, it's not washing. I'm like, what do you mean it's not washing? So I go in there and I'm, you know, I just put my hand on top of it and I'm like, babe, this is— I feel steam coming out of this. You never wash stuff on hot water. What is going on? She's like, oh, it's always like

that. What? But what?

Since when?

What do you mean it's always like that? She's like, well, I mean, I don't notice it all that often. I set it and I walk away and it does the washing. But I've noticed recently whenever it's not working correctly, it's just not— it's, it's hot. And I was like, man, okay. So I, I'm like, this thing is not working, something's wrong. So I'm out there researching, trying to figure out a new washer and dryer combo. And, uh, then she's like, well, it actually worked okay the other day. And I was like, oh, maybe we could hold off. So I'm back and forth, right? I said, listen, before I go out and spend like 2 grand on a washer and dryer pair because

those things are freaking expensive. Um, I'm just gonna pull this thing out. I'm gonna see what's going on because I was listening to the water fill.

Mm-hmm.

It was like just trickling in, and that's not normal. So turn the water off, take the hoses off, and sure enough, the cold water is just clogged. Like, the, the filter's clogged with debris. So I get my shop vac out, I clean it out. Guys, do yourself a favor before you call a, you know, Paul or somebody else and, and try to fix it yourself, right?

Be a man.

Be a man. And, um, so I did that. I'm like, okay, I'm fairly certain about this. And I was like, you know, I should really check something. So I turn on, uh, the hot water, the red knob, right? Right. It's a red knob. I turn it on, put it down into a, you know, a 5-gallon bucket, and it's just cold as ice. So I turn on the blue knob and it's hot.

Naturally.

Y'all, my knobs are backwards. I didn't hook it up wrong.

You can't set me up like that.

Okay.

Um, so I'm— I, you know, how many people check to see if those things are right before you hook them up to your washer and dryer?

Which, which might— my question to this was Who was your home inspector?

Well, it— uh, I did—

because I, I want— I wanted to ask Ricky.

Yeah.

If this is something that she checks.

Yeah. Well, I wonder if it is something that's supposed to be checked. I'm not sure.

Yeah.

I really do like the guy that did my inspection. He did a great job. Um, he's a friend.

Yeah.

But, you know, I don't really know, but I'll tell you this, I hooked it up correctly. Put a new load in the washer.

Uh-huh.

It works great.

The washing machine's fine.

Yeah, but what was happening was like it was just trickling in because it was clogged, right? And on top of that, it was trying to put hot water in, which it probably doesn't fill quite as quickly with the hot as it does with the cold. And the sensor inside of it was sensing there's not enough water in it, and so it just didn't do anything.

No.

And once it filled fine It worked fine.

Yeah.

But I felt like an idiot. I'm like, come on, who, who hooks up the washer and dryer wrong and doesn't know for 4 years?

We have low expectations when your knobs are backwards, Kevin.

Hey, my knob's been backwards for a long time. I don't know what to do about it.

No.

Well, you know, if there's, if there's one thing that's, that's better than clean clothes, is a clean house.

Oh, man.

A sanitized house.

That is a really good transition. Thank you.

I see what you did there. I worked on that for like 2 hours today.

Nice.

I got a lot of free time.

Apparently.

Yeah.

So, we have a really cool show for you guys in the— hopefully what is the tail end of this pandemic, which may be not what you guys are hoping for. I don't know. We'll see. But we have some great guys. We have my friend Matt and Chase in the studio. Kev, introduce these guys. Gosh, be polite.

Yeah, so, um, we're glad to have these, um, guys from Living Safe at Home. And I, I guess the, the best thing to do is just kind of ask you guys, tell us about you. And, you know, we know that you're from the Houston area, but, you know, a little bit about you. How'd you get into this line of work? And yeah, tell us, just kind of kick us off here. Who wants to go first?

Alrighty, well, I'm Chase Fasut. Thanks for having us here. I'm very excited, first podcast we've done. But a little bit about me, I actually live in the Austin area.

Okay.

Um, we started researching kind of disinfecting and certain applications that we could do well before the COVID pandemic. Had a, you know, a lot to do with school absence rates, being a, you know, real family-oriented family business, all that. It's kind of where we started looking, and we've— this company's been up and going Living Safe is relatively new, but our other applications are over a year. So that's kind of how we got started into it. Real awesome timing for us and very excited to be a part of it and helping families.

And real quick, I think what you just said is really important for people to understand is that you guys aren't opportunists. Exactly.

No, no. We've been doing this since before the pandemic. Since before.

Absolutely. Yeah. So I mean, and so when you guys told me that, I was like, well, you guys were just positioned well when this all happened, but you guys have been looking into this for schools and hospitals and all this kind of stuff long before this stuff happened.

Absolutely. We realized that absence days, missed workdays, sick days from school, sick days from work, whatever it may be, that's lost revenue when it comes down to it for a company. You have people out. You're trying to figure out how to get good workdays in. So that's where this all started for us. It was, how can we help schools get down on their sick days, the amount of kids that are absent every day? And also in a work environment, you know, whether it be whatever side of things, you, you can always have a better efficiency if you've got people in the office.

Okay.

And this is, this is something that was not done just for COVID. It, it, our, our range of, um, bacterial strains and diseases and everything that this takes care of, care of is, is enormous.

Right.

And, and this is everything from kids' locker rooms to, dirty laundry rooms, maybe with a washer and dryer with the knobs backwards, or, you know, whatever it may be. And it provides a good opportunity for people to have a cleanly disinfected home to avoid all types of bacteria, not just the COVID-19 that we're facing nowadays.

Yeah, and to be upfront, I mean, like, there's not like a disinfectant that can kill COVID.

Right.

No, not at all. Yeah, there is, there is, uh, there is nothing that, that kills COVID. I think, you know, I think we would all like to see that with all of the unfortunate loss and, and suffering that's come out of this year. But yeah, the reality is, is there is nothing that, that can kill COVID on contact.

But I mean, like, the Lysol bottle says coronavirus on it, y'all.

I, I believe it because it said it, you know, and that's They were talking a few weeks ago that ivermectin also kills coronavirus. And if you've been around cattle, we talked about that earlier.

Oh, yeah.

We've all ingested enough of that stuff to be COVID-free for the next 150 years.

Yep.

So there's a lot of marketing and play on words that other companies and products are using. We kind of decided to stand behind the science of it and really understand what product we use, what application we use, and really focus on the results as opposed to just going out and saying, hey, we kill COVID, 'cause, We come to your house and disinfect and we tell you and your family that you're safe and you get something, and it was just due to lack of diligence on our part, that's something that we as a company don't tolerate.

Yeah.

So we stand behind what we do. And the opportunity arose with COVID and we saw other competitors do incredible jump in their price rates. And that's something we didn't do either. We had our procedures in place, our prices in place, and we just wanna continue to focus to help families and businesses stay safe and continue and hopefully push through this pandemic. You mentioned earlier, we would love to see it go away too, because what we do is far more intense than just COVID, different strains. But I'm sure we'd like to see businesses back open and people back to a little bit better normal way of life.

Yeah, that was one of the reasons I was really excited to talk to you guys, because I remember when all this stuff kicked off. Because we're in similar industries. I remember disinfectant companies reaching out to us saying, hey, you can use our product. And they were using really tricky language on some of these things where it's like, this is— this kills the thing that causes COVID. And I'm like, that's not cool. You can't say stuff like that. I like— I know that you're being like, you know, very legalese in your wording, but like, people will take that to mean you can kill COVID.

Absolutely.

You know, and like, that's, that's just not right.

And it's rampant too. I mean, you see it all over the place just from, you know, the way people's wording on, you know, different claims, websites, bottles, like you were saying, products. I mean, you know, what, what Billy Bob's selling out of the back of the truck down on 105, you never know, right? But it's, uh, it's always Billy Bob. It's always Billy Bob.

But that guy, he screwed me so many times.

Gotta watch out for him.

That guy.

But you know, that's, it's really the thing is you have to believe in your product and you have to be confident enough in your product to be able to tell people what it does truthfully, to not have to play those word games or to play those, those products, you know, decipher what I actually mean, right?

Right.

And that's one of the reasons, I'm sure we'll talk about it later in the show, but that's one of the things that we do is you were talking about certain wipes or whatever that, you know, you, it kills it, right? You wipe it and it's gone, whatever. Well, there's no way of actually finding out what, how clean that surface is. And, you know, we did, we did a little bit of a demonstration with y'all earlier, but Through our testing, that's a big one for us, and I'm sure we'll get into that later on the, on the podcast, but we stand by our proven results, and that's a huge thing for us.

