Rug sucking and Rug Suckers for that matter have not always been a positive distinction. In 2017 however, it represents the latest technology and innovations in the rug cleaning/washing industry but with a twist... As the equipment for 'processing' the cleaning tasks regarding area rugs has increased in complexity and price, our world (The Rug Sucking World) has gotten more simplified and quality driven than one might have expected was possible merely 2 years ago.
As the financial crisis neared its end in the fall of 2010, I found myself in desperate need of a simpler (less regulated) life. The need for an income to support a small, growing family (now 7 of us) drove me and my wife to start a carpet cleaning company. We soon learned that area rugs were beyond our skill/tooling level and that our clients needed a better service than we could provide for them while the rugs were still in their home(s). I had a friend who owned a carpet dealership who lent me his warehouse on the weekends so that I could use the space to provide a better cleaning result for these rugs. At the time we were using the Pros Choice line of rug cleaning products: Ultra TLC, Natural Fiber Cleaner and Rug Restorer. After watching many YouTube videos on the subject, I felt at least qualified to do a good job (at least better than I could have done in the clients home). Boy was I wrong! It seemed that the more product and water that I used, the more problems and issues leached out of the rugs. I did what any 'greenhorn' cleaner would do... I lightened up on the water and got really good at making the rugs presentable to the clients. I would spend hours on my knees scrubbing, rinsing, extracting and grooming each rug so that I could deliver them back to my clients for their maximum positive reaction. I noticed as I cleaned more rugs that each rug was different than the previous and the next in how it responded to the tooling and cleaning products that I was using. I was spending more time on some rugs than others in reaching the desired results that I was after. The more research that I did, I determined that what I REALLY needed to do was to learn to 'pit wash' the rugs. Yeah, that would really set me apart if I could learn how to submerse the rug, remove the urine/contaminants, control/prevent the dyes from migrating and make a whole bunch of bubbles in the pit so that I could get that warm fuzzy feeling that I assumed other cleaners had when they knew what they were doing in the 'wash-pit.' Wrong again! My next mistakes came about while learning through trial and error about the amounts of needed water supply, management and disposal of water and all of the suds that I was creating. I was causing more work for myself than money was being made. What started out as a simple 'add-on' service for our clients had turned into a giant, soapy mess on the floor in my friends warehouse. Not being one to start something and not finish it, I decided that if I was going to do this, make money at it and get better at it, I needed my own work space. We cleared out the 2 car section of our garage at home and I went all out on some PVC fittings and some plastic sheeting to build my very own wash pit. It wasn't really something that I would be proud to show a client but I was pit washing baby! We washed on Sundays. Not every Sunday but it always seemed to be raining.
As the financial crisis neared its end in the fall of 2010, I found myself in desperate need of a simpler (less regulated) life. The need for an income to support a small, growing family (now 7 of us) drove me and my wife to start a carpet cleaning company. We soon learned that area rugs were beyond our skill/tooling level and that our clients needed a better service than we could provide for them while the rugs were still in their home(s). I had a friend who owned a carpet dealership who lent me his warehouse on the weekends so that I could use the space to provide a better cleaning result for these rugs. At the time we were using the Pros Choice line of rug cleaning products: Ultra TLC, Natural Fiber Cleaner and Rug Restorer. After watching many YouTube videos on the subject, I felt at least qualified to do a good job (at least better than I could have done in the clients home). Boy was I wrong! It seemed that the more product and water that I used, the more problems and issues leached out of the rugs. I did what any 'greenhorn' cleaner would do... I lightened up on the water and got really good at making the rugs presentable to the clients. I would spend hours on my knees scrubbing, rinsing, extracting and grooming each rug so that I could deliver them back to my clients for their maximum positive reaction. I noticed as I cleaned more rugs that each rug was different than the previous and the next in how it responded to the tooling and cleaning products that I was using. I was spending more time on some rugs than others in reaching the desired results that I was after. The more research that I did, I determined that what I REALLY needed to do was to learn to 'pit wash' the rugs. Yeah, that would really set me apart if I could learn how to submerse the rug, remove the urine/contaminants, control/prevent the dyes from migrating and make a whole bunch of bubbles in the pit so that I could get that warm fuzzy feeling that I assumed other cleaners had when they knew what they were doing in the 'wash-pit.' Wrong again! My next mistakes came about while learning through trial and error about the amounts of needed water supply, management and disposal of water and all of the suds that I was creating. I was causing more work for myself than money was being made. What started out as a simple 'add-on' service for our clients had turned into a giant, soapy mess on the floor in my friends warehouse. Not being one to start something and not finish it, I decided that if I was going to do this, make money at it and get better at it, I needed my own work space. We cleared out the 2 car section of our garage at home and I went all out on some PVC fittings and some plastic sheeting to build my very own wash pit. It wasn't really something that I would be proud to show a client but I was pit washing baby! We washed on Sundays. Not every Sunday but it always seemed to be raining.
I would build the pit, we would lay the rug in the pit and fill it with water. I would add some soapy concoction and with my Rotovac 360 pad driver and a scrubber pad I went to town scrubbing rugs and making suds.
Flipping the now wet (and heavy) rugs was a two person task for the larger rugs and I was lucky to have a wife that isn't afraid of getting her hands dirty. Our garage had almost the perfect slope so that once the scrubbing was done, I simply removed a couple sections of the PVC and out flowed the water.
I had a garden hose with a shower head on it and I would fill the rug with water and extract it with my Rotovac followed by a carpet wand.
I didn't have a rug squeegee in those days. My YouTube research had not led me to that level of effective tooling at this point. When it came time to set the rugs up for drying, the two of us would man handle them onto a 2x4 covered with a 4" PVC pipe connected to a couple pulleys and some rope.
The rugs would almost immediately drip and would continue dripping into the night and even some into the next day! We added air movers eventually and reached the point that after the third day hanging, the rugs were dry enough to take down. New problems arose... The piles dried crusty. The fringes turned yellowish-brown and some of them even had dyes that had migrated into them. The crusty pile was usually a simple fix by running a vacuum over the rug in a few directions. The fringes however required a myriad of water and chemistry that taught me many valuable lessons about cotton, silk and wool that actually made me a better cleaner overall. In fact, since this time in my career my official title has been that of 'Lead Fringe Detailer' because I was so experienced at it!
Little did I know that the fringes were telling me that there was an internal problem with the rugs that I was unaware of. A problem that would later lead to my discovery of The Rug Sucker itself. The 'ah-ha' moment had not yet arrived but it was starting to sprout as the seed had been planted through all of this additional detailing that I was doing in my garage in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. Things went on like this through the spring, summer and fall that year. Once winter approached I was forced to make another decision as to not offer rug cleaning through the winter or rent a space so that I could continue my 'add-on service endeavor.' Tune in for part two in the coming days... Thanks for reading and SUCK ON!
-Rug Reviver
Copyright 2017. All Rights Reserved.
-Rug Reviver
Copyright 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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