CARPET CLEANING STANDARDS ARE NOT FOR SISSIES
I was once told by an uncle of mine (who I think was related to Mark Twain) "to never let the truth get in the way of a good story." I'm going to weave together for you some memories of mine that date back over 33 years as it relates to how far we have come as a carpet cleaning industry and the impact it has made on the lives of thousands of people and the indoor environment.
THE EARLY YEARS
The year was 1983ish when I attended my first Tri-State Carpet Cleaners Association Trade show at Seven Springs resort in western Pennsylvania. I think I paid $50.00 to attend the day and a half event. This was when I was introduced to a guy known as Jeff Bishop, and he started rambling on about the different types of soil in carpet. He went on to say that approximately 79% of the soil in carpet is dry, which is why the first to step to any carpet cleaning process should be vacuuming. Then I think he got out the following chart or something similar, and shared the break downs of the different soils in a carpet.
1. Moisture 2 TO 4%
2. Silica, Silicates (Sand), Clay, Quartz, Felspar 30 TO 40%
3. Oxides, Carbonates, Phosphates 6 TO 24%
4. Carbon 0 TO 3%
5. Animal Hair 10 TO 12%
6. Cellulosic Materials 10 TO 12%
7. Resins, Gums 6 TO 10%
8. Fats, Oils, Tars 3 TO 8%
9. Miscellaneous, Unknown 1 TO 3%
Who would have thought how important the dry soil removal step was in cleaning carpet? At the time I admit I was a self-proclaimed rug sucker. I had the attitude of “you don’t need no stink’n vacuum, I use a truck mount.” But finally the wisdom started to sink in, and I eventually bought into Bishop’s wisdom.
Then he pulled out what looked like a pie chart or a wagon wheel with four spokes on it. In each of the four quadrants was a word. In one of the quadrants was the word Chemical, in another was Heat, in another was Agitation, and in the fourth was the word Time.
He said it takes all four of those things to clean carpet…to clean anything. These are the four fundamentals of soil suspension. I scoffed at first and then started thinking he’s right. To clean a floor, to clean a carpet, to wash dishes, to clean yourself – you need all four of those fundamentals for cleaning to occur. I started to feel like I was taking a drink of water out of a firehose; I was blown away. I left there feeling so smart and could not wait to share it all with my brother Chuck with whom I was in business at the time. Soon after we started employing those principals of cleaning and many others I learned along the way as the on-location, carpet cleaning industry was maturing.
THE STANDARD
Fast forward seven years, the year is 1990. The Who’s Who of the carpet cleaning and restoration industry were gathered at a resort in Florida, I believe it was St. Pete Beach. This group of cleaning professionals and restoration contractors were gathered following an Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration (ASCR) convention and the start of an Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Upholstery Certification (IICUC), Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting. The IICUC was the original name of what is now known as The Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, or IICRC. At this gathering were people from the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) and several high profile executives from some of the largest carpet manufacturers in the country. I have the memory of seeing men standing behind a podium looking condescendingly down at us rug suckers, and pointing their fingers at us stating, “you all come up with a standard on how carpet is to be cleaned, or we will.” My first reaction was who in the h-e-double-L do they think they are? Are they trying to tell us how to clean carpet?
Now it may not have happened exactly how I described it, but it sure felt that way. So a few fellows on the IICUC’s BOD took it to task and within one year developed the industry’s first carpet cleaning standard titled: S001-(1991) Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Carpet Cleaning. The standard has since been revised many times: 1994, 1997, 2002, 2011, and the sixth edition published in 2015. It is now titled ANSI/IICRC S100 Standard for Professional Cleaning of Textile Floor Coverings - Sixth Edition: 2015.
Suds Slingers
You're kidding me? A standard for cleaning carpet? Don't you just throw a bucket of suds (shampoo, not beer) on it, brush it around, and then suck it up? Of course not, but believe it or not, I have seen some companies do that and... their carpet actually looks pretty good. Although this method of cleaning carpet comes across as being taboo, they are following the fundamentals of cleaning. So the question is why a carpet cleaning standard, when in reality all you have to do is sling suds and vacuum up the dirty water?
Why A Standard
The simplified answer is to separate true professionals from the infamous rug suckers and splash and dashers, the sissies who choose not to follow the standard. Like I said, that answer is oversimplified because there are many deeper answers that I don't want to take the time to write about right now. It takes a true commitment and a lot of work to follow the standard. In reality too though, it is also as any of you would know, to give carpet manufacturers and fiber producers the opportunity to decline a claim if it ere found that their product was not being maintained following their own cleaning and maintenance guidelines and/or the Carpet Cleaning Industry Standard.