Yeah.

And so what, what are the, what are the, what are the main focuses of, of what you guys are doing? Are you guys going into homes that are occupied? Are you guys going into homes that are unoccupied? What, what is the main thrust of, of what it is you guys are, are you, are you guys doing both?

Both.

Both.

Yeah.

Okay.

We're, we're doing both. Um, ideally, you know, we can go in before, um, you leave to go to work, obviously with it being your home, you're gonna want somebody there, right? Um, until you know the company you're working with. So we can do it occupied, pets in the room, this and that. Most of the time we ask 'em, hey, if you put the dogs out back, that'd probably be best for, you know, for our sake. 'Cause we do with our sprayers and all that look a little intimidating. And yeah.

Um, and some, some dogs don't like that.

No, no, they don't. Um, but no, they can be occupied. Um, and also new builds, um, for, you know, construction or move-ins and even apartments up to that point.

Anything residential, um, you know, whether you're moving in, moving out, or occupied, Yeah, and part of the reason I ask that is I can imagine some people thinking, well, if you're using something strong enough, I probably need to pull like all my electronics out of the house. I need to pull, you know, anything that's like leather or anything like that. Is that something that people need to do?

Not at all. And that's one of the great things about our product is it has a neutral pH balance, and through the electrostatic sprayers that we use, it actually provides a 360-degree coverage without being like a direct spray. Like, we're not coming through with a garden hose, right? I'm not, I'm not going to douse down your computer and, and roll out the, roll out the door and leave you on your own. This stuff, you can come in, you can spray it on TVs, you know, as we go through. Because that's the thing, you don't have to have a direct application through this electrostatic sprayer when it comes out charged. So everything around you has a certain charge to it. And so when you apply that electric charge, that ionic charge in the

opposite from our sprayers, it naturally attracts. It's like 2 magnets, right? On the opposite ends, they come together. And so without having to sit there and douse it, we can do a complete, a complete coverage.

Okay.

And so with having that neutral pH balance as well, you can come across, you know, if, if, if your kids at home had been doing the homeschool thing or the remote from home has his laptop open, come through, It'll disinfect the laptop and it won't fry anything, no problems, no issues. And that works for flooring, that works for maybe even if you have dishes left in the dishwasher, if you have anything left out in the sink or anything, it's safe, completely.

Okay, yeah, so I don't need to wipe my dishes off or something after you guys have been in the house?

Not at all.

Okay. And we even, this is stuff that is so environmentally friendly the way it's based that in certain quantities it can be even used in food prep.

Okay.

Wow.

So we, we now, we focus on the residential side of things, but what that means is if you have a banana hanging out on your little banana hanger on your, on your counter, you don't have to worry about coming through and getting that sprayed and then not being able to use your bananas anymore. Right.

Can somebody explain the banana hanger to me?

Oh, come on. You have to know what I'm talking about.

I know what it is, but I don't understand why.

Well, because here's the thing, Craig, like We need some soft music here for a moment because—

Do we need to— do we need to like go back to our roots and feel like I'm plucking it from the tree? Is that what's going on?

No, the thing is, you will— you know, you go to the store, you get a yellow banana because they look great, and you know that's a good ripe banana, like I'm ready to eat it. And like 4 hours later it's got brown spots on it, right? Well, there's some things that you can do to keep that banana from going bad so quickly, right? And one of the things you can do is keep it open to all of the air around it and keep it hanging as if it were still on a tree. And so that keeps it from getting the brown spots so quickly.

But I want the brown spots.

Well, then you need to just put them back on the counter.

I'm just saying, if my kids get all the ripe bananas, I ain't getting banana bread.

Okay, no, well, no, no, no. So, but that's easy, right? You can just take a banana and put it in the freezer and it's gonna be good for banana bread after, you know, because it goes brown really quickly at that point.

They're like, what are these banana hangers, like $10 or something? I don't know, just leave it on the counter.

I don't know, I actually would have used fruit bowl.

Yeah, that would have been the better— the banana is a pretty high maintenance fruit.

You don't need to go get a banana holder.

Just bananas are diva. That's what we need to do.

Come on, just go get a hook from Home Depot and screw it into your into your cabinetry. It's like 14 cents for one of those things.

Or I can do nothing.

And then get your brown spots and get my banana bread.

So, man, see, this is what—

this is, this is what he does. He derails.

He derails important things that people want to know. I'm like, should I waste my money on a banana hanger? No. Okay, get your banana bread.

All right, those J-hooks from your, uh, from your tool cabinet outside work just as fine.

That's what I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

If you have to hang it, fine. If not, use the bowl.

Hey.

They're the cheapest fruit in the grocery store. Go buy some more.

They are really cheap. There's no doubt about that. They are very cheap.

Buying bananas are disinfected.

Yeah. I think one of the questions I've got is, I feel pretty good about myself whenever Someone's sick in my house and, you know, you go around, you Lysol the knobs, you know, put the stuff in, you know, you wash the sheets and you mop the floors. You do all the things that you can, right?

You talking about when people are sick in the house?

Yeah.

You do that?

Yeah.

Look at you.

Well, I mean, well, Kimberly does, but, um, but, you know, I mean, it gets done. Um, and, uh, so, uh, but, but yeah, I mean, you, you know, you clean your house, hopefully. Because you don't want your other children or you to get sick, and you don't want them to get sick again, right? You feel pretty good about yourself. The thing that I've always kind of thought though is like, how long does it take before— and let's just assume for a minute that what I did was really good, okay? It killed a bunch of germs. Let's just assume for a moment that it did. How long before those things are infected again?

It would be the next time somebody who is infected comes into contact with that surface. So, okay.

Or even as well, someone that has been around someone that might even be sick, right? You naturally carry bacteria and germs from other people that, you know, you may not even know, right? You go into the grocery store, you go into the hardware store or whatever it may be, and you're around those people because it's all in the air around you. You can bring that stuff home with you without even realizing it. Yeah. And so, you know, it's always a dangerous risk risk of, of bringing that back with you and having a surface that is, is not— if it's not— if it's— there's clean and there's disinfected, and that sounds different, but you know, you can, you can wipe down your counter after somebody spills spaghetti on it, but if you disinfect it, you do a

lot further steps.

Mm-hmm.

And so with disinfecting, with what we do, which I'm sure Chase is gonna kind of— I'm gonna lead into him about, but we actually attack the food source that prevents— on those surfaces. So when you disinfect and get rid of that food source, if some new bacteria comes in, then it has something to feed on and can grow. But if you have starved it out, then that bacteria won't be able to foster and grow on your counter. So that's, that's the idea behind what we do with our product is we remove that ability for anything to survive, which your typical wipes or things like that are not really gonna be focused on anything more than a topical or

surface, um, clean.

Yeah. So, you know, for example, you go back to those, you mentioned Lysol wipes, and it says on the bottle that it kills 99.9% of germs, right?

Or whatever.

Um, first of all, is that accurate? I mean, I mean, because What I'm hearing you say is that there's a difference in killing something and allowing something to grow behind it.

If you cut off the head of a weed, that weed is gone at that point. It's out of sight, out of mind. So you've essentially killed that weed. But if you go in and spray it with weed killer, you take it away at the source. So that's kind of the difference there. Yeah, they do kill germs on contact at that time, but But you're also leaving yourself open to further contamination because once it's clean, then the second the surface starts getting touched or comes into contact with any other thing that has been infected or other surfaces, then at that point those germs return.

I really like the analogy. That helps because I think that you're talking about a food source and we were just talking about bananas, so I got a little bit crossed up in my mind a little bit. But you're talking about the thing that the bacteria feeds on and then grows from there, right?

Exactly.

Okay.

Well, and that might be a good opportunity to kind of talk about our doorknob, right? I mean, because you, you measured the doorknob before you treated it, and, and explain to us kind of like the whole, the whole process— excuse me— the whole process there.

Sure. So when we walk into, into a home or location, um, the, the homeowner has 5 sites that we test for them. We do it through a luminometer, and what we're testing for is the presence of ATP, which ATP is a long scientific name, but for, you know, for our sake in here, it's the food source for germs.

Okay.

So that, that's what we're testing with. And when we did y'all's door here, um, you know, we, we do NDAs, so everything's private with all of our clients and customers. But—

But this is, this is fine. You can share our, you can share our data.

Y'all went in, and this is a very clean studio. I know y'all take a lot of pride in it, but yeah, you were Yeah, it's true.

It's true, y'all. I mean, this is, this place is clean.

