Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Roth.
Hi Caleb, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Absolutely. My journey started in the fence industry—I was raised around it, and that early exposure gave me a deep respect for skilled trades and hard, honest work. I spent my twenties at the helm of my family’s fence company in Nashville, learning the field from the ground up. At the same time, I served my community as an Assistant Fire Chief and EMT. That experience taught me about leadership, discipline, and the importance of service—values that continue to guide how I run my businesses today.
As I spent more time in the fence and outdoor wood industries, I saw a clear gap in the market for professional wood care solutions—things just weren’t being done at the level I believed was possible. That’s what led me to start Stain & Seal Experts, which began as a service brand and quickly grew into something bigger. Out of necessity, I developed my own proprietary ultra-low VOC stain, initially just to serve our own clients better. It worked so well that it eventually became EXPERT Professional Wood Care, and today we’ve sold over 150,000 gallons worldwide.
From there, the mission evolved into a full ecosystem. I launched Gopher Wood, which offers pre-finished lumber solutions for contractors who want speed without sacrificing quality. We’ve also built out Stain & Seal Supply to help streamline access to the materials we trust, and we recently franchised the original Stain & Seal Experts brand to help others build their own businesses using what we’ve learned.
But at the heart of it all, I’m a builder—of people, not just companies. That’s why I started Staining University, a free platform where anyone in the trade can learn what took me years to figure out. We’ve taught classes in states all over the country, and I still host the Stain & Seal Experts Podcast to keep sharing practical tools and real-world insights.
My story isn’t about climbing a corporate ladder—it’s about restoring dignity to blue-collar entrepreneurship and proving that tradesmen can be transformational leaders. I’ve never had a formal degree, but I’ve invested heavily in education through frameworks like Scaling Up, the 4-Day MBA, and EO. I believe in building legacy over empire—everything I do is for my family, my team, and the communities we serve.
Today, I run Restorative Industries, which is now a $10M+ family of brands. But more than the revenue, I’m proud that we’re helping redefine what success looks like in the trades—rooted in values, craftsmanship, and generosity.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would say it has been a windy road with lots of learning opportunities along the way. Coming from a blue collar upbringing there are many things we just didn’t know about business and leading a team. The biggest struggle has been and remains learning to find high level talent and getting out of their way. I’ve learned so much from our team members and now I am certain that with the right team there isn’t anything we cannot accomplish.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Restorative Industries, and we have a family of brands that revolve around exterior wood care. Growing up in a family-owned fence install company and servicing middle Tennessee for most of my late teens and early twenties, I learned to love serving customers. But I wanted more for myself and my family.
I was searching for a new beginning. I considered going into many fields and really wanted to get out of the fencing and decking industry. Then I heard the voice that said, “You will stain fences,” and I listened.
The Beginning: Stain & Seal Experts
I started “Stain & Seal Experts” – what you would call a side hustle – staining and sealing fences, and decks which paired well with the family fence company. I learned a lot running our fence business and was able to have almost immediate success with the new wood staining venture. Eventually, the business grew to a point that it required my full-time attention, so I left the family business and burned the boats.
Innovation Born from Necessity
Several years after going all in, I saw some real holes in the stain and sealer product offering on the market. I decided that in order to better serve my Nashville clients, I should make my own stain – one that was stronger and longer lasting, easy for us to use, and most importantly, a stain and sealer that did not have all the toxic fumes and VOCs that were so common at the time.
It took a good amount of research and development. My garage and backyard looked like a mad scientist lived there, but it paid off. One day while helping a crew stain a deck, I stained about an 8-foot-long deck board, and within minutes the stain had soaked into the wood and could be walked on without leaving footprints. I knew I had it.
We really focused on serving our customers with our new stains and were very happy with where we were. During this time, I spent a lot of time creating content – before content was cool. I wanted my Nashville clients to know we were serious about exterior wood care and that we were experts in our field. We educated our audience on a daily basis on what we felt was important for them to know about taking care of their exterior wood structures.
EXPERT Professional Wood Care is Born
Many of our competitors and other wood care contractors took notice of us and said, “Hey, your jobs look great. What stain are you using?” My answer was we make the stain ourselves, and they wanted to buy it. EXPERT Professional Wood Care was born, and we began selling stains. It really took off – we had a huge base of contractors that tried and loved our stains.
The really interesting thing about our stains is that we use a pure paraffinic mineral oil carrier that is highly refined, non-toxic, non-cancer causing, and third-party tested. It’s literally the best and safest oil we can find, but it comes at a premium price point. When contractors use our products, they immediately smell the difference. We don’t have the terrible odors that are so common with many solvent/oil-based stains. We offer both Low VOC and Ultra-Low VOC stain and sealers.
This is a big deal for contractors who use these types of products on a daily basis. We are very proud of our formula.
Direct-to-Consumer Success
The struggle was getting distribution as a newcomer in an already populated stain product market. We compete with the big players in the space, and they just didn’t have room for us on their shelves. So StainAndSealSupply.com was born. We built this platform to create a marketplace to sell the products we manufacture.
Not only do we manufacture stains and sealers, we make a full line of wood cleaning and brightening products, Natural Defense (an essential oil made to mix in sealers to deter bugs and boring insects), and a complete line of accompanying products for stain & seal contractors and DIYers. Eventually, as the business grew, the team had to grow, and we made our first manufacturing and operations hires. This made a huge difference. We still seek distribution and retail opportunities and plan to bring on more and more retailers with our products. Currently EXPERT products can be found on store shelves throughout the US, Canada, and the UK.
Gopher Wood: Revolutionary Factory-Finished Lumber
Around 2024, I found another opportunity. The problem was many builders wanted the benefits of staining and sealing their wood projects, but they didn’t want to take on the task of staining the wood themselves. So we created Gopher Wood – Factory Finished Lumber.
At Gopher Wood, we bring in kiln-dried cedar lumber and stain it with machinery on all six sides, dry it properly, and sell the lumber to lumber yards, wholesalers, contractors, etc. – giving them all the upside with no downside. This is a revolutionary idea that gives a huge benefit to the end consumer at a very competitive price point. We are very proud of Gopher Wood.
The Future: Franchise Expansion
Over the years, we’ve always been really focused on educating our contractors who use our products through online training and live events. We’ve gotten quite a few requests for “How do I get my own Stain & Seal Experts location?” So in 2025, we are launching the Stain & Seal Experts Franchise.
Our goal with this opportunity is to help franchisees do in one year what took us ten years to build. I’m so excited and proud of what the future holds for us at Restorative Industries.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
One of our biggest goals is bringing more of our success back home to Nashville. We’ve built incredible partnerships with retailers and contractors across the United States, Canada, and the UK who are seeing tremendous results with our products. Our products have been featured on HGTV and Magnolia Network, but we’d love to do more business right here in Music City. Sometimes there’s an interesting dynamic where a local company has to prove itself everywhere else – including internationally and on national television – before the hometown market fully recognizes what they’ve built. We’re shipping our products to the UK and Canada and being showcased on national TV while potential customers right here in Nashville are still driving to other markets or ordering online to get what they need. I’d love to see more Nashville businesses capitalize on having a nationally-televised, internationally-recognized wood care manufacturer right in their backyard. The demand is definitely there – we’re just looking for the right local partners who want to be part of this growth story.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://restorativeindustries.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RestorativeIndustries
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/restorativeindustries/
