Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Delaware County, PA (Delco"") and the surrounding Philadelphia Metro Region.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Mike Quinn and Hello Garage Increase Home Values Through Storage and Concrete Solutions
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Mike Quinn and Hello Garage Increase Home Values Through Storage and Concrete Solutions
What's the first thing you say hello to when arriving home? For most of us, it's our garage—often the most neglected, disorganized space in our homes. In this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, say hello to Mike Quinn, the Philadelphia Region owner of Hello Garage, and hear how what sadly is often considered "the junk drawer of the house" can better serve you as a beautiful extension of your living space.
While being interviewed by host Bob Blaisse, Quinn takes us deep into the world of garage renovations, explaining how the specialized polyaspartic coating they use on concrete floors does far more than just make concrete pretty. You hear Mike explain how often, when concrete gets put down, its starting point is to begin failing right away, but his Hello Garage floor detailing process seals garage floors against moisture, prevents future damage and creates a stunning finish homeowners find mesmerizing to the envy of their friends and neighbors. But you'll also hear how the Hello Garage technology extends beyond garages to outdoor concrete spaces like porches, patios, and pool decks—anywhere concrete needs rescue from years of staining and deterioration.
What might surprise you when listening to this episode is learning the remarkable return on investment concrete and garage storage renovations offer. While costing just 1-2% of a home's value, Quinn reveals that a transformed garage can increase selling prices by 3-5% or more. Quinn explains that realtors often point out how prospective buyers judge the rest of the home based on the garage—if the garage is well-kept, buyers assume the inside is maintained just as well. For many home sellers who can't afford major kitchen or bathroom remodels, this affordable alternative of garage and concrete improvements can create powerful first impressions that make all the difference. Listen and learn how to say hello to a garage that will make you proud.
Hello Garage
HelloGarage.com
facebook.com/hellogaragephiladelphia
888-59-GARAGE
--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
Introducing the Good Neighbor Podcast
Speaker 1Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.
Speaker 2Hello everybody and welcome again to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast and thank you, michael Barkan, for that introduction. I started with hello everybody because today we have a guest. That's going to be an interesting kind of a hello back. We'll get to that in just a minute, but I did want to mention for those of you who are listening to the Good Neighbor podcast for the first time, we're coming to you from Delaware County, pennsylvania.
Meet Hello Garage and Mike Quinn
Speaker 2In the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, the most southeast county of Pennsylvania, we lovingly refer to Delaware County as Delco, delco and beyond, we like to say, because this podcast is really intended to bring good neighbor businesses from Delco outward to the people of Delaware County and beyond. So today the episode that we're going to have here is really a long hello because we're talking to the founder, the owner of a local company called Hello Garage, and it's Mr Mike Quinn. Mike, welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. Hello Bob, thanks for having this is going to be about. It's probably about garage storage or garage cleaning or garage clean out, right, but it's not. This is a big company, everybody. This is a national company and Mike Quinn is actually the representative of Hello Garage in the whole Philadelphia area. So not just Delco but Delco and beyond into the collar counties and Philadelphia County. Mike Hello Garage, really specialized in something that is a little more unique and specialized. Give our listeners an idea of really what the business is, hello Garage.
Speaker 3Yeah, absolutely no. Thanks for that intro. So we specialize. Yes, garages is a big part of what we do, right? The company is founded 45 years ago. Our specialty is around concrete floor coating and then organization. So storage organization, different things that we can put in a garage or perhaps in a basement, different things that we can put in a garage or perhaps in a basement ways to organize the parts of your home that typically are unfinished.
Concrete Floor Coating Technology
Speaker 3I always ask people. I'm like when was the last time you went to an MLS listing of a new home and saw the inside of a garage? And the answer is never, because they're usually the junk drawer of the house and the whole name of Hello Garage really is based on it is the first thing that you say hello to when you get home. So why walk into a stressful, cluttered environment when you can walk into a very clean, organized space? We also do outdoor concrete. When you think about the look and feel of your home and where you're walking into for your guests, we do concrete porches, back patios, pool decks, things of that nature. So we do extend to your point beyond the garage, but our name is just more welcoming in the garage space, I guess.