Um, but the, the fail, the fail scale, what they, what they rate as hospital-grade clean is at a 100 on our testing scale.

Okay. Um, and when you say that's like a surgery, that's operating room.

When you go in there, if you hit 100, like, you're getting a knee replacement.

Okay.

Um, most of the places that we're seeing, we come into initially, they're in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s.

Um, so higher— so, so the higher the number, the worse.

The worse it is.

You want to get down as low as possible.

As low as possible.

So the complete opposite from school.

Yes. Right.

Yeah, it's like a golf score.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah, by our, by our standards of testing, I would have been the valedictorian.

Although I don't know my golf score would actually pass operating room levels if we're talking about 100 as being the passing level. But, you know, maybe on a good day.

You never know. You could beat me, that's no problem. I'm out there with a pool cue.

And that circles back again to the standards that we set for ourselves, that we hold ourselves to a higher standard than what the industry does. Most competitors we're seeing, they're in the 200s to 300s they call disinfected. For us, 100 is that top fail scale, but we want every location that we apply our disinfectant to to be below a 10. If it's above a 10, we retreat it. and then retest. So, okay, we're actually coming in 10 times lower, or 10 times cleaner.

He's using finger quotes, y'all.

Yeah, he's pulling a Joey over here.

I don't know what to do with my hands.

I don't know the gesture.

So, uh, 10 times cleaner than what your, what your operating room would be. And that's showing us that we've properly disinfected it. And with each application, we send you a graph that has the pre- and post-test results. So not only are we coming in spraying, but you're actually getting to see that what we've done applied and worked. All of our test units go straight to the cloud system.

Yeah.

So there's— you're not going to see anything, oh, we're going to alter this, do that. I mean, it's going straight to you, so you know it's honest testing.

Yeah.

And just another thing we can do to hold ourselves accountable to make sure that the, you know, best service was rendered as possible.

Okay. And so when you, when you tested our doorknob, it was at what would you say? 1,600?

Over 1,600. We normally let the application sit for 5 or 6 minutes. before we go back in. I think we did a little quicker than that and got y'all down to a 9.

A 9.

Um, so if we were to, you know, test it again, it would probably be floating around that 2 to 0 range.

So like, after you applied it, we were— am I getting it— we were like 10 times— the doorknob was 10 times cleaner than an operating room?

Correct. Correct.

That's crazy.

Yep. As far as the presence of the ATP on it and what bacteria can live off of.

So, so what that means is that at this point, that doorknob is at a, at a place where bacteria is not going to be able to grow on it because it doesn't have anything on it for that bacteria to attach to.

Exactly. And after that first minute, the majority of the bacteria that causes stuff like, you know, staph and COVID and, um, you know, even the different strains of the flu, hepatitis, um, with, with the concentration that we use in our residential application, it's, it's going to kill what that stuff can grow off and live off of within 1 to 2 minutes.

Okay.

And even canine parvo for the dogs in the room.

Ooh, nice.

That's actually— I mean, that's a devastating disease to dogs.

It's horrible. It's awful.

Horrible. So it is safe for families, kids all around. I mean, even daycares, toys. It's the first thing little kids want to do is pick up that block and put it in their mouth. So that's something, being family-oriented as we are, we got to do something that's safe for our Kids and then our fur kids. Yeah.

And trust me, among the company, there are a lot of dogs.

Nice. So nice. Okay. So that brings me back to the question that I had earlier about the wipes. And you talked about the, you know, the weeds, killing the weeds, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, again, going back to what you said, like, I wiped down something. someone else touches it and all of a sudden it's infected again. Um, but with your application, since there's nothing for it to grow, how long, how many touches does it have to go through for it to actually have enough on it for it to be, um, dangerous again?

So what that, what that really is gonna come down to in the end as well is what other bacteria you have or what other deposits of that food source that you'll, you'll see. So that's why we recommend monthly sprayings, and depending upon the activities that are happening, potentially more than that just to make sure. But really, it's, it's about a 30-day window that we operate on. Because when you think about it, so what we do is we remove the food source. So you can have a bacteria that is on a surface that someone— let's say someone's sick and comes back over, you're gonna potentially have that bacteria on that surface. But instead of having it grow and being able to cross-contaminate and spread, that's when it

starves it out, is because there's nothing for it to feed on.

Mm-hmm.

So you have different reaction times for different viruses. Some are stronger than others. I mean, we've seen all kinds of numbers coming out of the CDC regarding about, you know, a wide variety of different surfaces that have different last times for how long COVID can be on it, right? Whether it's a porous surface, non-porous surface, metal, whatever. So each individual, it's a hard answer to give you because each individual, whether you're considering COVID-19 or hepatitis, This even will do— like we're talking about Staphylococcus and like say you had a bunch of people in the locker room at a gym, things like that.

Yeah.

And so, you have— it depends on what your source is and what's introduced to that source. But yeah, so essentially, we have a higher removal of that protein source, which you can beat out for a longer amount of time than is recommended by say like some sort of disinfecting wipe.

I mean, that, that's huge though, because like all of a sudden I know that if I'm— that if I— especially if I've got someone sick in my house, and I realize the applications are way broader than that and the reasons for it are way broader than that, but specifically if I've got someone sick in my house, I know that that house has been disinfected to a level to where we've eliminated the problem. The problem is gone, at least in my house. And once you get out of your house, obviously we got other issues, but even if you bring those back in for a while, I'm still good.

You're still way better protected than you would be with any kind of off-the-shelf or any other kind of application that you would typically have around your house or in the cabinet or under the sink.

And to, you know, to kind of put that into perspective, like you were talking about being safe and in and out, you know, school districts, especially here in the Houston area, using the application, noticed between 25% and 30% decrease in absences.

Wow.

So you're talking, I mean, the mega schools y'all have in this area with thousands of students.

Yeah.

And even other customers we have with 400 or 500 employees are noticing. So when you start looking at 400 people go out, they go here, they go here, it just multiplies. So you take a family of 5 or 6, I think it's actually giving you a bigger parachute to be safe.

The results are better.

Exactly. Because you have so few, um, sources of contamination with just a smaller family as well.

Wow, man, it's just really impressive to me because I, you know, I, I think on some level those of us who we clean our house regularly, you know, we vacuum, we mop, we do, we dust, we do all those things. And then on top of that, we do the things that, you know, our friends over at Affordable Air Repair, you know, shout out to Jehu and JoJo over there, um, Is that we're changing our air filters because that makes a big difference too. And that we're doing all of the things and yet, like there's a huge thing, there's a huge gap even in all of that.

Yeah.

Right. And so I, it's huge that it doesn't just fix the problem now. It fixes the problem in, in perpetuity, at least for a time. Right. Correct.

Yeah. And that's, it's nice to have that, that peace of mind, right? You know that, you know, I come in and I spray your house, you know, we've had people that have asked us to come in and spray right before, you know, post, they have someone that has been to the hospital or who has been to, you know, maybe a knee replacement, whatever it may be. But people that come in and say, hey, we're going to be coming back from the hospital, we don't know what we could be bringing with us.

Yeah.

Will you please come in and disinfect? And that way it gets rid of any risk that's there, and then it also comes in and protects us with whatever we may be bringing back with us.

Yeah, man, I got a buddy right now, uh, Craig and I are friends with a guy who just had, uh, kind of an emergency surgery, and his doctor basically told him, look, there were some complications, um, that could have happened if we didn't do this surgery now, and Um, I mean, he wound up with a PICC line for, for 2, 2 and a half weeks, something like that. And he's having to go back for daily infusions. But the doctor basically said, look, you cannot get COVID because if you get COVID, you're, you're exponentially, um, more susceptible to bad things, right?

Yeah, the immune system's probably already down.

Exactly. He just, he had to stay away from people, and he's not the type of person that in his job he can stay away from people very easily.

Mm-hmm.

And so he had to stay at home, and it's just he and his wife. But I, I would imagine that if he knew about this, I guarantee he would have done it, you know, because again, we're talking about like a life and death type of thing if you wind up getting sick and your immune system is so far gone. Man, that's, that's really scary to think about and, and to know that there's something out there that can remedy it, or at least almost remedy it. That's, that's huge.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, and that, that makes it actually makes me think, I mean, because I know you guys have like a commercial side to what you guys do. Um, and, but on the, on the residential side, I mean, you're, I mean, cuz we're kind of talking about like schools and workplace and homes and all these. Have you guys done anything with this, like assisted living or nursing homes or anything like that?

