Leo started working full-time at 15. He enjoyed working with his hands and never felt pulled toward school. Before entering the flooring industry, he worked in a factory manufacturing lighting components, including ballasts.

That job ended in a way that still reflects how Leo thinks about responsibility. He and his brother were pulled into the office one Friday and told that one of them had to go. Leo voluntarily took a layoff to protect his brother Joe, whom Leo had helped get a job only a few months prior.

Leo’s roommate, Rafael, helped him get into flooring installation quickly so he could stay employed. Leo entered without any of the trade skills at the start, and he had to learn them independently. Leo is self-taught. He learned by doing the work, day after day, and improving through repetition and results.

Over the next six years, Leo built his skill set in residential flooring, then hit a ceiling in that world. Residential had smaller margins and demanded higher volume. It was back-breaking labor, and the math only worked if you kept running.

By 1986, Leo was ready to move into commercial flooring. It was a bigger ball game altogether. The jobs carried a higher risk but also offered higher margins. Heat welding was not yet standardized, which made the transition easier at first because Leo’s skills in flash coving and chemical adhesion still matched the demands of the work. However, that did not last long. As heat welding grew in demand, Leo responded by buying his first Leister heat welding kit and learning through trial and error with materials in his garage.

Early on, Leo ran into a problem that installers still face. Industry tools are not typically easy to use, and achieving consistent results demands strength, dexterity, and a level of touch that is hard to maintain over long days on your knees.

Leo received complaints about the quality of his first heat welding jobs. Some feedback focused on appearance, but the bigger issue was performance. If seams fail and welds do not hold, water can penetrate, causing damage that leads to expensive repairs, lost time, and jobs nobody wants to do twice. That reality pushed Leo to find a better way.

In 1987, Leo began modifying an existing welding tip. He invested in a used drill press bought at auction, the first piece of machinery he used to begin improving tools. With it, he drilled a single hole designed to distribute heat more effectively into the weld channel. That first modification became the Turbo Round Tip, the tool that started Turbo Heat Welding Tools. The next products followed in the same spirit of ease of use: the Pencil Tip, then the Roller Guide.

Installers quickly noticed the difference on jobsites because the work became smoother and more consistent, making it faster. Their encouragement, along with those first purchases, gave Leo the market validation he needed to turn the idea into a business and keep developing new tools.

What started as one installer trying to get better welds became a company built around making the job easier, more consistent, and less likely to come back as a callback.

For ten years, he developed tools on top of his flooring work, testing improvements in the real world and growing through word of mouth. He did industry flooring trade shows when he could, usually about once a year, and built early momentum through direct conversations, demonstrations, and installer feedback. In 1997, Leo dedicated himself full-time to helping installers with better tools. He grew sales early through a group of boutique distributors, and in 2006, he expanded into e-commerce to sell directly to customers and answer their questions.

That same jobsite-first mindset shows up in how we support our customers. Installers have called Leo for decades with questions about problems on the job. His first move is to understand the issue and the tools being used, then help the installer get to a solution, even on questions that do not directly involve our tools. That kind of support helps customers choose the right tools for the job.

Today, Turbo Heat Welding Tools continues the mission that started it: to make heat welding easier to execute and more consistent in real jobsite conditions, while minimizing the risk of callbacks. Turbo is built around specialized tools, real-world design, and direct support from people who understand the job because they have lived it.

The company has grown, but Leo's focus has stayed the same: helping installers do better work. He still prefers being involved, improving the tools, and making the job easier for the people who use them every day.

Need help choosing the right heat welding setup? Contact Turbo Heat Welding Tools for practical guidance rooted in real jobsite experience.