Q. How did you get started in the cleaning business? Mark A.Hi Mark- Gary The Rug Cleaner. Part 1.It was 1956. I was 22 years old, and had been a logger, and other kinds of work, to keep the wolf away from my door.I was finished with logging. I got a job working for a dry cleaners, mainly doing the spotting, and running the dry cleaning machines, who had a set of rug cleaning equipment that just sat in the front, with a sign on it- for rent.When I had the time, I read the instructions that came with it. It looked simple.I did not like to work inside with all the chemicals heat and smells. I asked the boss to put in his weekly newspaper ad a small section- rug cleaning, If anyone answered the ad, I would go out and do it.Surprisingly, someone did. I took the equipment- a 3 gallon wet and dry vacuum, and a 13 inch Silver Queen Rotary Shampooer, with a 2 gallon tank on it for the shampoo.Included was a couple of quart bottles of rug shampoo. There was mixing directions on the bottles. I went to the job, mixed the solution up, poured it into the tank, vacuumed the rug, and tried to shampoo the rug, per instructions on the booklet. Hard to control, but I figured it out, before the customer, who had left me alone, came to see how I was doing.Well, it turned out fine, I suppose. She paid me. I was happy. My boss was happy. I was out of the plant. My boss put the same ad in the next week. Another job. Several more. This went on for about a month. I thought I could do this- put an ad in the paper, people would answer, and I would make a profit, instead of my boss. I asked him to rent me the equipment, on a monthly basis, He said fine. So I did. Things were looking up. I got a few jobs. I asked my now former boss to sell me the equipment. He said forget it. So I thought I would buy my own. That's when I found out how expensive it was. I rented his equipment for another couple of months, and when I had a stake, I did buy a second hand roto and wet vac. I was in business.Making a living at it was a different story. One job a day, one job every 2 days, one job per week- not cutting it. I had to get another job.I asked for a job at a rug cleaning plant, figureing I could learn something, and make a living at it. He hired me. Yes, I did learn I was doing it all wrong, even though the results I had been doing seemed fine. Nope. My boss said- do it this way.Bring the rugs in, shampoo them on a flat floor, and tack them to poles horizontally, stretch the poles with ropes and pulleys, so the rugs would not shrink. Most rugs these days were Wiltons, or Axminsters, some oriental rugs, and a few real cheap ones. The cheap ones were made of viscose- a wood pulp by-product, that is left over when Rayon is manufactured.In those days, a viscose 9 x 12 would cost maybe $30 to $50.00. Our prices were at 6 cents per square foot for most domestic rugs. A 9 x 12 would cost the customer $6.48. For a fine oriental, the price would rocket up to 10 cents per sq. ft- $10.80.I was paid $1.25 per hour- so the prices of most everything was lower those days.There was very little wall to wall carpets. Only the rich folks would have it. There was some nylon rugs, and nylon carpeting was just beginning to be acceptable, and affordable.When the present system of tufting rugs in mills began to become common, us experts said it would never become popular, as woven rugs and carpets were the only way to go. Tufting would never catch on.Wall to wall carpets were fastened at the walls by turning and tacking the edges with carpet tacks. A good installer would toss a handful in his mouth. He would put the magnetic end of a tack hammer into his mouth, attach a tack with his tongue, and pull out a tack, facing the right way, and smack in into the carpet with one blow. Rookies would turn the tack hammer over, and take several blows to drive the tack in.It was easy to tell the experts from the rookies.To get room widths, with some woven carpets, particularly Wiltons, these were woven in 27 inch widths- narrowlooms, and machine sewed together, to make up whatever width was wanted. Then came broadlooms. Nine feet wide. All in one piece. Now, widths were hand sewed with a sturdy needle and waxed linen carpet thread, then covered with latex, and stretched in with a power stretcher, and knee kicker.Someone invented tackless stripping. Just nail these strips to the floor, with the points of tacks sticking up. Four feet at once. We all said it would never catch on.But it did. Quicker, dontcha know.I was now in my second business, as a rug cleaner. I think it was 1957. I don't remember exactly, but I remember the job. I had a partner. He would get the business by knocking on doors. I would do the job. He would keep on knocking.This job was the second of our partnership. It was an orange wool wall to wall carpet. Put on tackless, as it turned out. At one end of this big living room was a grand piano. Some other furniture in the room- sofa, chairs, etc. I began cleaning at the end of the room where the piano was, I cleaned around it, and under it as best I could. The carpet looked good, where it was cleaned.A couple of feet away from the piano, I heard a cracking sound. I looked around, and could not see anything. I kept on cleaning. Moved the sofa and chairs, cleaned under them, and thought I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked around again. Nothing. Must