So right now what we've seen predominantly— sorry, I didn't mean to jump in front of you, Chase. But, um, what we've seen is there are very heavily restricted protocols, right? Yeah, assisted living. I mean, because, you know, quite honestly, right in the beginning of the pandemic, what did we see get hit the hardest? Yeah, it was nursing homes, long-term care facilities.

Couldn't even come in.

Yeah, right. And so a lot of that is still one of the— is one of the issues on their protocols is preventing outside sources of any kind, sadly, even if it could be of assistance. It's one of those, it's a very big safeguarding because they're watching their employees very closely as to what they're doing. And so because they are trying to minimize risk, that's where they're coming for. We would love to get the opportunity to do it. We would love to find a place that has the protocols that allows us to come in because again, you know, we have a testing system, we have a product that we believe in and, you know, and we have seen

very, very good results with it so far.

So part of the reason I'm asking is 'cause next week, you know, barring any other complications, have a guy coming in that owns several assisted living facilities, and he's gonna be talking to us about like 2020, basically.

Yeah.

Like how his year was basically a nightmare. Um, and he had zero cases in all of his facilities. Um, and he's gonna be walking us through all of his protocols and what they did in order to stay safe. So I mean, like, I, I feel like that's, that's relevant to what we're talking about. I mean, like, because what you're saying is absolutely— he's talked to me about this. I mean, it's, it's been ridiculous for him to manage his staff.

Yeah.

To, and watch out for his residents and protect them and try and keep them safe so that he doesn't have an outbreak.

Right. I mean, so my, my, uh, my grandmother is actually in a, uh, retirement community, not a, not a long-term care facility. They have different levels of living at this facility, right? So you have assisted living, independent living, your own homes, apartments, whatever. And I, you know, that was a crazy thing, right? My, my birthday was at the beginning of March, so I saw her for my birthday and then the world shut down.

She was—

Right. And so I— you could not—

it was—

I'm telling you, you could probably hit Fort Knox easier than you could get into this retirement.

Like, I think that's the way most of them, at least the ones that are operating well, have been.

And so that's the thing is, I know that their protocols for that, which I have heard are very common among it, is they actually opened up a lot of their unrented apartments or, or rooms at that facility and had their staff stay in very much a, you know, Don't leave. Imagine like, imagine like the oil field, right? 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, right? You know, let's figure out a way to where you can stay on, you're not a risk, you can leave, and then you can come back and quarantine before you're around the people who live here. And I think that's, that's been, I mean, the schedules and the restrictions that those employees, I mean, they're, they're

champions, they're heroes. I mean, it's amazing what they're doing to make sure that they don't bring anything in.

For sure.

Yeah. And that's, and that's the craziness is, and you know, That's the thing with outside sources that we're talking about. They are so limited on how you can get access.

Yeah.

This is gonna be a question for us to ask Sean next week, dude, is like, would it— because he's in a different— he's in a different situation for sure as far as assisted living go. I mean, he, he's not under any government mandate. He receives no, uh, you know, Medicaid or anything like that. Um, it's all you know, everybody pays up front.

Private thing.

It's private. So he might actually have an access point that's different. I, I think we should ask him that question.

Yeah.

And, you know, and we've come across companies like that and even homes like that who, you know, are interested in our services and, you know, or for one reason or another aren't, right? And we talk to them and say, hey, we'd love to come in and test just to show what you're doing is working. And in that, that case like him who's coming on next week, if he had absolutely zero cases with as crazy as this was, Especially in this area of the state, then he's doing something right that every other care facility needs to hop on board with.

Yeah, that's for sure.

And we have no problem coming in and say, look, we can come spray for you, but you're, you're doing awesome here.

Yeah.

So that's, that's really impressive and awesome to hear that somebody got it figured out.

Yeah, he's a cool— I mean, what is, what is the fancy doodad that you use to test our doorknob? What is that thing?

It's our luminometer.

Luminometer.

Yeah, say it 5 times.

That sounds cultish.

But that's what it's doing. And the, the swabs that we do, we test the surface, it breaks. Okay. We pop the end off and there's all kinds of science going on in there.

Point to that camera right there. Oh, there you go. There it is.

All kind. It does the hard work for us.

There's that thing from the Illuminati.

Illumin— But so, I mean, that's like Chase was saying, that's one of the things is like, look, if you are feeling comfortable, we would love to come in. Say you feel like your practices are, are good, up to par. Yeah. Like we're talking about for the sister, we, there's a sister company that does the commercial side that you were talking about. Um, so we have access to that as well, right, for industrial. And that's a lot of the doctor's offices, dental offices, things like that.

What, what is it? What is that actually? Uh, what is that? What, what I'm, I guess what I'm getting at is what is, what differentiates that side of it from this side of it? What we're talking about.

The, the, the industrial, you know, corporate side of stuff.

And, um, I mean, are we talking like warehouses?

Commercial applications. It's everything. Warehouses, this and that. Um, What we've developed on the residential side is our solution content, because we're able to control that. It's on a smaller scale than commercial. Obviously, if we went in and did a 50,000-square-foot warehouse, our content that we're using to make sure it's properly disinfected, if we did that in a house, I don't think anything would come back for years. We're able to control our dilution content.

What do you mean by smaller scale? You mean smaller equipment?

Or—

okay, yeah, exactly. It's not like you're using stronger disinfectants in the commercial setting.

No, no.

It's higher traffic areas. Like we said, you have a family of 6. That's really basically the only people dwelling there. You go to a bigger company and you have thousands in and out. It's just the contact areas are so much more significant there.

Okay. And then I guess my follow-up to that is, And maybe a little bit of a rabbit trail, but where do you guys see homeowners making the biggest mistakes when it comes to keeping their homes, you know, as, as clean or as safe as possible in, in, in the, in the, in the manner that you guys would come in and test and go, okay, this is—

Yeah, I, I think, I think what you're facing a lot is there's a lot of misinformation that's out in the environment, right? You know, everyone has the next big product, everyone When you go to the grocery store, you've got all kinds of cleaners, but you don't know the job that they're doing. We were talking about it earlier. We've come behind these wipes you can pull out of a can and wipe on a counter.

Not that we'd name anybody.

No, exactly.

You're all buying it. We know what it is.

Exactly. You still see numbers that are in the 400s.

They're that, that means you're talking about the ATP numbers.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, exactly.

So I like, I like what you did there, Craig.

I like it.

He, he retained something. That was awesome.

That was good.

That was awesome.

I'm learning.

I'm learning.

All right, go ahead.

Um, but so I think that a lot of what you deal with is because you, because these products don't actually give you a fair understanding of what you're dealing with or how that they work. I think there's an issue with It's lasting protection from lack of frequency. Now, I know that was a lot all at once, but all I'm saying is, I mean, how often do you wipe down your counters with a wipe, right? You might do it once a week. I don't know, maybe after a messy meal.

Mm-hmm.

So that product's not designed to have that lasting effect like ours is. So when you combine a product that is not meant for a purpose of long-lasting and not paired with frequency, You have that lack of— that lack of a disinfectant. First of all, you don't get as good of a disinfecting as our product, and then on the back end of it, you don't get the protection that you would get from ours, from using it, from just a standard commercial product.

And I think especially after the year we had, anybody who was not a germaphobe is now a germaphobe. So, I mean, somebody who'd never clean or do any of this is doing that. So I think on top of of that application, it's just where, where are you wiping down?

Yeah.

You know, you're just doing what you can see versus, you know, the, the 360-degree wrap and the, the binding that we have with our application. Um, you know, 'cause we're, we're social guys, we like to be out, we like to talk to people. And so I, I, you know, it's, it's really to no fault of anybody's own that they just, they don't have access to this. And it's cool seeing, um, people light up when they see the science behind what we're doing. and show them those results. Because like, man, this— I mean, it was cool the first time we had a test come up. We were all blown away. We're like, this is the coolest thing. Yeah, we're scientists.

Well, I think that people have a weird false sense of security too.

Exactly.

I think, I think people are like, like me, like, oh, I did, I sprayed all the knobs, I mopped the floor, I changed my air filter, I did the smart things, I changed the sheets, right? And, and there's this false sense of security of I've done everything I can And part of the reason I think we feel that way is because that's the only thing that we know.

Yeah, right.

I mean, right, I, I'll tell you right now that the, the best thing that anybody could do right now is listen to this podcast and find out something that they didn't know before, you know?

Right. And I mean, even, even to go back to what you're talking about, you know, doing all the right things, you can do all the right things and not realize that things are getting overlooked, right? So that's right, that's what Chase was hinting at on that that 360-degree coverage because of the specialty sprayers that we use. You get into those, those areas that you don't ever think of, right? Like say that lip on the underside of your sink in between the metal and the granite, right? Do you get under there with the wipe and clean it down? Maybe, maybe not.

