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We're using products that don't harm the environment and don't harm people. So that's always something
that I wanted to do. And, it hasn't been until recently that we've tried different finishes
over the years and we've tried different things and if a small business like this can do it
then I'm sure that other large businesses can do it to. We began looking and finding
products that are, first I looked at finishes. And so, I found finishes that had no VOC's,
that were all natural, that were non-toxic, that didn't harm people. Now the difference
is that finishes that you traditionally get would be lacquer base or polyurethane base
and they tend to off-gas a lot of toxins. So, my goal was to create a product here that
I knew would go into someone's home and not off-gas all day long and all night long. Most
people love the smell, they think of "Oh, new car smell." But, actually it's off-gassing
that new smell is either formaldehydes or other types of volatile compounds that are
off-gassing in your home. So, that was the first step we did, was look for finishes that
stains that were water based, that were non-solvent based. Stains that we wouldn't have to worry
about getting on our hands and getting sick from it. Myself, or people that work with
us. Traditionally, it's a lot easier to use other lacquers and things like that. They
dry a lot faster. So, when you're in business you're trying to find ways to improve speed
but not compromising quality. So, were finding products that we can still use. They're still
somewhat fast, the time may not be an hour it may be two hours before you can re-coat
something or sand it, or something like that. The other thing is, a lot of people they don't
understand where a wood come from. Is it sustainable, is it something that they're going into a
forest and clear cutting it and then selling it and are they replanting it? So, if you
pick a company that's providing sustainable wood, sustainable lumber, then you know that
they're replanting for one thing. Also, they're not cutting down old, usually they're not
cutting down old forest growth. Old forest growth which is important because those are
usually habitats to hundreds, if not thousands of species within that tree. All the way from
the roots all the way to the top of the tree. That's why we choose lumber that's coming
in from sustainable areas where companies that are using sustainable type forestry practices.
So, there's a lot of issues there that I saw with let's try to find a product that is not
off-gassing, that is actually producing something that, you know, that's non-toxic. You're not
have to worry about it hurting someone, hurting your customers for that matter. So, we found
plywood that are, that are very well done like this. This is what we're looking for,
so we found things that don't off-gas, have zero VOC's and that's what we're making our
products out of now.