Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
The NanoRenew Revolution: Jackie Harrison's Eco-Friendly Innovations in Home Maintenance
What if you could add up to 15 years to your roof's lifespan with a simple spray-on solution? Join us as we chat with Jackie Harrison, owner and CEO of NanoRenew of Alabama, who reveals the game-changing nano silica technology behind her revolutionary GoNano products. Jackie shares how these products not only eliminate mold, mildew, and stains but also prevent future damage, making roof maintenance a breeze. Plus, who wouldn't want hassle-free holiday decorating? Jackie's team offers professional-grade Christmas light installation, ensuring your home sparkles throughout the festive season.
Jackie’s story is one of balancing dedication to family, community service, and a thriving business. She talks about her active role in the Junior League and her sorority alumni chapter, focusing on children's welfare and sports activities. The journey from a long career at the University of Alabama to becoming an entrepreneur alongside her husband is nothing short of inspiring. Jackie gives us a closer look at the fulfilling aspects of being deeply involved in the community and the rewarding experiences of teaching and supporting local initiatives.
We also dive into the eco-friendly benefits of the GoNano Spray-On Roof Renewal product. Discover how this innovative solution not only protects roofs but also enhances concrete, wood, decks, fences, and docks. Jackie explains the significant maintenance savings and improved heating and cooling efficiency homeowners can enjoy. Featuring local businesses and the transformative power of small innovations, Jackie’s enthusiasm shines as she discusses the subtle yet impactful changes that nanoparticles can bring to our daily lives. Tune in to learn how you can support local enterprises and benefit from cutting-edge technology.
#GNPNorthport #GNPBirmingham #GoNano #NanoTechnology #RoofMaintenance #RoofCare #HomeImprovement #EcoFriendlySolutions #SustainableLiving #MoldPrevention #HolidayDecor #ChristmasLights #HomeDecorating #WomenInBusiness #CommunityService #SmallBusinessOwner #SupportLocalBusinesses #InnovativeTechnology #Entrepreneurship #FamilyAndBusiness #HomeEfficiency #RoofRenewal #GreenTech
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, Patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor, Jackie Harrison, and Jackie is the owner and CEO of Nano Renew of Alabama and they work out of Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville. Jackie, how are you today?
Speaker 3:I am fantastic. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I'm excited I came across Nano Renew because I have an older roof and I thought is there an alternative to a very expensive roof repair? So I was excited to meet your very charming, very intelligent husband, who came by and looked at my roof and I'm excited to tell other people about it now. I learned a lot, so tell us about Nano Renew of Alabama.
Speaker 3:Yes, we recently started NanoRenew of Alabama. After learning about roof renewal and learning about what GoNano was. We looked into some other products and we found that GoNano was the highest quality product. It is a nano silica technology that we are resellers of and they do different products for concrete, asphalt, shingles and wood, and so we have added on services with the resell of GoNano, which is the roof renewal, and it can add up to 15 years back to the life of your roof, depending on the state that your roof is in, and so we can do a soft wash on your roof to get rid of stains and the mildew and mold and different things that grow and land on your roof. And the GoNano product will starve out that mold and mildew from returning and it will keep it from coming back and it'll keep it from staining your roof because it takes out the air, it takes out the ability for those things to grow.
Speaker 3:So once you get the, you do a soft wash and you get all the mold and mildew and the stains off, you can apply go nano and it can revive your roof. It'll bring the color back, it will make it waterproof and it's just an amazing product. They've done tons of testing on it lots of different levels of testing and testing sites and discovery on it and they know that this product works. So when you apply it to concrete, it will keep the ice from forming If you live in an icy area or if you have ice, you know, maybe once a year, like we do in Alabama and it'll keep it in that good condition because it adds the silica where the air was and replaces it. So we can do pressure washing, soft washing, and we also do Christmas lights, which is just an added bonus of holiday cheer that we're excited to offer as well Professional grade lights that we put up for you and then we take down for you in store.