That's gross under there. I don't want to touch that.

Exactly. And bacteria is growing there, right?

Yeah, of course.

Let us come and help take care of that problem for you. But I mean, even into, you know, you start thinking down in between I mean, how often do you, you know, open a cabinet door, right? Do you ever clean the back of the cabinet knob? That's a place that you touch every time. Or the backside of a door handle, you wipe down the door handle, you kind of might be flying through the house, maybe company's coming over and you've got an hour to clean before someone shows up.

Yeah.

You know, you might hit that topically, but with this application that we provide, you're getting coverage behind the TV, behind the TV stand, in the grout on your tile floor, in between the cracks on your hardwood floor, you know, I mean, all these places that when you use a topical cleaner that you can find at a grocery store, that you're just not getting those clean. And they are areas that bacteria can grow because there's stuff to feed on. Because when you think you walk through your floor, you know, walk through barefoot after being outside with the dogs, who knows what you bring in, right?

So, well, but you still— okay, okay, worms.

Don't walk outside barefoot.

That's what it is. It's worms. No doubt. But I also want to be careful here, because that doesn't mean you shouldn't clean your house.

Oh, absolutely, you should still clean your house.

Because I think that—

If you sprayed disinfectant on Phil—

Oh, once a month, he's going to come in here and clean my house!

That's part of the misconception that we have, and that the majority of America has, is clean versus disinfected. Clean is visibly removing stuff from the surface. If there's something on the table, I wipe it, it's clean. Disinfected is going in and removing the bacteria and the germs and all that. that. Growing up little, my mom's like, did you clean your room? Yes, ma'am. Is it my clean or your clean? So I think, you know, uh, it's— I'll go, I'll be back, let me go. Yeah, it's kind of the same thing.

Heard that today.

Yeah, but your knobs are perfectly aligned.

Your knobs work, just the wrong color.

I didn't even do the smart thing and like change the knobs. I just changed the hoses. I'm gonna screw someone who comes to my house next.

It's the next guy's problem.

But no, I, I think it is a— it is something to be said for. I mean, you still need to be wiping those things down. You still need to be mopping your floor. You still need to be, you know, dusting your, your blinds and all those sorts of things.

Definitely. Yeah, so proper hygiene.

Yeah, well, and, and part of the reason I wanted— I wanted to bring up some of that is because, like, I mean, like, you guys clearly understand some of the science of how bacteria works, you know? And like, because I can remember, like, you're talking about back in March when this thing hit I can remember going to the grocery store and people are wearing neoprene gloves and masks. And now, they're just wearing masks. It's like, OK, that's fine. But in my work, I wear gloves doing everything. I don't want anything— I mean, this is a high-absorption area. Nobody's doing that anymore. They're going up and they're touching shopping carts and all this other kind of stuff. And now, it's like, well, no gloves, but double

mask. It's all this weird stuff that it doesn't seem like there's any sort of science behind it. There's no data. isn't. It's just like we're constantly moving the goalpost as to what's good, and you guys are telling me, we actually have this thing that can measure the thing that feeds bacteria, and we can reduce that.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. It's a moving target. I think that's one of the reasons why we've seen so many types of information. When you go and dig for buried treasure, you're going to have to dig more than one hole. You're not going to find it on the first try. So that's part of this problem is I think each and every day we have new information coming out. The CDC's busting it to try and find what they can. And I think with each new day and new information coming, the parameters change, right?

Yeah.

So when parameters are constantly changing, you're doing your best to figure out what it is. But that has been something that has amazed me that you're talking about going to the grocery store. I mean, yes, because you talk about in your line you wear gloves. We do too. Yeah, I get it. Like, look, not gonna happen on my end. I'm gonna do what I can. But you, you have so many people that, I mean, it's things you don't even think about that you didn't have to think about beforehand, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

You used to go to the grocery store and pick up the pen on the keypad to sign your name after paying with a credit card. Did you ever think about how many thousands of people had touched that before you used it?

I'm thinking about it every single time now.

Yep.

Yep. Which have you, have y'all seen that thing that they're selling in grocery stores now? It's, it's like the— what is it called?

No-touch thing.

The no-touch thing.

Yeah, the germ key.

Yes, the germ key.

That's what I saw one at H-E-B.

They're like, they're like $7 or something like that. And it's like, so you don't have to touch anything.

Yeah. Okay, so, so let's talk about that for just a minute because I think this is really important because I, I've seen multiple articles. Who knows if they're, you know, the validity of, the validity of these things are actually accurate, but I've seen multiple articles at this point that have said that there have been zero cases connected to surfaces and contraction of coronavirus, okay? Now, I don't really care whether or not that's accurate or not. What I care about is that that doesn't present a complete story because let's say it's true. Let's say that nobody has— that they've not at least proven that— let's just say it's true. That if I touch something, I didn't get coronavirus from that. However, let's say that

I touch something and, you know, then wipe my eyes or whatever it is, and now I get sick with something else, whether it's the flu, whether it's, you know, you said hepatitis, or whatever it is. I get some other thing and then someone coughs on me and I get coronavirus. Now I have a pre-existing condition.

Yeah, you're high risk.

That complicates coronavirus in my body, right? So I think that there's a little bit of misinformation out here that we have to be careful about just reading things, you know, uh, pun intended, surface level, that, um, that we're not really seeing the story behind the story. And so again, protecting yourself from some of those pathogens to begin with is really, really important, I think.

So it's like wearing a seatbelt. I mean, yeah, what's the odds of getting in a wreck? What's the odds of doing this? But I mean, you have your seatbelt on. It's—

if you were in Fort Worth, it was highly—

oh, I know, that was awful. Absolutely.

It was like a 100-car pileup.

It was a 100-car pileup. Last I heard, there was— the death toll was 8. And geez, they, um, they They still haven't gotten to all the wreckage.

No.

So they don't really know. It's absolutely— and there was a pileup in Austin.

Oh, was there?

Yeah.

There was another one.

A 30-car pileup, right?

I believe it's getting icy there. So hopefully everybody stays home. I mean, friends from the East and everywhere in the snow, they like to give us heck, but it's like, we are not equipped for this.

No. Right.

Stay home.

All right.

I derailed. So you're saying you wear a seatbelt?

Exactly. So it's just like you mentioned, having the flu, having some kind of respiratory issue, and then COVID comes along and this and that. It's just you want to protect yourself.

Yeah.

Um, it's like when all this started, um, you know, particularly with COVID like if you're elderly, if you have heart conditions, this and that. I mean, we know people who've passed away that were healthy as a horse, right? And then in 2 weeks they're gone. And then same way. So it's just the age of information, especially with cell phones, you know, everybody's an expert now.

Yeah.

Um, the way it pops up. But I think it can be used both in a good way and a bad way. So So, you know, informing yourself and keeping you and your family as safe as possible is, you know, obviously the way you want to do it.

Yeah, no, that, that, that's a good point. And, you know, we, we talk about this, it seems like every episode that we do is just, we want to get this information out to people, and that, that's why we do what we do. We want, we want to equip people with information, and, uh, I think we've, we've done that today. Um, is there anything that we haven't hit That, that's important.

Well, I've got something.

Okay.

I kind of want to know what your onboarding is like. I mean, how do you guys come in and do a lot of testing in the home first? I mean, what is it, what is it like to set up an account for you guys to come into a home and, and, you know, evaluate and then I guess treat?

Yeah. So, and yeah, one thing we do, we service, you know, obviously the Houston area and we're, and we're all across Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin.

So you guys have branches in all those?

Yes, and we're open Monday through Sunday, 7:30 to 5:30. If it's after hours and you have a COVID-positive outbreak, we're getting there within hours.

Okay.

But you can visit our website. That's a great way. It's www.livingsafeathome.com. You can reach out to us on our company line, is 512-917-1113. You call that line, you send us an email, we have a technician follow up with you. It'll be Matt, myself, or a few other awesome guys we have. We're all certified. application technicians, and we'll come out to you. If you call and say, hey, I want you to come take a look at my house, we'll come out, set a time that works with you, do a few tests in areas of your choosing. At that point, we can disinfect your home. Based on your readings, what we recommend, if you're obviously up in the tens of thousands, we might say, hey, we'll come back in 2 weeks and check, make

sure it's working.

Yeah.

At that point, We'll see you next month. Or we might need to do it more frequent or not, but a lot of the times we'll be there within 24 hours of your call unless it's an emergency. We hump it to get there.

