Neil and Lin Warner - Saving Lives on Metal Roofs No Matter the Conditions - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Neil and Lin Warner from SteelGrip SAMM. You can Read the interview below, Listen to the podcast or Watch the recording.

Karen Edwards: Hello and welcome to MetalCast by MetalCoffeeShop. My name is Karen Edwards, and today we're going to be talking about safety on metal roofs. Joining me for this episode are Neil and Lin Warner from SteelGrip SAMM. Welcome to MetalCast.

Neil Warner: Thank you, Karen.

Lin Warner: Thanks.

Neil Warner: Hi.

Lin Warner: Great to be here.

Neil Warner: Good to see you.

Karen Edwards: Would you please introduce yourselves, for our listeners and give us a little bit about your background?

Neil Warner: I'm Neil Warner, I'm the inventor of SteelGrip SAMM, the magnetic mats. Safety Assist Magnetic Mats is what the SAMM stands for. It's for working on steel roofing. This is my wife Lin. She's the overall manager of everything else.

Karen Edwards: Excellent, excellent. Tell me a little bit about, I guess, the history of what brought about the SteelGrip SAMM. How was it born?

Neil Warner: Well, I was a painting contractor for 36 years. And when I was in high school I also built pole barns so I have experience with trying to stay up on steel roofing. We were on a job, my partner and I that I worked with from the time I started painting, and we had to set up scaffolding, four of us, to reach a second-story set of dormers. This house had six dormers on a lake here in Michigan. At noon we sat down and we had not done any work, any of us, except setting up, tying off, putting things in place so we didn't damage the roof so we could stay there. We looked at one another and we said, "There's got to be a better way. This is just so time-consuming and costly." And still not really that safe in the way that we access dormers, or anything when working chimneys, working on steel roofing.

So we tossed around some ideas, made a few notes. My partner went to a job similar the following year. He took an initiative to make up some prototypes, used them on the job. Everybody borrowed them. Everybody used them, loved them. He came back and he said, "We got to do something with this." So I took it and developed higher quality materials, better covering the product that we have today. Very proud of what we've been able to do in the last four years in producing SAMM mats.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Now, for our listeners, how ... Explain to them what exactly the SteelGrip SAMM mat is. How it looks? What does it look like? How big is it? How does it work? I want to know all the details.

Neil Warner: Well, Karen, we have three different styles. We have the Pole Barn 9" on center rib, 12" on center rib, then we have Standing Seam, which is hidden fastener, the terms in the field and then we have the PRO line. Now with the pole barn, which is probably your most popular type of steel and most common out there, we have a 25 x 5/8 wide mat x 21". They come in sets of two. And they have a diamond deck rubber surface with magnets, strips of magnet attached to the bottom and a non-skid rubber coating over that. Easy to lay in place, easy to move. They'll hold up to 300 pounds or more. We recommend using them under 712 but we have used them over that. Always use a lanyard and harness, you want to be tied off. In the industry, anything ... Any type of safety equipment helps.

But our 12" on center are a larger mat. They are 34" wide x 23" in length. The Standing Seam is a magnet which is 10" wide x 21" in length, one on each side of a 28" mat x 21 that lays over the center rib. Those are easy to use, you can use them on any width of steel. It's one of the questions a lot of our customers ask, "Can we use it on 12" because we use it on 16"? It's just a matter of laying over that rib. It gives you two spaces for your feet to set securely. And then we have what we've just developed and we're really proud of this ... In the last year we've developed the PRO line.

Karen Edwards: Okay.

Neil Warner: That is a 25 5/8 x 21. It has a super high-strength neodymium magnet bottom.

Karen Edwards: You just said a word I don't know, neodymium.

Neil Warner: Neodymium is a magnet material, it's a rare earth mineral. For anyone who's ever had the little magnets that you put on your refrigerator that your friends say, "Try and pull that off," and you can't do it, that's the neodymium magnetic mineral.

Karen Edwards: Okay. So it's extra strong.

Neil Warner: It's extra strong. It was just four years ago, maybe five now that they were able to make a flexible magnetic material out of it. That was exciting for us because that's what we need. We need something to work on various types of steel as well as ... I'm sure you're aware today, in the metal industry, that there's cedar shake, imitation plate, terracotta, a vast array. You can get steel in almost any color today, most any design which is cool because you can do beautiful homes, beautiful roof lines.