Speaker 2:So the lights are yours. I've always wondered about this, the Christmas decoration part. Do you come in with a sort of a menu of things that you can accomplish and then you come in, you bring the lights and you install lights and you come and you take them down? This is just too good to be true. I'm sorry, I'm freaking out about this.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we have partnered with a company that does the selling of the lights and we use the professional grade lights, the C9 bulbs and the good wire that's very sturdy, and we have the different ridge clips and roof clips and we're able to put up the lights for you, offer the lights, put up the lights and then take them down and store them for you for the next year, so you don't have to worry about any of the hassle of doing it yourself getting on a ladder. We already had all the equipment for doing it, so that's why we're offering it as another service.
Speaker 2:I come from a time when you would just untangle the lights from last year, plug them in, find that the strand doesn't work, replace one bulb at a time just to make sure that entire strand would work. It was several hours of a project, often involving the entire family getting angry at each other. And then dad would get up on the rickety ladder and he would start to install the lights and invariably there would be some injury involved Hopefully not him falling off the ladder, but that was not unheard of.
Speaker 3:And then a possibility new year's you did it all again in reverse yes, yeah, and we take all the struggle out of that for you as well. Um, you know the ladders, the lights, um having to find them, replacing the light bulbs, and these are the led lights. So they last a very long time usually up to five years of being able to reuse the light bulbs, and then it's already fitted for your house for the next year. So it's much easier to go up the next year and you don't have to worry with all the hassle and the storage and finding where you put them from the previous year. We do all of that for you.
Speaker 2:That's incredible All the glory and none of the guts right.
Speaker 3:Right, yes.
Speaker 2:So let's get back to roof renewal though, because you got me off track with the Christmas lights. I think that's fantastic. Tell me what are the signs that a roof is in need of renewal versus a simple repair, because I was not aware when I called you in to look at my roof. That was a big question for me. Do I have the signs of a roof that can be renewed?
Speaker 3:Yes. So there's quite a few components that go into looking at a roof and finding out if it is a viable candidate to be able to add a nanoproduct. So one thing is looking at the granules. You want to make sure that you have granules on your roof because that's actually what makes it kind of like suntan lotion, where it reflects off a little bit and gives it, gives it that quality so that it's not getting so much sun beating on it at all times. So when you have the granule loss you can't put granules back on a house, but you can stop them from falling off of the house if you put on a product like GoNano that seals them on. And again, like I mentioned, if there is too much loss, then we recommend a roof replacement. But 80% of houses that think that they need to throw away all of their house you know the roof, put it all into the dump and start over. It usually isn't the case as long as the shingles are on and they're not cracked and broken and you're not missing any and you don't have any holes in your roof or any. You know of the edges that have kind of peeled away underneath the facing and you don't have any flashing that's missing which we can repair, the flashing and a few missed shingles.
Speaker 3:You know you can be a candidate to put on the GoNano product and have this increase the life of your roof product and have this increase the life of your roof.
Speaker 3:So if you have a new roof you can put on our single shave saver, single saver product and it's a tongue twister, um, and that can keep blocking those granules and it can make it where um.