I mean, is 10,000, that's a ridiculously high number?

Yeah, 10,000's high. I think the highest I've seen, and we've been doing this for 18 months now, I think was 17,000. And that was the bottom of a of a, of my boot after we were working cows one day because we, we were trying to get baselines. Yeah, we don't know, but any, you know, obviously—

What's the ceiling on this thing?

We're not eating off that, but I mean, the, you'd be amazed. The phones are the highest.

Okay.

Because they're touched so much. But I think other than, other than that, we, we've seen some—

We've seen a pretty decent amount in the 3s and 4s of thousands. Okay. That's, that's places that are, are pretty frequently visited or, or high traffic areas.

I mean—

Microwaves, refrigerators.

You know, stuff like that.

Don't get me started on microwaves.

I hate microwaves. Please don't get him started on microwaves.

If you put your banana in though, they'll brown up faster.

Oh man, we're gonna live that down. Watch me have a new nickname at work tomorrow.

The last thing you want is the name Banana Boy. Yeah, that's the last thing you want.

I know, I know.

It could be Nanner Puddin'.

I might actually prefer that. All right. be a—

might be a good Facebook poll.

That's true.

I'm no longer— what was it? Ron White's tater and tater tots? Yeah.

Yeah.

See what it winds up as. You'll have to let me know the results.

That's right. So based on what you just said, I've got another question. How do you— how do you price things? Is it square footage? Is it number of rooms?

Is it—

how do you— how do you go about determining What you have to charge?

It, it's gonna be square footage per home.

Okay.

So, I mean, if we, if we went with a flat rate, um, you know, it's, it could be all over the board. So square footage there. Now, if you call, everybody, you know, lives together in communities now, subdivisions and this and that. If you're interested and we come, you know, obviously while we're there, we can give you a bigger price break the more we test and do. So, right. Um, but it is normally square footage and it's a rough estimate. We're not in there with the ruler.

Sure.

You know, making sure that your 2,500's not it's not 2,602, yeah, something like that.

Well, and then, because I— you mentioned this just a second ago, you call and you've got a, you know, positive COVID test in the home. Like, what are y'all's protocols to keep y'all's guys safe?

With all, all the proper protocols, all of our PPE. We've got the smogs, masks, covers completely, um, and then after that, it's, it's disposed of.

Oh, okay.

So we—

are you guys using like the canister?

Yeah, every— everything to cover. And it's not for disinfecting, but it's just for the fact that we're going into a COVID-positive environment. So, um, yeah, every— everything we can do to protect our guys, you know, we're in, we shed all the layers there, put it in bags, and it's gone.

Okay.

And that's, that's something that, you know, we, we do, we do ask, has there been anybody COVID-positive here? Just because we want to keep our guys safe going in.

Sure.

Um, just as well as, you know, we don't want to be going in if, you know, somebody was exposed on our end. So yeah, we're tested regularly. Um, You know, just to ensure that our guys are prepared.

That's good to know. I mean, because like, if you've never been around somebody who's been in a suit like that or breathing apparatus like that, I mean, it can be sort of just a little scary.

Oh, definitely.

You know, it's, it's definitely like, you know, the outbreak movie. Like, yeah, you're like, oh, why are you putting that on? What is going on? It's like, it's like walking down your neighborhood and seeing your neighbor with like a tinted house for like termites. Yeah, like, yeah, oh, that's going on. Yeah, who are these people?

Things just got serious.

Yeah, and it's, it's all about, you know, like we said, it's It's all about making sure that the utmost safety is taken for the people, our clients that we are coming in and providing this service for, and then as well as us and all the people that do the spraying with us. Yeah.

Cool.

That's good. I mean, you got to have the right protocols in place to protect your people.

Right.

Because you don't want to— that's always been my biggest fear with what we do is I don't want to be somebody that spreads this.

Right.

You know, yeah, I don't, I don't want to— I don't want that on my conscience. I mean, like, and I know that's kind of a selfish thought, like, I don't want that on my conscience, but like, you just don't want to be that guy, right?

And, and that's— and I know we talked about it, but I don't know how heavily we hit on it— that's one of the greatest things about our application system as well, right? It's no touch, right? Right. So there is no cross-contamination. Yes, we're coming in with gloves and masks and everything covered, but you know If, you know, if you have, say, say you have some janitorial service that comes in, right? They might be wiping off somebody's desk in an office building, say, right? And then they move to the next office, and what are they gonna clean that desk with? Probably the same rag.

Yeah.

So, right, so that's cross-contamination, and that's what we're trying to fight against. So if we have a no-touch policy, that's, you know, our application process is one of the things that we pride ourselves on, is that There's no— there's not gonna be cross-contamination.

Yeah.

So there's no— we have eliminated the risk of that by making sure that we aren't having anything that's coming back with us or vice versa or however.

Now, is it no-touch policy in the sense that you guys are wearing gloves to like get through doors, or you guys have the homeowner go through and open up all the doors for you, or—

So for the doorknobs, we'll go through and that's, that's the gloves for us. Okay. But as far as actual—

Which that counts, you know.

Yeah, it would be awfully, it would be awfully cumbersome and intrusive It's not conducive for us to tell, you know, homeowners, hey, when we come here, all of the doors and everything has to be unlocked and around. Yeah, that's one of the things too, right, is we cover both sides, everything in depth covered. And so in that instance, yes, we have glove coverage, but it more of what I mean by that is the prevention of cross-contamination from like surface to surface. So, you know, if you come in and clean one surface that has it, you're not taking it to multiple other places and making the problem worse throughout your home.

Right. using a mist instead of, or, or a sprayer rather than a, a rag. That's one of the beauties of doing that. Right. And, and also, I mean, you mentioned that ideally the homeowner wouldn't be home just so that you would be able to, I mean, not really be intrusive. I mean, they can go about their day, you can do your job, and nobody has to kind of be in, be in the middle of things.

Exactly. And for, for the most part, places we'll go in, we'll meet technicians, we'll, we'll talk to the homeowner and they'll sit out in the driveway and play basketball. Yeah. Go for a walk at the park. But obviously, I'm not going to let somebody in my home with everything unless I know who they are and what they're there for. That's with pest control, air duct stuff, all that. I want to meet them. And I stay close. So we know there's varying degrees with clients that we have. So we make it work for them. If they want to follow us room to room, we'll tell them, hey, put this on, follow us.

There you go.

We don't recommend it, but I'm sure y'all No. Yeah, that's exactly—

well, would it be better for, say, the homeowner has a home cleaning service, you know, would it be better for that home cleaning service to come in after you guys have disinfected or before?

We've, we followed up behind services like that before, and what we've noticed is the numbers are, are still high. Um, now, I don't mean that they're doing a bad job. No, it doesn't. It's just because, again, they're cleaning the surface, not disinfecting.

Right, right, exactly.

We're Exactly.

So I would say it doesn't matter either way. Us coming in after them doing their stuff, there's not a whole lot of contamination going on with the cleaning service. Once we're applied, then I would probably say us after.

Yeah, you can have it cleaned and then have it disinfected.

Disinfected, yeah.

Because they're different.

No, it's a good distinction to make. One of the other things that really intrigued me when I first started talking to you, Matt, was you were talking about how you guys are doing this on new construction homes. Yeah. And like, that hadn't even crossed my mind, but as I started to think about it more, I was like, that makes perfect sense. Because I mean, like right now, the, the most a house has had any people in it is gonna be a new construction home.

Right.

But because most homes that are lived in, I mean, just have the family, they don't have people coming in for the most part, but like a new construction home, you've had tons of crews working through there. And like, you know, I don't want to like be disparaging, like any like construction crews, but like, like you go to work if you're sick.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I mean, like, you don't get a day off. No.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a, you have in the, in the completion of a new build, you, and throughout the entire process, quite honestly, you have a lot of people that are rolling through and that's, that's one of the ideas behind offering that service is, is that like we've talked about is that, that peace of mind.

Yeah.

You have, because I mean, often you'll have times that in following up to your question, you know, home builders will have maybe a maid service or somebody or whatever clean up.

Yeah.

But you want to be able to move. I mean, you spend all this time and effort, and especially how often it's happening now because of the pandemic and the housing market the way it is. You've got all these people moving into houses, or even if it's not a new build, even if someone's moved out, and you're moving in, but the house has been there for 15 years. It's new occupant. How about that? It's a great service to offer because when you come in, you know that it's been taken care of and that you can feel comfortable in your new home.

