Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #283: Renee Dolan with Koala Insulation of Fort Lauderdale and Miami
Unlock the secrets to energy efficiency in the sweltering heat of South Florida with insights from Renee Dolan of Koala Insulation. Discover how proper attic insulation not only slashes energy bills by up to 30% but also extends the life of your air conditioning units. Renee sheds light on the transformative power of high-quality, GreenGold certified blown-in insulation and debunks the myth that cheaper options suffice, warning of their potential need for frequent replacements. Whether you’re building a new home or upgrading an existing one, learn how insulation acts as a steadfast barrier to maintaining your ideal indoor climate.
Renee’s journey into the insulation business is as inspiring as it is informative. As an avid traveler, mother, and grandmother, she weaves her rich tapestry of personal experiences into her professional life, driven by a passion for community and customer service. Listen to how her adventures as an empty nester have strengthened her bonds with friends and fueled her dedication to Koala Insulation’s mission. With high ratings and rave reviews, Renee emphasizes the importance of respect and integrity in business, warmly inviting you to explore their services for a more comfortable and efficient home.
Call: (954) 280-6003
Visit: https://koalainsulation.com/fort-lauderdale
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/koalainsulation_ftlauderdale/
Like: https://www.facebook.com/KoalainsulationFtLauderdale
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm, of course, your host. If I could speak today, we'd be in good shape, right? If I could speak today, we'd be in good shape, right? So I am joined today by Renee Dolan, and Renee is with Koala Insulation of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Welcome to the show, renee.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course it's our pleasure, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in. So, renee, I believe I have an idea of what you do. I've not yet had done plenty of interviews on this platform. I've not yet had an insulation company come on to do an interview. So I think I have an idea of what you do. But if somebody asks me what an insulation company do, I think the extent of what I would say is oh, you know, they go and they put insulation in a property, and that'd probably be the limit of what I know about it. So why don't we start off by you talking a little bit about what you do over at Koala Insulation and then we shall proceed from there?
Speaker 3:Okay, I'd love to. So Koala Insulation. What we do is we go out to residential homes and we give them a complete analysis of their attic. So we're going up in the attic and we're doing some measuring, some testing things of that sort, so that we can analyze any current insulation that they have up in their attic space and their ventilation and then that way we can give them the proper recommendations of what they need to be at maximum energy efficiency, which, of course, if you're at that point of maximum energy efficiency, that's going to drive down your energy bill. So we're not only making the house cooler, more comfortable in the summer heat of South Florida, but we're also helping them with their energy bill to lower their energy bill, which of course helps the environment overall with their energy bill to lower their energy bill, which, of course, helps the environment overall, absolutely so how does, speaking of energy efficiency, how does the insulation typically impact the home's energy efficiency, and what type of I mean?
Speaker 2:obviously it varies per home, but, like percentage wise, what type of costs can folks expect to save on energy when they have proper insulation installed?
Speaker 3:They could see as much as 30%. Oh wow, customers have seen even more than that. You know, we kind of it kind of works hand in hand with, you know, your AC unit. Everybody focuses on, you know, making sure that their AC is running correctly, right, and they'll send a technician out there and they'll look at it and they'll say your AC is running fine.
Speaker 3:Well, what is my problem? Why is it running all the time? Why is my temperature not staying at the desired temperature? I want it at 75 and the coolest I can get it is 78 or 79. Well, if you don't have insulation in your attic, then your air conditioner is going to run all the time. So the job of the AC unit is to get you to the desired temperature. The job of the insulation is to keep it at that temperature. So without insulation, you're making your air conditioning run more, which drives up your energy bill and puts a lot of more wear and tear on your AC unit itself because it's constantly running. So the importance of having the two being at maximum efficiency is very important.
Speaker 2:Especially down here in South Florida with the heat. Now are they doing like for new construction. Is insulation a requirement, that is that something that goes in hand in hand with construction?