Speaker 3:You can add 15, 20, 30 years to we. We guarantee 15 years on the warranty and then you can reapply so that you can add it and it's a 20th of the cost I mean, sorry, 20% of the cost, so about a fifth of the cost of a new roof and you could be potentially saving thousands if you work to ensure that you're not losing those granules and that you're catching it early. Now, if you have an older roof that you're putting this on, you're going up to 15 years. We can offer a 5 to 15 year warranty and then come back out, look at the state of the roof in 5 to 10 to 15 years and reapply and you can still save the roof from having to be completely replaced and roof replacements are very expensive. You know if you're thinking $10 a square foot for replacing a roof, which is normally what you're going to pay, so you know a 3,000 square foot roof is going to be $30,000. You can pay 20% of that and have GoNano put on by NanoRenew and our company can save you thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's fantastic because there's a lot of. I think a lot more of us are concerned with the waste. You know our carbon footprint, the amount of waste that we put into the landfills. Replacing a roof has a tremendous amount of waste that you're putting into the landfills. Really, it boggles the mind Once you get it off the roof and it's in a pile and a couple of dump trucks, you realize that is a that is a huge contribution to our landfills. And um it, the thing that, the thing that that I don't understand and that I think we can explain better is the, the product itself. It's, uh, your product, your company is called Nano Renew. I'm not really sure what nano means. Why is it a benefit? Tell us a little bit about the material that you use and is it a new technology? Make us aware of it.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah. So nano means tiny, tiny, tiny tiny. So if you have a nanosecond, that means that it's a split, a tiny little part of a second. When you have a nanoparticle, it's a tiny part of a particle. So think about the space in between what your roof is made of as basketballs. Okay, so you have. If you put a whole bunch of basketballs on a basketball court, you're still going to have a lot of space in between those basketballs because they're circular, they're kind of oblong or you know whatever shape. And so think of this as if filling it with sand because it's a silica particle and so it is it is sealing together those basketballs, those giant particles, with tiny, tiny particles. Of course, they're smaller than sand. They're actually, I believe it's 30 million times smaller than a regular particle because they're nanoparticles. So they're much smaller than what you would think of as just a particle, what you would think of as just a particle and this replaces that air as a silica nanotechnology that we spray on. It's a spray on.
Speaker 3:It does not discolor your roof. It doesn't void your warranty of your roof. It actually can help your insurance costs. There are lots of like. You came to us because your insurance wouldn't cover you and you said you know my roof is over 10 years old. What am I going to do? Well, this is something that insurance companies are looking at, especially in hurricane territories that the insurance companies are willing to work with the customer and say, okay, if you treat your roof with nanotechnology, if you put one of these products on your roof, which, GoNano, is the only product that has the nano silica technology in it Other products are mostly bio oil, so that revives it.
Speaker 3:It gives the oils back into it that it's lost from drying out and from washing off with rain and water. But this actually seals the roof with that silica nanoparticle and it is a new technology. It's only been around for about six years, but the company has done extensive testing, knowing that this product does work and you can see it in videos. It's not like, oh, you put it on there and it might work, it might not. You know, you hope and pray actually has been proven.
Speaker 3:There's videos out there that show that it is waterproof and that it is hail resistant. They've done testing at 200 miles an hour of hail bouncing off of a roof, which is obviously in a controlled setting. You don't have 200 mile an hour hail, but that just goes to show what it can withstand an hour hail, but that just goes to show what it can withstand. And because it puts the oils back into it. If you have an older roof, then it keeps the shingles from folding and bending and creasing and cracking because the wind will. It'll allow the wind to just kind of make them more pliable. They may bend up a little bit but they're going to go right back down. It's not going to crease like a piece of paper, it's going to fold like a shingle is supposed to. It has that flexibility in it and this can add that flexibility back to it with putting the bio oil as well as the silica technology.
Speaker 2:Right, because you can think of sort of your roof as bacon. When it's put on it is bacon out of the package and um, through the, through the addition of heat in years, that bacon slowly on your roof begins to to cook until, like a 10 year old roof, the bacon's kind of crispy, it's not going to bend anymore without breaking right yes, that's a perfect analogy, and everybody loves bacon, so why not? And we want to keep our bacon on our roof as long as possible.
Speaker 3:That is right. Yeah, those shingles definitely need to be pliable and flexible so that when the wind hits them and the sun bakes them, they don't just crumble up like bacon.
Speaker 2:Jackie, this is a new business for you and it's going to go wonderfully, because I can't think of anyone who's not going to want their roof renewed. So I'm sure this will change as you become a multi-bazillionaire for having a successful business, you're going to start to do amazing things. But what do you do now, for fun, to fill your cup and to make sure that you have everything that you need to give to your business?
