BLOOMINGTON - Without those signs of wear and tear, your home's hardwood floor would be a beautiful feature. A Bloomington company that makes soy-based cleaners has just the product for you.

Franmar Chemical owner Frank Sliney demonstrates how to use Soy Gel to strip a hardwood floor to its original wood look. The same product also can scrape layers of paint right off of a door, he shows with one quick movement of a scraper. And unlike more traditional paint strippers, Soy Gel is odorless.

The chemical company, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, has more than 30 products to help individuals and industries tackle such projects as restoring a hope chest or getting rid of asbestos. It mixes chemicals, fills containers and prints bottles with product labels at its facility on six acres off of Illinois 9 in west Bloomington.

"We're just removers. We're green, healthy removers," said General Manager Daniel Brown.

The company's products, made from soybeans, leave a low-carbon footprint, Sliney said. Products are biodegradable, use little energy to make and don't produce hazards for the environment, he said.

"We were green before green was even popular," Sliney said.

Franmar Chemical started in 1983 in Sliney's living room as a company that made soy-based cleaners for the screen printing industry before it branched out with other products. The business has since outgrown many locations, most recently on Taylor Street in downtown Bloomington, before it moved to its current home earlier this year.

Sliney's first product was Series 8, a protective hand cream. Apply it like hand lotion, and it protects your hands, taking the place of gloves. To clean your dirty hands after a day of work in the shop, simply wash them with water.

About half of new products originate from customers' questions, Sliney said. They'd ask if the company had a product that could take paint off of a door and then if anything could take adhesive off of a floor, he said. Franmar then developed the solution.

"It was like solving a problem," Sliney said. "It's a real challenge. You like to solve the problem."

The staff has fun playing around to create something new, Brown said.

"When it comes to problem solving, we're like little kids," he said.

Franmar's latest dilemma should have an answer soon. Bean-e-Rid is expected to be available within a year to treat mold and mildew, Brown said.

Some product testing is supported by soybean checkoff funds, administered by the United Soybean Board.

After 25 years, Sliney, 72, has no plans for retirement and still has great expectations for his company.

In the beginning, constant travel to trade shows - where Franmar focuses most of its marketing - was tiring, Sliney said.

Developing products, though, seems to come easily to him. His goal is to become an expert on the industries that use their products.

"Knowledge is the key to this thing," he said.

From his past life as a stock broker in Manhattan, he decided he wanted more than just a job; he wanted to build something.

Sliney said maybe some day he will be successful, though some would say he already has reached that mark.

Franmar's sales have increased every year, and Inc. Magazine ranked it the fourth largest, fastest-growing for-profit manufacturer in Illinois in 2007.

"I want it to be everything it can be," Sliney said.