Speaker 2It would be welcoming too. I mean, you really hit the right point there. Many of us come into our garage and it's junk filled and we've got to squeeze around the junk. Why is it that way? Well, certainly the number one reason is that we have not cleaned out our garage. But the other reason why we haven't cleaned out our garage is there's really no place in an organized way to put the stuff that we really want to still keep, and so it's sitting on the floor and it's going to get put away at some point.
Speaker 2But if we had the encouragement to be able to want to have a good looking garage, we would probably keep it more fit and clean. And where does that come from? It comes from storage containers and racks and things that you know a place for everything. But then we're looking at this cold concrete floor and it isn't even. I don't know. It's just too cold, it's not pretty. So really, does the ambience of a garage pick up when you're putting a coating on the floor, or are there other advantages other than just the look appearance? It's not just bland white concrete.
Speaker 3Yeah, there's a number of things that happen. So when concrete gets put down, its starting point is sort of it starts failing right away and gradually over time, depending on how well it was laid out it will start to crack, it will start to pit, it will stain because it's a very porous surface. So you spill your oil, you spill some gas, spill some paint. That's always going to stay on your floor. What we're doing is, yes, we're going to make it beautiful. Right, we use a product called polyaspartic. Most people have heard of epoxy. That is kind of the generic term. Excuse me, but the polyaspartic is actually a product which will seal your floor. So, functionally, we're sealing it so no more moisture goes down into the floor and no more damage will happen over time. And then we're also making it look great. It looks phenomenal when it's finished. I have people who just are like I'm mesmerized by this floor when I got out of my house. It's like a new, it's like an extension of my home versus a garage anymore I can walk out.
Speaker 2I think most of us have seen one, mike. I mean we visited friends but at this point, these kind of add-ons to homes and to make homes seem to be more attractive and even more valuable. Yeah, we've seen some garages that have been fixed up without being fitted out. They're not made into living condition rooms but they're made to look really nice. And you had me at that floor business, because most of us have stains on our floor and the stains don't clean up well, but you, a lot of us, do have cracks. So is part of this process to be able to kind of paint the floor but also fill in the crack. Will a crack go away? Because of this? Epoxy can be filled into the crack.
Speaker 3Yeah, so yes, we repair the entire floor before we put anything down on it. So it's like any. I always. My best example is if you've always you know you've painted a wall in your house, right, you put spackle on it and you probably didn't do a great job sanding it. If you don't, you're going to see it through the paint all the time.
Speaker 3So if we don't get that floor perfectly smooth, we grind every floor with a concrete sander. We get it smooth as we can, we fill in all the, we repair all the cracks, we fill in any of the divots and we make the floor perfectly smooth before we lay the product. So your floor looks brand new almost brand new, I would say before we even put our product down. And then, when we put our product down, it absolutely you know, blemish free, if you will, and it will seal and protect it for the future. So you'll minimize any issues that could come, unless there's like a major earthquake or something like that. Right, so we can't prevent, but it will look fantastic for years and years to come.
Speaker 2It's starting to sound fantastic. We're talking right now to Mike Quinn, who is the franchise representative for Hello Garage and if you're interested in learning a little bit, as we're speaking here, and you want to go to the website, it's that simple. It's hellogaragecom and you can put in your own zip code and find the representative from Hello Garage in your area in the Philadelphia market. It's Mike Quinn and we have Mike here today. Mike going back to the garage in just a bit, because I want to talk about how we get the junk off the ground and how we're storing things in our garage. I want to talk about that because I think that's a specialty of yours, but I want to stay first on the floor, meaning outside the garage, because we're talking about concrete and we're talking about this really strong technology or painting and curing kind of covering concrete.
