This week’s Before & After cleaning pics are actually a cleaning video, courtesy of Steve Andrews of The Carpet Surgeons, a carpet, rug and upholstery cleaning company with locations in Atlanta, Ga.; Highlands and Asheville, N.C.; and Smithville, Tenn.

Run by Steve Andrews, an IICRC instructor with 35 years in the carpet cleaning industry, and Adam Raimond, a former television producer and marketer as well as an IICRC-certified Repair and Reinstallation technician, the Carpet Surgeons offer both cleaning services AND entertaining cleaning educational videos, websites and turn-key marketing programs.

Steve writes:

This was a carpet that had been in a flood, I got there after it had dried and left a very bad stain.

Part of what makes it something that others may like to see, is that it is wool with a jute backing, so this is severe browning with staining from the tile floor it was next to.

Great work with a sticky situation. Congratulations, Steve!

What a difference! The dark wood cabinets and recessed track lighting lend this kitchen a sense of luxury, while the new blue-tiled back-splash is both more attractive and easier to clean than the bare walls the kitchen previously had.

Definitely not a job for amateurs. So how did Advanced Carpet Restoration handle it?

This carpet has definitely been through a lot. Can K&M give it new life?

Yes! Amazing job.

Wow! Can this carpet be saved?

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Benjamin Ingram from Peaches N’ Clean Carpet Cleaning, an Alabama-based carpet, rug and upholstery cleaning company that also does remediation and flooring repair. Peaches N’ Clean has been recognized multiple times for their cleaning expertise, including making Cleanfax Magazine’s annual list of industry leaders several years in a row.

Peaches N’ Clean has locations in Montgomery, Birmingham and Auburn/Opelika. Their services also include tile & grout cleaning and janitorial maintenance. They are certified by the CRI, IICRC and SCRT.

This fascinating time-lapse video shows a Peaches N’ Clean carpet cleaning in hyper-drive. Enjoy!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks!  

Happy Wednesday, and welcome to another edition of “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week.”

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Shawn from Extreme Carpet Cleaning, a Baltimore-based carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, remediation and flooring sales & installation company serving the greater Baltimore area. Extreme Carpet Cleaning is licensed, insured and bonded and offers warranties and insurance for all services provided.

Extreme Carpet Cleaning’s remediation services includes 24-hour emergency flood damage clean-up. Because they clean many types of carpets regularly, Extreme Carpet Cleaning brings a unique perspective to their flooring sales–they know which brands will hold up and which won’t.

These before and after photos showcase a living room in need of serious help.

Beautiful job, especially with the sunburst patterns.

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Adel from 416-SO-CLEAN, a Toronto-based carpet cleaning, window washing and house cleaning company serving the greater Toronto area. 416-SO-CLEAN is Green Seal-certified, as well as having certifications from the IICRC, Hunter Douglas and Woolsafe.

416-SO-CLEAN offers carpet cleaning, window cleaning, house cleaning, mattress cleaning, leather cleaning, tile & grout cleaning, upholstery cleaning and hardwood cleaning services to both commercial and domestic clients.

The photos below feature a pair of nasty organic stains on light fabric–the aftermath of some beverage spills. The first is a milk stain, the second a juice stain.

Excellent job–the couch and carpet look like new! This is a great example of why homeowners need professional help for certain types of messes. Without professional equipment and know-how, the couch and carpet might have been permanently ruined.

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Rey from AZ Removal and Junk Recovery, a Phoenix-based junk removal and waste-hauling company serving the Glendale, Chandler, Scottsdale and greater Phoenix area. AZ Removal and Junk Recovery offers hauling, landscaping, cleaning, window-cleaning and maintenance services to domestic, commercial and industrial customers.

The photos below feature a hoarding clean-up and recovery job that AZ Removal and Junk Recovery did. Rey writes:

“Just want to mention that, although we have fun performing the clean-ups and junk removal projects, we do take extra care of these special clients who are in need of our hoarding clean-up service.

We try to understand a person’s or family member’s life situation–either personal or medical–and ensure that the process is painless as possible.”

A very good job. It looks like a brand-new space!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks!  