I would imagine— the reason my brain goes here is because if I buy a used iPhone off of Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist or something like that, I think I would expect it to have a certain number of germs and things on it.

Right.

Whereas if I buy a new construction home, I think in my brain, I'm going, this is a brand new home. It should be perfectly clean, which is the complete opposite of what's probably true. And I know this because I've been through a lot of brand new homes and like, you know, well, yeah.

Cause I mean, I'm sure that y'all do a lot of the same service in new homes as well.

Yeah. And so like a new home can actually be one of the more dirty places, you know? And so like, don't, I don't want people walking in and one, because I know the housing market is just like lit up right now. People are looking to buy brand new homes rather than lived-in homes. And so I don't want them to go into that situation with a false sense of security going like, this is fine, I don't need to have it disinfected.

No, you probably do more than—

more than we would recommend. More than most, we recommend it.

Yeah, that, that's again stuff that we didn't know we didn't know, right? Right.

Yeah.

And so I mean, I really appreciate y'all coming by and talking to us because Um, so, so often we think we're doing a good job. It goes back to my, you know, my story at the very beginning. I mean, you think you're, you think you're having a good day, like you think you're doing this thing, this life thing pretty well, right? And then something— The Kevin principle. Exactly. That's actually— yes. All right. But it just slaps you in the face. He's like, you're a freaking idiot, you know, you don't know anything. And, and this is one of those things that, you know, I, I think we Like you said, we've taken it for granted for too long. And, you know, we,

we've talked about what are the ramifications going to wind up being long-term with this. So once, let's say we get COVID under control, masks are off, we're kind of good again, but the ramifications are out there. I mean, people are, people are going to be hyper-aware of that PIN at the cash register for a long time.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, it's just one of those things that we're gonna live with. But, um, the thing that I love is that this is— this was not an opportunistic thing that y'all talked about. I mean, y'all were already doing this and doing it well even before all this happened. Um, it's amazing that the businesses— Craig and I've talked about this before— it's amazing the businesses that have thrived through COVID are, are the service industry. The service industry, largely in part has, um, has really thrived through COVID. And I mean, y'all's has to have thrived really, uh, because of it, which, which really sucks. It sucks that it's had to, but it's good for y'all. Um, but

man, I, I just really appreciate a really good service, uh, opportunity and giving our, giving our folks an idea out there that there's more that they can do to stay safe, you know?

Absolutely. I mean, I, I, and I think, I think the country has taken a, a mental shift in the— I mean, because I, I think I think being in y'all's business, the fear might be that it's going to dwindle once COVID subsides a little bit. I don't think that's going to happen at all. I think people are going to remain conscientious of this kind of stuff and look back at this as like, we don't want to go through that again.

No. And as I said, we hope COVID goes away. Right. 100%. But you don't know.

Yeah.

Staph is still going to be there. Parvo's still going to be there with your dogs. And it has made people aware. Yeah.

Best thing we do is wake up tomorrow and all this was a Yeah, I mean, if you guys, if you guys can stave off staff, I mean, that, that's an incredible help. I mean, like when you start talking about like operating rooms and other places where you can pick that, I mean, 'cause staff is everywhere.

Yeah.

And if you can help prevent that from, you know, latching itself onto people, that thing's nasty.

Yeah. I mean, you think about, you know, you think about locker rooms and, and, you know, gyms and all kinds of stuff like that. I mean, it's, it is actually somewhat, when you dive into it, it's actually somewhat terrifying as to like, oh my God, there's a lot of things out there.

Well, I mean, I remember, you know, being in athletics whenever I was, you know, in, in school, and it's like the biggest thing is athlete's foot, right? And like all of these things. And it's like, you know, I, I was actually, I was like scared to death I was gonna get athlete's foot. I'm like, 'cause then I'm gonna be like Quasimodo all of a sudden somehow, you know?

You know, but it's out there.

Yeah.

You know?

And that's, and that's what's, you know, for us moving forward, like, like we said, you know, there's so many applications for this and being able to help. You even just think about just back to flu, right? This can help with flu. And I mean, how many, how many times did you have people calling in sick with the flu before the pandemic happened? You don't think about it the same way as you think about the pandemic and COVID.

That was a lot.

It's a lot.

Yeah.

So I mean, you can cut down a lot of that problem even if COVID doesn't exist anymore, right?

Yeah.

So there's, there's, there's a longevity to it in, in the services provided and what it can help to continue to protect you against in the future.

Yep.

Wow.

Cool. That's good stuff.

So did you learn some— did you learn a lot, Kev?

Man, I'm, I'm learning all kinds of things recently, but yes, yes, I, I really did. It's awesome. But, but I'm ready to learn a little bit more.

Ooh.

Are you ready to learn more, Craig?

Absolutely.

Because we're about to move into the segment that everybody's been waiting for.

Favorite segment.

The Final Four.

The Final Four.

That's right. So these are the final 4 questions we ask each and every one of our guests. We're glad y'all are here because y'all are newbies. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna ask you guys these 4 questions. And, um, you know, Matt, we'll just start with you and then, and then let you go behind him. Um, but, uh, but here we go. We're gonna start off with the very first question. What is the must-have tool that you won't leave your house without?

Oh, um, I would say As far, are you talking about like carry on you or like have in your truck?

Well, the way we, the way we set this question up is, you know, say Kevin calls you.

Yeah.

And says, Matt, I need you to come over and help me with this and gives you no idea what the job is.

What's that one tool you're going to grab on the way, on the way out the door, way out the door, you're going to grab it because you know that I can do some damage with that thing. Ooh.

I would have to say for me, this is probably going to be a lame answer, but I always, I'm old school on it. Craftsman multi-tool. There's a lot you can do with it. Yeah.

I think that's the, That's my go-to.

I carry one in my truck everywhere I go. I mean, I, I'm fortunate enough to have a truck that has like a, a tool cabinet, so I'm, I'm overly prepared for all the things.

When you, when you say multi-tool, do you mean like the Leatherman kind?

Oh yeah. The Leatherman. Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah. Yeah.

'Cause there's like, there's an electric multi-tool that's like new.

No, old school. Fold it open. I like it. Pull it out. Scar your fingers up trying to get the tool out you need and go to town.

Cool. All right.

Hmm.

All right. You're, you're up, man.

All righty.

Did he take, did he take your answer?

Oh, is it? Oh, you're right.

No, yeah, same question.

Um, I was gonna say my, my multi-tool. Of course.

Of course you were.

Um, I don't— I can, I can do some pretty good work with the Sawzall.

There you go.

If you call me and say, hey, I got a project, if you can't saw it, then I don't want to do it. Give me my cell phone to call somebody.

You know what, Chase, when I call you from now on, I'm gonna clarify that I don't need a demo Demolition project, but I need help putting something back.

We moved my grandmother's sofa out in record time, but not in one piece. One 87-piece sofa.

Yeah, I can't get it through the door. I got just the tool.

All I need is to install my refrigerator, man. We can install it anywhere you want to.

You want it on that wall or that wall?

That's exactly right.

Or that wall right there? I'll just take the whole thing down.

Whichever one you want. We're ready. All right, All right, man. Next question. Uh, what, what is a job you walked away from? So let me, let me set this up for a minute because we, we wrote this.

Um, we're terrible writers.

We're terrible writers because we, we meant something than what we wrote. But what we wrote was, what's a job you walked away from? Most people, you hear that, you think career, you know, like a job that you hated and moved somewhere else. And that's fine if you want to go that direction. But what we meant was more like, what's a project that you walked away from at your house? Maybe you started to do a plumbing job and it just, you know, sewage everywhere. And you're like, gotta call Joe, who, Joe the plumber, whoever. Um, so what's a job you've walked away from, Matt?

I'm, I'm gonna take it down the road of, of home improvement projects. We are, we are on the Homeowner Show. Let's just do that. Um, I am extremely stubborn when it comes to projects, so I'm gonna figure out a way to do it on most. But man, I have to tell I gotta tell you, landscaping. I respect people to a T that can do that because every time I have tried to do it, and in that is sprinkler systems. Oh yeah, that's, that's part of the wrapped-in project for me of that. But man, I got respect for them because every time I get it completed, it just, it doesn't look right. It doesn't look like it

should.

Yeah.

So I think for me, that's, that's a, that's a walkaway project.

How long did you spend on the sprinkler system before you brought somebody in?

Oh, you know, I gotta tell you, when I started neighboring or I was watering my neighbor's lawn. I was a little bit concerned. You know, you turn on the water sprinkler system and you hear on the other side of the fence, you go, I didn't know that was possible. Yeah.