Speaker 2But you know, most of us would say nobody sees the garage. I shut the garage, I get out of the garage door. I would love it to look nice. But can we maybe start with my patio Because that looks horrible. I don't know whether to get some all year round kind of carpeting out there. I don't know whether to paint it, sand it, sandblast it or what, but tell me what's the solution for people who are not happy with their concrete that's around the outside of their house.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's a big factor and we do a lot of that work because you know you think curb appeal right, if you're. People spend a lot of money on their foyers, right, they decorate them. This is kind of our whole premise of. As a homeowner, you walk through the garage but you want the front to look pretty for your neighbors, your friends, anybody walking up. And concrete will stain, whether it's indoors, outdoors, wherever it is, and so we utilize the same product.
Speaker 3We put what's called a slight a grip additive into it to make it feel a little bit more like concrete, but we are coating it. It's not a paint, it is a coating process that actually soaks into your concrete. The chemical we use is uv stable, so it won't fade ever, and we're putting it on the front and creating really a beautiful new front entryway to your home or on the back porch. I know we did one earlier this week. We did their front and back porch because they're like we. Just, you know, we tried to paint it and now it's peeling up and now it looks horrible and we have guests out here all the time. So it takes that slab of concrete that looks basic and dirty and turns it into almost a very elegant porch setting like something you haven't seen before, and we are doing a lot of that because of that point. Like folks just love to have their entry look great and where they're spending most of their time, how much flexibility do they have with the design?
Speaker 2Is it more like a marbleized kind of design? Is it multiple colors? Can it be one color? Can they pick their color? Can it have a design? Is it more like a marbleized kind of design? Is it multiple colors? Can it be one color? Can they pick their color? Can it have a design built into it?
Speaker 3Yeah, we do. It's called a flake broadcast. So, essentially, like a lot of folks have seen, videos where we throw up like we have products that are specifically considered classic garage floor coatings and then we have other lines. We call one a marble line or a platinum line and then a sandstone. So it's different size flakes that drive a different look and feel on the floor and then, quite honestly, if somebody wanted to customize something, we can customize it to whatever color they want. If they want it to match their siding, they want to match it to their house. I'm a Penn State fan. I'm still trying to get people to put Penn State floors down in their front entryway when they're walking in their house, so we get the blue and white in there. You can do a lot of things with this.
Speaker 2It's just a matter of preference and we customize everything to each person depending on what they're looking to accomplish it sounds wonderful garage upkeep or updating but really experts with concrete and all forms of concrete that either need to be repaired or beautified. We're talking to Mike Quinn here, the local franchise owner of Hello Garage, as I mentioned. You can see some videos there and some products and learn more about what is this kind of concrete technology at hellogaragecom. And if you'd like to talk to Mike, he's available for a phone call. If you'd like to call him, the number for Mike Quinn is 888-59-GARAGE Easy to remember 888-59-GARAGE. You'll reach Mike Quinn and, by the way, on his website at hellogaragecom, if you just put in your zip code, a form will come up. You can fill out a form. You can get a quote really from Mike Quinn from Hello Garage.
Garage Organization and Design Process
Speaker 2Now, mike, I do want to get back to the subject of what it is, which is kind of not just concrete repair, painting, texturizing, but really we're talking about also organization of your garage. So tell us a little bit about the containers and about the racks and methods. Is it? Is it really kind of like a consultancy that comes in and looks at my garage and says, bob, you, you really got a problem. This is what we're going to do. What would you do for me?
Speaker 3Yeah, so the consultancy is us. So we come in either myself or one of my estimators. We come in, we work with you, we're very consultative. One of the things I want to get across is I'm a homeowner first and a contractor second. I want to create a great experience for our customers, so our approach is very low keyed. I'm pretty mellow person myself and I sell that way.
