Category Archives: Blog

Nail polish spill in carpet… Ever have one of those mornings? :-)

Hot pink nail polish on a carpet is definitely discouraging 🙁 and VERY difficult to remove… EVEN for those of with years of experience and tens of thousands of dollars in training, there is no easy answer.  I’ve included this blog, however, to show that it can be done almost completely with enough patience … It doesn’t always work, but ….

Nail polish removal from carpet: before picture
Before – at start of process
Nail polish removal from carpet: after picture
After constant attention by two VERY experienced techs worked for nearly two hours

We were almost completely able to get the existing polish emulsified (into solution) and removed with a combination of “dry” solvents, citrus solvents, reducing agents and steam heat.  Only requiring a couple of 1/32″ sized spots to be trimmed out with a razor… The benefit to not ‘cutting out/replacing’ the stain is that it is nearly impossible to exactly match the wear pattern in a room entrance where heavy foot traffic is “twisting” into a turn.  Fiber in these areas abraids (scratches) easily with the extra weight applied against the soil on/in the carpet at the turn.

New agitation methods tested in North Pole – Fairbanks area today for Tile & Grout renewal cleaning

Although tile & grout cleaning in North Pole-Fairbanks Alaska is not nearly as common is as it is in the lower 48, more and more houses are built with heated slab construction, and because of that, it is becoming more popular… It used to be that you had to have carpet this far north in order for you to stay warm!

Even with the nice toasty warm heated ceramic tile floors here in Fairbanks or North Pole, you still most commonly seen area rug covering it… But not all of it!!!!

Tile & Grout cleaning in the Fairbanks - North Pole areas
Not only is there an obvious difference on the tile ‘face’, BUT look at those grout lines!

The reason that I was putting this blog up, was to show that we are always improving our techniques. This is a new agitation pad that can be used with the Trinity floor renewal systems, and is incredibly effective. This picture is of it’s very first use here in Fairbanks.  We have much more testing to follow, but based on my experience and what I saw today…. WOWOW! We can provide a MUCH better finished product for our customer at the same or a potentially lower price.

Below, I’ve included a video of the first application. Yes! I may finally actually enjoy cleaning tile & grout!

[tubepress video=Ok_A8eP-jVs]

Carpet Cleaning in Fairbanks AK

45Clean proudly offers carpet cleaning services in Fairbanks, AK and surrounding areas. Contact us today to schedule an appointment. 45Clean spells our phone number 452-5326 and also is our website address of Http://www.45Clean.com !

For over 10 years you have probably seen our “red, white and blue” vehicles with United States of America flags zipping around town?

There are a lot of reasons that we stay busy and are a good choice for you to consider us as the company you select for your home, rental properties  or business.  Right up front I’ll identify the most common and easiest method of separating our company from the others: Ask your friends!  Especially those that have used our company as well as have used others.

What are other reasons?

We are courteous and respect your time! We call even if there is even a chance we are going to be running late!

We are upfront with our pricing! We measure and give you an exact quote and do all paperwork before we ever start: no gimmicks!

We will leave your carpet clean and free of sticky residue! Your carpet will stay clean longer and your routine vacuuming will be more efficient!

We will leave your carpet nearly dry and ready for use in almost all cases!

-Bottom line? We will remove more soil/spots, keep it that way for a longer period of time and have it available for use sooner than most everyone in the northwestern United States.

Still question?  Have us come out for our minimum charge of $118.00 to clean up to 360 square feet of carpet.  The results are easy to compare. :-).

 

Carpet Cleaning in North Pole AK

45Clean proudly offers carpet cleaning services in North Pole, AK and surrounding areas.  We are the folks that you often see in the red, white and blue vans with United States of America flags toodling along the roads in the North Pole, Badger road, Moose Creek and Eielson AFB areas. Contact us today to schedule an appointment. If you haven’t used us before, our minimum charge of $118.00 for up to 360 square feet (2 average empty rooms) will give you a chance to experience the results without a big risk.  You will be able to see what we can accomplish and decide for yourself if what we can do isn’t better than any other option you have!  I’m  confident that you will enjoy the experience!

Have questions?  Feel free to call us!  If you have a technical question, warranty issue, fiber type question etc we often can answer those with a free inspection.

Have questions about our company/service? We have done thousands & thousands of cleaning services around the North Pole area, chances are that you will have friends that have/do use our service!  We are even (this year) getting better at the Internet!  You can find us on FaceBook and Google+ (search for 45Clean Carpets)… and… if things go right :-), you will soon have us on Twitter and Pinterest…

We work really hard at having (and keeping) ecstatic customers just so we can have the freedom to always say: “Check with your friends about our service”.