Nice.

So too long is the answer to that. All right.

So you're over there, you know, you turn on your water sprinkler and all of a sudden you hear, thank you.

Yeah, right. Especially in Houston in the summers, right?

Yeah.

That'll add up.

Please continue.

Don't change it.

Yeah.

That's right. Well, maybe turf is the way for me to go in the future.

I am seeing more and more of those.

I gotta tell you, in the Heights down where I am, it's all over the place.

Yeah.

Everywhere. That and painted concrete is making a return, which is like, I'm too clumsy for that. I'll trip and fall and bust a tooth out trying to let my dog out in the night. So maybe turf, maybe turf, not concrete.

Painted concrete mullets are back in 2023. Nothing makes sense.

Nothing makes sense. Yeah, it's a topsy-turvy world.

That's right.

That's right. All right, Chase, what about you? What's a job you walked away from?

I can do kind of the career one since Matt did homeowner, but I worked at Chick-fil-A for about 38 minutes.

Wow. Whoa.

38 minutes.

I didn't even learn how to clock in. Wow. I wasn't fired.

I just—

You didn't work there.

They owe me back pay for about 15 years. But I walked in and went to the back to watch my little video of how to, you know, because they've got great customer service, how to be nice. nice. Just walking through that smell of chicken and fry, I couldn't handle it. I'm around cattle, we're around all kinds of stuff, but that chicken—

Was it the fry smell or—

It was the fry smell. Yeah, it was just something hit me weird. And I went to the man, I was like, sorry. He's like, what do you mean sorry?

I was like, I'm leaving. I'm out.

I will eat here.

I will not work here.

Love Chick-fil-A. Nothing but the best to say, but it wasn't for me. Food service industry, Street, they're like landscaping with Matt.

I—

they're heroes.

Well, and Chick-fil-A specifically.

Yes, exactly.

Heroes.

And let's be honest, I mean, like, let's, let's just put them in charge of everything.

Yeah, I mean, like, their efficiency is through the roof.

Yeah, I mean, like, you can, you can be efficient while being kind and courteous, and it's delicious. So yeah, let's just let them have everything.

That's right. No, things would run a lot smoother, that's for sure.

Sure. Yeah. What, what, what's the joke that's been going around between Chick-fil-A and Amazon Prime? You know, a lot of the delivery systems could be really overhauled and changed. Yeah, that's probably true. Yeah, that's right.

It's so true. All right, 3rd question. How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Ooh, that's a great question. I think for me, uh, you know, Craig, you and I were actually talking about this. Um, every, every once in a while, appropriately and in moderation, uh, I, I am a, a, a bourbon connoisseur. Okay. a whiskey connoisseur, so, uh, maybe enjoying a little nightcap is, is not, not bad. But, um, I think the biggest one for me, man, is— it's, it sounds weird, but it's walking the dog. Oh, honestly? Yeah. I mean, he gets to run in the morning and everything. He's probably spoiled beyond belief, to tell you the truth. But most dogs are. It's kind of nice, right? Especially now in the world that we lived in, live in, of,

you know, if you're working from home or if you're not socializing as much, it's, it's nice It's a chance to get out of the house, get out of where you've potentially been all day long, get out into the fresh air. And then it's been really nice to see how many people are like out exercising.

Yeah.

And so you're obviously, because we're in the middle of a pandemic, no one's like, you know, you're not stopping and having a conversation, but like people are starting to be friendly again. Right. You get a wave. Hey, how's it going? You see the same person at the same time. Good to see you. You know, it's just a nice, uh, it's a little bit of a break from from maybe the, not the mundane, but it's a break from the repetitive nature that we can kind of sometimes face in our work environment. So cool.

We don't know anything about spoiled dogs here.

No.

So I'm gonna wanna borrow Kevin's camera here for just a second and just like—

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to say, I, I, I, I'm not sure about that spoiled.

Can you see that? Yeah.

That's ridiculous right there, Clara.

Yeah. Which, I mean, she's taking over the chair.

Which says a lot about Matt. I mean, she won't sleep next to just anybody.

That's true.

That's true.

That's true. I will take that as a very big compliment.

Yeah. All right, Chase, you're next.

Um, it's being around the cows. We— with Texas Longhorn cattle that we have out in Elgin, and I like driving out with my fiancée and the dogs, and when it's, you know, weather appropriate, let the dogs swim. But, um, just hanging around them. Cows are just cool. Yeah, they're fun to watch, peaceful.

They're relaxing, man.

They are. Phone— sunsets, phones off, and that's, that, that's it for me, being around the Oh, he just, he just dropped it.

When you getting married?

October 2nd.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It'll be properly disinfected wedding. There you go. Do that too, wedding venues. But, uh, yeah, very excited. She's an awesome girl and puts up with a lot.

So just spray her down right before, you know, make sure she's good. But you're probably gonna have to spray him twice now, you know, at least.

Yeah, at least.

Well, that's awesome. All right, last question, coming to the home stretch here. Matt, what's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever received?

Hmm, I would say for me is I took— I think for me, my grandfather was a real big role in my life. And I think, you know, he passed on a lot of wisdom. And we were joking about it earlier. This is not a piece of wisdom, but we were joking about it. He used to tell me he'd always get in the last words with my grandmother. It just happened to be, yes, ma'am. Which I have taken to heart. But I think that his was about— his goal to me was, you know, always be continuing to ask the next question. And that sounds weird, but let me explain it. No matter what you're doing, there's always something else that you can do

with it? Or when you are talking to somebody and they're telling you a story, you can always ask that next question about, you know, whether you're getting to know someone or know more about their job. So his thing was always, don't be afraid to ask the next question.

Mm-hmm.

And always ask the next question because that's how you develop relationships with people. And, and having those solid relationships is really what makes a lot of things worth it, is getting to know people and developing that bond and, and becoming friends and helping them how you can in whatever way. So for me, I'd probably say always, always be looking for that next question on, on how you can expand on what you're doing. Awesome.

Very cool. Chase?

Uh, mine, mine goes back to my granddad too. Uh, he passed away this past year as well, but, uh, he told me, very quiet man. I heard he yelled at me twice in my life and I never forget either. Ran a red light one time and shoved his hand in the PTO of a tractor, but told me if you ever raise your voice in an argument, you lose the argument.

Ooh. I like that.

And I've lost a lot of arguments. But being young and stubborn, it didn't make sense. But as I've gotten older, you lose your cool, then any point you're trying to make, any case you're trying to make, you've lost. So when I get worked up or a little upset about things, I just got to remember that. But that's, I think, hands down best advice I ever got.

That's awesome. Awesome.

Yeah. Awesome. Very cool. Well, normally we have a secret 5th question, but you already answered that earlier in the segment. That's true. You do a good job.

We can do it again if you want.

Yeah, that'd be fine. Let's go ahead and do it right now. Craig asked this question.

It's the only one I'm allowed to answer.

That's right.

Or ask.

It's the only one he remembers.

Yeah, that's really why. If people want to find you, how do they get ahold of you guys?

Well, you can reach us on our website, again, www.livingsafeathome.com. We are on Facebook there as well. You can search us, and Instagram. You can also reach out to us at our cell phone. It's 512-917-1113. or 512-917-8654. They direct you all to their website. Everything's connected, as we talked about how great social media and all that is. We'd love to talk with you, set up some appointments to look at your homes, make sure you're properly disinfected. Again, we really appreciate y'all having us on. This has been awesome.

It's been a great episode, for sure.

It absolutely has. We appreciate you guys coming in. It's been our pleasure. No Chick-fil-A, pun intended. We, again, we're just thankful that there are people out there that are interested in helping people. And, and, and at the end of the day, that's what I get from you guys. You're interested in helping people. And, uh, you know, that, that's what makes, uh, businesses thrive and succeed is whenever they've got a good, a good foundation of who they are and why they're doing what they're doing. So, and thank you guys for doing what you do and, uh, for, for taking some time to, to enlighten and the rest of the podcast world out there how to disinfect your home. Not just clean it, disinfect it.

Yup.

So, that's awesome. Well, uh, listen, we are— uh, we are—

uh, we're—

we're glad that you, the listener, have tuned in today and, uh, we hope that you tune in each and every Tuesday 'cause that's when we put out our new podcast. Our video goes up on Thursday unless it's today and then it's gonna go out on Friday. But nevertheless, we do our best to get that out each and every week. And so yeah, if you haven't already taken the time to hit the subscribe button, please do that. Go leave us a rating review on iTunes, that would be fantastic. But until next time, we will see you later. See ya.