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Michael Cargill of Portland, OR’s Esteam Carpet Care. Esteam Carpet Care offers mattress cleaning, carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, tile and grout cleaning and auto cleaning services.

Wow, they managed to really get those stains out. Carpet looks great–quite pristine. Good job!

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Kate Schermerhorn of Gainsville, GA’s Eagle Carpet Care. Eagle Carpet Care offers carpet, tile and grout, air duct, upholstery and oriental rug cleaning, as well as carpet repair and restoration.

Kate writes:

“Attached are before and after pictures from our technician Derrick Ellis.  The customer had a cat that was constantly throwing up under the bed.  As beds are not easily moved, the customer had no idea of the extent of the issue.

Our technician moved the bed out of the way to find the disaster on the carpet.  The cat vomit was hard crusted to the carpet.

Derrick pre-treated the area with Serum, let it set in for a few minutes, then a vigorous hot water extraction.  Not everything was able to come completely out, due to the age of the issues.  However, the customer was thrilled with the result!”

This week’s Before & After photos come courtesy of Dave Stiles of Steam Master Carpet Cleaning San Antonio. Steam Master offers carpet, tile and upholstery cleaning, as well as 24-hour flood service, to the greater San Antonio, TX region.

It’s hard to say what exactly this pink floral rug had been through to bring it to this point; we can safely guess, however, that it was a lot. Can Dave restore it?

Yes he can! Who knew that, underneath the grime, this rug had so much beautiful shading and tinting? Great job!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks!  

This Fresno sandwich shop’s awning looked dingy beyond belief. Once cheerful and inviting, its red and white stripes had faded with time to dusty maroon and dark grey. Can J & J Window Cleaning Services save it? Watch and see!

Wow, that awning looks brand new! Thanks to J. Racenstein Co. for letting us share this video.

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks! 

“Here are a few pictures of a carpet that the homeowners were planning on throwing away.  We had cleaned the rest of the house to prepare it for sale after its main occupant, an  elderly lady, had moved out to live with family members. 

When the homeowners told me they were going to throw this carpet away, so don’t worry about cleaning it, my son-in-law looked at me and said, “You still want to clean it, don’t you?!”
And I replied “Yup!!”

So I asked permission to clean it at “no charge,” and they allowed us.  They were so impressed that we salvaged the carpet; we got some great reviews online and of course an incredible amount of word-of-mouth referrals.  We just love days like this.  Makes cleaning fun!”

Wow! Not only did Mark do a great job removing a horrific set of stains, he also did an excellent job of getting his name out into the community. With one “free” room, he guaranteed himself tons of referral business. Brilliant!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks! 

Eco-Cool HVAC also maintains and installs forced air heating, hydronic heating systems, natural and LP gas furnaces, split air conditioning systems, package rooftop air conditioning systems and all makes and models of refrigerated cases, walk-in boxes, reach-in boxes and ice machines.

This before photo is of a coil packed with grease and dirt from commercial kitchen.

Great work. We can all rest easier knowing that all that dirt and grease is out of the kitchen!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks! 

Run by Steve Andrews, an IICRC instructor with 35 years in the carpet cleaning industry, and Adam Raimond, a former television producer and marketer as well as an IICRC-certified Repair and Reinstallation technician, the Carpet Surgeons offer both cleaning services AND entertaining cleaning educational videos, websites and turn-key marketing programs.

Steve writes:

I thought it might be nice to show some before and after photos of upholstery cleaning, not so much of a nasty dirty sofa that gets clean, but rather of the restoring of a sofa that shows how when oxidized oils are removed, the color that was been hidden is now visible. While this is certainly a cleaning condition, it is also a restoration situation to really get the dull sofa bright again. These are the before and after photos of the upholstery.

Impressive! It looks like a totally new couch. It’s hard to believe that it was possible to restore this couch to full Technicolor–the fading looked so permanent.

Steve’s next example was of a rug repair. He writes:

I thought you may want to see some repair work on a rug. This was one that had fuzzed very severely and we repaired it as well as worked to define the pattern that had been lost due to the fuzzing.

Amazing! Who knew this rug still had life in it?