Speaker 3:Yes, so we do work with a lot of contractors here in South Florida as well, and it is part of building code and there's a lot of insulation in a home that people don't even realize. You know, when it's a two story home it's in between the levels, it's in the walls before the walls are completely built. So whether it's a block or wood frame, we're putting insulation in there and then the drywall is going in. So insulation is a very important part, and not only in South Florida, but of course you know all around the world it's important, no matter whether you live in you know Portland, oregon, where you know it's cold for several months out of the year, or you're in South Florida. You need the insulation, whether it's to keep the heat out or to keep the cold out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it makes sense. Now, how long does it typically last for? Is it something that does need to be replaced at some point in the future, or how does that typically work?
Speaker 3:that we run across with clients is they're like oh, you're just going to blow in insulation. I, you know I want the cheapest you know price that I can pay. But the problem is is that there are, you know, inferior products. The products that we use here, the blown in insulation, which is the most common. Blown in.
Speaker 3:We have several different types of insulation, but blown in is the most common and it's the most economical. We have several different types of insulation, but blown-in is the most common and it's the most economical. We use a GreenGold certified insulation and the manufacturer guarantees that it does not settle. So it's a blown-in insulation and it's going to keep its thickness where insulations of the past and the cheaper insulations they would settle over time. So you could expect that you know, 12, 15 years from now they're going to be having to do their insulation all over again using those inferior products or that older type of insulation. So it's important. It's important that you do your homework and you make sure that you know you are getting the best product, because people don't want to spend money on things that they can't see necessarily, and so you only want to do it once.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. How did you get into this business? Let's talk a little bit about your background and how you landed at Koala Insulation. Koala insulation.
Speaker 3:So I was actually in a insulation related business prior to this. For eight years I worked with a company that handled pest control. You know wildlife and it's very common that people will get some type of either insect or rodent raccoons in their attic right and then it needs to be cleaned out because they've made a home up there. So where I came from was that field and we did the insulation. We not only trapped for the animals, but we did insulation, and so I was there for over eight years and then our owner here. He was just opening the Koala franchise here.
Speaker 3:We service Fort Lauderdale, hollywood and Miami area the northern part of Miami and he started the business from the very beginning almost four years ago, and they brought me on board. I've been here since day one, so we're on about four years now and I was able to bring you know the expertise that I had learned in my previous position for eight years here and help to grow the business to what it is today. So when we started it was the owner myself, one other person and now we're almost to 20 people.
Speaker 2:So oh, wow, so you mentioned this is a franchise. Does Koala Insulation operate within the US, all in different countries, like, what's the extent of the franchise?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the extent of the franchise is we were 120, give or take locations throughout the US and again, we service this area, but they are in just about every state.
Speaker 2:When did the franchise start, do you know?
Speaker 3:The franchise started about eight years ago now.
Speaker 2:Very cool, so let's shift for a second here.
Speaker 3:Tell us a little bit about you personally, your family, so I'm a mom, I'm a grandma, I'm a nanny, I have three adult children, I have two grandchildren and I live a very active life with a group of girlfriends. I love to travel. And I live a very active life with a group of girlfriends. I love to travel. So if I'm not working, I'm usually traveling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where's your favorite place to go?
Speaker 3:Well, my favorite place to go is wherever my family and friends are, but you know good answer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's really true. As we get older we really embrace that. But I do a lot of traveling in Florida. I like long weekends so we usually, you know, hit the beaches either on the West Coast or a little bit further north. But I do visit my daughter in Portland Oregon quite a bit. I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Savannah Georgia, so I, you know, I make my way around. I have family in North Carolina, so it's whatever feels right at the time.