 

 

University West in Fairbanks was blessed with getting my last hot water extraction method carpet cleaning!

Carpet cleaning in the University West area of Fairbanks this week brought cause for real joy and celebration! After cleaning literally dozens and dozens of acres of carpet using the hot water extraction method with every equipment configuration that I’ve heard of… These are pictures of our last job using that method!!!

Over the past 8 years, we have completed well over 10,000 jobs now locally using the oscillating pad extraction method; many of those with side-by-side comparisons. Our comparisons proved early on that we were able to clean more soil from a carpet in a given amount of time, dry it quicker and keep it clean longer (no sticky residue) than we could by using any configuration of hot water extraction (sometimes incorrectly called “Steam” cleaning) method(s).

With the advent of the Trinity renewal systems equipment, improved cleaning products, and the ATP testing system, we no longer have a need to do an inferior quality of job and leave it wet on top of it!  We no longer count on our or customer ‘assertions’ of how great the carpets look & feel.  We now know that we are measurably cleaner and healthier!  AND finally, the industry is catching on!  With a couple of my co-workers nationally using this method consistently nearly 40 years, we finally will soon have national recognition by major suppliers and manufacturers!  NO MORE arguments!  Cool!

Using the Trinity Renewal Systems 'CM' Model to "prep clean" before Hot Water Extraction
Just to be on the ‘safe side” we cleaned all carpet first with the Trinity “CM” model equipment 🙂
The last room of our last HWE job!  Yea!
The last room of our last HWE job! Yea!
On our way out!  Looks beautiful!
On our way out! Looks beautiful!
Another view of the upstairs on our way down
Another beautifully clean carpet by 45Clean 🙂
We even hot water extraction cleaned the stairs
Close to done! Looks great! Of course, it helps to hot water extract previously cleaned stairs 🙂

From this point in the job the machine was used to clean the last room, loaded up and delivered to it’s new home… And it isn’t mine :-).

 

Some neat area rug and upholstery cleaning in North Pole and on Eielson Air Force Base this last week

On location wool area rug cleaning in North Pole, Alaska
I really like this area rug design, really attractive in it’s “home”

 

One of the best parts of our job is we get to experience sooooo many variations of what we get to do/see.  Homes, businesses, apartments, etc… AND, very little of what you would ever expect.  This career choice keeps an ADD “enhanced” individual like myself always open to surprises.  Whenever you have a preconceived idea of what you will find, how something will look after cleaning and/or what kind of people you will be dealing with… you are invariably always having your paradigm changed.  We live in a place where the people are so consistently terrific and unique!

 

North Pole upholstered couch and cushion cleaning
This hide-a-bed couch came out terrific! Picture doesn’t do it complete justice.
Eielson olefin area rug cleaning
Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum!
Setting up to clean upholstered recliners on Eielson Air Force Base
Eielson setting up to clean upholstered recliners
After preparation, now deep extraction with microfiber cloths
After preparation, removal of suspended soils in the fabric with an orbiting extractor using encapsulants with microfiber cloths
Using the Trinity extractor with microfiber and cotton blend cloths
After vacuuming, prepping with encapsulants to suspend soil with gentle agitation, now using the Trinity extractor with microfiber and cotton blend cloths for it’s removal
Removing non-emulsified soils from the surface made accessible by the Trinity System
Removing non-emulsified soils from the surface made accessible by the Trinity System… A bit different than using large amounts of water to “wash” soils deeper

These are places that I worked this last week (and had time/remembered to take pictures) where the jobs/folks were especially impressive and enjoyable.  Sorry to those other great folks that I don’t have good pictures for… I promise it wasn’t on purpose!  Again, another great week for this ADD/HD guy to have a great time in his chosen profession!

 

 

Cleaning carpet in the Fairbanks “Aurora” area this afternoon; I love having family to help this old guy!

Ok, so maybe carpet cleaning in the Aurora area of Fairbanks isn’t the only focus of this post…. Yes, this was a dirty (now ‘renewed’) carpet that was in rough shape, but what really was the fun part of this job was watching my co worker (in this case, my eldest son Austin… Also a Master Textile Cleaner with the I.I.C.R.C) makes his dad feel soooo old!  And I love every minute of it!

Ever think about having a family business?  Yes, it is a challenge at times, but I would encourage EVERYONE to go for it at any level.  The sooner, the better.  After a short while, the only real headache you will face is that your customers (especially business customers) will soon be your biggest threat :-)…. They are always trying to hire your children ‘out from under you… offering better pay, shorter hours, more benefits… :-(…. Why?  Because you will instill a value system within your children that is attractive to most any employer… and makes days like today a lot of fun (when I can con a son to come help his dad… ).

