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We bought great carpet but it spotted and we kept hand scrubbing until I finall called up Jon-Don and bought the 400.00 spotting steamer: WOW!!!!! Expensive but worth it.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

I've done a lot of looking at carpet cleaning units lately as our first 6 months have been hard on the carpets that were here and the ceilings that have fallen have run tons of rust stained water onto the theater carpets. We have a whole lot of carpet to clean and we are figuring that it will take two of us several days with rented self contained units. I looked at the consumer sized units which sell for $189 to $299 and the $284 Hoover V2 autorinse unit which Sams Club sells is probably what I would get if I could use one that small. I also checked out the commercial ones which run $1,000 to $2,000. For that price I will rent for a while. Can't afford to have them professionally cleaned as it would cost $500 to $1000 for that. I suspect that the runners in the oldest two theaters are over 20 years old with the ugliest gray/blue speckled carpet. The lobby carpet is only 1 1/2 years old but shows every drink dropped on it. The solid teal colored carpet in the two newest theaters is a daily nightmare as every speck of dirt or popcorn that falls on it shows up. My theory is that it was almost free or no self respecting theater owner would have chosen that carpet.

OK, buying one of those Wally Mart deals is great for spots, but not for the entire place. The consumer models are not designed to pull up a lot of the water that you will put down, meaning the carpet will take a lot of time to dry.

A rental all-in-one unit is really no better in my opinion, since it has the same problem. Let's not forget the cost of cleaning chemicals you will need...extraction fluid, stain pre-treater, gum and tar remover, rust remover, mold and mildew inhibitor, and carpet deoderizer.

You will also need time and energy to perform the operation. Time to prepare the carpet for cleaning, time to clean, and time to dry the carpet. If you are pressed for time, you will need to rent blowers to speed up the drying process or risk having your clean and still wet carpet marched on by many dirty shoes.

A big name pro will cost some major dough, but have you tried some of the smaller outfits? Mabey ask some other businesses who they use, or better yet, ask some of the cleaning companies in your area. Some of them may be like me, and do their own carpet. As a cleaning contractor, I have tried many different 'professionals' to clean my carpets at my expense and was never satisfied. A couple of years ago, I decided to purchase my own equipment so I could do a better job for my customers. My investment is about $6k for a portable machine that dries carpet in 4-8hours.

If you were to ask me to do your carpets, I would probably give you a deal if you were to have it done on a regular basis, plus mabey some free tiks! Remember, the small businessman will sympathyse more with you than the big chain will.

IMHO
The King

We hired a very good carpet cleaner when we opened. We then contracted them to clean our carpets quarterly. They are very expensive.

Their boss is a neighbor and a patron. It worried him that our carpets never looked clean for long. So he came to us and offered monthly service. We told him that we couldn't afford monthly service. He then offered us monthly service at half price if we would supply his shop with passes for his workers. So that's the deal we struck.

Could it work for you?

By the way the spotting unit we bought is the Quick Shot and it is a really good piece of equip. I would not buy any home use equip for a theatre unless you like collecting broken consumer trash. The company was Jon Don ( they have a great catalog) call 800-556-6366

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Michael Hurley
Impresario