Jim Pemberton said:
in our first week of training they had us sleep through a Dane Gregory
CCT class and I failed miserably on the test.
I don't want to derail my own thread, but I think you are every trainer's nightmare. Though sleeping is likely better than what you did to Aaron Groseclose. We'll save that for another thread.
Back to the confessional.......
How bout sooner than later Jim.. This story I HAVE to read!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Steve G: been there done that a couple of times. expecielly when I was younger. I didn't have the teeth set low enough.. thank god for napping shears and koolglide. In one repair, the lady was using a mop and glo type cleaner on the entrance vinyl and it literally weakend the latex enough that even a small pump and ripp.. fortunatly I did not own that problem. She could see the weakened carpet. (and what really sucked was we were all out of bendable tap down metal so I had to cut my own tap down for curving.) 1 hour of working the metal transition strip and 2 mintues with a kicker. kaboom. I had to power stretch 3 feet from the metal to gather enough material to push into the metal tap down to put it back..
As far as cleaning related issues, people have tried to tag us for some of their problems. But yet to ruin a carpet with our cleaning. Taking the time to understand the chemistry and precondition the customer of prexisting issues is very important.
I don't really see alot of the mills we deal with complaining about the cleaning so much as they pushing that there are not enough people having their carpets properly cleaned. If Homeowner Joe goes 5 years without cleaning and trashes his carpet and complains to the mill saying his carpet did not perform, the mill still has money invested in sending an inspector out to check on the problems. And even if he finds the homeowner liable for his own problems, the inspector still has to be paid by the mill.
The mills largest enemy is its own consumers who aren't being educated well enough about the products they are purchasing by the stores or installers who are selling them. When you have stores who are telling their customers their carpets should never be cleaned, or customers who think a rug doctor is doing a good job of cleaning their carpet and like wise, homeowners who tried to remove stains with bleach. You are going to have complaints about faily products. Let alone lets not discuss vacuuming, or even proper install.
Our industry as a whole needs better representation from the time of sale to the intall to the cleaning. If you want programs like SOA to work, you can't lump the Rug dumper in with professional cleaning. And forget certifiying individual cleaning companies as SOA. And forget the synthetic NASA soil. You need REAL testing data with real soils.
And if the
IICRC wants to help the industry then the industyr needs to fork up some money to get the public press they need to educate customers. National campaigns, larger internet presence, magazine adds.. I see how they are linked to the good housekeeping homepage in plain site.. thats a plus.. then they advertize the Rug Docter being SOA GOLD approved... bamm a head shot to any credibility.
there are sooo many consumers who don't clean their carpets. I can't find the survey but it was something like 6-8 people out of 10 never have their carpets professional cleaned. Obviously cost is always going to be an issue and when they only see it as a luxory instead of a needed service, it gets bumped. I know our industry is trying to push a postive image by trying to combat the allergey/ asthma issue, trying to push for better standards and regulations regarding installation and product usage. But until the mills stop making carpets that lasts 3 years or so cheap that it sells for .50/sqft, and the industry as a whole moves to improve the value of the product from sales to install, it will be dificult for consumers to justify a quality cleaning service as well. Not when a quality cleaning can sometimes be 10% of the cost of material or more.
And Jim Cotton wall to wall is back.. being made by Nourison, even jute backed. We've sold a couple of jobs to date, its fun to install since it stretches like many of the older jute backed carpeting, and has a real nice hand to it. Most cases its a blend of wool and cotton face fibers, but they have one or two pieces where its a cotton face 100%.
