Justin Mattoon wears a lot of hats, but that’s what you would expect from a guy who’s been on the job since he was 12 years old!
That’s how old Justin was when he started working with his dad (Mac Mattoon) in the shop at B & F Power Vac on the weekends. Mac was running his Air Duct Cleaning business in Lewiston, Idaho and was often working on the weekends changing oil and doing other maintenance on his powervac trucks. Justin was there lending a hand… and learning the business.
When Justin graduated from high school he went to work for a local welded aluminum jet boat manufacturer. He started out as a detailer, but quickly moved into the finishing side of the business, installing everything from carpet to electrical with the exception of the motor. At the end of two years he was in charge of the finishing side. His crew became very efficient and got to the point where they had more finished boats than the sales staff could keep up with. As a result, a number of folks got laid off, including Justin.
So, in 1997, Justin came back to B & F Power Vac, initially just to fill in and help on an industrial cleaning job. He’s been working with B & F and American Caddy Vac ever since.
He splits his time about 60/40 between B & F and American Caddy Vac. His duties include scheduling for both sides of the business and setting the crews for each day of work. At B & F, he is also the saftey coordinator, and special projects manager (some of the industrial air duct cleaning jobs require substantial planning and coordination). It’s also not unusual for Justin to be working on one of the trucks when there are people out sick or on vacation. He bids work, manages supplies and maintenance for the trucks, and makes sure his crews have all the supplies and tools they need. One part of the job he enjoys is evaluating special projects that use their cleaning trucks in applications not dealing with traditional duct cleaning. When someone calls with something out of the norm, it’s Justin’s job to evaluate it and determine if it they can do the job efficiently, and meet the needs of the customer. This often involves contact cleaning. Sometimes it’s ceiling work in warehouses (cleaning cobwebs and other buildup), and in the inland northwest it’s not unusual for them to get calls to clean grain elevators and other farm related structures.
His duties for American Caddy Vac include customer service (taking orders, answering technical questions, making tool recommendations, etc…), testing and developing new tools (which usually involves seeing what it will take to break a new tool!), and determining which applications new tools are good for and which they are not good for.
Justin has always enjoyed working on cars and that’s how he met his wife, Tiffany. He was working under a car in a friend’s shop when Tiffany and a friend came in to the shop dressed for a night out on the town. She walked up to the car where Justin was working just as he dropped the oil pan, splashing dirty oil all over her new white shoes. That was apparently enough to get a conversation started and they’ve been together ever since. Tiffany worked at B & F Power Vac for a while, and even spent a few months on a duct cleaning crew! She also worked part time as a bookkeeper for B & F for a couple of years. She is now a bookkeeper at the local Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston.
Justin and Tiffany Mattoon
Justin enjoys spending time with Tiffany and their 4 nieces on the weekends. But most of his time is spent on the business.
He’s been on the job long enough now that he has some pretty good stories. One particularly memorable job was the time the US Army Corps of Engineers needed to inspect the lock doors on Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Eastern Washington. In order to inspect the welds, after the locks had been drained, they needed a high power vaccuum to suck away all the dirt and slime from the welds that had built up over the years. B & F had the power in their truck to do the job but it was a matter of how to access the welds on those 100 foot tall doors. The solution was to lower one of their trucks to the bottom of the drained lock with a huge crane. There is nothing quite so thrilling as to see one of your most expensive pieces of equipment hanging over 100 feet in the air. But they got the job done!
The favorite part of the job for Justin, on both sides of the business, is helping people. Providing service, finding solutions. Whether it’s building the perfect American Caddy Vac for a new or returning customer, or finishing a custom air duct cleaning job, Justin takes great satisfaction in a job well done.
