I haven't the skills or the ability to hang with that group, but thanks anyway Brian.
Mike it's a long story but here it is.
My father was the first born of 14-children, he grew up in a box car in Williams Town just outside of Lawrence. He attended school only up to the 9th grade and at that time quit to help support the family.
He worked 25-years in the Drycleaning & Laundry business eventually moving up to production manager.
He stumbled into carpet cleaning business by accident. He had bought a new home in a new development in the early 60's.
Lots of dirt tracked in on the new carpet, my mother would complain it needed cleaned. The drycleaners where worked rented out a Hild pile lifter and sold dry
compound to their customers.
He would clean the carpet periodically and it did a decent job, well it smelled clean for several days anyway. Eventually it got to a point the dry powder would no longer do the trick.
My father went to a janitorial supply and rented a scrubber and shampooed the carpet. It looked brighter and cleaned much better than the dry
compound.
It wasn't long that he had perfected his craft and others at work were asking him to clean theirs. He eventually bought a used Hild scrubber and was in business part time. Pretty soon he had so many customers he couldn't get it all done after hours and thought he could make a real business out of it. He quit with that drycleaners and worked part time on a spotting board for a friend while he built his clientele up. Within a couple of years he quit and went full time on his own.
He was always about improving the service he was delivering and kept seeking better equipment and solutions. In the early 70's he heard about Ed York and Ed's hot water extractor the "Vapor Vac" he bought one and before you know it he was in the steam cleaning business.
He would still pre scrub with the 175 and then his assistant would extract with a 65 lb drag wand using a whopping 40-psi. :shock: He bought more "Vapor Vac's and soon we had three of them the company continued to grow.
He bought a Steam Genie TM from Steam Services in Fresno in the mid 70's and carpet cleaning took off.
By the 80's we were seeing more customers with water losses, my father attended an Innovators Seminar that featured Cliff Zlotnik, Murray Creamer, Lloyd Weaver and others. He bought some of Cliff's chems and equipment and Lloyds airmovers and dehumidifiers .
By the late 80's we had changed focus and had pretty much become a restoration company that also cleans carpet.
He was all about delivering the best service we could, always wanted the best equipment, trucks, and well trained technicians.
He cared about the employees that worked for him and treated them as extended family.
He was a family man, very unassuming & kind, he lived a good life.