Finally, Steve sent us pictures of a chair that he repaired alongside his IICRC class. He writes:

These are photos of  a severely browned-out and rusted buttons chair. This chair was brought to an upholstery cleaning class (we offer to clean whatever is brought in). This was a rough situation, but with the correct chemistry and proper procedure, we got it restored.

Incredible! If you’d like to contact Steve to ask him about how to do these repairs yourself, you can reach him through www.thecarpetsurgeons.com. You can also email him at sandrews841@gmail.com.

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks!  

We can see why Cutting Edge is so successful–that before picture is disgusting. The after picture looks like it isn’t even of the same carpet. Great job!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com. (And if you have any interesting cleaning story jobs to go with the photos, send them too.) Thanks!  

At the Connections Conference this weekend, we noticed that a lot of the seams in the hotel carpet were coming apart.

They were coming apart because they weren’t properly taped and glued when the carpet was installed.

So what do a bunch of carpet care professionals do?

 
They fix it!

The hotel was very grateful for their offer, and it gave them a chance to demonstrate proper carpet seaming techniques.

Applying the glue to the underside of the carpet is called “buttering” the seam. You have to make sure you are using the right adhesive for the carpet and backing type, as well as the right amount.

Most seams fail because of lack of knowledge by the installers, or they don’t take enough time to ensure the adhesive is evenly applied.

Using the right type and size of seam tape is also critical to proper seaming.

That’s a pretty big gap in the carpet, can the guys do it?

Just the right amount of tape…

A bit of hot glue on the tape. Using the right type of glue stick is also important, and making sure it’s hot enough.

Pulling the edges together while applying the hot glue.

They did it! Perfect seam, can’t even see it!

What a cool demonstration. Thanks for sharing, Lisa!

If you’re interested in having your cleaning photos featured in “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please send large, high-resolution files to support@principalfocus.com. If your photos come with an interesting story, please send that along too. Thanks!

This week’s “Before & After” photos come courtesy of Bob Martin of Services Etcetera Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning, a Pennsylvania-based cleaning company. Bob writes:

Hi,

   I’m Bob Martin, general manager of Services Etcetera Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning from Hazleton, PA. Recently we were contacted by The Corrigan House, a senior living facility and regular customer, to clean some resident rooms, hallways and  common areas. 

  They were positive they needed to replace the carpet in one of the rooms and asked  me just to skip that one. It was contaminated with urine, had multiple spots and red stains and tracking soils from a wheel chair. To top that off, Housekeeping tried to hand scrub it with a kitchen detergent.

   Here are some photos of before and after. Using only a pre-spray specifically for urine and a very good acidic rinse with emulsifier, the results were astonishing. I amazed myself.

–Bob Martin
http://procleaner.biz/

Wow! What a difference!

If you’re interested in having your cleaning photos featured in “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please send large, high-resolution files to support@principalfocus.com. If your photos come with an interesting story, please send that along too. Thanks!

If you’re interested in having your cleaning photos featured in “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please send large, high-resolution files to support@principalfocus.com. If your photos come with an interesting story, please send that along too. Thanks!

This week’s “Before & After” photo comes courtesy of Barry Rhoads of Quick-Dry Carpet Cleaning Inland Empire, a California-based carpet cleaning, upholster and tile & grout company serving Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange Counties. It shows a bathroom carpet that looked totally unsalvageable–yet Barry succeeded in completely restoring it. Great job!

If you’d like to have your before & after pictures featured in our newsletter, please email them to support@principalfocus.com.

There’s nothing more satisfying than turning a mess into a success, and we know that our friends in the cleaning industry perform small miracles every day. That’s why ServiceMonster is proud to introduce a new feature, “Before & After Cleaning Pics of the Week.” We want to document and showcase your cleaning achievements, and we’re interested in any and all types of cleaning photos–before, after and during.

This week’s “Before & After” pics come courtesy of Lisa Jordan of Accent American, a Tampa-based carpet cleaning and disaster restoration company.

Before (Wax spill on carpet):

After (Wax spill on carpet):

Wow!

If you’re interested in submitting photos to “Before & After: Cleaning Pics of the Week,” please email them to support@principalfocus.com.  Thanks!