Speaker 2:I usually have two or three vacations planned at any given time and yeah, what part of North Carolina you got family in Charlotte, charlotte, okay, yeah, I have a. I own a piece of land up by just south of Blowing Rock. Oh, okay, you familiar up there. I'm not sure how far that is from Charlotte. So, looking back through your journey, oftentimes we are defined by our most challenging experiences. Is there something that comes to mind? Personal, professional, some experience you had where, at the time going through it, it seemed like the end of the world, so to speak. The walls were closing and you weren't going to get out of it. But now, with hindsight, right Bird's eye view, looking back at that experience, you could say you're grateful for having gone through that. It helped, kind of shape, shaped you into who you are today.
Speaker 3:Um gosh of what shaped me to.
Speaker 3:You know, I think it was probably the my biggest transition was, you know, being an empty nester.
Speaker 3:You know the kids growing up and I not only you know having my career and taking care of my home and all of that stuff, but then learning how to fill in my time because my kids are grown and you know they have their families now and you know mom's not necessarily the number one anymore. So that was a pivotal part of where I am today because it did make me stronger, it made me more aware and I have, you know, a small circle, but a tight circle of girlfriends, and if it wasn't for my tight circle of girlfriends, I don't know where I would be, because they help you through all that. They're going through it kind of. You know. The same time, you know, or we're more towards the probably the last phase of our careers right now because of our ages and we're all going through that together. But yeah, I would say that was the pivotal point is when I became an empty nester and just learning to navigate everything. You know the new, what your new life looks like.
Speaker 2:Well, look, Renee, I have a 10 year old and a 12 year old 12 year old daughter. That that's in middle school. I love them to death. But look, if you're looking for some children around, you can borrow mine anytime you like, Just let me know. They'll come stay with Auntie Renee for a few days. Oh yeah, Give my wife and I a break.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly my BFF. She has six grandchildren, so I get a fill of them, and they're from one to 12 years old.
Speaker 2:So good stuff, good stuff. What would be, before we wrap up here, what would be the one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with about your business?
Speaker 3:about your business. So our owner is very passionate about giving to the community and to be a company that sets a very good example. I don't know if you're aware of it, but we're actually rated the number one insulation company in South Florida. We have over 800 five-star Google reviews for our locations that we're super proud of. We emphasize in our weekly meetings, both to our installers and our estimators.
Speaker 3:You know the importance of doing our job, doing it well, doing it with a smile on their face. You know treating the customer that they want to. You know the way they want to be treated and that is with respect and that is taking care of their home as if it were our own home. And here in South Florida, unfortunately, there's a lot of contractors out there and companies out there that don't do what they say they're going to do and they don't. You know they don't do things the right way and when we're done, from the beginning to the end, and I'm the operations manager and I answer 90% of the phone calls and that's because the owner wants it that way.
Speaker 3:He wants me to be answering the phone because he knows the way I answer the phone, he knows the way I take care of customers. And then you know, from me answering the phone it goes to our estimators and our estimators going out to the customer's home and, you know, explaining to the customer what they need, not what we want to sell them. We're meeting their needs of what they need and then we send our installers out and we rely on our installers to do everything that the estimator promised.
Speaker 2:All right, everyone, apologies for that. We are back. We had a little technical difficulties there. Renee was leaving us with the one thing she wanted everyone to know about the business. Why don't you tell everybody out there how they could find you guys? What's the best way to reach you? Maybe you share your website, your contact information? Anyone out there that's looking for insulation or wants to get an inspection done? How could they find you guys?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. If they Google Koala Insulation of Fort Lauderdale, if they Google Koala Insulation of Fort Lauderdale, they will find us. They can also call me directly, I'll answer 954-420-1056.
Speaker 2:Perfect, all right, and we're going to. Of course, we're going to drop a link in the description to all of your contact information for those that are just listening out there, so you hear that everyone. If you're out there and you're seeing your energy bills spiked and you're wondering why, reach out to Koala insulation to have them come by do an inspection, they'll set you up Right. Renee, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Jeremy.
Speaker 2:You too, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in, and we'll catch everyone next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care and have a blessed day. Bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom. Coopercitycom. That's gnp coopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.