Speaker 3:My husband and I started this business knowing that we have three children and practice and cheer practice and softball practice and guitar practice and every other game and activity they have in between, and so we do a lot with our kids and love to spend time with our kids and this business allows us to do that. You know, kind of schedule around what we need to do with them and where we need to have them and be, and so you know there's not a lot of time for other things. I do like to volunteer. I'm a member of Junior League. I work with my sorority from the University of Alabama for the alumni chapter so that we can get back to the collegiate chapter and to all of those fantastic women who are coming through the University of Alabama.
Speaker 3:And then of course we do, you know, with the sports. We also do things to volunteer with the sports teams, like my husband does the pitching for my girl's softball team. We have two daughters and a son and we always help out with all of those sports in any way that we can. So we just like to give back to our community in different ways of volunteering and we really like to work with organizations like Junior League. That you know where we can go into schools. We can do anything that will help our community, especially with our children, especially with our children. When I have time, I also like to substitute teach because my original five lifetimes ago career was an English teacher. So I like to go back in just to be at school, where my kids are, and be able to work with those students again and have that interaction. I just like to do it. It's a lot of fun. Most people can't say that they could ever be a substitute teacher, but I love being a substitute teacher when I can.
Speaker 2:I love being an educator. I did. I loved it. I didn't love the full-time job, but that isn't the best of both worlds. You can dip in, you can get your feet wet, you can satisfy that need that I think all teachers have. You know to educate and to be involved in the lives of young people, and then you can walk away.
Speaker 3:That's right. Yeah, that is right. I definitely love that, and every day is a little bit different because I could be in an English class with high school or I believe last week I did a second grade class. I have a second grader as well, and so it wasn't her classroom, but I was in the second grade class and I taught English in high school. So being in a second grade classroom is a big step for me. I didn't think I would ever do the littles, but I like occasionally being in that younger classroom as well. It's a totally different personality. They're more lovable and more interactive and talkative. So it takes a lot out of you. But you know, it's just something that you get to see all the different personalities of the children and give back because you're in that classroom and they see that somebody cares enough to come in to take over their classroom when their teacher can't.
Speaker 2:Well, it sounds like you've had a rich and varied life. What was your journey to get here and finally to own NanoRenew?
Speaker 3:Well, it's funny because every member of my family owns their own business every single member and it seemed like my generation, meaning my brother, my sister and me, as if we would never get there. It felt like forever. Of course, it's been a lifetime of trying to get here. So at first I was an English teacher. I worked at the University of Alabama, then for 14 and a half years, and my last job at the university, my last position, was a grant, and the grant ended. It was federal money and I planned large conferences, and so, when that money ended, my job ended at the University of Alabama, and so I worked, looking for what job, what company my husband and I could start together, and you know, he wanted to do something, going on a different path as well, and so when we found this, it fell into our laps.
Speaker 3:I was looking at an ad on Facebook and, of course, when you look at one ad, a thousand ads for the same thing pop up, and I saw an ad for roofing that I liked.
Speaker 3:I wanted to read it, just the way that it read, and so, of course, 15,000 more ads for roofing popped up, and it happened to be that a product the Spray-On Roof Renewal product showed up and I thought what is that guy doing, standing on a roof, spraying a roof?
Speaker 3:I didn't know that you could spray something on your roof. And now we know about soft wash and we know about roof renewal and we know about Go Nano as a product of being able to seal your roof and it does so the proven way that this works to enrich the quality of your roof. It can upgrade your roof to a commercial shingle. When you put it on there from a, you know, a level one shingle, it'll take it all the way up to a level three or four shingle because it fortifies it. It really gives, gives back to it. So it was just a lot of steps to get here and for us to be in the right place in our lives to be able to start a business and find this product and find this technology and figure out what we wanted to do. And then we were able to start our business the right way, after doing all the research, finding the right product for us to and the equipment for us to use and be able to offer that.
Speaker 2:What would you like Jackie, our listeners to take away about Nano Renew?