I didn’t have a chance to get this on video, so I snapped a couple of pictures and put them on a video… Do you remember when you were young, tough and bulletproof?

Check this out:

[tubepress video=oHvi2jBWpv0]

What if maybe you weigh 150lbs soaking wet and you need to get the CM out the door, around the corner, through the mud, across the ice and snow…. and you don’t want to have to wipe the soil off the tires/machine? After all, although awkward, as shown here it can’t be much more than 130lbs (you fill it so you don’t have to carry a full 2.5 gallon jug)….

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve suggested; “Just roll it!”… Maybe because it is just that embarrassing to remind me how old I’m getting?

 

Downtown Fairbanks carpet cleaning upstairs away from the road! Packed and ready to roll!

Downtown upstairs Fairbanks offices can have renewed carpet again! With improved quality, those hard to access buildings and hard-to-reach areas can have ‘like new’ carpet with hardly any additional headaches!

Trinity Renewal Systems equipment makes carpet cleaning in ‘faraway’ places fun again…… Almost :-). Still just a bit of effort…

Downtown Fairbanks carpet cleaning. Prepared and waiting to go to work.
Ready for travel!

All strapped on and ready to roll! Down the sidewalk, around the corner, down to the door and into the building. Then almost down the hallway end to the elevator, up the elevator and all the way to the other side of the building! All accomplished without being out of breath.

The Fairbanks "ice palace" carpets
Down, around, in, through, up and down the way…..

Not only can we offer a clean that surpasses any competition, stays clean longer and is super convenient for our clients, but we do all this within a completely secure environment without unlocked or open windows/doors!

I am also including a short video showing how easy it is for us to work in an office environment without risking any kind of damage to computers, copy machines, coffeemakers, etc.

This is a sample of working around a copy machine that needed cleaning behind/under it:

[tubepress video=f6iBZRaIHh8]

Yes!  We do work on Saturdays and many evenings after offices are closed and easy to access.  In most circumstances, we can even work while folks are still present and needing to walk in areas that we are active in… really handy in some of our larger accounts with large hallways, carpeted commons, etc.

Santa keeps an incredibly clean carpet and house!

Did you know that Santa really had a house in North Pole, Alaska? Well now you do! I know that I have a lot of blog readers from around the country, and from around the world because of the use of our Trinity Renewal system; what better way to share this great information!

For information, check their website @: http://www.santaclaushouse.com

Not only are there gifts available, North Pole land sold by the square inch, real letters from Santa, and other goodies… But there is also a great espresso shop inside for us locals. :-).

This is Santa's house now with "Trinity Renewed" carpet
This is Santa’s North Pole home!
The welcome Santa!
Having this Santa here was quite an accomplishment by these folks… not the easiest to get here to North Pole…
A closer look at Santa's side entrance
The side entrance… just to the right of the reindeer, yep, real reindeer

Yes! This last picture was taken just before we entered… the carpet didn’t even know we were coming yet :-)… We like catching ’em by surprise.

I’ve included a video below of the cleaning process inside the house, but the focus is for those of you that are more interested in the carpet cleaning business/Trinity equipment and how we deal with abraded (scratched face yarns) fiber.

The folks at the Santa Claus house or perfect example of how one can keep their facility basically immaculate, and still have enough dust on the carpet combined with heavy foot traffic to create traffic lanes… These traffic lanes can ‘look’ soiled even when they aren’t.  After our services, however, and the replacement of their displays, the carpet appearance is vastly improved.

Here is the video overview: [tubepress video=IY5MwO_IT_0]

 

North Pole Alaska carpet clean and ready to rent! Some days are just awesome!

I love it when it works out this way! The landlord called me less than four hours ago, and now we have the apartment carpet “spectacularly” clean using sanitizing products, vacuumed, and dry!

Another happy North Pole landlord with spectacularly clean carpets
Dirty carpets tremble in fear when our vans arrive! 🙂

In this case, we were able to remove all the spots and even remove the heavy traffic lane soiling…. Some of the heavier soiling in the traffic lanes will require up to an hour and a half – two hours to completely dry, but landlord has no fear showing the apartment in most cases, within an hour after we’re done!

Another happy North Pole landlord with spectacularly clean carpets
On the way out the door. Happy carpet, happy landlord!

As far is scheduling goes, days like today are sometimes rare, and we are often booked out two or three weeks in advance. However, never be afraid to call us and see if somebody has cancelled… And, we always keep a waiting list for those days when we have a cancellation, or we finish early.

And remember, you really need to have us at least look at the carpet in your home or rental property BEFORE you throw it out.  There are carpets that are at the end of their lives and have to be replaced, however, it isn’t nearly as often as one would think.