Karen Edwards: I think that's really one of the appeals behind metal is all the options that you can have. And so it's great to hear that your PRO mat is going to work with all of those

Neil Warner: And steel lasts a lifetime. It's one of the great things about steel. They're even making siding today that looks like log. You can produce a house today because it's so costly that ... It's so expensive to build. If you can have a no-maintenance home with steel on it, how fantastic is that?

Karen Edwards: Right, right.

Neil Warner: Yes. In working with steel roofing when you've got a mat that will help keep your tools in place, reduce damage. That's one of the big goals, as well as the safety for the workers, is you don't want to damage.

Karen Edwards: Right. If drop a tool and it slides down off that roof-

Neil Warner: The customer's not happy.

Karen Edwards: No, not at all. And you might mess up your tool too.

Neil Warner: Yeah. Look out below.

Karen Edwards: Right. Wow.

Neil Warner: That's the thing, if you've got masons up there putting in a stone chimney, and they've got to do a setup to keep themselves in place, protect the surface, what do they do? They go through a massive process. Now, one of the advantages of our material is, for especially the standing seam and the PRO line, you can go up there, lay the mats in place. Things like the pivot tool, which is an angled wedge for roofing work, you could put in place and then build up off of that to set up a scaffolding quickly, safely and be able to go to work. You've got a mat down, say you've got four sets, six sets, you lay out all the way around your work area, you're not going to damage that surface if you drop a tool, a trowel or a stone.

Karen Edwards: Right.

Neil Warner: That's a great thing to have in your confidence in what you're doing in your work area.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, that's a good point. It's not just for the contractor installing the metal, it's for those installing the accessories. Maybe chimney's not an accessory but you know what I'm talking about. The extras like that to protect it where they're working.

Neil Warner: And maintenance people, when you have to go back and say, "You've got to replace a boot vent, you've got to make some sort of repair from falling branches" your time ... One of the things about iffy weather, such as what was your experiencing this year, where every other day it seems to be mist or a little bit of snow, it melts off, it's rain, it's wet, how do you get up there confidently and do the work you need to do without losing your things.

Karen Edwards: I mean, it's slick anyway being steel and metal, but add a little bit of dew or moisture and it becomes even treacherous.

Lin Warner: One of the things we're finding is our ... People that purchase the mats are loving it because they feel more confident on the roof, and they are not as tired at the end of the day because they're not always on guard, they've got a safe footing.

Neil Warner: One of the things that I experienced as a painter and as a pole barn builder was if you get on a 5/12, 6/12, 7/12 or higher, you're bracing yourself against those outside ribs with your feet all day long. Even if your harness is holding you in place, you still don't want to fall and hit the deck or want to damage things. This was really cool, we appreciated it so much. One of the contractors that used our mats, Brad McInnis, he made videos for us and telling us how much he loved the fact that, as he put on a ridge cap and end seams, he was able to set tools in place, kneel down without slipping and it was a day where it was misting. The great thing about steel producers today, they're working with the contractors to put plastic covering on many of them for that added protection but that's even slipperier.

Karen Edwards: Right.

Neil Warner: Brad was talking about the dust because they were excavating right next to him on this site. They were adding several buildings apparently in this area. He was telling us that the dust was a major factor every day because he might get a couple of steps in and then after that his feet just slid.

Karen Edwards: Wow. That's-

Neil Warner: He loved the mats for that.

Karen Edwards: That's great. There's nothing like a testimonial from a contractor that's using the product. And to be that thrilled with it that he did some videos for you and shared that with you, that is fantastic, fantastic.

Neil Warner: We appreciate it when they get back to us in telling us how they worked for them, and several have. We had a chimney cleaner who was trying to access a 8/12 pitch and he said that it was almost impossible. And once he got the mats he was able to get up there, set up with his equipment and clean the chimney, get down. When you're cleaning a chimney you do make dust around you too.

Karen Edwards: Sure, sure.

Neil Warner: He said that's the tricky part is he may get up there, but once he has dust in the area around him and it collects on his shoes how does he get down?

Karen Edwards: Right. For moving around the roof, how easy is it to pick the mat up and move it to the next spot? Is that how it's used?

Neil Warner: Most guys can do it with one hand. The Standing Seam mats are ... Because of the width of the magnet, you can grab it on center, pick it up, hit the rib line and just drop it in place and you're ready to walk. The Pole Barn a little more. Two hands or some guys will lay them from the side. Start by laying the edge into the valley line next to the rib and then dropping it in place. Hit it with your foot, you're ready to walk.