Speaker 3:So Nano Renew started because we wanted to do something that was eco-friendly and we wanted to do something that we could do, making our own schedules, and still be a part of the community. And I feel like we have hit all of those. We have been able to give back into our community, able to give back into our community. We've been able to give away a few pressure washes on for some different businesses who needed it, just to show that you know you can clean your concrete and it can look good for your customers. We've been able to, you know, sponsor, do some sponsorships with different schools and buy some different advertising and that kind of thing, which I think really helps out those organizations like the band and the football team to be able to give back in that way and take out ads and programs and to help our community. And then we're just able to be our family and be a family community and keep it local so that you know our team can work in the best way possible throughout the different cities in Alabama and make a difference. And you know, when you're bringing a product like this into somebody's home where they're able to save that much money by just having something sprayed on their roof. I feel like that's giving back to the community because there wasn't anything like this in Alabama.
Speaker 3:You know Alabama generally is known as the state that's kind of behind just a little bit, and so this has been out there for years and years and years and it's in Canada and it's in the West and where there's, you know, the sun beating on the roofs in Arizona and it's up in Chicago where they have the snow, and in Michigan and it just wasn't here, and so we are so excited to be able to bring this to somewhere that really still needs it because it's applicable across the board for anybody.
Speaker 3:You know we have the swing of those 30 degree differences and that takes a beating on your roof when the sun is beating down in the afternoons and then it goes to so low temperatures. You know, sometimes in the wintertime we have it seems like 80 degrees outside and it can be 30 degrees in the morning. So when you have those swings it really wears on your roof and it wears on your concrete and the different products you have and wood, you know fencing and decking, and so we can do something for the members of our community when they let us into their homes and they let us fortify their roofs and their concrete and their wood and apply this product and save them thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine, and we haven't even addressed? You know, decks and fences, you do those too. We were even talking about docks, I think, the other day.
Speaker 3:Definitely yeah, and this product is. It's amazing. Because amazing? Because I mean we've done videos ourselves you know, just amateur videos showing how you you spray water on concrete or you spray water on wood that hasn't been treated and then you do it on what has been treated with the go nano product and it just rolled, the water rolls off. So imagine what it's doing inside of that product that you can't see inside of your you know, concrete and wood and shingles where it's not allowing all of those elements where the UV rays.
Speaker 3:It's like a suntan lotion or sunblock for your roof.
Speaker 3:It's helping your heating and cooling bill, it's keeping the water out and it's not allowing the oxygen to get in there and break it down, because we all know that the oxygen is, you know, the elements, are what break down all of these products that are made from, because you, when you have a shingle, it's made from crude, and crude is a biologic, biological product.
Speaker 3:You know it's. It comes from the earth and so this is a product that stops that aging and it can stop the breakdown. And so you don't have to replace your roof, you don't have to get a new deck, you don't have to get a new fence. Your concrete won't crack as easily and break down. We can't do anything about underneath, where the land may shift and you may have, you know, the dirt wash out from underneath. But we can keep the concrete from wearing down and losing all of that top coat. And we're just so happy that we have this to offer for everyone in Alabama, because it wasn't here before. It's not something that Alabama had that you could get. You'd have to call from somebody from out of state to come over, which obviously could be more costly as well.
Speaker 2:So Jackie, how can our listeners learn more? And they're going to need to contact you, so give us your phone number.
Speaker 3:Yes, so you call and you speak with me directly. I'm Jackie Harrison, 205-331-9449. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram and that would be at Nanorenewco, and that's what our website is. Is nanorenewco like company? We didn't do the com, it's the dot co. So you can find us anywhere. Contact us anyway through telephone, email or you know, by our website or Facebook or Instagram, and we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to give you a free quote and we'd love to come help you save money on all of those things that you need to protect, because your roof is protecting you, so why not protect it?
Speaker 2:Well, I will link to all that in the description below. And, jackie, thank you so much. I think you changed my life and you're going to change everyone else's life with like one nanoparticle at a time, but that totally counts right, definitely it's the little things in life, right. Thanks for coming by, Jackie. It's been a great pleasure.
Speaker 3:All right, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, northport. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpnorthportcom. That's gnpnorthportcom, or call 205-809-4910.