Homemade Carpet Cleaners: Reporter gets all the dirt about keeping carpets clean

Reporter gets all the dirt about keeping carpets clean - Press Herald

<div readability="142.267352185"> May 30 <h3>Maine at Work: Between moving furniture, reaching crevices and grappling with a powerful vacuum, Ray Routhier has a tiring day.</h3>  By Ray Routhier rrouthier@mainetoday.com Staff Writer PORTLAND - Before we went inside to clean the carpets of a two-bedroom Portland home, Kevin Burns let me carry the vacuum handle he uses. <div class="special-box" readability="34.9448030988"> <img src="http://media.pressherald.com/images/300*312/portland-press-herald_3547436.jpg" width="300" height="312" alt="20110526_MEatWork" title="20110526_MEatWork" border="0" pbsrc="http://media.timesleader.com/images/portland-press-herald_3547436.jpg" pbcaption="Ray Routhier uses a crevice tool to vacuum the edges before cleaning carpeting with Carpet Services." class="PopBoxImageSmall" pbshowpopimage="true" onclick="Pop(this,15,"PopBoxImageLarge");" />click image to enlarge Ray Routhier uses a crevice tool to vacuum the edges before cleaning carpeting with Carpet Services. Photos by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer <img src="http://media.pressherald.com/images/300*351/portland-press-herald_3547437.jpg" width="300" height="351" alt="20110526_MEatWork" title="20110526_MEatWork" border="0" pbsrc="http://media.timesleader.com/images/portland-press-herald_3547437.jpg" pbcaption="Kevin Burns, left, owner of Carpet Services in Portland, gives guidance to Ray Routhier as he cleans a carpet." class="PopBoxImageSmall" pbshowpopimage="true" onclick="Pop(this,15,"PopBoxImageLarge");" />click image to enlarge Kevin Burns, left, owner of Carpet Services in Portland, gives guidance to Ray Routhier as he cleans a carpet. <div class="nugget" readability="46">THIS WEEK'S JOB TITLE: Owner/carpet cleaner at Carpet Services, Portland. WORKER: Kevin Burns, 50, of Portland. HOURS: Generally 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., can be more. SALARY RANGE: $50,000 to $100,000 a year, Burns says, depending on how many hours someone wants to put in. No paid vacation. DUTIES: Scheduling cleanings. Cleaning rugs, upholstery, tile and grout. Moving furniture. Using high-powered cleaner/vacuum system to clean carpets with hot water, cleaning agents, and suction. Getting down on your hands and knees to vacuum and clean tough-to-get-to spots. SURPRISING FACTS: The suction on Burns' commercial vacuum is so strong it can lift up a corner of the carpet, and it takes a fair amount of strength to move it back and forth over a carpet. PERKS: Getting to know regular customers. Working for yourself. ABOUT THIS SERIES MAINE AT WORK takes an interactive look at iconic, visible or just plain interesting jobs done by folks in Maine. Reporter Ray Routhier shadows a worker or workers, reports what he sees and tries his hand at some of the job's duties. IF YOU'D like to suggest a job to be explored in this feature, email rrouthier@pressherald.com or call 791-6454.</div> </div> It looks like any other big vacuum handle -- a long metal tube connected to a rectangular vacuum head. But since Burns cleans carpets for a living -- as owner and sole employee of Carpet Services -- this one is special. It is made of titanium, weighs next to nothing and costs $1,100. "Best $1,100 I ever spent," said Burns, 50, praising the tool's light weight and durability. But I didn't realize how important a lightweight vacuum attachment was until we got in the house and got ready to clean, by hooking up the handle to both the hot water line and the suction hose. Burns told me to start with the vacuum head pressed against the wall. Then squeeze the hot water trigger a couple of times to get water in the crevice between the carpet and wall. Then hold the water trigger down and pull the vacuum attachment back about 4 or 5 feet, cleaning with hot water and cleansing agent, and vacuuming it up, all at the same time. I did great up to this point. Then Burns told me to push the vacuum head forward, and then back again. But I couldn't. The suction was so great I couldn't move it forward. "Sometimes I have to go in a different direction, if the pile is too thick. It's not easy to move with all that suction," said Burns, over the roar of the vacuum. "This isn't an electric-powered vacuum, this is hooked up to the engine in my van." Burns has been cleaning carpets -- and upholstery and tile -- for about 25 years. He says that pulling the vacuum attachment back and forth all day long can tire him out. Doing it for 15 minutes could tire me out. Before we started cleaning the carpet, Burns had handed me the vacuum hose with a crevice tool on it instead of the head. He told me to vacuum up the dust and debris along the walls. But he cautioned me as well. "Don't get any curtains caught in there, and don't hold it on the carpet too long or you'll pull it right up," said Burns. I thought I was doing all right, until I did manage to pull up a corner of carpet just slightly. Luckily, it could be laid back down without a problem. Later, when I got up off my knees, I accidentally pointed the crevice tool at my stomach and it instantly attached to my shirt. It took me a minute or so of wrestling with the tool to free myself. The house we were doing was a small job by Burns' standards -- living room, dining room, stairway and hall. The beige carpet was a medium nylon pile in good condition, with only one or two stained areas. For those, Burns would use various solvents and agents he carries around in an old milk crate. He said the job would probably take him 90 minutes -- if I weren't there. (Not that I slowed him down, of course, but he took time to explain lots of aspects of his job and equipment to me.) But he doesn't charge by the hour, he charges by the square foot -- 20 to 35 cents depending on various factors, including how much furniture he has to move around to clear carpeted areas. Moving and replacing furniture can be a big part of the job. Once he's done with a carpet, and it's still wet, he has to put foam or plastic pieces under the furniture legs so the carpet underneath doesn't get stained. Burns' van looks like a basement utility room, with water tanks, controls and a filter to catch dirt from the house carried with the water back through the hose. Burns was a police officer earlier in his working life, and then worked a variety of jobs before settling on the life of a self-employed carpet cleaner. He said that working for others taught him he'd work best by himself. "I would spend a lot of time doing something and the boss would wonder why I took so long," said Burns. "But when I spend extra on something now, the customer is glad." Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com  </div>

Homemade Carpet Cleaners

Reporter gets all the dirt about keeping carpets clean - Press Herald

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