Karen Edwards: Wow. So how many people get a two-pack to start with and then come back for more? You probably see that a lot.

Neil Warner: A lot. Last year we had an average of 18% return purchase-

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Neil Warner: On top of the ones who would buy three to five sets or more, some 10. It was great. It was a high average and people were very happy with them. We just had, what was it, Lin? A customer from 2001.

Lin Warner: Yes.

Neil Warner: They had purchased five sets of this Standing Seam, I believe, and they came back and they purchased five sets of the PRO line this year.

Karen Edwards: So, you've been doing this since when? When did you first develop this?

Neil Warner: The first prototype was back in 2012. We started working on it then. We formed the company in 2014, and we started our first sales ... We did a show in Marquette at the Dome, that was the spring of 2019. We had a great response, people loved them. And we've been improving them ever since. Listen to our contractors, listen to what they have ... We love feedback. We sometimes call them and ask them what they like, what they didn't like and that's how we made the progression into the PRO line and have been able to continue on supplying them with a good tool.

Karen Edwards: That's fantastic. That's exciting. So many times new products and tools are born out of a need that a contractor sees while they're on the job. That's exactly your story here. And it's fantastic to hear that you've been able to take what solved a problem for you and made you feel safer, and now you're helping how many other people out there stay safe? That's really impressive.

Neil Warner: Well, we're proud and really thankful to be able to do that because I am fortunate ... As I said, when I was in high school and just out I built pole barns, and I literally fell off three or four times.

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Neil Warner: Twice in the winter. In the summer I fell one time and I jammed my shoulder, and another time twisted my ankle. In two and a half years that I built pole barns, I did have to take friends a couple of times that were working with us to the hospital. It can be a lifelong injury that you just don't recover well from.

Karen Edwards: Sure. As you mentioned at the beginning, safety is the utmost important on any job anywhere. So anytime there is a new tool or equipment that can contribute to safety on the job site it's really important to let contractors know about it which is one of the reasons we're doing this podcast today.

Lin Warner: Well, our tagline is preventing injuries and saving lives. So at this point, we have mats in 49 states in Canada. The only state we're missing is Nevada. Come on Nevada. We've been selling online for four years and Nevada's the only missing link.

Karen Edwards: Oh, okay. Well, we'll work on them. That's where the International Roofing Expo is this year in 2024 so maybe we can convince somebody attending the show from Nevada to place an order.

Neil Warner: Maybe that's a show we can attend.\

Lin Warner: Well, actually, RoofersCoffeeShop did take our sample mats to the Las Vegas Convention, so we were surprised that we didn't get any calls from them.

Karen Edwards: Well, we'll try again. We'll try again in 2024. We will get Nevada to represent here.

Neil Warner: But one of the things that we've found is really helpful to contractors is they buy when they need which I'm guilty of. When I was a painting contractor, if I needed a new tool and the job justified the purchase that's when I bought it. Lin is always available for customer service basically 24/7. We like to have a real person there for that because then when you're getting your match, you know what you're buying. Customer service, at least to me, was always a high priority in purchasing something and knowing I'm getting what I'm paying for.

Karen Edwards: Absolutely. And not having to push buttons and speak to robots and recordings, right?

Lin Warner: Well, we've been selling online for four years now but I do get an awful lot of in-person calls which is really nice because people have questions. I usually can answer most of them. If I can't I call them back with the right answer from Neil. We do have a great website with a lot of drop-down columns and one is the facts. If people look at the facts drop down there's information on sizes, weight, just about anything anybody's answered. And if somebody comes up with a new one that's a fact that we add in.

Karen Edwards: That's good. We love to do things online nowadays. I love to go out there and learn about a product, read about it before I decide what ... Or maybe if I do have a question then having that phone number there to call is really invaluable. That's good so contractors can find your website. What is your website?

Neil Warner: That's SteelGrip, S-T-E-E-L-G-R-I-P, capital S-A-M-M. com. As I said before, the SAMM is an acronym for Safety Assist Magnetic Mats.

Karen Edwards: Safety Assist Magnetic Mats. Wow. Metal is just booming, right? The popularity is growing. We mentioned all the colors, all the styles, all the patterns. I think you're going to just be growing right along with that as contractors look for the right tools and the right equipment to keep them safe. We're glad that you could be here today on this podcast to share about your unique, innovative safety tool preventing injuries and saving lives, right, Lin?

Neil Warner: Yeah.

