Waterloo, IA, June 23--The cream-colored carpet had been pummeled for years lying underneath the life of a teen-age girl. It bore the scars of spilled fingernail polish, dirty shoes and general neglect, according to the Waterloo Courier.
With the bedroom's occupant soon to leave for college, the home's owners wanted to convert it to a guest room. So they called Mr. Carpet, which they've used several times in the past few years.
As the technician glides his apparatus across the room, the matron of the home marvels at how such a soiled rug could get so immaculate.
Satisfied as well is Brad Smith, who spent nearly two hours restoring the aged floor covering to a luster it hadn't likely had since the day it was installed.
A day in the life of a carpet cleaner is about solving problems. Those worries could range from a last-minute scrubbing needed before a party, to scouring a basement Berber soaked by heavy rain or a broken pipe.
"What's really satisfying about this work is the instant gratification of seeing the difference with every cleaning," said Marty Stoakes, who started the business six years ago. "It's nice to go in a home, solve a problem and leave with them thinking you're the best thing in the world."
They did that five times during the course of a recent spring day.
The three-man crew--Stoakes, Smith and Stoakes' nephew Lucas--left the office, housed in the basement of Stoakes' Waterloo home, around 9 a.m. in a pair of commercial vans.
Their first job was cleaning a kitchen carpet in a Cedar Falls home.
They begin by ascertaining what areas the customer wants cleaned. Smith then measures the area, using a laser-guided box that can calculate the floor area in minutes. He provides a quote. Upon acceptance, the crew begins.
The room is first sprayed with a mixed pre-treating solution, which is worked into the carpet using a large brush. "In the old days, they just injected a carpet cleaner, and it never got rinsed out completely," said Stoakes, who started cleaning carpets 20 years ago while working his way through college. "Carpets would always resoil because of the soap left in them."
In one of the vans is a portable cleaning system. Two 120-gallon tanks hold a day's supply of water. The tanks are hooked to a blue generator that heats the water and mixes it with a mild solution.
"Carpets nowadays have stain resistance. If you use too harsh of a cleaner, it will strip that off and could void the carpet's warranty," said Stoakes.
Two blue hoses--one for water, the other a vacuum--are hooked to a special tool that can simultaneously spray hot water and suck it back into a special tank in the van. Each section of a floor is run over twice: two swipes with the hot water, two with the vacuum.
As Smith glides the device across the kitchen floor, a bright white overtakes the dingy gray. Once the carpet is spotless, one of the workers will groom the fibers using the large brush.
"It stands the fibers so that the carpet dries quicker, it gives it an even appearance and it helps us check for anything we may have missed," said Smith.
A few red stains that the homeowner had pointed out before didn't dissolve. Because they're in the kitchen, Smith surmises they're food stains. He grabs a bottle of Red Rescue, a solution designed to tackle red food and protein stains.
"Each stain has its own makeup," he said.
The crew packs up and heads to a Waterloo home, where a massive spring cleaning project is under way.
Upon arrival, Smith is taken from room to room and given instructions. Some rooms only require a deep vacuum. The daughter's room, soon to be a guest room, needs a complete work over. Every inch of floor, including under all furniture, is to be sterilized.
Complicating this job is the amount of furniture that needs to be moved. Knick-knacks have to be transferred from shelves. Junk underneath beds is cleared away.