be my imagination, I guessed. More cleaning. Another cracking sound, coming from the piano area. I stopped cleaning, and really looked at the piano.I was not mistaken, that piano actually moved closer to me by a fraction. I went up to it, touched it, and it moved again towards me. I went white. Something was moving that piano. A big concert grand piano that probably weighed several hundred pounds. Then I looked at the base of the wall, where I had started to clean. The carpet was about 4 or 5 inches away from that wall. As I looked at it, it moved again. The carpet was shrinking. I had known from the beginning that lots of rugs shrink, but thought wall to wall carpet would stay, because of the tacks holding it, and the couple of carpets I had done before did stay. Not this one, on the tackless.I only had a short distance to clean now. My partner had already collected the money in advance. I finished the room. I packed up my equipment, and told the lady the carpet looked great. She said she would have a look in a few minutes- she was busy. I got out of there faster than I ever did. At the last look I had, that piano was about a foot away from where it started.If someone comes to your door, asking to clean your carpets, tell them NO!!----------- ------------ Q. How do you clean loose rugs? A.Re area rugs. There are lots of ways to clean these. For a hundred years or so, they have been washed in a river or lake, plant scrubbed, shampooed, steam cleaned, pressure washed, etc. Don't worry about rough usage. They are made to be washed- which means flooded, soap applied, scrubbed either by hand or machine, rinsed, and hung up to dry. I have been doing it since 1956, and have done thousands like this. Still do it today. Same with every rug cleaning plant. In Portland, for instance, Atiyeh's does 50 to 60 rugs EVERY day. Somewhere near you, there will be someone's plant. Go take a look at what they do, and you will lose any paranoia about them. Think about this. Scrubbers were made for scrubbing rugs. Why would you not want to use the machine for it's intended purpose? That's why it is called a scrubber. Go for it. When I scrub a rug- flooded with soap on it- I tip the scrubber up on one edge, so the brush's travel is in one direction that straightens out the fringes. If you keep the scrubber flat, it tangles the fringes. Yes, you can straighten them out, but it is extra work. For a final on the fringes, when the rug is dry, after taking it down off the pole, I hand scrub the fringes a final time with detergent, then rinse that off, then mostly use a light peroxide spray for whitening. I do use laundry bleach sometimes, especially if there has been a color run. I dilute the bleach 1 part bleach to 10 parts water in a spray bottle. I leave that sit for 10 to 15 minutes while I do something else. Then rinse off the bleach, then I neutralize the bleach with Ramsey's Tannin Stain Remover. Then rinse that off, and let dry. (Bleach is alkaline, Tannin is acidic.) Ya gotta charge plenty for this effort. Don't give your knowledge and labor away. Not all fringes are white, so don't bleach a tan fringe, for instance, and some fringes are wool. Bleach will dissolve wool. So pay attention to what you have in your hand, and determine if that fringe is cotton or wool- or hemp- or jute, for instance. These are not too common, but you can tell the difference between wool and hemp or jute, and cotton pretty easily. Some rugs I bonnet, some I shampoo, some I steam with my TM. It depends on the kind of rug, and how soiled it is. Yesterday, I bonneted a brand new rug that had been on a sales floor for several weeks, and there was a little soil, some spots, and a coffee spill. The rug was sold, and the customer wanted it cleaned. It was a 6 x 9, without fringes. I charged the store $75.00. The rug was sold for $1500.00. It took me about 20 minutes. Not bad. I used Bac-Out digester on the coffee spill. The other spots came out with the bonneting. Steam cleaning, or a full washing would have cleaned it, too, but would be overkill, I felt. It looks great now. -------- Q.With my Von Schrader, it is tough to clean greasy restaurants. What else can I use for defoamer than what they provide? A.Hi Bob- Have you added some TSP and some peroxide to your cleaning formula? Have you pre-sprayed the grease with a digester? Try working without the defoamer- the odds are the grease will do a lot of defoaming. You can use vegetable oil for a defoamer, but it may leave a bad residue in the tank. Just put it in the same as you would the defoamer. What are you now using for defoamer? You can also use odorless mineral spirits (sparingly) Vinegar will work, just barely, but it will leave a bad odor- I don't recommend it. I am not knocking your VS machine, but a rotary scrubber will work a lot faster than any in-line design machine, plus easier on the back for big jobs. Re the foam generator- I assume you are using the restaurant's 180 degree water, so this cannot be improved- have you also increased the amount of concentrate to water for ready to use? Sometimes this helps, too. Are you making any profit? What are you charging this restaurant per sq. ft. , and how many sq. ft. per hour are you doing? Profit is the bottom line. Did you sell them some Teflon or Scotchgard? This adds to the bottom line, and is a benefit to the customer, too. --------- Q.Does the "Dry-Wet-Dry method work? Tom A.Hi Tom- I have been in the cleaning business over 40 years. I have accumulated a lot of equipment, and invented some, so I have a lot of types. I call my business Heacock's Custom Cleaning, because I offer whatever cleaning system and chemical will be the best for that particular job this time. Maybe next time a different system, or chemical will be best that time. I feel that no single system is best for everything all of the time. On frequent maintenance cleanings that I do for commercial accounts, I rotate the systems, for what I feel is the best overall results over a year's time. Each system has it's advantages, and drawbacks, each system gets most of the soils, and leaves some, and some residue, so when cleaning a store monthly, say, there is no buildup of soils, or residue from one particular system. As an illustration, tonight I did an Ethan Allan store that I clean monthly, by TM steam. Last month, I bonnetted it. The prior month, I shampooed it with my Chemstractor. I alternated 11 times between these 2 systems, and this is the first TM steam for a year. I have been cleaning this store for over 10 years- probably closer to 15 years. The original carpet is still in good shape- it is faded, but from a wear standpoint- it will last a long time yet. Re the "Dry-wet-dry" method. Did you know that is a scam? Were you aware that it does not work, and is just a waste of solvent? Did you know that it was started by Kleen-Rite to sell more solvent? Did you know that Kleen-Rite sells dirty, used solvent for new solvent? Just look in the bottom of an empty Kleen-Rite solvent gallon jug. What do you see? An accumulation of DIRT !! This would not happen if the solvent was NEW!! I will give you all of the physics of why "dry-wet-dry" does not really work, and the only thing working is the "Wet" portion, if you want. Otherwise just take my word for it. I posted it on Jason's forum months ago- did you see it? Jason has since deleted all of the old postings and begun another forum. A better way to clean upholstery without ANY solvent is with a "Dry Technology" tool. The object with this tool is not to wet the fabric appreciably. About the same as with the dry foam of a shampoo, but using a portable or a TM. I have used one for several years. Wanna buy some solvent? I have only used solvent for spot removal, not oveall cleaning of any fabric since I got my dry tool. you should get one, too- and save a lot of money by not buying solvent for overall cleaning. With the dry tool, you can clean raw cottons, silks, velvets, etc. Absolutely any fabric- bleeders, and shrinkers, because the tool does not allow enough water to remain on the fabric to get it wet enough to bleed, shrink, brown or yellow. Will it still clean a filthy Herculon? Yes. All you have to do is turn the pressure up. I love mine. Softening the water is a very good idea, I know it helps on several fronts. ------ Q. How do you clean loose rugs- do you have a schematic for the poles to hang them? Brian A.Hi Brian- Sorry, I don't have a schematic for the poles- it's just a matter of screw eyes into the joists, pulleys in the eyes, and poles, then ropes. Not complicated- use your imagination. Re cleaning the loose rugs. Forget about treating them before cleaning. I have done thousands since 1956. Have only needed to treat 5 or 6 in all that time. Just test for colorfastenss prior to cleaning. Nearly all of them are colorfast just fine. Mainly Belgian cottons and wools, a few hooks not colorfast. Go to any rug plant, and you will see they run 50 or 60 a day through their automatic machine without any pre-testing, or setting. Forget it. If one runs, then fix that. Not worth the time it takes to set, or pre-treat them before hand. Today, I picked up 13 rugs from 1 customer. A mixed bag, for sure. A rag rug- (braided rags)- 2 persian orientals, 2 Chinese, 1 Indian, 2 Karastans, 3 dhurries, 2 hand made hooks. They all get cleaned the same. I flood them with cold water. Apply shampoo with a sprayer. Rotary shampoo them. Rinse them. Hang them. I don't extract, or squeegee them. Gravity does that when they are hung. You certainly can, but it is a step that is not needed in my opinion. The dhurries, and other thin rugs dry in 1 day. The braids and medium thick rugs dry in 2 days. The Persians, Chinese and India rugs dry in 3 days. In my garage with a turbo going. When dry, I deal with the fringes, not before. A money maker? How does $100.00 per hour sound? That's my average. In a rug plant, they use a LOT of heat, and fans. The rugs are dry overnight. Has to be that way for them, because next day, here's another 50 or 60 rugs to wash. I do recommend using a biodegradable shampoo for washing them, so an acid rinse is not needed. I did that for a very long time. Now I use Bi-O-Kleen's. No residue, either. The waste water is neutral pH- just dirty. Environmentally friendly, too. Only a few need defoamer- mainly the thicker ones. You ought to try some of Bi-O-Kleen's Bac-Out for urine, vomit, diarrhea, etc. It is absolutely better than anything like it on the market. Once you try it, you will throw rocks at whatever you are now using for this purpose. Re the ropes. With a 15 foot ceiling, you might use a winch that pulls both ends of the rope, so the pole is lifted straight up, by one man, instead of the way I do it- one end at a time. ---------