Lin Warner: Absolutely. Not only preventing injuries but it makes the job go a lot faster if you don't have to take a lot of extra equipment, just the ladder and the mats. So that seems to be convenient. They're really easy to carry because they're magnetized. A lot of the contractors carry them on the interior sides of their pickup trucks so they're easy to get to when you need them.

Neil Warner: Reduces storage space.

Karen Edwards: True.

Neil Warner: With the hurricanes, the fires, the floods, steel ... Every time you look at which buildings survived it's usually the ones that are covered in steel. So with today's climate, that's a big factor people are saying.

Karen Edwards: That's for sure.

Neil Warner: Get the safety and the value out of it.

Karen Edwards: We're seeing lots more severe weather. Hurricanes, and fires, and it's crazy. So yeah, I think more home and building owners are going to be asking for those products that can protect the structure. I'm really, really glad that there's safety solutions like SteelGrip SAMM out there to keep our contractors safe.

Neil Warner: Yes. And we-

Lin Warner: Neil's done a lot of research and development in getting the correct components to make sure that the mats are as safe as can be. But we also had third-party testing. We did 1000-hour weather testing with a company called QLab out of Florida, and passed with flying colors before we even put them on-

Neil Warner: Go ahead, Karen.

Karen Edwards: What is 1000-hour testing? What are they testing for?

Lin Warner: They test for weather so they use the mats in all kinds of conditions, extremes. Extreme heat, extreme cold, exposure to sun, exposure to ice.

Neil Warner: And exposure to salt air which can be a factor on this coast.

Lin Warner: Right. Especially in Florida.

Neil Warner: And in the south, yeah. It's one of the things that we wanted to make sure that the magnets which contain ferrite particles don't rust. They don't go and wind up leaving marks on the roof. So yeah, the 1000-hour testing was a factor. We wanted to make sure that the product held up.

Lin Warner: And also, we had contractor testing for three years before we even released the product online. You're taking someone's life in your hands, and hopefully we helped save them.

Neil Warner: That's the one thing that we really felt was highly important was to make sure that it kept people safe and their investment in the product was long-term.

Lin Warner: And they're patented here in the United States and Canada. Our patent is pending in Germany. We would love this to be global.

Neil Warner: We want to grow worldwide and help contractors and people in a quality product and in producing home value around the world.

Karen Edwards: I like that you have so many options. You have different styles., You have different options so depending on the job, what they're working on there's going to be one that is going to fit and meet their need. I think it's really impressive the amount of R&D that you did put into it because Lin, as you said, you're taking someone's life into your hands and you need to be sure and confident that this is going to do the job that it's intended to do. So very impressive. Congratulations on developing this incredible safety life-saving product, I'm impressed.

Lin Warner: Thank you.

Karen Edwards: Thank you, Karen.

Lin Warner: One of the things people ask, are the mass interchangeable? So the answer is no. The magnetic configuration between the Pole Barn style and the Standing Seam style are different because of the metal layout. The PRO is where the deal is cinched, you don't have to guess what roof. You can just take it out, and depending on which way you place it, either horizontally or vertically, it will stay in place. Actually, we decided to come up with that one because of the architectural style shingles. A lot of times when you step on them, they go concave which means the magnet doesn't hold because it's not adhering to the metal. On the PRO, because of the neodymium, the super strong we heard-

Karen Edwards: Yes.

Neil Warner: It does, it bonds well.

Lin Warner: If the shingle goes concave the magnets goes with it. And it's flexible enough that it will stick. Boy, if you can step up dollar-wise because they are more-

Karen Edwards: Right.

Lin Warner: That's the way to go. It takes the guesswork out. It works for anything including corrugated.

Neil Warner: On a corrugated you have very little exposure on each of the ribs, so you need that holding strength and grip to keep you in place. We're happy to say that it works on corrugated. When you're going to say farmers, which is very common, you've got to work on a barn, replace sheeting, go up there and run new screws or something like that, the PRO Mat will get you there.

Karen Edwards: Excellent, excellent. Well, thank you both for being on the podcast today, for sharing your story of how this came about, I love hearing that. I will ask that anybody listening that wants more information you can visit MetalCoffeeshop.com and look for SteelGrip SAMM's directory. Or you can go to SteelGripSamm.com. That's S-A-M-M, two M's, and purchase online. I want to thank everybody for listening today. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform and set your notifications so that you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you on a future episode of MetalCast. Thanks for being here, Neil and Lin.

Neil Warner: Thank you, Karen. Thank you, MetalCoffeeShop. Take care.