Speaker 3It's really tell us what you're trying to accomplish in your garage. Things do you want to put on your wall, what are the functions you want to figure out for yourself? Do you have a lot of storage? Do you have a lot of kids' toys? Do you have a lot of things to hang? And we really work through a process with them to say, okay, what is important for you? And then we design it right there on the spot. So if I'm in an appointment, I might be there for an hour. We figure out floor color, we figure out all that and then we design the garage that they want not the one that I want and figure out what makes the most sense from them. And then, right there on the spot, we provide a quote, we provide images of everything to say, hey, this is what your future garage will look like. Make sure it matches what you're trying to accomplish, and then we go from there.
Speaker 2And is from there kind of a multi-day approach, or can it all be?
Speaker 3done in one day. It depends on how much of the storage organization you do. When we do our flooring it's generally one day, unless it's like a massive. We're doing an airport hangar that's 4,000 square feet. That's going to take a few days. A normal garage is one day and then just depends on how much cabinetry or storage you put up. It might take us a day and a half to two days. Max really is what we spend. We're rarely there more than that.
Speaker 2Mike, I think that some people listening would be thinking like I'm really going to make an investment in concrete or in my garage, and you must have, even when you were thinking about this business. But when people do get kind of behind the curtain and they recognize the technology that's involved and they recognize the appearance that can be gained, let's just let it out here. We've got to speak to this point. There are some homeowners who came from a home with a better garage and they just can't go on in this new home without getting this garage done right. Or I can't stand looking at cracks in the concrete outside of my patio. Got to fix it? Go for that home because you can fix it with a company like Hello Garage. Got to fix it? Go for that home because you can fix it with a company like Hello Garage.
Speaker 2How about the person who's looking at moving? They can't afford to put a new bathroom in or a new kitchen, but they want some eye candy for the showing of the house and maybe they're not going to use that garage as the dump room. They're going to ship that stuff off for the weekend while they're showing the house. But is an investment like you would make in someone's two car garage looking really nice with, you know, containers and racks and things like that and a new floor. Is that really? Can they get that money back pretty quick when you're trying to sell the house?
Speaker 3Yeah, the way I look? Yes, absolutely it's not. And the one thing I always want to make sure people it's not as expensive as you think. Like I've had people at trade shows walk by and say, man, if I hit the lottery, I'm going to do this on my floor and I'm thinking this isn't where you're spending your lottery money. This is not the bill that's going to do that, but the way I look at it is very simple.
Speaker 3The cost of doing a garage remodel like the way we do it is probably one to the highest point, less than 2% of the value of your home by far, maybe 1.5% based on the jobs we do, and you very easily can increase the price of your house from that 1.5% to 3% to 4% to 5% based on having a finished garage, because 90% of the folks don't have that right. So if you're competing with local listings elsewhere, they're walking in and they're seeing a dumpy garage. You walk into your space and what people, what realtors tell me is, when we walk into a space where the garage is really well maintained, that gives the home buyers and the folks prospecting looking for a home the sense that man, if they take care of this space like that they must take care of the inside of the house. That's right, and that extra value on top of where you can just put your listing.
Speaker 3So I think there's huge value to it, for sure.
Speaker 2Well, you know, certainly when you're having an open house and you're walking up to the house, especially if the garage is facing the street and people are walking up the driveway, if the first thing they're seeing is an open garage, that's different in the first place. And then when they're seeing such a beautiful garage, wow, that first impression stays with you and so I can see where having the garage repaired and remodeled, if you will, is really going to be a value in trying to sell your home. It's been a lesson for me, mike. I mean this has been hello. Think about your garage, think about hellogaragecom.
Speaker 2Mike Quinn is the local Philadelphia representative and is happy to talk with you. If you want to reach out to Mike, go to HelloGaragecom, put your zip code in and find out more about this really good neighbor business that's in every community, certainly in our community here, with the help of Mike Quinn. Mike, thank you for being a guest here today on the Good Neighbor Podcast. It's been very informative. You sound like a great guy. I'd love to have you come out and do my garage. Everybody. Give Mike a call. Mike, thanks for being our guest today.
Speaker 3No thanks for having me, Bob, and thanks for everyone listening. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnpdelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.