Weatherwood and Galleher Floors

Hello, friends! You guys will never believe where I am! I'll give you three guesses. Nope. Try again. This time, think palm trees. Nope, not even close. Think Hollywood. Last guess. 

That's right! I've been working in Los Angeles! I used to play the guessing game with my Grandma when I was a kid. I loved narrowing my options. I know, I know, a bit childish, but it's tots fun! 

Anyways, I got a call from a stain and flooring company called Galleher. They wanted to see my stain in action on their operation line. So we ditched the dogs with some really good friends, left our cat, and went on the adventure of a life time. 

My sweet husband drove us fifteen hours to  friends condo. Did I say condo? It was more like a mansion right on the freaking ocean! Here's a few pics from my Instagram feed. Can you believe how freaking huge this place is? I'd like to send a shout out to the Lindorfs for hooking us up! Thanks Ron and Terri! Don't be sups jelly ladies, we did actually work our fannies off. So Galleher totally wanted that weathered gray look on maple, which, as all of you know, I do best! It was so nice to implement my product on their line and see their operation in processes. It made my MBA operations class come alive. I could tell you at every stage what the total throughput time was and exactly how much money Weatherwood was going to save them. 

This opportunity made realize that Weatherwood really does two things. 

1) Weatherwood saves mega bucks on material costs. You don't have to buy mineral oils, primers, paints, and different types of sand paper. All you have to do is sand the wood with a rough grit, like 80-140 and open the wood up. Then get the wood really wet with the stain, we call that drenching it, and let it dry.

2) Weatherwood saves money on labor costs. You don't have to pay someone 60+ hours to get that weathered look anymore. And your finisher doesn't have to do a 12 step process. All your finisher has to do is wipe Weatherwood on, let it dry, and boom, you have that rustic look that everyone wants! (Don't wipe the stain off! It clouds if you don't allow it to react). These two mind blowing facts have helped my product to get on the shelf in 12 different locations!!! 

Once Galleher's ops manager put our stain on cherry, he wanted to see it on several different species of flooring, like maple, walnut, and red/white oak. To actually see this process, was such a thrill for me. When he fed the planks through a UV light to speed up the process, it was so awesome to see the expression on his face. I was like, bam! I told you it would work. Well, sort of, when he put it through the UV light, I wasn't sure speeding up the cure time would work, but it did, so BAM! Did you guys know that A flooring line from start to finish only takes like 2-3 minutes? This line was capable of running a thousand board feet an hour. It took them no time at all to stain these samples. What they did next was even more impressive. 

Once WW dried, they ran the planks through a top coat machine that didn't even look like it was doing anything. I was shocked that they were able to put a water based poly on so fast. I was even more shocked when they ran it through the UV light and got it to cure in like two minutes flat. And that was two top coats. Ok, so it sounds like everything went super well, but this last phase is where I got sups nervous. the ops manager pulled out a black box and had this weird grin on his face. He was like, "ok, now we have to scratch test it." 

I didn't really say anything, but my heart sank. I had no idea what a scratch test was. When he opened the box, he removed a tool that looked like a tiny little rake. Before I could protest this test I had never seen performed, he scratched the board two inches on one side, and two inches on the other in a perfect 90 degree angle. He must have known I was nervous because he kept saying, "is ok,... I think." Then he took a piece of tape and put it on top of the scratch and pressed down really hard. I realized then, that I was doomed. See, when the ops manager made his mark, he overlapped the cuts so that these perfect little squares formed. You can see it in the above pic, on the board on the left. If you've ever painted a window cill, you know that the paint can't adhere to spots like this. That's where your first chips form, and it usually happens when the paint dries. Well, here I was, starring Javier in the face, trying my best not to explode in anticipation. He grabbed the corner and ripped the tape off. I shut my eyes to tight, I thought they'd never open. 

"See," Javier said, holding the tape up to my closed eyes. I couldn't help it, I had to open them. I had to see what he was talking about. 

"Your stain is in the actual wood, changing the tannins, so it doesn't come off. Is like I said,... is ok." The ocean of anxiety washed tingling waves all over me. I propped my most confident smile and looked at Zack to see if he was worried to. I could tell the width of his eyes that he was as surprised as I was. 

In the picture above, you can see our finished flooring samples. We did quite a few, but you can see maple, walnut, white oak and fumed oak. I cannot even begin to tell you guys how incredible it is to make a product from scratch and have the biggest companies in the world wanting it! Needing it! Having to have it! Just to see it alongside their production lines makes me feel like I've come so far. It was a complete trip to see my wood stain in front of the brands they represent, like Ciranova. I feel so incredibly blessed. I was secretly thrilled just to be there, but don't worry, I had my game face on! It was all business and we had to prove my product could work.
If you missed my last biz update, it's right here!I can't wait to share my next update with you- but in the meantime, we'll be back Wednesday with a DIY for you!