Foam, Bitcoin, and Ant-Man Dreams

Spray Foam Magazine – Show Issue 2025 – Why did you choose a career as a spray foam contractor? It chose me. Years ago, I was building a larger home as a FL State Certified General Contractor and I learned about SPF. I knew right away it was the way of the future as it’s an air stopping insulation and I couldn’t believe the results. So, I ditched “building” to enter the most physically and psychologically intense business out there!

What are you most proud of in your career to date? It’s a toss between North America’s largest single-family residence at the time in Orlando—The Siegel Residence at 108,000 sq. ft. The other would be working for NASA, ULA, and the other, must-remain-unnamed space agency we all know and love.

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? Price gougers, Chinese materials, and unlicensed spray foam contractors employing “newly arrived untrained labor” with little to no PPE. Every time they screw up a home and don’t use PPE, we all get the light shone on us.

What is the most helpful advice that you have been given? Get out of the business before it eats you alive. Sad to say, this is a very tough business when dealing with hot FL attics. It’s so hot, it would make a billy goat puke. There is terribly irritable and expensive machinery, and needing 100 things to go right, just to spray good foam.

Name your favorite building in the world? Probably the Great Pyramid in Egypt. My great, great uncle was one of the first explorers from the West to inspect the Great Pyramid. I still have the large cloth drawn elevation from almost 100 years ago.

Name a famous building you think would benefit from SPF, and why? Pisa is where half of my family originates. So, I would say, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. At least if it falls over, the utilization of closed-cell foam would greatly help to keep it together. It might even be able to be re- erected!

Who do you most admire in the SPF industry, and why? That’s a tough question. Unfortunately, I haven’t met many people that I can come to admire. Now that everyone’s flooding here from the wacko states, it’s a pretty competitive business here in central FL. I do admire a gentleman named Alan Perry. He has been with Service Partners for over 30 years. He’s my local go-to guy and lets me know all the things going down in the spray foam biz.

What is it like being you and doing your job? It’s not easy, but nothing worth doing is easy, I guess. I have three kids in FL state colleges and that’s keeping me on my toes. Everything I do, I do for them. Like, dealing with the heat, the process of making good foam, and the constant trips to the chiropractor to get readjusted. This routinely happens when I smash my skull into my neck and shoulders when my head meets a truss that I did not see. Nothing but good times!

Do you have a life philosophy? Yes, buy more Bitcoin. I’ve accepted BTC since 2013 and that’s the best philosophy I’ve ever had. Of course, being a good person and a good steward of the Earth is probably much more important.

What trait do you most dislike in yourself and in other people? Sometimes I don’t pay homage enough to my wife who has been there throughout every mechanical breakdown or jobsite incident that’s made me irate. I also can’t stand messy employees.

If you were a character in a famous movie, who would you be and why? Ant-Man, so I can shrink myself and get into even tighter areas of an attic.

Can you name three things that you like? Ice cream, my family, and yoga pants (not on me though).

Tell us about a talent that we don’t know you have? Somehow after all these years, I can lose over 10 lbs. in one workday, again and again and again without dying.

Are you an early bird or a night owl? As I get older, I’m an early bird.

What is your favorite food? New Haven, CT pizza.

What would be your superpower? Being invisible, although I’m sure that would get me into lots of trouble.