About
Parker Olsen, and why this exists
Ten-plus years in restoration as an owner-operator. A mechanical and electrical engineering background. Commercial dehumidification and power equipment he designed and built himself — and still runs on jobs.
Background
Field-earned, not classroom-earned
Parker Olsen is not a career instructor. He has spent more than a decade in restoration as an owner-operator, and the commercial work came the way it comes for most people — a job that was larger and stranger than anything before it.
His engineering background is mechanical and electrical, and it shows in what he specializes in: desiccant dehumidification, psychrometrics, CFM and airflow calculation, and temporary power. Those are the four places commercial drying plans usually fail.
He holds the IICRC Commercial Drying Specialist certification himself, having completed CDS coursework in 2017 and again in 2026, and he runs real commercial drying projects — including a commercial drying and monitoring engagement in Warrensburg.
- Experience
- 10+ years in restoration, owner-operator background
- Discipline
- Mechanical and electrical engineering
- Specialisms
- Desiccant dehumidification, psychrometrics, CFM and airflow calculation, temporary power
- Certification
- IICRC CDS — coursework completed 2017 and 2026
- Also operates
- Atmos — contractor-support equipment rental, consulting and remote monitoring
- Industry service
- RIA Young Professional Restorers Committee, more than a year
- Published
- Cleaning & Restoration magazine, 2019
- Instructor status
- Applied for IICRC Approved Instructor (CDS) — approval pending
Equipment
He builds the machines he teaches on
Most instruction on commercial dehumidification happens next to a diagram. Catalyst Training exists partly because the hardware is already in the yard.
- 01
Custom desiccant systems
Designed and built in-house for commercial work — not repackaged rental stock.
- 02
25-ton LGR desiccant preconditioner
A purpose-built preconditioning unit for large-volume drying.
- 03
5,000 CFM HEPA prefilter systems
Filtration sized for the airflow commercial structures actually need.
- 04
PLC-controlled generator load balancing
Distribution panels with programmable load management, built for temporary power on site.
- 05
Dri-Max 6005 diesel desiccant trailer
Used as a hands-on teaching aid for adsorption, reactivation, process and reactivation airflow, wet-exhaust routing and grain depression.
Supplying and troubleshooting commercial jobs is a different education from teaching them. Doing both is the point.Why Catalyst Training exists
Atmos
A second vantage point on the same problem
Parker also operates Atmos, a contractor-support business providing equipment rental, consulting and remote monitoring. It puts him on the other side of the phone when a commercial job is not going to plan — sizing equipment for other people's losses, watching data come back off live sites, and diagnosing why a structure has stalled.
That feedback loop is what shapes the teaching. The failure patterns are not theoretical; they arrive weekly.
Teaching philosophy
Numbers first, opinions second
Commercial drying rewards people who can defend a decision. Why that dehumidifier, why that many, why that airflow, why that duration, why that power plan. A class that leaves those questions to instinct has not prepared anyone for a commercial loss.
So the emphasis is on calculation, sizing rationale and documentation — the parts of the S500 body of knowledge that turn into defensible scopes and paid invoices.
And on honesty about what is not known yet. Which brings us to the status of this venture.
Status: instructor approval in process
Parker Olsen has applied for IICRC Approved Instructor status in Commercial Drying Specialist and approval is pending. Until it is granted, no CDS class can be scheduled and Catalyst Training makes no claim to be an approved or accredited school. The waitlist is how you find out first — it costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Consulting is unaffected and available today.